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Music

Stone Music Festival – Four Different Stories

Sydney Morning Herald Review

TNT Downunder Review

The AU Review

May The Rock Be With You Review

Four reviews.  Four different sides of the story.  Somewhere between the lines is the truth.

If you are looking for the truth, the AU Review is the best place to start.

If you are looking for a laugh read the Sydney Morning Herald Review.  No wonder traditional newspapers are all going down hill.  The journalism that has gone into their review of the festival is a joke.  It’s like the public relations company for the Stone Music Festival wrote the article and gave it to the Sydney Morning Herald.

If you want a good summary of both days and the bands, read the May The Rock Be With You Review.

What is clear from the three reviews (excluding the stupid SMH) is that a lot of effort needs to go into organising a great festival then just having great bands.

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Music

Sales Numbers for the U.S.

Metal Insider

I was looking at the sales figures in the above link.  A lot of people focus on the sales aspect of everything, so if something is sold a lot of times, they class it as being successful.

So if you look at the sales, you will see a lot of hard rock and metal bands doing low numbers for the week.  One can easily jump to conclusions.  The album is bad, it bombed or the industry favourite, piracy.

However, to me the sale numbers mean nothing.  What is important here, is the length of time the music has been out.

Let’s start with Volbeat.  They have two albums that are selling.  Yippee, you say.  Here’s the thing, Beyond Heaven/Above Hell was released in September 2010.  Yes, 2010.  It has been around for over 2 and a half years.  What does this tell you?  They did it without the mainstream sledgehammer across the head marketing like Bon Jovi and Justin Timberlake.  They did it by creating great music and letting the people spread the word.  The funny thing is, the song that made them popular in the U.S, Still Counting is not even on this album (it is from an earlier album from 2007 called Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood) and was added as a bonus track later on.  Talk about great music waiting to be found.  It was released in 2007 and it wasn’t until 2012, that people really heard Still Counting, appreciated it and starting buying it.

You need to remember, there is so much music released each days, (I checked the new release schedule and i counted over 400 releases on one day).  Multiply that by 52 weeks, and you have a lifetimes worth of music to go through.  We need a filter and what better filter than people spreading the word.  Not by the hundreds, but the by the thousands and in PSY’s case, by the millions.

Volbeat’s new album Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies entered the charts in the top 10.  They had the usual big first week sales and second week drop, however this time around, the audience was waiting for a new release.  Time will tell if this album will have the same longevity.

From hearing it, it’s a good album, but it doesn’t have the defining song, and that is what fans want.  Bon Jovi had Wanted Dead Or Alive on Slippery When Wet, Motley Crue had Kick Start My Heart on Dr Feelgood, Metallica had Enter Sandman on the Black album, Poison had Nothing But A Good Time on Open Up and Say Ahh.. and so on.

In This Moment has been doing business since August 2012.  34 weeks.  Bon Jovi’s What About Now, has more or less stalled.  Justin Timberlake’s is slowly declining as well.  Will they still be selling in 34 weeks time.  For Bon Jovi, i am sure they will not.

Otherwise, is a band that i have been following for over a year now.  Each week, you see them move between 400 and 700 units.  They are touring their arses off, picking up new fans along the way.  The album came out in May 2012.  It will make a year, where it has been selling low numbers.  To me this is a success story.  If they stay at the rate they are, they will be passing 40,000.  What’s 40,000, I hear people saying?  That is a year’s worth of touring.  The music is the entry-level to all the other things in the business.  You don’t make money from selling music.  You make money from the doors that music opens.

Stone Sour have two albums that are selling, House of Gold and Bones Pt 1 and Pt 2.  The concept story is the entry for the multimedia projects to come, like the graphic novels, the motion picture movie and the tour.  It’s not all about sales, it’s about different income streams.

Coheed and Cambria has already walked the path that Stone Sour is walking right now.  They have had their concept albums put into comic form, graphic novel and companion books.  Claudio Sanchez has also signed a deal to develop the Armory Wars story into a motion picture film.

Black Veil Brides is another band, involved in the multimedia aspect, with their concept album, Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones.  

Shinedown is one of the best hard rock bands doing the scene right now.  Amaryllis has been out for over a year now and the band is still moving units.  Why, because people are spreading the word, they are hearing the songs live and are liking them.

For the critics that have called this album a failure, just because it didn’t move the same units as The Sound of Madness is a shallow viewpoint to have without any analysis.  A song like Second Chance comes around once in a decade.  That song alone moved over 2 million mp3’s.  The Shinedown tour is doing decent business at the box office.

The key here is longevity.  You don’t want to be here today and gone tomorrow.  You want the music, the band, to remain public, to be in people’s’ minds.  So many have released albums and have been forgotten.  Does anyone remember that Joe Walsh released a new album last year, or that David Bowie and Bon Jovi released an album in the same week.  They have been forgotten.  The hardcore fans will say otherwise and that is okay they are entitled to their opinions.

Life today is all about information.  We have a tonne of it.  We are connected 24/7.  There is always something coming out that takes the flavor of the minute.  Black Sabbath released God Is Dead, and it was tanking, regardless of what the artists and Loudwire said about it.

Ozzy then releases a statement about his fall back into addiction, trying to drum up press and then Sharon chimes in.  It ain’t working, the song is a dud at nine minutes long.  It’s a four-minute song on a 12 inch extended remix.

I am seeing them in two days at the Allphones Arena in Sydney.  I might eat my words after hearing it live.  No one is talking about them.  The 13 album is already in the rear view mirror and it hasn’t even been officially released.  They are touring Australia and there is no buzz.   

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Music

Angus Young – Guitar World – March 1986 – Part 1

ANGUS YOUNG – RAW ENERGY IS ALL YOU NEED
Guitar World March 1986
By Joe Lalaina

(All parts in Italics and Quotes are from the March 1986 issue of Guitar World)

The little guy with the big SG is unconcerned with current guitar hero fashions.  His stock in trade has always been the hard rock shuffle to a boogie beat.  Before you drop the needle on any new AC/DC album, you know what to expect. Rarely has a band maintained such a consistent sound as AC/DC, they’ve been pretty much making the same album for the past ten years. Fly On The Wall, the group’s eleventh release, is no exception.

“I’ve heard people say all our music sounds the same,” says soft-spoken lead guitarist Angus Young, “but it’s usually just the people who don’t like us who say it.”

Not true. It’s just that ever since the band’s High Voltage debut back in 76, AC/DC has been playing the same relentlessly raw and straightforward style on every succeeding album. And that’s the way their fans like it.

I like AC/DC.  They are a talisman to consistency.  Each album is the same, however that doesn’t mean that each album was successful.  You need great songs, and that is what AC/DC delivered on High Voltage, Highway To Hell, Let There Be Rock, Back In Black and on The Razors Edge.  Credit both Mutt Lange for Back In Black and Bruce Fairbairn for The Razors Edge.  Actually, The Razors Edge album is the most crucial album AC/DC ever did.  After a steady decline in fortunes and sales since Back In Black, they kicked off the 1990’s with a bang.  It made them relevant again.  The Razors Edge album sustained them throughout the 90’s and into the now.

“We never go overboard and above people’s heads,” says Angus, who took some rare time out from his recent American tour to discuss musical and other matters.

“We strive to retain that energy, that spirit we’ve always had. We feel the more simple and original something is, the better it is. It doesn’t take much for anyone to pick up anything I play, it’s quite simple. I go for a good song. And if you hear a good song, you don’t dissect it, you just listen and every bit seems right.”

For any guitarist that is starting off, AC/DC wrote the book on beginners guitar.  In the process, they also created songs that are timeless and a soundtrack to a whole generation of people in the seventies, eighties and nineties.  I am just teaching my kids to play guitar and the first song i showed them was Long Way To The Top from AC/DC.

Although this stripped-to-the-bone approach has made AC/DC internationally successful, thirty million albums sold worldwide ain’t bad!, Angus is more concerned with having a  good time than with album sales.

“We don’t go around the world counting ticket and record sales,” he says, “nor do we glue our ears to the radio to hear what’s trendy at the moment; we’re not that type of band. We do run our own careers, but we leave the marketing stuff to the record company. We make music for what we know it as, and we definitely have our own style.”

AC/DC defined a style and in the process spawned a million imitators.  What a lot of people don’t understand, especially the international fans, is that Australia rock bands where all playing the same style.  Rose Tattoo, The Angels, Daddy Cool, Stevie Wright all had that pub rock vibe.  AC/DC just stood out a bit more.  Credit Bon Scott and Angus Young.  Brian Johnson walked into the house built by Bon and Angus.

Is there anything Angus considers special about his playing style?

“In some ways, yeah.” he says. “I know what guitar sound I want right away. And if I put my mind to it, I can come up with a few tricks. I mean, I just don’t hit the strings that my
fingers are nearest to. But the most important thing, to me, is I don’t like to bore people. Whenever I play a solo in a song, I make sure that the audience gets off on it as much as I do.”

Angus exerts more energy in the course of one song than most guitarists do in an entire show.

“I’m always very nervy when I play.” he says. I usually settle down after the first few songs, but it’s hard for me to stand still. I suddenly realize where I am, onstage in front of thousands of people; so the energy from the crowd makes me go wild.  I’m always very careful, though. If you bump an arm or twist an ankle, there s no time for healing on the road. You can t tell the crowd. Hey, people, I can t run around tonight I have a twisted ankle.”

I have mentioned before about bands writing great songs and how that is very different to bands that write great songs that go down great live.  AC/DC is another band, that has that foresight.  The songs are all meant for the arena.  To be honest, i don’t really remember a recorded song fading out, i am sure some do, however it is testament to the band that they write a start and an end.

Malcolm Young, AC/DC s rhythm guitarist and Angus older brother, would rather just stand in one spot and bang out the beat with thuddingly repetitive chord structures.  

“Malcolm makes the band sound so full”, says Angus, “and it’s hard to get a big ego if you play in a band with your brother, it keeps your head on the earth. Malcolm is like me, he just wants the two of us to connect. Although he lets me take all the lead breaks, Malcolm’s still a better guitarist than Eddie Van Halen.  Van Halen certainly knows his scales, but I don’t enjoy listening to very technical guitarists who cram all the notes they know into one song.  I mean, Van Halen can do what he does very well, but he’s really just doing finger exercises. If a guitarist wants to practice all the notes he can play, he should do it at home. There’s definitely a place for that type of playing, but it’s not in front of me.”

Big call by Angus.  Dishing on King Eddie.  Back then, I was like WTF?  How dare he?  Eddie was king back in 1986.  He was untouchable.

I didn’t even like AC/DC back in 1986 and I am Australian.  I was so into the U.S. Glam/Hard rock scene, I failed to see the talent that was AC/DC.  I am glad I made up for it in the nineties, when Grunge allowed me to drop out of the mainstream and go searching for classic rock bands.

These days, no one speaks their mind.  They all want to be loved.  No one wants to be hated.  Guess what people, we can see right through it.  We can tell the fakes from the real dealers.  (Nice lyric line by the way, I will keep it)

Angus would much rather listen to old time players like Chuck Berry or B B King. 

“Those guys have great feel, ” says Angus. “They hit the notes in the right spot and they know when not to play. Chuck Berry was never a caring person. He didn’t care whether he was playing his tune, out of tune or someone else’s tune. Whenever he plays guitar, he has a big grin from ear to ear. Everyone always used to rave about Clapton when I was growing up, saying he was a guitar genius and stuff like that. Well even on a bad night Chuck Berry is a lot better than Clapton will ever be.  Clapton just sticks licks together that he has taken from other people – like B B King and the other old blues players—and puts them together in some mish-mashed fashion. The only great album he ever made was the Blues Breaker album he did with John Mayal and maybe a couple of good songs he did with Cream. The guy more or less built his reputation on that. I never saw what the big fuss was about Clapton to begin with.”

That is what made Angus a legend, he always spoke his mind.  The world we have today is all about yes people and making sure that we don’t offend.  We all want to be loved, hence the reason why one person has 5000 Facebook friends.  Yeah Right.  5000 Friends.  What a load of B.S?  No one speaks their mind these days.  The kids grow up these days, being told by mum and dad what a great game they had in football, and how great they are at reading and how great they are at this, when all they did was touch the ball once and play with the grass most of the time.

It’s easy to get lost in those comments against Clapton and Van Halen.  If you do, you miss the point Angus is trying to make.  He has no time for technical players, but he has time for Chuck Berry.  In relation to Eric Clapton, he didn’t really understand what all the fuss was about, he believed that others where better, like Jeff Beck.

“There are guys out there who can play real good without boring people.  Jeff Beck is one of them.  He’s more of a technical guy, but when he wants to rock and roll he sure knows how to do it with guts.  I really like the early albums he did with Rod Stewart.”

There is that name again Jeff Beck.  When I was reading this magazine, Jeff Beck’s name came up a few times.  I had to check him out.  This is 1986.  No internet to Google Jeff Beck.  No YouTube or Spotify to sample him.  I had to walk down to the local record shop and look for it.  Good times.  I am glad I lived them and I am glad they are not coming back.

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Music, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Stone Music Festival – Lessons Learned or Not Learned

The Stone Music Festival (SMF) will be back in 2014. So what lessons have the organisers learned or not learned from the inaugural festival.

1 – The month of April for an outdoor festival is the wrong month. The organisers have put some PR spin on this by using ANZAC DAY. The festival website states that the point of the Stone Festival was to be “a timely reminder of our fallen veterans in the lead up to ANZAC Day, create a brand new Aussie ANZAC tradition”. Seriously, what a load of BS. The Stone Music Festival was created to make money. Nothing else. It wasn’t created to honour Anzac Day or the fallen veterans. If it was, it would have mentioned that from the outset, not after the festival was run. Shame SMF on using the Anzac legend in your PR rubbish. LESSON = NOT LEARNED.

2 – The festival will drop the “Stone Music Festival” brand name. For those in Australia, we know that the Stone movie is about bikies and bikie culture. The association with this movie and the bikie culture became a PR nightmare. The Sydney Bikie Wars is all over the news with shootings happening at least once a week. Fans believed that motorcycle gangs would be in attendance at the festival. The organisers realised this could be a problem. So the PR machine kicked in again, stating that any bikies in club colours will not be allowed into the venue. It was all too late. Ticket sales stalled. LESSON = LEARNED

3 – It has mentioned Muse, Kings Of Leon, Pearl Jam and The Eagles as possible contenders for next year.

The Eagles did big business in Australia on the stadium circuit, when they toured here in 2010. They haven’t released anything worthwhile, solely relying on their legacy.

Kings of Leon did big business on the Arena circuit when they toured in Australia in 2011 and are in the process of releasing their new album. If that album tanks, I am sure the organisers would book them, as they booked Van Halen and Aerosmith.

Pearl Jam played stadiums in Australia when they toured here last in 2009. This band is a dark horse, as they have that Grateful Dead cult following. The band members are connected to social media, they bootleg their own shows and release them to the fans and they are still churning out music. Personally I liked Pearl Jam on the first four albums. Backspacer wasn’t a bad album, but it wasn’t good either.

Muse on the other hand played the Big Day Out festival in 2010 when they toured Australia, so they are experienced at the Australian festival scene. They then totally ignored Australia on the recent 2nd Law tour. Maybe that is a good thing, since that album was terrible. To me, Muse is a downward spiral. They have had their heyday.

The organisers are looking at the past. They are not looking at the now. LESSON = NOT LEARNED

Here are some current international bands that are doing big business; Kid Rock, Stone Sour, Shinedown, Killswitch Engage, Black Veil Brides, Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment, Volbeat, Bullet For My Valentine, Coheed and Cambria, Imagine Dragons, Paramore, Papa Roach and Thirty Seconds To Mars.

4. Drugs is a big problem in Australia, so when you have a person involved in the festival that did time for drugs and the name of the festival is referencing a bikie movie, where the bikie gangs of today are the biggest movers of drugs, you will be scaring off a lot of people. LESSON = NOT LEARNED

5. Treating older fans like teenagers. Fans of music are not just 18 – 25 year olds as most organisers believe. Most of the money spent in the music business is by older fans. These fans don’t deserve to be standing for 10 hours in the rain or the sun to watch an act that they supported and grew up with. Organisers of any festival need to take this into consideration. When you have headlining bands like Van Halen and Billy Joel, you need to accept that an older fan base will be present. Show them some respect. LESSON = NOT LEARNED

6. Have a Plan B. There is no reason why these shows couldn’t move into the Allphones Arena. The second stage could have been set up in one of the foyer areas of the Allphones Arena. There was no vision, no contingency. LESSON = NOT LEARNED

7. The Supergroup Cover/Tribute band is here to stay.
Seriously, Kings Of Chaos stole the show at the venue. I remember back in time, where a certain “supergroup” in Australia was formed called The Party Boys and what fun they had as well, playing cover songs from other bands as well as songs from there solo careers/previous bands. .

8. Van Halen in the past did big numbers and so did Billy Joel. In America, those two artists still did big business last year. Of the 25,000 tickets that where on sale at the SMF for Day 1 – Van Halen, under 50% got sold. Of the 25,000 tickets on sale for Day 2 – Billy Joel, under 45% got sold. So why didn’t they do big business in Australia this time around.

Three things at play here;
1. Blame the month. As I have mentioned in the previous posts, April is the worst month to hold an outdoor festival in Australia.
2. Both artists haven’t released anything worthwhile recently. EVH is my guitar idol. When I was learning how to play in the 1980’s EVH and RR formed by body of knowledge. I even paid top dollar to get recorded cassette tapes of their demos to be sent to me. Imagine my shock when I purchased A Different Kind of Truth, and hear those demo songs on it. What a load of rubbish? I really liked the songs they did with DLR on the Greatest Hits packages, so why they couldn’t go forward in that direction is beyond me.
3. The lack of decent Australian talent. Jimmy Barnes and Noiseworks are finished. The Living End need to release something worthwhile again or they will be doing the nostalgia circuit as well. Australian fans like Australian talent, however it looks like everyone is pushing/shoving international rubbish acts past their due by date down our throats. The organisers need to be out scouting for talent. De La Cruz from Brisbane, has a recording deal in Europe with Frontier Records. They play hard rock music. Demolition Diva rocked it up at the Motley Crue and Kiss concert. Birds of Tokyo are relevant. My favourite Australian act is COG. They never got the recognition they deserved. Second placed is Karnivool and then The Butterfly Effect. These bands all have cult fan bases. And yes, I do know that COG is on hiatus or have split up, depending on what story you believe.

9. The one venue idea is ridiculous in Australia. To fly to Perth from Sydney is a four to five hour flight. Tickets return are normally $500. Talking about treating fans like dirt. Fans need to purchase a ticket to the show at $200 minimum, then book flights at $500 return. Most will end up staying the night, so then they need to book accommodation at $200 a night. $900 is a lot of money, and imagine if they are coming with a partner or their teenage kids.

The reason why Soundwave and the Big Day Out work in Australia as summer festivals is that it moves from City To City. To be honest, those two festivals have the January and February months booked down. So that leaves November, December and March for this festival. December is all about Christmas, so you can count out that month. So that leaves October, November and March. March is when Uni students return to school in most countries, October and November is the end of school exams, so already, the festival has an uphill battle to secure a suitable month. Remember Soundwave Revolution from a few years ago. They tried it in September, and it didn’t even start. It was cancelled. That was another one venue idea as well. If you are going to do ONE VENUE – do it in MELBOURNE. The Melbourne-ites go to everything. It is a different scene and culture there. LESSON = NOT LEARNED

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Motley Crue – 1994 – Welcome To The Numb, Smoke The Sky, Droppin Like Flies, Driftaway – John Corabi Era – Part 3

Continuing on from Gerri Miller’s Metal Edge interview with Nikki Sixx.  The below excerpts in italics are taken from Metal Edge circa 1994.  The lyrics and comments are added by me.

“WELCOME TO THE NUMB”
It’s about sensory overload via television—”people shove stuff down your throat. Too much information, you can see it in my eyes. Welcome to the numb.”  It’s too much—we shut down.

If Nikki thought there was a sensory overload back in the early nineties, what does he think now.  We are connected 24/7 and we are interacting with people from bedrooms to bedrooms, all over the world.  We watch what we want, when we want it.  We download what we want, when we want it.  Everything is open online.  We don’t shut down, we evolve.

The lyrics are screaming that they don’t want to be part of the machine, however they are part of the machine.  They are one with the machine.  The created videos to appear on television, to promote their brand.  The did interviews that appeared on TV to promote their brand.  I was never a fan of artists that complained of the machine.  Look at Swedish House Mafia, they did what they wanted, became successful, and then walked away from it all, as they didn’t want to be part of the machine.  They didn’t hang around and complain about it.

“SMOKE THE SKY”
A full-throttle burner that smokes indeed, this song arose from a riff Mick came up with at rehearsal. It takes a pro-marijuana stance and stems from a period in which, “after being clean for a few years, I decided to smoke pot and smoked a ton of it.  It says, ‘Get off my back.’  But I’m 100% clean now,” Nikki underlines. “I can’t do it, or I’m all the way up Peru’s butt.”

Any song that starts off with a pull and a cough, deserve respect.

Home grown vision compliments the senses, opens up my mind.
J.F.K. sold us freedom, or was it just a business toke?
63 went up in smoke.
He was the great seducer crawling from our T.V.s.
Breathed hope into our future, before he died, he smoked the sky,
Smoke the sky.

“DROPPIN’ LIKE FLIES”
This apocalyptic rocker talks about “a war zone in the streets,” a “modern Babylon,” crack, disease, and a wasted future and was created at a jam session. “There’s a lot of references to death, destruction, and the end of the world,” Nikki sums up.

I really dig this song.  It’s heavy and that break down interlude sounds like it came from Korn’s debut album that came out a year later.  This album was way ahead of its time.  You can tell Bob Rock, brought the heaviness that he mastered with Metallica to this album.  Even thought it didn’t set the charts on fire, or the sales department, it is an important album for the musical trends that came afterward especially the sound of Modern and Alternative Rock acts.

Hate is growing fast in a hazy cloud of crack, but it helps us fade away.
Some inner city queen French kisses his disease with one foot in the grave.
Oh, and this junkyard we call home is primed and ready for another war.
My, my, my, the children have no chance and these eyes have seen this all go down
before.
We’ve all raped it, the future’s wasted.
Can we take it?
Is nothing sacred?

“DRIFTAWAY”
Probably the closest thing on the record to a ballad, this song was written by John, who brought it in when he joined the band. Nikki helped him “tighten up” the lyrics, which go in part, “I try to make the best of another lonely day/I close my eyes and slowly drift away … close my eyes and dream my life away.”

When i first heard this song, I thought of The Scream.  It had John Corabi all over it.  It was a clichéd rock song and to be honest, I don’t believe it was a good fit on the album.

Motley Crue wrote and recorded over 20 songs for this album.  Another three made it on the re-released version and another four songs made it onto the Quartenary EP, released in Japan.  Those songs will be for another day.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Coheed and Cambria – Metro Theater, Sydney 20 April 2013 – A Set List Of Classic Songs To Be Discovered

Parking in the Sydney CBD.  It’s a nightmare, especially if you don’t frequently drive there.   Miss just one turn and you are screwed, caught in an endless maze of one way’s as you try to work your way back to where you should have been.

I had a VIP pass for the show.  I also purchased the VIP sticky pass for my cousin.  Initially, the VIP pass was to allow you inside the venue 30 minutes before normal doors opened for an acoustic show by at least one member of Coheed and Cambria (COCA).  I then saw on Facebook a few days before the show, that all VIP pass holders for the Australian and New Zealand shows will be a meet and greet session instead of the acoustic show.

Due to my issue with the parking, i didn’t know if the meet and greet went on as planned.  When i got into the venue (which was 10 minutes before the doors opened), I was treated to Travis Stever performing an acoustic song from his side project.  I didn’t realize he was such a good vocalist but it wasn’t what I wanted to see.  By the way, the meet and greet didn’t happen in Sydney, however it happened in Brisbane.  Apparently, too many people had VIP passes for the Sydney show, hence the acoustic set.

Coheed and Cambria is Claudio Sanchez.  So when i saw the rule that at least one member of Coheed and Cambria will perform an acoustic song, i always assumed it would be Claudio, since he is the vocalist and the guitarist and the main songwriter for Coheed.

So yeah, Travis played a song from his side project.  This was unfair to the Sydney fans, it was unfair to me.  Australian fans do not get a chance to see Coheed and Cambria all the time, so an acoustic song with Claudio should have been the norm here.  Next time guys, keep us in the loop.  COCA fans are devoted to COCA, but remember it’s a two-way street.  Don’t fall into the one way street train of thought that a lot of bands seem to have.

Then Circa Survive came on.  I haven’t heard a song from them, so i was interested into hearing what they are like.  What a disappointment?  All I can say is that they are the most luckiest band in the world, as Coheed as taken them around the world on The Afterman tour.  I like a song to have a good riff.  Coheed have a lot of songs that fall into this category.  Circa Survive don’t have that.  The last song Get Out and the second last song, The Difference Between Poison and Medicine Is The Dose weren’t bad songs, however that was it.  Actually one of the guitarist’s stormed off the stage pretty quickly.  He was tuning up his guitar the whole night, which was confusing, however there was an incident early on in the set where the singer hit the neck of the guitar, so maybe something got messed up there.

COCA opened up with No World for Tomorrow.  The title track from their 2007 album, Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow.  This is where Claudio (the character) comes to grips with the fact that he is The Crowing and sets out for the ultimate battle with Wilhelm Ryan and Mayo Deftinwolf.  

This is the battle cry.  COCA is the ring master and the fans are the IRObots.  It was the perfect opener.

Bye, bye world, or will our hope still hold on?
Boy, you’re never going see,
The things that will come of these (days.)
Raise your hands high!
Young brothers and sisters,
There’s a world’s worth of work and a need for you.
Oh, a change is coming, feel these doors now closing in.
Is there no world for tomorrow, if we wait for today?

In the whole story arc of The Armory Wars, the characters are tools of fate.  Raise your hands high, young brothers and sisters.  We are at the show, and Coheed and Cambria has come of age.  They opened up with No World For Tomorrow and then took us to the pop/punk – emo tones of A Favor House Atlantic.

A Favor House Atlantic is from In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.

During the War of the Mages started by Wilhem Ryan, Althaddeus Favor was a Mage that disappeared, and it remains unknown what happened to him. Ryan then moved in on his home, the House Atlantic.  This part of the story came to light during The Year Of The Black Rainbow release.

A Favor House Atlantic is about the death of Al The Killer.  At the start, Al betrays Claudio (the character), as he takes the group to the House Atlantic, which is Wilhelm Ryan’s headquarters.  Al redeems himself at the last-minute, and helps the group to escape, which in turn will cost Al his life.  The Bye Bye Beautiful part is said to Ambellina who Al started to like and it was for that reason he made his last heroic stand.

Bye bye beautiful
Don’t bother to write
Disturbed by your words and they’re calling all cars
Face step, let down.
Face step, step down

It is well-known that Coheed and Cambria songs have dual meanings, referencing real life events that then are woven into the story arc.  There are good arguments put forward on a lot of Coheed blogs, that mention this song is about the Columbine shootings.

Goodnight, Fair Lady was up next continuing with the pop rock feel started with A Favor House Atlantic.  We have gone back in time for the story.  Back to the time of Sirius Armory.  This is another song with a dual meaning.  In the context of the story, this is where Meri, the wife of Sirius is saved from having her drink spiked by a police officer called Grave Colten.  Sirius is presumed dead at this point in time, as his ship had exploded.      In real life, it is about a creepy looking guy at a bar.  The song is on The Afterman; Ascension album.

I’m the snake waiting for you, dear
And eventually you’ll come to me
I know you will

The Crowing kept the pop rock feel going.  This is where Claudio (the character) is woken up by Ambellina, a member of the Prise (a form of guardian angels) who has been sent out to protect Claudio and ensure that he becomes The Crowing, the one foretold in the prophecy, that will be responsible for the end of the Keywork.  It is from the album, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.

If I form mistakes, would I take them back
If erasing them could, if erasing them would
But would they be the words that I would say

Next up is Vic the Butcher and the show has moved away from the pop rock feel into a more heavy rock feel.  Key Entity Extraction III: Vic the Butcher, is about Claudio’s and Chondra’s real life relationship.  In relation to the story Vic is a tyrannical general who massacred innocent people for the good of the cause.  The Achilles heel for Vic The Butcher is Sentry The Defiant, the Sargeant that defied Vic and paid the price with his life.  The song is on The Afterman; Ascension album.  

Baby I’m bad company,
And you don’t have a mark
You’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen
Come with me, I want to make you dirty

This will cut you down to pieces
One-eighty-four, let’s burn it down
And if I can’t keep from living with this regret
I’ll need to change the way I think

The show now went into the mellow part of the night.  The hair from Claudio was all tied up.

Key Entity Extraction IV: Evagria the Faithful is the opposite of Vic The Butcher.  It’s about loss, when a person that we love is gone, how would we feel.  Evagria pulled Sirius from Vic’s possession and acts as his savior from the souls who want him.  The song is on The Afterman; Ascension album. 

I am not who I seem, who you thought I could be,
The support you could lean up against when you need,
I’m the dark when you want, the lights out at all costs,
This is mine, that is yours, I’m the bricks in your wall.

The Afterman started with the beautiful delay lead written by Travis, that goes throughout the whole song.  The song was written when Claudio’s (singer) wife Chondra, found out that a very close friend passed away via Facebook.  In relation, to the story, this is where Meri, Sirius’s wife hears the news that Sirius Armory is feared dead, after his ship explodes.  

She gave her heart to a falling star
When news filtered through of his tragedy all the walls went up
Around a world she declines
As the tears from her eyes fall
No one understands, and no one will
All she has lost

Here We Are Juggernaut is heavy.  It’s a perfect pick me up after The Afterman.  In real life, it is Claudio referring to his wife Chondra as his secret weapon and together they are unstoppable.  In the Amory Wars story, it refers to the characters Coheed and Cambria, the growing attraction they are felling for each other, the discovery of Wilhelm Ryan’s plan to siphon the universe’s energy for his own use and the plight of Dr. Leonard Hohenberger, the creator of Coheed and Cambria.  Here We Are Juggernaut is the battle cry.  It is from The Year of The Black Rainbow album.  

 

We were stupid, we got caught
But nothing matters anymore
So what? Here we are, juggernaut,
So let’s hang us a hangman, we’ll bury our burdens in blood

Dark Side of Me is about allowing people into your world, the good and the bad.  As mentioned by Claudio in the deluxe edition book, “True intimacy lies in the dark side, in making peace with the fact that it lives somewhere, so that you share it with the person and they can be there to help you overcome it.”  

In relation to the story, this is after Meri had died in a crash caused by Sirius after she told him she couldn’t be with him and that she was carrying the baby of Officer Colten.  The song is on The Afterman; Descension album.

“You had a million chances to play the hero for her, but you made your choice and hers too.  You left that woman in the dark and came back like you could just turn the light on?  If you loved her, you would’ve stayed up there Sirius, you would have let her go.” Colten said to Sirius.

I gave my everything
For all the wrong things
In this cold reality I made
This selfish war machine

Oh, this has become hell
How can I share this life
With someone else?
I promise you
There is no weight that can bury us
Beneath the ghosts of all my guilt

Here in the dark side of me

In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 is the closer of the first set.  Its epic and the crowd sang it all the way through.  Man Your Battle Stations is the war cry as the Rebel army prepares for war.

In the seventh turning hour
Will the victims shadow fall?
Should the irony grow hungry?
With the victory and all they sought for
We were one among the fence
One among the fence

The encore begins.  Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute was written before the final Michael Todd (ex bassist in Coheed) episode.  In relation to the story line, Domino is a form of energy in the Keywork, angry and bitter, forever stuck in the afterlife.   

The story of Domino, a boxer with talent that gave in to all of the temptations of fame, like drugs and fell in with the local mafia boss.  After losing a fight against the current champion, Domino is offered a chance to redeem himself to the mafia boss by committing a robbery.  He convinces his brother, to help him.  It all goes wrong, his brother gets killed and Domino unable to live with himself, commits suicide.  The song is on The Afterman; Ascension album.

Welcome Home is closer, with its Led Zeppelin Kashmir groove.  It’s as epic as Kashmir.  A song dealing with loss that turns to anger.  The Writer is the character in this, he is the reaper, about to kill a woman that he loves as she pleads for her life.  The song is on the Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness album.  

One last kiss for you
One more wish to you
Please make up your mind girl…
Before I hope you die

Overall, Coheed put on a show.  They easily could have played another 5 to 6 numbers, and in my view they should have, as they don’t tour Australia often.  I remember Dream Theater put on a three-hour extravaganza the first time they toured here.  

Also a big thumbs up to Josh Eppard on drums (Welcome Home) and Zach Cooper on bass.  You guys killed it.  

Till next time.  

One last thing, parking cost $29.  Nice hit on the wallet.  Thanks Sydney CBD for ripping people off again.  At least the Beef Yeeros at Brighton Le Sands made up for it.     

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Copyright, Music, Piracy, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Universal Music Takes Down Black Sabbath’s – God Is Dead? and then Re-Instates It

Article at Torrentfreak

Universal Music Group is known for its bogus take down requests.  Then when it is pointed out the error they made, they blame YouTube for following with their request.  Of course it is now back up.

I can understand the reason for the take down requests.  It was meant to take down content that was infringing or content that was making money by using music from UMG artists and UMG wasn’t taking a cut.

So how the Official Black Sabbath YouTube page fell into that category is beyond me.  All UMG has done here, is ensure that the fans have ripped the work and put it up on a thousand other channels and websites.   Check YouTube now and you will see many pages that are offering the song.

Stupidity by Labels – TICK

Treating Legitimate Fans Like Shit – TICK

Using COPYRIGHT to protect profits and bottom lines – TICK

Blame Technology when errors are made – TICK

Ensure that people pirate the content as the legal option was taken down – TICK

Then Scream PIRACY so that Legislation can be written – TICK

I was looking at the numbers.  PSY’s new song Gentleman has 167,000,000 views.  Black Sabbath’s comeback song with Ozzy is sitting at 118,000.   Even the Sabbath In The Studio series was averaging about 250,000 views.

If you are interested in my take on God Is Dead, click here.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music

Stargazer – Kingdom Come – Classic Song waiting to be discovered

It’s the keyboard synth intro.  It grabs you from the outset and by the time the whole band kicks in with the guitar line playing the same keyboard intro, you are hooked.

Lenny Wolf was the Eighties Robert Plant.  He did Robert Plant better than Robert Plant.  Regardless of how critics and fans saw Kingdom Come, one thing is undeniable, they wrote songs that are catchy as hell.

Stargazer is not a charting song.  It was never designed to be.  It is a classic rock song.  It is written by singer Lenny Wolf, guitarists Danny Stag / Rick Steier and bassist Johnny B Frank.   The song was produced by Keith Olsen fresh from Whitesnake’s smash 1987 album and Ozzy’s No Rest For The Wicked.  It has an epic feel to it, however it is only 5 minutes long.

Sitting in the dark
Staring at the sky
Within all of heavens eyes
Wondering where and why
Who made all of this come alive
Who knows what will come in time

The ultimate question, the why are we are, and what is our purpose in life.

Ooh, just to know what’s the reason for making us
Is what I would like to know
Ooh, just to know where we go when the earth is cold
We may never know

If only we had a crystal ball that could tell us the answers.  If only we had a crystal ball to look into the future.

All the mystery dreams and fantasy
We touched on our way to see
Living day by day trying to getaway
Dream on to another space

We always wanted to be somewhere else.  We are like the small town boy or girl from Don’t Stop Believing.  Trying to catch the last train out of our current lives and into a better life.  Of course life is nothing like that.

Ooh, just to know that you are not the only one
Who is searching on
Ooh, just to know that beyond there is something more
For the rich and poor

Live, work, die.  Three words that sound familiar to everybody.  When said together like that, it is the easiest summation of every single persons’ life.  We just want to know if there is some afterlife, something after death that makes this life worth it.

Check it out.. YouTube

Within three months of the In Your Face album coming out, the band had called it a day.  What an implosion?  At least they left us with two classic albums, with the classic line up.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

Rudolf Schenker – Guitar World – March 1986

RUDOLF SCHENKER ON THE AESTHETICS OF HEAVY METAL GUITAR
By Bruce Nixon

The below article in italics appeared in the Guitar World March 1986 issue.  I have re-typed here and added my bits and pieces to it.

The aesthetics of heavy metal guitar?  Well, think about it.  Rudolf Schenker was intrigued.  He was sitting in a backstage dressing room, a litter of soda cans, ashtrays and half filled beer bottles on the low table in front of him, quietly noodling on his trusty black-and-gold Flying V.  He balanced the guitar on his knees and spread his arms out wide, smiling broadly, his eyes sparkling.  Already, conversation had drifted over Vs and V players, and the Scorpions’ well-known axeman had displayed a deep and interested passion for the guitar life.

That is the iconic look, Rudolf Schenker with a trusted flying V.  This issue is from March 1986.  Rudolf had been in the game for over 26 years by now.  Rock You Like A Hurricane from 1984’s Love At First Sting album was a monster hit for the Scorpions.  Winners never quit.  They persist.  They persevere.  Sure, the Scorpions had an audience in Europe and Asia, but it wasn’t until 1984 that they broke through in the US.

“The aesthetics of heavy metal guitar…” His accent was middling thick with a slightly skewered command of idiom, but it didn’t set in the way of his enthusiasm. The idea had captured his attention, in any case.  

“I know of several different kinds of players,” he said. “There is Van Halen, very technical and very creative.  Him I like very much, because he has put new things into guitar playing.  He is very good rhythm-wise. And the other I like very much is my brother Michael.”  

This, of course, referring to Michael Schenker, the Scorpions’ original lead guitarist, now fronting his own band.

“He can play melodically—but he puts the three parts of the guitar together, the melodic, the technique and the feel. Some have more technical skill, but in my brother, all three parts are equal.  He has feel, but he keeps the melody inside and the exact rhythm inside.”

The impact of Edward Van Halen to rock music is immense.  Back in 1986, it was still at a level of what he brought to the guitar playing circles and how an expectation was made that any band with desires to make it, had to have a guitar hero.  Of course afterwards, EVH would branch out into guitars, amps and gear.

I am the youngest of three boys, so to hear Rudolf talk about his younger brother in such high regard, is cool.  His words ring true.  Michael Schenker was a monster player.  UFO couldn’t contain him.  Their best works happened when Michael Schenker was in the band.  (We will forget about the crappy 90’s reunion album and the bad Vinnie Moore reincarnation, even though i am a fan of Vinnie Moore as well).  His solo work in the eighties as part of MSG and McAuley Schenker Group was a stand out as well.

Going back to March 1986, Rudolf’s summation of his brothers ability made me curious to find out more about Michael Schenker.  This is artists promoting other artists.  I don’t believe that form of promotion happens these days anymore?  Growing up in Australia, the nineties brought a certain elitism ideal to certain local scenes, where each band only looked out for themselves as they where worried that another band might take their fans.  What artists failed to realise is that fans of music always like more than one band.  That is how fan bases are made, a common love of music across different bands.

“You see, metal is a new style.  Heavy rock is based on guitar and drums together.  If you want aesthetics, when you go looking for a good guitar player, you will find them in heavy rock.  This is a place where the guitar player has the most openings.  Look at Rick Springfield—his guitar player is good, but the music is based on the singer.  In heavy rock, the guitar player has more parts than the singer has.  In heavy metal, the players are young and fresh, too, open to new styles and new sounds, new everything!  Whole roads are open to them.  We all used to copy Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, but bands don’t do that anymore.”

Bands started to copy their peers.

Motley Crue hit the LA scene in 1980 with a mix of Seventies Punk, Americana Rock / Pop and British Classic Rock.  Bands like Poison, Warrant, Bullet Boys and Tuff came out influenced by bands like Motley Crue and Ratt.

Bon Jovi came out influenced by Seventies Classic Rock, Bruce Springsteen and the New Jersey keyboard driven pop scene.  Then you had every band writing songs in a pop metal vein.

Van Halen came out influenced by the English Blues Rock and Americana Rock/Pop.  Name me one band in the eighties that didn’t try to sound like them.

Def Leppard wanted to record an album that mixed Queen style pop harmonies with the NWOBM sound they were involved in.  They achieved that with Pyromania and perfected it on Hysteria, spawning thousands of imitators.  

Guitar players became the ones that got the attention as well.  The band dynamic had evolved.  It started in the Seventies and continued with the Hard Rock / Glam Rock movement in the Eighties.

“I like to listen to heavy rock very much,” he added. “Jimmy Page, in his good days, was so good.  Now, Jeff Beck has always been good, and I like his solo album very much.  I hear Malmsteen—he s very fast, very technical, much into classical.  Take Ritchie Blackmore—of course, he is from the older generation of players, but he doesn’t get older  in his sound.  Beck is more for older people these days.  Ritchie is one of those guys who has old and young kids in his audience.  He has that fresh energy.”

Ritchie Blackmore from Deep Purple and Rainbow is one guitarist that appealed to both old and young guitarist.  The older crowd that is into the blues rock style loved what Blackmore did with it, the middle-aged got the best of both worlds and the younger crowds maybe didn’t appreciate the blues rock vibe of Blackmore however they related to his classical technicality that fit perfectly with the rise of the Eighties shred.  That is where Michael Schenker also comes into the picture.  He also accommodated both audiences.

He suggested that the greatest heavy rock players were European-except for Jimi Hendrix and Leslie West.  America has not been highly nourishing soil for metal guitarists.  In metal, at least.  Europeans maintain more of a purists approach to the genre.  

“I think European guitarists have been more original.” he remarked matter-of-factly.  Page—Beck—Clapton- Ritchie—my brother. In heavy rock. English players, especially, have had a more original feel. In coming from Germany, when I watch television over here, I see everything is made for posing—the advertisements and stuff.  In Europe, people are more natural, they are relaxed.  They don’t pay as  much attention to those things. Maybe the guitar players are like that, too.”

There is that name again Jimi Hendrix and who the hell is Leslie West.  It was years later that i heard Mississippi Queen, if you know what I mean.

By 1986, America had a decent amount of heavy rock players.  Going back to the Seventies, you had players like Ted Nugent, Ace Frehley, Steve Lukather, Neal Schon and Eddie Van Halen.  By the Eighties you had players like Randy Rhoads, Warren DeMartini and George Lynch join the ranks.

It was hard to come up with any more American guitarists who fit the bill.  At the mention of Randy Rhoads, Schenker nodded enthusiastically, and then shook his head sadly.

If it wasn’t for Randy Rhoads, I wouldn’t have been able to play the way I play.  His dedication and precision on the two Ozzy albums will be forever remembered.

“Blues is the basis of all good guitar playing in this style of music,” Schenker concluded.  The Americans are not as bluesy as the English are.  Clapton, Beck, Page—they’re all influenced by the blues.  English players found the right combination for bringing blues and modern rock together.”

Artists speaking their minds.  If you agree with Rudolf’s point of view or not, one thing is clear, he is not afraid to get it out there.  Maybe it is that famed German arrogance, or maybe it is truth.

I honestly believe that music captured in its purest form is magical.  The  purest form is when music is written without the thoughts of profits in minds.  In the late sixties and early seventies, this is what music was.  It was pure.  It wasn’t tainted by Wall Street, by profit margins and balance sheets.

According to his guitar technician, Vince Flaxington, Rudolf Schenker keeps it simple. The Scorpions’ veteran rhythm player carries six Flying Vs on the road, his favorite of the bunch being a black and white 1964 model that his brother gave him about a year or so ago; he also likes the black and gold model, an ’82 reissue, while the remaining four are strictly backups.  

Schenker is a Flying V fanatic, having forty-odd variations of the instrument at home, about a third of which are original issue models.  Indeed, he doesn’t own anything else. He saw his first V in the hands of Johnny Winter and became an instant convert to its sleek good looks.  The best one he ever had, he said, went with his brother when Michael Schenker left the Scorps.  His guitar tech says every one is stock, Rudolf uses only Gibson pickups and refuses to let anyone alter his beloved Vs.  Not even with Strap-Loks.

Onstage, the guitarist uses three 50-watt Marshall heads that drive six 4 x 12 cabinets.  The Marshalls are “quite old”—a ’67, a 1970, and a 1980, all stock.  The volume is set at 9; the EQ knobs are all full-tilt.  His sole effect is a Vox wah-wah, one of the first made, although Schenker only uses it for about five numbers in the current set.  The cabinets also are stock.  He uses a Nady wireless system. 

“His tone is like broken glass,” Flaxington grinned. “That’s the way he wants it—sharp, clear and raunchy.”

Simply and effective set up.  He is a purest.  He didn’t go searching for that sound the way others did.  He just plugged in and let it rip.

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Music, My Stories

Storm Thorgerson – Off to the Bright Side of The Afterlife

The album cover was an important part of each album release.  A lot of the times we purchased albums based on how the cover looked.  Iron Maiden immediately comes to mind.  Most of the times people are unaware who the artists are that create these iconic images.  In this case, Storm Thorgerson is a name that people either know or don’t know.

I guarantee if you mention to anyone the name Storm Thorgerson they would look at you like you are speaking a different language.

However if you mentioned Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon, then you get a reaction.  You can say that he is best known for creating the prism-spreading color spectrum on the front of Pink Floyd‘s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ album.  (All images are sourced from Wikipedia, so that I can showcase my favourite album covers by Storm).

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Pink Floyd – A Momentary Lapse Of Reason was the first Pink Floyd album I purchased in the late eighties.  From this album I started to go back and explore the others.

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Storm passed away, on Thursday 18th April after a long illness with cancer and the after effects of a stroke in 2003. He was in his 69 years old.

If you have Dream Theater’s – A Change of Season EP, Falling Into Infinity album or Once In A Livetime album, then the cover art was all designed by Storm.  Dream Theater is one of my favourite bands at the moment.

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File:Dream Theater - Falling into Infinity Album Cover.jpg

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Megadeth’s – Rude Awakening DVD cover, was designed by Storm.  This cover is a dead set classic.

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Europe – Secret Society – again very creative, the secret society is faceless people pulling you in all directions.

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Thornley – Come Again – this is one of his best covers, the trap door exit into another world or an alternate reality.

Peter Gabriel – I love the ghostly face in the car with the raindrops. The light and dark shades capture the moment.

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Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy – this one was a rare one from Storm, as most of his album covers involved photographs and manipulation of photographs.  This one is more or less a drawing.

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Muse – Absolution – the shadows of the people falling down from the sky, while the person looks up.  Brilliant. Or are the people finding absolution and are being taken up the sky.  Again it makes you think.

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Led Zeppelin – Presence – I always took this photo as showing a side of the wealthy/powerful and the black presence in the middle of the table.  I am sure others have a different take on it.  It has been known the Jimmy Page dabbled in black magic, and could this be the presence that the album cover refers too. It makes you think.

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The Mars Volta – Frances The Mute – we are all faceless people bypassing each other, just to get ahead.

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Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions – i love the contrast of the Red and the Blue.  Very war like.

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There are a lot of other covers out there, so delve deep and remember the man who is iconic to pop culture.  He worked with the best and he is the best.  Rest in Peace and thanks for the memories.  

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