Within the past couple of weeks Twisted Sister, their families, and their fans have had to cope with a tremendous blow: the death of drummer AJ Pero. To honor and respect Pero's memory and bring their own careers to a close, Twisted Sister will be doing one final tour next year to wrap up the band's 40 year history. This report comes from a TMZ article which singer Dee Snider then officially endorsed on his own Facebook page
Filling Pero's shoes for the position of sticksman on this final excursion is Adrenaline Mob and former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. The tour will be called Forty and Fuck It, though before that tour happens the band will play a couple of tribute shows for Pero over the next few months.
Twisted Sister were already considering calling it a day before Pero's
passing, but this was pretty much the nail in the coffin. (Sorry for
that pun. I couldn't resist. My condolences to Pero's loved ones.) Guitarist J.J. French had said “[W]e need to look at this and say to ourselves, as a live entity, on which our reputation rests, How do we honor that history? How do we honor AJ? And how do we honor the fans’ loyalty?”
Personally I think this is probably the best way to end the band's career at this point. Instead of going the Led Zeppelin route where they just completely stop after the death of their drummer they instead celebrate his life by giving the fans one last hurrah before the band retires. They definitely could not have picked a better drummer to fill the vacancy. Portnoy has also filled in on stick duty before for a passed on drummer when back in 2010 Avenged Sevenfold lost their drummer The Rev and needed a temporary replacement until they could find a permanent fix. I congratulate Twisted Sister on 40 years of rocking and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
Despite the fact that his many efforts in recent years to do so have gone down in flames, former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner ( whose tenure was 1981-1984) is once again attempting to get a reunion with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore going.
“He’s itching to do some rocking, and we’re going to get together in
the fall. Ritchie is really, really ready to rock. He still has the
chops too. I’m not sure if it’s going to be a Rainbow reunion, or
a bunch of remakes – which I detest, because you can’t improve on
perfection. But that’s what’s happening."
Turner of course has said all of this before. Last year Turner had supposedly come close to completing negotiations to getting a 60 day tour with Blackmore going that would have also included former Rainbow bassists Bob Daisley and Jimmy Bain when things came to a halt due to Blackmore having to finish an album with his current project Blackmore's Night.
“We had multi-million dollar deals set up with Live Nation. A 60-day tour to start with, HD 3D movie, everything – and then
he had to finish the album."
It's good that Blackmore decided to fulfill his prior engagement, though personally I think if he had really wanted to do that tour he would have. Blackmore has stated time and time again in recent years that he is perfectly content with his renaissance music venture with his wife Candice Night. It isn't most of his fans' cup of tea, but at least he is enjoying his retirement.
Turner really isn't helping his case much when he says “Unless his wife or mother-in-law gets in the way. She drives me fucking crazy." when referring to the possibility of getting such a tour happening again. A word to the wise, Joe. If you want something from someone, you might not want to insult their loved ones.
5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective
on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I
think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give
you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can
either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other
combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week
without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without
further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:
1. House of the Rising Son, by Frijid Pink
In case you missed this past Thursday's post, Frijid Pink were a late 60's/early 70's Detroit based band that specialized in blending psychedelic/acid rock with blues and hard rock. On their debut album Frijid Pink they released a cover of the beloved classic House of the Rising Sun. This version packs much more of a hard rock punch than the version made famous by The Animals. It's the only version as far as I'm concerned that even comes close to rivaling it. With the howling vocals and powerful guitars it's difficult to not be blown away by this passionate cover.
2. Sweet Home Chicago, by Robert Johnson
Want to go waaaaay back to the beginnings of what would become rock n' roll? Having supposedly sold his soul to the devil for talent to play the guitar, Robert Johnson is pretty much who many people consider to be the father of the blues as we know it today. During his short life Johnson in the 30's would record on cheap equipment many songs that would become blues standards, including Sweet Home Chicago, Crossroads, Hellhound on My Trail, etc. This original version of Sweet Home Chicago is about as old school delta blues as you can get. With nothing but a guitar, his voice, and the sweet warm crackle of old school vinyl Johnson left a HUGE legacy behind.
3. Frankenstein, by Edgar Winter Group
If you don't know this funky 70's instrumental, then you've been living under a rock. Frankenstein has everything: big guitar riffs, slick synthesizer, sexy saxophone solos, iconic drum solos, and so much more. It's a fantastic song to put on at a party; especially if you have some strobe lights going on in the room.Frankenstein also a great tune to listen to with headphones. So many things bounce around and build up in ways that raise the hairs on your arms and neck. If somehow you have gone your whole life without listening to it, I'm prescribing this to you. Fill it now.
4. Lay It On the Line, by Triumph
If you've listened to a decent amount of classic rock radio you have probably heard this Triumph classic at some point or another. Released in 1979 on their Just a Game album Lay It On the Line helped give birth to the 80's arena rock genre. It features some juicy dual guitar harmonies, punchy riffs, powerful rhythms, melodic guitar solos, and vocals that go up to the rafters. It will get your fist pumping and have you singing along to the chorus in no time.It just goes to show you that Rush aren't the only Canadians who know how to rock.
5. Soul Love, by David Bowie
During David Bowie's early 70's glam rock phase he put out what is considered by many to be his most iconic album: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. It featured so many great songs; even if not all of them were big hits on the radio. The track from this album Soul Love is really laid back and mostly acoustic. It has almost a Latin type rhythm to it.However, the crown jewel of the song is Bowie's saxophone solo. It is so passionate, melodic, and warm. It feels like you're being enveloped by a warm blanket of music when listening to it. I find myself swaying side to side to it quite often.
It looks like Van Halen really are getting back into the swing things after a prolonged absence from the public eye. Not only have they just released a live album earlier this week titled Tokyo Dome Live. To sweeten the pot, they are also embarking on a wide scale North American tour this summer. From there though, the band may be doing some more awesome stuff according to a recent The Washington Times interview with Eddie Van Halen.
Van Halen says, “After this touring cycle, we will probably hunker down and do a studio record. We certainly have enough material. It is a matter of timing and getting everybody together. That’s the only way it can be done.”
Van Halen also wanted to release a 25 song demo from their club days, but unfortunately that was not able to work out. According to Eddie, “What I originally wanted to do was remix the original 25 song demos. That would have been really cool. But the tapes are lost. They are gone. So that was out the window."
It's unfortunate that the demo was not able to be released, but it's great that the live album was released and that they may be doing a new record soon. As much as I liked A Different Kind of Truth being half old shelved songs and half new songs, I hope that this time around that they do all new songs. I'm sure Eddie and Alex Van Halen have enough material from their jams that they could whip up something really cool.
For as many rock n' roll bands and artists who have made it huge over the years to the point where they have a widely renowned legacy, there are countless more who have unfortunately slipped through the cracks and mostly been forgotten. One such band is a highly under rated Detroit based hard/blues/psychedelic rock group named Frijid Pink; which began in 1967. Before vanishing off the face of the Earth after numerous line-up changes in the mid-70's, the band released a slew of singles as well as six studio albums.
Amongst the band's underground following, the most highly regarded album from Frijid Pink is their self-titled 1970 debut album Frijid Pink. On this album Frijid Pink takes the idea of late 60's psychedelic and blues rock of bands like Cream and Jimi Hendrix and takes it to a whole other level. This was stoner rock with a punch to it. In a way it really was the beginning of the hard rock genre as we know it. This album was like a transitioning point in a way.
The song that Frijid Pink has become best known for over the years is their cover of House of the Rising Sun, as made famous by The Animals and countless other artists. It keeps that solemn psychedelic presence as The Animals' version, but they decided to put more power and gusto into it. The guitars pack a punch and the vocals by Kelly Green absolutely howl from start to finish. It really is the only version I know of that comes even close to The Animals' version of the song. It's big. It's epic. It is arguably the best version of the song.
When listening to the track I'm On My Way you might think that the album accidentally contains a song written and recorded in the 50's to be played at a sock hop or whatever 50's teenagers got their groove on at. That would be understandable. It's a boogie tune that is upbeat, melodic, bluesy, and fun. There is some fantastic slide guitar work done by guitarist Gary Ray Thompson. It's a great tune to get up off your feet and dance to.
Frijid Pink isn't exactly an easy album to come by, but if you come across a copy in a record store then I HIGHLY advise you pick it up. It's a great addition to your vinyl collection. Of course you could just go the lame cop out route and get mp3's or a CD, but what fun would that be? The music is creative and innovative for its time. It has its serious and powerful moments, but also some fun ones as well. Frijid Pink really are an under rated band and should have gotten more notoriety in their heyday than they did. Have a listen if you get the chance.
Frijid Pink, by Frijid Pink receives 4 out of 5 stars.
Track List:
1. God Gave Me You
2. Crying Shame
3. I'm On My Way
4. Drivin' Blues
5. Tell Me Why
6. End of the Line
7. House of the Rising Sun
8. I Want to be Your Lover
9. Boozin' Blues
10. Heartbreak Hotel
11. Music For the People
Before his massive continuing success from joining AC/DC in 1980, singer Brian Johnson was in a different kind of band than you would have expected; a band called Geordie. Oddly enough, they were a glam rock band. I know that is kind of difficult to imagine, considering the style of heavy hard rock Johnson became known for performing with AC/DC later on. However, in the video below the proof is right there for you.
Original AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott had actually seen Johnson perform and said to guitarist Angus Young "There's this guy up there screaming at the top of his lungs and then
the next thing you know he hits the deck. He's on the floor, rolling
around and screaming. I thought it was great, and then to top it off—you
couldn't get a better encore—they came in and wheeled the guy off!'"
To be honest, Geordie's music isn't bad at all. You wouldn't think Johnson would be suited for any other style of music than AC/DC, but apparently he is more versatile than we might have given him credit for. Personally I'd like to see him perform some of these old songs again with the original line-up if the band (if enough of them are still alive). I know he did some hard rock cover versions back in 2001 with musicians who were later in the band after he left, but it's not quite the same. Anyway, take a look at the video and let me know what you think!
Today on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective I'm going to do something I usually don't do: review my own work. For those of you who don't care about such things, come back tomorrow. I write what I want. For those of you sticking around, I know what you're thinking. "Josh! How can you do an objective review on something you wrote and recorded?". Well it's been at least 4 years, I've grown and moved on a great deal, and I'm playing with a completely different group of musicians. I feel pretty far removed from it all at this point.
That being said, 5 years ago I was in a band called Crisis Cage. We were a hard rock band out of Highland, IN. Our sound was pretty punkish/bluesy hard rock. I was listening to a LOT of Guns N' Roses at the time so a significant portion of the musical inspiration came from them. During the original line-up which consisted of my best friend Quin Barwick on lead vocals, Billy Mach on rhythm guitar, Frank Cizon on drums, and myself on lead guitar we never did play any live shows, but we DID record and release a 4 song EP called The First to Escape EP. This was all original material that I had written (though most of the lyric work was done by Quin). It consisted of 3 regular songs and 1 short instrumental; all of which were recorded in the basement of a semi-pro producer we knew. Also, we had a studio musician Ian Echols come in and play bass on the recordings.
The song writing on the EP while still fairly simplistic still holds up to a certain extent. It isn't my finest work, but is some of my most passionate, primal, and powerful. I was just coming out of my teenage years at the time and was still filled with some of that rage. The song Being a Gentleman reflects that perfectly. It's one of the few times I could get away with playing just an E chord for the majority of a song, but yet still have it kick serious ass because of the way I was playing it. The lyrics I actually wrote myself because of a bad date I had been on and how frustrated I was about love in general at the time. Surprisingly though, they don't make me cringe. I actually still enjoy listening to it. Quin put some serious gusto into it and conveyed the very feelings I was trying to get across.
Quin of course did some fantastic lyric writing of his own on the other two songs that had lyrics: Let's Wake Up the Neighborhood and You Better Run. For those songs he didn't write so much from personal experience but more of took concepts and let his imagination run wild with them. His vocals are absolutely killer on the recordings. You can tell he was putting everything he had into every song. His passion inspired me to do even better myself. Who knew such a big sound could come out of such a little guy?
Of course, not everything on The First to Escape EP was perfect. There were moments where things did get a little too self-indulgent on my end and Quin's as well. Plus, to a certain extent it was straight up cock rock. Not exactly a bad thing, but you could tell that not all the lyrics and music were supposed to have profound depth to them. In terms of production the guitars didn't exactly sound the best because Billy and I were using two different guitars and two different amps with different settings. This made for a bit of a muddy lackluster guitar sound. Also, there wasn't enough power in the drums. No pop in the snare and barely any kick drum at all in the mix. Personally, I felt the drumming was also a bit simplistic for my taste; though that isn't to say it was bad by any means.
As I look back on The First to Escape EP I remember fondly writing and recording those songs. Despite the fact I was trying to be Slash (especially during the instrumental titled Downstairs Blues) at the time I'm still proud of the fact that we were able to get into a semi-studio setting to record this. I'll admit it doesn't quite have the exact sound I was going for, but there are a myriad of reasons for that; some the studio's fault and some our own. I look back at it and think of the EP as my first step into a larger world. Naturally I've done bigger and better things since then (not to toot my own horn), but it's always nice to listen back to where I came from in terms of being a musician. I wouldn't mind rerecording these songs some day but with better production, better guitar and drum sounds, better solos, slightly more complex drumming, etc. I think those songs deserve it.
The First to Escape EP, by Crisis Cage receives 3 out of 5 stars.
Track List:
1. You Better Run
2. Let's Wake Up the Neighborhood
3. Downstairs Blues
4. Being a Gentleman (Gets You Nowhere)
