Foreigner - Foreigner

Late 70's hard rock that is closer to light rock. Sorta like Bad Company, but Bad Company is cooler. This album starts out pretty strong but by the time your into the second side it just starts getting too lightweight for my taste.

Van Halen - Women And Children First

I'm Takin' some whiskey to the party tonight and I'm lookin' for somebody to squeeze.

Van Halen - Diver Down

I was in high school when this album came out. The good news. A new Van Halen record! The bad news. It's not very good.

Paul McCartney And Wings - Red Rose Speedway

Man, I've had this record for more than 30 years. Just listened to it, and the gate fold sleeve and booklet with odd collage artwork is still the best thing about it.

-I just read this album was engineered by Alan Parsons and reached #1 on the US charts. Probably on the strength of of the My Love single released before the album. Live And Let Die was also recorded during these sessions but not released on this album. There's nothing that up tempo on here. The back cover of the album contains a Braille message of "We love ya baby" for Stevie Wonder. The cover is also in a matte finish. The packaging is the best part of this here record.

Lynyrd Skynryd - Street Survivors

Not my favorite Skynyrd album, but still real strong.

They included their tour dates in with the record. The album didn't even come out till two days after the tour started. Seems like an odd thing to include in the album since it would be relevant for only a short while. I guess it could looked back on as something to commemorate the tour. Well, as it turned out they only did the first five dates of this tour and then their plane crashed.

Queen - News Of The World

This album starts with We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions. I would think anybody over six years old is familiar with these songs. Then it heads into the rippin' smoker Sheer Heart Attack stops abruptly and starts into a slow piano ballad, All Dead, All Dead. Followed by a bigger ballad rocker Spread You Wings.

He knew it was time

He made up his mind

To leave his dead life behind

His boss said to him

Boy you'd better begin

To get those crazy notions

Right out of your head

Sammy who do you think that you are

You should have been sweeping

Up the emerald bar

Spread Your Wings is the first Queen song with no vocal harmonies. This is their sixth album.

Side one ends with Fight From The Inside a nice rocker (and apparently Slash's all time favorite riff...or something like that).

Side two opens with the full on Led Zeppelin dazed and Confused styled Get Down Make Love. Sleeping On The Sidewalk recorded in one take. Inspired by ZZ Top and it sounds like ZZ Top.

Who Needs You has Spanish guitar and maracas and reminds me of something that Paul McCartney and Wings would do. It's Late sounds like a song you might expect from Queen. It was released as a single in the US and reached #74. My Melancholy Blues sounds like Ella Fitzgerald or some Jazz diva from a different era.

Stylistically this album is all over the place, but all the songs are good/great. All the band members wrote songs and played various instruments that you don't associate them with that particular player. Brian May and Roger Taylor sing a couple songs each with Freddie Mercury doing most of the vocals of course. This album has a timeless quality to it.

Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery

This is pretty lightweight even by ELO standards. Couple disco songs. A bunch of songs that sound like Wings rejects. Some songs that sound like a bunch of songs that Cheap Trick tried to do later on. Production is really good and makes this listen able just because it sounds so nice.

Several ELO records better than this one. Don't Bring Me Down is on here. It was a pretty big hit from what I remember. People who bought this album because they liked that song were probably pretty disappointed since nothing else on the record sounds anything like it.

In This Moment - A Star Crossed Wasteland

There's a song (Welcome To The Gunshow) on the Metal station on XM Radio from these guys. I thought it stood out from the mostly garbage that they (the metal station) play. It grooves better and the dude singing for some reason I pictured as some skinny guy in tapered pants and an Emo haircut, has SOME kind of a screetchy screaming going on throughout the song. I wondered how he was gonna keep that up after a few months of touring let alone a few years. Well, it wasn't till I did some checking in on the internet that I discovered it was a dude at all, but a chick. First song on the album (this is actually the 10th song, the tape my friend made me is out of order) is a ballad that obviously has a girl singing. Second song is the single. I also read on the internet that the kind of music these guys play is called Metalcore. Which is what the rest of the songs sound like. Metalcore with a female singer. There are SO SO SO many Metalcore bands out there that sound exactly the same and follow the exact same formulas that it's like Reggea. The very best band doesn't sound much different than the worst. It reminds me of a joke I wrote for my standup act. What's the difference between Pizza and dogshit?..............Even the last piece is good!

Boris and Ian Astbury

Sounds more like Boris trying to conform to Astbury than the other way around. Music is closer to Sonic Youth and Radiohead than The Melvins, with the guy from the Cult singing. No wailing here, more of an Alt/Somber feel to the vocals. A novelty record. There's a cover of the Cult song Rain, I believe Wata is doing the vocals on that one.

Coffinworm - When All Became None

Killer doom Metal like Graves At Sea. A little more uptempo with cascading guitars...I'm hearing some black Metal in there. Killer!

Stoned Jesus - First Communion

This is for fans of Black Sabbath/Sleep/Reverend Bizarre. Stoned Jesus is from the Ukraine which reminds me of this guy I used to work with. One time we were talking about something, I forget what but it doesn't matter. I said something like "You wouldn't do that back in Russia would you"? He said, "I'm not from Russia. I'm from the Ukraine." I yelled, "Who gives a fuck! One World brother." He stared at me. Confused.

The Hunches - Exit Dreams

Somewhere between AM/REP and the Germs Sonic Youth does a drunken pogo stomp with a saftey pin in their nose. I'm not sure if they're stupid and can't play their instruments, or if they know what they're doing and are genuies. As the album progesses I start to think the latter. It starts to sound like Pavement or Weezer being ironic. You know, it's in there somewhere as Lou Reeds stops by to raid the refridgerator. Some poppy songs that are too noisey for people who like poppy songs.

-I read on Amazon their influences include Neil Young and the homosexuals.

Fresh Blueberry Pancake - Fresh Blueberry Pancake

Raw blues rock that rocks a plenty. There's a good chance these guys were fans of Blue Cheer. It's definatley got that grimey biker bar, cranked up overdriven psyche guitar thing going on. It might be my system, but the bass is super prominent in the mix. It's like your standing over on his side.

Wildildlife - Six

A Cacophony of indie psychedelia. A room clearer for sure. Not for beginners.

Nachtmystium - Doomsday Derelicts

Black Metal. It also rocks like Entombed.

The Heroine Sheiks - Out Of Africa

If you already have every Cows album and need more, you'll probably like this.

Converge - Jane Doe

This is all extreme and everything, but it lacks the groove I'm looking for. Soilent Green for example is just as extreme, but they know how to break it down. This is supposed to be a landmark album. They do the dissonant hardcore thing that reminds me of Drive Like Jehu. There's extreme note-i-ness and mathy craziness and it gets quite and loud. I'll bump this thing from a 3 to a 4 because the dynamics and beatdown factor is high. Unfortunatley the groove factor is low.

Landmine Marathon - Sovereign Descent

This has all the elements I like, but it's just not doing it for me. I think they have an album before this one that I like quite a bit.

The Doors - Strange Days

About as psychedelic as it gets.

Raven - Rock Until You Drop

These guys don't get the recognition they deserve. It's Metal like Priest and it's 1981 so it's still got some Rock in there.

Praying Mantis - Time Tells No Lies

Cheese factor is pretty high with these guys shooting for a commercial sound. NWOBHM.

Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing

Exact same drum beat over and over in every song with exact same vocals sang the same way in every song. The guitar is going off and it still makes me want to start a pit. Old school punk rock. I would have to do some research to see if these guys are cutting new ground in 1982, 'cuz a million bands have sounded just like this since then.

-Supposed to be all extreme like Motorhead/Venom.

-This is a classic hardcore album. You can blame a lot of shit on these guys.

Stompbox - Stress

Rob Zombie and Helmet have a baby while the Stone Temple Pilots stand around and watch...from behind.

The Byrds - 5th Dimension

Sounds like Crosby, Stills & Nash doing Dylan songs. It's that west coast (More L.A. than S.F.) folk rock thing. File it with the Mamas and the Papas or even the Monkees. Touching on psychedelic. It's all about the vocal harmonies and that twangy 12 string guitar. They throw in some orchestration once in a while that reminds me of the Moody Blues.

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

Guitar, harmonica and vocals. Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash type thing going on. Mellow and depressing. Probably more like John Cougar than Bob Dylan, but you get the idea. Doesn't sound anything like the popular Bruce Springsteen that people hear on the radio.