Pandemonium Cheesecake

When I was just starting my musical journey many years ago I was hampered by the lack of internet and limited access to information about bands I heard on the radio. There were just two well known rock bios that were accessible to teens which could have helped me. [Zeppelin's 'Hammer of the Gods' & The Doors 'No One Here Gets Out Alive'] Neither of which I read. Why? One, I didn't enter my Doors phase until I was 20, scrawling 'Jim Lives' on every desk I could find on the Selden campus of Suffolk Community College, along with the first eight minutes of lyrics of Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick." Two, I didn't start to love Zep until my late 20s. So that means what I learned came from the DJs, which means bands got lumped together by region or country, not by me, but by them. That means I originally thought The Allman Brothers Band was just another southern-rock band, like the Outlaws, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker B

When you think about best bands of the British Invasion you start with the Beatles. After they opened the door, the next two mentioned are The Rolling Stones and The Who. When you get to the next level, things start getting fuzzy. Who's next? The Yardbirds? No. You can probably name more guitarists than songs from the Yardbirds. The Hollies? No. The Zombies? Nope. Hermans Hermits? Who? How about the Kinks? They always seem to be forgotten. Why? For one, they don't have any lasting A+ rock song. Where's their "Won't Get Fooled Again" or "Sympathy For the Devil" or "A Day in the Life"? They also don't have that classic album. In fact, can you name a Kinks album? While their roots are sunk in American blues (like the Stones & the Who), by the time 60s ended the Kinks were running the other way, towards traditional English folk. While the Stones & the Who were recording classic albums ( Beggars Banquet , Sticky Fingers , Who's N

Frank Zappa is like an ogre. He has layers. Either you 'get' him, or you don't. There are no people who 'sort of like Frank Zappa.' Either you love an artist who can write a song in 13/16 with titles like "No Waiting for the Peanuts to Dissolve" or you dismiss the sophomoric humor, scatological lyrics and one octave voice. His single disc greatest hits, ironically titled Strictly Commercial , is a poor introduction to an artist as far-reaching as Zappa and it bypasses an entire slice of his career. His live music. Luckily for everyone, when he went to Ryko, he was contracted to deliver 12 discs worth of live material for the label, and he did so with the series You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore (Volumes 1-6) . Volume 2, the Helsinki Concert, is the only set to have both discs dedicated to one band, the 1973-74 band. Recorded near the end of the tour in Finland, it highlights one of Zappa's better bands, featuring Napoleon Murphy Brock (guitar/sax/

U2 must love their album Achtung Baby because they've spent the last 20 years of their career trying to record another album like it. So far they have failed. Released late in 1991 while Nirvana was slowly conquering the world, Achtung Baby was the follow up to Rattle & Hum , a mostly disappointing album which found U2 trying too hard to be the 'worlds greatest band.' U2 recorded Achtung Baby in Berlin, so it's no surprise that the Americana blues/folk sound that they leaned heavily on for their previous albums was replaced by late 70s Bowie-esque sound, another rocker famous for reinventing himself in Germany. Combining Bowie's electronic sound with the music coming out of 'Madchester' (psychedelic dance rock), U2 created what has been their sound ever since, swirling guitars drenched in effects over a pop/dance heavy rhythm section. For Achtung Baby Bono trades in his politically fueled lyrics for more personal ones. Songs like "Who's Gon

In honor of its release 39 years ago today (5.12.72) I am going to repost a review from more than a year ago. The Rolling Stones, Exile On Main Street . Exile On Main Street ends the greatest four studio album stretch in rock history. Between 1968 and 1972 the Stones released Beggars Banquet , Let It Bleed , Sticky Fingers and finally Exile . Are you fucking kidding me? Today bands take longer breaks between albums than this and the Stones release 4 of the best 100 albums ever during this time. Exile is among one of the tougher records in rock history to get into, the first two or three time I listened to it I hated it. Alot. So much so that I didn't listen to it for years after that. Where was the 'Brown Sugar' or 'Sympathy For The Devil', the only song my local classic rock radio station played from this album was 'Tumbling Dice', really? That's the best song on it? If you were lucky they played 'Happy', which was sung by Keith and really do

One of the greatest 'what ifs' of the 90s is Blind Melon. Their first album, Blind Melon , was a wonder of down-home psychedelic southern rock in a time dominated by grunge. If you haven't heard their debut, you probably think they were nothing more than a one-hit wonder. If you had a TV in 1993 then you probably saw (repeatedly) "No Rain", or 'the bee girl song'. But it's their second album, Soup , that proves this band was much more than a one-hit wonder and could have been one of the better bands that came out of the 90s. Their career was cut tragically short by the death of lead singer, Shannon Hoon, childhood friend of Axl Rose. (Why oh why couldn't they have changed places.) Ignored by MTV and the press because there was no "No Rain" on this album, Soup , is definately a mixed bowl of great music. There is plenty of their take on classic rock, from the Zep-esque "2x4", "Vernie" sounds like Black Sabbath-via-the

If you were to rank the 10 Greatest Led Zeppelin songs, none of them would be on Houses Of The Holy . If you were to extend that list to 25 songs, there's a good chance that 6 or 7 would be on the fifth Led Zeppelin album. The first CD I ever bought and my favorite Zeppelin album for a long time (it's now Physical Graffiti ), Houses Of The Holy might be the most solid of all their work, no real dogs among the eight tracks. Just real good (not great) rock songs. Like most Zeppelin albums, this one opens with a punch in the face. "The Song Remains The Same" kick starts the glorious Zep machine. The driving riff, the stellar drum work, all trademarks of the first song on any Led Zeppelin album. Don't believe me, just check track 1 of every Zeppelin album you own. Then, with "The Rain Song", the album comes to a screeching halt. It's Zeppelin at their most tender, until the five minute mark when the storm breaks. John Paul Jones' string arrangement

So I've decided to rename this blog. It now shares a name with my old radio show on 90.1fm WUSB. Don't like it? Too bad. Inspired by a friend. I thought I'd take a crack at writing about music every day as well. Can't imagine I'm going to be able to do one a day, but I'll try for 100 or so by the end of the year.