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Davíd Garza - Eyes Wide Open |
| March 26th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1992
Tracks: Young and Naïve; Now You Can Open Your Eyes; Sea of You; Virgin Mary Candle; Scatterbrain; Fallen Angel; Love Thang; East West North South; Lockjaw; Overwhelmed; IOU; All I Ever Need; Take for Granted; Under Your Evergreens
Best track: Fallen Angel
Track to skip: not a second
*This* is where it gets good. All of Davíd’s music up to this point was always (OK, nearly always) good, but this album, his first on CD, is the beginning of the ‘WOW’ stuff. Coming off the mostly disappointing Summer Songs II this album is really what he’d been needing (and probably wanting) to do the whole time. ALL of the songs on here are great and this is just a super solid album. By now the band had solidified into Davíd on guitar and vocals, Clay Pendergrass on bass, Michael Hale on drums, Jim Cocke on keys and Goddess Juliana Sheffield on vocals. Some guests on here as usual: Davíd’s brother Joel, John Bush and Brad Houser from the New Bohemians & violinist Reggie Rueffer. Since David knew he was making a CD (as opposed to just a cassette like all previous albums) he obviously spent more money, probably because he had more money to spend. The results are the best album up to this point for him.
A lot of these songs are ‘classics’ although none are probably played anymore. Unfortunately. The songs Now You Can Open Your Eyes, Virgin Mary Candle, Scatterbrain, Love Thang and Fallen Angel were all live staples and ones that I shook my ass to on numerous occasions. They’re all great songs, but Fallen Angel is above the rest. It’s such a perfect and beautiful song. The Bohemian guys sound fantastic on it. The part that really just gets me is the verse that starts “200 miles from Mexico…” MAN! That guitar part totally gives me shivers. It’s simply amazing and the song just melts me. Juliana has a mild vocal part in the song and she’s great as always. The main ‘shiver’ spot on the album is the bridge of Under Your Evergreens, the “You will be mine, I will be yours” part. Awesome is just too weak of a word to describe the impact of these two things.
Most Dah-veed albums are eclectic anyway, but I think this one and Culture Vulture stand out as monumental in their eclecticism. The band happily covers all ground here: Latino ballads, reggae, jazz, funk rock, country, straight pop…it’s all here. Like all great albums, all the material flows wonderfully from track to track. I think at this point the band could pretty much do anything they wanted and it’d all be good stuff. They absolutely succeed here. This album is getting harder and harder to find, but I’ve seen it available online occasionally and you’ll have an even better chance to get it if you’re in Texas or especially Austin. Excellent and classic album.
Rating: 95
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The Beatles - Please Please Me |
| March 26th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1963
Tracks: I Saw Her Standing There; Misery; Anna (Go To Him); Chains; Boys; Ask Me Why; Please Please Me; Love Me Do; P.S. I Love You; Baby’s It’s You; Do You Want to Know a Secret; A Taste of Honey; There’s a Place; Twist and Shout
Best track: I Saw Her Standing There
Track to skip: none
It’s actually a bit subdued. This is my most recent Beatles purchase (at this point I own all official product except the original issue of Yellow Submarine and Let it Be) and when I first listened to it I was surprised how mellow this is. Not like “I’m So Tired” mellow, but not anything near what I was really expecting. I guess I was expecting an album of songs like Saw Her Standing There and Twist & Shout. Except for those two and Boys all of these songs are slow ballad-y things. Threw me for a loop, that’s for sure. Naturally this is, of course, a good album. Since it’s the first one it’s a given they’re going to put out the best stuff they had. Both Love Me Do and Please Please Me were released as singles prior to this album and this is the only time the singles were included on a corresponding album. At least until they shifted their focus from singles to albums.
On this debut (produced by the excellent and constant George Martin) our boys produce 8 originals out of the bunch and this immediately set them apart from most of the groups of the day. Most groups back in the early 60’s did not write their own material. I love that The Beatles were pretty much trendsetters from Day 1. The band would slowly push aside covers all together on their albums over the next 2-3 years. Like nearly all Beatles albums, everyone gets a chance to sing on here. The vast majority are split between Paul and John (naturally), but we do get Ringo singing the unintentionally gay Boys and George getting two lead vocals in Chains and Do You Want to Know a Secret. These 3 songs aren’t the best of the lot, but they’re not bad by any means. Really, none of these songs are bad and this album is significantly more stable than With the Beatles or Beatles for Sale.
The best song on here is track #1. It’s honestly so exciting! Maybe it’s just me, but I really hear change in that one song. It’s still a great song and Paul plays an exceptionally cool bass line. I think Paul was always the best musician of the group. Like I said, the album does go into ‘ballad’ mode after this one, but they’re still enjoyable songs. Of the originals I’d say about half still hold up as really good material and all of the covers are pretty good here too. Of course they get better as the decade goes on, but Please Please Me is a perfect starting point for one of the best rock groups ever.
Rating: 84
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47 Indians - Demo |
| March 10th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1994
Tracks: Mystery Train; Rita; Searching; Night Air; Fever; Rough Ridin’
Best track: hard to pick, Fever is incredible though
Track to skip: none at all
Man, I forgot how great this band was. This is a demo, but this is probably the best sounding demo I’ve ever heard. Excellent quality here. 47 Indians is the ‘brainchild’ of Brent Gorrell and I’m sure they still play around Austin. There have been quite a few different versions of the band, this one being the 2nd main version. Unfortunately I just have the tape itself and there’s no info on who’s actually in the band at this point. So I only know Brent. Brent’s got a good voice and he tends to sound a lot like early Elvis. Not in a cheesy way, he sounds good. The music these guys do is a mix of rockabilly and 50’s sounding rock with good bits of blues and jazz thrown in. I feel stupid because I can’t remember the lead guitarist’s name, but his a great player. He’s got a very fluid style and all his parts on all these songs are great. The whole band is great. 47 Indians were actually the very first live group I ever saw, back when I was like 13 or 14. I started to see them a lot when I went to college in Austin along with my friend Andy. We saw them every chance we got, which was usually weekly.
Since the band is mostly a ‘cover’ band, naturally most of these songs are covers. Rita and Searching are originals and they’re both really good songs. All of the songs are wonderfully done by the band, but the version of Fever is awesome. Nothing against Peggy Lee, but this is my favorite version of the tune. I doubt you could find this demo anywhere, as I was given my copy from the band themselves. I’d always recommend going and checking them out live since they were always one of my favorite bands to see live in Austin. Like I said, the sound quality on this demo is absurdly good. It’s more than a demo; it’s really just a very short album. Great stuff.
Rating: 92
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Judas Priest - Painkiller |
| March 10th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1990
Tracks: Painkiller; Hell Patrol; All Guns Blazing; Leather Rebel; Metal Meltdown; Night Crawler; Between the Hammer & the Anvil; A Touch of Evil; Battle Hymn; One Shot at Glory
Best track: Painkiller
Tracks to skip: There’s no need to listen to this so I’d skip all the rest
I’m just over this stuff. It doesn’t do anything for me anymore. I like some the music on this album, but nothing besides Painkiller excites me. When I was a kid I really dug this, but now I’m just over it. Obviously teenagers have no taste in music. Sometimes they can get something right, but I think in general we all listened to horrible stuff back then. I never really noticed how bad these lyrics are. True I’ve pretty much avoided this cassette of mine for about a decade. I pulled it out once about two years ago and couldn’t listen to even half of it. Halford’s lyrics are so absolutely awful here. They’re almost as bad as Manowar on this album. You know, singing songs about the Heavy Metal Cause and fighting battles (for Metal) and all that heroic stuff. Heroic Metal? Something like that. I can listen to selected songs from Priest’s cannon, but a full album is difficult to handle. And also, I really can’t support any band with a bassist who is as pathetic as Ian Hill. Of bassists that I specifically know about in hard rock/heavy metal, he’s probably second worst to ACDC’s Cliff Williams who is THE most boring bassist ever. Ian Hill is right beside him. Stick to any number of Judas Priest’s greatest hits CDs if you’re at all interested.
Rating: 62
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Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood |
| March 10th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1989
Tracks: T.n.T. (Terror ‘n Tinsletown); Dr. Feelgood; Slice of Your Pie; Rattlesnake Shake; Kickstart My Heart; Without You; Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.); Sticky Sweet; She Goes Down; Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away); Time For Change
Best track: Dr. Feelgood
Tracks to skip: Slice of Your Pie, Rattlesnake Shake, Without You, Sticky Sweet, She Goes Down, Don’t Go Away Mad, Time for Change
Yeah, another album I skip a lot of. And truthfully, SOS is only decent so I wouldn’t even listen to that. TNT isn’t even a ‘song’, it’s just a stupid intro. So, that leaves the only good songs on this album as Dr. Feelgood and Kickstart My Heart. Which you can get on any number of Greatest Hits albums. Most of the songs on here are either immature sex songs (most of them) or obnoxious ballads (Without You, Time for Change…both horrible songs). Besides the two songs I actually like on this, Slice of Your Pie (a stupid sexual song) quotes the whole ending bit from the Beatles’ I Want You (She’s So Heavy). Nice little tribute, but it doesn’t come close to saving a poorly written song. The 4th or 5th single from this album, Don’t Go Away Mad, is not only dumb, but also a nice rip-off of Kiss’ Hard Luck Woman, right down to the guitar fills. I do like some of Motley’s stuff, but it’s more individual songs than albums. This album is not good.
Rating: 54
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Van Halen - For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge |
| March 8th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1991
Tracks: Poundcake; Judgement Day; Spanked; Runaround; Pleasure Dome; In ‘N’ Out; Man On a Mission; The Dream is Over; Right Now; 316; Top of the World
Best track: Runaround or Top of the World
Tracks to skip: Spanked, In ‘N’ Out, Man on a Mission, Dream is Over
Duh, gee, what does that title stand for? This was the third Van Hagar album and another huge seller. I used to own the live album, Right Here Right Now, but I sold that many years ago so this cassette is the only VH I own. It’s not that bad of an album. It’s funny, even when I first got this album and was really into it, I still thought the above four tracks sucked. Even with time, they still bite. I mean seriously, old men singing about sex (see also The Rolling Stones, ACDC, Aerosmith, ZZ Top) is truly pathetic. The songs I’m referring to are Spanked and Man on a Mission. They’re bad songs anyway, but to have these terribly dumb lyrics on top of them is too much. When these guys are in their 50’s, how do they explain lyrics like Man on a Mission to their kids or grandkids? Stupidity, it truly is stupidity.
Besides those 4 horrible songs, this isn’t a bad album. True there are other VH albums I’d rather listen to before this one, but all things considered it’s not too offensive. The ‘Sammy Years’ were truly the least offensive of the band’s career anyway. Remember how they totally sold out with Right Now? Yeah, sold it to a freaking Pepsi commercial. That always made me mad. And every time I hear it I’m just reminded of how they sold out. Of course it’s a good song, that’s beside the point. Ugh. Anyway, like I said, most of the songs on here are good and I still like hearing them. Either Runaround or Top of the World is the best track; I still love to sing along to both of them. Pleasure Dome totally jams but the lyrics are very dumb. Oh well, they can’t win them all. All in all this isn’t a bad album. I think the earlier Sammy albums are a bit more consistent, but it’s no big deal. The albums after this one, however, are pretty crappy so be careful.
Rating: 82
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Savior Sol - Demo |
| March 8th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1994
Tracks: Days Are Numbers; The Apple Bearing Princess; Unknown; Savior Sol; Twisted I; Lygea (Blue)
Best track: Unknown
Track to skip: Savior Sol
I can’t remember where I saw these guys, it was at Trees in Dallas either opening up for Flat Mass or Dah-veed. They handed out these demos as free giveaways so that’s why I have this. I believe these guys were based out of Austin and that gig was the only time I saw them. The lineup of the band is: Lindsey Simon - guitar & vocals, Nathan Fish - bass & guitar, Lukas Haas (yes, the actor) - keys and Chris Stutsman - drums. Savior Sol was a Christian rock band; kinda pop, kinda jammy, kinda proggy. They are more on the talented side of music groups. The lead vocals are on the annoying side and that’s the thing that turns me off the most. Well, OK, the songs aren’t too strong either and that is what really makes me not enjoy this too much. I mean, the band is all right. They definitely don’t suck and they can clearly play their instruments (refreshing, that’s for sure). I have no idea how long they lasted, but they clearly have the beginnings of a good group; they just need some work (and trim Lygea, it’s way too long).
Rating: 70
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Rush - Hemispheres |
| March 6th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1978
Tracks: Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres (Prelude/Apollo/Dionysus/Armageddon/Cygnus/The Sphere); Circumstances; The Trees; La Villa Strangiato
Best track: La Villa Strangiato
Tracks to skip: The Sphere section of Hemispheres & Circumstances
Oppression! I love that line. This album continued Rush’s flirtation with Yes and 70’s prog rock in general. Once again there are some things that aren’t that great and some things that ARE great. The things that aren’t are the last section of the first track & Circumstances. Well, the lyrics also aren’t that great on this album either. I think the lyrics to the title track are stupid. Musically it’s great, but lyrically they’re not the best Peart’s ever done. Hemispheres (ignoring all that ‘Cygnus X-1 Book II’ crap) is the last and best of Rush’s side-long songs. They wrote a good one on Caress of Steel, a boring one on 2112 and on this they get it mostly right. Musically, it’s right on; excellent stuff. Lyrically, like I said, it’s really stupid. The lyrics to the Cygnus section are especially dumb. Give them point for trying, but it’s far from a lyrical success. Unlike 2112 all the music sections flow wonderfully and it really sounds like a 17-minute song. The other main problem with the title track is the last section ‘The Sphere’. It has nothing to do with the rest of the song and it seriously useless. There is no flow and the only reason it exists is for the rest of Peart’s dumb lyrics. At about the 17-minute mark, I just hit the skip button twice so that I can hear The Trees.
Why skip Circumstances too? It’s another dumb song. It’s better than the dumb songs on Farewell to Kings, but it’s still dumb. It’s boring. OK, so yeah, Geddy does sing a slight bit in French, but otherwise it’s useless. The middle section is a very fruity rip-off of about 10 different Yes songs. The guitar solo is decent enough, but not enough to keep me from passing it over. So, finally we come to the REALLY good part of the album. Trees is an excellent song with the only good lyrics on this thing. All-around, it’s great. I absolutely love the middle section of this one. They manage to cram a lot into the 4:46 worth of music here. The album ends with La Villa Strangiato, the best track here. In the liner notes the guys jokingly refer to this as ‘an exercise in self-indulgence’. Yes, it’s a joke, making fun of all the music critic idiots of the day who blanketly refer to all prog rock as ‘self indulgent’. To me, self indulgence is creating music that’s aimed at making money as opposed to making the best MUSIC you can make. Regardless, this is a jamming song and one that never lets up. Even in the obligatory chilled out middle section, you’re still not really able to catch your breath. Lee and Peart are great all over this thing, but this track is really all about Alex Lifeson. His guitar playing on this is damn excellent.
As an album, Hemispheres is not as good as Farewell to Kings. I think as songs both Xanadu and Cygnus X-1 are better than the ones on here. That’s not taking away anything from Trees or La Villa Strangiato as both are excellent too. Lyrically most of this album is a let down, musically it isn’t. The bad songs on Farewell to Kings are much worse than the bad ones on here, but the good songs are better. Hemispheres is far from a ‘disappointment’ though. I listen to it just as much as I do Farewell; I just think it’s slightly less good. Still, an essential Rush album though.
Rating: 91
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Halogen - Tastes Like Chicken (Demo 2) |
| March 6th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1995
Tracks: Bridged; Water Place; Third Wheel; Kept Simple
Best track: Third Wheel
Track to skip: none
Halogen’s second demo is better than the first. After the departure of bassist Gary Thorne and drummer Steve Sechrist, the band continued on as a trio for a few months. The two new members were improvements in their respective positions. Nothing against Gary here, I think he’s a great bass player, but he just wasn’t the best bassist for Halogen. Drummer Aaron Gros was and is light years ahead of Sechrist. Technique, execution, everything. New bassist Mike McCormick had actually been a lead guitarist up to this point and that way of approaching the bass was just the refreshment needed for the band. Props to Mike for playing some excellent bass lines here. The songs themselves are improvements over the last demo. Bridged is repeated here, but the addition of Aaron Gros makes it more than worthwhile. The main problem with this (and yes, I realize it’s only a demo) is the overall sound. The band’s ‘manager’ Richard Gwynne pretty much demanded that he be in charge of this so he gets the Engineering credit. I know he was inexperienced, and he might even be better now, but speaking as someone who has worked in recording studios his work here is dreadful. There’s so much muck just sitting over these tracks. And he wanted Aaron to do some rainstick parts, but on Bridged he mixed it so that the rainstick is there for the whole track.
Time is always a consideration when you’re in the studio, but any engineer worth a damn would’ve made Leslie redo her vocals on Water Place. It’s a pretty good song, but all of her falsetto bits at the end of the song are SO out of key. She’s not even close to hitting those notes and I was just cringing while listening to this. That should have been spotted immediately after she finished the track and either an overdub done to correct it, or do the whole vocal over again. There is no excuse for that, especially when you’re the band’s manager and your goal is to make them sound as humanly good as possible. Side 2 (last two tracks) are a lot better than side one. Both are really good songs with Third Wheel being the best of the bunch.
Halogen were an incredibly musical band and one that had huge potential. Unfortunately, this would be the last ‘official’ product released by them, as internal tensions would cause the group to split within a year or so. This demo partially gives example of how good they were. I know how good they could be because I sat in at rehearsals and saw many of their gigs. If they would’ve had a better engineer then this demo might’ve helped them more.
Rating: 81
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Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey soundtrack |
| March 6th, 2003 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1991
Tracks: Shout it Out (Slaughter); Battle Stations (Winger); God Gave Rock and Roll to You II (KISS); Drinking Again (Neverland); Dream of a New Day (Richie Kotzen); The Reaper (Steve Vai); The Perfect Crime (Faith No More); Go To Hell (Megadeth); Tommy the Cat (Primus); Junior’s Gone Wild (King’s X); Showdown (Love on Ice); The Reaper Rap (Steve Vai)
Best track: Junior’s Gone Wild
Tracks to skip: Shout it Out, Battle Stations, God Gave RNR to You, Drinking Again, Dream of a New Day, The Reaper, Perfect Crime, Go to Hell, Tommy the Cat, Showdown, Reaper Rap
It’s been so long since I’ve listened to this. I don’t think I even had any CDs since last I heard this. Oh, yeah, I’m listening to a freakin’ cassette here. As you might have guessed from looking at the track list, this album is indeed the cheese-fest it looks to be. I can’t believe how cheesy these songs are! Sometimes I’m horrified at what I hear and sometimes I am just laughing my ass off. Winger’s Battle Stations just finished up and those lyrics are horrible! Hilarious. Then we have the lyrics to Kiss’ God Gave Rock N Roll to You…this is embarrassing, total torture. Are Gene and Paul for real?!?! This is so awful! That’s got to be one of the funniest songs ever written. Continuing on we get a boring Neverland track (who?) then a Steve Vai rip-off in Richie Kotzen. Bleh. Since he’s the real Steve Vai, and he’s actually talented, I don’t say to skip The Reaper. It’s not the greatest song he’s ever written, but it’s decent. OK, actually, go ahead and skip it. It’s unintentionally funny.
Side 2 starts up with Faith No More, one of the more talented groups on here. This thing used to be my favorite song on here, but on this listen it’s obvious that it’s clearly a throwaway. I think I liked the Megadeth song for like 5 minutes back in the day. I’m listening to all these tracks and the thing that keeps popping up in my head is “do they take this seriously???” It’s embarrassing that these guys, a lot of whom I respect, are clearly giving this soundtrack awful tunes. OK, Marty Friedman’s solo in Go to Hell is pretty good, but it doesn’t save the track. I’ve never cared for Primus, regardless of how talented they are. I mean, they’re OK and it’s not like they’re too ‘weird’ for me. They just don’t do anything for me. Really, the only track on here that’s even remotely good is King’s X’s Junior’s Gone Wild. Like everyone else on here, it’s not the best thing they’ve done, but it’s tolerable. The last two tracks are typically awful, esp. Reaper Rap. Very dumb. So, since I’ve wasted a bunch of precious web space here, this is my opinion on this soundtrack: crap-tacular! Really, it’s awful. I should just burn this tape as a sacrifice. If by some reason you’re curious about this, please don’t bother.
Rating: 20
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