Last week was quite an experience musically, as several great songs were released, causing me to run out of budget for the month. First and foremost was the Kaiju Crescendo album, which featured the first times I can recall Michiru Oshima’s Godzilla themes were released in the West. It also had a good medley from The Mysterians, a formative movie for both Koichi Kawakita (special effects director; Godzilla vs. Biollante to Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Rebirth of Mothra 1 and 2, his love of the film is why Mogera is the robot in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla) and Shinji Higuchi (assistant special effects director; Godzilla 1984, special effects director; Heisei Gamera trilogy, director/special effects director; Attack on Titan parts 1 and 2, Shin Godzilla, friend of Hideaki Anno, the character Shinji Ikari in Neon Genesis Evangelion is named after him). I always loved the military march in this movie and am glad it’s getting more recognition.
Other good releases included the song “3 Way” from Chip Z’nuff’s solo album, “Ghost Story” by Carrie Underwood, Rush’s 1981 live version of “Limelight,” Def Leppard released the first single, “Kick,” off their new album, due out in late May, which they will play parts of on the Stadium Tour, which I bought a ticket to in January 2020. Frontiers Records Supergroup Skills, featuring Brad Gillis of Night Ranger on guitar and Billy Sheehan of Sons of Apollo on bass, released their second single, a powerful love ballad comparable to Whitesnake or Bon Jovi, thanks to impressive vocals by Renan Zonta, their singer from Brazil. Apocalyptica, Franky Perez and Geezer Butler (of Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s 1989 tour fame) released a nice ballad called “I’ll Get Through It,” while K-Pop singer Solar released an amusing throwback song called “Big Booty,” ironically timed as a video of a young Korean woman telling a massive bodybuilder she wants “a big fat butt, like Western women,” with her arms gestured wide, has been making the internet rounds. This is also funny to me, because I knew a girl in 6th grade who once declared “I like big, fat butts!” Though I think she was probably talking about American football players.
This week has a few interesting-sounding releases. First and foremost is the long-awaited (by me) tribute to Leslie West. His death occurred towards the end of 2020, when two covers of his song “Never in my Life,” were released, one by Ace Frehley, the other by metal supergroup BPMD. On this album, it will be performed by Dee Snider and George Lynch. He is also famous for writing “Mississippi Queen,” a song covered in studio by Ozzy Osbourne and live by Billy Ray Cyrus. This time, Slash will be providing the guitar, I am unfamiliar with the singer. The two other tracks I’m looking forward to on the album feature Ronnie Romero, who had a great cover of Foreigner’s “Girl On The Moon” earlier this week. Here, he teams with The Doors’ Robby Krieger for West Bruce and Laing’s “The Doctor,” and Dixie Dregs/Deep Purple’s Steve Morse for that band’s “Why Dontcha?” Machine Gun Kelly’s new album is due out, as is a new album by Hall and Oates. Reba McIntyre has a new Gospel collection scheduled for release, and lastly, Joan Jett has an acoustic album (rather, rock album with acoustic instruments, in her words) planned featuring acoustic versions of some of her well-known and not-so well-known songs and covers.
I have managed to play Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and counting ports, it is my 4th favorite Switch game. The fighting with beloved characters like Rise Kujikawa and Mitsuru is fun on its own, but they have a story mode to learn more about why the characters would fight at all. My favorite parts have been Yukiko’s storyline for reminding me that even when you feel alone, you still have friends and family rooting for you, and when Rise meets Elizabeth, not just because Laura Bailey and Tara Platt have an incredibly well-acted conversation, but because it reminds you to keep going until you’ve truly exhausted all options, don’t let despair get the better of you. And in this dark time of homophobic and transphobic legislation is Texas and Florida, blatant racism in the Senate and the war in Ukraine, these lessons are needed now more than ever.
I also have something to confess; I am scared of Twitter; it reminds me too much of DeviantArt. I think every time I post an opinion, a joke or something that makes me happy that isn’t classic rock, someone’s going to come out of the woodwork and trash it, calling me stupid, retarded, an SJW fag, a communist and a satanist all for what I think, feel and like. I have to leave after I post the Fire Emblem Warriors; Three Hopes screenshots. I also only have the storage space on my Switch for 3 more games, that one, Pokémon Legends Arceus and Splatoon 3. I don’t want any others and I don’t want to be any more involved than I already am. Much as I love the serotonin from Laura Bailey, Tara Platt, Yuri Lowenthal, Brittney Karbowski, Faye Mata, Elizabeth Maxwell, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Erin Fitzgerald and Cristina Vee, the flak I get for liking Edelgard and the DCEU and the actresses in it is so intense I just want to stop, and I know there are people looking to “educate me” on politics and religion through violent lectures where they tear down video games, comic books and anything Democrats use for entertainment. I’m sorry, but this is my resignation notice for them. I will still be on my blog and Facebook.
If there’s any interest, I made the best possible (in my opinion) version of the Top 10 Favorite Bassists playlist:
Note, it starts at 10 and goes to 1, so 1 is 10 and 10 is 1:
1.) I Don’t Know (Studio version)-Ozzy Osbourne
2.) Another One Bites The Dust-Queen
3.) Hollow-Alice in Chains
4.) The Crow-Black Country Communion
5.) Breath-Pearl Jam
6.) The Crunge-Led Zeppelin
7.) Eat Me-Ozzy Osbourne
8.) Crazy Train (Live 1981)-Ozzy Osbourne
9.) Mikey Bass Solo (Live)-Sammy Hagar and the Circle
10.) NIB (Live…Gathered in their masses version)-Black Sabbath
Also, here’s the Top 11 Favorite Singers playlist.
1.) Be Yourself-Audioslave
2.) Iron Man (Live, Birmingham 2017)-Black Sabbath
3.) Doctor, Doctor-Jeff Scott Soto and Michael Schenker
4.) Nothing Else Matters-Miley Cyrus, Andrew Watt, Elton John, Robert Trujillo, Yo Yo Ma, Chad Smith
5.) Stormbringer-Whitesnake
6.) Like No Other 2021-The Dead Daisies
7.) I Can’t Drive 55 (Live)-Sammy Hagar and the Circle
8.) Simple Man (Live, Fox Theater, Atlanta GA, July 1976)-Lynyrd Skynyrd
9.) Stairway to Heaven (Live, Los Angeles, CA, 1972)-Led Zeppelin
10.) Jet City Woman-Queensryche
11.) Breaking the Law (Live, Wacken, 2015)-Judas Priest
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