9/27/2019 Releases of Personal Note

Well, it's that time of the week again, time to look ahead at the upcoming releases I'm looking forward to at 9:00 pm PDT/Tomorrow EDT.

Tegan and Sara-Hey I'm Just Like You: Canada's favorite twin lesbian sisters are back with their first album since Love You To Death, one of my all-time favorites.  There's more of an alternative rock edge this time around from the singles, which makes sense because that's where they started and this album is apparently fleshing out their first demos.

David Hasselhoff-Open Your Eyes: This isn't a joke, I've had a casual interest in David Hasselhoff since watching Internet Comedienne Allison Pregler's show Baywatching and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.  This also features a cover of Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" with Tracii Guns of L.A. Guns on Guitar.

The Beatles-Deluxe Abbey Road: The landmark swan song turns 50, so they're releasing a pair of deluxe anniversary editions with outtakes of each song.  The outtakes released thus far for "Oh!  Darling" and "Come Together" are worth a listen, and I'm hoping the "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" session is the popular bootleg recording where Paul McCartney sings lead.  Also, according to Spotify, today is the 50th anniversary of the album's original release.  Based on my knowledge of Beatles trivia, that means tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman and Alan White performing in Toronto and Saturday is the 50th anniversary of that band with Ringo Starr replacing Alan White recording "Cold Turkey."  Unless I can buy the two-disc version myself, I would love it for Christmas.

Kristin Chenoweth-For The Girls: I didn't know about this singer until a few weeks ago when Spotify showed her singing a duet of "I Will Always Love You" with Dolly Parton.  I'm curious for more, especially since some of the tracks sound like they could be covers, too and there's a duet with Ariana Grande.

Humble Pie-Tourin': The Official Bootleg Box Set, Vol. 4; Humble Pie was an early 1970s British rock band famous for launching the career of Peter Frampton, either writing or popularizing the song "I Don't Need No Doctor," and writing the song "30 Days in the Hole."  They present an exuberant rock sound and sometimes play blues, and the track listing suggests this will be a fun listen.

9/20/2019 Releases of Personal Note

Like the last two weeks, this one figures to be a big one on Spotify.  This one may also lead to some MP3 purchases down the line for more convenient access.

Michael Schenker Fest-Revelation: Last year, influential hard rock and heavy metal guitarist Michael Schenker made an album featuring all the singers he had worked with in his solo career; Gary Barden, Graham Bonnet, Robin McAuley and Doogie White.  This year, they return for a second album and Ronnie Romero, a singer from Spain famous for being the new singer for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow and The Ferrymen, sings a song as well.

Samantha Fish-Kill or Be Kind: A woman blues rocker, this album has had some nice singles and has been one of several reasons I've delved more into Blues music this year.  Of course, finding out through Spotify that lots of my favorite hard rock musicians crossed over into blues also helped.

Slash-Living the Dream Tour: Slash is one of my all-time favorite guitarists and this album showcases a live show with Myles Kennedy from earlier in the year.  This will only feature one Guns N Roses song, "Nightrain," but will showcase some of my favorites from Slash's solo career, like "World on Fire" and "Dr. Alibi," as well as songs from last year's album I may have missed on Spotify or in general.

Kobra and the Lotus-Evolution: I first heard of this band in 2014 when I saw them open for Def Leppard and KISS.  They are an intense, woman-sung metal band from Calgary and the vocals of their lead singer, Kobra Paige, are a highlight.  Songs I've enjoyed from them in the past include "High Priestess," "I Am I Am," "Triggerpulse" and their cover of "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac.  I'm really looking forward to hearing them again.

Lee Aaron-Power, Soul, Rock N Roll: A live album from another Canadian woman metal singer.  She also crosses over into blues a bit by covering Deep Purple's "Mistreated."  When I heard that on Spotify, I knew to keep an eye out for her and shortly after, this live album was announced.  I am looking forward to discovering other songs by her (and also seeing if the song called "Rock Candy" is a cover of the Montrose song).

Joel Paterson-Let it Be Guitar: An instrumental guitar album that covers The Beatles.  I love The Beatles and I'm usually a fan of Beatles covers, having heard them from a variety of artists.  From the track listing, this might be in the same area as Chet Atkins' Beatles cover album, released while The Beatles were popular, which was a solid guitar album with nice harmonica playing.  I haven't run into many bad Beatles covers, so this should be good.

Best surprise releases of last Friday

My weekly albums that I'm looking forward to (there will be a new entry tomorrow) just focus on full albums as I can't predict singles.  However, two great singles were released last week by musicians I'm a big fan of, so I want to shine a bit of a spotlight on them.

-Don't Call Me Angel: Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana del Rey; I saw a teaser for this on Miley's Facebook page, so I knew a new single was getting released and from the caricatures, it likely featured Ariana Grande, but I wasn't expecting a catchy earworm about being an independent woman.  It's fun and sexy and a good modern pop listen and even more, the full title of the single indicates this is a theme song to an upcoming movie.  The full title is "Don't Call Me Angel (Charlie's Angels)" and due to what the name meant, I wasn't sure if this was a TV show theme or for a new movie until I went to the movies on Saturday with a friend.  Yes, there's a new Charlie's Angels movie coming out on November 1st.  I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to see it though, my highest priority movie for the rest of the year is Frozen II and it wasn't advertised before the movie I saw, so I didn't see any footage.  I did see a teaser for the next DCEU film, Birds of Prey, which will feature the return of the character Harley Quinn, which I'm really looking forward to.

-What's My Name: Ringo Starr; Some people at 79 would decide to go home and retire to a tranquil, uncomplicated life.  Others release the first single of their new album, due out in late October.  The fun part of this song is Ringo listing his many accomplishments, leading into a chorus of him asking "What's My Name?" answered with a crowd or backing singers replying "Ringo!"  It's honestly amazing that he's still releasing music and really fun music that you want to keep playing and make you look forward to a full ten-track album featuring him singing and drumming.  In the world of music, one Starr shines the brightest.

9/13/2019 Releases of Personal Note

Here are the albums I'm aware of being released tonight at 9:00 PDT that personally interest me and why.

The Hu-The Gereg: This is a Mongolian Rock group who will open for BabyMetal at the show I'm seeing next month and this is their debut album.  Their four singles are worth listening to at least for a trial, the group specializes in making bass scale music, the sounds low and deep, but they don't use loud guitars or drums to punctuate it, so it's low, but not aggressively loud.

The Defiants-Zokusho: Frontiers Records SRL, an Italian music company, has contracts for quite a few 80s hard rock and heavy metal groups, such as Stryper, Whitesnake, The Graham Bonnet Band and Geoff Tate's projects.  They'll also make supergroups from these bands, such as Spirits of Fire, Sweet and Lynch and Dream Child.  The Defiants are made of members of Danger Danger and the music from this album thus far is good 80s-style hard rock.

Blacktop Mojo-Under the Sun: Blacktop Mojo is a Southern Rock band I tried backing on PledgeMusic once, though I ran too low on funds before they reached 100% and had to cancel.  I've since been able to track down some of their music on Spotify.  The band sounds good, the music is fierce and aggressive, and may be Southern Metal in some cases, like Molly Hatchet or Blackfoot.  They've made a good cover of Aerosmith's "Dream On" as well, so this album sounds interesting.

Kris Barras Band-Light it Up: This is a British Blues Rock band.  Their guitar work is reminiscent of ZZ Top, and Amazon.com actually says Billy Gibbons is in the band, though the music video clips don't show him.  Regardless, this is good Blues Rock and the best new Blues for this year I've heard on Spotify.

Alice Cooper-Breadcrumbs: This is actually Alice Cooper's second release this year, he released a Hollywood Vampires album back in June.  I always enjoy his music, especially the wide variety of guest stars, but this EP seems to just feature his own band.  That's still good, though, because Alice Cooper has an ear for talent and his recording band is great at hard rock and heavy metal.

KXM-Circle of Dolls: A supergroup made of Ray Luzier, the drummer for Korn, Doug Pinnick, the bassist and singer for King's X, and George Lynch, the guitarist for Lynch Mob.  You can see they got their name by combining letters from the bands they're in.  Doug Pinnick is a great singer, I first heard him do a hard rock cover of "Taxman" with Steve Lukather on guitar, though most retail sources credit it to Geoff Tate, Michael Wilton, Craig Goldy, Rudy Sarzo and Simon Wright.  That group instead did the great metal version of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" on the same album, which is up with Elton John and The Flaming Lips with Miley Cyrus for my favorite covers of that song.  Anyway, KXM is a good hard rock band, and has produced some really great rock and roll on their first two albums.  The singles for this one are pretty good, too and I'm hoping to find even more great rock on album as a whole.

Favorite Album Reviews 5

Booker T and the MGs-McLemore Avenue (1970): Abbey Road was an extremely influential and popular album even as soon as it was released.  The next year, American group Booker T & the MGs made an instrumental album that covered most of Abbey Road, putting a good portion of the songs into three medleys.  The only songs not present are "Octopus's Garden," "Oh! Darling," "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Her Majesty," which shows that the artists were capable of handling most of the moods and styles of Abbey Road, mostly with only four instruments, electric guitar, keyboards, bass and drums.  The keyboards and guitar work are solid and it's a good album for fans of Beatles covers.  There's a recent remastered version that contains the group's other Beatles covers, including "You Can't Do That," "Day Tripper," Eleanor Rigby" and "Lady Madonna."

Led Zeppelin-Houses of the Holy (1973): Their next album after IV, Houses of the Holy showcases more of Led Zeppelin's various styles and some of their best songs.  The driving "The Song Remains the Same" became the title for the group's concert film, with live performances often leading into the next track, "The Rain Song" being a love ballad allegedly brought about by a comment George Harrison gave to John Bonham.  "Over the Hills and Far Away" was a concert staple since the year before the album was released, with Robert Plant adding "Acapulco Gold" after the line "a pocket full of gold" in most live performances.  The next track is the funk-laden jam session "The Crunge," which ends with Robert Plant asking if anyone's seen the bridge.  It's a hilarious moment that doesn't get old.  "Dancing Days" is the next one, a fairly straightforward rocker they also would perform as early as 1972.  The lyrics go from understandable (Dancing Days are here again as the summer evening shows, I got my flower, I got my power, I got my woman who knows) to strange (I saw a lion, he was standing alone with a tadpole in a jar).  The next, D'yer Maker (pronounced Jamaica), shows Zeppelin performing reggae, and they do a good job.  The spooky No Quarter became a live hit, and Heart has produced a great live cover as well.  The Ocean finishes the album and has become one of Zeppelin's most popular anthems with its catchy riff, fun lyrics about singing to the big audiences and exciting drumming.  One of my favorite endorsements for the whole album was in Sammy Hagar's supergroup Chickenfoot's song "Big Foot;" "I got Houses of the Holy on the box, I got it all cranked up for Joe, yeah that **** rocks!"


Rainbow-Rising (1976): This album probably didn't receive much notice when first released, but is easily a huge influence on what made the heavy metal of the 1980s the way it was and how it similarly influenced metal bands beyond.  Ronnie James Dio and Ritchie Blackmore composed six songs for this album and Blackmore's driving riffs, combined with Dio's lyrics about fantasy elements, influenced Rob Halford of Judas Priest and at least the bands Iron Maiden and Jorn.  It starts with talking about the "Tarot Woman," a figure from a fairground who can kill a man.  The next track, "Run with the Wolf," contains several fantastic lyrics related to running through a snowy landscape at night and fighting evil forces.  "Starstruck" tells of a woman obsessed to the point "I could fly to the moon, but she'd still find a way to be there."  There's a self-explanatory song called "Do You Close Your Eyes" (exempt from the title is the follow-up phrase "when you're making love").  The last two are intense, "Stargazer," an over 8-minute track of an evil wizard who has kidnapped a huge populace to build a tower for astrological purposes.  When they have finished, he climbs to the top and falls, dying.  "A Light in the Black," the 8 minute track that follows, according to Ronnie James Dio, is about the populace running in panic, wondering where to go and what to do with their newfound freedom.  Intense work that influenced heavy metal's desire to write stories dealing with mythology, kings, queens and bloody battles between larger than life figures.

Top 7 Movies

    Back in 2016, I was active on Twitter, following people who interested me and would lift me up emotionally.  I would follow the hashtags and on some occasions, even try to contribute something to them.  One that stuck with me ever since then was "Top 7 Movies."  Everyone who watches movies usually has favorites, but narrowing it down to such a small number seems hard.  I remember Tegan and Sara posted theirs, though I also recall I hadn't seen any of theirs.  I posted what were mine at the time, but as films kept getting released and I rewatched older movies I hadn't in some time, the list kept changing.  At one point, I scrapped the idea and thought it impossible.  However, at this point in 2019, I have gotten a new list of my Top 7 movies which I would like to share now.  These don't really have an order to them, but I know these are the movies that this year have given me the most.  I am going to list them chronologically.
1964-Godzilla vs. Mothra: The fourth Godzilla film, directed by Ishiro Honda and released in both Japan and the United States in the same year.  This is, in my opinion, the perfect Japanese giant monster film.  Godzilla's rampages are structured well, the military goes from fruitless plan to fruitless plan and it's the first time Godzilla and Mothra met.  I personally prefer the US version with the added scene of the Frontier Missile Cruisers.
1973-Godspell: A musical based on the Book of Matthew, written by Stephen Schwartz, who would later write Wicked.  It takes the familiar Biblical stories about Jesus and brings them to life in 1970s New York City, showing everyday people being called from their boring lives and entering the exciting live of being Disciples.  It makes God's story modern without losing anything and adds an aesthetic that reminds me of some of my favorite Classic Rock experiences.  It's a way to show there's nothing wrong with listening to The Concert for Bangladesh, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd or any of the chart toppers of the day, just remember God gave them their skill and calls you to help people in need.
1994-Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla: In High School, a lot of classes asked me what my favorite movie was and I would answer this one.  The main reason was that it's a very unique entry in the Godzilla series, where he fights a doppelganger of himself from space.  The UN force typically tasked with fighting Godzilla helps him fight SpaceGodzilla, and Mothra's Fairies appear throughout the film.  Megumi Odaka is also in rare form as Miki Saegusa, asking for those who want to attack Godzilla to understand he has feelings like humans do.
2013-Frozen: It took me a year to actually see this movie and so much time has passed I'm not sure what took me so long, probably budget.  This film introduced me to the great acting and singing of Idina Menzel, who I would see live in 2015, and is a great story about overcoming fear and family sticking together through hardship.  I can see a lot of myself and the people around me in the main characters and it's great how Disney can still make great family entertainment decades after you were first introduced to them.  Also, "Let It Go" is one of my favorite songs.
2014-Like A Country Song: This is the only one of the seven that I think was never released in theaters.  It's an independent Christian film, but unlike so many that have right-wing values beating your face in and stereotyping non-Christians, this is a heartfelt story about a broken family finding healing.  It stars Joel Smallbone as a young man who wants to be a country singer, but he acts selfishly and has a drinking problem.  His father, played by Billy Ray Cyrus, who he thought was dead since he was a kid, comes back to town for work, finding support with a men's group led by GregAlan Williams (who played Detective Garner on the TV show Baywatch, I know this because I watch Allison Pregler on YouTube).  When they meet, it starts a rough road to reconciliation that ultimately makes Joel's character a better man.
2017-Wonder Woman: I was introduced to DC characters first, so the DCEU has always been a bit more of a priority since it became a cinematic universe.  This one took Superhero movies to the next level and hasn't been matched yet.  Gal Gadot became one of my favorite actresses here, bringing Wonder Woman to life and I love the No Man's Land sequence.  This year, I also watched the film during Lent, and the scene where Wonder Woman meets Ares is very fitting for that time.  It also calls on us to do more than what is easy.
2019-Godzilla; King of the Monsters: The 2014 Godzilla movie was one of the best licensed movies I ever saw, and was a long awaited redemption from Devlin and Emmerich's 1998 "couldn't care less" abomination.  Naturally, a sequel was to follow, but the film wasn't going to be released for five years because they had hoped Gareth Edwards was to return to direct.  He chose not to, so Legendary picked Michael Dougherty, a younger director who happened to be a major Godzilla fan.  Toho was willing to put Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah in the film, as well, making this a major release.  The battles between Godzilla and his arch-nemesis King Ghidorah are intense and amazing.  Mothra plays a great part, being Godzilla's closest monster ally in the film, the film even hinting the two are a couple.  Millie Bobbie Brown is great for her age, and Ziyi Zhang's Dr. Ilene Chen joins Miki Saegusa and Kayoko Ann Patterson among my favorite women in Godzilla films.  Ken Watanabe gets one of the best scenes that keeps resonating with me, his character sacrifices himself by setting off a nuclear warhead to revive and strengthen Godzilla so he can save the planet from Ghidorah.  At the end of this film, you will know Godzilla truly is King of the Monsters.

Favorite Album Reviews part 4/Releases 9/6/2019

Sweet Oblivion feat. Geoff Tate-Sweet Oblivion (2019): I will admit, I kind of like Geoff Tate more than Todd LaTorre when it comes to Queensryche singers.  This mostly stems from seeing Tate in a more personal acoustic show two years ago and when I tried to see LaTorre's Queensryche this year, the opener was over half an hour late to the time on the ticket, forcing me to leave or risk my hostel reservation.  Like several artists this year (Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus, Sum 41 and Sammy Hagar), Geoff Tate chose this year's album to vent some political frustrations.  His album is straightforward, melodic metal with lyrics like "We lost control of the world and we blame the system."  It reminds me of one of my favorite songs from his Queensryche days, "Blood," released in 2003, though it's even more appropriate for these days.  Strongly recommended for Democrats who are fans of 80s Metal.

Only one review with this post, I'm now going to mention the releases I'm looking forward to for tomorrow for Spotify:

Allman Brothers Band-Live At the Fillmore West: A collection of recordings when The Allman Brothers Band played in San Francisco in 1970-1971.  Back in the days they jammed on blues for ten to twenty minutes and both Duane and Gregg Allman were in the band.

Black Star Riders-Another State of Grace: The Black Star Riders started as a new project from a Thin Lizzy guitarist, even including an Irish lead singer, though out of respect to deceased Thin Lizzy lead singer Phil Lynott, he gave it a new name.  Like Thin Lizzy, they are a fun hard rock band that deals with working-class issues.

The Highwomen-The project I'm looking forward to the most.  A country supergroup featuring Brandi Carlile from Northwest Washington that sings about feminism with a sense of humor and lifts people up.  They've already released three great songs from the album plus a Fleetwood Mac cover for a movie and all have been great, I especially love the harmonies.

Death Cab For Cutie-The Blue EP: I must admit, I'm from Bellingham, the home of this band, but I've usually been more of a fan of the more underappreciated Sleater-Kinney, also from this town.  However, Death Cab For Cutie impressed me for this EP by making a song about the 1999 Pipeline disaster, a local event that killed two elementary school kids and a high school kid.  20 years later, it's strange to look back at that event that occurred when you were a kid as a man.

MUNA-Saves the World: I don't know much about this group, I found them in a Spotify Pride Month playlist, but I know they make good pop that's good to listen to and makes me feel better, so I like them.