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Last weekend I was driving around listening to W.A.S.P.'s 1992 album The Crimson Idol. I've had a second-hand copy of the album for a while now and I must admit that up to, I had never managed to get through the whole CD, start to finish. After listening to the entire 2 CD set Double Live Assassins last week, I decided to give The Crimson Idol another shot. Towards the end of the album, I discovered the song "Hold on to My Heart." If there is a better heavy metal ballad, I have never heard it and – after listening to this song at least 20 times since Saturday afternoon – I can't imagine what a better one might sound like. This is just power ballad perfection.
One of my favorite series from greeklish.org is last year's "Mixtape Mixdown: 25 Favorites" series in which I counted down the tracks from my mix CD of all-time favorite songs. For a few months, I have been thinking about compiling a new CD of "forgotten favorites" to showcase some prospects for a new compilation of my 25 (or maybe 30) favorite songs. I am sure that "Hold on to My Heart" will be a contender for the revised list.
It probably won't be much of a surprise to a small number of folks that the song "Mean Man" will be in the running as well. Hell, that song is top ten material, for sure. Maybe even top five! Horns up!
Last night, I caught the huge WWE event at Dayton's EJ Nutter Center. It's worth mentioning that the Nutter Center is really in Fairborn. I am surprised that Wright State still advertises that Nutter Center is in Dayton, seeing as how the Gem City's current claim to fame is that we're on the Forbes list of America's fastest dying cities. Something to be proud of, I'm sure. Leave it to the spectacle that is sports entertainment to take our minds off the spiraling malaise of our economic recession...even if it's just for one night.
Anyway, the last WWE event I attended was back in October 2007 and as great as that show was, last night's show was way better. Plus, this time around I landed ringside seats. This was a big first for me and it was every bit as exciting as I'd hoped. Just like the last time, I made a sign in support of CM Punk and I had it with me throughout the show.
The event was actually three WWE shows in one, including tapings for both ECW and SmackDown! as well as two matches for WGN's Superstars show.
The ECW show was the first one of the night and for a little while I thought I might be able to hold it together without completely losing my mind. But once Tommy Dreamer made an appearance, I completely flipped out. To me, Tommy Dreamer is true wrestling greatness. Vladimir Kozlov was pretty exciting as well and I am completely loving his new "Lundgrenesque" training montages and entrance themes (complete with Red Army Choir music and archival film footage). The formation of the new incarnation of The Hart Foundation was a great moment as well. I was disappointed that Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart's daughter Natalya didn't see any action in the ring, but at least she made an appearance during the show.
Seeing Rey Mysterio wrestle twice in one night was pretty cool. He had an impressive bout with Shelton Benjamin for the Superstars show. Once SmackDown! started, I had the feeling we were in for a really good show and the opening match certainly got things headed in the right direction. CM Punk's tag partner was John Morrison and they took on The World's greatest Tag Team in what I thought was a sound, solid match. Punk and Morrison had surprisingly good chemistry considering their heated rivalry some years ago when they fought over the ECW championship.
I'm not a huge fan of the Divas division, so I wasn't really enthusiastic about the tag match. But Gail Kim is pretty impressive and it was really something to see her in person.
Edge before the SmackDown! main event.
Jericho and Edge stole the show with some really caustic mic work that set the stage for a phenomenal main event. When GM Theodore Long booked Jericho vs. Edge as the final SD! match of the night, I went crazy. It was kind of unexpected to see the two biggest heels square off going into a pay-per-view weekend and these guys are two of my all-time favorites, so it felt like something really special. Early in the match, I wasn't sure who I'd root for but once Jericho locked in the Walls of Jericho of Edge, I knew I was pulling for Y2J. I jumped up and charged towards the barrier yelling, TAAAAP! Tap, Edge! Edge is gonna taaaap!" Some 10 or 11 year-old kid started yelling "No he's not!" at me. I looked at him and smiled for a second and then I started heckling Edge again. Once Edge got out of the hold the kid was like, "See?" Yeah, whatever. I kind of freaked out when I saw Edge apply what looked to be a Sharpshooter on Y2J and I think other people were as shocked as I was. It was a great moment.
The ending for the main event seemed to be something of a letdown at first, but after Edge was laid out (courtesy of a run-in by Jeff Hardy, if I remember right), the real excitement started as CM Punk's music hit and he charged down the ramp with the Money in the Bank suitcase. For a minute there, I thought he was going to cash in his contract and win the title just like last time. I knew it was unlikely given that the weekend's PPV card was set, but or a second there, it almost happened. I ran into some friends after the show and one of them told me, "When CM Punk's music hit, we thought he was going to win the title for sure tonight! We were so happy for you!"
My hair is tied back
and I'm all sweaty and hoarse... but I'm also very, very
happy!
Umaga came out and squashed CM Punk's shot at the title, but Punk did deliver a massive blow to Umaga's face with the MITB case and that was pretty cool. The ensuing melee saw Edge and Hardy take their fight into the crowd as Jericho, Mysterio, Punk and Umaga fought all over the damn place. It was chaotic, but very well done.
After the SD! Taping concluded, the crew set up the steel cage for a non-televised championship match featuring Jeff Hardy and Edge. Edge retained the title in a short but well-choreographed match.
It was a great night and I have sure come a long way from sitting in the nosebleeds at Rupp Arena with my dad and my older brother. Of course, I do have some really good memories of those days many years ago. Now my daughters keep asking if they can go with me to a live wrestling event. One of these days – once they're old enough to handle all of the noise, drama and excitement of a bombastic WWE supercard -- it will sure be a lot of fun to make some new memories with them.
I took some photos and posted them in a gallery here. Anyone who has been to an event like this knows it's kind of tough to get good photos in this setting, but I think this batch is okay.
If you woke up this morning asking yourself, "Does Mike still think CM Punk is awesome?" then I am here to tell you that the answer is a resounding "YES!"
On the January 19 edition of Monday Night Raw, CM Punk beat William Regal to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. The match was not as thrilling as Punk's September 2007 victory over John Morrison for the ECW title, but there were some pretty amazing moments, including the scary sight of Punk landing almost head-first after a "counter" by Regal that looked kind of like a botched Dragon Suplex. The sight of Punk's head hitting the mat was reminiscent of the time when Chris Benoit accidentally broke Sabu's neck during a match back in the glory days of the original ECW. Punk's finishing move, known as "Go To Sleep" or "GTS," is still my favorite finishing move in pro wrestling and it was a terrific end to the match with Regal.
Punk's win has been the subject of some debate over the question of whether or not he has actually made wrestling history with the quickest "Triple Crown" victory in WWE history. But irrespective of which side you favor in that particular debate, one thing that's clear is that this guy is making his mark in the industry. CM Punk is the future of professional wrestling.
A few years ago, the band Slayer released a career retrospective box set called Soundtrack to the Apocalypse. I kind of lost interest in Slayer a short time after I started college many years ago but I still remember seeing the box set in record stores right after it was released. I was intrigued by the rather lofty title of the collection, but not enough to actually spend a crapload of money to buy it at the retail price (After reading the Amazon.com reviews for it, I think I made the right decision). Anyway,a few months ago, I was picking up our yard the morning after the remnants of Hurricane Ike had blown through Ohio. I had just purchased Venom's most recent album Hell on CD a day earlier, literally hours before the windstorm hit. As I cranked the volume on my portable CD player, I looked the dark sky above and all of the destruction around me and I thought, "If any there was ever a band that could write a soundtrack to the apocalypse, it’s got to be Venom." It's the freakin' truth.
Over the last few years, I have acknowledged my admittedly strange affection for Venom a number of times on greeklish.org. I've also written a bit on my penchant for mixtapes now and again. But after over two decades as a Venom fan and the creation dozens upon dozens of eclectic mixtapes and CD compilations, it is almost unbelievable that I have never even tried to compile an Ultimate Venom collection. Until now, that is. Indeed, I have finally created the true "soundtrack to the apocalypse."
I tried to make Ultimate Venom a single-disc compilation, but there is just no way to contain the awesomeness of this band, so I ended up with a 2 CD set at the end of it all. I have pretty much every major Venom album at my disposal, including the Tony Dolan stuff, but I limited my selections for Ultimate Venom to the Cronos-fronted albums because it's his voice and lyrics that have made Venom a legendary force in heavy metal. In addition to all of the studio albums, I also have the Venom box set MMV (one of my favorite Christmas gifts ever!) as well as a bunch of live CDs and videotapes. As much as I love the live performances, I pretty much stuck to the studio albums for this compilation because the production quality on the live stuff is somewhat less than stellar.
Before spelling out my track listing for disc one of Ultimate Venom, I have one last caveat for folks that are not really hip to Venom or to heavy metal in general: Venom is an act. It's like watching a scary horror movie or hearing a dirty joke. It's just not the kind of thing that anyone should take too seriously. The band members themselves have acknowledged this time and time again in their self-deprecating jokes about being "the worst band in the world" and their attempts at "killing music." Now if you’re easily shocked or offended, then Venom isn't the band for you. But if you don't mind being a just a little uncomfortable now and again and you're up for a good creep-fest, by all means, check ‘em out.
Hail Venom! Ultimate Venom, Disc One: Life Death, Immortality
Cronos, still rocking hard after 30 years!
I went all-out on this compilation, coming up with some special artwork for the CD labels (more on that in the track listing for Disc Two) and giving each CD in the set its own title. Disc One is called Life, Death, Immortality after a line in the lyrics of "Burstin' Out": Hell has granted me three wishes/Life, death, immortality. The line seems to be drawn from the full title of Edward Young's 18th century Christian apologetic, Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality. I have a small cache of antiquarian volumes of Night Thoughts. I started collecting them after I read a story about Robespierre's love for the work. He was supposedly so taken with Night Thoughts that he slept with a copy of the book under his pillow during the French Revolution.
Track listing
1. Intro 2. Bloodlust from the 1997 album Cast In Stone (Ltd. Edition Bonus CD) 1996 was a great year for me. Thomai and I got married, which was the best thing that happened that year (of course). '96 was also a year in which there was a kind of "reunion fever" going on in the music world. The biggest reunion of them all was the Kiss "Alive/Worldwide" Tour, which featured a return to glory (and makeup) for all four original band members. It was a huge deal for sure and it certainly lived up to its hype, although it's too bad that the band couldn't stick it out and stay together indefinitely. Around the same time of the much-anticipated Kiss reunion, Venom announced its own reunion of the vintage lineup, featuring the complete power trio of Cronos, Mantas and Abbadon. I think I first found out about the reunion when I saw the cover of a UK metal magazine called Terrorizer. The news was almost every bit as big as the Kiss reunion to me.
Cast In Stone was the only post-reunion studio album featuring the original lineup. In addition to a powerful collection of new tracks, the first issue of the CD included a bonus disc full of new versions of Venom classics. All too often, bands fall short when they try to "update" their best work for re-release, but the bonus disc for Cast in Stone is so fierce and so tremendous that I think it's safe to say that Venom really outdid itself with the new versions. After decades of listening to heavy metal, I honestly consider the "Intro" track from the bonus disc to be the greatest heavy metal intro track ever. Slayer's introduction to Hell Awaits is a close second, but the magnitude and complexity of the Venom track makes it so much better. There is so much stuff going on in the track, from the air-raid sirens to the haunting chants, rolling thunder and mysterious voices...It's the perfect crescendo that concludes with the demonic intro: "Ladies and Gentlemen! From the very depths of Hell...VENOM!" What a great way to start an album!
From the "Intro" track, Venom slams into "Bloodlust," which originally appeared on the Black Metal album. It's a savage, driving track that was always one of my favorites. I know Venom used to end their live sets with this song, but I always thought it would be a great way to kick off a show.
3. In League With Satan 4. Welcome To Hell from the 1981 album Welcome To Hell I think the first time I ever heard "In League with Satan," I was listening to the compilation album The Singles: 80-86. I was totally freaked out by the drums that start out the track because they sounded to bizarre...almost unearthly in a way. It was kind of like they're being played backwards, but they weren't being played backwards at all. Really difficult to explain. The song itself reminds me of the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was something of a mainstream, goth-meets-gore creepshow. "Welcome to Hell" is just a straight-out great Venom track that sounds something like Black-Sabbath-influenced punk rock.
5. Black Metal 6. Countess Bathory from the 1981 album Black Metal Black Metal was the first full-length venom album I ever bought. I think that was back in 1989 or so. That metallic scraping, static-like noise at the beginning of the track really makes the song stand out to me. I always kind of figured that is the sound you would hear if you were actually going to Hell or something like that. "Countess Bathory" was the second Venom song I ever heard. The first time I heard the song was when I was watching the Ultimate Revenge: Combat Tour Live home video. The clip on that compilation was from Venom's Seventh Date of Hell concert video. "Countess Bathory" has one of simplest Mantas solos ever. I'm not sure how many distinct notes are played in the solo, but I am guessing it's less than 10. The underlying riff throughout the song is probably one of my favorite metal riffs of all time.
Venom's 1995
Album Possessed
7. Satanachist from the 1985 album Possessed 8. Nightmare (12" Mix) from the 1985 album Possessed (bonus track from UK reissue) In the liner notes to Dave Grohl's 2004 Probot album, he said this about Venom: "Few bands have ever sounded truly haunted." I bet Dave was thinking about the intro to "Satanachist" when he wrote that. I first heard both of these songs on the Alive in '85 home video. Buying that video is a great memory for me. This was way back in the days before Internet shopping and I had to place a special order through a local video store. The day I went to pick it up, the clerk got it out from behind the counter, looked at the cover and then he looked at me as if to say, "Really?" Really, dude. I played the bejeezus out of that video and then one day I loaned it to someone and he moved away. It was a long time until I could score another one. I landed my new copy in about 1998 or so. It was the one of the first things I ever bought off eBay.
9. Burstin' Out from the album Cast In Stone [Ltd. Edition Bonus CD] I think I was a junior in high school the first time I heard "Burstin’ Out" and when I listened to the lyrics, I was like, "Ew. Should I be listening to this?" That was something like 20 years ago and I’m still listening to it.
10. Possessed (Remix) from the 1985 album Possessed (bonus track from UK reissue) "Possessed" is an incredible creep-fest of a song that includes some kind of weird introduction featuring a child's voice mumbling something unintelligible through some kind of heavy echo and reverb effects. I think it's one of the kids featured on the album cover photo. Possessed has the distinction of being dubbed Venom's worst album ever by critics. But what do "critics" know, anyway?
11. Sons Of Satan from the 1981 album Welcome To Hell "Sons of Satan" is a tremendous, jarring juggernaut of a song. The song actually kicks off Welcome to Hell, which was their 1981 debut album. It's got a lot of fantastic elements, including a fiery, tremolo-laden guitar solo and some classic moments courtesy of Cronos, such as his cry of "Crank it up!" right before the solo and his "Wooo-ooo!" before the final cacophonic flourish.
12. The Chanting Of The Priests from the 1987 album Calm Before The Storm This a great song off of what is likely my least favorite Venom album. I think it was their first and only single off the album. There's a good live version of it on the Eine Kleine Nachtmusic album.
13. The Evil One from the 1997 album Cast In Stone "The Evil One" is the first track on Venom's only post-reunion album. This song was a great way to resurrect Venom as a band and as an act, as the song captures all of the elements of vintage Venom material while offering a bigger, bolder and more furious sound. Just a terrific song.
14. Witching Hour from the 1981 album Welcome To Hell "Witching Hour" is my favorite Venom song ever and the first Venom song I ever heard. I wrote a whole lot about this song in my "25 Favorites" series a while back.
15. Too Loud (For The Crowd) from the 1985 album Possessed I have always loved "Too Loud (For The Crowd)" because they opened the 1985 Hammersmith show (presented in the Alive in '85 video) with this song. The studio version includes clips of the on-stage banter from the concert.
The track listing for Disc Two is coming soon! Consider yourself warned.
A few years ago, there was a show on VH1 called "When _ Ruled the World." It was a pretty good show, as every episode featured stories, interviews and footage about a band or some other pop-culture phenomenon during their respective peak years. As a longtime Kiss fan, "When Kiss Ruled the World" stands out in my mind as one of the better episodes in the series. Back in the mid to late 1990s one of my favorite bands was a Chicago-area act called The New Duncan Imperials and for a while there, NDI really ruled the world as far as I was concerned. I guess a lot of cool stuff comes out of Chicago.Around 1994 or so, NDI videos were in heavy rotation on our local cable access channel. Some of the guys at the station were big fans of NDI and at one point, NDI even played a huge, three-hour extravaganza concert that was broadcast live from the Miami Valley Cable Council studios. To this day, that show is pretty much the best thing I have ever seen on public access television.
Clips from NDI's Video Trash including the full video for "Motel 666"
NDI had a decent following in Dayton some years ago and Gem City Records used to keep their stuff in stock so it was easy to buy their full-length CDs . They played quite a few dates in eastern Indiana and western Ohio area back in the 1990s. I saw them live for the first time at Canal Street in Dayton in the summer of 1994 (I think) and Thomai and I caught them at shows in Dayton, Columbus, and Indianapolis over the years that followed. Once, we even drove from Dayton to Broadripple and back in one night just to catch NDI. They were touring with Mojo Nixon at the time and we even managed to get a spot in the front row for the entire NDI set. Pigtail Dick signed my Harmony Les Paul before the show that night. Unfortunately, all I had with me was a very old purple Sharpie and the ink has long since worn off the guitar. I had the same guitar autographed by all the Melvins in 1995, which is a tale for another day. Hopefully I can get Pigtail Dick (or maybe even the whole NDI crew) to sign the guitar again someday.
There is really nothing like a New Duncan Imperials show. It's a high-impact act with all kinds of visual stimuli to accompany all the great music. There's all kinds of props and effects and some of them – like the mechanical "Velourabeast" head – are there to help tell a story, while other things – like the leaf blower that's been converted into a giant toilet paper streamer gun – are just part of the show because they're flat out hilarious. Plus, there's always all kinds of giveaways at the shows (the band and fans alike lovingly call this stuff "free shit") including stuff like, matches, frisbees and t-shirts. The interaction between the band and the crowd is really the cornerstone of the NDI live show experience. I have seen Pigtail play wailing guitar solos while standing on the tables at Canal Street and I remember standing under Goodtime as he bodysurfed over the crowd at the Broadripple show. Those things are really, really good memories for us.
NDI has always been about much more than funny lyrics and catchy songs. There is some fantastic musicianship in their work. Pigtail Dick is fantastic with singing and all sorts of crazy on-stage theatrics and he is an accomplished guitarist as well. Truth be told, he's really one of my favorite guitarists of all time. His licks are some of the most intense and blistering pieces imaginable, effectively fusing old-school country western influences with blues and punk. And nobody plays a riff like Pigtail. Skipper is just a terrific bassist and he's extremely witty and talented on the mic as well and once in a while he breaks out a kind of unusual instrument called an "oral piano" (that's what it's called on the CD liner notes, anyway.) All the proof you need about Goodtime's drumming abilities lies in the fact that his drum kit is basically three pieces – unless you count the gigantic kettle drum, of course. The fact the GT gets such a massive, Tommy Lee/Eric Carr quality sound out of such a small kit speaks volumes about his work as a performer.
Cover art for my mix CD When NDI Ruled the World
When I heard NDI released a new album called End of Phase Oneand that they are preparing to launch a tour celebrating their twenty year anniversary, I pulled together my entire collection of NDI CDs, tapes, vinyl and video tapes and decided it would be as good of a time as any to create the ultimate NDI mix CD. It took me a really long time to pick all my favorites and pare them down to fit on one CD, but I finally settled on a decent mix of my favorites from their major releases while also including some obscure gems from EPs, singles and videos. I call my mix CD When NDI Ruled the World and I think the selections in the mix show why NDI was such a big deal to me all those years ago and why I still love to listen to them today. My cover art for the CD features the members of NDI standing in the forefront of K. Yuon's painting A New Planet.
Here's the track listing, with a bit of info about the songs:
1. Motel 666 2. Pensacola 99 from the album Hanky Panky Parley Voo! Released back in 1990, Hanky Panky was NDI's first full-length album. I can't say for sure if this was the first NDI album that I ever bought, but I do know that the video for "Motel 666" was the first NDI song/video I ever encountered. The song is quirky and heavy at the same time and the video really captures that. "Pensacola 99" has all the elements of an NDI classic, including some raunchy lyrics, a memorable riff and wailing guitar.
3. Feelin' Sexy from the Feelin' Sexy EP The Feelin' Sexy EP was NDI's first actual record and it was released in 1990 before Hanky Panky. I absolutely love this tune and I picked the EP version over the Hank Panky version because of the EP version features an absolutely blistering guitar solo.
4. Rockin' Daddy from Video Trash I'm not really sure if the title of this song is really "Rockin' Daddy," but the words feature prominently in the chorus. This is a really unusual live performance NDI did for a local news station in Canada. Check out that "oral piano" I mentioned above because Skipper plays it in this song.
The Hymns of Bucksnort
5. Got Our Shit Together 6. Pitch A Fit from the album Hymns of Bucksnort The 1991 album Hymns of Bucksnort is my all-time favorite NDI album. "Got Our Shit Together" is kind of like the a ridiculous anthem for overconfident people. "Pitch a Fit" is a song that NDI opened with now and then during some of the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vegas shows, but the best thing about this version is that they play a low-volume rendition of the entire theme from "What's Happening!!" (one of my favorite TV sitcoms ever) at the end of the song. It's played on either an accordion or that oral piano-thing with an "a cappella" bass line. Sweet.
7. Waste Your Time 8. The Freshman 15 from the album Sticky The 2000 double CD Sticky has a really different sound from a lot of the older NDI albums and the evolution and improvement of both their skills and their production is really evident through and through on the entire album. "Waste Your Time" is a song I would definitely want to cover if I had a band of my own.
9. Overserved (Danny Bonaduce Show) from the album Fried I think the Fried collection of B-sides and oddities was released in the late 1990s and I am guessing this track was cut in 1995 or so. It doesn't get any weirder than having NDI perform a live acoustic set with Danny Bonnaduce playing rhythm guitar while Skipper yells out the chords for him.
10. Lenkkimakkaraa! from the album The Best of Mikhael Jackson The Best of Mikhael Jackson was released in 1993 and it's a "greatest hits" of sorts that features a couple of rare and previously unreleased tracks. This song was supposedly written after NDI's huge tour of Finland (no joke!) in honor of some kind of Finnish sausage-related delicacy.
11. Good Men Are Pukin' from the album Live, Rare and Bad Live, Rare and Bad is a 1992 collection of B-tracks, commercials, live stuff and other odds and ends. "Good Men Are Pukin'" is a straight-up classic, especially because you can hear Pigtail shouting out instructions to Skipper about his effects pedals before and after the main solo.
12. Female Voodoo 13. Can't Hardly Wait from the album Fried More terrific rare tracks from Fried. The live version of "Female Voodoo" is one of my favorite Pigtail Dick solos. It's got an Ace Frehley kind of simplicity about it in that there aren't many notes, but the playing is just absolutely fierce.
Back cover for the Queen of Venus single
14. Dollywood from the Queen of Venus 7" single A truly weird song from 1992. Every time I finish listening to it, I want to immediately play it again. We took a trip to Gatlinburg in 1999 and I couldn't get the song out of my head the whole time we were there.
15. Tilt-a-Whirl from the album Loserville Tilta-whirl kicks off the 1993 album Loserville, but NDI used to close shows with this song and absolutely tear the house down. I love the guitar effects for the solo -- heavy fuzz, a wha-wah pedal and maybe some kind of flanger-like effect going on there.
16. I'm Your Boogieman from the album Fried K.C. and the Sunshine Band's material sounds much better when it's NDI playing the stuff.
17. Queen Of Venus 18. Fan It And Cool It from the album Loserville "Queen of Venus" is probably what you would have gotten if H.G. Wells had written some songs for the Guess Who. "Fan It and Cool It" is a great sing-along song.
19. Power Tool from the album Sticky In one of the radio interview clips on Live, Rare and Bad, Pigtail tells a DJ, "There are worse things that you can call us besides 'riff rock'...but not many worse things." Here's one of the most tremendous NDI riffs ever. And it just keeps going and going and going...
20. I Never Got Anything Off Of You from the album End of Phase One End of Phase One is NDI's most recent album, released just this year. "I Never Got Anything Off Of You" features a driving riff that is reminiscent of another great song from Fried, "Takin Out the Trash."
21. "Oh My God We're Fucking!" from the single Oh My God We're Fucking! Not sure of the release date of this single, but I'm guessing it was 1996 or 1997. One of the funniest NDI songs ever. It's even better when it's performed live and you don't have a clue of the premise of the song until the first chorus hits. Hilarious.
22. Driving Nails In My Coffin 23. If She Wasn't On Blocks from the album The New Duncan Imperials Live One time I called into Gary Burbank's awful "Stump the Band" radio show and I stayed on hold for over half an hour hoping to get his in-studio to play "If She Wasn't On Blocks" on the air. then the show ended and they hung up before they got to me. In my book, that's compelling evidence that Burbank's show absolutely sucked.
24. It's Popular from the album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vegas "It ain't good, it ain't bad, it's popular." It's funny because it's true. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vegas was released in 1995.
We're in a Band! (EP)
25. We're An American Band from the album We're in a Band! One of the best ideas for a concept album ever. We're in a Band was NDI's 1994 EP that featured five cover songs and all of them had the word "band" in the title. "We're an American Band" was another of NDI's encore tunes from their live shows and I remember that they closed the first show I ever attended with this song.
26. Jägermeister performed live at the Miami Valley Cable Council Studios This is hands down my favorite NDI performance ever. It's a massive, in-your-face encore from their epic set at the MVCC studios back in 1994 or 1995. It's just a phenomenal ending to any NDI set, complete with a dazzling guitar solo and an hilarious Pigtail Dick story that goes absolutely nowhere. Burning this audio to CD from my old, grainy VHS copy was a blast. I had to get a little creative in my efforts to remove some of noise from the aging video tape, but then again, if I cleaned it up too much then it wouldn't be nearly as cool
Never underestimate the importance of exposing your children to professional wrestling at a young age. Any doubts that I had were dispelled last night. Over dinner, Thomai and I were discussing our mutual disdain for Sarah Palin when our older daughter chimed in to say that Palin reminds her of Smackdown's Vickie Guerrero. I told her that this was an excellent comparison with the exception being that Vickie merely plays the part of an evil character, for the sake of entertainment while Palin is downright awful in real life. My daughter appreciated this important distinction.
So, it's been a few days and the work week is officially over. As I decompress a bit tonight, I have to honestly say that my enthusiasm regarding CM Punk's big win has definitely made this a good week for me. I know it is weird and pretty eclectic for me to get so much pleasure out of something as cheesy and over-the-top as pro wrestling, but I just can't shake it. I have watched Punk's win at least twice a day over the last 3 days or so and every time I thought about it this week, it has brought a smile to my face. I forget about politics, bills and all my other worries for a few moments and I'm just happy. Really. The whole angle was just wonderfully executed. If you don't know the story leading up to it and you don't know what "Money in the Bank" is, then it's probably all lost on you, but take my word for it that this was all way cool.
I started watching WWE again about a year and a half ago after a really long hiatus from all the current wrestling shows. Before that, I had basically just spent years watching the same old Memphis and ICW tapes and DVDs over and over again. Once I picked up WWE again and started watching Raw on a weekly basis, I really looked long and hard for one of those great "Raw" moments that are celebrated in the DVD retrospectives and YouTube compilations. But the writing for WWE is pretty sloppy and inconsistent at times and it's hard to get too excited about story-lines and feuds, especially when there seems to be a real tendency on the part of WWE to endlessly tease and screw with fans. The "big" moments are really few and far between these days. I think the last time I really jumped out of my seat was when Edge cashed in MITB and beat Undertaker for the Heavyweight title last year. Before that, it was when Shawn Michaels beat Cena after that hour-long bout in London after WrestleMainia 24. That was way cool. Jericho's comeback was a big deal and it was fun to see Shawn Michaels superkick Randy Orton a bunch of times. But that's really my short list of big WWE moments for the last 18 months or so. And Punk's win really trumps all of those for me.
A lot of Internet "smarks" have moaned and groaned about Punk winning in such a heel-like fashion, but I think that is a pretty lame complaint at the end of the day. I don't think it takes anything away from his charisma or appeal to have him turn the tables on Edge, who won the title from the Undertaker in the exact same way. That's the whole point of the angle -- to bring it full circle, really. Besides, it's best not to over-think this stuff at the end of the day and just enjoy the moment. It's called "sports entertainment" for a reason.
I saw it live on Raw and it was the coolest thing I have ever seen on television...ever! EVER! I screamed so loud that I scared the kids and the dogs!
I am a big Edge fan, but it was amazing to see Punk cash in MITB and totally steal the title. My throat hurts from yelling so much. Seriously, it went on for like ten minutes. I almost hyperventilated. Sweet.
This is the final chapter of my "25 Favorites" series of articles. I don't get a tremendous amount of feedback on our site most of the time, but one thing I know for sure is my dad has read each and every chapter up to this point. So, this one's for my dad... 5: "Let Me Know" by Kiss (from the 1974 album Kiss) lyrics It might have been in the spring of 1984 that I got my first Kiss albums on vinyl, courtesy of one of my older brother's friends. For several months, I had been playing and re-playing the same handful of songs that some classmates had taped for me off selected sides of the Alive! and Alive II double-albums. Those tapes were pretty much all I listened to for quite a while back then. When my brother's friend heard that I had become a Kiss fan, he offered his old LP's to me, telling me that he had planned on throwing them out anyway. I still remember the day he brought them over. If I recall correctly, he wrapped them up in brown paper and included a handwritten note to me about "carrying on the tradition" or something like that. When I unwrapped the package, I found Double Platinum, Destroyer and the eponymous first album Kiss. It was a good haul, for sure. I had heard a few of the songs from the scraps of the Alive albums I had on tape, but I was really looking forward to hearing the rest of the material right off the LPs. Up to that point, I had spent a lot of time in record stores at the mall, staring at Kiss album covers and wondering what the songs on those albums sounded like, but now thanks to my brother's friend, I would get to experience the albums for myself. Incidentally, I recently learned that my brother's former pal is now some kind of evangelical minister. Wow.
Kiss is just a fantastic album and in a lot of ways, I think I liked it so much when I was younger because it was just so different from what I had heard from the band up to that point. The album has an unusually heavy and dark glam sound with some pretty prominent elements of late 1960's and early 1970's pop. In my opinion, there isn't a single bad song on the whole album. Even "Love Theme from Kiss" rocks. But as much as I liked the album as a whole years ago, a couple of the songs would become all-time favorites as time went on. "Let Me Know" was one of those songs. I'm not really sure what Paul was shooting for when he wrote this particular tune. I know that both Gene and Paul have referred to themselves as "frustrated Beatles fans" on a number of occasions and I think this kind of shines through in the "catchy" feel of "Let Me Know." One of the great things about the track is that Paul and Gene share lead vocals on this one, so it isn't easily pegged as a "Gene Song" or a "Paul song." The song has some great, classic "Ace" solos and ends with what I think of as one of the best codas in rock.
I used to listen to this song over and over again when I was 10 or 11 years old and I would imagine that I was in a Kiss cover band (I actually thought that I had created the concept of a Kiss cover band back then). One of the songs I imagined my "band" playing was "Let Me Know" and I had the whole video for the song figured out in my mind. To this day, I still picture those scenes I dreamed up every time I hear the song.
I am guessing that I got Houses of the Holy on vinyl around the summer of 1989 or so. I was working at a fast food restaurant and there was a record store down the street that I would visit on breaks and after work. I think Houses of the Holy was probably one of the last Zeppelin albums that I bought and I put it off for as long as I could because I figured my parents would be upset about the album cover. I really don't think it ever became an issue, though.
I had mixed feelings about some of the songs on Houses of the Holy. I was already well-acquainted with many of the songs on the album, mostly because I had listened to the soundtrack for The Song Remains the Same and watched the film version of the performance so many times. To me, the studio tracks from Houses of the Holy just didn't rock as hard as the respective live versions from The Song Remains the Same. Of course, D'yer Ma'ker had received a lot of local airplay as part of the "Get the Led Out" blocks that were featured on Dayton's WTUE back in the late '80s/early '90s and that song was a favorite of mine for quite a while. But "The Ocean" was kind of like a "new" song to me when I finally picked up Houses of the Holy. John Bonham's weird "rap" at the beginning of the track caught my interest early on and I think that intro kind of fueled my appreciation for the song, because I always turned the stereo volume up really loud to hear the rap and then when the main riff kicked in, it was all just too good to turn down. The hard, driving riff of "The Ocean" is, in my opinion, one of the best and most underrated guitar riffs of all time. It's really something of a surprise that I haven't heard a lot of accomplished rock and metal guitarists cite this song as one of the "greats." The rhythm section meshes unbelievably well with the riff throughout the song and Robert Plant's vocals are simply amazing, including his vocalizing throughout the song's huge and multifaceted second guitar solo. The second guitar solo is, by the way, one of my absolute favorite solos of all time. It is without a doubt some of Jimmy Page's best work. (For a long time, I had always thought of this piece as incredibly complicated until I recently came upon a nifty YouTube tutorial that shows how to play the main solo. It really impressed me to see someone play this solo so effortlessly.) I remember reading something about the production of "The Ocean" – possibly in Hammer of the Gods – which portrayed the production of the song as needlessly excessive and over-the-top. To me, there's nothing terribly flashy or pretentious about the song. In my opinion, "The Ocean" is just a perfect song in every respect. 3: "The Unwelcome Guest" by Billy Bragg and Wilco (from the 1998 album Mermaid Avenue) lyrics
As I mentioned earlier, I absolutely love the Mermaid Avenue albums. I have felt a strong connection to the albums since I first heard them back in 2001 or so. I heard the first volume shortly after a trip to San Francisco and I remember how "California Stars" really struck a chord with me because Thomai and I had enjoyed such a wonderful time there. I played the album quite a bit and I was really impressed with the entire album as a complete work for a while. But as my political awareness and world view began to change, I felt particularly drawn to Woody Guthrie's sentiments in "The Unwelcome Guest."
The song took on a new meaning for me in 2004. My friend Bert passed away in August of that year and his wife put together a very nice and simple memorial gathering. The gathering occurred at a funeral home instead of a church and the "ceremony" was largely secular in nature, with little to no discussion of religion and the like. Instead, people just took turns telling funny and happy stories about Bert. In between segments, Bert's wife would play some of his favorite songs. I remember leaving the service and thinking a lot about things – as one might tend to do after a funeral service – and I started thinking about what song I would want to be played at my funeral. (Oddly enough, this is exactly the kind of topic that Bert and my other friends and I would discuss over lunch back in the good old days.) It wasn't long before I came up with "The Unwelcome Guest" as my "funeral song." It is an emotionally powerful song and I hope that when I'm gone, the people I know and love might hear this song and think fondly of me. I think of Joe Strummer's rendition of "Silver and Gold" in a very similar way.
2: "Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin (from the 1969 album Led Zeppelin) lyrics
Led Zeppelin, kind of like Houses of the Holy, was one of the last Zeppelin albums that I added to my collection. I think I got Led Zeppelin as a used LP by 1989 or so. I really wanted a complete collection of Zeppelin albums on vinyl, as I preferred LPs to cassettes back then. I can't really remember why it took me so long to buy the LP other than the fact that maybe I wasn't that familiar with a lot of the songs on the album because the local classic rock station didn't play many cuts from that particular album very much up to that point. Now, I had already heard the live version of "Dazed and Confused" on the soundtrack for The Song Remains the Same and I was pretty well enamored with Jimmy Page's use of the violin bow in the solo. The half-hour live version of the song was monolithic and fabulous in its own right, but I found the original studio version to be stunningly hard-hitting. It quickly became one of my all-time favorites. In fact, I used to "count down" my favorite songs of the week every Friday night during my early high school years. I would write the titles of 10 or 20 of my favorites in descending order and play them all back to back. It sounds weird, but it passed the time when I was a lonely 15 year-old.
Robert Plant's soulful vocals are angry and bluesy at the same time as they lapse into Page's winding and dreamy solo. The violin bow is also present, but with a slightly different sound (probably because the original version was performed with a Telecaster – I think – and what sounds like some heavy fuzz whereas the performance on The Song Remains the Same features a Les Paul and what sounds like comparatively minimal distortion). In any case, the solo captures a very distinct and innovative "early Page" guitar sound that includes hints of the "vintage" sound of edgy, pre-metal rock. There are some wild twists and turns to the solo, including a positively blinding stretch of licks before the band snaps into the riff to bring the song full circle. It's really a phenomenal accomplishment in sound.
1: "Black Diamond" (Live) by Kiss (from the 1975 album Alive!) lyrics
Well, this is it. Back when I made my original "20 Favorites" compilation in 2002, "Black Diamond" was my number one favorite. The truth is that this has been my absolute favorite song for many, many years. I have previously mentioned that my first Kiss tapes were collections of songs from selected sides of Alive! and Alive II. A friend of mine had an older brother who had these albums as LPs, and after some prodding and begging from me, I eventually ended up with side three of Alive II (minus "I Want You," for some reason) A short time later, I was able to cajole some selections from Alive! off the same guy. The Alive! tape included all of side one of the LP and just half of side three. Side three cut out about halfway through "100,000 Years," right in the middle of Paul working the crowd after Peter's long drum solo. For years and years, I wanted to hear the rest of the Alive! album but I could never really find anyone else who had a copy to share. I really liked the studio versions of "Black Diamond" from the Kiss and Double Platinum LPs, but I was curious about how this great song would sound live, especially as part of the monumental Alive! album. It would be years before I got to hear it, but it was well worth the wait. My folks weren't so hot on Kiss, so when I was a kid, I did not have the opportunity to buy albums directly from record stores. By the time I reached high school, I was pretty crazy about Kiss and I was able to hook up with folks who would loan me their albums so I could tape record them. One time, a guy loaned me The Originals (a triple LP re-release of the first three Kiss albums), Love Gun and Alive II and I taped most of them over the course of a day or so. It was like scoring an instant record collection. Also around this time, I came upon folks who were actually willing to sell me their Kiss LPs and that was absolutely a big deal. This was before I ever landed a part-time job, but I did have a small amount of cash that I had been squirreling away for years and years and the Kiss albums seemed like the best way to spend it. But it was kind of like buying stuff on the black market because prices were high and sellers weren't interested in negotiating. I ended up with some good stuff. One girl even gave me her copy of Dynasty, complete with the original poster intact and that was pretty darn cool. Then again there were jerks like the guy who wanted $25 or $30 for a beaten up copy of Kiss (which I already had anyway) and a 45 of "Lick it Up." He thought for sure that I would pay and he was pretty pissed when I turned him down. I think that in the course of a few months, I had paid around $40 for my entire collection of Kiss LPs, which was almost the entire wad of cash that I had been hoarding since I was in grade school. The money went fast, but I still think it was well spent. I still have all those old LPs.
I remember finally landing a complete copy of Alive! on LP for some ungodly amount of money from a junior in my Health class (the class was for sophomores only – Go figure.) I remember the day I brought my copy of Alive! home and played it for the first time. It was pretty exciting for me to finally have the complete album for myself. And really...Alive! is still my favorite album of all time to this very day. That night, I remember listening to the album alone in my room and getting to the point in "100,000 Years" where my tape had cut off for so many years and when the song kept going, it was like reaching some kind of invisible boundary and finally breaking through. "Black Diamond" followed "100,000 Years" and it was every bit as great as I had expected.
There are so many things that really do "it" for me with this song. Paul's soft introduction is kind of like an intriguing prologue for a sad tale. The tale itself is told by Peter Criss once the song really gets going and it is this particular performance that always drives it home to me that Peter is more than just a drummer. He is, in fact, a very talented songwriter and a phenomenal vocalist and his passionate singing really shines through on this track. Gene's backing vocals work well, too.
Years ago, a friend wanted me to make a compilation of songs featuring some of my favorite guitar solos and I included the live version of "Black Diamond" because of the multifaceted solos that showcase Ace Frehley's signature licks. Paul's rhythm work is pretty good as well, including some bridge-like licks.
One thing I had wondered after years of listening to the studio versions of the song is how Kiss would end the live version of "Black Diamond", because the original version features a gradual slowing of the track (with a single power-chord coda) and the Double Platinum remix just loops back into Paul's intro with a fade-out of the track. In the live version, the power-chord ending is included, but it is punctuated nicely with the stage pyrotechnic explosions, ultimately creating a bombastic ending to an epic performance. The live version of "Black Diamond" off the Kiss album Alive! is truly – once and for all – my favorite song of all time. I have burned my entire collection of favorite songs to CD as a 2 disc set called XXV Favorites. The front cover artwork for the jewel case is a detail of Frida Kahlo's 1933 painting "My Dress Hangs There." The disc labels feature larger detail images from the same painting and the back cover work is an old sepia-tone photograph of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Ask me nicely and I might share a set with you.
Tonight I finally got to see Billy Joel live. Finally...after all these years of being a closet Billy Joel fan. He was at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Thomai bought me the tickets as an early birthday present. It was pretty terrific. One of the highlights of he show was when he threw a serious bone to all of the "Buckeyes" in the crowd. Now, you know I am not a big Ohio State fan, but it was pretty awesome that Billy broke into "Hang on Sloopy" right in the middle of the song "River of Dreams." The place went absolutely crazy and everybody was doing that O-H-I-O thing. When it was all over and the band went back into "River of Dreams," I screamed like a girl because it was just so awesome. A little freaking girl, Nate.
There is no shame in this despite the fact that I am still very much a metalhead. You see, halfway through the show, Billy turned the mic over to a guitar roadie they call "Chainsaw" and he led the band in a HUGE performance of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell." Man, it was tremendous. Seriously. My throat totally hurts from screaming "WHOOOO!" Thomai said the woman next to me was giving me crappy looks because of how much I was freaking out. I think I accidentally stepped on that woman's foot a couple of times, though. Whatever.
It was just awesome. Well worth the wait, I must say.
If you woke up this morning asking yourself, "Does Mike still think 
