A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – October 24 to October 30

4 Years Ago (2017)

Attention is fleeting.

Attention is there and then it’s gone.

Or it never goes away because fans care about the artist; love what the artists does, their music and their connection to them via social media.

But some of those fans will grow and change and fall out of love with what the artists does.

And what will the artist do to get back their attention.

STREAMING

All the action is in streaming. The oldsters hate it and the youngsters embrace it.

Personally, I thought all the 80s acts I grew up with would re-enter the charts because streaming would allow them to compete with the new acts. But back in 2017, none of the old acts had hit a billion streams.

Used to be you weren’t a star until you got a record deal and heard your song on the radio.

Then it was MTV.

Then it was YouTube and now you’re not a star until you see your track in the Spotify Top 50 and just recently your not a star if you don’t have a song with a billion plus streams.

The media keeps pushing stories about the small payments of recorded music to artists and songwriters, however revenues are going up on the back of streaming. If you ain’t making money, get a better deal because streaming will pay you forever.

COPYRIGHT

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was speaking out against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), accusing the RIAA of asking the US government to apply copyright law the way the RIAA wishes it to be applied.

Because if Copyright is there to reward creators then there would no need for the Spinal Tap creators to take Vivendi/ Universal Music to the courts.

Both of these corporations are making up accounting transactions so the creators of the Spinal Tap movie and the soundtrack are STILL shown as being in debt to the studio/label.

Yep, you would pay off a home loan in 35 years, but in 2017, the Spinal Tap soundtrack still had a debt to the studio/label.

And all they wanted to do was take back their copyrights. Because Copyright law was written to allow the creator to take back their copyrights after 35 years.

80’s AND TODAY

80’s
It was hard being a musician
Today
It’s still hard being a musician.

80’s
You wrote and performed music.
Today
You write and perform music, maintain an online presence, manage yourself, promote yourself, have to know your legal rights, organise your own shows, licensing, merchandise and more.

80’s
Artists did the hard work of building up a local fan base, city by city
Today
Artists want to take over the world in an instant.

80’s
The labels and the media measured attention via sales of recorded music.
Today
Well, attention is measured by likes, shares, views, streams, sales of physical, sales of digital, sales of tickets and so forth.

80’s
MTV was king.
Today
YouTube is king.

80’s
To discover new music, we needed to rely on a knowledgeable record store operator, gatekeepers, radio and expensive import magazines.
Today
We don’t know when new music comes out? There is just too much noise. Spotify Release Friday is one avenue. We have Google, YouTube, Bandcamp, Sound Cloud, Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, blogs and many more.

80’s
Gatekeepers decided who would get signed or not
Today
The internet decimated the barrier to entry.

GETTING PAID

Do you wanna get Paid?

The ones who write the songs always get paid.

Sting gets paid for “Every Breath You Take”. He’s listed as the sole songwriter, but the guitar arpeggio pattern created over the synth/bass lines from Sting’s original demo is the iconic part of the song. And it wasn’t written by Sting, but Sting gets the payments.

Ozzy Osbourne gets paid for all of the “Bark At The Moon” album songs as he “supposably wrote” it all by himself.

Bon Scott wasn’t kidding when he said “getting ripped off on the pay” in “Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock’N’Roll)”.

But in the 80’s, two things happened to the music scene.

MTV made artists into global superstars and the CD revolution cashed up the labels while all the fans replaced their vinyl and cassette collections with CD’s.

Suddenly you had record label execs flying private and living in mansions on the backs of monies earned from songs the artists wrote.

Motley Crue almost had their career derailed when Elektra Records refused to promote the band post Vince. They got Vince back and the label still didn’t deliver on promises. Nikki Sixx along with manager Allen Kovacs went into battle. They got back all the rights to the Motley’s songs, left Elektra Records, formed Motley Records, took control of the Motley narrative and re-invented the band to become a commercial behemoth from 2003 onwards.

And we moved from Napster to iTunes to YouTube to Spotify in little over a decade while at the same time MySpace tanked and got replaced by Facebook, Yahoo lost the search battle to Google, video stores lost out to Netflix and Amazon became the one stop shop.

It turns out the public is paying for music. It’s called streaming and if the Spotify royalties the artist is getting are low it’s because not enough people are streaming their songs. Then again, if you are on a label, the label will be taking the lion’s share of the royalty.

And with streaming, every artist is competing with Metallica, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, AC/DC and the whole history of music.

The power of music is in the song, not the distribution system. And if we are listening, artists will get rich and have more power than they know what to do with. It’s the modern music business.

8 Years Ago (2013)

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

I was listening to “Disarm the Descent.”

I came to Killswitch Engage late. I didn’t listen to their first three albums.

It was a “Guitar World” issue from 2007. At that time the magazine still came with a DVD of bonus content. One of the bonuses was a lesson from the Killswitch guitarists on how to play “My Curse” and after watching it, I was hooked.

So I asked my bass player friend to burn me all of their albums, which he did.

By the time, their 2009 self-titled album came out; I was purchasing it without even listening to a single note. So free does pay as I became a buyer of their next album.

Sales data can show what is in demand at a certain point in time; however the reach and the popularity of a certain band or a certain album cannot be properly measured until many years later.

Remember that history is written by the winners. In music, the winners are the artists or bands that outlast the competition.

VITO BRATTA

The record labels didn’t have no moral obligation to keep their hard rock rosters in tact. The only obligation they had is to their shareholders and their bottom line.

So with every major label signing bands from Seattle, the poor old hard rock bands that made the labels billions over the last 10 years suddenly disappeared. White Lion was one of them. The label never dropped them, however they would have if the band stayed together.

White Lion finished up because Vito Bratta became conflicted. Disillusioned.

The recording business only cared about short-term income and total control.

Vito wanted longevity and he didn’t like how White Lion was seen as part of the same movement of bands that he was commenting about. He was an artist competing in a game of rock stars. He was an artist competing in a game of profits. With each game, there is a winner and a loser.

By 1991, every artist needed a hit to get recognition. The album format was already dead due to MTV playing the “HIT” video. If a band had a hit single then people were interested in buying the album to see what that band is all about.

This was Vito’s disillusionment. When he made an appearance on the Eddie Trunk show, he said words to the effect like “how do you write a hit single” when he was talking about Big Game, the following up to Pride.

White Lion was never a band that played the singles game, however the industry forced them into it and their main musical songwriter started to second guess himself as a creator.

CHARTS

What do the Billboard charts tell us?

On the Rock and Metal chart we had the following list for the week;

Korn – Paradigm Shift (1 Week on The Chart)
Alter Bridge – Fortress (1 Week On The Chart)
Cage The Elephant – Melophobia (1 Week On The Chart)
Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington – High Rise (EP) (1 Week On The Chart)
Avenged Sevenfold – Hail To The King (7 Weeks On The Chart)
Dance Gavin Dance – Acceptance Speech (1 Week On The Chart)
Metallica – Through The Never (Soundtrack) (3 Weeks On The Chart)
Five Finger Death Punch – The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell: Volume 1 (11 Weeks On The Chart)
Dream Theater – Dream Theater (3 Weeks On The Chart)
Rush – Vapor Trails: Remixed (2 Weeks On The Chart)
Asking Alexandria – From Death To Destiny (10 Weeks On The Chart)
Skillet – Rise (16 Weeks On The Chart)
Volbeat – Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies (27 Weeks On The Chart)
Black Sabbath – 13 (18 Weeks On The Chart)
Bring Me The Horizon – Sempiternal (27 Weeks On The Chart)

Special mention:

Imagine Dragons – Night Visions (58 Weeks On The Chart)

So the above charts show me a few things:

That the fans love new music. There are 5 albums that have their first week on the charts.
After a week, if that new music is not great, we move on very quickly.
If that new music is great, we spread the word and the album hangs around in the “charts”. Avenged Sevenfold, Five Finger Death Punch, Skillet and Volbeat are a few bands that are hanging around.
If you create a group of songs that connect, expect to be hanging around for a long time. Imagine Dragons is one such band.
Artists need to adapt their business practices. Instead of spending months on an album, just to see it fade away within 6 weeks, they should be releasing more frequently. It doesn’t have to be original songs all the time. It could be acoustic versions, cover versions, unique live versions, blog posts and so on.
Here today, gone tomorrow is the modern paradigm. Artist need to adapt, so that they are here today, everyday.

Expectations (Alter + Adapt) = Survival

So what do all of our favourite bands/artists keep on doing?

They keep on spending a lot of time writing and recording 10 to 15 songs, just so they can group them together and release them as an album.

This “expectation” worked once upon a time.

However it is not working today.

But Metal and Rock artists still have time as metal fans are loyal and still purchase the “album”.

Check out the following comment from Anita Elberse and her book “Blockbusters: Hit-Making, Risk-Taking, And The Big Business Of Entertainment”. It is probably the best advice that any artist will get.

“…out of a total of 870,000 albums that sold at least one copy in 2011, 13 album titles sold more than a million copies each, together accounting for 19 million copies sold.

That’s 0.001 percent of all titles accounting for 7 percent of sales.

The top 1,000 albums generated about half of all the sales, and the top 10,000 albums around 80 percent of sales.

Deep in the tail, 513,000 titles or nearly 60 percent of the assortment, sold fewer than 10 copies each, together making up half a percent of total sales.”

513,000 album titles sold fewer than 10 copies each. So if you are one of those 513,000 bands that sold less than 10 copies, what do you do?

You obviously expected a better return on your investment. A lot of artists will give up, a lot of bands will break up and then there will be a small percentage who will adapt and alter their expectations.

The competition for listener’s attention is huge.

Like the Seventies, the Eighties and the Nineties, there are still only a select few of releases that end up selling more than a million.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Australian Method Series: Voyager – Colours In The Sun

Voyager is a band from the state of Western Australia. The band is made up of vocalist Daniel Estrin, guitarists Simone Dow and Scott Kay, bassist Alex Canion and drummer Ashley Doodkorte.

“Colours In The Sun” was released on 1 November 2019 via the label Season Of Mist. And for all my North American pals, please take note of the proper spelling of colours.

And they’ve been at for a while, since the early 2000’s. On Spotify I can see seven studio albums and I think there are a few EP’s in there as well which are not on the streaming services. I must admit, their band name reminded me of Star Trek, so I had to check em out.

Colours

A synth intro. Upbeat and danceable.

Once the vocals kick in there is a sense of euphoria to em.

And there is a lot of syncopated guitar, bass and bass drum like riffs. Perfect.

Severomance

More synths.

But it’s the drum/bass and guitar work which I like, with a pop like vocal melody.

This one just kept growing on me to become my favourite track.

And I like the guitar solo on this.

Brighstar

The keyboard/synth riff to start it off with the metronomic kick drum reminds me of Toto and I like it.

In the process it quickly become a favourite.

Saccharine Dream

A shimmering effect and a riff made up of single notes starts the song off.

Then a distorted guitar kicks in.

At 2.15, a normal 4/4 drum beat kicks in and from all the frantic beats, it’s amazing to hear just a simple beat. A stock beat.

Who would have thought?

So far a four punch knockout combo.

Entropy

A fast keyboard riff is played, with the guitars providing a djent like rhythm as its foundation.

Einar Solberg from Leprous (which is another favourite progressive metal act I am into) guests.

And I expected more from this song.

Reconnected

The fast alternate picking and double kick lines reminds me of Evergrey and its cabaret like piano line makes it sound unsettling.

It’s more like Power Metal.

Now or Never

It’s like a 90 second intermission, a short song to transition with. It has layers of synths with digital delay and a poppy vocal melody.

Sign Of The Times

The synths again and I like how they give the song a techno Ibiza like feel. But make no mistake, this is a progressive metal band.

And the Chorus can definitely etch out a living on the pop charts.

Water Over The Bridge

Man this song is heavy.

“The Distance” from Evergrey comes to mind during the Intro.

The video clip is hilarious as it shows the guitarists putting on some serious “stink-face” looks as they jam it.

Runaway

The synths again. They feel uplifting.

Then the guitars, bass and drums come in, to support the synth riffs.

And press play for the keyboard solo.

It’s a concise album, coming in less than 45 minutes and by the time it’s done, I’m thinking where did the time go, as it all finished so fast.

So if you’re into progressive music, then Voyager deserves your ear.

A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

The Record Vault: Digital Summer

“Breaking Point” came out in 2012.

It comes on the back of a Kickstarter campaign to fan fund the album and tour. Like many successful fan funded projects, they surpassed their initial goal of $25,000.

And once the deadline passed, the band had received over $50,000.

They used the money to get outside producers to work on the album (and you notice the sound improvement immediately), to pay for a larger marketing campaign to promote the album and to finance a longer tour around the U.S.

Forget You

It features Clint Lowery, the lead guitarist from Sevendust.

It’s a great opener, more heavy rock than the “alternative metal” branding.

Check out the intro riff.

Now that I’m sober
I’m finally making up my mind
I can see who you really are

The great awakening from the haze.

Shut your mouth, I’m done listening to you
It’s over, it’s over, I’ve had enough were through
I’m taking back the person that I used to be
Before these scars, before your lies so FUCK you, forget you, goodbye

There’s no love there. A perfect F U.

And finally we get a lead break spotlight in the Digital Summer catalogue.

Breaking Point

A Disturbed like riff starts off the title track.

Stand up, just look at me
And tell me what you see
Besides a man on the brink of insanity

Growing up on the 80’s themes of standing up for yourself and living on a prayer or the story songs like rat-tailed Jimmy and a Chevy with primered flames, the 90’s changed those themes to be more personal, full of self-doubt, depression and a certain darkness.

And it continued even in movies.

The Michael Douglas pic, “Falling Down”, shows a man on the brink of insanity and what happens when he falls off the brink.

Cut Me Open

I like the way this starts, with the electronics and the clean tone arpeggio riff.

But this time I realize from the bottom there’s no place left to go

There is a saying that when you hit rock bottom the only way is up.

But sometimes, there is no place left to go. And the lyrics definitely bring back memories of “Down In A Hole” from Alice In Chains. Great song but the topic is heavy.

Fight Til I Fall

It reminds me of Seether.

Nothing to lose when you’ve lost it all
To the death I will fight till I fall

This is when a person is most dangerous. When they have nothing to lose.

The QR code would take you straight to the lyrics on their website.

Broken Halo

There is this U2 vibe in the verses which I like and the Arena Rock Chorus would not be out of place on a Shinedown album.

You’re my favourite addiction
The perfect complication
You’re my favourite addiction
My sick and twisted medication

My favourite addiction is music. It’s always music. It doesn’t matter how I feel, music is always there for me, unconditionally loving me.

Come On

It’s an aggressive song, reminding more of Breaking Benjamin than anything else.

In relation to themes, Skid Row had “Piece Of Me” and Digital Summer has “Come On” and “Fight Till I Fall”.

Come on, come on if you survive this round
Step it up or you’ll be going down

It’s very Ivan Moody like who was always looking at taking someone on in his lyrics.

War Against Myself

Why can’t you see that I’m at war against myself
For once could I fight someone else

We are our own worst enemies. We would ponder a simple mistake forever.

Dance In The Fire

I like the Intro as it reminds me of songs that New Order write.

And we dance in the fire
And we laugh at the flames and never learn
With no cares for tomorrow
Cause tonight we just love how it burns

It’s not as bad as “She Goes Down” from the Crue or Jovi’s “Bad Medicine” or how Springsteen is looking for some action while dancing in the dark, but it’s a song about getting laid.

Overdose

An intro similar to “Dance In The Fire” kicks off this song.

You’re like an overdose with no antidote
I’ve fallen victim far too many times

The sins of lust and the damage left behind when the lust and fire ends.

Wanted To Love You

This is a great ballad and the vocal delivery is excellent.

As if they’re paved into the sidewalks
These city streets reflect my thoughts and moments

When you walk the streets of your hometown your whole life, every pavement step and street corner contains a memory.

I’ve wanted to love you, for so long I need to
It’s the only thing left that my heart knows to do

You can hear the pain in the voice, the emotion is very Aaron Lewis like. Musically I like how the piano plays over a foundation of electronic noises and repeating guitar lines.

Broken Halo (Acoustic)

An acoustic version acts as a bonus track.

Instead of 16 songs, we get 10 this time around.

For an unsigned and truly independent band, this is a slick addition to the alternative metal movement.

The tour they had with 12 Stones had a shitty Agent and in some cities, cancellations ensured.

However Digital Summer still arrived at those cities and spread the word to their fans that they are in town to meet and greet.

And they did this by taking time off from their day jobs as firefighters, paramedics, producers and teachers.

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories

1976 – Part 3.4: Led Zeppelin – Presence

I was never a Led Zeppelin fan growing up. I didn’t even know that “Get In On” referenced “Kashmir” until I purchased the “Remasters” album in the early 90s.

And after that purchase I also heard many other songs from 80’s bands in Zeppelin’s music.

And what a weird cover for a rock band, with a family staring at an unfamiliar object around the dinner table.

So if i based my purchases on how the cover looked, this album wouldn’t even make the list.

Achilles Last Stand

One of my favourite cuts.

It’s long and repetitive, but there’s something about the bass groove, Page’s inventive playing to tweak the riffs each time and Bonham’s thundering drum sound that doesn’t make it boring.

Led Zeppelin hated being associated as one of the forefathers of Heavy Metal, but this cut begs to differ. Hell, I would even associate it with Progressive Metal. And at 10 plus minutes it definitely qualifies.

For Your Life

The Blues Funk grooves are back. It’s not a celebrated cut, but goddamn press play to hear the syncopated grooves of the bass, guitar and drums.

There is this middle blues fusion section which feels like a “roll the tape” moment.

The solo is Page abandonment, he’s phrasing is off, his atonal in some sections, exotic in others and aggressive and somehow it all works.

At 6 plus minutes it could have gone through the John Kalodner editing filter, but no one was going to tell Led Zeppelin how to do anything. They told you instead.

Royal Orleans

It’s like a jazz blues fusion cut. It doesn’t really go anywhere, and serves more as a short filler.

Nobody’s Fault But Mine

One of my favourite cuts and I had no idea that it was a cover song from Blind Willie Johnson who released it in 1927.

Because the song credits in the album are shown as Page and Plant.

The Bluesy Intro is that good that Jimmy Page sped it up and used it for “Shake My Tree” with David Coverdale.

And my ears tell me that the Bluesy Intro came from a John Renbourn acoustic cover of the song in the mid 60s.

So it’s a cover of a cover.

The vocal melody is from the original and the musical interpretation borrows heavily from the John Renbourn adaption.

But I still like it and Zeppelin brought the song to the masses.

Candy Store Rock

It’s a blues shuffle which doesn’t really go anywhere and the “oh baby” and “yeahs” are just too much.

Hots On For Nowhere

It reminds me of Van Halen during the Roth era and I believe David Lee Roth would model his vocal style.

Listen to the verses if you don’t believe me.

Tea For One

As soon as I saw the title I made up my mind that I hated the song, because I’m a sucker for a good title. And this ain’t a good title.

But man.

What a riff to start it off.

It then goes into a slow blues solo, like “Since I’ve Been Lovin You” and then Plant chimes in.

And the album wasn’t well received and it’s still the lowest selling Led Zep album but I think that more had to do more with the previous albums still selling like crazy.

They also didn’t tour on this album due to Robert Plant recuperating from serious injuries he had sustained earlier that year in a car accident.

While the second half is weak, there is a lot of good material here to dismiss the album.

Crank it.

A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

The Record Vault: Digital Summer – Counting The Hours

“Counting the Hours” is the album number 2.

It was released in May 2010.

On this album they amp up the radio rock songs, with bigger Choruses and concise song arrangements. They sound heavier, like Sevendust, more commercial than Three Days Grace and Staind and when they do the slower songs, they definitely know how to set a mood.

The band for the album is Kyle Winterstein on Vocals, Guitar and Producer, Ian Winterstein on Guitar, Johnmark Cenfield on Guitar
Anthony Hernandez on Bass and Ben Anderson on Drums and Assistant Engineer.

Counting The Hours

Dropped D down tuning, syncopated guitars and bass kick and a melodic droning lead kicks off the title track.

There’s nothing like an apocalypse to open your eyes

Great lyric, it reminds me of the lyric in “Life Is Beautiful” from Sixx A.M. when James Michael sings, “there’s nothing like a funeral to make you feel alive.” So don’t wait for those moments, seize the day.

The two guitar attack is very reminiscent of Machine Head during the Supercharger era. One guitar would crank the rhythms while another would play melodic motifs and leads over it during intros and verses and so forth. Korn’s two guitar team is another example of this.

Just Run

It’s basically a hard rock song, but played in a dropped D tuning and the riffs are more syncopated with the drums, which didn’t happen with hard rock bands in the 80’s.

You’ve been running your mouth for quite a while now

These days its more keyboard warriors running their mouths (aka fingertips) on social media.

Check out the Chorus.

Hostage

A fast alternate picked riff is played throughout while the other guitar embellishes with melodic leads.

It’s aggressive and angsty about a “relationship awakening” in which the writer realises they have changed so much that they have become a hostage to the relationship.

I don’t want to be a victim of this pointless game

Playing the Saint

It features guest vocals from Morgan Rose of Sevendust.

Industrial electronics kick it off and then the riffs start.

Kyle is not happy in this one.

I can see right through you and everything you do

The aggressive verses give way to a melodic Chorus about that someone in your life pretending to be someone their not and how they can do no wrong.

A four punch knockout combo so far.

Shallow (Closer than the Angels)

A more rockier bass riff that reminds me of “My Friend Of Misery” starts off the song but the overall feel is like a Five Finger Death Punch song as “The Bleeding” comes to mind.

Press play for the falsetto vocals and then the Arena Rock Chorus.

Anybody Out There

Morgan Rose also appears as a guest drummer, so it’s no surprise that my brain starts to think I’m listening to Sevendust.

And the riffage certainly helps.

SCREAM for help now, is anybody out there
Is anybody listening, does anybody care

There are people who care but they are the first ones we argue with, so let’s hope that are still around and still care in your time of need.

Morphine

Musically, it reminds me of the Limp Bizkit songs which have clean tone riffs and vocally, its melodic.

Not even morphine can kill the pain
Increase the dosage but I feel the same

We live in a drugged up world.

We take tablets for medication and some do it to get high. We take alcohol for various reasons. People still smoke cigarettes when they even know that smoking will kill you and some turn to illegal drugs.

The Thrill

It blasts out of the gate with fast riffing, reminding me of Godsmack.

Never cared for consequences, we take no prisoners
Don’t bother with regrets, we push forward till it hurts

It’s got the spirit of the early 80s.

Rescue Me

This appeared on the “Hollow” EP and was released as a single back then.

So maybe I’m the one that needed saving
Someone to rescue me from myself

Contemplation.

Maybe we are not so perfect after all.

Today

It stars off with a bass groove and drums, while the guitars kick in with shimmering arpeggios and clean tone melodies.

In the Chorus, they blast out the distortion.

The song is a bit derivative of the other songs and if I was John Kalodner, I would be leave this song off.

Inside My Head

The clean tone Intro reminds me of something but I can’t think of what.

It also sounds like part two of “Today”.

Use Me

This appeared on the “Hollow” EP as an acoustic track and here it gets the plugged in treatment.

Morgan Rose from Sevendust appears again as a guest drummer on this track.

The Chorus is melodic and excellent. Press play to hear it.

So Beautiful, So Evil

How good is the intro?

From the moment she laid her eyes on me
I knew how dangerous she could be

It’s like a Coverdale lyric about serpentine women.

Not Even God

Nonpoint and Sevendust come to mind but like “Today” and “Insiee My Head”, I would have done a Kalodner.

Something More

Another song I would have left off the album. Not that it’s a bad song, it’s because it sounds like many others on the album.

While The City Sleeps

One of my favourite songs.

The lyric of cruising the city while it sleeps could be a reference to Kyle’s job as a paramedic. Yes, while doing Digital Summer, he is also a full time paramedic with a generous boss who gives him time off to tour. His brother Ian is also a paramedic.

With the 16 songs, it’s a good album, however if list was cut down to about 10, then it would be a great album.

Either way, if you like heavy rock, crank it.

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Music

1976 – Part 3.3: Deep Purple – Made In Europe

“Made In Europe” came out in 1976 and it features the line-up of Richie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Jon Lord, Ian Paice and Glenn Hughes.

The shows were recorded in 1975 before Blackmore left, however the album was released in 1976 long after Blackmore left and the version of Deep Purple after that had also broken up.

I am very picky when it comes to live albums. I think the problem is that I grew up with two many live albums that weren’t actually live or had some parts live and other parts recut in a studio.

So when I heard an official live album the first time with no studio overdubs I though I was listening to a bootleg. It was bad and I felt like I got ripped. Some of the bootlegs I had sounded better. It took me a while to understand that a revising could never capture the power of a live performance properly and within time I started to enjoy the live albums with no studio overdubs.

Burn

The opening riff is more iconic to me than “Smoke On The Water”. The drumming from Ian Paice is thundering.

But press play to hear the bass playing of Hughes during the solos. It’s monstrous and he carries the rhythm section on his shoulders.

Mistreated

Because of its bluesy nature, it’s a great song to extend when you play it live. And the main riff is written by none other than David Coverdale himself.

But my go to version of this song is the cut that Whitesnake did. Reb Beach goes to town during the solo section.

Lady Double Dealer

It’s a 12 bar blues, bit its fast, like NWOBHM fast.

Check out the bass playing from Hughes on this.

You Fool No One

It has about 2 minutes of doodling, something which was common back then but not these days. These days, its song after song after song, with zero jamming.

After the doodling, there is a riff which is played, fast and almost thrash metal like. It’s something that Blackmore would do with Rainbow.

But the problem I have with this song is that they’ve take an almost 5 minute song and turned it into a 16 plus minutes song.

Maybe just a bit too indulgent.

However the artists ruled back then and no one would have dared to tell Blackmore to solo less.

Stormbringer

Another killer Blackmore riff. The tempo of the live version is a bit faster than the studio version and its perfect for the song.

You can hear the embryo of the NWOBHM right here.

The falsetto highs of Hughes are excellent and his bass playing dominates again.

This version of Deep Purple only lasted for two studio albums, but they are two albums I hold in high regard and rate as favorites.

And you can’t pass up a live album with Coverdale on vocals.

“Here’s a song for ya”.

A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

The Record Vault: Digital Summer – Hollow

“Hollow” is an EP/DVD released on March 31, 2008, and featured the single “Rescue Me”.

The band for the album is a bit different from the debut with Kyle Winterstein on Vocals and Guitar, Raymond Amparan and Johnmark Cenfield on Guitar, noting the absence of Kyle’s brother, Ian on guitar. Anthony Hernandez on Bass and Chris Carlson on Drums.

The first four tracks are acoustic tracks, but played in a way like “Days Of The New” with bass and drums also prominent.

The acoustic medium suits the band a lot, because it highlights even further what a great vocalist Kyle Winterstein is.

Whatever It Takes

From the debut album and the distorted sounds are replaced by the aggressive strummed sounds of acoustic guitars.

The Chorus catchcry of doing whatever it takes to get someone out of their life sounds even more desperate in this format. And the drumming still keeps the same frantic pace like the studio recording.

Use Me

A new track and the strummed acoustic guitar riff gets me interested. Vocally, I feel like Aaron Lewis is singing this.

“Let me use you and I’ll let you use me” is the hook, to forget memories and promises made.

Suffocate

Also from the debut album and I like the swampy bluesy feel I get when I hear the intro on acoustic.

Then the riff just before the verses is so “American Woman”.

The thing is, the riff I am talking about is basically known as “the Nu-Metal” riff as every band that dabbled in the genre has a riff like it.

And when its stripped back to an acoustic format, this modern riff sounds like it came from a 60’s song. And I like those little connections to thins known before.

Sweet Misery

Another new track that begins with a riff made up of open strings and single notes, begging for a distorted guitar but it doesn’t come.

Instead a piano melody plays over and over the riff, which gives it a haunting sound along with the shimmering ambient noises, which are mixed in low.

Rescue Me

A full plugged in band track.

A sad piano riff starts it all off before a guitar riff kicks into gear in the verses which reminds me of “Come Undone” from Duran Duran.

Worth The Pain

Another new track. The style of this song is why I like the band, as they combine elements of electronica into a commercial sounding hard rock song.

Crank it.

A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – October 17 to October 23

4 Years Ago (2017)

METAL T-SHIRTS

My then five year old had to draw his family in kindy class. In the drawing he had me drawn with a black T-shirt and black shorts.

When they say “Take the Black” in “Game of Thrones”, a metal/rock head says, “pffft, we’ve already done that”.

All though I’ve morphed to plain black tees as I have gotten older, I still break out the metal and rock t-shirts now and then.

When I first got together with my wife, I had a Posion T-Shirt with the sleeves cut off and she had dance music playing in the car.

I asked her if she had anything else.

The answer was no.

I asked her if she would be okay if I introduced some new music in the car.

She said okay.

The next day, I had the rock and metal mix tapes ready for indoctrination.

At first it was the more commercial sounding rock and metal.

Secretly the dance tapes ended up in a draw in my room. It was many years later that she asked what happened to those tapes.

\::/

ALBUMS

I started this post with “Just put out the damn album”.

When we laid out cash for the 10 to 15 albums we used to buy a year, we had time to digest and live with the music for a long time so we were okay with the lead up.

But.

The 8 week lead up to the release is too much these days especially when the LP run could be over in a month after it’s released.

That’s right.

That’s how fast new albums disappear from the conversation in the current environment.

The first week sales that might look great on paper are irrelevant.

Check the second week streaming numbers. Then the third, then the fourth and so on. Those numbers will show you if the fans care for the music or if only the press (that the marketing team has paid to promote your product) cares.

And people will complain about streaming revenue and how it doesn’t pay enough. Control your rights, have a song that people connect with and you will be paid well and forever.

If investment firms are cashing in, it’s because streaming pays. But it pays the organization who controls the rights.

YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and all the rest will pay forever.

Isn’t that better than the one off transaction between the record store and the fan?

That fan could have purchased the album, taken it home, played it once and traded it.

Maybe that fan played the album a million times. But the artist wouldn’t know that behaviour.

Data tells us what’s hot and what’s not. And like it or not, it’s always been about the hits. To me a hit isn’t the song that takes the number 1 slot on a chart.

“Fear Of The Dark” or “Hallowed Be Thy Name” or “Creeping Death” or “Fade To Black” or “Master Of Puppets” didn’t set the charts alight but the fans made those songs hit’s. Convert staples.

We don’t live in 1989, where mediocre stuff on the radio gets some traction because of the marketing/hype dollars invested into the promotion. We live in the era of connectivity and virality and hits and streaming that pays forever.

But artists need to release a continuous stream of product to win.

TRIBUTE

It’s my bible.

I played the cassette tape to death trying to learn every riff and lick. And when I couldn’t pick it all up, I shelled out $50 on Wolf Marshal’s transcription of the “Tribute” album and I spent a lot of hours woodshedding to it.

Even though Ozzy re-cut his vocals for the release there is no denying Randy Rhoads and his love for his instrument. The way he re-imagines his multi-layered guitar riffs from the studio versions and turns it all into one definitive guitar cut is brilliant. For any guitarist, new or old, this is it. It gets no better than this.

“Mr Crowley” was the first song I got stuck into. It has two shred leads and the way Randy combined those guitar lines into one definitive track for the “was he polemically” section is brilliant. And the outro lead is just one of those songs within a song lead breaks.

“Revelation (Mother Earth)” has a finger picked part at the start which is breathtaking, the interlude is subdued and relaxing but that outro is breathless. And the live tempo is much better than the studio tempo.

“Children Of The Grave” was the next song I tried to learn after “Mr Crowley”. I love the way Randy plays the C#m riff on the 4th fret on the 5th string. That’s how I learned this song. It wasn’t until many years later I heard the Sabbath version and Iommi is down tuned to C#.

I must say, I love the tempo of this live version.

And that outro improv lead is brilliant especially when Randy starts to reference Ace ala “Love Gun”.

When I think of “Children Of The Grave”, I think of this.

“Goodbye To Romance” is the piece d’resistance in guitar playing. The jazz like chords in the verses, the arpeggio chorus riff and that guitar solo.

These day’s guitarists can do unbelievable and very advanced things on the guitar but do they have the song sense of Randy Rhoads.

JACK BLACK

My kids back then had been watching “School Of Rock” and “The Pick Of Destiny” on and off, so i did a \::/ salute to Jack Black for spreading his love of rock and heavy metal to the masses.

Because the movies capture what rock and roll is all about;

going against the grain,
breaking rules set by the institutions/parents and having fun along the way.

Let’s make sure it will never be forgotten.

MY NINTH POST ON THE YEAR THAT WAS 1983

“Back To Mystery City” by Hanoi Rocks was covered. It’s unfortunate that most people know of Hanoi Rocks because of drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley’s death due to being drunkenly driven by Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil.

All death is tragic. And I remember reading an interview (I think it was in Faces) that if Razzle’s didn’t join in 1982, the band probably would have broken up. And then his death in 1985 ended the band.

“Speaking in Tongues” by Talking Heads is mentioned. “Burning Down the House” sold the album. It was everywhere. One of my hard rock bands in the 90’s even covered the song in a rock context.

“Streets” was the creative musical outlet for Steve Walsh in between his departure from Kansas.

The debut LP was released in 1983 on Atlantic Records. The deal was negotiatied with one manager and destroyed by their next manager after he argued with the President of Atlantic Records, Doug Morris.

So Atlantic just released the albums with no promo and if they stuck, good. But they didn’t stick. And they never released the albums on CD while they controlled the rights.

Steve Walsh even got a lawyer to get the albums back from Atlantic and Rock Candy re-released the Streets albums recently.

So before people beat up streaming, they need to understand how it was back then and the monopoly the labels had to kill or break a career.

The Eric Martin Band released a great melodic rock album called “Sucker for a Pretty Face”.

And I still don’t understand how “Burning” from Shooting Star wasn’t a big hit.

Maybe because they were on Virgin Records, a label known for new wave and running low on funds, so when a rock album landed in their laps they had no idea how to promote.

But the truth is that the bands first managers were stealing from em, so the band fired em.

And because these managers used to work as record promotion guys, they blacklisted the band to the radio stations.

Meatloaf released “Midnight At The Lost and Found” but it was lost as “Bat Out Of Hell” was still selling like it was a new release.

And Aldo Nova was trying to capture the highs of “Fantasy” with “Subject”.

8 Years Ago (2013)

STREAMING

The public has voted. It prefers streaming.

You would think the war is over. But it’s not.

Spotify pays millions to the copyright holders.

Now unless the artist is a DIY artist who controls their own copyright, or Metallica or Motley Crue who own their masters, most of the copyright holders are the major labels. So the labels are raking it in.

There is also a term doing the round, called “Black Box Revenue.” This is the name given to income that the record labels collect that cannot be directly tracked to the recordings of a specific artist.

To put it all into context, streaming services pay the labels an upfront fee to access their catalogues. In addition, the services then pay the labels royalties for each stream.

Yep the labels get paid twice because they “own” the masters that artists created.

Musicians always had to work hard to get somewhere, that part hasn’t changed and it will never change while others fly private on the backs of the hard work of artists.

THE LIES OF THE LABELS

During the recorded music industries heyday, there was this widespread idea, sort of like an unwritten law, that we (the fans of music) could purchase music and own it, the same way we purchased and owned the toaster and any other commodity.

Of course when it comes to music, its never that simple.

What the music fans actually purchased was a non-transferable license to listen to the music under very specific and strict conditions. If you don’t believe me read the fine print.

We basically had the right to enjoy the music in private, over and over again.

METALLICA

I had been re-reading a lot of the magazines I accumulated during the Eighties and the Nineties and I finished reading a story about Metallica from the Australian magazine “Hot Metal”.

It was the June 1992 issue.

And in the interview James Hetfield was talking about the stage design and how they would have an area in the middle of the stage set aside for taping. The fans would have to buy a special ticket for the tape section area and Hetfield saw it as a cool thing to flood the market with bootlegs.

Metallica in 1992, wanted to flood the market with bootlegs. Metallica in 2013 had the following disclaimer on their Live Metallica website “Terms of Use”; Any violation of copyright laws may result in severe civil and criminal penalties. Violators will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible.

KIRK HAMMETT

Kirk Hammett said that there hasn’t been any great bands “because of things like iTunes and streaming and social networking, it’s destroyed music. It’s destroyed the motivation to go out there and really make the best record possible. It’s a shame.”

You see, when you detach yourself from the streets and live in your ivory tower, you don’t see what is happening at ground zero.

Five Finger Death Punch is going GOLD and PLATINUM in a tough sales market. They have great numbers in relation to YouTube views and Spotify streams. Their albums have been selling up to the point of when their new one is released. Think about that for a second.

Shinedown are doing super numbers in relation to sales, YouTube views and Spotify streams. They have certifications to prove it as well.

Will we have the superstars of the Eighties and Nineties again?

Of course not, but we don’t live in a monoculture anymore.

We are living in the golden age of music access. The history of recorded music is at our fingertips and that is a good thing.

STREAMING vs OWNERSHIP

If I pay $120 for a Spotify Premium account, it means that i can listen to millions of songs.

If I buy $120 worth of songs from iTunes in Australia, I can only listen to 70 songs.

If I pay $120 for CD’s, I can pick up 5 albums with a potential of 50 to 60 songs.

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE

I’m a fan.

The music that BFMV creates is very reminiscent to the hard rock / heavy metal music created between 1981 and 1986, before Bon Jovi released “Slippery When Wet” and the majority of bands started chasing the pop metal / pop rock “pot of gold”. It is basically the same music that I grew up on.

Metallica – CHECK
Iron Maiden – CHECK
AC/DC – CHECK
Slayer – CHECK
Megadeth – CHECK
Judas Priest – CHECK

Modern influences like Machine Head, Pantera and Metallica “Black” album period are also found in the songs. It’s probably why I connected with the band.

And that’s another wrap for another week.

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Australian Method Series: Jimmy Barnes – My Criminal Record

“My Criminal Record” is studio album number 18 for a Jimmy Barnes. When you add his output with Cold Chisel, his career is massive.

Released on 31 May 2019.

With this album, he became the artist with the most chart-topping albums in Australia with 12 number 1 albums, overtaking U2 and Madonna.

The band for the album is his live band, made up of Jimmy Barnes on vocals, Daniel Wayne Spencer and Davey Lane on guitars, son in law Ben Rodgers on bass, Clayton Doley on keyboards, and son Jackie Barnes with Warren Trout on drums and percussion.

Lending a hand in the song writing department is his Cold Chisel bandmate Don Walker, who co-wrote six of the songs, country artist Troy Cassar-Daley chimes in with two songs, Chis Cheney from “The Living End” contributes a song, Mark Lizotte (otherwise known as Diesel) contributes a song, as well as others, plus there is a John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen cover.

Writing for the album began in 2015, but once his books came out, “Working Class Boy” and “Working Class Man”, well his career took a different turn and suddenly he was a bestselling author, doing speaking tours with music in between and creating documentaries based on the books.

My Criminal Record

Written by Jimmy Barnes and Don Walker.

It’s a slower bluesy tune with the piano setting the mood.

Well I came from a broken home

Writing his books has given Jimmy a different opportunity to write differently and approach different subject matters. If you’ve read “Working Class Boy” you’ll know how broken that home was.

The fact that he made it to 12 number one albums in Australia is amazing.

I keep it locked away somewhere, I know
In a cellar that I call my youth
It’s my criminal record
It’s the truth

It was a burden he carried for a long time. The ghosts of his youth growing up in Elizabeth.

Shutting Down Our Town

Written by Troy Cassar-Daley, this is a great country rock song. It could appear on a Springsteen or Petty album and not sound out of place.

This used to be a place where a man could find some work / Put together Holdens or a foundry job at worst

The car making facilities in Australia are all gone, transported overseas because it’s cheaper. And a lot of towns have suffered this kind of fate around the world in the corporations quest for profits and progress.

Its also autobiographical as all the men who worked at the factory went missing from their homes on payday.

I’m In A Bad Mood

Written by Barnes and Walker it’s got another blues noir soul like groove.

I got me a car but I lost my keys
Got me a girl that I can’t please

Sometimes things don’t roll as they should.

Stolen Car (The Road’s on Fire, Pt. 1)

Written by Barnes and Walker, it’s a smoldering blues cut in the verses before it rocks out with a lot of soul in the Pre Chorus and Chorus.

My life is like a stolen car, out of control
I’ve got no destination, I lost my soul

Great metaphor to sum up his life.

My Demon (God Help Me)

Written by Barnes, Cassar-Daley and bassist Ben Rodgers.

A Blues stomp groove crashes in after the steel guitar Intro which reminds me of “Copperhead Road” by Steve Earle but different.

And my demon he was patient
He just waits till I had nowhere else to turn
And he knew my situation
He was laughing as I burned

Great lyrics.

It showcases that our predicaments in life are down to our own choices. For Barnesy, his Demon didn’t have to do anything, as Barnesy was pretty good at doing shit to himself.

Working Class Hero

Written by John Lennon.

Keep you doped with religion, sex, and T.V.
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I see

The song is political, a criticism on the difference between social classes and how the working class individuals are being processed into the middle classes, into the “machine”.

Belvedere and Cigarettes

Written by Harley Webster, Jade MacRae and Rodgers.

Belvedere and cigarettes, I’m bleeding myself dry

Sometimes that glass of alcohol is always a friend when your down and out.

I Won’t Let You Down

Written by Chris Cheney from “The Living End”.

It’s a great ballad in which the verses deal with alcoholism/partying and the Chorus deals with making a promise to a special someone that they will change and not let them down.

Stargazer

Written by Barnes and Walker.

She’s a stargazer
Always looking at the sky
And she don’t even look up to me
When she’s on her back at night

A simple laid back tune in which the woman in his life is not paying attention to him or their relationship (hence the staring at the stars).

Money and Class

Written by Barnes, Walker and Rodgers.

I could fight, I could drink, I could shout, I could sing
I could light up a party but I didn’t fit in
Every door that was closed was a door that I had to kick in

Drink, bash and smash your way to the top in this country blues rock tune.

Stolen Car (The Road’s on Fire, Pt. 2)

Written by Barnes and Walker.

It’s a faster take but the same attitude and spirit is still there.

If Time Is on My Side

Written by Mark Lizotte, otherwise known as Diesel or Johnny Diesel, this song wouldn’t be out of place on a Springsteen or Petty album.

The Chorus is loud and you singalong to it. It also reminds me of “Ride The Night Away”.

People come and go
Just like dust in wind they’re blown
As long as I am standing here
I’ll never let you go

That’s life in a nutshell, people would come and go but in the end, it’s just you and your partner.

Tougher Than the Rest

A Bruce Springsteen cut and a fitting song to sum up Barnes and his resilience to life and love.

And that’s Jimmy Barnes in 2019, a Blues Rocker with a little bit of Soul and a little bit of Country.

Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories

1976 – Part 3.2: Kiss – Rock N Roll Over

“Rock N Roll Over”

Another album in the same year, something which was common during this period all the way up to 1985. Then bands started to take two years between albums and then three years. The bigger bands took even longer.

I purchased “Love Gun” after “Destroyer” because of the covers and then “Rock N Roll Over”.

Which also has a great cover.

Michael Doret is another artist who should be as big as a rock star. Apart from Kiss, he has done various editorials and logos for companies and sporting teams. If you follow the NBA, you will know the Knicks logo. That’s Doret.

Check out these Time covers as well just to show a small sample of his work.

Brilliant.

I don’t feel this album is mentioned a lot like other Kiss albums. Maybe because it was sandwiched between “Destroyer” and “Love Gun” for studio albums and “Alive” and “Alive II” for live albums. All of this Kiss product in a 24 month period meant that some albums get missed. It still did the same business as “Destroyer” in sales but it’s not in the conversation as often as it should be.

But the album does have quality. Eddie Kramer is producing and his mix is wonderful with every instrument and vocal having its own space.

“I Want You” was so ahead of its time. It’s like the embryo of melodic Metal. Don’t let the acoustic arpeggios fool you, because when the distorted guitars kick in, its metal and its melodic.

“Calling Dr Love” is good but it gets way too repetitive towards the end. Something which Gene does a lot of in his songs.

“Hard Luck Woman” is excellent and Rod Stewart would have killed the vocal if the song ended up making its way to him. But Pete Criss sounds great as well. I reckon he would have downed a packet of ciggies before the take, to get his voice like that.

And while artists of hard rock dabbled with country at the time, it either sounded too countrish or it had too much rock with a bit of country, but, Stanley delivered a song ahead of its time, fusing, country with rock and a crossover pop sensibility.

“Mr Speed” and “Makin’ Love” are good album cuts.

Press play to hear the riffs especially the speed rock of “Makin’ Love”, which a lot of the NWOBHM bands would be using to create tunes with. I wasn’t sure if all the riffs came from Paul Stanley on these cuts or from Sean Delaney, but when I checked Delaney’s solo album on Wikipedia, his credited as a vocals and keyboards on his own solo album, so Stanley again delivers the goods in the riff department on these two songs.

Ace Frehley is missing in the song writing department for this album, (you just need to read a few bios to understand why, plus the quick turnaround between albums didn’t really give him much free time to write songs and whatever free time he had, was put to other use), but his leads are there to inspire a generation of guitarists.

Finally, Paul Stanley.

He plays all the riffs on the album and it’s important to mention what an accomplished guitarist he is.

In the 80’s, and if you watched most Kiss video clips, the guitar spent more time hanging behind his back then in his hands, so people might think differently about his guitar abilities, but make no mistake, the dude can play and play well.

Crank it and enjoy.

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