Posts Tagged ‘Don Felder’

  
Monday, October 5th, 2009

CD Review: Kiss, “Sonic Boom”

by Popdose Staff

BoomAny good label manager would tell you: don’t name your album something a reviewer could turn into a catchy, snarky counterpoint. But as we know far too well, most of the labels are hanging by a thread, the management inside reduced to bean counters versus quality controllers and, heck, if Hollywood keeps naming their movies in blindly self-insulting ways, why can’t the record industry follow suit?

Besides, we’re talking about Kiss here, who have built an iron-clad and insular fanbase that views such flaunting of common sense as an act of rebellion. Who cares if the new album Sonic Boom, the first since 1998’s Psycho Circus, opens itself up to opening paragraphs such as this, begging the question, “Boom or Bust?” What really matters is if the band has spent the decade-long downtime productively or not, and luckily for you, the Popdose staff has gone through the work of sussing it out so you don’t have to. Strap on your steel dragon-face boots, smear on your kabuki greasepaint and shake off your love gun. It’s time to rock and roll.

Rob Smith: I mentioned in my Overnight America Popdose segment a couple weeks ago that I cannot name a single Kiss studio album that’s great from start to finish (I hate “Beth,” so suck it all you Destroyer fans). After listening to Sonic Boom, I can still say I cannot name a single Kiss studio album that’s great from start to finish.

That said, I like “Never Enough” a lot, though the verses remind me of Poison’s “Nothin’ But a Good Time” a little TOO much.  Wasn’t Paul Stanley supposed to produce that album, too? (more…)

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Posted in CD Reviews, Music | Comments

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Popdose Flashback, or When Good Albums Happen to Bad People: Don Henley, “The End of the Innocence”

by Matthew Bolin

On the morning of November 21, 1980, the Los Angeles fire department responded to Don Henley’s call to help someone at his house who apparently was having a seizure. The person turned out to be a naked 16-year-old prostitute who had been taking large amounts of cocaine and Quaaludes. While Henley pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and admitted the girl arrived after he called a madam to find girls to party with, he still claims that he didn’t have sex with her, didn’t know how old the prostitute was, and didn’t know how many drugs she was doing–he seems to place the blame for her mass ingestion on roadies who were at his house. In the end, Henley got a fine and two year’s probation, and avoided any harsher drug or sex-related charges. [1]

If this was merely an isolated speed bump along the road of life…well, I wouldn’t be writing this article. Fact is, Henley has had a long history of debauchery in his past. The book You’ll Never Make Love in This Town Again — a tell-all from four high-priced call girls with celebrity clientele — goes into Henley’s love of coke orgies. I once saw a comic in Los Angeles that “acted out” a supposed event from the book, where multiple prostitutes visited Henley in his hotel room. I won’t go into detail, except one of the call girls mentioned that she had never in her life been around anyone who reeked more of alcohol than Henley. (more…)

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Posted in Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music, Popdose Flashback '89, When Good Albums Happen to Bad People | Comments

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

DVD Review: “South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season”

by Scott Malchus

51j9w3x1ql_sl500_aa240_South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season (2009, Paramount)
purchase this DVD collection from Amazon: DVD | Blu-ray

I haven’t been a steady watcher of South Park since its early days, right after Jesus and Santa Claus fought and Kenny died in every episode. Some time after the brilliant movie musical, South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut, catching new episodes became difficult, what with children running around and Comedy Central being broadcast on an east coast feed here in Los Angeles. By the time TiVo came around, South Park was off of my radar. Now in its 13th season, South Park continues to be the most consistently rude, obnoxious, vulgar and funniest damn show on television. What amazes me about what creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone pull off each week is how topical and current their storylines are. As Comedy Central began airing new episodes last week, they also released the 12th season as a three-DVD collection. When the opportunity presented itself to review this latest season of South Park on DVD, I was excited to look at a hit series with fresh eyes.

The new DVD collection includes all 14 episodes from the 12th season that ran March to November of 2008. Highlight episodes include “Over Logging,” in which the United States comes to a complete standstill when the Internet shuts down. Families travel west to internment camps in Silicon Valley where there is word that there may be some Internet. At the same time, the government and its team of scientists try to figure out what caused the Internet to shut down. “Over Logging” is representative of South Park at its best, blending the dustbowl destitution of The Grapes of Wrath with the fear and paranoia of any 1950s sci-fi horror movie.

“About Last Night” is the election episode that aired 24 hours after this past fall’s Presidential election. Although the production team began planning the episode three weeks in advance, they had to wait for the election results to actually finish the show. Thus, Parker, Stone and their crew completed “About Last Night” at the very last minute. Combining the actual outcome of the election with an Ocean’s Eleven heist (Obama is played as a George Clooney cool cat jewel thief) makes “About Last Night” smart, topical and very funny.

The 12th season also includes the infamous episode “The China Problem.” For those of you who don’t know about it, in this particular episode, Kyle, Stan and the gang all go to the movies to see the latest Indiana Jones adventure. To their horror, they witness their hero, Indiana Jones, getting raped by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (literally). The show not only screamed what many fans felt after they walked out of the theater after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but was also a perfect parody of crisis of consciousness movies like Sleepers. Besides the obvious outrageous nature of this episode, “The China Problem” showed that Parker and Stone still had major cojones by openly mocking a huge money-making film for their parent company, Paramount (not to mention two of the most powerful men in Hollywood). (more…)

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Friday, January 16th, 2009

CHART ATTACK!: 1/15/83

by Jason Hare


Welcome back to CHART ATTACK!, all new for 2009! This year we’ll be doing much like we’ve done in the past: ripping apart Billboard Top 10 charts for years ranging from the early ’70s to the early ’90s. You know the drill: some of ‘em are going to be great; some will be abysmal; some will feature way too many appearances by stupid Andy Gibb. (Not this week — just his brothers.)

This week, we’re looking at early 1983, a fairly diverse week featuring punk, pop, R&B, adult contemporary and whatever category you want to stick “Dirty Laundry” into. Also, here are a few of the odd words you’ll find in this week’s chart: Sharif, Serengeti, she-cat, and Vegemite. We’re also featuring three songs that, in some way or another, essentially were given a second chance on the charts this week.  Which ones?  Stay tuned as we attack January 15, 1983!

10.  Heartbreaker — Dionne Warwick Amazon iTunes
9. Rock the Casbah — The Clash Amazon iTunes
8. Baby, Come to Me — Patti Austin (with James Ingram) Amazon iTunes
7. Africa — Toto Amazon iTunes
6. Mickey — Toni Basil Amazon iTunes
5. Sexual Healing — Marvin Gaye Amazon iTunes
4. Maneater — Daryl Hall & John Oates Amazon iTunes
3. Dirty Laundry — Don Henley Amazon
2. The Girl is Mine — Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney Amazon iTunes
1. Down Under — Men at Work Amazon iTunes

10. Heartbreaker — Dionne Warwick (download)

“Africa” holds my spot for the best song on this relatively solid Top 10, but “Heartbreaker” is in second place.  It has very little to do with Dionne Warwick; while her vocal is fine, I think I’d also be okay with a number of other female vocalists singing. It’s more about the chorus, which is not only unmistakably catchy but contains just the right amount of Bee Gees — the fantastic backing vocals with none of the ridiculous falsetto wailing that Barry prefers to use at every turn.  And once again we have to give credit to Mr. Gibb for wisely handing out his songs to other vocalists at a time when the Bee Gees were certainly less welcome on the charts.  This one wasn’t initially his idea, though: in ‘82, Barry had planned on collaborating with a few different female vocalists for an album he was working on, but Clive Davis asked him if he’d write an album of material for Warwick.  He did so, and though Warwick didn’t really care for “Heartbreaker,” she recorded it anyway — and it wound up being her biggest solo hit of the decade.  I can’t believe I love “Heartbreaker” more than Dionne Warwick.  Anyway, the Bee Gees eventually recorded their own version in 2002:

The original demo can also be found on YouTube (or on iTunes).  Beware, though: Barry sings the whole thing utilizing the aforementioned falsetto wailing.

9. Rock the Casbah — The Clash

One can only imagine what Joe Strummer thought about spending time in the Top 10 next to Dionne Warwick. Even worse, only a few weeks later he’d wind up stuck next to Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle. The Clash’s Top 40 singles were far and few between — we’re talking this one and “Train in Vain (Stand By Me).” (”Should I Stay or Should I Go” reached #45.)

“Rock the Casbah” was born out of a piano part composed by drummer Topper Headon, and it’s Headon who plays bass, drums and piano on the track. The origins of the lyrics have been disputed, but the story I’ve heard the most is that Strummer was inspired by a news report of Iranians being flogged for owning disco music. I don’t see why that’s so wrong.

(more…)

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Posted in Chart Attack!, Music | Comments

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30

by Dave Steed

You know, I don’t rant in public too often (yeah, right), but I’ve been getting really annoyed with iTunes and my iPod lately, so I think it’s time I let it out.

You see, I love my iPod. It still goes down as one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. I bought my 80-gigabyte iPod in May of last year, and close to 9,000 songs later I have no idea what I’d do without it. It gets me through my workday, it allows me to listen to metal without my wife running away, and it helps me write these Bottom Feeders posts.

However, I’m getting really pissed off at the technology. Now, I’m the first person to admit I’m not the savviest when it comes to trinkets of the electronic nature. So everything I say here could have some solution that I just haven’t located yet. But I find it hard to believe the answers to the following problems are still out there.

The biggest problem is the iTunes interface. Every now and then I actually purchase a record on iTunes ’cause, you know, I’m legal like that. The other day I purchased an album that was 58 minutes long; it took 18 minutes to download the 13 tracks. But I can go to some blog on Google and download the same album in about three minutes and without paying $10. And it’s not like I’m so in the dark that I’m still on dial-up or anything.

Then of course I wanted to burn the album onto a disc so I could listen to it in the car — iTunes usually burns the album at maybe 10-12x speed, if I’m lucky. My CD-burning program outside of iTunes burns a 58-minute disc in about 90 seconds, but iTunes takes about five minutes.

(more…)

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Posted in Bottom Feeders, Music | Comments

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Bookshelf: Don Felder, “Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)”

by Scott Malchus

Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder titled his memoir Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001) in an attempt to sell more copies of the book. Co-written with journalist Wendy Holden, the book is more than the tell-all Felder’s former band feared when they took him to court and held up its release in litigation. In the book, he doesn’t even begin recording with the legendary group until 100 pages into it. Before that, Felder unfolds the tale of a young man growing up dirt poor in Gainesville, Florida, during the late ’60s. Literally raised in a tin roof shack, Felder’s parents were survivors of the Great Depression. Although his father could be a brute with his belt, he also encouraged Felder to pursue his gift for music. This encouragement led Felder to the guitar with which he hoped to emulate his hero B.B. King. While his older brother went to college and law school, Felder struggled to get through high school and fell in with the hippie culture of that era. Felder’s long hair and beard led to a physical altercation with his father and resulted in Felder leaving home in his late teens.

On his own, Felder kicked around Florida, befriending the late Duane Allman and hanging with his childhood buddy, Bernie Leadon. Both men would become influential figures in Felder’s life. It was Allman who inspired Felder to learn slide guitar and told him to “(c)lose your eyes and listen to the music…when your spine tingles, you’ll know it’s right.” Felder has carried these words with him ever since. Multi-instrumentalist Leadon, on the other hand, moved west to Los Angeles and gained fame with The Flying Burrito Brothers and as a founding member of the Eagles. For years, Leadon pleaded with his friend to join him and the growing musical movement on the west coast. Felder chose to toil away in New York and Boston in a band that went nowhere, and doing session work. More important to him, Felder reconnected with his high school sweetheart, Susan, fell in love and they got married. During a tour stop in Boston, Leadon finally convinced Felder and his bride to travel west. Once in California, Felder fell in with the gang at David Geffen’s Asylum Records. After a year being a sideman, he was invited to play some tracks on the Eagles’ third album, On the Border. An immediate chemistry was felt between Felder and the other band members, which included Leadon, bassist Randy Meisner, drummer/vocalist Don Henley, and guitarist/vocalist Glenn Frey. Soon thereafter, Felder was asked to join the band. Despite Leadon’s warning, Felder jumped at the chance to join an established group with two records under its belt. (more…)

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Posted in Books, Bookshelf | Comments