Ronnie James Dio: 1942 - 2010

I had no sooner finished yesterday’s post than I went to one of the forums where I hang out and read about the passing of Ronnie James Dio. His death had been mentioned the previous day in the same forum, so I wasn’t sure if this was another rumor or if it were, in fact, true.

Sadly, it was true. His wife, Wendy, posted the following message on the Ronnie James Dio Website:

“Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.”

No cause was given in the announcement, but Dio had been suffering from stomach cancer, and recently his band Heaven and Hell canceled its summer tour because of his health.

By way of tribute, I found a couple of tracks spanning Dio’s career. This version of “Man on the Silver Mountain” is an epic, 14-minute version, showcasing Richie Blackmore’s guitar prowess as well as Dio’s vocals. It comes from an album called Rainbow: Live in Munich 1977. The recording is from a show taped for the German TV show Rockpalast, and was heavily bootlegged, eventually seeing commercial release in 2006.

“Neon Knights,” of course comes from Heaven and Hell, Dio’s 1980 debut with Black Sabbath.

The last song, “Rainbow in the Dark,” is from Dio’s classic 1983 album, Holy Diver. In October 2005 he performed the album live in its entirety and, the following year, released the show as the Holy Diver Live album. You can hear the strain in Dio’s 63-year-old voice, but he still delivers a performance the youngsters can only hope to match.

Throw some metal today in memory of one of metal’s greatest front men, Ronnie James Dio.

Man on the Silver Mountain (live).mp3
Neon Knights.mp3
Rainbow in the Dark (live).mp3

Labels: current events, guitar heroes, metal

posted by aikin @ 7:00 AM 1 Comments

Screaming Out of the Night

Talk about a blast from the past. I found a new Krokus album in my mailbox yesterday. That’s right – a new Krokus album.

Hoodoo, the band’s 21st release, is the first since 1983’s Headhunter to feature the classic Krokus line-up of Marc Storace, Chris von Rohr, Fernando von Arb, and Mark Kohler. On-and-off-since-1977 drummer Freddy Steady is also back in the fold for this metal rendezvous.

I’ll admit I put the disk into my player kind of warily; I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Swiss metal-meisters. I’d only been a casual fan back in the days when they were making their biggest hits. I wasn’t sure if I would hear a Def Leppard-ish style of pop metal or... or what, really. I didn’t know what to expect, especially after so many years.

What I got was a trip back to the early ‘80s. Krokus isn’t redesigning the wheel here and you’re going to hear riffs you’ve heard before, but they put it all together in a fun package. And that’s what rock ‘n’ roll should be about. These songs hearken back to their classic era without sounding any more dated than the last AC/DC album. Krokus have gone back to their roots, decided what they do best, and returned with an 11-song showcase.

The first single from the album, “Hoodoo Woman,” should give you a pretty good taste of what Hoodoo is about.

Hoodoo Woman.mp3

Hoodoo is scheduled for a May 25 release here in the U.S., but the album has already hit stores in Switzerland. For more information and for tour dates, check the Krokus Website.

Labels: metal, new stuff

posted by aikin @ 8:29 PM 0 Comments

Post #666

After three years and eight months I’ve made it to post number 666. Some careful mathing breaks that down to about 15 posts a month or an average of more or less one every other day. Which is better than I thought I was doing.

Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

I hold no special significance in the “Number of the Beast.” I’m way more aware of it through pop culture than I am through religious studies. Based on some quick, half-assed Internet research, 666 appears to have originally been used as code in order to write about Roman emperors (most likely Nero) without openly referring to them.

Through the ages, different beliefs have used different methods to sum different names, pretty much arriving at any person they feel is evil enough to be dubbed “The Beast.” Some scholars have decided the number was mistranslated and was supposed to have been 616, and would have referred to Caligula. Aleister Crowley believed he was the beast and adopted the name “The Great Beast.” By then using Greek gematria (assigning values to words), he was able to arrive at the sum of 666 for himself. I even found a Website where they had translated Al Gore into ASCII code and made it equal 666.

Be all that as it may, I’ve decided Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” would be a swell way to acknowledge post number 666. This version comes from their March 15, 1985, show at the Long Beach Arena in Long Beach, Calif. This was one of the shows recorded for the classic Live After Death LP. What I’m posting comes from a Recording of Indeterminate Origin of the March 15 show and not from official release.

The Number of the Beast (live).mp3

Labels: live music, metal

posted by aikin @ 10:35 AM 2 Comments

'Shut Up & F**k'

I wonder if any of you remember or have heard of Betty Blowtorch? It was actually only a few months ago I heard about the band, which is a shame because they were great while they lasted.

Betty Blowtorch rose from the ashes of L.A. punk band Butt Trumpet. Butt Trumpet pretty much broke up in 1994, with Bianca Butthole (née Halstead), Sharon Needles, and Blare N. Bitch regrouping to form Betty Blowtorch. They brought with them the fun that defined Butt Trumpet, recording songs like “Shut Up and Fuck” and “Part-time Hooker.” L7’s Jennifer Finch served a short stint in the band during their 2001 tour with Nashville Pussy.

The band was brought to an early end with Halstead’s December 2001 death in a car accident. Their legacy consists of an EP, Get Off, most of which was re-released on their only full-length album, 2001’s Are You Man Enough?. The band was also the subject of Betty Blowtorch and Her Amazing True Life Adventures, a documentary by Anthony Scarpa.

Musically, the EP shows a more punk side of Betty Blowtorch. By the time they recorded Are You Man Enough? two years later, the band was a lot tighter and the newer songs are more melodic, although they never lost the rough edges: “All the lies that you tell / We hope you fuckin’ burn in hell / We hope you die... slowly.” If you like Girlschool, L7, stuff like that, Betty Blowtorch should do you right.

The songs below come one from each of their two original releases. “Shut Up and Fuck” is the original version from the Get Off EP; “I’m Ugly and I Don’t Know Why,” from the full-length, is the song that turned me onto Betty Blowtorch.

Shut Up and Fuck.mp3
I’m Ugly and I Don’t Know Why.mp3

Labels: metal, punk

posted by aikin @ 7:00 AM 4 Comments

Scorpions Calling It Quits

After more than 40 years, German metal-meisters the Scorpions are calling it quits.

The Scorpions, which Rudolf Schenker formed in Hanover, Germany, in 1965, posted a message on their Website today announcing the end of the band following their upcoming world tour:

“We are extremely grateful for the fact that we still have the same passion for music we’ve always had since the beginning. This is why, especially now, we agree we have reached the end of the road.”

The Scorpions are wrapping up their eighteenth and final studio album, Sting In the Tail, which is due out March 19. Their farewell tour kicks off in Moscow on the 15th. Tour dates and streaming snippets from a couple of new songs are on the band’s MySpace.

I wrote not long ago about my history as a Scorpions fan, so I won’t bore you again with details. Suffice to say they deserve their place near the top of the metal pantheon.

For today’s music, I’m going to reach all the way back to the Scorpions debut album, 1972’s Lonesome Crow. This version of “I’m Going Mad” is an alternate take from a German re-release of that disk. Although the Scorps seem to be headed in a Black Sabbath direction, you can hear traces of what would later become their signature sound.

I’m Going Mad (alt version).mp3
It All Depends.mp3

Labels: current events, metal, outtakes

posted by aikin @ 10:57 AM 1 Comments

Sodomizado Estas

I was just thinking the other day that I needed more porn in my metal. So it was fortuitous I came across (no pun intended) Sabrina Sabrok.

Argentina born Sabrok began her career as a model, appearing in Spanish language ads for companies such as Harley Davidson, Diesel Jeans, and Volkswagen. She formed her first band, Primeras Impresiones, in 1996. The band – or possibly Sabrina herself – managed to catch the attention of Marilyn Manson and they landed an opening spot for his 1997 Argentinean shows.

Although the band plays the kind of industrial metal (or cyberpunk, as Sabrok calls it) that appeals to fans of Manson, their singer is probably more infamous for other aspects of her, um, personality.

Sabrina is reportedly chasing the goal of having the world’s largest breasts. Her Website claims she sports 59XXX-sized boobs. Chickipedia, however, puts her at 40 inches (no cup size given). Just in case you were wondering, the Guinness record holder for largest breasts is Sheyla Hershey, with a 38KKK bust.

And – if that wasn’t enough – Sabrina has a whole other career as an S&M model. Check that out here (warning: link NSFW).

To summarize, Sabrina Sabrok fronts an industrial metal band, has breasts that are among the top five largest in the world, and has her own porn site. By now you’re thinking there’s no way this woman can do anything else. Well, you’d be thinking wrong. Sabrina is also a Spanish language TV star, having appeared in the Mexican edition of Big Brother. She also currently hosts her own television show called Sabrina, El Sexo en su Máxima Expresión.

Her latest album, released last year on Sabrina Sabrok Records, is titled Antisocial. Sabrina’s vocals bring to mind the snarl of Wendy O. Williams while the heavily synthesized industrial metal makes for a 21st century version of the Plasmatics – maybe what they would have become. Both of the songs below are from Antisocial.

One other thing about Sabrina’s music: She emphasizes that you should not pay for it. Everything is available for free download from her site. The music site, not the porn site.

Antisocial.mp3
Rata de Dos Patas.mp3

Labels: industrial, metal

posted by aikin @ 7:00 AM 3 Comments

Music From My Mailbox

Say you’ve got four lanes of traffic, all going the same direction. The far outside lane exits, the next one over has the option to exit or go straight. What the hell is that causes Miami drivers in the two inside lanes to come to a complete stop? During my commute I go through these traffic jams daily and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why it happens. Please, if you can explain this mystery, drop me a note.

In other more relevant news, there turned out to be some pretty decent things in my mailbox. Particularly, I want to mention Acrassicauda. These guys were featured in the 2007 film Heavy Metal in Baghdad. Acrassicauda formed in Iraq, fled that country because of the war, first going to Syria then to Turkey. Earlier this year they were resettled in the U.S. with assistance from a relief agency. The song here, “Garden of Stones” will be on their debut EP, Only the Dead See the End of the War, which is scheduled for release in March.

A couple other things worth mentioning: The Getdown! offers up the oft-covered “Leave My Kitten Alone,” a tasty slice of garage rock from their forthcoming EP. I also sorta liked the tracks from The Stone Foxes and I’m Not A Band. There’s also some other pretty decent things here. Have a listen and see what you think.

As always, follow the links for more information.

Acrassicauda
Metal / Rock / Death Metal
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Garden Of Stones.mp3

Bear Ceuse
Rock
From: St. Louis, Mo.
Band MySpace
American Wit.mp3

iChoRa
Alternative / Rock
From: Western Australia, Australia
Band MySpace
Lunafire.mp3

Codeine Velvet Club
Alternative
From: United Kingdom
Band MySpace
I Am the Resurrection (Stone Roses cover).mp3

Le Corps Mince de Françoise (LCMDF)
Pop / Pop / Pop
From: Helsinki, Finland
Band MySpace
Something Golden (Zebra and Snake remix).mp3

Zambri
Rock / Soul / Other
From: New York, New York
Band MySpace
From the Starts.mp3

The New Fidelity
Powerpop / Soul
From: Long Beach, Calif.
Band MySpace
2nd Once in a Lifetime Girl.mp3

Blackmarket
Rock / Indie
From: Lake Havasu, Ariz.
Band MySpace
Tongue Twister Typo.mp3

The Stone Foxes
Rock / Blues / Soul
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band MySpace
Sweep a Road.mp3

Gooding
Rock
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Make the Devil Cry.mp3

Church
Indie
From: Portland, Ore.
Band MySpace
Opposite People.mp3

The Getdown!
Rock / Rock / Rock
From: Denver, Colo.
Band MySpace
Leave My Kitten Alone (Little Willie John cover).mp3

I’m Not A Band
Electro / Indie
From: Berlin / Leipzig, Germany
Band MySpace
Crazy.mp3

~~~~~
pictures, top-to-bottom: Acrassicauda, LCMDF, The Stone Foxes, I’m Not A Band

Labels: "alternative", electronic, garage rock, indie, metal, pop muzik, rock, soul

posted by aikin @ 6:17 PM 1 Comments

'Last Rose of Summer'

I’ve been on a posting dry spell of late – struggling to find things that are interesting not only to me, but things that I think will be interesting to others. And then find an interesting way to present them. I’ve been at this a couple of years now and I’m wondering if maybe it’s not time for a short break. If I decide to do that, I’ll let all of you know – I promise I won’t just disappear. And I’m not saying I’m going to do it, I’m just thinking I need to recharge. We’ll see.

On that note, happy Labor Day. A friend of mine from outside the U.S. asked me the other day about Labor Day, and what it meant, etc. After I explained, she asked me about the tradition of not wearing white after Labor Day. As I sit here wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, I can assure you I am no fashionista, but I hazarded a guess that it had something to do with east coast debutantes and upper class families and bore no relevance to my life, particularly since I rarely wear white anyway.

It turns out I may have been somewhat correct. The tradition might actually have started in the South, though, where it is said “Southern girls know bad manners when they see them,” and a clear sign of bad manners is wearing white shoes before Easter or after Labor Day. Others say it started as a way to teach societal rules to the nouveau riche.

These days, I believe most agree it’s an obsolete tradition. One local newspaper columnist even wrote, “Here in Florida, where we wear flip-flops and shorts on Christmas Eve, avoiding white seems silly.”

All of this is apropos of nothing in regards to today’s post, which happens to be “Last Rose of Summer” from Judas Priest’s 1977 Sin After Sin album. I’ve just always thought “Last Rose” was a cool end-of-summer song, and since Labor Day is an end-of-summer holiday, it seemed to come together neatly.

Last Rose of Summer.mp3

Labels: classic rock, holiday, metal

posted by aikin @ 7:28 PM 0 Comments

Perfect 80's Metal

I finally saw The Wrestler last weekend. If you’ve seen it and if you paid attention, you probably noticed there’s a decent soundtrack’s worth of 80's metal in movie: Quiet Riot (The Ram’s theme song), as well as Ratt, Accept, and a couple of others. Where I’m going with this post, though, is one song in particular: The Scorpions’ “Animal Magnetism.” For the life of me I can’t remember the scene where it played, but I was impressed as hell Darren Aronofsky (or whoever) decided to use this particular song.

The Scorpions had a brief period, before they lapsed in Spinal Tap-like self-parody, when they were one of the best metal bands around. Between 1979 and 1982, they released Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, and Blackout, three classics of the genre. Without a doubt, 1980’s Animal Magnetism is my favorite Scorps album and arguably, one of my favorite all-time metal albums.

“Make It Real,” the opening track, may have been the first Scorpions song I ever heard. It was on a live Castle Donnington album that I got when I was in high school, so would have been the song that put me onto the band. The last song on side one, “Lady Starlight,” has the kind of classic guitar solo that was once a trademark of the Schenker brothers. Just past the halfway point of the song, everything comes to a stop except Rudolf Schenker’s electric guitar. It’s cheese power ballad, but damnit, I love it! And I loved it when Michael Schenker did it with UFO.

The two songs that really make the album for me, though, are “The Zoo” and the album’s title track. Both are near perfect metal songs, with heavy riffs and Rudolf Schenker back for the hard and dark version of the earlier power ballad solo.

It was “The Zoo” that made me want to see 42nd Street in New York before I’d ever been there. Picture my disappointment when I arrived 10 years later and found it Disney-fied. And it was “Animal Magnetism” that I shared with the first girl who broke my heart. Here’s to hoping she’s living in a singlewide trailer and is miserable. Ha!

Here are my two favorites from the album. No hard feelings.

The Zoo.mp3
Animal Magnetism.mp3

Labels: hair metal, metal

posted by aikin @ 9:37 PM 4 Comments

'There Goes the Neighborhood'

Long, long before Lil Wayne picked up a guitar and an Autotuner and decided he wanted to be a “rock star,” there was Ice-T.

Anyone remember Body Count? Ice-T’s hardcore band that came about more or less after his being certified the OG gangsta rapper, but before he became Det. Tutuolain on “Law & Order: SVU”?

Well, I was rooting around my CD collection earlier, waiting for inspiration to strike so I could maybe post something, and I saw Body Count’s debut disk. I haven’t listened to this thing in years, so I dropped it in my CD player and I was pleasantly surprised. For some reason, I’d had a memory of this disk sounding slick and overproduced. Not at all. Musically, BC is right there alongside any other decent thrash band. These guys aren’t virtuoso musicians, but what they do, they do competently: They basically set Ice-T’s angry raps against a hardcore background. “A rock album with a rap mentality,” as one reviewer called it.

Ice-T, a fan of hardcore music long before he started his rap career, debuted Body Count on his 1991 album, O.G. Original Gangster. They made an impressive public debut later that same year at Lollapalooza. The self-titled Body Count debut album was released in March 1992. And it was just a short while after that when the shit hit the fan.

“I thought I was safe,” Ice-T said in an interview. “I thought within the world of rock ‘n’ roll, you could be free to write what you want. Hell, I was listening to Talking Heads singing ‘Psycho Killer.’ Fuck it, I’ll make ‘Cop Killer’.

“But, that was the cross of metal with something that was real. Now we’re not just killing your family, we’re killing somebody so real that everybody just went, ‘oh shit.’”

After vehement protests, Ice-T pulled the song from the album and re-released it with a song called “Freedom of Speech,” co-written by Jello Biafra.

Body Count still plays together occasionally, whenever Ice-T’s schedule can accommodate it. Their last disk was 2006’s Murder 4 Hire. Here are a couple of things from the first album.

Cop Killer.mp3
There Goes the Neighborhood.mp3

Labels: hard rock, metal, thrash

posted by aikin @ 9:35 PM 2 Comments

Black Leather Soul

When your band is called Angus Khan and you’ve got a singer whose voice bears more than a passing resemblance to that of the late great Bon Scott, it’s only natural the AC/DC comparisons are going to come fast and furious.

Of course they do. Everything I read about the Los Angeles five-piece mentions AC/DC. I suppose there are worse bands you can be compared to, however. And AK play the same type of bluesy hard rock that would sound at home on an AC/DC disk. And they have a song called “Big Balls.” Although in my opinion, singer Derek Christensen sounds more like Angry Anderson than Bon Scott. Hair-splitting aside, before I’d even heard Angus Kahn, I was impressed by their pedigree: guitarist Frank Meyer and bassist Dino Everett came from the Stooges-influenced Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs; Christensen was formerly with the B Movie Rats. A veritable who’s who of great L.A. bands no one’s heard of.

The members of Angus Kahn came together in the summer of 2006, with the intention of forming a band that hearkened back to the days when word of new music “traveled by human network, a tribe of delinquents relying on word of mouth and the local record swap,” according to lead guitarist Screamin' Lord Duff.

“Add the years past the prime of punk's first wave,” he continues, “when many of the practitioners started adding the elements of U.S. Camaro madness to their post-hardcore brew: Black Flag energy combined with Aerosmith savvy and a Cheap Trick wink.”

A lot to live up to, but I can tell you this: Angus Khan give it their all and this is a great disk to have blasting from the car stereo while you’re speeding around your local freeway system, a beer in one hand, the gear shift in the other, on your way to a party where you know the night won’t be over until someone ends up in jail.

Angus Khan’s debut, Black Leather Soul, was just released last month on Nickel and Dime Records. You can (and should) go get it from eMusic.

Exile on Mean Street.mp3

Labels: hard rock, metal, new stuff

posted by aikin @ 2:55 PM 0 Comments

‘This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles...’

For my entry in the macabre post of the month sweepstakes, it was 40 years ago tonight that Charles Manson sent four of his followers to Cielo Drive in Los Angeles to commit the gruesome murders that were supposed to lay the groundwork for his vision of Helter Skelter.

As Manson interpreted it, Helter Skelter would be an apocalyptic war that would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites. In his courtroom testimony, prosecution witness and Family hanger-on Paul Watkins explained how it would happen: “There would be some atrocious murders; that some of the spades from Watts would come up into the Bel-Air and Beverly Hills districts and just really wipe some people out, just cut bodies up and smear blood and write things on the wall in blood.

“So, in retaliation,” Watkins continued, “this would scare; in other words, all the other white people would be afraid that this would happen to them, so out of their fear they would go into the ghetto and just start shooting black people like crazy.”

The resultant rampage by frightened whites would be exploited by militant blacks to provoke a war of mutual near-extermination between racist and non-racist whites over the treatment of blacks. The militants would arise to finish off the few whites that had survived.

In this holocaust the members of Manson’s Family would have little to fear; they would wait out the war in a secret city underneath California’s Death Valley. As the sole remaining whites, they would emerge from underground to rule the now-satisfied blacks, who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running the world.

When you’re discussing how Manson managed to twist the Beatles’ lyrics into these bizarre ideas, your guess is as good as mine. We’re obviously not dealing with a rational mind. According to Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor on the Manson case and author of the book “Helter Skelter,” Manson believed that the lyrics “When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide / Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride” was an obvious reference to the Family's emergence from “the Bottomless Pit” – the underground hideaway. Manson also twisted “Helter Skelter... She's coming down fast” to mean that race war was imminent.

Of course, the Beatles were shocked to learn of Manson's interpretation of their lyrics. As Ringo Starr would later say, all the Beatles ever stood for was peace, love, and harmony.

Helter Skelter.mp3 ~ The Beatles
Helter Skelter (take 2).mp3 ~ The Beatles
Helter Skelter (live).mp3 ~ U2
Helter Skelter.mp3 ~ Aerosmith
Helter Skelter.mp3 ~ Motley Crue
Helter Skelter (live).mp3 ~ Motley Crue
My Monkey (demo).mp3 ~ Marilyn Manson
Helter Skelter.mp3 ~ Henhouse Prowlers
Helter Skelter (Dizmaster remix).mp3 ~ Sam Punk

~~~~~
By the way, if you haven't read "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi, it's a fascinating and very readable account of the events leading up to the Tate/LaBianca murders and the subsequent trial. I fully recommend it to you.

Also, if you're wondering, the bottom picture is an actual Helter Skelter.

Labels: alt.country, Beatles, classic rock, covers, glam, industrial, live albums, metal, outtakes, remix

posted by aikin @ 12:31 PM 0 Comments

Music from My Mailbox

Dumping out the mailbox one last time this month with hopes of starting fresh in July. For regular viewers, it should come as no surprise when I say again there is a good variety of music on the platter, from hip-hop to metal and a few stops in between.

One of the more interesting tracks is “Bad Driver,” by Dudley Saunders. Saunders, who looks more like Tommy Gavin’s sponsor on Rescue Me than a musician, spins an interesting tale in this song. I’ve listened to it several times and I’m still not sure if it’s about road rage, a redneck in a pickup, or male prostitutes. At any rate, it’s a cool song and I think you oughta think so, too.

A couple of other things worth mentioning: Drawing from the Jesus and Mary Chain school of distortion is Chicago’s Apteka. They sent me a really low-key email that I almost missed, but I’m glad I didn’t. I like this style of music even though it’s something I never seem to actively seek out. At the other end of the spectrum is D-Boyz, some hip-hop from The Big Easy. “Wipe ‘em Off” features former Cash Money producer Mannie Fresh, who has previously shown up on numerous tracks you’ve probably heard at some point.

As far as some decent heavy rock, my pick of the week goes to Verismo, a metal band from Brooklyn. They proudly wear their Metallica influence without sounding like they’re trying to rip anything off.

As always, follow the links for more information.

ides of space
Shoegaze
From: Melbourne, Australia
Band MySpace
I Promise Not to Notice if You Promise to Pretend.mp3

Caw! Caw!
Pop / Punk / Psychedelic
From: Chicago, Ill.
Band MySpace
Toothless (demo).mp3

Grand Lake
Indie
From: Oakland, Calif.
Band MySpace
Sandusky Sunset.mp3

D-Boyz
Hip-Hop
From: New Orleans, La.
Band MySpace
Wipe ‘em Off.mp3

Verismo
Rock / Metal / Thrash
From: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Band MySpace
Greed.mp3

Shawn Farley
Rock / Pop / Experimental
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band MySpace
I Like You More Than You Do.mp3

Eulogies
Rock
From: United States
Band MySpace
The Fight (I've Come To Like) (live on WOXY).mp3

Apteka
Rock / Psychedelic
From: Chicago, Ill.
Band MySpace
The Sheet.mp3

Will Dailey
Rock / Acoustic / Roots Music
From: Boston, Mass.
Band MySpace
Never Be Your baby (live on WERS) .mp3

Dudley Saunders
Alternative / Folk Rock / Pop
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band MySpace
Bad Driver.mp3

~~~~~
(Pictures, top-to-bottom: Caw! Caw!, Verismo, Apteka)

Labels: "alternative", hip-hop, indie, metal, pop muzik, rock

posted by aikin @ 1:30 PM 0 Comments

'Your Kids Will Love It or We'll Eat a Bug'

Tonight’s musical selection is strictly for those who like a little horror theatre with their rock ‘n’ roll.

From Pensacola, Fla., comes Demon God 7, a four-piece, self-described “touring Halloween carnival.” Thematically, DG7 may remind some of White Zombie, particularly with such song titles as “Zombies” and “Rape Me With a Kiss.” Musically, however, I really have to say these guys have a sort of unique sound. They claim influences from Motley Crue to Johnny Cash (!), but bandleader / vocalist Dr. Robert has an almost crooning vocal style, which is overlaid with distortion. If there is anyway I can say “rockabilly metal” and have that make sense, that might describe Dr. Robert and Demon God 7.

“We've been described as ‘pop-y swamp punk,’” Dr. Robert said in a September 2008 interview with Famecast.com. “But as far as comparing ourselves to anyone, I think we're pretty original. I don't necessarily think we're better than everyone else, but we're definitely different.”

Dr. Robert said what DG7’s audiences witness is something completely different from any other live performance. “We are like a fun house,” he said. “Funny but a little scary. Our shows are designed as over-the-top horror comedy themes with magic and props.”

I wish I could tell you a little more about DG7 – maybe where they’re playing or what they’re up to. The “news” link on the band Website has a clock counting down to the next scheduled apocalypse (Dec. 21, 2012) and their MySpace has even fewer clues. What you can do, however, is check out these songs, then click over to the Demon God 7 Webpage. There, after you look at the apocalypse countdown clock, you can download some more of their music.

She’ll Ride.mp3
Zombiez.mp3

Labels: metal, psychobilly

posted by aikin @ 8:44 PM 0 Comments

Just in time for summer: The Dogs of Winter

I know that in the blogosphere, timeliness is next to godliness and the more you post, the more you’re read and the more you’re read, the better chance you have of becoming the next Perez Hilton.

That said, I try to post at least three or four times a week, but there are days when I’m just not inspired. Maybe I haven’t heard anything worth sharing, or maybe I can’t find a particular song I wanted to post. I’m sure no one’s noticed but there has been the occasional post I’ve just “phoned in” – you know, the ones with a song or two and a bunch of copy-pasta from Wikipedia. I try to keep those to a minimum, but it happens.

The last few days have been low-inspiration days. I looked and looked again through my hard drive and couldn’t find anything I felt like posting. I could have taken the easy route and posted a live show and some pictures and been done with it, but where’s the challenge in that?

As luck would have it, when I checked my mail today, I found an album from the Brooklyn-based trio Dogs of Winter. Heavy in the classic power-trio mode, Dogs of Winter remind me musically of late 70s-era metal; the British metal band Tank comes to mind. The vocals, though, take it to a different level. The Dogs use a tandem vocal style, with singers Brian Grosz and Ryan Dowd trading verses over the driving beat.

Dogs of Winter have been together a few years, releasing a couple of EPs along the way. Their new disk, From Soil to Shale, is their first full-length release. The ultra-cool thing: Starting May 12, they’re giving it away.

The title of the first single, “Player Piano,” comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s debut novel about a dystopian society: “It’s more what we intend / Than what we act or say or do / Ignorant and out of touch.” Certainly not every day you hear a song with lyrics inspired by a 50-something-year-old novel. But that’s what’s cool about Dogs of Winter. Check ‘em out.

Player Piano.mp3
Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover).mp3

Labels: covers, metal, new stuff, rock

posted by aikin @ 6:19 PM 2 Comments

Music from My Mailbox

Time again for the purging of the perpetually packed Licorice Pizza mailbox.

It seems like there are more and more two-piece bands these days. Maybe it’s the economics of maintaining a four- or five-piece group; maybe it’s just a trend, I dunno. The lack of a stage full of musicians isn’t keeping the duos from putting out some decent music, as you’ll find here with Dynasty Electric and The Boy Least Likely To. And what’s cool is that these bands play totally different styles of music, so it’s not like they’re derivative or stuck within one genre.

I was surprised (to say the least) to see the single from Wendy & Lisa show up in my mailbox. I say that because as former protégés of Prince, they don’t seem like they’d need to go the indie promotion route. But I’m glad they did and I’m happy to share this song with you.

My pick of the week (month? whatever) has to be Children. They’re not really ghettotech or Japanese classical, but straight-ahead, guitar-driven heavy rock. And lastly is Sweden's very own Kaka. I included it because I detected some Adam Ant influence. I'll let you decide for yourself on that one.

As always, follow the links for more info.

The Traditionist
Indie / Folk / Experimental
From: Huntington Beach, Calif.
Band MySpace
Driftwood Doll.mp3

Love Like Fire
Rock / Indie
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band MySpace
Signs.mp3

Wendy & Lisa
Pop / Funk / Other
From: United States
Band MySpace
Niagra Falls.mp3


Clara Bellino
Pop / Soul / Indie
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band MySpace
Potential Criminal.mp3


Trey Green
Rock / Comedy
From: Boston, Mass.
MySpace
Mad Crush.mp3

Children
Ghettotech / Healing & Easy Listening / Japanese Classic Music
From: New York, NY
Band MySpace
Power Spirit.mp3

Grand Lake
Indie / Rock / Other
From: Oakland, Calif.
Band MySpace
She’s a Hater.mp3

Milophobia
Alternative / Alternative / Alternative
From: Edinburgh, UK
Band MySpace
Soul in a Soulless City.mp3

The Boy Least Likely To
Alternative / Pop / Country
From: United Kingdom
Band MySpace
Saddle Up.mp3

Pree
Indie / Glam / Americana
From: Washington, D.C.
Band MySpace
In the Parlor.mp3

Dynasty Electric
Psychedelic / Electro / Rock
From: Brooklyn, NY
Band MySpace
One Small Push.mp3

Kaka
Pop
From: Sweden
Band MySpace
What a Frame.mp3
~~~~~
(photos, from top to bottom: Love Like Fire, Trey Green, Milophobia, and Dynasty Electric)

Labels: "alternative", folk, glam, indie, metal, rock, soul

posted by aikin @ 5:48 PM 2 Comments

Oh no, Ozzy!

Did anyone else happen to catch “The Osbournes Reloaded” last night?

Oh my God, what has happened to Ozzy? Ozzy Osbourne – the only Black Sabbath singer who mattered; the self-proclaimed Prince of Fuckin’ Darkness – now reduced to jumping around wearing tights in a Flashdance parody.

Their reality show was one thing: It showed a funny, human side to Ozzy and it was mostly tolerable. This new venture makes me think Ozzy could be a short step from squeezing into a white jump suit and booking Vegas.

If you didn’t see it, the show combined some skits (Ozzy and Sharon as foul-mouthed children) and some sort of a something where a girl was going to dump her boyfriend if he didn’t immediately propose. Of course he gave in and the happy couple was married on TV. Whee!

All this fun stirred up some controversy, naturally, and several stations refused to air the show or aired it later. One station in Milwaukee didn’t air “Reloaded” until just after 1 a.m.

I’m pretty sure that at this point Ozzy isn’t doing these things for the money. I just can’t figure what he’s doing or the logic behind appearing on an idiotic variety show. What would have been so wrong with advancing into elder metal statesman, a la Lemmy?

I’d be interested in hearing from any of you if you tuned in. Drop a comment and let me know what you thought. Meanwhile, here’s some classic Sabbath.

Snowblind.mp3

Labels: classic rock, metal, TV

posted by aikin @ 8:28 PM 3 Comments

Finland Rocks

If you noticed in the “Other Media” column (conveniently located to your right), I recently watched the Bam Margera movie “Where the #$&% Is Santa?” There’s a good chance this flick will never become a classic of the road comedy genre, but there are some hilarious moments and I’m not going to say I didn’t like it.

The basic plot, if you’re interested, involves Bam Margera and his buddies taking a spur-of-the moment trip to Finland in an effort to locate Santa Claus and bring him back to Pennsylvania in time for Christmas. The group lands in Helsinki and travels north into the Lapland Region, where Santa supposedly lives (not the North Pole as most believe). I won’t spoil the movie for you by telling you whom they find.

An interesting subplot involves Bam going out of his way to visit, drink with, and listen to various Finnish rock bands, particularly the not-so-elegantly wasted Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks fame. Several Finnish bands – some known, some not-so-known – provide a lot of the soundtrack for the movie, which rocks like you’d expect if you’re familiar with Radio Bam on SiriusXM.

So it was “Where the #$&% Is Santa?” that got me on the Internet this morning, looking for Finnish rock bands. I managed to dig up some pretty decent information (there is a Wikipedia entry and at least one Website dedicated to Finnish rock music), and then managed to turn that information into actually locating some of the music and deciding to share it.

In keeping with the theme of “Where the #$&% Is Santa?”, I narrowed down to just a few bands, including a couple featured in the movie: Bullet Treatment and Turbonegro. The songs here by those two bands were both in the movie. I also dug out the Suicide Twins, which featured Andy McCoy, along with Nasty Suicide. The 69 Eyes and Children of Bodom are both Finnish rock bands, and although neither were in the movie (as far as I remember), they have been featured on various Viva La Bands compilations that Bam has assembled. And no mention of Finnish rock would be complete without Hanoi Rocks. The two songs here come from their 1984 live album All Those Wasted Years.

Coke Nose.mp3 ~ Bullet Treatment
What is Rock!.mp3 ~ Turbonegro
TV Eye (Iggy Pop cover).mp3 ~ The 69 Eyes
Blooddrunk.mp3 ~ Children of Bodom
Countrified Inner-City Blues.mp3 ~ the Suicide Twins
Lightnin’ Bar Blues (live).mp3 ~ Hanoi Rocks
Under My Wheels (live-Alice Cooper cover).mp3 ~ Hanoi Rocks

Labels: covers, glam, live albums, metal, punk, rock

posted by aikin @ 3:55 PM 1 Comments

One-Eyed Doll

A couple of days ago I got a MySpace add request from Austin’s One-Eyed Doll, saying something to the effect of “Check out our music – you’ll like it. We’re intellectual.” There was a little ; ) emoticon thing following that line, so I took it as tongue-in-cheek. Which I think is how they meant it.

I checked out the music on their MySpace, then went to eMusic and downloaded their album, Monster. One-Eyed Doll calls themselves a “power-rock-duo,” which to me means sort of like the White Stripes. Except in this case, think reverse White Stripes: One-Eyed Doll is led by guitarist and singer Kimberly Freeman, with P.J. Evans, aka Number Three, on drums. One review noted that Kimberly “combines the rock-star bravado of a Jack White (or Jack Black) with the visual impact of a Japanese Anime.”

The music is lyrically dark, with songs about serial killers and bulimia and power chords that reminded me a bit of early Black Sabbath. This is all in contrast to Kimberly’s sweet sounding, at times almost little girlish, voice. Like she’s the kind of girl who would kick you in the crotch then giggle sweetly.

Monster is One-Eyed Doll’s second album; they released the disk in November last year. Their debut, Hole, came out January 2007. The band is currently working on a new disk, alongside Kimberly’s solo recordings.

Be My Friend.mp3
Fight.mp3

(Photo note: The above picture, taken by Daniel Upton, is titled “Full Lemmy,” which I thought was a great – and very appropriate – name.)

Labels: metal, rock

posted by aikin @ 4:33 PM 1 Comments

Music from My Mailbox

This weekend seemed like a good time to clean out the Licorice Pizza mailbox. As daunting as that task seemed at first, it turned out it was mostly filled with the usual cheap Viagra ads and pleas from widowed South African heiresses. Once all that was deleted, I was able to sort through the good stuff and see what kind of new music I could check out.

Turns out there were a good variety of things; like usual something for most tastes. One of the most interesting finds was O’Death, a New York band that combines elements of bluegrass and jug band music to create something sort of creepy. A very interesting listen, though.

I was also pleased to see some new music from The Sword, who is currently out on tour with Metallica. This could be the exposure these guys need to break out.

Like always, follow the links for more info.

The Sword
Metal / Rock
From: Austin, Texas
Band MySpace
How Heavy This Axe.mp3

Gladshot
Pop
From: New York, NY
Band MySpace
He Was Gone.mp3

Art Whiplash
Electronica / Thrash
From: Paris, France
Band MySpace
Party, Sex, and Bullshit.mp3

Buffalo Drive
Healing & Easy Listening / Lyrical / Lounge
From: New York, NY
Band MySpace
Peter & George.mp3

J-Roddy Walston and the Business
Rock / Rock / Rock
From: Baltimore, Md.
Band MySpace
I Used to Did.mp3

Sedium
Rock / Alternative
From: Austin, Texas
Band MySpace
Skank.mp3

O’Death
Gothic / Country / Punk
From: New York, NY
Band MySpace
Lowtide.mp3

Offlimit
Alternative / Indie / Rock
From: Tunbridge Wells, London, and the southeast UK
Band MySpace
Get Out.mp3

Labels: "alternative", alt.country, electronic, indie, metal

posted by aikin @ 6:48 PM 0 Comments