GrantRS's Last.fm Journal

NWOBHM Band of the Week - 3rd July 2009: Saracen

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 13:25:54 +0000

(Previous NWoBHM Band of the Week)

Let's start with a music video and see if you reach the same first impression as I did, this is Saracen - Love On Sight:

If one of your first thoughts was "Poor man's Queen", you reached a similar first impression to mine. The above was one of three very similar music videos arranged by Neat records circa 1985, admittedly it's probably the softest of the three, and neither my favourite nor least favourite of those three, but let us now turn to the chronological beginning:

Apparently there are two bands from the UK called Saracen. I will only be looking at the better known one of the two.

Saracen, according to metal-archives.com (reference), formed in 1976 in Derbyshire as Lammergier, changing their name in 1980 to Saracen.

The band's recorded career kicked off with a single for Nucleus called No More Lonely Nights (youtube) b/w Rock Of Ages. On the basis of said single, it is hard to see how the band were saddled with the tag of heavy metal in the first place. While it may be the case that some aggression could have been toned down in the studio in comparison to live gigs, Saracen were one of the few nwobhm associated bands to employ a keyboard, and there is heavy reliance on it as it dominates the sound, beckoning more comparison with new wave pop or the radio friendly hard rock of Queen than most supposed contemporaries. Even fellow keyboard utilisers White Spirit and Praying Mantis both sound much more aggressive than No More Lonely Nights, or at least they did around this time. Further, Steve Bettney's vocals lack the youthful, aggressive, frustrated, punk-influenced edge of contemporaries regarded recently in the series such as Avenger, Tank and Sledgehammer, instead, again prompting a Queen comparison as some distinctive Freddie Mercury-isms emerge briefly and often, seemingly teasing at a possible segue into Radio Ga Ga (despite the fact it wouldn't be released for another three years).

The b-side on the other hand, Rock of Ages, bears a closer resemblance to some contemporaries. Saracen here show a more up tempo side with a rhythm section that pound out a up-tempo shuffle rhythm beat most of the way through, making for easy comparison with the majority of the 70s glam scene (which relied heavily upon shuffle rhythm) and here we have a comparison to suggest that Saracen might be leaning more toward the harder, almost metal, side of rock than the poppier style heard on the a-side. Undoubtedly though, what stands out as the most metal thing here is the slightly pirate-like, Emerald-like, jig-like guitar line that comes up a few times and is arranged in triplets (courtesy of guitarist Robert Bendelow). Vocally here I may be more inclined to draw comparison to Kiss or Paul Rogers than Freddie Mercury, it's slightly more aggressive here but still firmly toward the melodic end of the nwobhm spectrum of vocalists.

Later that year both sides of the single would feature on the band's debut album Heroes, Saints & Fools (reviewed here by Deathriderdoom). You may be glad to learn that four of the album's five tracks that weren't on the single clock in over six minutes and showcase a very different sound to the single.

Opener Crusader sounds to me like a track from Sin After Sin or Stained Class complete with some much more Halford sounding vocals than the two sides of the single. At 6:20 I'm obviously thinking of some of the longer Priest tracks like, for example Let Us Prey/Call For The Priest. Though I use Rob Halford as a comparison for vocalists far too often, I feel the comparison is extremely relevant here. Unlike some later imitators and exaggerators, and even later performances by Halford himself, Bettney captures much of the emotion and timbre of Halford's performances from 3-4 years previously at times becoming difficult to differentiate from the real thing. Despite the ever-present keyboard a Judas Priest similarity carries through the other mini-epics like Horsemen Of The Apocalypse and Ready To Fly. Vocally, the Halford comparison wanes a little on Horsemen..., but there's some very good guitar work there keeping Priest in mind through the majority of the song but also invoking some comparison to later (then yet to be recorded) Iron Maiden tracks. The keys surface for a lot of Horseme's duration, sounding mainly Keith Emerson and Tony Banks influenced in tone, though keyboardist Richard Lowe displays far greater restraint than Emerson, sticking mainly to just playing one theme when cued. Ready to Fly sounds to me firmly Priest inspired during the verses, while the organ backed extended guitar solo is more in line with Deep Purple.

The title track completely stumps me. The words 'rock opera' spring to mind. We're not just talking about long metal songs anymore, the line to prog influence has most definitely been crossed. It's hard to pin down a single band who couldn't be named as a possible influence on the song. It sounds like it could have been written today, while it was obviously recorded in the 80s. There's perhaps a bit more Yes in the instrumental parts here than some other acts and, certainly than the other songs on the album. It brings to mind the rock operas of Ayreon and The Who, while obviously preceding Ayreon by nearly two decades and not displaying an overtly obvious debt to anything pre-1970. I wish there was a youtube link for this one because I'm not sure anyone reading this will have a clue what I'm on about otherwise unless they find some other way to hear it.

Dolphin Ride is a fairly bland instrumental led by Richard Lowe's keyboard. It's pleasant and tuneful, and makes up for the lack of non-epic tracks that weren't on the preceding single but I wouldn't say it adds too much.

As usual, I don't know the what the sales figures were like, but judging by the relative infrequency of the band's name's inclusion on various nwobhm short lists, I'm guessing it wasn't a surprise success domestically. ...though there are reports that it did well in Venezuela. Go figure. Interestingly the few magazine quotes I've come across all opt to describe Saracen as progressive rock and not as heavy metal. I would hypothesise that this frame of mind could be a contributing factor to the infrequency with which the band is mentioned in nwobhm lists. However, the 6-8 minute tracks on the debut album don't all resemble our usual perception of prog, unless, that is, you would be inclined to put some late 70s Priest tracks into the progressive category as well.

Whatever actually did happen, it wasn't until 1984 that a follow up surfaced. Change Of Heart was released on neat records and preceded by the single We Have Arrived (youtube) b/w A Face In The Crowd (youtube). The single doesn't show a huge difference over the previous single, with a return to the Queen-like AOR/ melodic hard rock sound displayed three years prior, but in comparison to the debut album, it would appear to be a major step toward stripping down the length and dumbing down for radio, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, if that happens to be your thing.

The album, Catalogue number: NEAT 1016, included both sides of the single again, and this time failed to surpass the 4:33 mark. The major change, of course, is the revamped line-up, now retaining only two members from the past album, vocalist Bettney and keyboardist Lowe. The split having occurred before signing to Neat, just as a major label, Polygram, had taken an interest in the band. Needless to say, the split lost the interest of Polygram leaving the remains of the band to turn to Neat instead.

Tracks like Cheatin (youtube) and Seabird (youtube) as well as Love on Sight (see top, remember?) continue the unambitious AOR like trend of Change of Heart, though Seabird, nearing four and a half minutes does have a slight touch of prog to it.

The group disbanded a year after Change of Heart and remained split until a reunion circa 2000. Two further albums were issued in 2003 and 2006, the former (Red Sky) composed mainly of re-recordings of earlier songs, the latter a Da Vinci Code-esque concept album about Templar Knights entitled Vox In Excelso. Meet Me At Midnight (youtube) is a recording for Vox...

For further details and preview clips try the official website. A review of Red Sky can be found here. Interested parties may wish to check out Rob Bendelow's solo project Templar, which shares a section of the same official website.

My summarising thoughts are that this band has four very, very good songs on their debut album. They also have a pumped up glam rocker on that album, if that's your thing. After that, not so much. I haven't been tempted to change my first impression of "Poor man's Queen" for the second release, and what I've heard of the later stuff hasn't enthralled me, though a comparison to Magnum may be in order, particularly seeing as Bob Catley shares a drummer with the current line-up. Seemingly a four track wonder here though.

NWOBHM Band of the Week - 19th June 2009: Tank (Part 5)

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:07:24 +0000

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Ok, the final part of my week of Tank will attempt to cram in the abbreviated 1984-2009 part of the band's history. Given that it took me 4 parts to cover '78-'83, this isn't even going to approach the level of detail of the other parts. Sorry, Tank fans. I'll make up for it with big pictures.

Honour & Blood

Honour & Blood (1984) welcomed Cliff Evans(Guitar) and Graham Crallan (Drums, ex-White Spirit) into Tank's line-up, replacing the founding members Peter and Mark Brabbs. Average track times are creeping up on this release with two tracks passing the 8 minute mark and, but for a couple of seconds, almost achieving 4/7 tracks over the 6 minute mark. (Feel the need to test the title track?) Tank's punk element is almost completely obscured on a track such as the title track, there's no longer much reason or temptation to call the band a Motorhead clone, rather they closer resemble Iron Maiden now, instrumentally at least. The vocals on the title track, interestingly remind me of Adrian Smith's later project A.S.A.P., which can't be a bad thing.

Kill (youtube) isn't hugely different, continuing in the Maiden-esque instrumental mould with the same style of vocals as the rest of the album. It is one of the 8 minute tracks though, actually closing the album out.

The tour saw them supporting little-known Music For Nations labelmates Metallica on their equally little known Ride the Lightning tour, earning them a 'thank you' on the US band's long-forgotten next album, only to be shunned and omitted by Lars Ulrich when it came to compiling the '79 Revisited cd a few years later.

TANK

The band's line-up almost held until the next album the self-titled TANK (1987), only changing drummers to Gary Taylor. There was a label change though, likely a large contributing factor to the 3 year wait between albums. TANK was originally released on GWR in Europe and Restless in the USA.

The self-titled album is regarded by many as a sign of musical differences and lack of direction, often described as leaning heavily toward Algy's punk background. A track like, March On, Sons Of Nippon (youtube) is characterised by the slow kind of punk riffs and gang vocals during the chorus but the twin guitars are still there for solos when needed and don't shy away from the spot light.

Sources then vary, but sometime between then and the end of '89 the band had their obligatory nwobhm band split. Most of the line-up, particularly Ward were then busy in various projects, filling in with other soldiering nwobhm bands, beginning new ventures with other nwobhm veteran players.

The Reunion

Tank reunited in 1997 with Steve Hopgood (drums) joining the three members of the pre-split Tank. A batch of live albums have trickled out since then as well as the 2002 studio album Still at War

In December 2008, after a couple of years of little to no touring, a new line-up was announced. Algy Ward was no longer a member of his own band. Guitarists Mick Tucker and Cliff Evans remained in the line-up which also saw the return of original drummer Mark Brabbs. It was decided it would take two men to replace Algy, those two men were: Chris Dale (Skunkworks) on bass and Doogie White (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, ex-Rainbow). Official word was that Algy had elected to concentrate on his autobiography over resuming touring. However, that same official Tank website forecasts a new album soon STURMPANZER which will feature Algy Ward on bass and vocals, not Doogie White or Chris Dale. Evans and Tucker remain on guitar duties while Bruce Bisland (Praying Mantis) picks up the sticks for his scond Tank album (his first being Still at War).

Phew!

Do I need to write a paragraph summarising the band now? I can't, I'm exhausted. Tank: Awesome band. First and third albums are pretty much essential. I'm sure I'm going to have to revisit the band for another bout of journaling in a few months to improve upon what I've written so far.

NWOBHM Band of the Week - 19th June 2009: Tank (Part 4)

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:08:17 +0000

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My week of journals dedicated to Tank began on Friday, so far I've chronicled Algy Ward's pre-Tank career, the first batch of Tank singles and the classic debut album. Having had a day off of journaling on Monday, I'm now going to attempt to cram in the second and third albums and accompanying singles' summaries today!

Power of the Hunter & This Means War

Crazy Horses (youtube), yes, an Osmonds cover, it doesn't just share the name, was the only single lifted from Tank's sophomore effort Power of the Hunter. It's obviously one of the Osmonds most rocking songs to start off with (almost a contradiction in terms), but Tank strip it down to a raw, aggressive track that doesn't stand too far apart from the rest of their catalogue.

The album, recorded with the same line-up as the first, and less than a year later continues in much the same vein as the first (but with a different producer). Some people called it slightly more experimental, but there's honestly not a huge difference...so much so that many consider it to be a continuation of the first album. If you've played through the first album you'll be capable of deciding whether you need to purchase this one for yourself, but T.A.N.K. (youtube), an instrumental, perhaps shows a different side of the band, or at least emphasises it more. The album and the single were, apparently relative flops after the success of Filth Hounds, which isn't surprising if you share my opinion that the second one is more of the same but a stone's throw short of the first.

After Power of the Hunter though comes the first real developments in Tank's story since finding favour with Lemmy. A second guitarist, Micky Tucker (fresh from the now failing White Spirit having replaced Janick Gers there), is added to flesh out the band's sound and a change of labels to the upcoming Music For Nations, becoming labelmates with all the big US exports of the next couple of years. (Former label Kamaflage having tanked - forgive the pun.)

Echoes of a Distant Battle (youtube) was the first and only single from 1983's This Means War (produced by John Verity best known for work with Saxon). It was released as both a 7" and 12" with a total of three different non-album b-sides across the two formats.

Armed now with twin guitars, This Means War veered a little closer to the sound of many contemporaries, but in doing so dished out the guitar solos of album opener Just Like Something From Hell (youtube) which begins with the dreaded 80s keyboard sounds we, with hindsight, don't want to hear at the beginning of any metal album before exploding into the usual antics, just with an extra guitar and longer solo sections clocking the track in at 8:30.

TMW, was certainly a move toward the 'middle ground' of the nwobhm for Tank, but the now expanded four-piece proved they could deal that middle ground nwobhm material as good, if not better, than the majority of their peers as they increased the complexity of their compositions and upped grandiose factor on guitar solos. The record buying public bought it, literally, it sold a lot more than Power of the Hunter, supposedly bringing Tank back to form...albeit a slightly more metal, less punk form than they had originally displayed.

Music for Nations soon comissioned another album, but some might consider TMW as the last true Tank album before two thirds of the founding line-up in the form of the Brabb brothers left the band.

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NWOBHM Band of the Week - 19th June 2009: Tank (Part 3)

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:51:22 +0000

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In Part 1 of this journal entry, I took a brief look at Algy Ward's pre-Tank career with The Saints and The Damned. In Part 2, I mentioned Tank's vigourous early touring schedule and perused the band's first three singles. Today I will discuss Filth Hounds of Hades.

Filth Hounds of Hades

Having found favour with the successful Motörhead, Tank found themselves recording Filth Hounds of Hades from Dec '81 to Jan '82 with "Fast" Eddie Clarke producing. Given the strong Motörhead connection then, it won't come as too much of a surprise to find a noticeable similarity between the two bands.

Shellshock (youtube) kicks things off with some atypical fake tribal chanting before running into the main part of the track. Forgetting Algy Ward's prior punk connection and any segregated feeling among British music fans of the time, the bulk of the track is typical nwobhm of above average calibre and a bit of a Motörhead leaning.

Struck by Lightning (youtube) continues in a similar vein. There's little to really add to the description at this point.

Run Like Hell (youtube) notably ends the chorus with the lone word 'run' repeated several times, which could be interpreted as a little repetitive, but the delivery of Ward's voice is nicely varied so one could just as easily find it a catchy brilliant chorus.

Blood, Guts and Beer (youtube) was discussed in part yesterday. It's something of an intended drinking anthem and has ended up achieving just that for many people. This one is perhaps regarded as one of the most enduringly popular tracks on the album.

T.W.D.A.M.O. (youtube, standing for That's What Dreams Are Made Of) is a much needed change of pace bringing the tempo down below compulsory Motörhead comparison bpm, though there's still reason to make that comparison with some guitar parts reminding me of Motörhead's (I Won't) Pay Your Price. Up until this point we've had a reasonably sparse dose of guitar solos, but we finally get a long one from Peter Brabbs and it's pretty sweet. Peter's solo is a fairly slow paced affair, dancing over the relentless, monotonous bass line kept up by Ward. I've yet to see a review of the album that doesn't quote the interesting first line of this track, so I'll spare you that. There's a brief interesting low spoken part just before the solo that reminds me a little of The Who's cover of Summertime Blues, not that the deep spoken vocal adds a lot to the track in this case, but it isn't repeated much by the band.

Turn Your Head Around is exactly the same as the version released as a single.

Heavy Artillery has become something of an anthem, another of the most enduringly popular tracks on the album.

Who Needs Love Song (youtube) is another welcome change of pace, with a nice just slightly funky metal sounding riff, but predictable lyrics. "Who needs love songs/Who needs love songs/Who needs love songs/I do" It reminds me a little of a song from the Simpsons about the Kwik-e-mart, but Tank were obviously first.

Filth Hounds of Hades (youtube) - the title track - is another Motörhead-esque rattler and pleasing to fans of difficult to define heavy rock/proto-thrash...much like a large number of nwobhm bands. Ward's vocal doesn't mirror Lemmy much here though, he never quite has the low croaky vocal of the Kilmister, though the difficult to describe punk/metal blend of influences, actually leaning more toward punk doesn't totally separate the two frontmen/bassists.

(He Fell in Love With a) Stormtrooper is similar to the single version, but is in fact a different recording. It's still regarded by many as a classic, that hasn't changed since yesterday's journal.

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NWOBHM Band of the Week - 19th June 2009: Tank (Part 2)

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:14:04 +0000

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In yesterday's journal (see part 1, above), I wrote about Algy Ward's pre-Tank career as bassist for both The Saints and The Damned, in the process alluding to the fairly common perception during the early part of Tank's existence and the often quoted duration of the nwobhm ('79-'83) that Tank were a punk band posing as a metal band. Today I will look at the band's first batch of singles preceding Filth Hounds of Hades.

The Early Singles

When Tank, consisting of Algy Ward (bass, vocals), Peter Brabbs (guitar) and Mark Brabbs (drums) formed in 1980, they quickly took a more heavy metal influenced sound than any act previously associated with Ward, and for the first time Ward was up front performing lead vocals. After some intensive touring (supporting Motörhead on the "Iron Fist" and "Ace of Spades" European tours '81-'82, as well as support slots for Girlschool, Diamond Head and Angel Witch) the band managed to convince enough headbangers and more importantly Lemmy that they were worth signing in order to be picked up by Kamaflage in time for a Sep 1981 debut single Don't Walk Away (youtube, catalogue number KAM1), with b-sides Shellshock (which would later become the debut album's opening track) and Hammer On.

Interestingly, Lemmy now has this to say of Tank:

"They were great for a while, then they fucked up. They were great on our tour though. ...You see, you can give 'em the baton, but it's not my fault if they fuckin' drop it!"
- Lemmy on Tank
(From Suzie Smiled... The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal by John Tucker)

But we're getting ahead of ourselves...

Don't Walk Away displays the dirty distorted guitar style prominent in the early-middle stages of the movement and features a guitar solo that separates the band from what one might consider punk, but there's still a lot of punkish chord strumming and some punk influence in the vocals, though they share as much common ground with the likes of Lemmy's gruff vocal or Ian Gillan-esque screams.

Don't Walk Away's follow up was the 1982 single (He Fell in Love With a) Stormtrooper (youtube), considered by some a NWOBHM classic. The 7"s flipside was a live recording of Blood, Guts and Beer (the studio version of which would later be included on the debut album). Like most notable nwobhm acts of the time, ...Stormtrooper continued to straddle he line between classic heavy metal and punk, so when looking back today it doesn't really stand out as a particularly punk leaning track among the movement's produce, but it's easy to see that someone already biased against a band for being punks that supposedly just came along for the ride could hold their position off the back of these first two singles, particularly as it was already emerging that Ward's songwriting favoured short choruses repeated many times. The title Blood, Guts and Beer sounds considerably more bloodthirsty than the track itself, I'll source a link to the studio version when we get round to the album, but for now if you haven't heard the track and need to put your mind at rest (or would otherwise be building up hopes and expectations that it may satisfy your crazed bloodlust). rest assured the chorus amusingly states (many times) "What's inside me?/Blood, Guts and Beer" making for a fairly light-hearted track rather than a viking massacre inspired thrasher.

The third and final single before we get to the first album was album track Turn Your Head Around (youtube, catalogue number KAM3), b/w Steppin' On A Landmine (youtube). Up to this point, the band had yet to endure any line-up changes.

...In tomorrow's journal I will be looking at Tank's first full-length release - the cult classic Filth Hounds of Hades.

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NWOBHM Band of the Week - 19th June 2009: Tank (Part 1)

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:32:34 +0000

(Previous NWoBHM Band of the Week)

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As I've missed a few weeks recently, and there are some rather major NWOBHM bands I want to have written something about but can hardly face doing so in one sitting, I thought I'd start to exploit the word 'week' in the title by breaking up this week's journal into multiple parts throughout the week. When all parts are up, I'll put the artist connections into this entry and submit the journal to any relevant groups.

Algy Ward - Pre-Tank

In the early days of Tank, while the band did generate a following, the band was criticised and disowned by a considerable portion of the British heavy metal fanbase, who considered Tank to be punks pretending to be metal purely for the commercial gain of being associated with the already named 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal'. Today the accusation seems like a contradiction in terms as the majority of acts associated with the movement had considerably more than trace elements of punk influence in their sound. What, then, could lead to an accusation that Tank were too punk for the metalheads of early 80s Britain?

Tank is centered around Bassist/Vocalist Algy Ward, whom, it can be argued, IS the band. Despite being born in Surrey, Ward's first notable appearance on vinyl was with the Australian punk band The Saints, with whom Ward recorded the band's second and third albums; 1978's Eternally Yours and (also 1978's) Prehistoric Sounds.

The two Saints albums spawned the singles This Perfect Day (streamable on last.fm), Know Your Product (below) and the OTIS REDDING cover Security (youtube).

Not to dwell on Ward's stint in The Saints too long, but it's plain to hear that there's very little heavy metal about The Saints, and I think the argument put across by the always divided British music fans who refused to listen to 'punks' is beginning to show some evidence. As if the evidence supporting claims the Ward was a punk wasn't already damning enough (no pun intended), the next move for the bassist was to join punk legends The Damned for their 1979 third album Machine Gun Etiquette.

Machine Gun Etiquette would be Algy's only album with the The Damned, and is also his first credit for vocals, having remained mute with The Saints. (not lead vocals yet though...also anyone else find it amusing that The Saints and The Damned could hardly have chosen names more opposed to each other?) MGE has become regarded as the point where The Damned became more experimental, adopting shades of psychedelic rock and pop, it features the singles Love Song (UK Chart position: #20, streamable), Smash It Up (UK Chart position #35, below and streamable) and I Just Can't Be Happy Today (UK Chart position #46, streamable). Subsequent re-releases of ...Etiquette have added the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE cover White Rabbit, a 1980 single - I am however unsure whether Algy played on this cover.

Algy Ward then formed TANK with Peter and Mark Brabbs (guitar and drums respectively) in 1980. In tomorrow's journal (hopefully) I shall be looking at the first few releases from the band who now have one of the largest cult followings of the nwobhm.

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Song of the Day - 16th June 2009: Waste of Time

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:42:43 +0000

Paul Gilbert & Freddie Nelson / WASTE OF TIME / UNITED STATES (3) / 2008 (Japan), 2009 (Rest of the World)

This album came so out of the blue that I shamefully didn't even realise it existed until a full month after its worldwide release...nearly half a year after its Japanese release. Frankly, I'm disappointed about the face I didn't know about it until a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't checked on whether PG was releasing anything for a while because I presumed he was busy writing and touring with Mr. Big. He certainly does write and release material quickly though, going by Japanese release dates, this album came out less than 11 months after Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar - and this despite extensive touring last year playing UK gigs in three separate months!

Who is Freddie Nelson, you might ask. I haven't got a clue, but general opinion is that he sounds very much like Freddie Mercury, and I'm not one to disagree having heard the album. The opener sounds a bit more Judas Priest or Racer X inspired until it reaches the chorus, and later in the album PULSAR sounds like Paul singing, but the rest sounds very Mercury-like. This is while retaining all the trademarks of PG's solo career, familiar harmony vocals sung by Paul creep in all over the place. I'm Not Addicted compositionally and lyrically sounds like many of PG's vocal solo songs, particularly the likes of I Like Rock. Of course there's awesome guitar parts everywhere some surprise tempo changes and general greatness and fun to be enjoyed.

Waste of Time is by far the catchiest track on the album. It's hard to get it out your head and could have been a single if Paul and Freddie were remotely marketable to a more mainstream audience.

Annoyingly, however, whoever first srobbled 8 of the album's 10 tracks had their CAPS LOCK stuck on. As such, I've taken the liberty of retagging my affected files (except Pulsar) with altered names just to avoid having that caps lock staring me in the face. Grrr.

Song Of The Day - 13th June 2009: Avenida Revolucion

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:26:21 +0000

Chickenfoot / Avenida Revolucion / Chickenfoot (1) / June 2009

Regular journal writing fail!

Anyway, these are my current unrequested thoughts on the album and band that are called Chickenfoot:

I can confidently say I prefer Joe Satriani's solo work.

As much more of a fan of Joe than the other band members, it's been really interesting to hear Joe in a full band properly for the first time. As a group they have actually accomplished something unique. Okay, you have to look fairly deep and have some basic familiarity with the musicians' past work to follow why this music could only have come from those four guys, but it is unique nonetheless. As I said when the first two tracks were posted on the band's site: I think the most important thing is that Joe's prominence is (IMO) just right, he neither totally dominates proceedings nor gets forced into the background and that's just what most Satch fans wanted to hear.

Now, the songwriting more generally and from as much of an unbiased POV as I can manage is not without fault, but is also of a high standard. A couple of tracks (Sexy Little Thing, Oh Yeah, Runnin' Out, My Kinda Girl) sound to me like filler to an extent. Not particularly catchy, not particularly rocking and not particularly soulful, just generally skippable. On the other hand; Avenida Revolucion, Soap on a Rope, Get It Up, Down the Drain and Turnin' Left have some catchy riffs each and some even have attention catching (and more importantly maintaining) lyrics. Pretty much all the tracks have some nice bits that allow Mike and Chad to show off a little and stretch their musical legs, but those are the sort of bits that add to a good song and just become redundant on an otherwise average track - it's lucky then that I found most of the album to fall into the former category.

There's also two songs that I can't decide about. Learning to fall, the closest thing to a token ballad the album has is started off with some great delicate guitar work from Joe and also one of the best solos of the album. I'm just not sure whether I like Hagar's vocals all that much. With this one I can't decide whether the vocals are dull or suitably melancholy. The other one I'm unsure about is the closer Future in the past - it's funky and it's long with quite a few sections. From that description I'd expect to like it, but I just can't decide whether it belongs in the group of highlights or 'the rest'.

So I have a top 5 consisting of Avenida Revolucion, Soap on a Rope, Get It Up, Down the Drain and Turnin' Left, but I can't order them.

Avenida Revolucion has a catchy intro that is actually pretty reminiscent of some Satriani's more agressive tracks from the last couple of albums. I just know that if it was a Satriani track it would be named after robots, aliens or as is more likely the case both. Instead, we have actually got some great lyrics from Hagar about Mexicans trying to cross the border into the USA, which makes for a very cool song all in all.

Soap on a Rope, I think I've talked about before as is the case with Down the Drain, but it's interesting to note Down the Drain was entirely improvised!! Extra points for being improvised and still kicking the asses of at least 4 other tracks on the album.

Get It Up and Turnin' Left are kind of similar in the sense that, unusually for anything Satriani is involved with, they both start with really catchy riffs. The titles both feature in the lyrics at times that sync up with the riffs making both tracks instantly (partially) memorable. Without listening ot the tracks as I write this, I can't really remember what else made them stand out, but they're definitely both in my top 5 for the album at the moment.

Anyone else's favourites correlate with mine at all?

Song Of The Day - 10th June 2009: I Can't Reach You

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:18:09 +0000

The Who / I Can't Reach You / The Who Sell Out (8) / 1967

I've been revelling in the wonders of The Who Sell Out recently and besides the obvious I Can See for Miles a few more tracks are highlights for me, many, in part, for their comic value, but I Can't Reach You is appeals to me primarily on a melody/songmanship level. Apart from which, it's also a convenient song to pick to coincide with the London Underground Tube Strike. Loads of commuters are finding it difficult or, in some cases, impossible to get into work and it's costing the city millions of pounds as well as its reputation.

Anyway, on a purely musical note: The Who Sell Out fascinating as it is on face value alone has spurred me to sort of re-assess my thoughts on whether music (or good music anyway) becomes outdated. As someone born in '88, it's hard for me to relate to the overarching concept behind The Who Sell Out. I've never listened to mid 60s pirate radio so the attempt to recreate it on record may have lost some of its value on me. I read that the Who attempted to vary their sound between songs on the album to sound as though the pirate radio station was really playing a variety of different bands, but I can't assess whether they've done a good enough job or not, really. Most of the songs, certainly, are credibly immediately distinguishable from each other but are they varied enough? Were adverts really as long as Odorono? Those kind of things are mysterious to me, but it's still fascinating to consider the effort that went into it in the landmark year that was '67.

More generally, the band's sound from '67 is almost unrecogniseable when compared to their sound just four years later on Who's Next, both of which are equally removed from 1970's Live at Leeds, though Tommy is so similar musically that an immediately recogniseable chunk of Rael was obviously rehashed into it. Even for someone who missed the 60s by as much as I did, it would be near impossible to listen to the album without being able to ascertain the decade of origin imminently from guesswork alone. The album has certainly dated, but has it become outdated? That's something I'm not sure about at times throuhgout the album. I think it would be fair to say that the appeal has diminished somewhat with age, but it's still a great listen. Question is, does that make it less of a great piece of work than another 1967 album that perhaps hasn't dated as much or has dated in a different fashion? Is it possible that personal taste even applies to a person's verdict on which of two pieces of music has dated more radically? Rationally I suppose it must be possible, but I've always thought of whether or not something is dated and to what extent as a clearly factual matter. Of course I would always expect similar cases to have a difference of opinion, but what if things have dated in completely different ways, a 60s style backing vocal compared to an 80s drum machine, for example? Or for the sake of argument two elements from a similar era, the synth and the drum machine? A fascinating point of ponderance if you can follow my ill-worded logic, a muddled and mundane statement of the obvious if you're not quite following what I'm meaning, but I thought I'd throw the thought out there anyway.

Song Of The Day - 9th June 2009: Red Alert

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 22:45:11 +0000

James Murphy / Red Alert / Convergence (6) / 1996

Life's been pretty busy the last couple of week, I have to admit. So busy, that although I realised a couple of weeks ago that I don't think I've ever written a journal about that talented American guitarist James Murphy (ex-Death, ex-Testament, ex-Obituary, who has also guested on recordings by Explorers Club and Firewind), I've yet to write that wrong. So in one journal that actually has a fairly wide range of connections to legitimately connect, I thought I'd attempt to begin righting the wrong of a week's inactivity.

Convergence is a half instrumental half vocal album released in 1996. Murphy doesn't sing on the album, but instead brings in guest vocalists such as Devin Townsend and (then Testament bandmate) Chuck Billy for the albums' vocal tracks. The album is mostly made up of original compositions, the one track that isn't an original, I neglected to observe wasn't an original when I first came across it and certainly wouldn't have known who the composer was had I read their name anyway. It was only after I acquired a total of three versions of the song (including the original) that I realised this was the same song and, therefore, a cover. Convergence mostly occupies musical ground ranging from metal instrumentals and peaking at just barely sub-Strapping Young Lad heaviness to the soft ballad touchng the earth (which would appear to be one of the strangest places to employ the talent of Chuck Billy, but it works surprisingly well). Red Alert on the other hand takes a more jazz fusion tinged with metal rather than straight rock and prog-leaning challenges of pieces. Although neither the original, nor Murphy's metal version are as light and comforting as fellow Testament man Alex Skolnick's Alex Skolnick Trio of recent years, this The New Tony Williams Lifetime cover of Red Alert an interesting re-interpretation of the second of two Tony Newton compositions for the belive it. While I wouldn't go as far as to say Murphy stood more than a slim chance of improving on Allan Holdsworth's original guitar parts the resulting much faster than the original metal version is extremely entertaining and embedded in an incredibly diverse album.

James Murphy demonstrated on Convergence that he is a musician of wide ranging influences, virtuosic flexibility and more appeal than the current fanbase-size/reputation/availability of the disc would suggest.

Often when posting a journal with as many links as this one I feel guilty that I might be wasting people's time by drawing them in to read something not completely relevant to them, but in this case I'm actually incredibly proud of the consistent relevance each and every link above has. Testament fans should check out the album for loyalty to Chuck and James, Death and Obituary fans should check it out for interest in James Murphy, Devin Townsend enthusiasts will enjoy the TWO tracks with Devin. Holdsworth/Tony Williams fans might be intrigued to hear the cover version. Loyal fans of Firewind and Explorers Club will, most likely, already be guitar fans and have enjoyed the taste of Murphy's playing they have so far encountered. However you got to this page, it's fairly safe to say that if you haven't heard the album, at the very least SOME of the album will be of interest to you so do consider having a listen/making a purchase.