Music | Defending Axl Rose

Mar 05 2016

The Life of Pablo by Kanye West

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This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but I love Kanye West. Both the music and the man. This is a rock blog but over the past 10 years or so I’ve warmed to hip-hop, thanks largely in part to the works of Mr. West. I totally get why most people don’t like the persona of Kanye West: he’s brash, arrogant, and sexist. Defending Axl Rose has never been about Axl Rose, but instead about the artists like Rose who operate on a completely different level than 99.999% of the rest of us. These exceptional artists have a vision and spend their lives struggling to bring that vision in its pure, uncompromised, form to the masses. They push boundaries in genre and offer us a window into both the artist and ourselves. Kanye West is a genius on the same level as Brian Wilson. Do I cringe when he belittles Taylor Swift or goes on Twitter and proclaims Bill Cosby “innocent”? Hell yes I do. But Kanye doesn’t really hurt anyone but himself so I forgive him. The music is so good I can overlook his faults.

THE LIFE OF PABLO has been on my must-listen list back when it was called SWISH and WAVES. When it came out last month, on the Jay-Z backed music streaming service Tidal, I downloaded the Tidal app and contemplated canceling my beloved Spotify subscription just so I could hear the record. I waited, with bated-fanboy breath, for Yeezus to announce when the non-Tidal world would get an opportunity to hear his latest masterpiece. Then the confusion began: the album’s physical sale was delayed and then it was scrapped. West proclaimed his album would never be fore sale on Twitter, despite the fact that he’d already given it away sort of by issuing download codes to the people who attended his NYC fashion show where the album debuted. Now there’s word that Kanye is still editing/changing the album, thus making THE LIFE OF PABLO the Star Wars of rap albums (Kanye = George Lucas).

This review has two paragraphs defending the man and giving context to the release of the album because that’s the only way to interface with Kanye’s music. One can’t like or dislike these tracks without taking the performance art piece that is Kanye West in as a whole. He’s worked (famously) with Paul McCartney and no doubt sees himself as a modern-day John Lennon, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that Kanye West is really the modern-day Yoko Ono (Ono the artist not the Beatle girlfriend).

THE LIFE OF PABLO opens with gospel “Ultralight Beam.” An epic, beautiful track that begins with West’s 4 year old daughter praising Jesus and then builds to a rapturous choir. This song, about as unconventional as a pop song could be, works on a pure emotional level. I’m 100% agnostic but by the time Chance the Rapper comes in near the end I feel like a true Believer. The album descends from the opener’s lofty heights rollercoasting up and down a few times and bottoms out on “FML.” Here is what all the Kanye haters seem to miss about him: he’s not only his own worst enemy, he’s also his biggest critic. “FML” is about how he fucks up his own life. The song is about West’s troubles with infidelity, which is also touched on in “30 Hours” where West feels jealous because he finds himself on the wrong end of an open-relationship (one that he admits he insisted on having). “Real Friends” continues the tradition of “Runaway” and paints West as a workaholic loner who lives in a cold, friendless world. “Wolves” is another somber track where West gives insight into what it’s like to be a solitary figure against the whole of the world. You can’t help but feel sorry for they guy, even when later he compares himself and Kim to Mary and Joseph (yes, that Mary and Joseph).

Of course no review of THE LIFE OF PABLO would be complete without discussing “Famous,” the song where he throws gasoline on his feud with Taylor Swift. I don’t believe Kanye’s assertion that he “made that bitch famous,” but I do think that Swift has greatly benefited from her association with West. Just like Batman needs the Joker, Swift provides the perfect heroic foil to West’s exaggerated douchebag persona. That West has chosen to rag on America’s sweetheart and the music world’s biggest, most popular modern artist isn’t surprising. He’s jealous of her and like the third grade boy tugging his classmates ponytails; he’s picking on her because he likes her. It’s a shame West mars an otherwise perfect song with such a cringeworthy verse. Rihanna and the Sister Nancy sample are such a killer combo and balance West’s tough guy rapping.

My current favorite track, however, is probably the most-Kanye track of all-time. Title “I Love Kanye,” the song is a 43 second song that is just West with no musical accompaniment. The lyrics speak for themselves:

“I miss the old Kanye, straight from the ‘Go Kanye
Chop up the soul Kanye, set on his goals Kanye
I hate the new Kanye, the bad mood Kanye
The always rude Kanye, spaz in the news Kanye
I miss the sweet Kanye, chop up the beats Kanye
I gotta to say at that time I’d like to meet Kanye
See I invented Kanye, it wasn’t any Kanyes
And now I look and look around and there’s so many Kanyes
I used to love Kanye, I used to love Kanye
I even had the pink polo, I thought I was Kanye
What if Kanye made a song about Kanye
Called “I Miss The Old Kanye,” man that would be so Kanye
That’s all it was Kanye, we still love Kanye
And I love you like Kanye loves Kanye.”

The track ends with West laughing, and it’s a pretty good punchline, but there’s a lot of naked, personal honesty in this song. I don’t see Kanye as the arrogant asshole he’d like us to believe he his. Nor do I view him as the villain his detractors make him out to be. For me, Kanye West is a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions. If he was an oblvious asshole even his biggest fans couldn’t forgive him (myself included). But Kanye is acutely aware of his failings and I think would genuinely like to be the good guy.

Ye-tracklist

There are no big radio-friendly tracks on THE LIFE OF PABLO. There is no “Gold Digger” or “Touch the Sky” on this record. Even if you hate Kanye and despise rap if you’re a music fan you have to respect that he’s one of the only (if not the only) mainstream artist who make albums. The album as a cohesive, artistic whole has been absent from the modern music scene for nearly 10 years (give or take). But the fact that Kanye agonizes over things like track sequences on his records makes this music fan happy. Don’t listen haphazardly to THE LIFE OF PABLO, instead take it track by track as God…I mean Kanye intended. Then when you’re done go online and seek out the endless stream of “I Love Kanye” remixes that have mushroomed all over the Internet.

I had to torrent this album, which is a real bummer. Hopefully something will change and THE LIFE OF PABLO will become commercially available in a wider-release. Though his mental state may be deteriorating, West’s ability to create intricate, interesting music is only getting stronger.

Tagged Album Reviews, Axl Rose, Brian WIlson, John Lennon, Kanye West, Music, Paul McCartney, Rap, Spotify, Taylor Swift, THE LIFE OF PABLO, Tidal, Torrent, Yoko Ono

Jan 12 2016

Hear the new Cheap Trick Song For The Price of Your Email Address

It seems like only yesterday that I was complaining about the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame nominees. I was 100% convinced that classic rockers Cheap Trick were going to get shut-out their first time on the ballots…but I was wrong! Not that it really matters (to quote Freddie Mercury, “nothing really matters…”) but the band was able to get into the Hall of Fame. Rather than legitimizing the band, this move only serves to legitimize the Hall. Only slightly, of course.

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Anyway, the band has a new album coming out this year titled BANG ZOOM CRAZY HELLO, which is a really awful title but I’ll give the band a pass because they’re legends. The band has released a brand new song off this forthcoming album on their website. The song, which is titled “No Direction Home,” can be downloaded for the price of your email address. I would say that the song is free but as we all know, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. So, if you don’t mind getting emails from Cheap Trick, you can hear the brand new song.

Is it worth the potential spam? I think so. While “No Direction Home” is by no means the greatest Cheap Trick song of all time, it’s a pretty catchy little diddy. It’s a very Beatle-esque piece of power pop with a few ELO-like production flourishes. I really enjoyed the sugary-sweet melodies and the lyrical hook. It’s classic Cheap Trick, through and through. There’s a guitar lick that sounds very familiar to me, almost like something from an early Clapton song. I’ve been trying to work out which one for the past few days, but it has thus far eluded me. I will say that the absence of long-time drummer Bun E. Carlos is a bit of a bummer (what the hell happened there?) but I guess we can’t have everything, can we?

Anyway, if this song is any indication of the quality of the new album then we should all be really excited. Click here to download the new song.

Tagged BANG ZOOM CRAZY HELLO, Cheap Trick, ELO, Freddie Mercury, Music, NO DIRECTION HOME, Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, The Beatles

Jan 11 2016

5 Comments

I Read The News Today Oh Boy

RIP David Bowie

I’m sitting at my dining room table on the Monday after the David Bowie has died and I’m trying to figure out what to write. “Heroes” is quietly seeping out of the wireless hi-fi I use to fill my house with music, and it feels both absolutely perfect and totally wrong. I think the problem is, like many people (I think), it wasn’t until he died that I gave David Bowie his proper due.

David Bowie was a rock star. David Bowie was a poet. David Bowie was an artist. David Bowie was an actor. David Bowie was a style icon. David Bowie was weird in a way that wasn’t always cool or accepted (at least initially) but he was always true to himself. When I think about all the ways he impacted me both as a rock fan and as a human being I find myself really amazed.

1976: David Bowie poses for an RCA publicity shot in 1976. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

I laugh whenever someone says “that’s freaky” because I think about the Flight of the Conchords bit where “Bowie’s in Space.” My wife and I have a private joke about her driving related to the song “Moonage Daydream.” He played Tesla in my favorite Christopher Nolan movie. How can David Bowie be so many things? Because above all else, David Bowie was a true artist who managed to find a way to stay in the mainstream and on the outer edges of culture.

The first time I heard David Bowie and knew that it was David Bowie was when I got into Queen and heard his (amazing) duet with Freddie Mercury “Under Pressure.” That he steals the show out from under one of rock’s most charismatic frontmen should be all anyone should ever need when it comes to Bowie’s rock credibility. But then there were the albums, the width and breadth of which I have only just begun to fully examine. Would you believe that I only last month sat down and listened to DIAMOND DOGS? That’s a fucking brilliant album. David Bowie has at minimum six records most rock fans consider essential.

I wrote a review of ALADDIN SANE a few years ago and to this day it’s probably my favorite Bowie album…however in recent years I’ve started to reconsider HUNKY DORY. And then there’s ZIGGY STARDUST to re-evaluate and reconsider. The man’s catalogue is so expansive, I could spend the next few years just exploring his music. And I probably will. Last week, on his 69th birthday, David Bowie released his final album BLACKSTAR. I’ve only heard the title track, and even though it’s really freaky-man (ha!) I feel like I owe it to Bowie now that he’s gone to dive fully into his last album. Weird space jazz? Just another page in the book of Bowie.

Goodbye, David Bowie.

Tagged "Moonage Daydream", "Under Pressure", ALADDIN SANE, BLACKSTAR, Christopher Nolan, David Bowie, DIAMOND DOGS, Freddie Mercury, HUNKY DORY, Music, Queen, RIP

Jan 10 2016

4 Comments

Album Reviews

The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us by Beach Slang

Due to a bout of chronic laziness, I haven’t done a Best of The Year list in many years. That said, had I mustered the will to create a Best of 2015 Beach Slang’s debut album THE THINGS WE DO TO FIND PEOPLE WHO FEEL LIKE US wouldn’t have been at the top spot…which would have been a major error on my part. How did I miss the best album of 2015?

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I hadn’t heard of Beach Slang until last week, but already they are one of my new favorite bands. Based out of Philadelphia, Beach Slang is yet another indie band that has a Beach/Surfer-themed name despite not playing surf music or having come from a sunny beach city*. I first noticed this trend a few years ago when Wavves and Surfer Blood first hit the scene. As I’ve grown as a music fan, I’ve tried to move away from pre-judging bands based on names and album artwork, to varying degress of success. Beach Slang nearly lost me because their album’s overall package screams “look at me, I’m indie.” The album’s super lengthy, Arctic Monkey’s-esque, title is a little too cute and the faded layered-exposure cover photo is a bit too twee. But that’s all superficial, the music is what matters, and Beach Slang’s music is awesome. The album is 10 songs long and clocks-in under 27 minutes in length. This is a highly potent, distilled album.

I liken Beach Slang’s sound to mid-period Replacements meets Ryan Adams. THE THINGS WE DO… has a very late ‘80s, washed-out, sound that I normally don’t care for but with this band and these songs the aesthetic totally works. Rather than coming across as an affectation, the production compliments the rough-and-tumble punk quality of Beach Slang’s music. The guitars screech and wail in a thick cloud that hangs over the majority of the record. Lead singer James Alex’s voice is absolutely perfect with its ragged timber and earnestness. THE THINGS WE DO… tackles some very serious material and without a sincere vocalist to anchor everything down Beach Slang might have drifted into cliché. But when he Alex spits out the lyrics, the listener absolutely believes that he’s this tough punk kid and we are privy to his inner most thoughts. Musically Beach Slang are a well-oiled machine, and I’ll bet these guys are pretty damn incredible live. I hope I get to find out. The guitars stand out, but the drums are also very memorable, too (see the end of “Dirty Lights”). I wanted to establish in this review that the production and guitars are top notch on this record before tackling the lyrics to the songs on this record.

The lyrics. A surface-level, initial listen of THE THINGS WE DO… piqued my interest in this band, but it wasn’t until I put the headphones on and started listening that this record truly impressed me. Lyrically, Beach Slang’s songs are some of the best rock poetry I’ve heard in the past 10 years. There are lines in these songs that should be framed and hung on a fucking wall. That’s how good they are. Every time I hear this record I pick up on a new lyric that blows me away. That’s part of the reason it’s taken me so long to review this album—just as soon as I think I’ve discovered everything cool about THE THINGS WE DO… something else pops out of nowhere and surprises me.

Probably the one line that every review of this album must include is from “Ride the Wild Haze” wherein Alex sings “I feel most alive when I’m listening to every record that hits harder than the pain.” I’ve noticed that this is the song lyric that all the music critics are picking up on, and with good reason. It’s a damn good line and it’s essentially the central thesis of THE THINGS WE DO… Life is fucked up and sometimes it’s only art that can get us through the really hard times. The sentiment is continued in “Too Late To Die Young” wherein Alex sings: “The punks are wired and there records feel tough. It’s loud and wild, but I swear it feels soft. Yeah, it’s always been enough.” On another (really kick ass) track “I Break Guitars”, Alex asks, “If rock and roll is dangerous, how come I feel so safe in it?” For Beach Slang, rock music isn’t a phase or a way to pick up chicks; it’s a way of life. It’s also the one thing that consistently keeps them hanging on in an otherwise hard life.

Look, I get that none of this is very original. There have been punks singing about how they feel like outcasts and rock music is the only thing keeping them sane since the dawn of rock ‘n roll. This stuff shouldn’t impress me, but it does because while the sentiment may not be new, Beach Slang expresses it so eloquently. Also, don’t get me wrong, there is more going on in the brief running time of THE THINGS WE DO… than just the standard life’s hard and we are getting by through punk motif. There are songs on that really pack an emotional punch that have nothing to do with art saving one’s soul, like “Porno Love.” The song has really simple lyrics, but man do work: “California’s full of porno love, lunatics and liars and kids like us. We took a lot of time but not enough drugs. It’s heaven, It’s heaven.”

It’s rare for me to love an album from top-to-bottom these days, but I love THE THINGS WE DO TO FIND PEOPLE WHO FEEL LIKE US**. Every single track has had a turn as my favorite track. I knew that there was something special about this album when I gave it a first listen and I fell in love with “Hard Luck Kid.” I was only half-listening, browsing the Internet or something and this song kicked my ass. I remember thinking wow, there might be something to this band after all. I glanced at my Spotify playlist and saw that the album was practically over. In my experience, bands don’t usually put their best stuff at the tail end of their albums. In fact, most modern records are very top-heavy with all of the best stuff packed in at the beginning. The fact that I fell hard for a song near the very end forced me to go back and re-listen to what I’d missed. “Hard Luck Kid” very much reminds me of The Replacements “Bastards of the Young.” And as far as I’m concerned, I can’t think of a higher compliment for any band, but especially for a band like Beach Slang.

Downsides to this album? I’m a fan of quick and dirty rock, but the short running time is a bit of a bummer. I’ve gone running with this album and I’m always forced to re-start it at least once due to how short it is. But that’s also a pretty big compliment: as soon as THE THINGS WE DO… is over I’m 100% ready to jump back to the beginning to listen again. The opening track “Throwaways” is also a bit of a throwaway, in that it’s really not the best track on the album. If anyone reading this finds themselves intrigued and wants to listen to this amazing album, please stick it out to the very end.

There is a smattering of songs from an EP on Soundcloud that I’ve heard from Beach Slang and they measure up to the quality found on their debut, which is a really good sign. I selfishly hope that they are cooking up their next record (for immediate release, naturally). Right now the band is touring Europe, which is rad and all…but they need to play a city near me soon. THE THINGS WE DO TO FIND PEOPLE WHO FEEL LIKE US is hands-down the best album I’ve heard from 2015. It’s a classic album I can totally see myself revisiting in the years to come.

*Okay, so perhaps that’s not entirely true. The second track “Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas” does have a dreamy surf rock-like guitar vibe drifting through most of the track.

**And when I do find myself liking an album from top-to-bottom, it’s usually an older album that I missed. Everybody knows that the album is a dead art form, so I’m probably wasting everyone’s time pointing all of this out. Sorry.

Tagged Album Review, Albums, Arctic Monkeys, Beach Slang, Best of 2015, James Alex, Music, Punk, Punk Rock, Rock, Ryan Adams, Spotify, Surfer Blood, The Replacements, THE THINGS WE DO TO FIND PEOPLE WHO FEEL LIKE US, Wavves

Dec 30 2015

Lemmy is dead and GnR Lives?

It’s been a crazy week in the world of rock and more than one person has asked me if/when I was going to write a post. I wish I had a good excuse for posting so infrequently, but I don’t really have one. I’m just a lazy bastard. But there were two really big news items this week, so here I am.

First, the legendary lead singer of Motorhead, Lemmy Kilmister, died this week. I wasn’t surprised by this as Motorhead had cancelled a couple of tour dates earlier this year due to Lemmy not feeling well. Like most Motorhead fans, when I heard the news I assumed Lemmy had succumbed to his addictions. Besides being a first rate hellraiser, Lemmy was what can only be described as a “power drinker.” The fact that the dude made it to 70 is really a miracle, if you ask me. When I learned it was cancer and not excess that claimed Lemmy, I was genuinely shocked. Now, did Lemmy’s boozing ways contribute to or even cause his cancer? Perhaps, but the fact remains he didn’t die of liver failure which was what I was expecting.

Rest In Power, Lemmy.

I saw Motorhead once in the middle 2000’s in St. Louis. They played a killer show with Valient Thorr that to this day ranks in my top 10 concerts. Lemmy’s voice was gravelly and unmistakable; there was never any mistaking him for someone else. I’m not the biggest metal-head, but the metal bands I do like tend to have vocalists that sound unique. Lemmy sure was unique. He also looked like a rock ‘n roll warthog from hell. One of my favorite Lemmy memories was his cameo in 1990’s comedy AIRHEADS where he proclaims that he was “editor of the school magazine.”

His brief cameo is a fun moment made extra-meta because earlier in the movie Lemmy is mentioned by name in a pretty funny exchange with Harold Ramis:

I’ll also never forget the time in 2002 when it was reported that Lemmy was considering having his famous facial warts removed in order to sell them online. I’m not even sure how true that rumor was, but I distinctly remember it being in the news. Anyway, Motorhead is truly an excellent band and Lemmy was one of the last remaining metal gods, he will be missed.

Also this week, it was announced that the rumors were true: the original line-up of Guns N’ Roses were reuniting next year. Although the only gig that’s been confirmed is a headlining gig at this year’s Coachella Festival in April, the word on the (proverbial) street is that GnR will be also be launching a massive 25 date stadium tour in 2016. This is a huge deal because as we all know, GnR has been steadily touring for the past 20 years but with only Axl Rose as the sole original member of the band.

Coming to a town near you?

Does it excite me that Axl and Slash have buried the hatchet and are going to tour? Of course it does! Now the big question: will I be interested in going to see the band play live? I saw Slash earlier this year open for Aerosmith and it was kinda…sad. Slash was perfectly fine, but it was obvious that he was yearning to return to the glory of Guns N’ Roses. The lead singer he’d recruited for his band was an obvious Axl-clone. And while it was an audience who’d shown up to see Steven Tyler and Company, the only reactions the band really got was from the GnR songs they played.

I liken a reunited Guns N’ Roses to the most recent STAR WARS movie. People are only excited about this because of the nostalgic feelings it creates inside them. Nobody really wants to see an older, bloated, graying rock band get up on stage and embarrass themselves. Well, maybe some people do, but I don’t. A reunited GnR would be a time warp to an earlier era in all GnR fans lives. An era that should probably be left in the past, if we were all being honest. I’m sure Slash and Axl could whip themselves into fine-ish form but the real question everyone should be asking is: to what end? Will this be a greatest hits cash-grab-mega-tour? I’d rather they get together and write new music and release an album than just travel across the country using Pro-Tools to mask the ravages of time and sell a couple thousand T-shirts. But that’s just me.

There a many reason I’m not going to Coachella–I’m about to be a father for the first time being just one of them–but I’d consider seeing them on tour if they came to my town. And the tickets were reasonable. And that’s the rub with reunions like this, isn’t it? These tickets are going to be insanely expensive so many long time fans are probably going to be shut out (another reason I’d prefer we just get another album).

Everyone seems to be lusting for the past everywhere I look (again, STAR WARS) and this GnR reunion just seems like another example of that trend. I’m really torn between stoked to potentially have the chance to see Guns N’ Roses live and a little disgusted that the only concerts people get excited about anymore are these Dinosaurs of Rock Reunion Showz. Don’t get me wrong, I am 100% a classic rock fan, but I wish there was a new band grabbing headlines (and dollars) like a reformed GnR.

Tagged 2015 Reunions, AIRHEADS, Axl Rose, CHINESE DEMOCRACY, Coachella, Defending Axl Rose, Guns 'N Roses, Lemmy Is Dead Long Live Lemmy, Lemmy Kilmister, Metal, Motorhead, Music, Music Biz, Star Wars, Tour, Valient Thorr

Sep 27 2015

13 Comments

Ramblings, Songs & Singles, Sort-of-Music-Related

Dancing In The BLOODMOONlight with Van Morrison, King Harvest, and Thin Lizzy

I’m sure I’ve bragged about it before, but I have a near-supernatural ability to recall the names of songs. When driving together, I frequently drive my wife nuts playing the “what song is this?” game. She hates it. She never knows the name of the song. Unlike me, she didn’t fill her head with useless musical trivia and is unable to name both the song title and artist (and sometimes even the album) to every random classic rock castaway. I bring this up because recently, I was wrong. And though I come across like a smug professor, I actually really enjoy the (albeit rare) occasions where I do not recognize a song or artist. I sometimes feel like Alexander The Great, sitting alone with no more worlds to conquer. When a new/old song hits my radar I feel the thrill of discovery I’ve mostly lost while listening to classic rock radio**.

Which is why my world was recently turned upside down by Pandora recently with “Dancing in the Moonlight.” First of all, please don’t confuse this song with the fantastic Thin Lizzy song “Dancing In The Moonlight (It’s Caught Me In It’s Spotlight)” off their classic 1977 album BAD REPUTATION. No, I’m talking about the hit single from 1972 released by Van Morrison. At least, I always thought this was a Van Morrison song. But I was wrong. “Dancing In The Moonlight” does have a very ‘70s Van Morrison-ish vibe and would have fit nicely on Van Morrison’s classic album MOONDANCE (though it came out two years later). In fact, I attribute my own person confusion to “Moondance.” Sure, I guess it was weird to think that Van Morrison had two moon-themed songs during this time period, but I’ve always found the guy kinda strange. Anyway, I was wrong: “Dancing In The Moonlight” is actually a King Harvest song. What a silly mistake, right?

“Everything is serious and sad”

So who the hell was King Harvest? Well the reason why I’d never really heard of them (and you probably haven’t either) is that they were one-hit wonders. That one-hit being “Dancing In The Moonlight.” According to a quick Internet search, the band was formed in Paris, France by a group of Americans. The brother of the their drummer, a guy named Sherman Kelly, wrote the song in 1969. I think that’s a pretty cool story: guy writes song, gives it to his brother’s band, they have their one-hit. Everybody wins. Except for me, the guy who 43 years later is walking around thinking it’s a damn Van Morrison song.

Besides the obvious references to the moon, both songs share a similar jazzy feel. King Harvest’s lead singer, Dave Robinson, is a very fine vocalist and shares enough similarities to further compound the confusion. Though to be honest, a real Van Morrison fan would instantly spot the difference as I did when I listened to both songs back-to-back (800 times while writing this post). The production on the ’72 released “Dancing In The Moonlight” is scratchier and masks Robinson’s voice in a way that (at least to me) does make him sound like a younger Van Morrison. I’m assuming “Moondance” sounds better because a superstar recorded it with a superstar’s recording budget. Perhaps I could have avoided all this confusion had someone just spent a little more money. I’m looking at you, King Harvest.

Listening to all three songs, I think that King Harvest’s song is more akin to Thin Lizzy’s “Dancing In The Moonlight” in that it’s a simple, joyous ode to hanging out late at night, dancing. Van Morrison’s song is more complex and has 100% more saxophone. Also, because it’s Van Morrison, the track is fun but in a really stuffy, intellectual way.

It better look JUST like this…

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while now and tonight’s blood moon phenomenon got me thinking about this mix-up. I know I’m crazy, but am I crazy in regards to this mix-up? What songs have you wrongly attributed to other artists? I’m sure that this happens all the time to music fans. Please share you semi-embarrassing gaffs below in the comments (unless you’re gonna tell me about how you were confused by Steelers Wheel “Stuck In The Middle With You,” everybody thought that was Dylan).

**Sure, I like listening to a lot of new music, but classic rock 1959-1985 will always be my specialty.

Tagged "Dancing In The Moonlight", "Moondance", "Stuck in the Middle With You", Blood Moon, Blood Moon 2015, Bob Dylan, Dancing In The Moonlight (It's Caught Me In It's Spotlight)", Dylan Reference, King Harvest, Music, Steelers Wheel, Thin Lizzy, Van Morrison

Jan 08 2014

2 Comments

Album Reviews, ROCK N' MAILBAG

Rock ‘N Mailbag! #1: PRIMAL RUMBLE by Gretchen Lohse

Welcome to the first installment of a new series titled Rock ‘N Mailbag! For a few months now, I’ve been getting solicitations via email from independent artists wishing me to review their albums. I’m not sure how these people are finding me, but rather than dismiss them, I’ve decided to listen to them and give them a little love.

This first installment of the Rock ‘N Mailbag! will be devoted to Philadelphia singer-songstress Gretchen Lohse’s latest album PRIMAL RUMBLE. A little research shows that Gretchen was in a band called Yellow Humphrey prior to striking out as a solo artist. Right away I was determined to review this album based solely on the David Bowie-ish album artwork. Depicting Lohse as a medicine cabinet/astronaut, I was prepared for freaky stuff. To my surprise, PRIMAL RUMBLE is a gentle folk and jazz tinged album full of quiet reflection. The album is understated and tastefully produced with interesting, but not overbearing keyboards and a glockenspiel.

Gretchen’s voice is soft, but strong throughout PRIMAL RUMBLE and reminds me a bit of She & Him’s Zooey Deschanel. But whereas Deschanel is at times annoyingly twee and indie, Lohse retains artistic credibility by avoiding clichés and staying interesting (read: slightly strange). Stand out tracks for me were the lopping, gentle ballad “Rings” and the flute-filled “The Cuckoo.” Both of these songs, like the rest of the album, seem both really sad while at the same time being upbeat. The whole album feels this way, confusing but in a pleasant ethereal sort of way.

Really I only have one quibble with PRIMAL RUMBLE: for album with such a strong title, this album is way too low-key. All the songs seem to float along at the same temp: slow. I’m okay with albums having consistent moods, but I would have liked for a little bit more pep. Just one or two perkier songs would have livened things up. “The Cuckoo” and “Spider At The Gate” feature unique and interesting musical flourishes, but even these make it difficult to set these tracks apart from one another. Remember, I’m a guy who has a Guns N’ Roses-themed blog, so take this complaint with a grain of (rock) salt. I am interested in what Yellow Humphrey sounds like, only to see how Gretchen’s voice works in a larger band setting.

This sort of dreamy folk-pop isn’t my usual cup of tea, but I enjoyed PRIMAL RUMBLE enough to recommend it for people who like She & Him or Joni Mitchell. PRIMAL RUMBLE is available on Spotify and you can download the album at Gretchen’s Bandcamp website for $6.00.

HAVE A HOT TIP? WANT ME TO REVIEW YOUR BAND’S SONG/ALBUM? HIT ME UP AT DEFENDINGAXLROSE@GMAIL.COM

Tagged Album Reviews, Bandcamp, Cool Album Artwork, David Bowie, folk, Gretchen Lohse, Indie Artists, Music, Pop, PRIMAL RUMBLE, ROCK N' MAILBAG, She & Him, Soundcloud, Spotify, Yellow Humphrey, Zooey Deschanel

Jan 02 2014

2 Comments

Rock Book Review

ROCK N’ READ: WAGING HEAVY PEACE

I just finished reading Neil Young’s 2012 autobiography Waging Heavy Peace and I’m feeling really conflicted. The best memoirs are the ones that feel like you’re sitting with the author listening to their stories. And while Waging Heavy Peace fails on a number of levels, one thing it does well is capturing the essence of Young. Reading the book totally felt like having a conversation with Neil Young, albeit a really one-sided conversation. I really wanted to recommend the book, but Young’s scattershot recollections and constant jumps through his life’s chronology make Waging Heavy Peace a tough read for anyone not already a die-hard fan. I’m okay with a non-linear account of one’s life, but it has to be done correctly and Young isn’t up to the task. Young also tends to refer to his famous friends as…well his friends. Paul McCartney is “my friend Paul” which is really cool and down to earth, but also very hard to suss-out when reading a book about someone’s life in which they meet a lot of famous and un-famous people.

Also frustrating is the fact that a sizeable chunk of the book is devoted to Young’s passion projects: a “revolutionary” new audio system called PureTone (which is later renamed to Pono), an extensive collection of Lionel model trains, old cars that Young buys online, the Lincvolt electric car he’s building/financing to raise awareness about fossil fuels. Like a timeshare meeting where you’re given a free vacation, if you can sit through Neil’s PureTone pitches you’re free to wander about his strange life.

I don’t mind a legacy artist (as he describes himself) indulging himself and talking up his pet projects, but Young brings these things up multiple times. Worse, he usually just regurgitates what he’s already said about them. This gives the book a feeling as though it was patched together and not edited very well. The looseness of the book, indeed the reason the book exists, is that Young has learned he is on the cusp of dementia. So I’ve decided to cut Young some slack in regards to the repetition in some of the book. In the beginning, Young explains that he broke a toe and stopped smoking marijuana on the advice of his doctor. These two events forced the legendary musician to temporarily give up music, so he sat down and wrote Waging Heavy Peace. I really did enjoy Young’s discussion of sobriety and it’s effect on his music. He explains that he’s never written anything without being under the influence and is worried he won’t be able to access the “cosmic” world of music without drugs. It’s a valid worry and it was interesting to read about his hopes and fears regarding his music.

As the book plods along, he writes about how long it’s been since he’s smoked or drank and correlates that to how long it’s been since he’s written a song. Neil’s album PSYCHEDELIC PILL was my number one album of 2012 and I hope he wrote and recorded it after/during the writing of this book, but it’s not made clear. In fact, throughout the book he talks about getting Crazy Horse back together to cut an album, but never writes about doing it…so I’m thinking the album was done after the book. It would have been nice for him to add an extra chapter explaining how it went. I think PSYCHEDELIC PILL is one of Young’s best albums, so if he did it sober that would be so amazing.

I admire the guts it takes to write an account of ones life, and despite being a notorious curmudgeon, Young frequently acknowledges his mistakes. This more than honest look at himself and his career is what saves Waging Heavy Peace and refreshingly, at no point in the book does Neil Young come across as anything but authentic.

I didn’t pick the book up just to read the story about his relationship with Kurt Cobain, who famously quoted Young in his suicide letter, but at the time the book was published there were stories in the media that led me to believe this topic would be addressed in Waging Heavy Peace. Sadly, Cobain is mentioned fleetingly—like just one sentence. It was disappointing, but that’s not Young’s fault. Young’s experiences as an illegal (undocumented) alien at the start of his career were fascinating. I knew that Young was Canadian at a time when it was uncool to be from the Great White North, but I had no idea he snuck into the country and was terrified each and every time he got behind the wheel of a car. He had no license or Social Security card for many years and to this day still has pangs of fear when he sees a Sheriff’s patrol car.

Waging Heavy Peace reminded me a lot of Bob Dylan’s 2004 autobiography Chronicles Volume 1. Like Dylan’s book, Waging Heavy Peace is an unconventional and unfinished look at a legendary life. On the final page Young says that there will be future books, which may someday surface and shed more light Young’s remarkable career. I’m not sure if I’d pick up Young’s next book, at least, not for $30.00. If you’re a fan and still haven’t picked the book up I definitely recommend you do. For everyone else, I’d say familiarize yourself with Young’s music and maybe pick up another biography before wading into Waging Heavy Peace.

Tagged Autobiography, Bob Dylan, Canada, CHRONICLES VOLUME 1, Drugs, Illegal Aliens, Kurt Cobain, Lincvolt, Marijuana, Memoir, Music, Neil Young, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, New Neil Young Book, Paul McCartney, PSYCHEDELIC PILL, PureTone, Sobriety, WAGING HEAVY PEACE

Dec 23 2013

4 Comments

CHINESE DEMOCRACY, Songs & Singles

DEFENDING AXL ROSE: Part 2 “Shackler’s Revenge”

Welcome to part two of a fourteen part series in which I go track-by-track through CHINESE DEMOCRACY. It’s been over two years since I did the first installment on the first song…but I’m back defending Axl Rose!

I’d heard several songs off CHINESE DEMOCRACY prior to the album’s official November 2008 release, but “Shackler’s Revenge” was the first officially-Axl-sanctioned track I heard. The song was previewed in the Harmonix rhythm game Rock Band 2, which came out a month before CHINESE DEMOCRACY was released. I remember playing the game for hours the day it came out trying to unlock the song. When I finally got a chance to play “Shackler’s Revenge” I was pretty disappointed. Unlike the rough leaked tracks I’d heard, “Shackler’s Revenge” had a gritty industrial feel. I was also taken aback by the song’s production, which was busier than most hard rock songs. This negative reaction was repeated when I bought the album a month later.

For the record: not my score, not my Xbox ID, and not screen cap.

Five years and many listens later, I like “Shackler’s Revenge” much more than I did when I first heard it in Rock Band. That said, this track is probably the most over-stuffed/produced track on the album. Everything about “Shackler’s Revenge” is big. The song has the most credited writers of any song on the album (five in case you were wondering). The song has multiple guitar solos and multiple guitarists. And despite this largeness, the song is the second shortest track on the record, clocking in at three and a half-minutes in length.

The track is an epic, aggressive romp through burning fields of an apocalyptic hard rock landscape. The song might not have struck me as very Guns N’ Roses-like the first time I heard it, but “Shackler’s Revenge” actually has all the main ingredients of a great GNR song. The song features lead and backing vocals from Axl, where are layered on multiple tracks creating a creepy Axl-choir. “Shackler’s Revenge” is angry and defiant with an absolute killer chorus that seems to wag a finger at all of Axl’s doubters.

GNR’s songs are also known for their guitar and “Shackler’s Revenge” does not disappoint on this end. The song features interesting guitar work from the avant-garde guitarist Buckethead and the band’s other guitarist Bumblefoot. I’m not 100% sure which one of these guitarists did the solos, but they’re fantastically explosive. I also really like the dying Galaga machine-like quality of the guitar tone.

The song’s dark, apocalyptic nature recalls the band’s previous “Oh My God.” That track, which came out on the END OF DAYS soundtrack in 1999, almost seems like a proto-“Shackler’s Revenge.” Axl has publically stated that “Oh My God” was released unfinished due to time constraints relating to the release of the film End of Days. A comparison of the two tracks is a fascinating: both have an aggressive, industrial metal feel but whereas “Oh My God” seems to be an endless gushing rant, “Shackler’s Revenge” has a methodical, demonic groove. The more refined “Shackler’s Revenge” is a testament to Axl’s tireless perfectionism. I’m not a big fan of sub-genre that the song mines, but the song has grown on me over the years. That said, releasing “Shackler’s Revenge” as the album’s first single was probably a mistake. From a business perspective, it makes sense to release the shorter more dynamic track but for my money the album’s third track “Better” would have made a better single (pun intended.

But I’ll write more about that when in the next installment of my track-by-track review of CHINESE DEMOCRACY.

Tagged "Better", "Oh My God", "Shackler's Revenge", Axl Rose, Buckethead, Bumblefoot, CHINESE DEMOCRACY, Defending Axl Rose, END OF DAYS, GNR, Guitar, Guitar tones, Guns 'N Roses, Music, Singles, Songs

Dec 04 2013

FERAL II: WILDLIFE by New Fad Zoo

Barbeques, pool parties, hot chicks, cool dudes and everything in between: welcome to the world of New Fad Zoo. The Atlanta-based rap group’s second album, FERAL II: WILDLIFE, is another trip down the rabbit hole of expertly crafted music. Just like on their 2011 debut record, New Fad Zoo blur the lines of genre. The band expertly marries thoughtful, sometimes funny, lyrics with top-notch musicality. These guys can do it all: write catchy hooks, pivot from jesting to serious philosophical musing, and create a musically diverse album.

I was initially skeptical when I saw that band had chosen to name their second album FERAL II. The idea of sequels, in any media, usually conjures thoughts of desperate cash-ins and creative bankruptcy. Fortunately, FERAL II: WILDLIFE takes the focus and energy of FERAL and expands upon what New Fad Zoo has already done. Not only did the band avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, but they managed to surpass their first record in every respect.

The delightfully cheeky album opener “Party Animals” asserts dominance over the listener with its funky groove and big cat growl. New Fad Zoo tosses this goodtime party song off effortlessly, as if writing a fun song were breathing. The moody “Strobe Lights” explores the darker side of love and the desire for fame and has a hauntingly cold, electronic sound that recalls Kanye West’s 808s AND HEARTBREAKS. Meanwhile the album closer “You Are Loved” is a tender ballad that manages to combine late 1980’s Billy Joel and Outcast (and that’s a good thing). Any band would be lucky to master one style, New Fad Zoo is adept at all three: modern party song, moody electronic rap, and classic R&B.

FERAL II presents the listener with the complicated worldview of talented young men. The band’s attitude towards drugs, alcohol, and women schizophrenically seesaws over the course of the album. Like all good heroes, the boys of New Fad Zoo are complicated–sometimes falling into the trap of objectifying women yet also acknowledging on the track “Triangle” that: “if I had a daughter, I’d surely be pissed if a nigga dared harmed her, but that’s the world we be living in.” The song interestingly asserts that there are three groups in the battle of the sexes: Men, Women, and Bitches. The song’s hook is sung by the angelic Melanie Annabelle who proclaims, “Women hate bitches, bitches hate men, men want the bitches, and women want men.” New Fad Zoo don’t pass judgment other than to point out that “it’s a fucked up world.” Indeed.

New Fad Zoo’s first album had what I proclaimed to be a billion dollar single with “Love Is Wild.” That song sadly failed to get snatched up by Madison Avenue ad executives or the numbskulls at Clear Channel. I foolishly didn’t think they boys had it in them to craft another perfect single, but once again they surprised me and minted another $1B song: “Luv Is.” The hauntingly beautiful hook, provided by Melanie Annabelle, and the awesome Beatles shout-out sold me on the song. After listening to “Luv Is” a dozen times I’m confident in saying that this is the best song not on the radio today.

It’s easy to gush about FERAL II: WILDLIFE because like its predecessor, the album is the clear result of what happens when talent people pour their hearts out into their work. There isn’t a single track that feels dashed off or undercooked. New Fad Zoo clearly loves crafting, not just making, music and it shows. No track sums this up like “Want It So Bad.” Part inspirational anthem, part pep-talk to themselves, “Want It So Bad” is the answer to the question of whether or not there will be a third New Fad Zoo album–and I can’t wait.

Tagged Album Reviews, Atlanta-by-way-of-STL, FERAL, Gushing Reviews, Music, New Fad Zoo, Rap, Rap-Rock

Defending Axl Rose

an abnormal music blog

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