This holiday season will offer you 7 Wishes. But what will you wish for first?
Will it be the Jack Blades posable action figure? Dressed in authentic Midnight Madness-era stage attire, this incredibly lifelike replica of Night Ranger®’s bassist-vocalist comes preloaded with seven Jack Blades catchphrases. Pull his string and you’ll hear these unforgettable classics:
“You can stiiiiiilllll ROCK in Amer-i-caaaaaa!”
“DON’T tell me you love meeeeeee!”
“Looks like what you need right now is a TOUCH of mad-ness!”
“You still got some more RAWK left in you to-night?”
Plus three more exciting Blade-isms, all delivered by the unstoppable Jack Blades! (Requires two AA batteries to start. Batteries not included.)
But wait — there’s more!
New for the holidays, Dawn Patrol Toys is pleased to unveil the first-ever Alan “Fitz” Fitzgerald action figure. Modeled after Night Ranger®’s legendary keyboard player, often referred to as ”the original Silent Bob,” Fitz comes with his own miniature synthesizer, shades, and beret.
And you’ll be lookin’ extra cool wearing the bonus pair of signature Alan “Fitz” Fitzgerald aviator sunglasses. These super boss blockers are a replica reproduction of the snazzy specs Fitz wore onstage at every single Night Ranger® gig as well as when he played keyboards behind the curtain for Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen. Finally, your chance to look mysteriously cool without having to say a single word!
Any 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. Â Wasn’t Paul Stanley supposed to produce that album, too? (more…)
I had an epiphany at a Sammy Hagar concert. That’s right; I had a “sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something” in the middle of a Red Rocker show. Hard to believe, I know, but it’s the only way I can describe my moment of clarity amongst thousands of screaming metalheads full of alcohol, pumping their fists in the air.
Try not to hold it against me, but I’ve been a Hagar fan since the first time I heard “Heavy Metal” over a camp counselor’s transistor and “Your Love is Driving Me Crazy” the following summer. When Sammy jumped in as the lead singer of Van Halen, I thought he kicked ass; as a red rocker loyalist, I sided with him when he exited VH the first time, which is why I was at the Universal Amphitheater during the summer of 1997 with my brother, Budd.
Hagar was touring in support of his album, Marching to Mars, his first solo outing since leaving Van Halen. It’s a tight, well-written collection of songs featuring some inspired work by guest musicians like Slash, Ronnie Montrose and Mickey Hart. Budd and I decided to drive to the show and scalp tickets, upholding an American tradition passed down through generations. We scored seats 18 rows back, smack dab in the middle of diehard redheads: Aging bikers, balding frat guys from yesteryear, and plenty of cougars on the prowl. Together we all witnessed Hagar and his newly formed band, the Waboritas, blaze through a set that reached back to his days with Montrose and covered every period of his long career, including several Van Halen classics. (more…)
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”—Sergei Rachmaninov
“Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.”—Plato
“A wop-bop-a-loo-bomp. Alop-bam-boo.” —Little Richard
On paper, it sounds like a moneymaking formula: take individual members from successful bands, put them together in a supergroup to make music, record the magic, and watch album sales go through the roof. Yes, the Supergroup can, at times, be seen as a crass money grab, and at times it is. However, there are other times when the result of these ventures bears some tasty fruit. Now, people’s taste being what they are, it’s going to be an argument without end as to which of the groups represented here are Supergroups or Superduds. I certainly have my opinions, but don’t let that dissuade you from defending or slamming the six in this mix.
Back when Asia made their debut in the early ‘80s, they were touted as the next big thing that would define rock music for the decade. Think about it: you take a little bit of Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and King Crimson, put them in a blender of sorts, serve up the contents and … what do you think you’re going to get? Go ahead and insert a 40-Year-Old Virgin joke here. (more…)
You know, of all the alcoholidays that grace us yearly, I would venture to guess that Cinco de Mayo is going to eclipse St. Patrick’s Day in the American Southwest very, very soon. It’s one of those days that certainly has a lot of cultural significance to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S., but for those who just love a good celebration, Cinco de Mayo is a great one. The liquor isn’t limited to Tequila or Mexican imported beer, and the food is just sublime-or just meh depending where you’re eating.
So to get you in the mood for a good party, I’ve assembled a little mix while you eat, drink and be merry.
“Mas Tequila,” Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas (download)
Might as well start with a gringo tune that celebrates multiculturalism as the act of switching from Scotchy Scotch to Tequila. I’ve actually had one of Sammy’s Waboritas at a party once, and I gotta say that if you want to get drunk fast, try this potent cocktail. (more…)
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, SouthPark 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 SouthPark 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 SouthPark 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…)
I’ve gotten bored with what I’ve been listening to lately, so recently I went back into my collection to dig out CDs I haven’t spun in a while, like De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising, an album I haven’t listened to in at least four or five years. Hearing this excellent disc again piqued my interest for two reasons, the first being that I didn’t realize the direct influence it most likely had on my love of both Urban Dance Squad and P.M. Dawn.
Urban Dance Squad brought rock, ska, and funk to their rap, throwing together bits and pieces of sounds that didn’t seem like they’d flow as one — sort of what Prince Paul does these days. 3 Feet High and Rising is one of the first albums he produced and a starting point for his future sound collisions. Then there’s P.M. Dawn, who happen to be one of my all-time favorite groups; there are at least three or four tracks on 3 Feet High that could have fit nicely on P.M. Dawn’s 1991 debut, Of the Heart, Of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience. With both groups the flow is pretty much the same, and even the lyrical style is similar, right down to the lines that seemingly make no sense on first listen but when broken down actually have some legit meaning.
But that’s not really the reason I’m bringing it up here. It’s because I’m wondering if there was any other album in the ’80s on which the biggest hit was track 20! 3 Feet High almost seems like a rap album from this decade, with a skit between every song (hell, they have two in a row at points), but even so, “Me, Myself and I,” a #1 rap hit and De La Soul’s only Top 40 hit (until they backed the Gorillaz on “Feel Good Inc.” in 2005), is buried all the way down at track 20.
I still think the album is excellent, despite the fact it felt like a decade had passed by the time I got to “Me, Myself and I,” but it really got me wondering if there was another track in the entire decade buried that far down on a disc. Greatest-hits and multiple-disc sets don’t count — I’m talking a single disc where the biggest hit was that far down. Hell, even just a single that was that far down on an album. Better yet, name any big hit that far down on a normal LP in any decade. It might have happened more frequently in the past decade on rap albums, but I still think it’s a pretty rare feat.
I was getting wistful for 45s the other day and went hunting through my old Grundorf cases that I used to lug from DJ gig to DJ gig back in the day. While flipping through those “back stacks of wax” it was somewhat shocking to see the vast amount of crappy singles I bought for God knows what reason. Some of the singles aren’t danceable, and some are so badly scratched and cue burned that I wonder why I didn’t toss the singles out years ago. But there they were: relics of an era in the music industry long since past, but also historical markers of the ’80s, when my brother and I trudged off to gig after gig with cases of 45s and LPs on the weekends.
Oh, and regarding the, um, preponderance of crappy 45s in my collection, I offer this defense: My brother had a 10-watt pirate radio station in his bedroom in the mid to late ’80s, and during the week we’d broadcast shows in the evening to mostly middle school kids listening at home. They would call, we would put them on the air, and often times they would request the most god-awful songs. The next day, one of us would drive down to Tower Records, plunk down a few dollars and bring home singles that would, more often than not, be stiffs on the charts. But for a brief moment, the pirate station sounded very current. It was all in good fun, and the FCC never came knocking on our door (probably because we broadcast so infrequently).
So, let me cue up the 45s and let’s have a listen to the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all.
My junior year of high school was the first time I had ever heard of the Scorpions. To me, they were a stoner band — only because the stoners at my school listened to them — but if there was such a category as “stoner pop” back in 1982, I think the Scorps, Def Leppard and bands of that ilk would fit that bill. With their infectious hooks in the chorus, the melodic guitars and Klaus Meine’s theatrical voice, it’s a recipe for a kind of hard rock that avoids a lot of dissonant chords. Plus, the lyrics in this tune are standard issue cock rock, or as Eddie Van Halen once explained it: “Boy meets girl. Boy inserts penis.” (more…)
Here’s another missive from the Skwatzenschitz archives, which I explained a bit last time. I’m not sure how Jimmy Buffett reacted to Uncle Donnie’s advice, but, to the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t taken action on any of it. —RS
TO: Jimmy Buffett
FROM: Don Skwatzenschitz
RE: Career advice
Jim, babe, hope your winter is going well, and that you’re staying out of the cold and getting plenty of light, even on these overcast days. We’ve had a bunch of them lately. Mitzi gets that seasonal affective disorder, goes all lethargic and depressed on me. She has a special lamp she sits in front of for a couple hours every day, and we have to keep the house temps at 78 degrees, or she won’t get out of bed. Hope you’re dealing with winter a little better than Mitzi.
Anyway, Jim, the music business sucks. I don’t need to tell you that. Downloading rules, but it simultaneously sucks, because the artists can’t make any money off it. Not that they made any money off their records anyway, but you get the point. It all sucks.
You, however, have a career as a live performer to fall back on, and that’s great, man. Just great. But you’re blowing it. You’re really blowing it, like the record companies are blowing it. You’ll be out on the street in a year, you’re blowing it so big. I don’t want you to start sucking too, Jimbo, like the whole music industry. So I’m going to give you some advice: (more…)
Plus three more exciting Blade-isms, all delivered by the unstoppable Jack Blades! (Requires two AA batteries to start. Batteries not included.)
Any 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?
, 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.
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.
I had an epiphany at a Sammy Hagar concert. That’s right; I had a 
South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season (2009, Paramount)
Jim, babe, hope your winter is going well, and that you’re staying out of the cold and getting plenty of light, even on these overcast days. We’ve had a bunch of them lately. Mitzi gets that seasonal affective disorder, goes all lethargic and depressed on me. She has a special lamp she sits in front of for a couple hours every day, and we have to keep the house temps at 78 degrees, or she won’t get out of bed. Hope you’re dealing with winter a little better than Mitzi.