Js first legendary stab at acoustic solo performance!
This album is frickin' sweet! I can hear ACOUSTIC versions of some of my favorite songs ever! 'What Else is New' and 'Keeblin' are wicked on here (actually 'Keeblin' is already an acoustic tune, but it is still nice to have a live version!)
I actually think that Js voice is more suited to an acoustic atmosphere. Dudes voice could never harsh someones mellow! J just has that slacker drawl down!
Js songs hold up to being acoustic as well. He doesn't really need that wall of sound noise rock to hide some alleged song writing deficiency.
Plus J should get some bonus points for putting on some experimental songs like 'Not the Same', 'Flying Cloud' and 'Throw Down' instead of taking the easy way out and reaching back into Dinosaur Jr.s back catalogue and picking some Alternative 'Hits' to play instead.
'Superunknown' is a radical departure from the previous Heavy Metal-era albums Soundgarden made earlier. It is way more dark psychedelic and the lyrics are darker as well. Still one can hear fore-shadowing of Soundgarden going in this new direction from their B-side 'Toy Box'
Although 'Superunknown' is a great album jam packed with good songs, I still would have liked them to make more 'Badmotorfinger' like Heavy Metal type albums! Plus Chris CUT HIS HAIR! Hard Harry412 misses his 'Jesus Christ' phase!!!
So how does the album itself stack up? Well I have always thought the bass guitar sounds off, like it sounds real 'flat'. This is not to take anything away from Ben Sheppard, it is just the way the production sounds that I dislike. Come to think of it Kims guitar sounds kind of flat too, but not the same extreme that the bass does.
One really good point though is that Cornells voice shines through! I didn't like how he sang so high on 'Louder Than Love' and his vocals were too low in the mix on 'Badmotorfinger' so the fact that he is in top form in a more likeable vocal style and is out front in the mix is friggin' radical!
My favorite songs on here are the rockers 'Let Me Drown' and 'The Day I Tried to Live'. Cornells voice kicks all possible ass on 'The Day I Tried to Live'!!!
Also '4th of July' is an interesting experimental song. It is like Soundgarden: Doom Metal version! It would be cool to hear Soundgarden do this song, and then right after that have the Melvins do 'Hag Me', for a total, like, Doom Metal assault! With 'Superunknown' Soundgarden showcase their musical range and should be given total credit for that!
Hard Harry412 had never listened to any of the KISS 'solo' albums until recently when I decided it was time to complete my KISS Kollection of albums...
... and Genes solo album leaves me a little bewildered. Certainly was not what I was expecting.
This is more a '70s R & B album then anything close to hard rock. Heck I could imagine Prince churning this thing out during his early period!
Ok so to me the whole '70s R & B vibe sounds incredibly dated. (Hey I am not much of an R & B fan and just call it how I hear it!) Also someone else is playing the bass guitar on here! It is not Gene and it DOES NOT sound like Gene which sort of bums me out.
There is some good points though. It certainly seems like the musicians enjoyed themselves making this thing. I bet Gene Simmons enjoyed getting to have a chorus of female background vocalists to aid in making interesting arrangements. Make no mistake the members of KISS are good song-writers... Don't believe Hard Harry412... well then listen to someone with real Alternative Rocker musical gravitas: BUZZ OSBOURNE!!!:
So 'KISS: Gene Simmons' is alright, perhaps I shall warm up to it a bit more with some more listens, but I can't help feeling that maybe if Gene himself had laid down the bass to anchor this baby that perhaps it may have turned out a little better!
He has always been my favorite member of KISS. I am big into sci-fi so the whole character works for me. Plus he is an awesome guitar player! If only he had not gotten into booze or drugs he may have become a truly legendary guitar player, as it stands Frehley is sort of a B-level guitar player thanks to his legacy of work in the 1970s, but he hasn't really done anything after that! (even Jimmy Page had Page/ Plant later on!!!)
Also there is one other thing that I like about Space Ace... His voice! He is actually my favorite KISS vocalist, I just think he sounds cool. I find it hard to believe that he was worried about being a good enough singer earlier in KISSes history!
'Ace Frehley' is jam packed with all sorts of awesome guitar solos and other guitar goodness that many of the mainline KISS catalogue lack. I think Gene and Paul probably write songs to have good choruses and verses and what not and don't really even put much thought into the guitar solos on the songs that they write, well that is not a problem on 'Ace Frehley' where the soloing is free to shine!
They finally started making more 'traditional' type of songs that are in the range of 3-4 minutes here. I just find short songs to be kind of lame since I have a hard time getting into them is all.
That is not a problem on Bullhead! Heck 'Boris' is like 8+ minutes!
Also the production on this one is way better then on their previous albums. It is the kind of indie type of production I like, not to slick, but not to rough either!
With all of these factors combining into one album the Melvins managed to create one heck of a record and it may just be my favorite of theirs! It helps that it lacks some of the filler that some of their albums have.
'Where You Been' is jam packed with goodness, lets have a track by track run down:
'Out There' - A mid-tempo number that features amazing layered distorted 'crunchy' guitars! This songs starts out the album perfectly with a great intro guitar solo! Usually with a DJ song one has to wait a few chorus and verses in to get to Js solo, but not here!
Also the video is awesome, it has J on top of a friggin' mountain like he is some kind of guitar god of the mountains!!
'Start Choppin'' - A decent pop song and for awhile it was the song that DJ was most known for. Because of that they didn't want to play it in concerts for awhile because many Alt Rockers don't want to be all popular and stuff which seems sort of self-defeating, but they actually have come full circle and are starting to play it live again now. I think this music video was the first time I was ever exposed to DJ so I like it for that reason.
'What Else Is New' - My favorite DJ song on my favorite DJ album! I worship the drums and bass on this song, it is all bottom-endey and stuff and reminds me a lot of Juliana Hatfields song 'Lost and Saved' It is another one that starts out with an awesome guitar solo too! I have never really cared for the second half of the song though where it goes acoustic and gets all mellow though, but you have to end a song some how I guess.
'On The Way' - A more up-tempo punkish number to speed things up on this album and it makes sense because the first few tracks are a little slow-ish
'Not The Same' - Whoa! J takes a big risk and goes all experimentalistic with this song. Acoustic guitar and Timpanis? This was a major departure from the trademark noise rock sound that J had usually churned out. First few listens it is not that great, but after listening to this song... oh probably at least 100 hundred times by now (hey it is my 2nd favorite album all time folks!) I have grown to appreciate its downer-vibe. Also since I am not a hormone addled teen anymore and am now a little calmer adult I have come to appreciate the creative risk that was involved in this track
'Get Me' - Surprisingly I didn't know until years later that this song was released as a single... and with a music video to! I have really grown to like this song, it really is the sort of 'Ear Bleeding Country' that DJ had first envisioned themselves as sounding like.
'Drawerings' - This song is really just sort of a rehash of 'Get Me' but the two songs do complement each other pretty well. I think of it as 'Get Me 2.0' now that we are in the internet age!
'Hide' - This is the closest DJ comes to heavy metal most of the time! This song helps to up the tempo of the album as a whole. I just like the whole flow of 'Where You Been'!
'Goin' Home' - A real mellow acoustic number. DJ had just started making songs like this with this album so it is a real triumph for DJ to grow as a band and make a song like this!
'I Ain't Sayin' - A great album closer! Js lead guitar on this one is epic and makes the song!
'Keeblin' - Why didn't this B-side make it on the record? Were they not confident about it? Didn't want to release an acoustic guitar only type song yet as they had just started venturing down that path? Still I am glad it is on the remastered version I have! It is one of my favorite DJ songs, damn it is HEAVY brother! I don't think J had written such a deep song until he had written this one.
Speaking of the re-mastered version, it is freakin' awesome! It sounds so much better then the olden version. The old version didn't really stand up all that well compared to some other major label alt rock albums (like say 'Nevermind') but now this remastered version certainly does. Frankly I think this album can go toe to toe with 'Nevermind', I am serious! 'Nevermind' doesn't have anything like 'Not The Same' on it!
Heck I even like the album cover! It is all darkish and really matches the vibe of DJs music. Also the Space Alien on the back is cool too. It is all blueish and stuff. Hey that is my favorite color! Also having an Alien on there was very cool for that time period, like the X Files was popular around that time. Hard to believe that the Alt Rock slackers of DJ might have actually followed a trend! But still it is cool ya' know.
This is like Fiona Apple 2.0 Trip-Hop version. There are just a lot more drum beats on this album then there were on 'Tidal'. 'Tidal' was basically a piano album, whereas this one breaks out and goes in all sorts of different uncharted directions.
Also Fiona sounds alot angrier on this one! She is a little older here than on her debut so she is like an older chick that got dumped a few times and is all mad and stuff. Hard Harry412 digs the authenticity. Us Gen. Xers aren't going to be happy hippies, damn it!
'Fast As You Can' is one of the better more creative songs on here! Had someone even thought of mixing jazz and trip-hop before this one? I doubt it!
It is cool in that it is almost like two songs in one! There is the fast part and the slow part in the middle (and the slow part sounds like a 'traditional Fiona Apple song'). Soundgardens 'Rusty Cage' is alot like this as well! It is like two songs in one man, that is sweet!
Another song on here I really like is 'Love Ridden'. Man it is like a total solo piano song and shows the range and dynamics that Apple is capable of! She can go solo or add in lots of musicians too and all of it sounds good!
Also I have always like the mid-tempo number 'Get Gone', it is just a good example of Fionas music all around and I have never understood why it was never more popular, well I like it so that is good enough.
None of Fionas other albums sound like this one, so it stands out to me and is a totally worthy addition to Fionas discography!
A nice KISS tid-bit released during the reunion era!
This album has gotten massively slammed by the critics, but I still like it for the four 'new' unreleased tracks on it!! Anytime something surfaces with the four original members of KISS on it I am on it like white on rice because those dudes frickin' rocked back in the 1970s! They influenced legions of Hard Rockers and Alternative Rockers (not the least of which being one Kurt Cobain!!!! Not to shabby a Legacy.)
The version of 'Two Timer' on here is great! Probably better then the studio version. Also I really like 'Take Me'. That is a totally good rocker and one of my favorite KISS songs so having a cool 'Alive 2' era version of it is totally awesome!
There is just too much smack being talked about this album out there. Some of the crazy rumors include stuff like they over-dubbed new vocals on these circa 1977 recordings in like 1996! I find that very doubtful and even if they did do that it still sounds good! The final product is good and I like it for what it is!
Hard Harry412 was astounded to find that movie actor Jamie Foxx has just issued one of the most Black Supremacist screeds of all time!
It seems Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx just can't avoid saying something really stupid at awards ceremonies.
After calling Barack Obama "Our Lord and Savior" at last November's Soul Train Awards, Foxx, during his acceptance speech as Entertainer of the Year at last Friday's NAACP Image Awards, said, "Black people are the most talented people in the world"
Holy Smokes! I thought that electing Obama was supposed to move us past all this racial stuff? That is what the liberals assured us!
Sure doesn't seem that way, and that is one of many reasons why Hard Harry412 has become a Libertarian in response!
Look at another recent example of what is going on: a crazed criminal named Christopher Dorner is going around shooting innocent cops and is in fact motivate by racism!
Los Angeles gunman motivated by racism
A homicidal fugitive former police officer, who has declared “war” on his former colleagues, claimed he was the victim of racism while serving in the Los Angeles police department.
There is however a way out of this sheer racial madness and it is offered by Ayn Rand! Libertarianism is the answer!!!
It is an ironic demonstration of the philosophic insanity and the consequently suicidal trend of our age, that the men who need the protection of individual rights most urgently—the Negroes—are now in the vanguard of the destruction of these rights.
A word of warning: do not become victims of the same racists by succumbing to racism; do not hold against all Negroes the disgraceful irrationality of some of their leaders. No group has any proper intellectual leadership today or any proper representation.
In conclusion, I shall quote from an astonishing editorial in The N. Y. Times of August 4 [1963]—astonishing because ideas of this nature are not typical of our age:
“But the question must be not whether a group recognizable in color, features or culture has its rights as a group. No, the question is whether any American individual, regardless of color, features or culture, is deprived of his rights as an American. If the individual has all the rights and privileges due him under the laws and the Constitution, we need not worry about groups and masses—those do not, in fact, exist, except as figures of speech.”
In what may be the first few moves of a 2016 Presidential bid, Sen. Rand Paul has apparently begun channeling the great President Ronald Reagan for his policy ideas!
Rand Paul called Wednesday for “a saner, more balanced approach to foreign policy” in a speech to the Heritage Foundation aimed at destigmatizing his views on the subject.
The libertarian senator from Kentucky, a probable 2016 Republican presidential candidate, presented himself as solidly within the mainstream. He called himself “a realist – not a neoconservative, nor an isolationist.”
On what would have been Ronald Reagan’s 102nd birthday, he explained that the 40th president’s foreign policy is “much closer to what I am advocating than what we have today.”
“Reagan’s foreign policy was robust but also restrained,” said Paul. “He pulled no punches in telling Mr. Gorbachev to ‘tear down that wall.’ He did not shy away from labeling the Soviet Union as an evil empire. But he also sat down with Gorbachev and negotiated meaningful reductions in nuclear weapons.”
This is great! Libertarians shall have someone to rally behind! He shall be sensible and not over-come with ideological baggage and will look back at the Gipper as a great role model! YES!
Keep the faith fellow freedom loving Libertarians! Obama can only be in the White House for like another 3 1/2 years. Assuredly someday our time will come! Even now we can begin laying the ground work to win one for Rand... and win another one for Gipper!! Rand Paul President 2016!!
Ya' know I have recently started to really get into bands live albums. My musical taste is pretty rare-ified so when I do finally find a band that I like it is great to be able to get some live albums as well to help boost the amount of stuff to listen too.
With KISS this is not an issue since their 'Alive' albums have been a major part of the band so they have plenty to offer!
'Alive 2' is probably not as totally energetic and epic as the first 'Alive', but it is a totally worthy entrant into the KISS Kanon. Some of the songs are indeed awesome enough to be as cool as the songs on 'Alive' but some of the other ones do kind of fizzle out.
One of the things that is even better then 'Alive' though is Aces guitar solos! They are totally awesome on here! One can certainly hear where Eddie Van Halen got some of his early influences from clearly on 'Alive 2'.
The two must successful and well known albums of each band in a steel cage death match against each other, the winner decided by yours truly, Hard Harry412!
Who shall be the victor in this clash of THRASH TITAN ALBUMS?
Hard Harry412 decides for.... MEGADETHS 'COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION'!
1.) While 'The Black Album' is probably better over-all, 'Countdown' has more GOOD songs!
'Black' in my mind has two really good songs that I like: 'Enter Sandman' and 'Wherever I May Roam' whilst 'Countdown' features three: 'Skin 'O My Teeth', 'Symphony of Destruction', and 'Foreclosure Of A Dream'. It is hard to win when it comes down to 3 vs. 2!!
2.) When comparing these two I can't help but notice that 'The Black Album' sounds just way more produced. I mean it was made with Bob Rock for crying out loud! So as an Alternative Rocker who also likes noise rock I just am more drawn to the rawer sound of 'Countdown'
The rhythm section on the 'Black Album' actually I think sounds the best. Lars bass drum still sounds pretty cool on this one (it was one of the main things I liked about '... And Justice For All) and Newsteads bass sounds deep and cool, but the two guitars just don't sound all that good to my ear. I like Megadeths guitar sound way better!!! HAIL MEGADETH! Hail 'Countdown to Extinction!'
