Cheap Trick: In Another World (2021)

So here we are in a Rock N Roll Lockdown so to speak yet those four fun dudes from RockFord Illinois keep on turning out some pretty decent rock considering that the Tricksters are now on their 20th album.

The recently released “In Another World” has Cheap Trick again putting out another solid release consisting of 12 originals and one cover tune that being John Lennon’s “Gimmie Some Truth”

The album is filled with typical Trick like rockers (The Summer Looks Good On You, Boys & Girls & Rock N Roll,Light Up The Fire) whereas at times the band shows its softer sensitive side (Passing Through, So It Goes).

Where the band really shines though is on the title track which is featured twice. One version is slow almost ballad like whereas the second version of Another World (reprise) is a full out rocker.

A real cool move if you ask me and a creative one at that.

Considering in 2021 when bands like KISS won’t release new music and rely on the same ol same ol you can’t say the same about Cheap Trick.

So if your a fan of loud guitars, drums and bass and a singer named Robin Zander who still sings brilliantly like its 1977 than this album is right in your wheelhouse.

dEke’s stream a rater rating…..8/10

Andy Curran & Mike Fraser

Well, wasn’t that an epic night of music discussion on the “Lebrain Train” as both Andy and Mike stepped up with some great stories.

Andy giving us the lowdown on auditioning for Doro and almost putting together a band with Adrian Smith from Maiden as well many other stories from the man himself!

The best is Andy will come back at some point to talk about the Coney Hatch 4 release and by then myself and Mikey will have dug into the new double live Coney Hatch ‘El Mocambo’ live show as well.. We will ask Andy about his new band “Envy of None.”

It was cool that we were able to hook both Fraze and Andy up at one point in the show for a quick catch up.

Fraze once again delivered some great stories as well. One of my favs was the time Fraze went down to Dallas to record a live show for Jackyl.

It was supposed to be an overnighter but Fraze ended up on the Jackyl tour bus for 6 weeks!

So many great stories about working with Chickenfoot, The CULT, Yngwie and much more including some recent music like The Wild! and Lee Aaron’s latest!

Click the 32 minute mark of the video when Andy shows up…

Thanks to both Fraze and Andy…

KISS-DYNAMITE COMICS

I won’t be fooling anyone in saying I collect comics. I don’t but for my 50th a couple of my friends picked me up a set of KISS comics. 10 in total which is cool to have as this is basically my comic book collection.

KISS Dynamite is comic series which I think may still be in print. Not to sure about that but the ones I got are kinda neat.

KISS Dynamite features a storyline written by Amy Chu and all the illustrations are by Kewber Baal and better yet this has the seal of approval of Gene Klein and Stan Eisen.

Below I nicked this paragraph from mycomicbookshop.com

Written by Amy Chu. Art by Kewber Baal. Cover by Goni Montes. KISS is back! Back to the FUTURE in this dark sci-fi adventure. In a world without sun and a world without heroes, four young friends embark on a dangerous mission – to uncover the truth about the mysterious Council of Elders and their underground home, the city of Blackwell. But first they need some help from the past… ‘What is the power of KISS?

Each issue is 32 pages(well the ones I have that is) and the artwork is very good and detailed. You can buy these issues online for $4 or less but if anything it’s a neat thing to own.

The Black Crowes – ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ (Super Deluxe Edition) – Album Review — 2 Loud 2 Old Music

Can you believe it has been 30 years since The Black Crowes debut album, ‘Shake Your Money Maker’? It is hard to fathom some times. The Black Crowes came on the scene with the release of the album on February 13, 1990. The album goes against the grain of the music at the time. The […

Hey Folk’s I was going to post my own review of this massive vinyl box set but my pal John Snow did such a stellar job on this vinyl boxset so why bother. Plus I’m lazy at the moment!

Click the Link and enjoy the writeup…

The Black Crowes – ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ (Super Deluxe Edition) – Album Review — 2 Loud 2 Old Music

HANGING WITH Andy Curran PART 2! FRIDAY APRIL 16TH AT 7 PM!

Well Folk’s if you watched our interview with Andy this past Friday you would have noticed the technical bugs that ended our interview prematurely.

Andy being the great guy right away said he would come back and we could carry on and finish the interview that me and Mikey had started with Mr. Curran.

From Soho and beyond…

So join us this Friday April 16th at 7pm to finish what we started as we have lot’s more to discuss. I’m not giving away any inside info.

If you missed Part 1 you can watch it below beginning around the 36 minute mark. Lots of great conversation with Andy amongst some glitching.

See you Friday Night!

Stream Dream: Triumph- Surveillance(1987)

Triumph was a big deal in the 80s as they had a great run of albums that I would call a Classic-3- Pack.

“Allied Forces(1981)-Never Surrender(1983)-Thunder7(1984)” were stellar releases from Toronto’s Rock N Roll Machine but than something happened in 1986 when “The Sport of Kings” came out.

Was it record company pressure or internal squabbling or maybe a bit of both but Triumph released from “Sport of Kings” the first single which was “Somebody’s Out There” which is a good Triumph song not a great Triumph song.

I bought “Sport of Kings” on cassette tape and it was a tough listen. It just did not click with me as the songs sounded light weight almost hard pop rock.  Tracks like “Tears In The Rain” and “Take A Stand” were good but “Just One Night” lacked anything. 

The Rock N Roll Machine’s tires had come off..

So when “Surveillance” was released in 87 I passed on buying it. Over the years though I thought about giving it another shot and basically that shot came now in 2021! 

Tracklist

1. Prolouge: Into the Forever (1:01)
2. Never Say Never (3:37)
3. Headed for Nowhere (6:09)
4. All the King’s Horses (1:47)
5. Carry on the Flame (5:16)
6. Let the Light (Shine on Me) (5:34)
7. Long Time Gone (5:12)
8. Rock You Down (3:58)
9. Prelude: The Waking Dream (1:13)
10. On and On (3:48)
11. All Over Again (3:59)
12. Running in the Night (3:48)

Total Time: 45:28

I remember MuchMusic back in the day playing the video for “Never Say Never” which I actually liked but I still didn’t take the Triumph bait.

The next track is I would say the best tune on here as “Headed For Nowhere” and its 6 plus minutes is a guitar smorgasbord between Rik Emmett and Steve Morse who trade off solos and what a duel. Who wins you ask! No one and we will call it a draw between Rik and Steve.

“Carry On The Flame” has JD Roberts and his new voice guest on this track reading the news. 

Triumph succeeds for the most part on the rock tracks of the album but as I listen to the album some of the songs begin to tail off and the drums sound weird. What happened here man?

Actually the last three songs have Triumph headed into Journey like rock. “On And On” is an attempt at getting on the radio and didn’t Gil learn his lesson with the balled like stuff like the “Just One Night” from “Sport of Kings”. Yet here is Gil crooning “All Over You” which has a mid tempo AOR vibe.

“Running In The Night” has Gil trying to have Triumph ramp up the pace after  the ball  was dropped in the end zone song “All Over You”.

Triumph in 87 was going for the comeback. It did not work as both the album and singles did not catch on. 

By 1988 Rik split for about two decades and it is good to see them getting along but back then in 87 Triumph blew an engine and never recovered.

deKe’s Stream-A-Rater- 5.5/10

 

 

 

 

C’mon C’mon, the Legendary Andy Curran is on the LeBrain Train! — mikeladano.com

The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike and Superdekes Episode 59 – The Earl of the 8th Note – Andy Curran His name is on so many albums in our collections, from Coney Hatch to Soho 69 to Caramel and beyond, to writing with Kim Mitchell and helping to put together Rush and […]

C’mon C’mon, the Legendary Andy Curran is on the LeBrain Train! — mikeladano.com

Andy Curran LIVE THIS FRIDAY NIGHT @7PM ON THE LEBRAIN TRAIN

I am beyond psyched to have Mr. Andy Curran guesting with Mikey and myself this upcoming Friday Night @7pm on the ‘Lebrain Train’.

We are going to tackle a whole bunch of topics pertaining to Andy’s musical journey from Coney Hatch through his solo career as well as his recent release’s of two fine albums that being Caramel (1998) and Leisureworld (2002) that have both been reissued recently on digital platforms.

I will be asking a few questions about “Scatterbrain” from the band “Soho 69″ that should have been mega that Andy put together after winning a Juno Award back in 1990 as ‘Most Promising Vocalist”.

Oh, and there’s the deal with Andy working alongside RUSH for many years.

Not only are we going to talk about all that but we’re going to pick Andy’s brain on what it was like opening and touring with such acts as Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, Accept, Krokus, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden back in the roaring 80’s.

Speaking of Maiden we will of course ask Andy about his good pal and tennis partner Steve Harris on how that whole Canadian Tour that Coney did a few years back with Steve’s solo band British Lion came about.

Not only that but we will of course be talking about the Coney ” Live At The EL Mocambo” double live album recorded last October which should be hitting the street any day now along with a couple of new Coney Hatch studio tracks that are being finished up plus a second Coney live album that is waiting to come out as well!

Last but not least I will want to know the scoop on Andy’s latest project called “Envy of None” which features on guitar some one that is known world wide and is considered one of the all time greats! Whose that you ask?

Tune in Friday Night @7pm on Mike LeBrain’s YouTube channel to find out who!!

Have to thank my pal Tbone for putting this add for show together in which there is a story between the shirt that Andy is wearing and the Bass he is holding!

Boston: Don’t Look Back(1978)

The self titled album “Boston” sold million’s ,million’s and millions of copies in 1976.

It was  1981 and my pal John Young (Missing In Action) had the self titled Boston debut.  When I was at his place  I had seen the cover of the debut with the the saucer in space with that Boston logo caught my eye and when I flipped over the cover who is the dude with the fro?  

That’s Sib Hashian! (RIP)

So in the summer of that year it was off to Winnipeg with my family and two of my musical purchases were Santers “Shot Down In Flames” on vinyl and on cassette tape “Don’t Look Back” the followup to the Boston debut!

“Don’t Look Back” was released in 1978 and I guess you could say it was a continuation of the debut but for me being my first purchase of Boston, this one sticks to me for some crazy reason….

Lemme explain…..and tell ya all about the tunes that Tom Scholz/Brad Delp/Barry Goudreau/Fran Sheehan and Mr Sib provided….

DONT LOOK BACK- Ah, there’s Tommy’s guitar and what a great tone and opening riff, and boom here comes the bass, drums some cool tambourine and Brad Delp’s voice! I Love the end of it when the big power riff ends the tune fades out and powers up again! This is a great opening number and if I was to do an Arena Rock Compilation disc this would be track one!

THE JOURNEY- Some doodling around with a spacey interlude that last’s all of one minute and forty seconds of it Spacey keyboards I guess you could say!

ITS EASY-A good straight ahead easy peasy rock track! Acoustic guitars mixed with the electrics propell this tune forward and it has a  quick little tempo changes and the vocals like Delp always does delivers it home!

A MAN I’LL NEVER BE-This track clocks in just under 6 minutes and this is epic Boston! The song is a good representation of there sound when they were firing on all cylinders in regards to big rock sounds!

FEELIN SATISFIED- Deke sez….’this is in my top 3 all time fav Boston tracks!” Yep what a great beginning with Delp of course and what a pre chorus. Love the guitar and the handclaps as Delp asks “Are you Feeling Satisfied?” And than right into the chorus!  This one is just soooooooooo good! Love the guitar and you know the rumour floating around is that Scholz did all the instruments on this album and Delp did the lead vocals!

PARTY- Party is the brother to Smokin’ from the debut! Boston wants you to know that if your gonna get spaced out, get spaced out with them! The song is a feel good song as Delp delivers the vocals only like he can and Scholz cranks his guitar loud as it’s a Party. Love that riff during the chorus and after all is said and done it will be time for some late night  Smokin’.

USED TO BAD NEWS-Another mid tempo rocker and there’s a lot of it on this record acoustic but Sib and his drums (and his Fro )propel the song forward!

DONT BE AFRAID- Boston ends the album with one of these end of the album Gems! Big sound,big guitar,over the top vocals it’s all here just dial up 866-AOR-ROCK and have all things delivered to you sonically! This song just wants you to hear more and  it took 8 years of finally hearing more Boston when “Third Stage” came out in 86!

Finally picked this one up on vinyl back in 2017 on a trip with my pal Tbone when we hit up Montreal for six days…

Nothin’ But A Good Time(2021)

“Nothin’ But A Good Time” is a great nostalgic read in which over the 500 or so pages of the book you get a great feel for what really went on during the 80’s along the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

Authors Tom Beaujour and Richard Beinstock did their homework as all the bases are covered in this fascinating spin of what went down on those street corners and bars like the Whiskey, Gazarri’s and many others.

The authors did a bang up job at interviewing tons of bands, artists who give a firsthand account of what all the acts were doing to get noticed to land that sacred recording contract.

Tons of info in this book as its all new interviews with so many bands even Nelson are featured!

Nothin’ But A Good Time goes from the beginning of the 80’s when Motley Crue made a name for themselves playing the LA circuit along with Quiet Riot and others.

Ladano’s homeboy Sweet from Stryper is waving at him.

As the 80s get going than of course comes RATT, WASP and a ton of others. The great thing is this book uncovers a ton of info and backstage stuff I had no idea about.

Case in point…

The business side of things though always seems to interfere with the artists whether it’s a bad deal or management issues. Here’s a snippet from the book quoting those fun loving dudes known as Winger talking about the biz involving there association with producer Beau Hill.

I could tell you about a hundred stories from this book like the time back in late 82 when both George Lynch and Jake E Lee where up for the guitar spot in Ozzy Osbourne band.

Lynch thought he had the gig all sewn up so when it came down to the decision both George and Jake were present at the rehearsal hall when Ozzy walked up to George to tell him he was out and Jake was in. Jake and George were both standing they’re side by side when Ozzy broke the news and then walked away.

Awkward!

Highly recommended read!