Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

Was playing UFO's Phenomenon this morning, and realized the guitars in "Doctor Doctor" sound king of Lizzy-like too, actually -- though, for all I know, Schenker got there first. (Both bands now and then have exhibited a possible Springsteen or at least Van Morrison influence in their songwriting too, I think -- well, in UFO's case, I think George has has mentioned Frankie Miller, whose stuff I don't really know, but it's all in the same neighborhood, right? Also, both UFO and Lizzy seem really tasteful for hard rock/budding metal bands.) Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to like Force It more, since it's somewhat more metallic I guess, and it's indeed also pretty great, but Phenomenon's got the melodies that grab me, beginning to end. Plus "Rock Bottom."

Also been politically incorrectly playing Nugent and the Amboy Dukes' Call Of The Wild the past couple weeks; probably underrated it in Stairway (#239) -- you can really hear his guitaring and writing coming into their own. Most over-the-top charging killers are probably "Pony Express" and "Cannon Balls," the latter of which takes its riff from Tyranny And Mutation.

Also, two really good old hard rock albums by the ladies -- one really old, namely Birtha's self-titled LP on ABC/Dunhill, from 1972, which I guess isn't quite pre-Fanny, but it's close. Two very hard-kicking, hard-swinging funky rock cuts in "Free Spirit" and "Too Much Woman (For A Henpecked Man" (the latter about not settling for a guy who's a wimp), plus one heavy six-minute Uriah-style organ doomer in "Judgment Day"; the rest is Joplin/Big Brother blooze and ballads, pretty good, but those cuts knock me out.

Other one is Cheetah's Rock & Roll Women from '81, produced and written by Vanda & Young -- hot blonde and brunette (same last name, Hammond, so presumably sisters) in front of a five-piece guy band. Most AC/DC-soundalikes are the two side openers, but mainly this hits me like a real good Girlschool album. -- "Suffering Love" the catchiest tune, then probably "Scars Of Love" and "Come And Get It." (Okay, just checked Jasper/Oliver -- yep, sisters, born in London. "Backing band is mainly ex-Midnight Flyer"; who's that?)

Though I dunno; I should probably actually play Force It more; not really sure why it's never totally sunk in for me. (Popoff compares "Mother Mary" to Sabbath -- interesting. Also says "Doctor Doctor" on Phenom presaged Scorpions and Accept, hmmmm.)

And actually, those two funky cuts by Birtha I mentioned are probably just as heavy as their armageddon track...And I'd be curious if anybody's ever parsed the two women's vocals in Cheetah -- definitely get the idea there's two distinct voices, but I'm always slow mapping that sorta thing out. (Not clear if they're both singing on every song, if they take turns, if one's always the lead, or what.)

I guess, and it's indeed also pretty great, but Phenomenon's got the melodies that grab me, beginning to end. Plus "Rock Bottom."

Proceed to No Heavy Petting.

I have the Cheetah record. Kind of AC/DC-lite -- maybe too lite. Saunders loved it so I remastered to to CD with some clean up a few years ago and he was overjoyed. They might have charted briefly down under which wouldn't have earned them much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XQKEMsb33o

Most AC/DC lite.

The rest goes toward Eighties Heart with much more cupcake, the girls looking like Gilda Radner playing Candy Slice. "Spend the Night" starts like modern Dolly Parton, gets real shmaltzy.

Well, it's definitely got a couple schmaltz ballads, I admit that. And yeah, the AC/DC-ish songs are certainly some kind of bubblegum approximation, but I don't mind. Album seems to pick up whenever the sonic embellishments get just slightly sleekly technopoppish (which Girlschool were known to do on occassion, too, and even AC/DC themsleves, with the Who's Next-type guitar-as-synth parts on For Those About To Rock. Kix did it a lot, too -- slight nods to new wave, before metal got too pure for such cute stuff.)

Also like the teenymetal funk-rock of "N.I.T.E." on that Cheetah album. And I wouldn't be surprised if they were Suzi Quatro fans.

Speaking of Heart, I already linked to this on Rolling Country, but I actually like their new album okay; here's how I reviewed it:

http://www.rhapsody.com/heart/red-velvet-car#albumreview

I missed this earlier in the year. Now it seems real on time. American Dog just kills it. Had to make a favorite on my YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqsUuI4fI-w&feature=related

For Scott, who liked the Hammersmith (Canadian band) albums, they had an LP under a different name, "Painter" in 1973 before changing their name to Hammersmith. Mostly the same line-up and very similar. Check Ebay. Stand out song on the LP was the single called "West Coast Woman".

The weekly Nugent:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/09/10/big-in-fond-du-lac/

An editor I work for sometimes wrote asking for thoughts on "cheese rock" tied to an upcoming Nickelback show. He was looking for examples from the 50s till now; here's what I said:

Well, Nickelback's inexplicable popularity to me lines up with bands from the 70s and 80s like Journey, Styx, Foreigner...bands where you couldn't name the members on a dare but whose songs are fucking omnipresent. And I tend to think of that as a phenomenon that got started in the 70s, cause prior to that you had totally manufactured pop stuff like Fabian and Frankie Avalon (1950s "teen idols") or The Archies and The Monkees in the 60s. But the true horror of bands like Nickelback and all the other, less commercially successful but still nightmarishly prominent post-grunge acts like 3 Doors Down, Daughtry etc. is that they're NOT manufactured - these are organically formed groups of genuinely like-minded musicians, not just bored/cynical studio hacks brought together by a producer or an A&R guy, and yet they STILL make the worst, most ersatz "rock" music on earth.

Other acts to think about in this vein: Angel, Kansas, 38 Special...as far as 60s bands, I'm not really sure, 'cause I don't listen to much rock music from before 1969-70.

Hope that helps a little, anyway.

Maybe another way of characterizing the Nickelback thing is that these bands are groups of guys who
coalesce around the idea of really really wanting to make rock music for white milchtoast audiences.

It's their people.

And it may be impolitic to say this but it's the same audience that thought Hootie was the name of the the front man in the Blowfish. And why he's popular in country now. Becuase they don't actually have to think of him, as he's minimized in his videos.

It's also worth remembering that Journey started out as hard rock band only interested in achieving a reputation as chops monsters. They didn't write songs, they wrote collisions. It was all Neal Schon and Aynsley Dunbar and big hair and satin garments, doing an upgraded Hawkwind including a heavy metal version of George Harrison's "It's All Too Much."

That encompassed the first three albums. At which point Bill Graham management and the label told 'em to shape up and hire someone to sing Sam & Dave tunes.

Phil, I'm not sure I'm completely following you; are you suggesting that bands like Styx, Journey, and Foreigner were manufactured rather than organically born, back in the '70s? I don't think they were (Styx came up playing bars in the Midwest, right? And while Foreigner were clearly a hodgepodge of journeymen from both sides of the Atlantic, I don't think they were really studio hacks, per se'. Toto, on the other hand....) At any rate, they were pretty faceless either way (though it's not hard to name members of all three or four bands in retrospect), but they all made way better music than Nickelback's ilk, which I doubt you'd deny. (Hell, why not toss in REO Speedwagon or Heart, who started as legit rock bands and eventually evolved into AC/Tin Pan Alley hackdom?) I get the idea that this all connects more to the wearing out of the hard rock gene or whatever we talking about here a few weeks ago (it's not just that Nickelback and Three Doors Down etc. aren't making good hard rock anymore; it's that basically nobody is -- weird when the most acclaimed, and maybe best, really commercially successful rock band of the last decade is probably a duo with a lousy drummer.) (White Stripes, I mean -- I associate Green Day with the '90s, when they made their best music, though I guess some people don't.)

Also connects with an idea that Frank Kogan put forward years ago (and probably I did too), namely that, at some point around the early '80s, the "fake" stuff started rocking harder than the "real" stuff. (His examples were Foreigner vs. Minor Threat, which I agree with, though you can quibble with that example but still agree with the concept. I will say, though, that I agree with it less than I did then, and metal, at least, carried the torch for a few more years.) And truth is, the Monkees and Archies (and 1910 Fruitgum Company and Ohio Express and probably some '60s "bands" who pass historically as garage rockers despite never having actually played real garages) made way better music than Nickelback and Daughtry (neither of whom I always absolutely despise btw), too; it's not even close. I'm still not sure how, but somehow, grunge really fucked everything up -- musically, I think it mostly had to do with leaden rhythms and singing (though you could name other culprits too, metal for instance.) Grunge passed, maybe legitimately maybe not, as "edgy" for a couple years (though I'd say, give or take maybe a couple select Nirvana and Soundgarden tracks, its edge was really long gone by the time the '80s ended), and bands and fans still want to believe that myth. Inititally this led to some okay hard-rock pop by people like Stone Temple Pilots and Local H, but over time, it just got ever drearier, stodgier, more rote. And I really don't see how there's a way out of it, for commercial rock -- Basically, I'm pretty convinced it's over. Maybe if record labels held a gun to bands like Mastodon's and the Sword's heads and forced them to write songs for radio, with hooks and stuff, like George says happened to Journey? Years ago, I could see it. But now, would they even sell more? And who cares about radio anymore, anyway?

And going back to something George and I keep mentioning here, the studio hacks really did win as far as hard rock goes -- in Nashville. It's just not called hard rock anymore. But studio-born or no, it's a lot closer to hard rock than Nickelback will ever be.

So naturally, as usual lately, my two favorite hard rock records of the past few days both came out in the late '70s, when neither of them would have been classified as hard rock -- but in retrospect, yeah, for the most part, they were. Really like, and agree with, what Popoff says about the Boomtown Rats' 1977 Mercury debut in his '70s book -- "Punk rock, my ass," he starts out. Compares "Joey's On The Street Again" (one of two songs that carried over to their second album) to Springsteen obviously (though Irish Springsteen in '77 puts them dangerously close to Thin Lizzy obviously), but also calls "Mary Of The Fourth Form" and "(She's Gonna) Do You In" "kindergarten Aerosmith," which I agree with. "Kicks" is another great hard rock not punk track, no two ways about it. And he also says some of the riffs remind him of BTO, which I can also hear, and which reminds me that I wrote this about Ratt in 1984, explaining why they seemed more "hard rock" than "metal" to me then: "'Round And Round' has got more in commmon with BTO than Black Sabbath, or with the Stones than Led Zeppelin. It's not a change I complain much about." And Ratt were kindergarten Aerosmith if anybody ever was, which makes me realize that the distance between the Boomtown Rats' debut and Ratt's debut seven years later really wasn't that great.

The other one that surprised me by its hard-rockitude was Chris Rea's Whatever Happened To Benny Santini?, from 1978. Always loved the using-good-wine-to-deflow-virgins hit single, "Fool If You Think It's Over," but that's more like "Baker Street" -style soft rock. Title track (about what -- a trapeze artist maybe?) has Who powerchords though, and the real bruisers (somewhere in the general vicinity of '70s Stones, the tougher early Graham Parker/Bruce pub-rock, "Spirit In The Sky" fuzztone, whatever) are "Dancing With Charlie," "Three Angels," and "Fires Of Spring," which deserve placement on this thread as much as any early Tom Petty or Bryan Adams does. Have been meaning to connect with Rea's later stuff -- apparently, though he was just a one-hit wonder in the U.S., he's a respected singer-songwriter in the U.K. -- and even bought a best-of CD via Amazon last year, but I still need to listen to it more.

Meant "deflower," obviously. And another thing about Rea is he seems to be a really literary songwriter (one of the reasons I figure he's respected by middlebrows overseas), but you don't need to get all the details (I don't) to appreciate the songs. Though I get the idea that, as he got older (like happens to most such smart guys), his literariness probably continued way more than his rocking did.

are you suggesting that bands like Styx, Journey, and Foreigner were manufactured rather than organically born, back in the '70s?

No, I'm saying exactly the opposite, that lame as it is, cheeseball mainstream rock was in fact the product of bands getting together to sound like that on purpose, rather than being hired to do a job by an A&R exec or a Kim Fowley-esque throw-shit-at-the-wall producer.

Okay, that makes sense -- I just wasn't sure.

Also may have overstated the Who case on that Chris Rea title track -- guitars might have as much McGuinn as Townshend in them, and via "Running On Empty" in either case. Also maybe not so odd that a singer-songwriter would a few some Stonesish moves in the late '70s, since even guys like Billy Joel and Elton John were known to do that on occassion in the '70s. Just makes me sad that singer-songwriters back then made more rocking records than actual honest-to-god rock bands do now.

I think we covered Styx a bit, too. The Wooden Nickel stuff rocks. Equinox rocked. After Curulewski, a guitarist, got booted and Tommy Shaw came in you had the conscious move into cheeseball, culminating in something like Mr. Roboto.

Mick Jones, the guitarist for Foreigner, was definitely a hired gun. Leslie West used him and he then holed up in the studio trying to figure out who he could put together to make Foreigner. Nevertheless, I still like a lot off the first two Foreigner records.

Damn Yankees were at the apex of cheeseball. Something of an oddity because Ted Nugent consented to not being Ted Nugent for two whole records, which put him back in the charts.

Still on the cheese thing and the hard rock pickers gone into modern country. Two perfect examples, Lee Brice's "Love Like Crazy" that veers right into Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers big jangle. Lyrics total horrid shit written to touch all the heartstrings of the hopeful white milchtoast crowd always in need of the same three deadening pieties -- marriage, prayer and hard work/money.

And Reba Mcentire's "Turn Up the Radio" which has a hard rock band backing. With slight volume increase and loss of meaningless fiddle, could've been any standard act from Eighties video.

Austin Statesman feature from this morning's paper on never-album-recorded '70s all-original rock band Too Smooth, said to have opened for Nugent, Skynyrd, and Golden Earring; also said to have been scouted by labels, which ultimately decided they were too prog for the Grand Funk crowd, but not prog enough for the Yes/Crimson crowd. Which means they might have been great -- unless they were horrible. Guitarist Brian Wooten later went on to play for Christian rockers Petra and Whiteheart and finally -- you guessed it -- Trace Adkins' stage band.

http://www.austin360.com/music/despite-the-lack-of-an-lp-too-smooth-909698.html?printArticle=y

The NY Times, meanwhile, put Kings Of Leon on the cover of their arts section. No comment. (And no mentions of pigeon shit, that I noticed while skimming anyway.)

No comment deserved. Couldn't make it to the runover. Kings of Leon have nothing to do with hard rock.

Good example of throwing lots of money and the hired skill at a bunch of journeymen and eventually getting something middle brow and kind of grand sounding, something that doesn't turn off some arena crowds.

You can hear their names again and again and you still can't tell -- or even care -- who's who in pix.

It's the Followhatsises. Their daddy was a preacher. The go swimming in cutoffs. Kind of stunning their isn't even a Mark Farner or Lonesome Dave in the band.

As far as my ears can tell, they've never had much if anything to do with "garage rock" or "Southern rock" (outside of, you know, coming from the South, but so did R.E.M. and nobody ever used to call them Southern rock -- hell, nobody used to call Tom Petty Southern rock even), either, though I've yet to see a feature about them -- including this uncharacteristically puffy Pareles one, which mostly reads like a publicity bio -- that didn't call them both. The band's say-nothing boilerplate quotes in there suggest they've got no personalities to speak of, either, same idea I've always gotten for their music. Suspect they must have pretty decent management and promotion teams, though, given how they've actually seemed to have turned that passably interesting seven years ago preacher's-kids backstory (where every piece written about them since their '03 debut EP has tried to hang its hat) into what I gather is a steadily building career (touring-wise at least as much as recording-wise) at a time when most everybody else is hurting, despite basically sounding like just more generic post-grunge hacks (less heavy than most, actually, which is probably one of the real selling points -- guess an obvious hack precddent would be the Foofighters, who had a backstory of their own). And people take them seriously like they'd never take Nickelback, who are sure no worse, seriously -- three of Rolling Stone's top 80 Albums of the Decade a few months back, which is beyond ridiculous even by Stone standards. So Kings of Leon clearly have big friends in high places. Might make for a good business story. As for music, I still stand by what I wrote in this Singles Jukebox review last year:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=1024

Eh, okay, re-reading it, "publicity bio" is a little harsh. Reads more like a rushed Billboard feature, albeit without the business reporting, which means there's not much left to get from it. And admittedly those Entertainment Weekly-style "Fall Preview sections" that everybody from the Times on down insist on running to bring in seasonal ad dollars these (this piece led the section off) tend to be puffy and rushed by definition -- I know, because I've worked on a few. Still wonder if it's cynical to wonder, though, whether leaving out any mention of the very recent and highly visible bird-poop incident was some precondition to the Times being granted an interview with Caleb Whatshisface, and still wonder how most his pat bullshit quotes made it past the editing process. ("I just want to say thank you to everybody who’s been there with us since we were on the small stage.” "We don’t want to go in there and do something that isn’t real and something that doesn’t really move us.” Wow!) Also, the piece actually calls their early music "garage punk," which makes even less sense if you've heard it than "garage rock."

Anyway, from the CMT blog a few months ago: "Would Country Artists Cancel for Pigeon Poop?"

http://blog.cmt.com/2010-07-26/would-country-artists-cancel-for-pigeon-poop/

The sounding like Bob Seger thing at jukebox was utterly baffling.

Doobie Brothers phenomenon, maybe? Uninteresting faceless band big with bikers, allegedly kind of rocking -- one song, maybe "China Grove" -- winds up with lots of play and raging success for no apparent reason. Eventually turn into total cheese, become ubiquitous, and still no one can name anyone in the band.

KoL have always (when I've bothered paying attention to them at all) sounded to me like the worst aspects of Nickelback and the worst aspects of the Strokes mushed together into one worst aspect of contemporary culture.

From the xhuxk link:

For those of us who’ve spent our lives sighing at rock ...

If only we could lift such weights and crosses from his shoulders. Heh.

By the way, in other "current (maybe) hard rock"/"music present-day bikers supposedly listen to" news, I Netflixed the pilot episode of the first season of Sons Of Anarchy last night (had never really heard of the show until last week -- I'm always way behind where TV is concerned -- though I'm pretty sure I'd seen people wearing the merch before.) Jury's still out on the show itself, and may continue to be for a few more episoides (want to give it a chance), but here's what was played in the one I saw last night. (Some of it sounded good, at least in context, and I definitely guessed Black Keys right though I couldn't have guessed the title. They also do the theme song of HBO's West Bloomfield, Michigan-based Hung, which I Netflixed through the first season of last month.):

1x01 - Pilot
The Black Keys - "Hard Row"
Year Long Disaster - "Fool and You"
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Stop"
Album Leaf - "Writings on the Wall"
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster - "Plenty Strong, Plenty Wrong"
Lions - "No Generation"
Lions - "Machine"
Fireball Ministry - "Kick Back"
Sun Kil Moon - "Like the River"
Gia Ciambottie - "Bobilicious"
Campana de America - "Tus Ojitos"

Had never heard of Lions before, though looks like their music shows up in some subsequent episodes as well.

You might as well give up on Sons right now if you're not planning on catching up with Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. It's one long story.

Oh, I'll keep plugging if I don't get bored. I almost gave up on Breaking Bad after a couple episodes, but I'm happily through two seasons now. (That is, a season or more behind people who actually have cable TV, as usual.) Still, gotta say that Sons Of Anarchy pilot probably sounded more hard rock, soundtrackwise, than any other show I've bothered with lately, which should count for something. Not sure whether they keep it up later or not.

They do. Sometimes when they wanna use an expensive song (something by the Stones, say), they'll record a cover version with Katey Sagal singing. She's pretty good.

Still, gotta say that Sons Of Anarchy pilot probably sounded more hard rock, soundtrackwise, than any other show I've bothered with lately

Supernatural -- losts of classic rock. I used to even notice them using UFO.

http://fan.cha-otical.net/spnmusic/episode3.php

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/09/17/but-what-about-bob/

Where's Myonga? Leave a comment, I dare you.

Captain Beefheart style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGkjQLkhZmQ&feature=player_embedded

Story about census resisters, such funny people, firsthand. Plus a hard rock tune made for it.

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/09/20/class-war-and-census-business/

Ha ha, definitely preferring the Friedman/Beefheart China toilet remix to the original, George. (Still need to check your census post.)

Barely got through those Tea Party Seger parodies though. (For those who haven't heard, Jamey Johnson has also apparently been covering Seger's "Turn The Page" on tour, though I haven't heard it, or checked youtube to see if it's up there anywhere. I wouldn't be at all surprised, though, if he first learned of the song from Metallica's version.)

Finally, anybody out there have any use/justification for late '70s New York City punk band the Stimulators? Listening to a CD reissue of their old R.O.I.R. cassette (which I never heard at the time) now, mostly live 1978 to 1981 and complete with a "Rock 'N' Roll All Nite" Kiss cover, and I can't for the life of me figure out why anybody would have given a shit about them then. Am I missing anything?

Stimulators ROIR cassette, had it. Like so much of that stuff, didn't age well. Selling point used
to be the very young drummer, Harley, who wound up more famous in the Cro-Mags. I think. I don't even remember a Kiss cover and I would have if it was even half good.

I remember going to a New York h/c show early on. The central part of it was some really big guy who climbed up on the stage and enjoyed jumping on people smaller than him. A couple years later he had a record out called The Beast ... Has Arrived. The title song encapsulated his grim world view of causing others pain -- I remember a lyric about breaking 'your fucking neck.' It was the best thing on the LP, the rest of which I forget.

And then there was the Nihilistics record, which I liked for awhile. Stuff like "Welfare for the Rich," "Death and Taxes."

http://www.nihilistics.com/review.html

The Newsday review is emblematic. I probably liked them because of such an interview, where they came off as more realistic than their ability allowed them to put into the music.

The Cro-Mags fans could probably explain why that bound were about the ultimate expression of this stuff and, therefore, eventually at the top of the heap. By that time I had no more interest in it, having seen more than enough beatings at hardcore shows.

Re the census link, another push for it because the recollection shows the dysfunction at a very low level. The linked videos, which are not mine, are worth going out to. It's a free country and while it's not necessary to watch them to the bitter end to get the flavor, it's remarkable how many people tried to incide trouble or who got their kicks from picking on census workers -- who, as a matter of fact, were often their neighbors. You were employed to canvas in the area where you lived. In a gentler society, there's an obvious benefit to that logic. And I didn't even link to all of the those were people are making up weird conspiracy stories or calling the cops. Alex Jones, for instance, on some use of GPS to pinpoint where people lived ofr nefarious purpose. Another guy insisting the census was in league with the local police in a drive to tourst the homeless out of a riverbank where they had their tents and boxes.

Holy shit!

German metal queen DORO PESCH
will be available for a limited number of phone interviews on:

Couldn't find the old Voice review that had me falling out of my chair. Encapsulated her appeal precisely, if hilariously so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXks3Xjydh0

You'll understand in an instant why this was shrugged off in '74. As sub Ziggy & the Spiders, it's undone by the pink suit and headgear. And not being as good a tune as 1984. Or even John, I'm Only Dancing.

I had Mick Ronson's anthology, Main Man, out the other night. It collects his two solo albums, Slaughter on 10th Avenue and Play Don't Worry. And Bowie guests on it in spotsl the Spiders are the band. If you wanted sub Bowie glam, this was a good next stop. Probably better than Cockney Rebel and a couple Sparks records.

Ronson sounds a lot like Bowie, vocally, and everything spans the gamut from Kurt Weill-Euro cabaret style to here comes the Les Paul cocked wah into a Marshall sound. Covers some Lou Reed and, surprisingly, a hard rocked Pure Prairie League cover, Angel #9, which is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5jwlGdNuDk&feature=related

Wrestling masks there, but difficult to discern.

A "Six Degrees of Heart's Little Queen" column I wrote for emusic (in which I also write about theoretically somehow related albums by Fotheringay, Led Zeppelin, Genya Ravan, Shakin' Street, and Carrie Underwood):

http://www.emusic.com/features/hub/six_degrees_heart/index.html

Other stuff:

-- Pulled out Burning Hot by theoretcially black metal band Xavion last week (Asylum 1984 -- #492 in Stairway To Hell, just made the cut!), and confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that, despite the leather clothes and steely fonts, they were just an electro-funk band masquerading as metal, not a lot heavier than Shalamar doing "Dead Giveaway" or Kool and the Gang doing "Misled" or Phils Collins and Bailey doing "Easy Lover." Definitely more musically similar to the Time than to, say, Twisted Sister or Quiet Riot in other words (not that I really mind -- of those three bands, I like the Time most anyway). Like, maybe as heavy as Surivivor or Aldo Nova in certain songs. Two keyboard players credited, one of whom doubles as a "band spokeseman." Favorite cuts: "Burning Hot," "Self-Built Hell," "You're My Type," the latter featuring fake British accents worthy of Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me."

-- Saw a copy of Widowmaker's second album Too Late To Cry from 1977 for $1 in Round Rock over the weekend, but didn't buy it because their debut has still never quite killed me. Popoff, though, seems to like the second one slightly more. Ever hear it, George?

-- Also passed up the Jigsaw LP with "Sky High" on it for $1, then noticed a couple days later that Scott had mentioned that song as a Badfinger-level powerpop classic on another thread. Which it probably is, but was their other stuff any good, or even at all rocking?

-- Been liking this lo-fi one-guy (plus maybe a pal?) South Carolina stoner-loner bedroom-doom album Animals by Dwarr (private-pressed in the mid '80s, just reissued by Drag City) that Scott raves about and sort of compares to George Brigman and Pentagram in the new Decibel. Not sure I hear similarites to those, really, beyond the fact that they were probably all Sabbath fans, and I wish the vocals were more assertive, but yeah, the notes are right: "For best results, crank it up."

-- Speaking of Decibel, is that 1980 debut by Angel Witch the oldest album they've put in their Hall of Fame? (Maybe there's a Priest or Maiden one older?) I haven't been keeping track. Makes me interested in those guys, either way. Never heard them, I don't think; still get them confused with Anvil Bitch (whoever they were). But Angel Witch sound like they might've been my kind of NWOBHM.

-- And oh yeah, Adrien Begrand also has a boxed roundup of four Metal-Blade-reissued albums by San Francisco's Hammers Of Misfortune in the new Decibel. I've had an advance Cruz Del Sur copy of 2006's The Locust Years (one of the reissued albums) around here for four years now; seemed okay to me at the time, and I'm playing it again now, and it still seems...okay. Not great. Had no idea these guys were ever considered a big deal; matter fo fact, from their picture on the back cover, I think I took them to be some kind of joke band. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Anyway, Begrand claims they bridge NWOBHM, pagan metal, old-school prog, and Ren Faire folke, and I guess I hear some of those on here. Just not sure how memorably they do it. Begrand also suggest that Mike Scalzi might be the best "heavy metal singer working today." Hmmm. Guess I'm liking his more straightforward songs better than the frillier ones that Jamie Myers sings this time out, for whatever that's worth. (Two ladies in the band, which counts for something.)

Whoops, a few typos there. Anyway, Begrand also says The Locust Years is more ornate than the Hammers' earlier albums, and places "stronger emphasis on the band's feminine side." Which might mean I'd like their earlier ones more, if I ever heard them.

Saw a copy of Widowmaker's second album Too Late To Cry from 1977 for $1 in Round Rock over the weekend, but didn't buy it because their debut has still never quite killed me. Popoff, though, seems to like the second one slightly more. Ever hear it, George?

Yeah, I have it. Like the first one better. They changed singers, not for the better. Abandoned the hard obstinacy and rootsy influence for more by-the-numbers hard rock. Nothing on it worth mentioning, except maybe Here Comes the Queen (which may, in fact, not be on it, could be my mind playing tricks) which was an old thing off Ariel Bender/Luther Grosvenor's solo album.

Angelwitch, one of the semi-famous 'witch' bands. In order of like -- Witchfinder General, Witchfynde, Angelwitch. Led by brother of Girlschool's drummer. If you liked Witchfynde, you'd like them. Nothing, however, like Witchfinder General.

No tunes. No one person in the band who stood out. Most points for being there first and not being bad. Lower working class, denim, sincerity, all the genre pieties which weren't such then but which became the foundations.

Time for a Vardis revival.

Two cool r&b videos and a rant on the $180 harmonica:

http://dickdestiny.com/blog1/2010/10/01/swiss-watch-harmonica/

Pretty good article on Keith Richards and his book at the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/arts/music/24richards.html?src=me&ref=general

playing today:

the rockets - back talk

peter green - in the skies

gary moore - back on the streets

rory gallagher - irish tour '74

MSN blog post about '70s Australian hard rock - Coloured Balls, Rose Tattoo, Buffalo, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs.

I've fallen way way way behind on chronicling my old-hard-rock listening on this thread, and probably won't have time to do much ketch-up in the near future, but suffice it to say I've been listening to a lot. Biggest recent revelation, maybe (though no doubt already obvious to some folks) is how much Alex Harvey (at least in non-Music Hall kitsch mode, though maybe sometimes then too) had in common with Bon Scott. And in songs like "Midnight Moses," SAHB don't sound all that far off from early AC/DC as a whole, either.

Sampled from the Buy-That-For-$1 thread, some records I've been hearing lately (a bunch of which only cost me 25 cents actually):

The Babys - s/t (Chrysalis 1977) GREAT-- George rightly compared to Bad Company, I think
The Jags - Evening Standards (Island 1980 - with all-time early-Costello Xerox almost-hit "Back Of My Hand") not bad, keeping it
John Parr - s/t (Atlantic 1984 - w/ Billy Squier Xerox hit "Naughty Naughty") -- better than I would've guessed; has some Bryan Adams and Robert Palmer in his chromosomes too, and at least one cool quasi Judas Priest type fake metal song
Rosetta Stone - s/t (Private Stock 1978 - (Bay City Rollers types maybe?? w/ Kinks and Cream covers) -- actually a Bay City spinoffk apparently, and a good one
Rachel Sweet - Blame It On Love (Columbia 1982) A sellout, kinda, but catchier than most quasi-Benatar LPs of the day
Pat Travers - Putting It Straight (Polydor 1977)GREAT, especially the punk-dissing "Life In London" as George said
babys - union jack (chrysalis 1980) ALSO GREAT; had forgotten how good the title track and "Turn Around in Tokyo" are, and also like "Jesus Are You There" a lot, and those aren't even the two hits!
climax blues band - sense of direction (sire 1974) SNOOZE, AS GEORGE PREDICTED
climax blues band - fm/live (sire 1973 - double LP) A KEEPER, MARGINALLY, BUT GEORGE HAS A HIGHER TOLERANCE FOR STODGE-BLOOZE DOUBLE LIVES THAN I DO APPARENTLY -- BIT OF A CHORE TO GET THROUGH
fm - city of fear (passport 1980 -- produced by larry fast; synth-rock trio??)Catchy/weird enough pomp-rock power trio sans guitar
grand funk railroad - on time (capitol 1969) liked this less than I'd remembered
grand funk railroad - shinin' on (capitol 1974) liked this more than I'd rememered
grin - grin (spindizzy 1971) -- really good
jigsaw - jigsaw (chelsea 1974 - w/ 'sky high') - Boooooooooring beyond the hit
eddie money - eddie money (columbia 1977) -- passable; rocks commercially toward side-ends, but the two hits are the best it gets
pat travers band - heat in the street (polydor 1978) like this so far
johnny winter - still alive and well (columbia 1973) like this, but george likes it more
wishbone ash - locked in (atlantic 1976) - another snooze, as george predicted
The Dingoes - Five Times The Sun (A&M 1977 -- Aussies, I guess; could suck but plenty of '70s Aussies didn't) mediocre; not a keeper, though "sucks" would be too strong. Popoff called it "avocado rock," ha ha.
Doug & The Slugs - Wrap It! (RCA 1981 -- Never even considered buying anything by them before but I liked the LP cover and funny liner notes) - fun so far
Family - Bandstand (United Artists 1972 -- supposed to be of their better ones, I think; also, complicated die-cut cover and sleeve!) -- "interesting" so far, in maybe a boring way; george would probably say I'm trying to hard to like it, like I did with the streetwalkers before, and the streetwalkers are more compelling and harder-rocking anyway
Glass Harp - Synergy (MCA 1971 -- Scott could tell me if this is one of their good ones; passed on the 1980 Resurrection Band LP I saw though.) -- Pleasant so far, with flashes of brilliance
Robert Gordon w/ Link Wray - Fresh Fish Special (Private Stock 1978 - bought this for Link not Robert, but have nothing against him really) -- a bore
Grave Digger - Heavy Metal Breakdown (Megaforce 1984 -- Martin Popoff gave it a 9 out of 10; I still might hate it though) -- historically impressive in a super noisy thrash-before-thrash existed way; ocassionally shaping itself into hooks, sort of; occasionally screeching like Die Kreuzen before the fact; occasionally okay gothic druid metal ballad music.
Happy The Man - Crafty Hands (Arista 1978 -- made Jon Pareles's Pazz & Jop ballot that year, and he was Super Art-Rock Guy in those days) -- "interesting." I think. Maybe weird. But not hard rock. Also, they could use a singer
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Vambo Rools: Big Hits And Close Shaves (Vertigo c. 1975??) -- kind of love this, despite the schmaltz ballad parts; bought a live LP and a SAHB LP without Alex too, but haven't gotten to them yet
(Various) - Maiden Australia (A&M 1983 - w/ Skyhooks, Split Enz, Mental As Anything, Hunters & Collectors, Jo Jo Zep, plus seven bands I never heard of) -- Skyhooks song about women in uniforms is great; enough of the rest are likeable that I'll keep this
Alcatraz - No Parole From Rock 'N' Roll (Roshire 1983. Promising song titles: "General Hospital," "Bigfoot," "Hiroshima Mon Amour," "Kree Aakoorie," "Jet to Jet," "To Young To Die, Too Drunk To Live." Popoff 10 out of 10) -- so far, as tedious as proto-Queensryche pomp concept metal with Yngwie Malmsteen on guitar could be expected to be, but I'll give it at least one more try

Also curious what people here think about Triumph. I've always assumed they were total mediocrities not worth paying attention to (Popoff kind of hates them, and solo Rik Emmett even more so), but driving back from San Antonio to Austin a few days ago, "Fight The Good Fight" from '81's Allied Forces (a Popoff 6, his highest score for them) came on the S.A. classic rock station (KZEP -- surprisingly good station, they even played "Low Rider" so they must be paying attention to ethnic demographics, and then Stevie Ray Vaughan who always bores me so I'm clearly not a true Texan), and I thought it (the Triumph song) sounded really good though I had no idea what it was. (My best dumb guess in my head was real early, hard-rock-period Journey!) Am I nuts? Do they have anything else that anthemic? Was I just in a very good mood? Popoff calls that song and "Magic Power" "shamelessly overblown, but they do manage to serve the encouraging, bright purpose for which they were written (to help extra-stupid 12-year-olds)," ha ha. Apparently Allied Forces was their biggest hit album in the U.S., fwiw (#23), and "Magic Power" got to #51 on the pop chart.

Triumph had a couple of good songs, but basically they were a cross between Rush at their most boneheaded and least complex and, yeah, Journey and other AOR Trans Am rock of the period. A relative gave me their double live album for my birthday when it came out; I never made it through the whole thing, and I was in junior high then (1985) and would listen to anything.

Triumph -- huge with young boy punters in LV, too. I ignore them after the second album which was heading way into Journey land. Very poor man's Toto, too. Tended to always have at least one good rock song per album, all the way through. Just wasn't worth coming back to the albums to fish them out.

Pat Travers - Putting It Straight (Polydor 1977)GREAT, especially the punk-dissing "Life In London" as George said

After all these years I am vindicated.

Big ups again for the Babys title track on Union Jacks, their 'rock opera.' By then they'd left the Bad Company/Free licks way behind. Boy did they look gay on the album cover, though.

Contrast with Rose Tattoo's look -- awesomely lowdown -- on the videos Phil selected.