Rolling Hard Rock 2008 Thread

Yeah, I compared Slippery When Wet to Frampton Comes Alive in Stairway -- pretty rock by pretty boys, for pretty girls.

My older brother had that Frampton LP (who didn't?), but he had two copies of REO's live album. And that was back when we were putting in a drop ceiling in our own basement, weirdly enough -- or at least I guess that's what you'd call it; those insulated, removable ceiling tiles separated by metal runner bars (or whatever you call those.) A neat place for hiding stuff from parents, once it was all installed. We were also building retaining walls out of railroad ties on the backyard hill (w/ swimming pool) around that time, but I don't think we ever actually played REO albums while doing it.

Btw, if you think Welcome To My Nightmare is shit (which it was, for the most part), you should hear Alice's new one. I actually liked some stuff on 2005's Dirty Diamonds (purty cover of the Left Banke's "Pretty Ballerina," for one), but I couldn't find a single track to like on his new one. Totally tuneless. Somebody please correct me if I missed something, but I actually found the mostly worthless new Motley Crue album more bearable -- "White Trash Circus" even sounds like an okay glam rock song, and "Down At The Whiskey" is a fair to passable stab at Mott the Hoople-type band's-early-daze nostalgia (not that it much sounds like them.)

The Welcome to My Nightmare show was really for children. Warmed up by the James Gang long after Joe Walsh had left ... and the James Gang was marginally better.

I occasionally get curious about Coop's output just after Nightmare. And then I stifle it. My brother had Go to Hell and his live one from the same show on eight-track. Go to Hell had one decent song on it, the title cut. After that, the only time I checked again was for Special Forces which was advertised as a return to old Alice (something subsequently promised many times and never delivered upon) with Nitzinger on guitar. That was another dead skunk, memorable for an embarrassingly rancid cover of "7 and 7 is..."

I'm faintly curious about From the Inside because it's supposed to be about his sanitarium rescue from raging drunkard. And while I think the anonymous review of Flush the Fashion I posted into the AC: C or D thread is hilarious, I have no interest in actually hearing the record. An old friend who was a die-hard fan had a copy and I remember him playing it for me one Friday night. I detested "Clones" the couple of times it made the radio.

I love Flush The Fashion, actually -- the only post-Greatest Hits Alice album I'd say that about. But then, I was totally new wave in 1980. And it is a total new wave album, Gary Numan imitation and Music Machine cover and everything. Got plenty of airplay in Detroit; not sure about elsewhere. (Joel Whitburn says it only went to No. 44 nationally, so apparently not so much. "Clones" actually sqeaked into the Top 40 at 40 for a week.)

Just checked REO's early chart standings, too; looks like the first two LPs didn't even chart, which surprises me. Then the two Murphy LPs went to #171 for Ridin the Storm Out and #98 for Lost In A Dream. None of their albums even came close to the Top 30 until You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tune A Fish, which went #29 in 1978.

Early REO albums were favorably reviewed in Creem, dunno about Hi-Fidelity (think it was Jeffrey Morgan who did like Flush The Fashion), but for inst the very first was in the same review with maybe Sir Lord Baltimore, or more likey the Rationals I guess (who have a retropective coming out, and also a comp of other bands on A-Squared, according to Fricke's Picks; he hasn't heard the Rationals, at least on the latest issue with Obama being modestly benevolent on the cover, but has heard the label comp and does like it though he does like most stuff he reviews duh--but did have *some* not too many qualms about that Sonic's RB box last year, which I never saw much about anywhere else)

hey hard rock dudes,

should i buy the Nitzinger album at my local record store? it's $13.

(cover is plain black w/nitzinger logo)

Great LP. (Second one, the blue one, is good, too.) But I can't imagine paying $13 for anything these days (at least anything I can't have for dinner), Louisiana cock fights and girl drummers or no.

But I can't imagine paying I3 for anything these days

Then you certainly wouldn't enjoy my shopping trips.

The comp is titled A-Square (Of Course), and it's on Big Beat. Fricke says it's got Scot Richard Case doing "snarling Pretty Things covers"; Prime Movers, "featuring a teenage Iggy pn drums"; MC5's "Looking At You"; The Up,"Just Like An Aborigine"; and Half-Life, "Get Down." He doesn't have tracks listed for the Rationals collection yet (not in that print issue, anyway).

Revisited three of the Replacements 2008 reissues: Sorry Ma, Stink, Let It Be.

In '81-'83, enjoyed the first two very much in original. Was doing a fanzine at the time and probably reviewed them although I no longer have copies. Liner notes for the new ones are pleasant reminisces, often gushing, suggesting they were a big success a lot faster than I seem to remember it happening. Saw them a bunch of times and they were always laughably bad, often inexplicably so, even when they were opening for Tom Petty. They ended up one Petty tour in Allentown and the best thing one can say about their performance at the Fairgrounds was they broke their instruments at the end of the set.

Sorry Ma still sounds great. The adds all could have made the original 'cept maybe for the Bob Stinson thing, "A Toe Needs a Shoe."

Let it Be -- echh, no longer does anything for me. An album for girls. Apropos, a lady does the liner notes, weeping upon it in the same way critics wept over Liz Phair's reissue earlier this summer.

The hard rock stinks -- one bad cover of Kiss song; "Gary's Got a Boner" -- this is the same band that did "Shiftless When Idle"?

Some dweeb started a thread a week or so ago on ILM asking what effect Paul Westerberg used on his guitar for "Answering Machine."

Standard stereo chorus. Hot stuff.

Adds -- cover of "20th Century Boy," played ploddingly, improves the odds only slightly. I guess this might have seemed special if you got it on the flip side of an obscure single.

Grass Roots' "Temptation Eyes" -- stinks, everything's off and struggling.

DeFranco Family's "Heartbeat -- It's a Love Beat" -- another tune unintentionally/intenionally rendered into joke tune status.

Stink still loaded with backbone and energy, a quality missing even on the uptempo stuff on Let it Be. "Gimme Noise," "Stuck In the Middle" hammer.

The covers as adds on this work a little better than on "Let it Be." "Hey Good Lookin'" isn't awkward like "Temptation Eyes." "Rock Around the Clock" -- they can play it but it goes on too long. If you were drunk when they did it probably sounded hilarious.

Yeah, Replacements were pretty clearly one of those bands that got lamer, more bland, less rocking with each subsequent release they put out. Peaked with the debut; I can bear them maybe through Tim, but they were heading downhill long before then.

From today's email:

SOUTH TEXAS ROCKFEST photos of Helix, Jetboy, Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns, Xyz, Bang Tango and more are posted at www.myspace.com/rocknationtv
in the picture album section.

Doubt I'll check those out, but maybe somebody should.

From now until the end of human civilization as we know, music blog nerds will find everything ever done by anyone 25-years earlier and rip it to the net. The Gift of Noise -- quarter century-old noise band compilation, made in France, with me on it. I suspect the admirers of it must have only one eye in the middle of the forehead.

Meanwhile, found a copy of The Road Hammers' Blood Sweat and Steal. Could have put it in Rolling Country but it's just as much hard rock. Canadians who love truckers, called road hammers, ergo their name.

"I'm a Road Hammer" kicks off album. The next song is about hammering their girlfriends in bed and the third is called "The Hammer Going Down." They have a message. It's uncomplicated and they won't be budged from it. They write about what they know. I guarantee ya, though, that if they hump their ladies to the beat of the song about hammering and working their love, the Road Hammers wake up to empty beds a lot.

"I've Got the Scars to Prove It" is my favorite because it lets up on the hammer, bringing in a slow burn arena ballad, the kind Trace Adkins likes. A cover of Little Feat's "Willin'" is more than righteous and honorific enough. "Keep On Truckin'" does not have anything to do with R. Crumb and the Grateful Dead; it sounds like the Georgia Satellites' "Open All Night."

The album grows on me the more I hear it. The first three cuts on the road and hammering are a little stodgy but after that it turns into something warm and sincere fast. I'm guessing this would have sounded better without the overwhelming Nashville sonic candy stuck on it -- the banjo so you know it's from "Deliverance" land, the jaw harps. Little Caesar used to do this kind of thing a decade and a half ago.

Actually, it's Blood Sweat & Steel although Blood Sweat and Steal's a good title for an LP, too.

Rick Springfield reprises "Jessie's Girl" theme in "What's Victoria's Secret?", kickoff tune on Venus in Overdrive. He does it but good in a song that doesn't sound like his old hit, it's a golden signifier telling you what he thinks his album's going to be. Old school! This isn't the all out Drop-D guitar chomp that was the last one he penned himself although the title cut delivers some of it.

"Warning Shots" is Beatles-loving pop metal with riff from "I Am the Walrus" as intro. He'll give someone three warning shots "to the head," more like kill shots.

"God Blinked (Swing It Sister)" tries to be funky and just kind of ties itself in a knot. Dud. No idea what he was trying to do with this.

"Mr. PC" is off and running, his Eighties fast pop rock with axes, done so girls like it. Springfield basically invented bands like Tsar and the Jonas Brothers. 'Course, the Jonas Brothers wouldn't write a song with a title like "Mr. PC;" they stick with things like "Play My Music" and "Year 3000," good songs but compelled for Disney approvable.

"She" is more John Lennon channeling, much better than "Warning Shots."
One of the record's high points along with the first tune.

"Saint Sahara" -- old-fashioned Eighties arena wave the glowsticks and wet the panties waltzing power ballad.

Cover version of "My Generation." Springfield can certainly do The Who.

Acoustic cover of "Jessie's Girl" closes it.

Overall first impression: starts great -- sags in middle -- finishes strong.

Yeah, I've been listening to the Springfield, too. Potentially one of the year's best albums, actually (as was his last one, but I wasn't expecting him to pull it off twice in a row.) My copy doesn't have the two bonus tracks that end George's, but I'm really loving "What's Victoria Secret" (which I swear has as much Eddie Money "Take Me Home Tonight" as "Jessie's Girl" in it) and the perfect hard pop of "Time Stand Still." George also didn't mention the reggae-tinged hard rock title track (like Lenny Kravitz or Living Colour done right), or the stellar Stones rip "God Blinked (Swing It Sister)." I actually like the middle of the album more than George does, I guess. And track 11 is more late '60s Brit style cups-and-cakes castle-pop to go with the two blatant Lennon rips (i.e., "She," which I hear as late Beatles sifted through ELO sifted through Cheap Trick at their most ornate). No idea what the message of "Mr. PC" suppposed to be, but I like its Stone Temple Pilots riff and crosstalk from old cartoons. (Stinkers for me are maybe "I'll Miss This Someday" -- pop-punk emo, almost -- and "Oblivious," which could almost pass for Coldplay or something. But the latter is growing on me. And hey, that's pop rock too, right? And like George say, Rick was decades ahead of the pack as far as that stuff goes.)

(Track 11 = "Nothing Is Ever Lost," btw)

(And actually, George did mention "God Blinked"; I just like it more. I hear it more as "Stones" than "funk," which I assume was Rick's intention.)

I did refer the title cut, "Venus in Overdrive." That's the one with the Drop-D guitar through Recto amp chomps. In between, while singing the verses, it's reggae. I thought it was the one tune that stylistically was most like the stuff on his last one. (Excluding the covers album which I passed on).

"One Passenger" is one of mediocre tunes, saggy for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. Aimlessness, maybe, or the Edge/U2 guitar thing. "Oblivious" also delivers into the oblivion.

"My Generation"/"Jessie's Girl" editions were exclusive to BestBuy, sez the sticker.

And it would seem "Mr. PC" is about the Internet, the wonder of the world of information brought to Mr. Springfield through his computer. "Share it Mr. PC!"

And the Lennon rock is fairly superb.

"My Generation" is Rick's excuse to go hot shit on guitar. He really bites down it.

Supergrass' Diamond Hoo Ha Man Long-in-the-tooth Brit band, fifteen years after or so still look like they could open for the Jonas Bros. Were they twelve when they started?

Title cut starts with cool octafuzz bass riff. It pounds but Gaz has that fruity nerd rock voice, one which always argues with the muscularity of tune even when shouting "Bite me!" "Bad Blood," right after it mines the same vein. And so does "Rebel In You," again starting on an introductory riff which uses octafuzz to provocative effect, a repeating theme. That makes the first ten minutes good enough not to skate through.

"345" has some Pete Townshend slash chords. Explosive and crashing, the more the guy's voice is buried the better the album works. But like most of the stuff that's loud on this album it has only a minimal melody. Might sound good in a pub if you remember the Motors.

"Whiskey & Green Tea" A higgledy-piggledy smash-up of vague Oriental movie theme, blaring sax and a crashing power chorded descending riff.
Gaz sings "Being chased by William Burroughs" which sounds more truthful than they know. Best tune on record because it gets the attention mixing almost tuneless hard rock with Bonzo Dog Band style. Very English, almost has entirely and accidentally redeemed what's a solidly mediocre record up to it.

"Butterfly" sounds like you could sell it to a movie production if the script is a boy-meets-girl, boy-lose-girl, boy-get-girl in Barcelona or some similar environ type tale.

Supergrass has sold about ten albums in the US. This probably made eleven. The more you listen to it, the better it sounds. So your enjoyment is going to be directly proportional to the amount of time you're willing to front load.

Were they twelve when they started?

They sure looked it. I always liked the debut, I Should Coco, for its Buzzcockian proclivities; stopped paying attention soon after, as they slowed down and blanded out. May check the new one, though.

Album I played the most the last couple days: Robin Trower – Day Of The Eagle: The Best Of (Chrysalis/ Capitol). Which is great. If I was a guitar player, I bet I'd have more to say about it. In general, I love the sad beautiful stuff and the heavy boogie stuff about equally; only cut that seems to approach Blues Hammer schtick is the live "Rock Me Baby," which still has killer playing.

May attempt Return To Forever -- The Anthology (Concord) next. So far, haven't had the mettle for it. Their reunion gets a page in the Sunday NY Times; the paragraph that says they inspired jam bands kinda scares me a little, I have to admit.

I passed on the Trower comp. It's a good selection. Have all of it. Trower was influenced by Hendrix but made the style something uniquely his own.

You have to listen to an original of Bridge of Sighs. A strongly charting record without a single, all on the back of his guitar and the astonishing voice of Jimmy Dewar. Mentioned Trower's facility with funky lines up above, particularly on "Alethea," "Gonna Be More Suspicious," and "Confessin' Midnight." Some of this is prob'ly from For Earth Below, the one after Bridge. Anyway, he works the wah-wah in time with the riffs, something almost no one white ever thinks to do.
It locks greasy syncopation into them and provides a cross-talk with the rhythm section. Now people try that with sequencing. At one point, he went a little too far into it, became frictionless and movie theme-y, losing the rock 'n' roll thread. Victim of the Fury is a fair to good one if you get it cheap. You don't see it much, or Long Misty Days which, at the time, was thought of highly.

I'd give Diamond Hoo Ha a B- or B. Every time I play it, I "get" more of it. Has enough concussion to keep my interest. The "best of" a few years back left me cold.

Hadn't looked into the booklet that came with the Rick Springfield Cd. Contains 576 postage stamp-sized shots of Rick posing one-on-one with fans, almost all middle-aged women. It's kind of touching showing as it does his eagerness to grant them their small requests. Only one or two men and I'm sure he must have guy fans at his shows. I'd think a shot of them with RS might not be something to show buddies at work lest they be seen as ...

Also noticed most of the album was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge who has a style fine-tuned for radio and, in particular, the kinds of bands which have done the Springfield thing, like Tsar -- who it didn't work for, and the Jonas Brothers, who won the jackpot. And ta think that was the guy who mixed the "Living in America" song for the old Rocky movie.

Come to think of it, I've no idea why Tsar's first record ended their career on a major and the Jonas Brothers went gangbusters. They sound almost the same.

Rick Springfield Cd. Contains 576 postage stamp-sized shots of Rick posing one-on-one with fans, almost all middle-aged women. It's kind of touching showing as it does his eagerness to grant them their small requests. Only one or two men

Sounds like the 3,000 names inside the new Dierks Bentley best-of I wrote about here; he's gotta have male fans, too, but it's the ladies who showed up:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/06/one-curious-tre.html

no idea why Tsar's first record ended their career on a major and the Jonas Brothers went gangbusters.

Disney! And Hannah Montana...

Interviewed Alice Cooper tonight. He talked about his last two studio albums, The Eyes Of Alice Cooper and Dirty Diamonds, the former of which was apparently recorded in 12 days with as little overdubbing as possible for a garagey hard rock vibe, and the latter was a continuation of that same spirit. Has anyone heard these records? Were they decent?

Dirty Diamonds from '05 (as I mentioned a few posts up) was catchy enough for me to keep it on my shelf for a year or two. Not great, obviously, but probably his best since Flush The Fashion, to my ears. Most songs ran under four minutes, which helped. (Found his new one completely unlistenable.)

You know what's surprisingly good? The new(ish) Annihilation Time album, Annihilation Time III: Tales Of The Ancient Age. That title might lead you to expect warrior metal or something similarly hokey, but it's actually a stripped-down '70s-hard-rock-meets-pre-Rollins-Black-Flag disc - 10 songs, 32 minutes, room enough for a guitar solo here and there but the big selling point is the vocalist, who sells lyrics like "stretched thin, about to snap/no escape from society's trap" in as pure a SoCal bark as I've heard on anything recorded post-1982. On Tee Pee and highly recommended, by me anyway.

Did a rundown on Jonas Brothers' new one on the Miley Cyrus thread. Harder-sounding than the last but not as good in the song-writing. Again mixed by Chris Lord-Alge who's apparently the go-to guy for this manner of material. And not always to the artist's benefit.

Lord-Alge did the Springfield CD, most of it -- anyway, not that it needed it. And since he mixed this one I dug out some of the old stuff he was on that never succeeded and did some contrasts. He does really give bands the heavy power pop sound -- crunchy and loud guitars but never too in your face. Always more energy and sonic candy on the choruses -- more doubling, handclaps, multiplying shouting voices. Really souped-up for radio and video maximization. However, it evens out most of the hills and valleys, nixing a lot of potential rock 'n' roll drama for a flavor of manufactured excitement. Sometimes it works, like with Jonas Brothers.

He did Tsar's first album. That was supposed to be big but bombed. He did The Donnas' Spend the Night for Atlantic. Dragged it out and that's one example where the band's performance got past him a bit. It's often a crushing CD, a character he tends to erase in favor of Hollywood stardom. Remember a band called Other Star People? They got the Chris Lord-Alge treatment and it didn't do them any good. Naturally, Green Day, too.

I liked Dirty Diamonds quite a bit, it was a really fun record. Haven't heard the new one, though...

I have to third the Dirty Diamonds love here. Really solid album. Eyes of, on the other hand, was pretty boring.

Has anyone talked about the new Supagroup record, Fire for Hire, on here? Pretty catchy AC/DC knockoff, not going to win any awards for originality, but they have some serious hooks.

Wrote about that Supagroup album (along with a couple other good AC/DC soundalikes) here:

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/07/a-couple-mont-1.html

I find I'm a lot more forgiving to generic AC/DC knockoffs then generic knockoffs of other varieties. Maybe it's because of how much I love the music of Angus and company? Or maybe it's because such simple, fun rock music never really wears out its welcome? I even just picked up the first Rhino Bucket album for a dollar! New official AC/DC album is called Black Ice and is coming out soon, by the way. I know going to buy it, although I'm going to wait until it shows up at my local used CD store because I've no desire to give Wal-Mart any money whatsoever.

I find I'm a lot more forgiving to generic AC/DC knockoffs then generic knockoffs of other varieties.

Yeah, same here. That Airbourne CD, for example, totally reminded me of all those late-80s knock-offs likeKix, Dirty Looks, and Four Horsemen. I can't not like that.

Airbourne didn't stick for me. Lots of vigor and mastery of the style. No songs, though.And I tried to wear it in.

Kix were a Frederick, MD, band -- home of Bruce Ivins!

The Rhino Bucket CD I got has not one, not two, but three different songs with titles that are terrible double entendres for "going down!" That's impressive by anybody's standards.

Has anybody heard the new AC/DC? on another thread they saw it's coming out this fall. Sept.?

New AC/DC in October, I think. And I'm with George on Airbourne. I wanted to like it, but it wound up doing very little for me.

Has anybody heard the new AC/DC?

I have -- had some good stuff! Though I probably shouldn't say more til my Blender review (which I actually haven't quite written yet) comes out.

I saw an article in Rolling Stone that said they heard a preview and liked it but I didn't catch an authors name. No review though.
I also see that it's due out Oct. 27.

I'm a sucker for bands like Airbourne. Any hard rock band from Australia for that matter. Sadly the excitement usually wears out fast and Airbourne was no exception. For every Rose Tattoo there seems to be a dozen Jets and Airbournes.

Just got reissues of the first three albums (1968, 1970, 1971) by psychedelic hard rock band Freedom's Children, whose name is pretty goddamn ironic considering they were from South Africa.

New Canobliss EP is really good- heavy grooves mixed with prog shredding and clean vocals. Very unique sound, even throwing in some spanish lyrics for flavor.
http://www.dangerdog.com/reviews_2008/canobliss-psychothermia.html

The next few things furnished a few laughs. Ted Nugent, while on the country fair circuit this summer, still has time to write an editorial for the Waco Tribune.

Put a hoax in your tank with ethanol

Well, greenies, I hope you are proud of yourselves.

With the horrible, fantasy- driven "feel good" disconnect you have forced upon America and the world with your pie-in-the-sky dreams of saving the poor polar bears, which by the way, are at record-high populations, exploding gas and food prices are the direct result of the counterproductive scramble to clean the air and save the whales.

While continuing with the brain-dead, suicidal ban on any new drilling for oil or gas in America's untapped rich "independent" reserves, while demanding the development of the insanely wasteful ethanol biofuel, America bends over further and further into the hateful hands of our enemies.

Nicely done, lefties. No wonder you want to legalize dope. You are dopes.

The production of corn-based ethanol actually costs more in energy consumption per gallon than is realized per gallon of this "alternative."

Worse, the very same corn that is critical for the production of food for hundreds of millions of people around the world has been grossly wasted while artificially and unnecessarily driving up the cost of every commodity known to man.

Greenies, what in God's name were you thinking? Oh, that's right. It feels good because it sounds good. And that is all that matters.

Consequences be damned. Such an inconvenient truth.

The same gaggle of clueless Democrat and Republican senators who raised hell to create the ethanol hoax, including presidential candidate John McCain, recently urged the fantasy-driven Environmental Protection Agency to back off enforcement of their legislation to ramp up production of ethanol.

Agri-welfare brats are going nuts, I'm sure.

Even the terminal big government maniacs at Rolling Stone magazine and the ultra left New York Times have admitted how the entire ethanol joke is out of control.

Respected economist Walter Williams recently declared, "Politicians, farmers and ethanol producers know they are running a cruel hoax on the American public. They are in it for the money."

With the nanny state bloating at the hands of the liberal Congress, government subsidies at a rate of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol will end up costing tax payers a whopping $3.5 billion this year for the 7 billion gallons expected to be produced.

Corn is a grossly expensive crop to grow. It takes more than 1,700 gallons of water to grow enough corn to produce one gallon of ethanol.

This uniquely high water content of ethanol is dangerously corrosive to standard gasoline pipelines, so it must be delivered to all destinations by truck or rail, creating a ridiculously cost prohibitive overhead.

Once ethanol finally finds its way into our gas tank, that same water content can ruin engines, making it even more destructive.

Another disturbing little ditty to add to the ethanol scam. Even after ethanol subsidies have ravaged our pocketbooks, as fuel it is at least 20 percent to 30 percent less efficient than gasoline.

Based on laws pulled out of the dark, gloomy recesses of mindless bureaucrats, the United States is required to produce and we are forced to burn 36 billion gallons of this snake oil by the year 2022.

That is five times our current load of 7.5 billion gallons. With 33 new ethanol plants being built right now and 60 more up and coming, this runaway freight train is on a collision course from hell.

America is the fourth-largest exporter of rice in the world. U.S. farmers have more than 30 million acres in corn production this year, which means fewer acres for rice, beans, wheat and hay.

Economics 101 tells me that supply and demand will force prices up for all those commodities and dramatically reduce our exporting capabilities.

Can you say "lose-lose"? Who came up with this game plan, Willie Nelson or Michael Moore?
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Lehigh Valley native plays bass for Nugent

Few people can say they make their living playing music. Even fewer can say that living includes touring the country alongside rock legends like Ritchie Blackmore, Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent.

Greg Smith of Bangor can lay claim to both.

The soft-spoken bassist -- a musical journeyman who has also performed with The Alan Parsons Project, Wendy O. Williams and Blue Oyster Cult -- is currently on the road with Nugent. Tonight Smith will join the "Motor City Madman" on for a performance at Penn's Peak in Jim Thorpe.

Smith chatted with staff writer Dustin Schoof about life on the road with one of rock music's most legendary -- and controversial -- acts.

"He has a ton of energy," Smith says of Nugent. "He's 60 years old but he's a ball of energy. It's amazing, sometimes it's hard for me to keep up with him. His playing is just so good."
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And, if you're so inclined, more guns and laughs from Pennsyltucky.

New album from The Pink Spiders, Sweat It Out, scratches my power-pop itch for this year. Loads of catchy songs and clever wordplay. Search: "Gimme Chemicals," "Settling for You," and "Trust No One."

Have any of you guys heard a Swedish band called Sister Sin? Victory Records sent me a sampler, and the two songs are great hard rock throwbacks, really doing the 80s thing very well (think a slightly glammy Motorhead). The singer has a very cool Kim McAuliffe/Darby Mills (Headpins) thing going on, great range and a great raspy snarl.

I got that same sampler. Interested to hear the whole album.

listening to that new Blood Ceremony album on Rise Above. I dig it okay. If you like Witchcraft you'll dig it. Or if you just like Sabbath riffs. Or flute solos. The singer is no Jinx Dawson, but who is, really.

Ha, I like both that Sister Sin single (especially the first song, which reminds me of Mensen) and that Blood Ceremony CD! I am actually listening to the same metal as other people for a change, crazy huh?

Sounds like interesting stuff. Sadly, it will never be seen in Pasadena record stores.

I wanted to like the Blood Ceremony CD, but I didn't.