James Hetfield, Sammy Hagar, and More to Play Acoustic-4-A-Cure Show

Seems like quite a few performers from a vast multitude of genres have banded together for a good cause. This year, folks like Metallica's James Hetfield, Van Halen's Sammy Hagar, and many more will be performing at this year's Acoustic-4-A-Cure benefit show at the Fillmore in San Francisco on May 15th.

Acoustic-4-A-Cure is now in its third year. Each year it raises money for the Pediatric Cancer Program at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. Definitely seems like a worthy cause if you ask me. Why wouldn't you want to help find a cure for kids that have cancer?

The tickets will go on sale on April 1st at 10 AM via LiveNation. Below is the list of the performers. Quite frankly I'm intrigued by the people they have on here. I'm curious to hear what Satch (Joe Satriani) will sound like unplugged, seeing as that is something that you don't get too often out of him. Everyone else I'm not entirely surprised by, except MAYBE James Hetfield. Regardless, I'm sure it will be a cool show.

This year's performers:

James Hetfield
Sammy Hagar
Tommy Lee
Joe Satriani
Melissa Etheridge
John Mayer
Pat Monahan

Megadeth Front Man Dave Mustaine Finds Critics Bitter

Music critics over the decades have gotten a pretty bad rap from musicians and fans alike. It's absolutely no surprise that Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine who has been known for his radical opinions and statements over the years has some harsh things to say about them as well.

In a recent interview with Fox News Magazine, Mustaine goes off on critics with no holds barred. Nothing new from him of course, but this was probably partly in response to feedback he has gotten over the years due to his split from Metallica in 1983.

In the interview, Mustaine says:

“I think that there's a lot of people out there that are probably overtly harsh in their criticism and it's because they don't want people to know that they don't really know what they're talking about. It's like the old saying – dogs with no teeth bark the loudest. You find that the meanest critics are people with no real musical education and they're just bitter.”

Megadeth put out its 15th studio album Dystopia back in January, so I would imagine Mustaine would have some fresh feelings regarding the musical press and its lack of positive things to say about him and other musicians.

I can kind of understand Mustaine's own bitterness. The press has never really been that kind to him. To be fair though, it has been a while since Megadeth put out anything that was really that earth-shattering. I imagine Musataine has been getting a bit frustrated with being called out by the press for that over the years. Negative review after negative review would probably get to anybody, no matter how much of a thick skin they have.

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #66

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. After Midnight, by Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton has done quite a variety of stuff in his five decade long career. This classic really cooks and kicks it into high gear. After Midnight is fun and shows how Clapton could make something that was fun to dance and kick a groove to. Definitely a lot of soul too, especially with the almost gospel-esque backing vocals. Naturally Clapton's less is more approach to guitar solos also works out quite nicely too in this context.

2. Running Wild, by Judas Priest

If you want something that will REALLY get you motivated and moving however, look no further than this Judas Priest classic ripper. It is a pure adrenaline injection (metaphorically speaking of course). If Running Wild doesn't get you to want to put your pedal to the metal when it is cranked all the way up then there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with you. Just make sure you listen to the Unleashed in the East version. It's WAY better.

3. Angel of the Morning, by Juice Newton

And now for something completely different. Nothing says tender ballad like this classic that was most famously covered by pop/country artist Juice Newton. Of course these days this version is especially popular among Marvel fans, as it was used in an amusing way during the hilarious opening credits scene in the movie Deadpool that came out about a month and a half ago. Regardless, this song is still a classic and a treasure for a reason (even though from now on people won't be able to listen to it without laughing their asses off).

4. Oh Yeah, by Chickenfoot

I remember the summer of 2009 this was the big debut single from super group Chickenfoot. It honestly has everything you could want in a good straight up rock tune: a catchy guitar riff, fun lyrics with a boastful voice, backing vocals that push to the heavens, a guitar solo that makes you think we had just received a gift from the gods of rock, and a rhythm that gets you bobbing your head all around. Even all this time later I still find myself cranking this through my stereo whenever I need some no frills rock n' roll to get me through the day.

5. Hey Hey My My, by Neil Young

I don't talk about the enormously talented Neil Young enough here on the blog. The dude is an absolute genius both lyrically and musically. This in my opinion is one of Young's finest works. When performed live, the guitar solo is especially one of the absolute greatest things in this tune aside from the really heartfelt lyrics. It really is not so difficult to believe that rock n' roll will never die when you get your jive on with this grooving tune. 

 

Guns N' Roses Announce 21 City US Summer Tour

Guns N' Roses has already blown people's minds by announcing six shows with most of the original line-up including Slash since his two decade feud with singer Axl Rose came to an end. Now however, it seems that there will be more where that came from as they are intending to do a 21 date US tour this summer.

Though the venues and dates are yet to be confirmed, the list of cities (which is below) was officially released to the public via their publicist after mysterious billboards started popping up all over the country in the cities that the band intends to perform in. 

GN'R's already announced concerts are set to go down April 8-9 for the opening of Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena, including Alice in Chains as the opening band both nights. Once they wrap those shows up, GN'R will be playing at the Coachella music festival in Indio, CA on April 16 and April 23, including shows on April 19-20 in Mexico City.

I am personally STOKED for GN'R to be touring this summer. I NEVER thought that Slash would play with the band again. I would probably sell my left kidney to get a ticket to go see this. Hopefully Axl's voice is in tip-top shape though because otherwise it might not be worth whatever ridiculous price they will be charging for tickets. Even so, I'd probably still go anyway because then I'll be able to say I got to see Guns N' Roses with Slash and Duff - something NO ONE from my generation has been able to say.

List of Cities GN'R Will Tour:

Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Cincinnati
Dallas
Detroit
Houston
Kansas City
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Orlando
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
St. Louis
Toronto
Washington, D.C.

Throwback Thursday: 1984, by Van Halen

In 1984 Van Halen put out one of their most successful albums of all time: 1984. Featuring hits like Hot For Teacher, Jump, I'll Wait, Panama, etc. it would also be the band's last studio album with original singer David Lee Roth until their 2012 release A Different Kind of Truth. That said, despite the egos of the band members getting heavily inflated this was one hell of a way for their classic line-up to end their initial run with a bang. It really is them at their absolute best.

You can definitely tell that in 1984 Van Halen were really on top of their game. The songs definitely sound more well constructed, as though they were written by more experienced song writers (which by that point in their career they were). It's no surprise that so many of the Van Roth hits come from this album alone. Naturally there is a lot of Eddie Van Halen going wild on the guitar, but this time around it seems a bit more precise and thought out.

Jump was Van Halen's first number one hit in the charts, and for good reason too. It's peppy, it's positive, and it's just plain fun. When that iconic synth intro kicks in, it's enough to send any group of people into a wild spree. Combine that with Roth being as Roth as he can be with his upbeat boxing related lyrics and Eddie's soloing and you really do have what Van Halen was all about condensed into one song. It may be one hell of an overplayed song, but this is one of the few times I won't complain about that.

Top Jimmy may not be one of the more popular cuts from 1984, but that makes it no less of an awesome song. For a song that doesn't have a whole ton of distortion and reverb this song REALLY drives and grooves. It's a song you can really bang your head along to. Plus, I LOVE the way bassist/backing vocalist Michael Anthony's voice combines with Roth's. While normally he is all sunshine and melody, he is just belting it out like the true rock star that he is. It's another song that is just all around fun.

1984 is one of those albums that really drove Van Halen into success, just in time for Roth to quit and Sammy Hagar to follow up to pick up the pieces and launch them into the commercial stratosphere. Even if you're just here to hear some Van Halen hits this really is one of the best albums for you to pick up. Plus, you'll get to hear some tunes you might not have on the radio that you will be pleasantly surprised by. Being all killer and no filler from start to finish, this is one of the few albums I'd consider to be nearly perfect.

1984, by Van Halen receives 4 out of 5 stars.

Track List:

1.1984
2. Jump
3. Panama
4. Top Jimmy
5. Drop Dead Legs
6. Hot For Teacher
7. I'll Wait
8. Girl Gone Bad
9. House of Pain

Buy the album on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O7SMLC?ie=UTF8&keywords=Van%20Halen%201984&qid=1458862500&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Gene Simmons on the 70's Van Halen Demos He Produced

It's absolutely NO secret to fans of Van Halen that right before the band got signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1978 they were discovered by Kiss front man/bassist Gene Simmons, who helped them record and produce a demo.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Simmons goes into detail on the story of how it came to happen and how unfortunately the demos will never see the light of day, saying:

“I discovered the band. I saw them, signed them, flew them to New York and put them in Electric Lady Studios. They were signed to my company, Man Of 1000 Faces. I produced their 24-track demo – 15 songs – which I still own. It has everything from the first record and also faster versions of House Of Pain. It's a lot of cool stuff, but the band just doesn't want it to come out. The back and forth with David Lee Roth complicated matters.”

Eddie and Alex Van Halen apparently were also brought on by Simmons to help record some Kiss demos around that time too. On the matter, Simmons says:

"We recorded three songs I had written. I was in Los Angeles between tours, and I called Alex and Ed and said: ‘Listen, I got three songs. I'm going in at 2am. Do you want to come down and help me?' Usually, I play the guitars and the drums to the extent I can and put down all the parts. But I wanted to do three songs instead of one. So we did Christine Sixteen and I put the keyboards on, everything else. And Ed did the solo to the rhythm guitar, bass, and Alex was on drums.”

Simmons says that he wants to put these demos in a solo box set at somewhere down the line, saying:

“It was originally going to be called Monster, but we decided to call the 2012 Kiss studio record Monster, so it may be called Alter Ego. We'll include 150-200 songs that were never released. I've got one called Mongoloid Man with Joe Perry on guitar.”

I would DEFINITELY love to hear those old Gene Simmons produced demos, but I guess the Van Halen brothers have to be all uptight and weird about it. I don't see what the harm in it is, considering the fans would love to hear them and they are a huge part of the band's history. Maybe they don't want an unrefined product being out on the market for everyone to hear? Regardless, it's a bit beyond me why they wouldn't make as much money off those as possible.

Ace Frehley Won't Rule Out Kiss Reunion

Many of us were surprised to hear that Kiss front man and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley recently collaborated in the studio with his former band mate guitarist Ace Frehley. The two did a cover of Free's Fire and Ice for Frehley's upcoming solo covers album Origins Vol. 1.

That said, according to a recent interview with Frehley a reunion between him and Kiss doesn't seem to be entirely out of the question. Both Stanley and Frehley both seemed to have a really good time together in the studio and are pleased with how the track turned out.

In an interview with Team Rock, Frehley says regarding a reunion possibility:

"We haven't discussed that at this point, but I'm not ruling it out. I always leave the door open. I know there have been rumours and stuff, but there hasn't been any talk of us getting back together. Right now it's just the excitement of this record, and I'm very excited about Fire And Water.

There's a good chance that we're gonna release that as a single. Paul's really happy with the way it turned out, I'm very happy, the record company's very happy, so we're just moving forward in a positive way. And whatever happens in the future, it happens, or if it doesn't, it doesn't."

Well regardless of whether or not a reunion happens, it's cool to see that Stanley and Frehley seem to be on good terms again. I kind of doubt Frehley will ever rejoin the band full time, but it would be nice to see him do a song or two with them once in a while whenever they might happen to cross paths on the road. Hopefully this collaboration leads to other cool Kiss related stuff as well.