Well, another list of new (or fairly new) tracks from recent weeks. Some cool Canadian rock, newer and old bands with some great new releases coming out.
Check out the songs, as well as links in video descriptions . If there’s anything you’d recommend (not here), drop it in the comments!
TRAPEZE – Homeland
The 2nd single from TRAPEZE’ Lost Tapes vol. 2 . Classic tune featuring Mel Galley and Glenn Hughes. Not sure when this one is from, but sounds very fresh and lively.
GODDO – Pretty Bad Boy
originally a hit for Canadian band GODDO in 1981. The band (along with guitarist Sean Kelly) have recorded a new version of the song for their new 50th anniversary compilation album Decades: The Best Of GODDO. http://www.rockpapermerch.com
KINGS OF MERCIA – Battle Scars
The title from KOM’s 2nd album . “That’s about post-war distress syndrome. It’s about a guy who comes back from fighting and can’t really deal with real life. He realizes that he can never be what he was before he went away and did this. But he really, really wants to, but he’s trying to get that across to everybody that loves him. But the problem isn’t him–it’s what he’s been through. I came up with the title ‘BattleScars,’ and I think that suggested the subject matter.” (Steve Overland)
LABYRINTH – ‘Welcome Twilight’ is the first single from this Italian metal band’s upcoming album – In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye. Labyrinth features singer Roberto Tiranti of WONDERWORLD (and ex of Ken Hensley’s band Live Fire). Their new album is due out January 25, on Frontiers. Describing the single, the band declare: “After the absurd circus brought on by COVID-19, not only have we not emerged better, but we now find ourselves in a truly complicated historical period. Now more than ever, si vis pacem, para bellum — if we want peace, we must prepare for war. Our freedom, entirely illusory, is subordinate to those who decide the balance of this weary planet.”
BURNING WITCHES – The Spell Of The Skull Swiss female metal band BURNING WITCHES has a new 2 track single coming out (yes, on limited 12 inch vinyl, in red or gold colored, or CD), due out on December 10.
LOUISIANA CHILD – Cocaine Cowboys
Toronto’s LOUISIANA CHILD have just released their debut single. The band mixes up Southern rock, blues rock, country… Fairly Lynyrd Skynyrd influenced on this first track, Check it out.
STORACE – Screaming Demon
The first single from the upcoming album from STORACE (Marc STORACE of Krokus). A great heavy rocker, kinda like if Bon Scott era AC/ DC were a more metal sounding band.
ENVY OF NONE – Not Dead Yet
Brand new from ENVY OF NONE, the band featuring Alex Lifeson (RUSH) and Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH), plus singer Maiah Wynne. Very unlike what Lifeson or Curran have done in their known bands. Very cool, haunting track.
TEAZE – Reach Out (live)
Video from the TEAZE’s performance in Belgium. If you aren’t familiar with this Canadian band, you have missed out. Teaze has a brand-new live album – ‘Live In Liege‘ out now. This track, from that show was originally from the band’s 1979 album One Night Stands. Order Live In Liege at- http://www.rockpapermerch.com
SEVENTH CRYSTAL – Siren Song
Sweden’s SEVENTH CRYSTAL have released their 3rd album Entity. Full of heavy guitar driven rockers like “Siren Song” .
IMPELLITTERRI – Hell On Earth
The new single from IMPELLITTERRI’s new album War Machine, out now.
“I had this really fun addictive riff that just allowed everyone in the band to shine. It was amazing how powerful the song sounded when we first played it together…. The music really inspired an interesting lyric and amazing vocal performance from Rob Rock! – Chris Impellitterri.
Canadian band THE WRING, is lead by guitarist & songwriter Don Dewolf. The Wring’s 4th album is titled Nemesis, and now available on CD, and in digital form. A progressive -metal type of sound, The Wring will appeal to fans of Rush, Queensryche, and Dream Theater. A few weeks back I spoke with Don about The Wring, the newest album , as well as his his other gig – RUST (a Rush tribute). Check out our conversation below, as well as the clips, and the links below!
So, to start off, is The WRING a band or is it more your own project?
It started, it’s always been my project, but it did start as a band. I’m from Sudbury. The music scene there is like cover bands and tribute bands. Original music, especially, in the prog rock kind of thing, it just doesn’t exist. But I did manage to round up some guys and we did the first record as a band, and we did some shows and all. It was super fun, but it’s hard to get paid and, guys kind of lose interest. So, they went their own way, but the process was fascinating to me. I wrote everything all the way along, so I thought, I’ll just keep going.
And then COVID came, and the world shut down. So, the bass player from the original band said – ‘listen, there’s guys out there at home and you never know unless you ask’. So, he connected me with Thomas Lang – a world-famous drummer… Like cover of Modern Drummer Magazine kind of guy! And I sent him my stuff and he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m in! I’ll do it for free….Well for an incredibly reasonable price. (lol) So that sort of set the ball rolling. And I’ve done three more albums kind of that way because I can’t get players, so I just, I find them.
So, there’s been three previous albums. What did you do before this? Did you have anything else going on before the WRING, any other original stuff?
No.
Or is it just the Rush thing?
Yeah, I do the Rush tribute just to stand on the stage. I’ve always loved Rush. So, it almost feels legit to me, even though it’s still a tribute thing.
But yeah, I can’t get anybody to do The Wring. So, I just do the Rush tribute. Before that it was cover bands and whatever I could find.You know, it’s a tough scene, not only in (as you said) down your way too, but in Canada in general, it’s just tough.
(Brief discussion on local cover band scene here, there and Nashville!
Are all these songs on the latest album written specifically for this project? I know you’ve written over the years, so is there stuff that’s been hanging around, or is it kind of, when you decide to do a new album, you’re writing as of then?
I would say for this album…this would be number four …if there was anything hanging around, it probably got used in some way. I would say, when I’m starting, and (I suppose) I’m kind of in that cycle right now, I’m starting from zero and building out maybe record number five. So, everything was unique and fresh for this record. There were a couple of riffs that I had, but they’ve been turned around so many times, and twisted up that you wouldn’t recognize the original one anyway.
Now the album’s coming out, or is out on CD, correct?
The last two records, plus this one, are being released by Wormhole Death Records out of Italy. It’s a distribution deal, so it’s not that fancy, but they put it out there. They have a unit in Japan, a unit in the U.S., and then, of course, they’re a European business unit. So they insist on CDs; they still think it’s a thing, so they make CDs. They should be out probably within the next couple of weeks. So, yeah, I like a physical copy. I don’t think I have enough uptake to do vinyl, but I’d love to do that. But it’s expensive, very expensive.
So, let’s talk about some of the songs. “The Nail”, that intro had a bit of a Maiden feel going in it for a bit there.
A little bit, yeah, for sure. They were an influence. Everybody’s an influence. I’m sure if you sat down and listened to, or you picked apart, you’d hear somebody, everything’s been done. (haha) I try to make things a little bit original as much as I can, but it’s hard.
It’s funny, when I first got to listen to the first song off the album that came out a few months ago, I immediately thought of the Rush sound, just in the guitar and the bass, like that kind of feel.
Definitely, yeah.
And then I looked you up on Facebook, and ‘this guy plays in a Rush cover band’!
(haha) Yeah, it’s an influence that won’t go away. They were huge to me, So it’s always there somewhere.
Yeah, and there’s a lot of, you’ve got a few instrumentals on here. Are you familiar with a lot of the modern prog stuff, like Dream Theater, that sort of stuff?
Most definitely! And actually, I’m in Toronto right now, I’m going to see Opeth tonight, ne of my favorite bands. So, not all, because some of it is too much. Dream Theater I’ve kept up with over the years. I think they’ve got a formula now, and it’s hard to distinguish one record from the next, but I still like to go see them.
I saw them on their last tour here, and he (James LaBrie) did a great job, I gotta say. He’s over 60 years old, and he’s trying to bang this stuff out. Images And Words was 1992, that’s a long time to be doing this.
The one I am most familiar with is Scenes From A Memory. After that, I don’t know… I like to hear songs; I like to the songs to have an ending…
And that’s kind of what I go for with The Wring. There’s stuff in there, there’s some weird times, there’s some weird shit, there’s some interesting parts (I like to think they’re interesting). They go by, and the songs are five minutes or less, and it’s not agony to get through them.
Yeah, can you tell me a bit about a few of the songs, lyrically and musically, like ‘The Nail’; obviously, ‘The Sword’ stands out, and the last one, ‘Nemesis’ (?)
Well, lyrically, like, I do all the music first, all the songs start with a riff. I write everything on guitar; I’ll come up with something that I like, and then I’ll set it aside, I’ll come back to it, make sure that it’s not too much of a rip off of something else, and if it is, it goes in the garbage, and if it’s something else, I might spin it around a little bit, try and make it interesting that I’ve not done before, And then, you know, once I have all the songs written, then I do the lyrics. And all of my lyrics come, kind of, I seem to, my muse is anger, so, you watch the news, and it’s easy to get angry, like, there’s so many, just horrible, horrible things going on in the world at any given moment, you just almost can’t even believe it. And that’s the theme; it wasn’t intended as a concept. But the theme of Nemesis, which is kind of an unstoppable enemy, it takes many forms, and we’re all fighting that in some way every day, whether it’s a bad breakup with your girlfriend, or Donald Trump, or the war in Ukraine, … it’s easy to find material to write about, and you can trace pretty much every song back to that theme. So I thought ‘what a kind of a cool kind of thing to tie it together’, lyrically. And then the writing is just riffs, and I try and structure things that are interesting. I demo everything myself, and then I send it to the guys, and let them do their thing, and both players in this record are just off the charts, they’re so good.
The guys you have on this album, Reggie and Kyle, have they been on the other albums as well?
Kyle was new for this one, I seem to change drummers every record. Reggie played bass on the last record on Spectra, and he’s such a good bass player, so I wanted him back for that. And then I sort of discovered that he’s also a singer, so he’s a great guy to work with. He’s malleable, if you hire a guy like Marco Minivan, who played drums on the last record, and of course, you’re not going to tell Marco what to do – you’re going to say ‘here are the songs, Marco, please play drums.’ And he’s going to say ‘sure’, and he’s going to hit it out of the park, but he’s not going to take suggestions, whereas Kyle did, and Reggie does. So this one… because these guys are excellent, but they’re not famous; when you’re dealing with famous guys, they’re just going to do a great job, but you’re not gonna have a lot of input in it, whereas with these guys, it felt more collaborative, So it was much more satisfying to me in that regard, that if I heard a lyric, or a melodic phrasing in the vocals that I didn’t like or whatever, I could say ‘Reggie, could you please – don’t do that, and he would’, And it was all good. So, I like that part of it, and they’re great, great players, and the performances were killer.
Have you played any of this stuff live at all, or do you foresee yourself doing any live shows?
You know, I keep hoping. The original Wring band did play live, and it was, it was so much fun. And, I layer so many guitars into it, and it’s like… (and I don’t want to compare myself), but Jimmy Page – all the Led Zeppelin records have, layers and layers and layers of guitar, but then live, you see him sort of aggregating those into one, because he’s not overdubbing anything on stage. And it was always fascinating to me how he would interpret his own songs to make them into one guitar part. And The Wring is kind of the same, there’s lots of stuff going over the guitar, it’s just me, so on stage it was it was great fun to do that very thing, so I keep hoping, and Reggie, Reggie was living in Vancouver when he did these records, but now he’s moved back to Montreal, which is, you know, six hours from me, not a plane ride, so, you know, and drummers are drummers, so, you know, I’m hoping, you know, now that he’s a little closer, we actually might be able to put something together and stand on a stage together and play some of these things.
Do you get much of a response from Europe and elsewhere?
Yeah It’s amazing because, with Spotify and Apple Music and all these services, like, they drill down, like, so far, right, like I could tell you a city where people are listening to this stuff, and it’s amazing, it’s like Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden, London, England, you know, around London, a couple of different cities in Germany, and then throughout the United States, it’s pretty good, there’s pockets in the U.S. that are very supportive of this. There’s very little in Canada, it’s all Canada is, name a metal band called ‘Canada’. Ancients, I guess, I don’t really know anybody who’s doing too much, in the genre here.
Would you ever be, if the opportunity arose, be open to going to Europe and doing festival shows, that sort of thing?
I’d love to play live, for sure, it’s special to do that, especially with your own material, So, absolutely, yes!
Can you tell me a little bit on the cover design for the album, the artwork, do you get involved in that?
Well, it’s always funny, because obviously, I write all the words and the music, and I’ve got a vision in my head of what that looks like. So, I always sit down, and I go through graphics sites and find images, and this is what Nemesis looks like. And I’ve got a friend here in Toronto, actually, who’s a graphic designer, so what I do is I put a whole bunch of ideas together, and I send it over and say, ‘this is the concept, this is what I want to do, can you make it proper?’ And so, he did Spectra as well, and it was funny, the process for that, he went, ‘yeah, okay’. He takes my ideas, and he maps them all out, and does some mock-ups, and then at the very bottom of the page, I did a couple of my own too, so you can have a look at what my vision would be, and of course, he’s always right. So, the end version of both Spectra and now Nemesis was all him, and he came up with the jellyfish, and the red color, and I thought, ‘wow, it’s so simple, and so cool’. And thematically, it kind of speaks to Nemesis as well, so it’s cool.
You don’t have any new, any special guests on this album, correct? I know you had Marc Bonilla on the previous album.
Yeah, he was on Project Cipher, which was two albums ago. He did all the vocals then, but no, no famous people on this one, it’s just me, Reggie, and Kyle. Wow, that’s an interesting connection with him.
He (Marc) came from Thomas Lang, actually. It’s funny, because I got connected to Thomas, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it for sure.’ and I said, ‘Since you’re being so nice, do you know a vocalist?’ And he goes, ‘I do.’ So, he connected me with Marc, and Marc’s a super pro; he’s got Grammy awards, and I think he was out with Asia, maybe…But what a talented guy.
Like, wow! It was, when you’re dealing with a guy who’s that professional, it’s great fun. And to have him be interested in my stuff was pretty gratifying, and humbling, I guess.
I’m just going to ask you for a few short lists. A few albums, favorite albums growing up.
I would say, best album of all time, which would be my favorite album, would be Moving Pictures, Rush. Another very influential record on me was Megadeth’s Peace Sells. Ozzy – Diary of a Madman, Randy Rhoads, lhe changed the world. In my view, he made it possible for a lot of these things to happen And then I think the next step for me was Opeth, Blackwater Park was a huge influence in terms of how I approach, and what’s possible. Just an amazing record! And then, I don’t know… Voivod’s always been there, Nothingface, I still listen to Nothingface and think about what they were doing back then. So, yeah, that’s another huge one for me.
You said Moving Pictures, I’m kind of into that whole era from Hemispheres up to Signals. You play all the Rush stuff, can you give a few favorite Rush songs – playing-wise, or as a fan?
Yeah, I’m the same. Hemispheres is a close second in Rush for me; I absolutely love every inch of that record, right through, I went to Grace Under Pressure, I found Grace to be a very good record, like, guitar-wise, after that, Alex, he really stopped playing, he didn’t really do anything after that. So, playing live – really the whole Moving Pictures thing, because we do everything except “Witch Hunt”. “Limelight” is a fun song, with “Tom Sawyer”, it’s always amazing to play that; “YYZ”, of course. We do a little chunk of “Natural Science”, off Permanent Waves, we do a chunk of ” La Villa Strangiato”. I do “Broons Bane” on a nylon string. We don’t go past Grace Under Pressure, our set is almost two and a half hours, and it’s all Grace or older. So, it’s all fun stuff to play.
Do you guys ever play down this way, or is it all up in Northern Ontario, that way?
Oh, gosh, we’re trying to make some headway down there. I think it would actually serve better, because it’s interesting, there’s so many Rush Tribute bands out there, and the most famous ones are at least four members. They’ll always have…most often have a girl singer, and stuff like that, they have original albums and all that, I think, okay, that’s cool. And they do a good job, but they have a girl singer, like, the whole mystique of Rush is that three guys were able to pull that stuff off. So that’s our approach, and it’s hard – the guitar player has the easiest job, drums are obviously ridiculously difficult, and then trying to play the Geddy thing – sing, and we do everything legit, there’s no backing track, so we’re playing the, you know, the keyboards on the floor, the pedals, and then he’s got a full set of keyboards. It’s pretty authentic, it’s not perfect, but it’s certainly authentic, and it’s fun. So I think it would be something that we could catch on down there, Our first show was actually just in April past, so we’re hoping, in early 2025 to be doing some stuff down there, for sure.
One last thing, if you can give me a favorite underrated Canadian album, or a couple?
I mentioned Ancients earlier, and I don’t know if anybody knows who Ancients are, but they’re fantastic, and they just put a new record out, and, and their previous one Voice of the Void, is incredible! I would say it’s a combination of Opeth, Tool and Mastodon, it’s like – put all those three things together, there’s clean vocals, there’s growls, it’s amazing! I love those guys, so I would say that.
Three big names in Canadian rock will tour coast to coast in the spring. BTO – featuring Randy Bachman headlines the Back In Overdrive tour, along with APRIL WINE and The HEADPINS.
Super excited to see this news! A live album from MAGNUM’S final performance, before the passing of guitarist/songwriter TONY CLARKIN. Set list is below the press release, as well album artwork and ordering Link. There is a few clips from this show online (shared below. The DVD was included as a bonus disc to the band’s last album). A great looking set-list, largely earlier classics, with a few newer gems, should be a another great sounding release as with previous MAGNUM live albums!
British rock icons MAGNUM have announced the release of the band’s final live album with founder Tony Clarkin. Recorded December 10, 2022, ‘Live at KK’s Steel Mill‘ was the memorable night when they played the final show of their European tour at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton and, as they had done on all previous nights, wowed their fans from the first to the last note. The concert was recorded by state-of-the-art audio equipment, which later turned out to be a real blessing because it was – as we now know – the last official live recording starring Tony Clarkin. The guitarist and main songwriter died unexpectedly on January 7, 2024, just a few days before the release of MAGNUM’s studio album ‘Here Comes The Rain.’
The album presents MAGNUM as an enthusiastically celebrated act whose repertoire of hits, classics, and newer material could hardly be more varied. “It was the perfect evening,” recalls singer Bob Catley. “We finished our The Monster Roars tour in Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill was packed out and the promoter was a passionate MAGNUM fan. I couldn’t imagine a more worthy farewell to Tony than those recordings.”
HiDue to the huge demand and to mark the first anniversary of Clarkin’s passing, ‘Live At KK’s Steel Mill’ will be available via Steamhammer/SPV starting January 10, 2025, for the first time on double CD, triple LP, and for digital download.
To pay tribute to their late bandleader, MAGNUM are set to play an exclusive series of ‘Tribute to Tony’ shows in the UK in January 2025. As a special gesture, Clarkin’s daughter Dionne will showcase two of her father’s favorite instruments to the concerts – his red Telecaster and his white custom guitar, hoping that Clarkin will be watching from heaven. “My father was an extremely modest and humble man who would probably be surprised at how much the large MAGNUM community continues to love him to this day. He always believed that few people would really care if one day he would no longer be with us. As it turns out, the exact opposite is the case: We all miss him, his huge artistic achievement, and his great empathy as a father, friend and musician!” This is why ‘Live at KK’s Steel Mill’ is undoubtedly one of the most emotional albums in MAGNUM’s longstanding career! Pre-Order Exclusive CD/LP Bundles
Canada’s ANDY CURRAN may have been best known for his days and 3 album run in the early 80s CONEY HATCH, but following the breakup of the band, Andy would go on to record a few albums throughout the 90s. Albums released under such names as SOHO 69, CARAMEL, DRUG PLAN and LEISURE WORLD came later in the decade, but in 1990 his first ‘solo’ project was released simply as ‘Andy Curran’. A few songs received massive radio play across the country, and he was nominated for 2 Juno Awards in 1991, winning ‘Most Promising Male Vocalist’. That album was re-issued last year (in expanded box set form) for it’s 30th anniversary as ‘Whiskey & The Devil 30th’, as well as a 2LP colored issue. The extra LP included previously unreleased studio and live recordings. In this interview Andy recalls a lot from making that album, its success, and what came after, as well as detailing the bonus material. We also discuss SOHO 69, reissues, updates on ENVY OF NONE (w/Alex Lifeson) and CONEY HATCH, including the band’s plan to play the entire ‘Friction’ album (which they did) on a recent trip to the UK & France. And lastly, Andy gives us some great Canadian listening recommendations to check out.
I want to talk about the Whiskey and the Devil album. I know the box that came out last year, and I picked up the vinyl when I saw you guys in Oakville. So, a couple things right off the bat, obviously, is the title and the new artwork, because that wasn’t the original of either.
That’s correct. You know, I could be guilty of confusing people, but what I thought I’d like to do, Kevin, is all these years later, because it was a celebration or an anniversary issue, was to change it up a little bit. So I changed the artwork. That artwork was originally done by a very good buddy of mine named Bill Baker, and Bill is a tattoo artist. He has a tattoo shop in Toronto called Pearl Harbor Gift Shop, and he did that artwork for me back in the day, and it was on a t-shirt, and I just really loved it and thought, ‘man, I’m going to use it this time around’. And if I was to be really honest, when the record was released originally back in 91, I had a disagreement. It wasn’t anything hostile, but I never wanted to call the record Andy Curran. I wanted to call it ‘Soho 69’, and I had a title for the record called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’, and they were adamant that it had to be called Andy Curran. And I was just like – I’ve always been part of the band; I always felt weird about calling the record after my name and everything, so I got a chance to finally get my way, and I changed everything.
The original seems to be a safe title and a safe cover, which is just the photo.
Yeah, I know. It’s weird because I literally had discussions with the label back then. I don’t want to use my photo. I don’t want to use my name. And they were like ‘Yes, guess what? We’re the record company, and this is the way it’s going to go.’ So, I wanted to change it afterwards, Kevin, and I got my way. Working with the guys at SING has been really great, and they were totally cool to just give me full artistic control on it, and so that’s the story behind the artwork.
On the original album, you have that emblem on the back there of that kind of eagle thing. Did you ever use that for anything?
Yes, the eagle logo we used quite a bit, and again, it was sort of a play on this whole ‘no tattoos’ thing. So going to my friend Bill Baker, he did the illustration for the eagle with the banner, and that was on our merch back then. I think we even had a backdrop with the eagle in the background. So, yeah, so we used that quite a bit back in the day.
You had quite a bit of success with this album. You had the Juno and everything, and you had like, the first three songs, I think, were all radio hits and singles!?
Yeah, that was a nice run for me. I mean, those songs, like “License To Love”, “No Tattoos”, and “Let Go” – they were all top ten songs at Rock Radio in Canada, and they were getting a load of airplay on MuchMusic with “No Tattoos” and “License To Love”. And I think that really propped up the visibility of the release of the project and helped me get a couple Juno nominations. The record was also nominated for, I think, Best Hard Rock Album of The Year, and I lost to some band called Rush or something. Yeah, that’s alright, I guess.
Did you tour a lot with this album?
We did. We were out on the road, Kev, for – when all things were said and done, we were out for approximately 18 months that year. The touring cycle was really, really quite long. Lots of solo dates, if I recall. Now you’re really stretching my memory here. We went out on the road with Glass Tiger and Haywire was one tour. We did a bunch of shows with my buddy Kim Mitchell. We did a bunch of shows with Rick Emmett after Rick had left Triumph and was out playing solo shows. And, I think probably the highlight for me was doing some dates with Rush, opening up for them on the Roll The Bones tour.
So, again, having the visibility of the Juno awards and all that airplay, it just fueled the touring cycle. So that might have been. It wasn’t a steady 18 months, but that’s how long we were out for on and off. Yeah.
You have live stuff on this new reissue. Do you have a full show of that or did you just kind of handpick some of the songs?
Well, there was a couple of live shows floating around that various people had recorded. And, with the live stuff that made the Whiskey And The Devil anniversary, I worked very closely with my buddy, and lead singer of Harem Scarem, Harry Hess. And Harry is a renowned mastering engineer and he and I were talking, and he said ‘man, your live band was so good back then. It’s too bad you don’t have any recordings’. And I said, I do, but they’re all on cassettes. And he said ‘well, I’ve done some pretty cool stuff with audio from cassettes. Why don’t you give it to me, and I’ll see if we can rescue it from the dead’. So, Harry’s got some really great technology, that works with basically upgrading audio from that format. So believe it or not, that was taken from a live recording that was handed to me on a cassette and Harry did some wonderful stuff with it. But, to answer your question, yeah, I cherry picked it because there were some songs that just didn’t really sound any good quality wise. So, we sort of focused on the ones that we thought sounded great.
I see you did a couple of covers. You didn’t just really stick to your own stuff there.
We had so much fun doing covers, man. Over the years, there was something about wanting to put my stamp on a few different songs that I really, really loved, you know? So, I’ve been a huge fan of the band WAR for a very, very long time. And I think I gravitate a lot to some of that old *funk just because of the baselines on it. But those two songs “Cisco Kid” and “Low Rider”, we always had a lot of fun with.
But we used to do a version of “Highway Star”. I wish I had a version of that Deep Purple one that we did. We did the Beatles “She’s So Heavy”. We used to do “Schools Out”. And I think we even did a version of Stan Ridgway’s “Mexican Radio”. I mean, these are songs that I grew up with and people are like ‘what are you doing? A hard rock version of “Mexican Radio”!?’ And I was ‘I love those songs’. But those two songs by WAR have just been old favorites of mine and I wanted to put them on there just to let people hear what we did, and best with those cover versions.
I like things that are different, and they sound different. They’re kind of out of their genre, you know!? And then you have the two songs that weren’t on the album that!?
As a lot of artists do, you go into the recording sessions with some extra material, just in case some of the songs don’t really pan out or, you never know how they’re going to go regardless of getting bed tracks done. You never know if they’re actually going to sound great or not sound great. So, “One Woman Man” and “Walk The Other Way” were recorded at the same time as I recorded all of the other songs, and I kind of had forgotten about them, to be honest with you. It was just such a distant memory that we had gone in and recorded those songs. And when Tom Berry from Alert Records gave me access to all of the original tapes, multi-track tapes, I was surprised to see two extra songs. I opened them up and I was like ‘Oh my God. I remember these two songs!’ The story behind them. If I recall is you’re always challenged with the amount of music that you can put on a side of vinyl and vinyl was still around. And so, we figured out that there was no way to get those two songs on vinyl. And if I recall, there was some business stuff going on about lawyers going back and forth about ‘Hey, you know, we’re, we’re only going to pay Andy up to 10 songs and we’re not going to put up 12 songs’. So, they just for no bad reason, just got shuffled off to the side. I just thought it would be cool to resurrect those ones. And I worked with my buddy, Vic Florencia, who is also a Juno award winner. And we thought ‘well why don’t we just those songs were finished. I was surprised that I had done everything on it. There was no extra overdubs required. They were finished and, but just never brought to life. So, it was a pretty easy thing just to get those tracks and remix them and kind of get them pulled out of the vault for people to hear. Because we used to play one of them live – “Walk The Other Way” – we played live for a long time.
There was no issue of what tracks you were going to put aside; was it was an easy choice, the first 10?
It was. I think when everybody sort of threw that through the list of titles into a hat and we picked them all, everybody was fine to leave those ones off and, full transparency with “One Woman Man”, that has a bit of a Southern rock-blues vibe to it. (And) we thought, we thought ‘does this even fit?’ And I’m a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan, and I just thought, ‘okay, well, guilty as charged’. That was me trying to add a little bit of Southern rock into the mix. Did it work? Did it fit? Maybe not. But all these years later, I really don’t care. I just was like, let’s put these in.
You also had a new single out “Looking For Love”, that came out a couple of months ago. And that’s a new recording!?
That is a brand-new recording. I’ll tell you how that came to fruition. *When I was talking to Geoff Osler, he is the CEO of SING. And he’s the guy that basically championed all of this and said ‘go ahead, Andy,.. I’m happy to work on this with you’. And he said, ‘but it’s really too bad you don’t have a new song’. And I said ‘that’s a stretch, man. I’d have to really put the band back together and go and write some stuff.’ I probably could get in touch with Glen and Simon, the original players. But I said, ‘what I do have is a demo of this song called “Looking For Love”. And we actually never got around to recording it’. And the premise of the song itself is based on a personal ad page in the back where people were. It’s almost like a version of a dating app. Now dating apps are so popular that the song topic might actually be relevant, even more so now with people on Tinder and all these different apps where they’re swiping to find mates. So, he said ‘well, we’ll go ahead and do it, pull it out and record it with the band’. So that song was originally written for my solo record. But I think one of the reasons we didn’t do it, it kind of starts off with bass, drums, guitar, almost a bit like “No Tattoos”. We thought ‘okay, we have these, but we can’t put both of them on the record. They are similar sounding’. So, we ended up shelving “Looking For Love”. And many years later, got back in the studio with Glen Milchem on drums and Simon Brierley, who both who played on the original record. And then I’ve obviously got a new friendship with Sean Kelly, who plays in Coney Hatch. I asked Sean Kelly to come in and do it. And all these years later, we resurrected “Looking For Love”.
Is ‘Whiskey And The Devil’ on CD as well?
We did not make this record available on CD. There’s been some discussion about doing that. I forgot if people still like to listen to CDs. I’ve got a huge collection. I’ve got a CD player in my studio. But a few people have been vocal about it. I don’t know. You’d have to tell me whether you think I should reissue it on CD as well.
I found over the last year, I’ve been buying more CDs, just because the way the price of vinyl has gone up. Plus, I play CDs in my car.
Yeah, well, it’s interesting that you mentioned it, because my friend Harry Hess, told me a lot of his fans still buy CDs. So maybe I got to put that on the to-do list and get a CD version of it.
With the success of that album when it came out, you then went with the band name SOHO 69 for the next album. Was there any pressure to follow up?
I don’t think there was any pressure, but it was a really, really odd chapter. Because you think about, I look back on it now, and it’s really just indicative of the music industry and life as a musician – just when you think things are going great, or you think you got the world by the short and curlies, the bottom drops out on it, right? So, when I was at the Juno Awards, and had won that Juno that night, I spoke to the record company, and they said, ‘By the way, we have to tell you congratulations, but we’re actually not going to be a full-fledged label anymore. So …you don’t have a record deal anymore.’ And I’m like ‘in what world does this happen?’ And you’re arguably celebrating something very successful, only to find out that you don’t have a record deal anymore.
I immediately had to scramble to just even find a home for the ‘Scatterbrain’ record, which I had already started working on. And there was all of this groundwork and all of this, great airplay that happens. So it did feel like there was momentum on this thing, and that I had to follow up on it really quickly. But because I didn’t have a record deal, it took some time. By the time ‘Kiss My Boots’ came out, off the SOHO 69 record, I had lost some *serious momentum on there, just trying to put everything together. And that deal with Hypnotic Records did not go well, like the honeymoon was over.
And when we released the record, we did very little touring on it. So, I look back on that chapter and thought, well, that was a tough punch in the chin, because everything went from super high to super low. And, after Scatterbrain, I sort of took this break to start working on the Caramel record.
*So, really a wheel fell off immediately after the Junos. And it really affected the lack of progress on it, to the point now where even if I was to go out and do some dates on this, and support this record, I wonder how many people would even remember ‘Licensed To Love’ or ‘No Tattoos’!? But it was a really tough chapter. It was mixed with highs and lows.
Yeah, I had Scatterbrain in the car this morning. The first like the lead off song starts and I was listening to this new Trapeze release the other day. It’s kind of got that same funky kind of heavy vibe to it. I thought the singles were great. So my next question is, would you ever like, between these albums and some of the other stuff you did in the 90s, would you ever contemplate taking a solo band or SOHO 69 on the road now and do a few shows?
Well, I have to tell you that my beautiful wife Monica is one of my best supporters. And she keeps saying to me ‘Andy how come you’re not going out and doing any shows with your No Tattoos band? And how come you’re not playing any Caramel or how come you’re not playing Drug Plan or Leisure World?’ So, I honestly have been talking to Sean and Glen Milchem about maybe doing some shows. Simon is a world-class pyro tech engineer that travels with all of these amazing bands and does pyro. So, his schedule probably wouldn’t permit Simon coming out, but I’ve entertained it.
But at the moment, I’ve been kind of focused on finishing off the year with Coney Hatch and the dates that we have in Europe and then also working on Envy of None. So there’s only enough time in the day. I gotta figure out how I can pull this off, you.
(talk of seeing Coney Hatch on Helloween 1994 at LuLus, which is now on YouTube)
I took my CDs with me that night and you signed mine. And so, I’ve got my Scatterbrain here and you wrote in it ‘if you’re not the lead dog, the view is always the same’.
Well, and listen, that’s a little bit of a play on the words. Like I had this artwork done for the record and it was ‘every dog has its day’. And there’s a really cool Toronto graphic artist by the name of Runt, and he did all the artwork at Lee’s Palace on the outside of the building. I got him to do this almost like an assembly line conveyor belt of dogs,. And they were all behind each other. And it just occurred to me that if you’re not the lead dog, you’re always looking up somebody’s ass, right!? So, you better get yourself in the first place. Yeah. I still want to use that artwork one day. And there is a song that I wrote called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’ that was finished, and I might try to release that one too.
Who did the artwork for Solo69?
The Soho69, the Scatterbrain was done by my brother, Mike, and that was a bit of a play on an exploding brain and particles. We used to love Monty Python and some of their artwork was just like very, almost childlike where they would take things and cut it up. But the Scatterbrain record was also when the grunge thing started to happen. We thought we’d do a little joke and have everything in the tartan plaid grunge stuff. And by the time that record came out, when Nirvana came on the scene, anything remotely connected to hard rock or long hair was dead in the water. I remember hearing that track in Montreal going ‘this is amazing. My career might be over.’
It was really weird, because there’s lots of kinds of what I would call discrimination in the music industry. And there’s certainly age discrimination in North America that doesn’t exist in Europe. If you go to Europe, you could still see Status Quo playing or you could still see Rose Tattoo or Sweet or all these bands and nobody cares that these guys are in their 70s and they still go out. And then Coney Hatch falls into that category too. When we go over there, we have loyal fans that love us, and they still continue to see us. Not that we don’t in Canada, but in Canada, in North America, if you’re not young and if you’re not 20 years old or the next best thing, you easily get shuffled off into the side. And people forget about you. But in terms of styles changing, we can look over time, whether it was when our parents’ parents were listening to classical music and then Buddy Holly came on the scene and The Beatles that had just obliterated all of that kind of stuff. And then you think about disco and all of that stuff. It’s one of those things that changes all the time. And grunge really, really changed things. And it was a tough go for all of us at that point.
SOHO 69 got reissued back in 2004. Would you ever consider any kind of limited run reissue, including vinyl with it?
It’s interesting that you said that, because I’ve had a few people talking about trying to put that out on vinyl, because it was never out on vinyl before. But it’s always interesting when you get in touch with the old record company and ask them if they’re interested in doing it. But I remain friendly with them. But that would be fun; I’d like to see that on vinyl. I’d like to see the Caramel record on vinyl. I’d like to see the Leisure World record on vinyl. Those are things that, like the Leisure World and Caramel, I can control those. So I can get them out. And I’ve been thinking about doing that for quite some time now.
Now I’m assuming there wasn’t a lot of leftovers from that album?
There was a track that I had mentioned to you earlier on called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’. I would probably add that to it and see what else is kicking around. I’ve got a lot of old demos that maybe I need to just get my buddy Harry Hess to resurrect them from the dead.
You’re playing the Friction album (with Coney Hatch) fully.
Yes, we are going to Manchester and to France, and our goal is on both of those nights to play ‘Friction’ in it’s entirety. We did, at the El Macombo, we played the first record for the 40th anniversary of that album. And then when we were in Oakville, we did the ‘Out of Hand’ record. We had a lot of fun doing that, just revisiting the old songs. So we haven’t played some of those, a few of them, we’ve never even played them. I don’t think we played ‘Burning’ Love’ – ever.! ‘Coming to Get You’ and ‘Champion’ haven’t been in our setlist in a long time, and ‘Stateline’. So, we’re going to dust them off, and do the entire record.
I did like the way they (Friction tracks) turned out on the Live in Germany album. I thought it was kind of minus the keyboards and it made it a little bit heavier than that.
Well, we’re thinking about recording one of those nights and maybe, you know, jokingly said, what about ‘Friction in France’? And we quietly went and recorded a couple of new tracks this year in Hamilton. At the beginning of the year, after we did the Oakville show. We kept Dave Ketchum in town and convinced Dave to go in the studio and hang out with us a little bit longer. So, our goal would be maybe to finish off those two songs, kind of like what we did with ‘Postcard’, where we had ‘It’s About a Girl’ and ‘Heaven’s on the Other Side’. Do the same thing and feed a couple of new tracks now that Sean Kelly is officially a Coney Hatch member. He’s been in our band for 10 years now, so we made it official with him the other day. We just thought it was time to let the new guy in on some stuff, so he’s been co-writing with me, and it’s been a lot of fun.
Do you foresee yourself doing just singles or do you foresee yourself ever doing a full album again?
I think the goal is to see what we come back from Europe with. If we’ve got some good recordings of those two shows, we might take a page out of the ‘Postcard from Germany’ and maybe do another live Friction record with some extra tracks on it. So, the goal would be to put out a full record.
I didn’t want to ask, but I wondered, because I was at those previous two shows, if anybody was actually recording them for future saving.
No, we didn’t record the Oakville show. It was a good night and I think the previous show at the El Macombo, we did record that. We just haven’t gotten around to listening to it just because we’re kind of focused on the Friction stuff, you know?
Did any of the songs that originated from you on that album (Friction) ever have a vocal put down by you?
That’s a well-documented difficult chapter for Coney Hatch with Friction, with the changing of drummers and me sort of stepping aside in the vocal department, but you know, ‘Coming To Get You’ and ‘Burning Love’, those two songs in particular were originally written by me and were supposed to be vocals by me. It’s funny you said that. I don’t know if we have old demo versions of those kicking around with me singing on them, but I think it would be so early that they might just be really bad rehearsal recordings of them. Carl’s a bit of a pack master, so next time you talk to Carl, ask him if he’s got a version of it shoved away in a closet somewhere, because he’s constantly surprising me with demos. He sent me some demos the other day, and there was a song that we had, I think it was called ‘Don’t I Know You’, and it was just dreadful. I said, ‘we’ve got to make sure that the world never hears this song’. He was laughing his head off! There were a couple others that didn’t make it to the A-list, so hopefully Carl doesn’t sneak them out and put them up online, because some of them I’d be pretty embarrassed for the general public to hear. it wasn’t our finest hour. (laughs)
What else do you have on the go? Is there a second Envy of None album on the go?
Yes, We’ve been working really hard for the good part of this year on the second Envy of None record, and we had so much fun recording that first record that we just thought, why not? Let’s just continue. If all the stars align, there will be a new Envy of None record coming out sometime next year. But we’ve been chipping away at the stone on that one for quite some time and making some good progress.
Can you give me any underrated Canadian albums?Things that you would recommend to somebody that isn’t too familiar with Canadian rock.
I was a big fan of Queen City Kids back in the day from Winnipeg. They were a really cool band, and I don’t know if a lot of people know them. Obviously out West they know those guys. I thought Queen City Kids were a very, very cool band. There’s a very good friend of mine who’s a super talented graphic artist named Paulo Rizzo, and Paulo has a band called ‘Puddy’. Paulo has released some stuff recently that I think is absolutely crushing. That kid is super talented, so if you’re into really grungy mayhem rock, Puddy’s a good one. Obviously, my friends in Sven Gali, I really enjoyed working with them on their new record. There was this band that came out, and they kind of just came and went – ‘Priestess’! They were from Montreal, and they had some Queens of the Stone Age isms. Their first record (ed- ‘Hello Master’) was released back in 2005. What a great band! I would encourage anybody who hasn’t heard that record to really give it a listen.
And although they’re doing mostly covers, I really think my buddies in ‘Toque’ are doing a great job out there. They’re all super talented guys. I went to the induction of the Songwriters Hall of Fame on the weekend, and Sam Roberts got up. I just thought that guy’s so underrated. He’s got so many great songs. I think Sam Roberts is so great, the early Sam Roberts especially. There is a band on Arts & Crafts (Canadian label), I’m going to give you one more…This isn’t really a heavy rock band, but I’m going to tell you they’re definitely one of my favorites. I’m going to see if I can find this for you on there. I don’t think they’re together anymore, but that shouldn’t stop people from trying to go out and find it Arts and Crafts have a lot of pretty hipster bands. It’s a home of Feist. and Hayden is on that label too. I might have to text it to you because I played the crap out of this band. They’re called The Stills. There’s an incredible song called ‘I’m With You’ that I think is really good.
(And) Let’s not forget my buddy in Harem Scarem, Mr. Harry Hess. I’ve got to give him a shout out. My buds in Teenage Head are still kicking. I think that’s such a cool band. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the Ramones of Canada. If you want to go back and get an early kick in the teeth with some great Canadian punk rock, you’ve got to listen to Teenage Head!
So I gave you a couple of well-known ones and a couple of obscure ones, but yeah, especially like Priestess. The Stills did really well at Radio. Speaking of The Stills, there’s another band called The Standstills, which is a two-man band. One man, one woman. I’ve met them through the Tea Party guys. They’re another great band. I think they’re based out near St. Catharines.
Well, I know she’s unfortunately passed away, but Care Failure and Die Mannequin. I thought Care Failure was destined to be a huge star. Unfortunately, she passed away. But if anybody has a chance to check out Die Mannequin, it doesn’t get any more legit than that.
Canadian rockers SVEN GALI returned in 2023 in a big way with a new album and more live shows. The band who released 2 albums in the 90s – Under The Influence (1992) and Inwire (1995), returned to recording with the (2020) EP ‘3′, before Bombs And Battlescars. SVEN GALI also recently recorded a show at Toronto’s El Macombo for a live album. I spoke to frontman David Wanless about SVEN GALI’s return, influences, and the new album. *Check out the links at the end for more on SVEN GALI..
It’s been some time, I guess, since the second album, so what kind of got the ball going on making a new album?
Well, what happened was, we took a long break for a while, and then one day, I got a call from Dan, the drummer, to come and jam with him at his house. He, and I, wasn’t really doing anything, so I took the invitation up to go to his place, and we had some other players there, and we just hung out, had a great afternoon. And then on the ride home, I was thinking, ‘well that was a good time’. And a couple days later, he called me and said ‘is there something you want to go farther with this?’ And we just talked to Andy and Shawn and stuff, and we thought we’d get together and play. And right off the bat it hit, and we started just jamming right away, and never looked back. So, since then, we’ve done some videos, we put out three, an EP three, and now Bombs and Battle Scars.
It’s the same, pretty much the same guys from when you left off in the 90s?
Same guys, except for, as you know, Dee passed away, and now we have, Dan from Varga who is playing drums, and then Shawn from Varga playing guitar.
Going back and revisiting the first two albums, the first album obviously is in that 80s hard rock- metal feel, and then the second album had more of the 90s alternative stuff, and I find that on this new album, is kind of a good mix of that stuff.
You know, you have your first 20 years of your life to write your first record, as they say. And we were young guys, and that’s what we were listening to, and that’s what we were into. But during the course of that, and being more experienced in travels and our musical tastes started to experiment different ways. And with the change in music, we decided the same thing. We were writing for ourselves. And Inwire came out, and I know some people thought – ‘they just totally bailed from what they were’, but all we were doing was growing as people and musicians, and now, but we still like what we did. So, now, this many years later, we started writing again, and we found influence from both time periods, and, then the birth of Bombs And Battlescars.
Now, the new songs on this album, aside from the cover, are they all newly written, or is there stuff that’s kind of hung around for years?
There’s some new stuff on there, but there’s stuff that we’ve had in the can before everything went south on us. Wehad a bunch of stuff that was ready to be written and recorded for the third record, a full-length record, so there’s some of those ideas, and then there’s a bunch of new stuff on there also. So there is a blend.
Can you tell me about a couple of songs, some of the influences on the new songs – lyrically or musically, how they kind of came about?
Well, the one that we just wrote, I think it’s, probably the last one was ‘Coming Home’. And Andy just presented that riff, and the song kind of laid out. And I was driving around for a long time just listening to that riff and trying to get some inspiration on where and what direction vocally, melodically to go. And one night I was sitting on the couch, and I was watching a movie, and some ideas started coming, and I just started jotting them down, and the next morning, I woke up, and I started putting melody to it, and then it all came together.
You’ve got a lot of heavy stuff on here, like ‘Monster’, obviously, ‘One Gun’… And the Triumph cover, I was a Triumph fan myself, so.
Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
That one you did with Andy Curran producing?
Yeah we did ‘Monster’, I think, with Andy, and I think there was another one. It was a good time; he was a great guy. We’ve always been big fans of Coney Hatch, all of our young lives. We used to see them at Uncle Sam’s in Niagara Falls back in the day. And, and, uh, so, he became a friend. And when Dee was having a struggle with his cancer, we did a benefit for him, and Andy came out. And then when it came time to do some recording, his name popped up, and we thought we’d give him a call, and he was very receptive, and we’ve had a great relationship since then. And played a couple shows with him also.
When you guys started out in the late 80s, what sort of bands were you into?
Oh, in the late 80s, man, we were into Queensryche and going as far back as Boston. I was a big fan of the music of the period at that time. When Ratt came out, I saw them at Massey Hall back in the early 80s. And bands like that; they’re great. The Scorpions, obviously, we were big Scorpions fans. And Black Sabbath, and stuff like that. So that’s kind of where we were back then, and since then, our music has just gone all over the place; you can walk into my house and you can hear anything. Who knows where you’re going to listen to when you walk in.
You guys did a lot of clubs around Ontario. What were some of the highlights during that period?
Yeah, we played every place we could, and anybody that’d take us, we set up. And we went back and forth across the country so many times. And, and then we got to the point where we said ‘okay, you know what? either we gotta do something or we gotta make that decision, or how far are we going to go, or what are we waiting for?’ So we went to the tour bus, a one-way ride to Los Angeles. He dropped us off; we had gigs planned down there. He dropped us off at our first gig, and then we just started playing in, in Hollywood. And then from there we got looked at by BMG, RCA back here, and it just went smooth as that. We played some shows, and then we got interest, and we just packed up and flew home and started recording the first record. Yeah.
The first album came out in 92!? And by that time the scene was starting to change, did that have much of an impact on you guys?
You know, it was a really tough time, because we were kind of almost there when things were. We had so many songs in the can, and we just decided that we gotta stick to our guns and just do what we do. We’ve written this record, let’s just put it out. And fortunately we just caught the tail end of everything. But it was funny how things changed and how things are circling back again now.
And you guys get a lot of gigs now, are you starting to play more now?
Yeah, we had a great couple years actually. We’re pretty selective on where we’ve played. Yeah. We played with The Headstones and Bush in Ottawa, that festival, which was great. We’ve done a couple of our own big shows here. We played the big show, the Burlington Music Festival, We played that, and we opened for Coney Hatch and Lee Aaron there. That was last spring, in June.
Do you, with all these releases coming out, do you keep a lot of them yourself and do you keep your own collection? Have you kept everything over the years?
You know what, I am the absolute worst at keeping anything, because, people come over to my place and through the years they always leave with something. And, so Andy is the collector for the band, he kind of is the vault. So he has, one or two or three of everything. And, my house, it’s a revolving door of stuff leaving and coming back.
Is there a bit of a goal once this album picks up a bit? Is there plans for another album or is there stuff in the vaults that you guys might want to put out?
We still have a ton of songs and a ton of ideas that we’re ready to work on. We just finished a video a couple nights ago for a new song, which you’ll hopefully see before the video for ‘Life Inside’ will be coming out soon also. We’ve done two more in the last two months. And then we’ve got some other plans for actually a new record. It’s going to be a little different, and we’ve put some things together for it now and I can’t say too much about it until it’s really 100% confirmed. But I think people are going to really like what we’ve got in the can right now. So we’re still alive, still kicking, and we’re looking forward to surprising people with something that may be out by Christmas.
Cool. Are there things in the vaults as far as any live recordings, things like that?
Yeah. So, we just played the El Macombo on Friday the 13th (September).
You recorded that, didn’t you?
Yeah, that was recorded for our live album And we’re looking for, again, spring for the live record to come out. It’s being mixed right now and it’s getting printed in China where Andy is. And the artwork is pretty much there. So now it’s just package it all up, get things printed and then get it out.
How much of the new album do you guys put into the show?
The new record we had, on our headlining show we have, generally I think ‘Spellbound’, ‘Monster’, ‘Coming Home’. There was probably, I’d say maybe half to three quarters of the new record is playing, but a lot of people want to hear the old stuff too, so we slam it all in there. Yeah.
I kind of like older bands that are still doing something new. It gives you something other than just getting a ‘hits’ show every time. In the years between after you guys broke up, have you done anything else as far as any side projects or anything?
You know what, I jammed around with some guys in cover bands just for the love of music and just hanging out with those guys. And that was fun. But for the most part, I just focused on family and just stuff like that. But we’re all big music fans at my house. My kids love music, my wife also, we like to go see concerts together and it’s a lot of good times. So, music is still very important.
Can give me a few favorite singers, songwriters from your youth?
From my youth….I’m a big fan of Geoff Tate. His writing and vocal ability. And I met him in Toronto because Kelly, the guitar player of Queensryche, produced InWire for us. I was a big fan of Blind Melon. Christian from Blind Melon played mandolin on our stuff. But, before that, you can’t discount all the bands from Zeppelin to, you know…I get something from everybody. I just pull from all over and enjoy all the different styles and genres of music.
Can I ask you a few of your, kind of almost underrated favorite Canadian albums that, other than the obvious? Some, it’s like Canadian records?
I’m a big fan of Coney Hatch. Their record, in my youth, it was great. I like I Mother Earth. Hmm. Everything from Bryan Adams, he’s such a great songwriter…Loverboy, what they did back in the day, uh, you know, Headpins, I mean, there’s so many great bands with so many great records in Canada. Canada is such an amazing country for music. There’s so many great stars that came out of here – from Justin Bieber to Celine Dion, like, just keep popping them off.
So, what do you guys got coming up other than the live album? Any shows in the near future?
No, we’re done right now for; Andy’s gone back, and we’ve done what we set out to do. We played a couple shows on the East Coast. We got a couple shows, we got the El Macombo done and another show in the area here. And now Bombs and Battle Scars is released in Europe and the United States. So, it’s available everywhere right now. I saw it on Walmart the other night.
Well, you know you’re there then.
Yeah, it’s funny, I’m doing a lot of PR stuff around the world. And then getting ready for what holds in the spring. We’re looking to, for some shows out West, obviously. We haven’t been out there yet, we get a lot of requests to go out there and then we’d like to dive into Europe again and do some festivals.
Drummer/producer/multi-instumentalist HIRSH GARDNER of American AOR legends NEW ENGLAND has a new solo album coming out. He’s also released a single/video for his new version of the New England classic “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya”. For more info check out – https://www.dekoentertainment.com/hirsh-gardner
SWEET’s Isolation Boulevard will be re-released on November 29th via METALVILLE RECORDS. The sought-after album, which was previously difficult to obtain, will now be available in stores internationally for the first time.In 2019, SWEET embarked on the biggest tour of their long career to date with the Still Got The Rock tour in Europe and the UK. In between, they even found time to fly to Australia to play as co-headliners on the Rock The Boat Cruise 2019. The band was fired up and looking forward to the future.But suddenly in 2020, the whole world was in turmoil, triggered by a global pandemic, and all wheels came to a standstill overnight. But for SWEET, there had to be a way out; otherwise, musical creativity in all its forms would be lost forever.So, in what was a new isolation for everyone, they began to produce an album with the “new” guys Paul Manzi and Lee Small and the “old guard” Andy Scott and Bruce Bislan. The album was given the title Isolation Boulevard to suit the situation.
The songs are re-recordings of 12 classics from SWEET’s extensive collection.There was little time between the lockdowns in the UK to achieve the desired goal. On top of this, there were numerous technical obstacles that had to be overcome. With this in mind, the overall performance of everyone involved is all the more impressive, from the driving drums and bass to the “in your face” guitars and stratospheric vocals.In the end, it was a pleasure for everyone to record Isolation Boulevard, despite being under very strict distancing rules. The result speaks for itself.
.LINE-UP: Andy Scott – all guitars, synthesizers and vocals; Bruce Bisland – drums and vocals; Paul Manzi – lead vocals; Lee Small – bass guitar and vocals; Guest musician: Steve Mann – keyboards on “Love is Like Oxygen”*
Legendary US band will be releasing their 50th Anniversary 3rd night show, from New York, recorded in 2022. This set includes a performance of the band’s 3rd album , and my favorite BOC album – Secret Treaties. There is also a video for the live performance of the classic “Career Of Evil”. *Check out the press info, tracklisting, and pre-order link below!
Riding the triumphant success of their 50th Anniversary celebration, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT is rolling into the release of ‘50th Anniversary Live – Third Night,’ the final installment of the live album celebrating the band’s 50th Anniversary.
This electrifying performance, which includes the band’s third album ‘Secret Treaties‘ performed back-to-back, is set to hit the shelves on December 13, 2024 and promises to be a spectacular follow-up to the band’s historic three-night stint at Sony Hall in NYC.
In September of 2022, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT enthralled fans with a unique trilogy of sold-out shows, each dedicated to one of their first three albums. Founding member Albert Bouchard made a special appearance on all three nights, adding a nostalgic touch to the historic milestone. For nearly three hours each night, the band delivered a spellbinding set, weaving through the entirety of their now-classic initial trilogy of albums and treating fans to a mix of favorites, deep cuts, and classic hits. The atmosphere was electric, and Frontiers Music captured the magic, releasing each night as a special individual package.
BLUE ÖYSTER CULT‘s legacy spans over five decades, captivating fans with intelligent hard rock loaded with classic songs. Hailing from Long Island, NY, the band is renowned in the hard rock and heavy metal scene
Cited as a major influence by acts like Metallica, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT boasts a timeless catalog, including iconic tracks like “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” “Godzilla,” and “Burnin’ for You.” The creative vision of the original core duo, Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser and Eric Bloom, is complemented by Richie Castellano, Danny Miranda, and Jules Radino, forming a powerhouse lineup.
BLUE ÖYSTER CULT remains an force, ready to ignite thes tage once again with the upcoming release of ’50th Anniversary Live – Third Night’ on Frontiers Music Srl.
50th Anniversary Live – Third Night‘ Track List: Album 1
1. Career of Evil 2. Subhuman 3. Dominance and Submission 4. M E 262 5. Cagey Cretins 6. Harvester of Eyes 7. Flaming Telepaths 8. Astronomy Album 2
1. Stairway to the Stars 2. Golden Age of Leather 3. Tainted Blood 4. Burnin’ for You 5. Shooting Shark 6. Black Blade 7. Train True (Lenny’s Song) 8. Godzilla
Album 3
1. Buck’s Boogie 2. Tenderloin 3. Sinful Love 4. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper 5. The Alchemist 6. I Love the Night 7. Joan Crawford 8. Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll
i come across a lot of new singles, new albums, much of which I don’t have the time to review & post here. But I think what I will be doing from time to time is post a number of recommended clips to check out… So check em out below!
SUNSTORM – I’ll Stand For You. From the band’s new album Restless Fight comes out on Frontiers, Nov 22. Features the voice of Ronnie Romero. Pre-Order – https://ffm.to/sunstormrestlessfight
VICTORY – Tonight We Rock and Falling
From the latest album by German hard rockers Victory (on AFM), who’ve been at it for decades. Love the cover art for Circle Of Life. The track “Falling” kinda reminds me of Alien Nation” by the Scorpions. Both great tracks! https://shop.afm-records.de/victory/
WARLORD – Golgotha (the Place Of The Skull)
the new single from US metal band. WARLORD is releasing singles to coincide with a number of Metal Festivals that they’ll be performing at.
LAST TEMPTATION – Fuel For My Soul
From this California band’s 3rd album Heart Starter. Features members of Temple Of Brutality, Annihilator, and Killing Machine, but this is more like classic bands Y&T and Van Halen . The first single “Get On Me” is below this one. Album out November 22, on Metalville.
DREAM THEATER – Night Terror
From the band’s forthcoming album Parasomnia , due out in February. Sounds good, but damn long.
NO FAVORS – Stop Where You Are
British band whos beginnings go back to the 80s, and have been revived. This is from their upcoming album The Eleventh Hour (ain’t that a Magnum title!?), due out November 22 on Pride & Joy. Check out the description in the video for more on the band’s history and links.
SANDVEISS – Standing In The Rain
The title track from the new album by Quebec’s SANDVEISS. Highly recommended. (More on these guys in another post). Album is now out, check out info & links in video description.
HOUSE OF LORDS – Taking The Fall & Bad Kharma
Lead by singer James Christian, HOUSE OF LORDS FullTilt Overdrive is out now, on Frontiers. It’s their 12th album.
ECLIPSE – All I Want
Megalomanium II is the latest from Swedish rockers ECLIPSE. Out now. Check it out.
HAZZERD – Deathbringer
From the forthcoming album The 3rd Dimension, from Canadian thrash band HAZZERD. Not a huge thrash fan, but dig the riff and guitar sound throughout this…plus they’re Canadian, so… Check out more info & links in the video description.
SAXON – Fire And Steel
not really a new track, but a brand new video from this fast paced rocker from Hell, Fire And Damnation, released earlier this year. The single/video is out in time to announce the band’s upcoming Hell, Fire and Steel European tour.
Outsider Rock 