Shortly after the quarantine/social distancing began, SSI caught me up on some payments they owed me because I informed them in January I had been laid off in January 2019. They proceeded to give me over $900 on March 20th. I used over $200 of that to buy some things I had my eyes on on amazon.com and I decided I should tell you about them.
Wonder Woman by G. Willow Wilson Vol. 1: One of my first
trade collection comic book purchases in some time, this revitalized my
interest in the series similar to how the 2017 movie did. In this one, Diana cannot find Themyscira,
but finds Ares, some talking mythological creatures from Themyscira and Aphrodite
in a fictitious country enduring a civil war.
Ares is trying to redeem his past deeds, but doesn’t succeed yet because
he doesn’t understand righteous justice, to not get involved in a conflict
rather than take the side that looks weaker.
Wonder Woman’s nemesis Veronica Cale also reappears and has the Grecian
deity Nemesis captive, though Nemesis is playing her so it can wreak havoc in
the modern world. The story is complex,
but relevant and the characters are likeable and humorous at times. I look forward to more.
Black Cat Vol. 1: Black Cat is a Marvel character best
described as Spider-Man’s version of Catwoman.
Most Catwoman comics play on her sympathies for the beaten-down in
society, but Black Cat’s comic comes across more like the movies “Ocean’s
Eleven” or “Entrapment,” except instead of banks and casinos, Black Cat is
taking non-super-powered souvenirs from superheroes’ houses. These include the deed to Manhattan and a
rare book on theoretical physics. It’s
fun to read and I’m looking forward to seeing how the threads interconnect.
Glenn Hughes Official Bootleg Box Set Volume 2: Glenn Hughes
is a rock and roll/funk/soul/blues/metal singer and bassist who started in the
power trio Trapeze, joined Deep Purple for their albums “Burn,” “Stormbringer”
and “Come Taste The Band” and last decade formed Black Country Communion with
Joe Bonamassa, Derek Shirinian and Jason Bonham. Last year, he joined the rock band The Dead
Daisies with lead guitarist Doug Aldrich, rhythm guitarist David Lowy and drummer
Deen Castronovo. He has a powerful soulful
voice and has earned the nickname “the voice of rock.” I consider him, his former bandmate David
Coverdale and Sammy Hagar in the same class of great and passionate rock
singers. This boxset contains 6 discs of
rare or never-before-released recordings made between 1993 and 2013.
Disc 1 is a collection of demos and rarities called “Incense
and Peaches,” which I’m guessing was named after Strawberry Alarm Clock’s
“Incense and Peppermints.” Fun Fact;
Strawberry Alarm Clock’s bassist, Ed King, would join Lynyrd Skynyrd as a
session musician for their first album, then became a full member as their
third guitarist for their second and third albums and the 1987 reunion tour
until 1995. He also co-wrote “Sweet Home
Alabama.” There are tracks that may have
been co-written and recorded with guitarist Ritchie Kotzen, but the box set’s
liner notes don’t list first names and the tracks are more funk-influenced than
what I’m used to from Kotzen. However,
the tone does sound like his. The disc
overall showcases Glenn Hughes blending funk, soul and rock sounds, it’s very
1970s and very fun, though the last two tracks are confusing; the first
inspired by the music of India, which hasn’t happened before or since with
Hughes’ music, then a barely audible answering machine message.
Disc 2 is a live performance at Borlรคnge, Sweden in 1993. It opens with a bang, or rather a “Burn,” the
title track of Hughes’ first album with Deep Purple released in 1974. What is interesting here is according to the
back, Hughes isn’t the bass player at this show, instead it’s a man named John
Leven while Hughes only sings in this performance. Hughes has also incorporated two guitar
players here, creating a great hair metal-like sound. There are also performances of songs from
Glenn Hughes’ Hughes-Thrall album, which is the closest he got to performing
Hair Metal in the studio. Hughes also
showcases a fair amount of blues, as well, even including a performance of
“House of the Rising Sun,” made famous by The Animals. Keyboardist Mic Michaeli performs especially
well on that, reminding me of Hughes’ old bandmate Jon Lord. Hits from Trapeze like “You Are the Music”
and “Coast To Coast” and other songs from Deep Purple make appearances, too,
including performances of “Gettin’ Tighter” (which starts with a tease of “Lay
Down, Stay Down,” another Deep Purple song from Glenn’s era) that leads into
“You Keep On Moving,” (dedicated to the late Tommy Bolin) then after a bit of
banter comes a performance of Deep Purple’s biggest hit, “Smoke On The Water,”
received with a notable increase in cheers.
Hughes actually wasn’t on that album, it was released two years before
he joined the band, it was sung by Ian Gillan and the bass was played by Roger
Glover. Just like the live performance
in Graz 1975 when Hughes WAS with Deep Purple, it leads into an impromptu
rendition of “Georgia On My Mind” sung with very little accompaniment. Overall, a wonderful performance.
Disc 3 features another performance in Sweden, though 4
months later, as well as 5 tracks from a 1995 show in Scotland. It begins with the live debut of a rocking
number called “The Liar.” The audience
is much more audible on the 1993 tracks on this disc than the last one, so you
can actually hear them sing along from time to time. Unfortunately, there are times when Glenn’s
voice is so echo-y it’s barely coherent.
“Georgia on my Mind” is on its own now as well as the final Swedish
encore. The audio quality of the
Scottish tracks is pretty bad, it reminds me of the early tracks of the first
Beatles Anthology, which were home recordings from 1957-1962 being released in
1995. Overall, I listened to disc 3
second to last before disc 6 and found it to be the least enjoyable of the
first five.
Disc 4 features a 1996 performance in Stockholm. It’s loud and fun and features several hits
from his days in Trapeze as well as “Gettin’ Tighter” from Deep Purple. Glenn showcases his great voice and great
personality to the crowd and even calls Stockholm a home away from home. The guitarist Joachim Marsh and keyboardist
Lars “Lasse” Pollack also do a great job bringing these songs to life.
Disc 5 continues in Stockholm with the same show, Hughes
performing “You Keep On Moving,” “You Fool No One” and “Burn” from his Deep
Purple days. Each is played with great
enthusiasm and excitement, it sounds like a show that would be fun to see
live. As a bonus, the disc then features
Glenn Hughes covering Ozzy Osbourne’s “Goodbye to Romance” and a 12-bar blues
original. The cover is especially nice
to hear, it made me look out the window and hope somehow, someway, Randy Rhoads
himself could hear his legacy live on 40 years after that album was released
and 38 years after his fatal plane crash (though the recording was made in 1992
according to the box set’s Amazon.com page).
Disc 6 covers a 2013 concert in Rome, so it’s Italy instead
of Sweden for a change. I just started
and already the audio quality is fantastic, with Glenn Hughes performing “Stormbringer.” The keyboard comes through in really great
clarity. Next is “Might Just Take Your
Life,” a track from the “Burn” album. It’s
a treat to hear as Coverdale’s Whitesnake didn’t perform this on their “Purple
Tour,” when they covered a lot of these days, and this song might’ve even been
on their album, but didn’t make it to the tour.
This leads directly into “Sail Away,” another song from “Burn.” Whitesnake did cover this in both album and
tour, but made it an acoustic number, while Hughes keeps it electric with a
driving pace. Glenn’s bass comes through
exceptionally clearly on the next track, “Black Cloud,” a Trapeze track. Next is one of my favorites, “Mistreated,” a
big blues piece from the “Burn” album.
Ritchie Blackmore liked it so much he kept it around with his band
Rainbow and had Ronnie James Dio sing it.
Whitesnake also resurrected it on the Purple Album and Purple Tour, and
this isn’t even my first time hearing Hughes sing it, that would be the “Live
At Wolverhampton” album. The audience
also sings along at parts, which is fun.
The guitar and bass playing and Glenn’s passionate screams help make
this track work every step of the way.
This is followed by a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” showing
off Glenn Hughes’ funkier side. “Gettin’
Tighter” is also performed, with a dedication to various friends Glenn Hughes
has lost in the music business, among them Ronnie James Dio. The guitarist also does a great solo that
sounds like Jimmy Page playing “The Crunge” and Glenn Hughes plays a little
bass solo before a nice back and forth between him and the guitarist with the drummer.
(that is, he is playing with the
guitarist and the drummer occasionally interrupts them). This leads directly into “You Keep On Moving.” Glenn’s vocals haven’t sounded better on this
song in this boxset and the guitar is amazing, too. The second-to-last track is a rocking track
called “Soul Mover,” featuring a solid riff and good keyboard keyboard playing
while Glenn sings passionately. There’s
also a chorus where the audience sings A Capella. “Soul Mover” launches into the final track, a
performance of “Burn.” This is up there
with some of the best recordings of this song I’ve heard, the 1974 studio
recording, the 1975 live performance at Graz, the 2011 Black Country Communion
live performance and the 2015 Whitesnake studio recording. The drums, the guitar, the keyboard, Glenn’s
bass and vocals, it’s all great.
Overall, aside from disc 3 and depending on your tolerance
for the funk and soul on disc 1, I would recommend this to anyone who loved
Deep Purple Mark III and Mark IV. Gene
Simmons was wrong, Rock is NOT dead.
Fairy Tail; Dragon Cry: An anime tie-in movie and my first
exposure proper to the Fairy Tail anime.
It’s in the ballpark of my favorite anime tie-in movie, the Sailor Moon
S movie, but it’s not tying it for first, mostly because the plot shifts so
dramatically for the last act that it feels like a different movie has taken
over. It was a really fun movie, though,
and hearing the characters’ voices after reading the Fairy Girls manga was
nice, most sounded around what I expected them to, the biggest surprise was
Juvia refers to herself in third person in the manga but doesn’t here, using
“I” instead. The humor of the Fairy
Girls manga was very present in the movie, which made it very enjoyable. It was enjoyably surprising to see Carla, the
talking flying cat who supervises the team, become a humanoid form, as well as
the big villain of the movie to not just be a dragon, but a dragon that looked
like someone gene-spliced SpaceGodzilla and Godzilla video game monster
Jyaramu. Erza Scarlet and Wendy Marvell
were as awesome as the manga suggested (Wendy more so, she doesn’t usually
fight this much in Fairy Girls and here, she can also fly and breathe out
gale-force winds) and I actually liked Natsu, who I thought I wouldn’t like. Fair warning, though, if you don’t like
gratuitous cheesecake and fan service, you won’t like this.
In This Moment-Mother: I don’t normally go for “metalcore”
(though I’ve picked up Sabaton’s collaborations with Apocalyptica this year)
but this was a pretty good album. The
highlight was the three hard rock women singers covering “We Will Rock You,”
but there were four other tracks I really loved and would rank among my
favorite metal tracks thus far this year, which is really saying something
given the awesome releases by Black Swan and Ozzy Osbourne in February. “As Above, So Below” was the third single
from the album and features the message that what you do will come back to you,
in fact, “what you give comes back threefold.”
The title track (not a Pink Floyd or John Lennon cover, sorry) seems to
be a calling out for forgiveness from a woman deity and a promise to be
rededicated to her. This, at least, is
how I interpret it. “Holy Man” (not a
Deep Purple cover, sorry again) continues an underlying religious theme, saying
“the worst sinner needs a Holy Man.” And
as a Christian, I can say it feels especially hard to find a Holy Man these
days! “Lay Me Down” is an aggressive
song about fighting back against an enemy determined to kill you, once shouting
“you can kill me one thousand times,” but he will never truly end her. Reminds me of both video games and how Dr.
Strange solved his problem. If you like
metal music, I’d recommend at least those five songs, but I’d actually
recommend you buy the whole album and listen to it once to see what suits YOU
best.
Pearl Jam-Gigaton: Had to spend some cash on the men of
Seattle. Gigaton is a varied album that
is 100% Seattle and 100% Pearl Jam, featuring soft songs, aggressive songs and
songs with a heavy Native American influence.
My absolute favorite tracks were “Who Ever Said” and “Quick Escape,”
mostly for the guitar work of Mike McCready, but I also love the lyrics. In “Who Ever Said,” Eddie Vedder claims
something along the lines of “who ever said it’s all been said gave up on
satisfaction,” reminding us part of our joy has to come from within, we need to
let go of being so cynical we don’t try something new. In
“Quick Escape,” the lyrics are about escaping the clutches of our toxic current
administration. It can be hard to do,
what with media and in my case, neighbors who think of him as the second
coming, but it is possible if you direct your life, focus on doing justice in
your neighborhood in your own small way and find your ways to be happy as time
goes on. Music is one of those ways, and
I’m glad I picked this up.
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