Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

Released: 2003
Tracks: Bear Divide; Seven Percent Grade; Supermarket People; Elate; Get Things Done; Backwoods; Bite; Eighteen Weeks; Projectile; Wildflower; No; See You Next Tuesday; View
Best track: it’s really hard to choose…either Eighteen Weeks, Get Things Done or View
Tracks to skip: Supermarket People & Projectile

This album can in a way be considered a “Mike Keneally Band” album, except the star isn’t Keneally, but Beller. Mike does guest on here (keys and guitar), but the main guitarist is Keneally’s 2nd guitarist, Rick Musallam. Former Z drummer Joe Travers and former Keneally drummer Toss Panos play on here, with current Keneally drummer Nick D’Virgilio handling the board duties. The mix Nick did on here is gorgeous with everything (even in the heavy/sludgy songs) sounding so clear. Besides playing a TON of great bass work, Beller actually gets the balls to sing on a few songs. Yeah, he doesn’t have the greatest voice, but I have huge admiration for him in giving it a shot. There are only 3 vocal pieces on here, so it’s not overwhelming. I dig the vocal melody (and the whole song) of Wildflower. A tad on the basic side, but it works. His other vocal is on Projectile, a distorted, yelling kind of song that I can’t get into. Thankfully it’s only 1:35 long.

For some reason, Supermarket People never connected with me either. It doesn’t really go anywhere. Besides those two, all the songs are really good. There are 4 solo bass songs, played on Bryan’s gorgeous sounding Taylor acoustic/electric bass: Bear Divide, Elate, John Patitucci’s Backwoods & Big Bry’s first composition, No. The other tracks are all band affairs. Get Things Done is a great jam, with Beller’s best solo on the album. It’s gorgeous. I also really love Eighteen Weeks, featuring some strings and percussionist Tricia Steel. This is probably the ‘epic’ of this album and it’s just a great song. If I had to pick the one track that really blew me away it was Eighteen Weeks.

I hope that Bryan Beller makes more solo albums in the future, because I love this one. Even if he didn’t have all the talented players on here that he does, there would still be an album of really good compositions…and that’s the foundation of any great album. Naturally this album is highly recommended for those who like Mike Keneally’s music. I also suggest that everyone else out there give it a chance too. It’s mostly instrumental, so if you require vocals you’ll have to open your mind a little. It’s worth it, though. View is a great album.

Rating: 93

Recorded: 1993
Tracks: Now You Can Open Your Eyes; One Drop; I’d Rather Be Lost; Silawe; Always Give Your Love Away; Scatterbrain; Steer Clear; Long Walk Home; Butterflies; Love Thang; “What Can You Do?”; Fishsticks; Lockjaw; Up; Influence; Simple Things; Cold Samba; Forget Song
Best track: I don’t know, I love all these songs
Track to skip: none

The personnel on the recording is Davíd Garza on guitar and vocals, Clay Pendergrass on bass, Jim Cocke on keys and Michael Hale on drums and vocals. There are actually two songs played that aren’t listed: a rendition of Happy Birthday at the beginning of the encore (after Simple Things) and the last song of the night was an interesting medley of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas/Feliz Navidad. With these songs on there, the show comes to about 84 minutes and just over the length of a CD. So I chopped ‘em in order to fit on one disc. If they were there, they’d really be skippers so it’s not a big loss.

Like I said, I’ve had this Wacky’s show for a few years and it’s always been one of my favorites of the live tapes I have from Dah-veed. Of course I haven’t heard everything available, but this show and the Rick’s one are the two best I’ve heard. This is an excellent show with a ton of energy and it’s absolutely fun to listen to. The mix is pretty good, with the acoustic guitar and drums sounding particularly awesome. One of the main reasons I love this so much is it shows how amazing of a drummer Mike Hale is. When my friends and I would go to Dah-veed shows we’d just be in awe of his talent and massive groove-ness. He’s incredible on this show, and he’s also got a huge vocal presence here that wasn’t really present on the studio recordings. The bass is a bit too quiet, but that’s just the bassist in me being nitpicky. I like the “What Can You Do?” section, which features the 4 band members doing songs. Before I listened all the way through I wondered if the full thing would be on there, as the break on my old tape was in between Jim’s campfire song and Mike’s Loving You. It’s the same on the download, just a better edit. It’s a fun little section that shows the humor of these guys.

This show is a very good representation of what Davíd Garza sounded like in the ‘old days’. There’s a good representation of the albums on here, a bunch from the newly released Culture Vulture, some from Eyes Wide Open and some Twang songs. Since you can download this show (and you don’t have to worry about ripping anybody off since it’s not an official release) then there’s no excuse to not listen to this show. I think it’s great and I’ve listened to it a ton in the past few weeks.

Rating: 94

Released: 1991
Tracks: The Beginning; Deep Water; Crazy; Killer; Whirlpool; Future Love Paradise; Wild; Show Me; Violet
Best track: either Crazy or Future Love Paradise
Track to skip: Killer

Crazy is the Big Hit Single on here and probably the best track of the lot. I’m still not tired of it. It still might be the best single he’s released yet and it was the perfect introduction for him back in 1991. I do like how Seal combines the dance elements with the soulful singing and high quality of musicianship. It’s an interesting mix. It seems to me that most dance music artists don’t quite know how to put the emotion and human-ness into their music. Seal did it here on his first album, and hasn’t abandoned it since. Most of the other tracks are pretty darn good and always seem to put me in a nice, chilled mood. I think the structure of the album and sequence of the tracks are not quite perfect, but the album’s still enjoyable. He naturally gets better, esp. on the next one. The strange feel of the sequencing and Killer bring this down a bit, but that’s fine. It’s Seal’s first attempt so we’re not expecting Sgt. Pepper or anything.

Rating: 86

Released: 1956
Tracks: St. Thomas; You Don’t Know What Love Is; Strode Rode; Moritat; Blue 7
Best track: either St. Thomas or You Don’t Know What Love Is
Track to skip: absolutely none

Rating: 94

Released: 1990
Tracks: Twice as Hard; Jealous Again; Sister Luck; Could I’ve Been So Blind; Seeing Things; Hard to Handle; Thick N’ Thin; She Talks to Angels; Struttin’ Blues; Stare it Cold; (hidden track)
Best track: I have no idea…Hard to Handle, She Talks to Angels and Seeing Things are all fantastic
Tracks to skip: Could I’ve Been So Blind & Struttin’ Blues aren’t too hot

Rating: 88

Released: 1983
Tracks: Rock Rock (Till You Drop); Photograph; Stagefright; Too Late For Love; Die Hard the Hunter; Foolin’; Rock of Ages; Comin’ Under Fire; Action! Not Words; Billy’s Got a Gun
Best track: hard to pick…probably Stagefright
Tracks to skip: Rock Rock Till You Flop, Comin Under Fire, Action! Not Words

The main single off this album was of course Photograph, a song that you can probably still hear 10 times per day on the radio. I still like it. They wrote a good one and it deserved to be a hit. The other big ones were Too Late For Love and Foolin’, both songs that I enjoy. After the initial annoyance of Rock Rock, this album does settle in to some good stuff. The next 6 tracks are all pretty solid. I don’t really care too much for Joe Elliot’s voice on here, when he tries to scream it sounds pretty bad. I like the guitars here, as Steve Clark and Phil Collen always wrote some nice stuff. The bass and drums (Rick Savage & Rick Allen) are the things that kinda bore me about Def Leppard. It’s way too simple for my taste. Sometimes it can work, I really like Rick Savage’s bass line for the verses of Foolin’. The trademark of the band, besides the guitars, is clearly the background vocals. It’s almost annoying. People like it though, so they’re not afraid to overdo it and have these huge vocal parts on seemingly random words. No matter, I’m always listening to the music anyway. Overall I still like this. It hasn’t aged as well as I thought it would, and if you asked me to review this 10 years ago it’d get a much higher grade.

Rating: 85

Released: 1990
Tracks: Cowboys From Hell; Primal Concrete Sledge; Psycho Holiday; Heresy; Cemetery Gates; Domination; Shattered; Clash With Reality; Medicine Man; Message in Blood; The Sleep; The Art of Shredding
Best track: Cemetery Gates, maybe Art of Shredding
Tracks to skip: Heresy, Shattered, Clash With Reality, Medicine Man, Message in Blood

Sorry, I was under the influence of Phil Anselmo’s totally awful falsetto screams. I know he could probably destroy me in a fight, but he’s got a totally obnoxious voice on this album. OK, yes, I used to really like this album, and some songs I still do, but boy does this not hold up that well. It is mostly due to the skinny white boy with dreads, Phil Anselmo. His voice is so annoying on this album! The songs that mostly illustrate my point about his awful falsetto are Shattered and Message in Blood. These are bad songs anyway, but his voice ruins anything that might be good about them. He hadn’t yet developed his growl yet, so really his voice didn’t have much power on this album. At least he does get better on the next one. The other major problem I have with this is the thin production. I think the sound is pretty awful on here. Maybe it was just the studio, but I know Terry Date can do better than this. There is such little bass guitar and low end. Even Vinnie Paul’s bass drums are weak sounding. It’s way too thin and sounds like a lot of albums released in the early 90’s when digital was still a fairly new thing. It needs more meat.

Side 2 of this album (starting at Shattered) is really weak. They front-loaded it and because of that most of side 2 is pretty bad. It gets better with The Sleep, and thankfully they end the album on a great note with Art of Shredding. For the most part, the best songs are found on side one (the classics, if you will). Cowboys From Hell is a good leadoff track with Primal Concrete Sledge backing it up with more pound-your-face metal. Cemetery Gates is still the biggest single on here and probably the best song. I don’t know what the heck Anselmo’s singing about since the lyrics go off in strange places at random times. Musically, it’s the best song though. Most of these songs are still pretty immature and just sound like regular heaviness, but it’s obvious that *something* is there in the songwriting area. The stars of the album are clearly brothers Vinnie Paul and Diamond Darrel (before he was cool enough to be “Dimebag”!) who were responsible for everything in this band. This band is built around the drums and guitars and these guys are miles ahead of Phil Anselmo and Rex Rocker, er, Brown on musicianship. Overall it’s an average album, they get better (for a little bit…), but start out here in major-label land just OK. Oh, I have to mention the funny stuff on this album. First we have Phil’s screams, then we have the enormous thank you list in the liner notes; I swear, everyone in the DFW metroplex is thanked! They actually give shout outs to BEER (Coors Light & Keystone Light were the ones that jumped out at me). The other funny thing is found on the amazing (har) album cover itself: these guys looking like fools in an old west bar, skinny Phil jumping off the bar, Rex standing there, Diamond Darrel doing the limbo with his guitar and Vinnie Paul laughing and EATING A SANDWICH! I guarantee you, there is no other album cover that has a dude eating a sandwich on it.

Rating: 79