Symphonic rock trio EXIT EDEN have a new album out Femmes Fatales, featuring 6 covers. The covers are unique and interesting choices, and served up very different to the originals – Pet Shop Boys (It’s A Sin), Alice Cooper (Poison), Heart (Alone), Marillion (Kayleigh), Journey (Separate Ways), Mylène Farmer (Desanchantée). Billed as ‘the Queens of symphonic metal’, Femmes Fatales is their 2nd album, also featuring 6 of their own songs. Check out the clips & links below.
EXIT EDEN are: Clémentine Delauney Anna Brunner Marina La Torraca
Once a part of the LA scene, A DOLL’S HOUSE never released an album back in the late 80s, but 30+ years later the band has recorded and released their debut album. More of a lighter rock /AOR 10 track album, A DOLL’S HOUSE offers up some smooth sounding tunes, well recorded and produced, with excellent vocals. Worth checking out for tracks like “Woven”, “Steps To Summer”, and “And Time”. Lots of acoustic guitars (see ballad “Chimney”). *Check out the band’s 2 videos below, and links.
In the late ’80’s, two teenagers started writing songs in L.A. They started a band and played all the clubs, The Whiskey, The Roxy, The Troubadour, etc. They built a bit of a following and did well. But not well enough. Life took over and the party ended. They were barely 22.
Thirty years later, those same guys are in their 50s with careers, kids, mortgages — the whole deal. Bucking the odds, they set out to make an album. The gods smiled when they met Brian Wheat, a seasoned producer, perhaps best known as the bass player and co-founder of Tesla – a band that has charted multiple hits, sold millions of albums and is still going strong.
Brian listened to the songs and decided to take charge of the album himself – arranging, recording and mixing at his J Street Recorders studio in Sacramento, CA. The result is A Doll’s House first album: Annum. An album 30 years in the making. The debut single released this past Fall, Hey Wait, is emblematic of the band’s “Chill Rock” sound, blending groove with sticky melody and true musicianship and was received well at Triple A radio. Over Easy the new single is a prelude to the full album release coming out in 2 weeks.
DAVID SANTOS – Vocals
DAV PETRUNICH – Guitar
SETH RAFKIN – Bass
TONY DeFRANCO – Drums
Produced, mixed and engineered by Brian Wheat
Mastered by Mike Fitz
All songs written by Dav Petrunich and Seth Rafkin
Niagara Falls’ HONEYMOON SUITE debuted in 1984 with the Q107 radio contest winning cut “New Girl Now”, which lead to a record deal and a highly successful debut album. The band followed that up with further successful albums The Big Prize (1986, produced by Bruce Fairbairn), Racing After Midnight (1988, produced by Ted Templeman), and 1991’s Monsters Under The Bed (co-produced w/ Paul Northfield). Following that run it would be a decade before another HMS album, and another after that! But the end of this week sees the release of Honeymoon Suite’s brand new studio album ‘Alive‘.
In this conversation I talked to guitarist/songwriter Derry Grehan about making the new album Alive, as well as the recent remix & reissue of the Clifton Hill album, what else he’s up to, and some of the band’s he grew up on. HMS is one of the first band’s I saw live, and growing up near the Falls was well aware of them – they broke out big right away, drawing instant comparisons to Loverboy (who had a similar early success with their debut LP), but after that string of 3-4 albums I moved on to other things, and wasn’t aware most of these guys aren’t still in the Falls (or so close), so we began with that….
How’d you how’d you end up in Nashville?
Well, I’ve been in Illinois, Central Illinois for 20 years. I moved from Toronto, to Illinois, where I have my house there. And I recently, about six months ago got another place in Nashville with my daughter, who’s a singer-songwriter as well. So I’m kind of biding my time between two places because I love Nashville. And I’ve been kind of commuting back and forth for a long time here working with people. So we just decided to get 2 places. But I’m kind of down here a little more than I’m a back in Illinois and hoping to relocate here permanently.
So you must have a lot of other things on the go other than just a new Honeymoon Suite stuff coming out?
Well, I always find things to do. I do some co writing with a few people, once in a while and work with my daughter, and I’ve been working on a solo record. And this Honeymoon Suite thing is there, it keeps me pretty busy as well. So there’s always something to do.
So the new album ‘Alive’, that’s coming out – It’s kind of been in the works for a few years, right? Like there’s been a few singles out since 2019.
Yeah, it has taken good three years probably since we started it. Probably three years ago, Johnnie and I started but we went to Nashville, to meet with our producer Mike Krompass, who was down here at the time. I reached out to him, see if you’d be interested in working with us. And he was, and we went to his place and started writing songs. And he said I want to produce produce your album. So lots of trips back and forth. And then COVID hit in what 2022. So Mike, moved to England at that time. So we were going back and forth to his place, his studio in England doing stuff, but then COVID hit we couldn’t travel anymore, so I guess what I’m saying is just everything got pushed back, you know, then it took longer. You know, the way it was.
So did you guys have all the songs or all the songs at that time when you started? Or was this kind of still adding?
No, not right away. But we wrote, we had a fair amount of them, but we also wrote a few along the way and developed them over, you know, a year or two.
I saw you guys out in Port Colborne a couple of years ago. 2019. with David Wilcox, and I think the new track was on the radio at the time, but I don’t think you guys played it.
No, we hadn’t put the songs in the show. We’re really careful about putting new material in the show. Although we love it, you know, people are there to hear the hits. And like with this new album, or our singles are really doing well, so we’ll probably put out a new song or two in the set…
Can you tell me a bit about how you and Johnnie, obviously you guys live pretty far apart so how you guys collaborate and get things together?
Yeah, you know, we we’ve lived here he’s been up in your area and I’ve been in Illinois for 20 years, but it hasn’t impeded us at all, you know, John and I, it’s been a long time since we live together or lived in the same place. We just, you know you got the internet now and everything’s recorded digitally and Pro Tools and all that. So if I have an idea, I’ll just send files to him. And we send stuff back and forth by the Internet. Once in a while, of course, we see each other a lot when we’re touring. because all the band guys- we all live in different places. When we tour, we all go to an airport and then meet up in the city and we hang out for a couple of days. And then sometimes we’ll get together on the road and bang some things out.
Can you tell me a bit about the songs, the singles, you guys got out like ‘Find What You’re Looking For’ and ‘Tell Me What You Want’ – what they’re about, and what how you guys came up with some of the ideas?
‘Find What You’re Looking For’, that was the first one that we wrote with Mike, and that was one of the first songs we recorded and finished. Mike had a lot to do with that; Mike’s a great producer and the sound around it’s classic Honeymoon Suite, but he made it sound not dated, he gave it a kind of a modern sound to the production but without alienating you know, the real sound of the band. ‘Tell Me What You Want’ is a good example of that. It’s kind of different for us. We tried some new kind of production techniques and sounds and I think it’s a cool song. What’s it about? ‘Tell me what you want’ – It’s I guess, when you’re in a relationship, sometimes you just can’t figure that other person out, whether it’s your girlfriend, or boyfriend or whatever, it’s like, I don’t get you, man. Like, I’m doing everything for you to me, tell me what you want. You know, it can be that old struggle. And then ‘Find What You’re Looking For’ is a track that I’ve had for years actually, and it was called something else, but I always loved the the verse in that song it was so heavy, we just didn’t have a great chorus. So eventually, we worked on that with Mike and we did come up with a really good chorus for it. And if you listen to the lyric, it’s really cool and find what you’re looking for – Grabbing and and don’t don’t give up.
The new one is ‘Alive’, the title track and I was watching that today and 2 things – I like that it’s short and to the point, punchy; all the songs are easily memorable. And also, you guys still play the – like with the video, you still use the falls in the background and a lot of local scenery…
We decided to go back to Niagara Falls and do the video for that just as a kind of a nod to our past. And if you remember – one of the first videos we did was ‘Burning In Love’, in Niagara Falls. So it was fun to go back to that same location, walk around with a camera crew and watch people look at us funny. And put Johnnie back in Niagara Falls. So I think it was really cool.
Do you guys have much of a hand in the album artwork or is that kind of brought in to you guys?
No, actually, Mike, our producer, he also has his own record label and his own team of people. They came up with the concept of the the guy on the front with the hat, cloud on his face. Mike actually presented that to us and and I was like, right away. I’m like ‘That’s great!’. Everybody thought that was cool. Say no more. You know. I like it, Yeah.
It’s a very different cover to me, you know. Like I love the ‘Clifton Hill’ cover with the classic shot of Clifton Hill from the bottom, and obviously the earlier covers, but yeah this is very different cover. It almost looks like something that I might expect from one of those prog bands or something but…
Yeah. Like Pink Floyd maybe a little bit. Yeah. But it’s very artsy and cool, but I think it goes with the music really well.
You also have the reissue of ‘Clifton Hill’ out(!?)
Well, that is a guy that we’ve been working with, actually does our merchandising called Greg Campbell. He’s run our web store for a long time. He does a lot of bigger bands. He’s done really well for us with our merch and our albums in Canada. He approached us and he’s just a fan of the band, and he always liked the Clifton Hill album. He has a relationship with a studio in Toronto; so he approached us with a proposal, he said ‘You know, I love the Clifton Hill album, would you guys be interested in re mixing it?’ And I said ‘for sure’ because the original one – It’s okay, but it could be better. So I gave him the tracks, the stems, and he mixed it and it’s amazing what they pulled out of there. You know, the engineer found tracks I forgot that I did. So I’m very happy with it.
Do you know where that picture came from? Was that just an archived photo on the cover?
Yeah, we actually..my wife and I did the artwork for that back then. Of course we call it ‘Clifton Hill‘ because we wanted something related to the Falls. And we actually got that from the Niagara Falls library, if I remember correctly. We found it in their archives looking for pictures of Clifton Hill, you know. And we asked them for permission to use it, and they did. So it was really cool because that’s the Clifton Hill that I remember growing up in the 70s. That’s what it looked like, it was really cool.
You said you’ve got a solo album you’re working on!?
Yes. So during COVID all us musicians had a lot of time on our hands, you know. So I would spend a lot of time in my studio just writing and playing guitar, which I do every day. And I started cataloging a lot of riffs and ideas. And a lot of things that I come up with weren’t really Honeymoon Suite they’re just more like heavier rock riffy kind of stuff. And it occurred to me that I would have probably enough to maybe do a little solo instrumental album, which I’ve always wanted to do, but I never had the time or the right tracks. So Yes – it’s almost finished, it’s going to be like 10 songs. It’s all guitar, no singing, just all instrumental. I’m playing everything on it, and I got some wicked drummers playing on the stuff, and some of it’s pretty heavy. And it’ll be coming out, probably in a couple of months.
Can I ask you what you grew up on listening to as far as bands. I know a lot of bands that came through and that but you know, you guys would have seen shows at Niagara Falls Convention Center and stuff like that back then, and in Buffalo.
For sure, well growing up in the Niagara Peninsula, like I grew up in St. Catharines. It actually was a great place because at that time in the 70s and early 80s – there’s so many bands playing in the clubs. You get all the cool bands from Toronto coming down – Triumph and Max Webster and all that. playing Uncle Sam’s you know locally and Montebello (Park) in St. Catharines. You’ve got these great recording bands coming down and then you had Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto and the Aud in Buffalo, Niagara Falls Convention Center – these huge venues just like an hour away. And so every band you wanted to see came through. So where I grew up on man like Deep Purple was my band – Ritchie Blackmore. I saw them with at the Aud. I saw Kiss and Bowie and Blue Oyster Cult. It was great area, a great time and that’s where I saw a lot of my bands that I love, you know!?
That’s cool. Actually my second show I ever saw was 1984 when I saw you guys opening for April Wine at the Kingswood (Music Theater).
Wow, early days, Awesome!
I remember because Corey Hart, there was big sign up that Corey Hart had cancelled. but we didn’t know who was going to be the band until you guys came on. But I don’t think the album was out at that time, I think we just knew you guys from the Q107 contest.
Yeah, right. So that’s what happened. A lot of things were going moving really fast then, and I remember Corey had to cancel some shows. So they just called us up and asked us ‘do you guys want to drive eight hours down and open up for April Wine?’ Hell Yeah! You know, we would play anywhere and everywhere.
Did you keep a lot of stuff growing up – as far as albums and stuff, like buy a lot of stuff and still because I see the album like Clifton Hill came out on limited vinyl reissue and that as well.
Yeah, I wish I knew that vinyl was going to come back like it did man like I wish I kept my records. I had tons of them. But you know, moving from place to place – those damn things are heavy and I had milk cartons full of great records. I wish I’d kept them all but I gave them away or I traded them in, you know and now that I have a turntable and I’m back into vinyl, I’m rebuilding my my collection. So the only thing I kept was about 60 Purple albums. Is it Honeymoon Suite ones.
What’s your favorite Deep Purple albums?
Well, you know, Machine Head was a classic. And then the first one with Coverdale and Hughes – Burn, that’s another classic. Made In Japan, man wore that one out. Love that!
So Purple was your number one band grown up?, anything else as far as guitar players or favorite albums?
Well, sure, I mean, Ritchie Blackmore! Early Santana. Yeah. You know, Alice Cooper, Grand Funk. Anything that was rock and heavy I love.
The recording machine who is Israeli guitarist/songwriter AVI ROSENFIELD has released a new album in his ‘Very Heepy Very Purple’ series, making this one ‘XV’, featuring 10 original tracks than are in the vein of that classic heavy early 70s sound. This one features a number of guests, most notably Canadian singer Nick Walsh (Slik Toxik, Moxy, Famous Underground), American singer Harry Conklin (Jag Panzer, The Three Tremors), American guitarist Brian Young (David Lee Roth, Jeff Scott Soto), singer Bryan Ketelaars (August Life), and Argentiian singer Pablo Sanchez. A series of albums worth checking out. Highlights on ‘XV’ include “Metal Tears”, a Rainbow inspired rocker (reminiscent of “Stargazer”), one of a few tracks featuring Nick Foley on Hammond organ and “Lady Luck” features Nick Walsh on vocals, with a Gillan era Purple vibe and Heep-ish backing vocals, as well as a cool Hammond organ intro and performance by Niall Temple (of UK band Lost In Thought). Later on “Wheels Are Turning” lightens things up a bit here, and features Italian guitarist Claudio Acampora, while Atomic Punks’ guitarist Brian Yooung (and ex David Lee Roth) lays down a killer solo on “It’s Alright”. Check it out!
British progressive-art rock band THE PINEAPPLE THIEF will release their latest studio album February 9 titled ‘It Leads To This’. Check out the info below, links, and the first 2 singles/videos from the album “The Frost” and “Every Trace Of Us” below. A 3rd single has just been released today (February 1 (today), and can be pre-ordered HERE (video below)
The Pineapple Thief revel in opposing forces. Muscle and fragility. Chaos and precision. Gnarly introspection and warm, dreamlike expanse. Conceived in 1999 by Bruce Soord, the progressive quartet underwent a rebirth in 2017 with the arrival of Gavin Harrison (King Crimson, Porcupine Tree) on drums. Completed by bassist/backing vocalist Jon Sykes and keyboardist Steve Kitch, they’ve honed a lean yet lush, quietly timeless sound that soars on It Leads To This.
“I’m so proud of it,” says Soord. “I just can’t wait to get out there and sing it. I’m going to be able to sing every word, play every note, and feel really good about all of it.”
“I’ve been in lots of situations with producers and session musicians,” says Harrison, a drummer with an arranger’s ear, who quickly became involved with songcraft upon joining the band. “I’ve witnessed people rearranging songs in front of your face, and sometimes a song with a different arrangement is like a different song. Luckily, Bruce loves being shocked or surprised. That’s a rarity, working with singers.”
Since 2014’s Magnolia, The Pineapple Thief have worked towards an ideal form of 21st century progressive music. Spacious, detailed songs in pop packages. Maximum depth with a minimalist spirit. Meanwhile Soord also released three solo albums, mixed records for Jethro Tull, Anathema, Katatonia, TesseracT, Haken and many others, and became a father of three. Alongside this, the world changed. Turmoil unfurled, from global warming to #MeToo. The pandemic happened.
It all feeds into It Leads To This. Comprising eight fat-free epics – all about five minutes long, mixing rock urgency with delicate atmospherics, pensive keys and captivating melodies – it finds Soord looking back and fearing for the world his children will inherit. In a career first, his real world lyrics also draw from literature: accounts of Ancient Rome, John Williams’ classic Stoner and his epistolary Augustus. Pictures of real and fictional men, reevaluating their pasts.
For Soord it was also a time of self-reflection, epitomised in the slightly sinister title track – all creeping, intricate rhythms, offset by distorted guitars and dreamy electronics. “I was that person. I was that ambitious man who wanted to be a successful musician and would stop at nothing, almost, to do it. So when I look back on it, I think ‘well, actually, yeah, it was bad’. What I’m writing about, what I’m criticising, is me, and that’s probably why I could sing it. It really was written from the heart.”
It all began that strange spring in 2020. Walking out to his studio, in Yeovil, Somerset, Soord looked up at a silent, empty sky and wrote Put It Right – the quietly haunting marriage of poise and moody alt rock that opens It Leads To This. “It was just clear blue, not a plane in the sky,” he remembers. “I remember writing the whole of Put It Right. It starts off with the words ‘this haven’, because I was down in my little haven, at the bottom of my garden.”
More songs came out of that period. All That’s Left was one; all eerie melancholia and loud, jagged peaks. Album closer To Forget was another; a stunning, delicately sprawling ode to the tragedies people live through, inspired by accounts of the families lost under dictatorships in Argentina and Chile. All of it conveyed through Soord’s fragile yet penetrative tenor, nodding to storytellers like Nick Drake, Thom Yorke and Katatonia’s Jonas Renske.
But it was stints at Harrison’s home studio that imbued the record with real heat. One standout result was Rubicon, a bruising yet nuanced picture of the tyranny and paranoia of Julius Caesar, and history’s capacity to repeat itself (especially in regard to its world leaders).
For the singer/guitarist, it was an intense experience. “I’m so used to just writing here [in my studio], where there’s no pressure,” he admits. “Whereas driving to Gavin’s house and staying there for three or four days, it was properly intense. I don’t think I’ve ever focused my mind as intensely as I did during that time.”
“Bruce is a more chaotic person,” Harrison offers. “I’m a bit more logical. With Bruce, it’s more the mood he’s in and how much confidence he’s got. And that’s probably the successful part of it. If we were both chaotic, it’d probably not come together. If we were both a lot more logical, it wouldn’t be so interesting.”
Perhaps the most incendiary expression of this creative fusion is first single The Frost – a banger with a dark heart.
“The Frost was one of those moments that every songwriter wishes happened all the time, where you pick up a guitar, and it just comes out,” Soord says, “and it’s actually a love song with a slightly sinister undertone, about falling with your soulmate to the ocean floor, in peace together…”
In a way, that’s The Pineapple Thief all over. Idiosyncratic but relatable. Devastating and life-affirming, in the same breath. Not married to a single genre, just melody served by tones and textures. Music that only the four of them (friends, not just bandmates) could make.
“I learned that from Porcupine Tree,” Harrison observes, “if you change one person, the whole sound of the band changes. The chemistry of the sound is the four of us, doing what we do. And we have a laugh, we make fun of each other…” he grins, “well mostly [of] Bruce, but it’s good fun.”
Maybe that’s why this clever, commanding record unfurls as naturally as it does. Why It Leads To This can, and should, be read with a question mark. Is the world doomed? Could we have acted differently? Do people change? Does it lead to this?
“As much as I go on about the polarized state of the world, l do think it’s a minority creating this toxic environment that a lot of us have to live in,” Soord says. “I think most people who I meet are genuinely nice. So there’s a positive message from this. Because it shouldn’t, it doesn’t have to lead to this.”
Canada’s own STRIKER has a new album out this week, titled ‘Ultrapower‘, the Edmonton band’s 7th record. First off, love this cover-art by Al Perez/Ramone Sketch, awesome retro 80s drawing of machine/robot and cool colorful lettering drawn in. These guys are really more fast paced hard-rock /metal, but throw in elements of AOR/pop, prog-metal, and party type rock & anthems. The band’s latest single “Give It All” even features keys and saxophone, and those big ’80s backing vocals, making this one sound like it could be out of some lost ’80s action hero movie! For the most part this is really good, with standouts “Circle Of Evil” (the previous single, a Malmsteen inspired metal cut about secret societies, etc..), as well as ’80s styled arena rockers “Turn The Lights Out” , “City Calling” (influenced by 80s AOR & pop like Kenny Loggins and Toto) , and “Ready For Anything”. Most interesting track is the sorta progressive “Blood Magic”, with a few twists and changes, big guitar solos, with the band citing King Diamond as an influence here. Musically these guys pick up lots from ’80s bands like Dokken, Queensryche, Anthrax, as well as Judas Priest (the ’80s stuff)… Well worth checking out. A fun rocking album! *Check out the band bio below, as well as the 3 videos from Ultrapower, and links!
STRIKER:
Dan Cleary – Vocals Tim Brown – Guitar John Simon Fallon – Guitar Pete Klassen – Bass Jono Webster – Drums (album only)
Blending classic heavy metal, hard rock, and 80’s hair metal, Striker has been making shredtacular anthems since 2007. The band has toured multiple times across Europe and North America, chosen to open for Metallica in their hometown of Edmonton, AB, Canada along with many festival appearances that include 70,000 Tons of Metal, Wacken Open Air (Germany), Bang Your Head Festival (Germany), and more to add to the almost 1000 shows performed in their decade-plus career. The band has been honoured with multiple Best Album awards in their home country of Canada from the JUNO Awards(The Canadian equivalent to the American Grammy), Western Canadian Music Awards, and the Edmonton Music Awards.
Striker is kicking off 2024 with their seventh studio album “ULTRAPOWER”, which follows their Juno Award-winning self-released full-length “Play to Win” (2018) released on their label Record Breaking Records. The new album also features the band’s latest lineup addition of long-time friend and guitarist John Simon Fallon (The Order of Chaos). For the band’s seventh full-length, they teamed up with producer Josh Schroeder (Lorna Shore, Tallah, King 810), entering the studio in March 2023. With the band writing material since 2018, “ULTRAPOWER” is a collection of five years of Striker tinkering and exploring new avenues.
“ULTRAPOWER is the amalgamation of 5 years of writing and exploring music. With influences from AOR to Speed Metal, Hardcore to Hair Metal, Steely Dan to Deathcore, you name it, it made its way into the album. In the end with the help of Josh Schroeder’s guiding hand, we melted it all together to present something uniquely Striker. Lyrically we’ve stuck to the Striker tradition of writing montage songs for movies that don’t exist, songs about our spiraling serfdom, and lyrics about the evils that lurk in the shadows.” adds the band.
“ULTRAPOWER” follows Striker’s six studio albums Eyes in the Night (2010, Iron Kodex), Armed to The Teeth (2012, Napalm), City of Gold (2014, Napalm), Stand in the Fire (2016, Record Breaking), Striker (2017, Record Breaking), and Play to Win (2018, Record Breaking).
Jack Russell & Tracii Guns have a new album out now titled Medusa, and it rocks! Russell was the voice of GREAT WHITE, one of my favorite bands to come out of that LA hard rock ’80s scene, and Tracii Guns is from the legendary LA GUNS. Jack Russell released an album in 2017 titled He Saw It Comin’ (as Jack Russell’s Great White), and Guns (who is always busy) released an excellent collaboration with Michael Sweet (STRYPER) in 2021 Evil And Devine (as SUNBOMB). Both albums are highly recommended, with He Saw It Comin’ sounding more like classic 80s GREAT WHITE than anything the band had done in years (particularly without him). So it is no wonder that album is another solid set, heavy, melodic, with Jack Russell still sounding as great as he did 35+ years ago, and Tracii Guns being one of those amazing players that suits anything. Lots of great heavy riffs here on rockers like “In And Out Of Love” (the Hammond organ is a nice touch), “Give Me The Night”, “Coming Down”, and the single “Tell Me Why”. There’s also a good ballad in “Living A Lie”. Further cool heavy rock in the album’s title track and “Where I Belong”. Every song here is at least good (OK, I’m not crazy about the lead off single “Next In Line”, but…), enough changes to keep it all interesting, along with added piano and organ throughout this record (courtesy of Alessandro Del Vecchio. Awesome collaboration.
RUSSELL – GUNS marks the beginning of a fresh artistic partnership between two legendary figures of Los Angeles hard rock: Jack Russell and Tracii Guns, accompanied by Johnny Martin, Shane Fitzgibbon and Alessandro Del Vecchio.
The pair released their new studio album, ‘Medusa,’ on January 12th, 2024 via Frontiers Music Srl.
Commenting on the partnership, Tracii Guns said, “Jack is one of the greatest rock voices of our generation. It’s a total honor to play guitar on this record.”
For Jack Russell, this project represents a long-awaited return to recording and new music, coming seven years after the release of ‘He Saw It Comin” with Jack Russell’s Great White. Instead of dwelling on the past and attempting to recreate the storied origins of the multi-platinum hard rock entity, Jack is excited to be moving forward and collaborating with none other than Tracii Guns, an artist experiencing a creative resurgence of his own.
On ‘Medusa,’ Jack and Tracii have discovered a common thread in a collection of songs that draw from the bluesy power and heavy energy of their most celebrated material and roots, yet infused with a fresh, energetic drive and modern metallic production.
About the album, Jack had this to say, “It was so great making a record with Tracii! Initially, I had my reservations about making this record, but in the end it kicks ass. I’ll play with Tracii anytime!”
‘Medusa’ is an album that showcases inspired artistic integrity and commitment to rock’n’roll from two extraordinary rock stars of the 80s and 90s.
Track List: 1) Next In Line 2) Tell Me Why 3) Coming Down 4) Where I Belong 5) For You 6) Give Me the Night 7) Living A Lie 8) In And Out of Love 9) Medusa 10) Back Into Your Arms again 11) I Want You
Line Up:
Jack Russell – vocals Tracii Guns – guitars Johnny Martin – Bass Shane Fitzgibbon – drums Alessandro Del Vecchio – keyboards, backing vocals
In 1984, Jack Russell burst onto the scene as the frontman for Great White, a prominent presence in the Los Angeles music scene. The band’s self-titled debut, along with platinum-selling albums like 1987’s ‘Once Bitten…’ and 1989’s ‘…Twice Shy,” sold over 8 million copies worldwide. Their rock legacy continued into the 21st century, and in 2011, Russell went on to form Jack Russell’s Great White.
Tracii Guns is a legend in his own right. He founded LA Guns in 1983, which later merged with another group called Hollywood Rose, laying the foundation for one of the true giants of rock: Guns N’ Roses. After departing the band and reuniting with former Girl lead vocalist Phil Lewis to reform LA Guns, he signed with Vertigo Records and released 14 studio albums with the band. He also ventured into various side projects, including Contraband (with Michael Schenker and others), Sunbomb (with Michael Sweet of Stryper), and more recently, Blackbird Angels with Todd Kerns (of Slash & The Conspirators).
Ultimately, this new music from RUSSELL – GUNS is a gift to the millions of fans who have steadfastly supported both Tracii Guns and Jack Russell throughout the years. It’s everything they’ve been waiting for and more.
HONEYMOON SUITE’s 2008 album Clifton Hill has been remixed to a vastly improved sound and and reissued, along with a limited number of colored vinyl in gatefold sleeve (w/CD), and bonus tracks! Titled Clifton Hill Revisited (Clifton Hill being a prime tourist location in Niagara Falls), with a slight change up of colors in the cover titles (and brighter), 2 added acoustic tracks, and signed copies through the band’s official merch page (see below!) .
German band LUCIFER’S FRIEND released their 2nd album in 1972 (’75 in the US & Canada). The band’s self-titled debut is often hailed as a proto-metal classic, lumped in alongside albums from Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep in that year, 1970. But, despite being not quite as ‘heavy’ or early metal, the band’s follow up album, with the odd title of Where The Groupies Killed The Blues is pretty impressive as well. Lucifer’s Friend would expand their sound, adding more piano, acoustic guitars, ballads, while using more instruments, such as keyboardist Peter Hecht on electric piano, moog, Hammond organ, mellotron, as well as being credited with string arrangements. Engineered by the legendary Conny Plank, and produced by the band and Herbert Hildebrandt (The Rattles, Randy Pie). Songs written by the band, along with some lyrics from another English musician – John O’Brian Docker (who also wrote for Randy Pie). An interesting cover by Klaus Witt (Witt Studio, Hamburg), with a strange photo of band members in some hippy party-type feast (or something! Anyone?); with the original German press coming in a gatefold cover, lyrics inside, and other prints being a single sleeve with a printed inner sleeve. Tracklist order also changed from Germany to North America editions.
The album itself featured the single “Hobo”, released in Germany & Spain, but more so it included such classics as the heavy “Prince Of Darkness” (highlighted by Peter Hesslein’s guitar soloing & Peter Hecht’s piano), as well as more proggy epics like “Mother”, the title song, and “Rose On The Vine”. Best known track here though has to be the ballad “Burning Ships” (nicely covered a few years back by Jason Kane & The Jive!). Hard to believe this wasn’t the single, just a great song and performance. Singer John Lawton stood out again throughout this album.
A shame this album never got a better deal or is seen by casual rock fans as a great album alongside the debut, but those of us who know the band dig this one. As the band went on making regular albums throughout the 70s they covered many other styles from jazz rock, fusion, prog, and pop. But Where The Groupies Killed The Blues remains a favorite for me.
John Lawton – lead vocals RIP, Peter Hesslein – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, percussion, vocals, Peter Hecht – piano, Hammond organ, electric piano, moog, mellotron, Dieter Horns – fender bass, bass-fiddle RIP, Joachim Rietenbach – drums, percussion RIP
Emsalö Music’s (Finnish record company) Topi Salmi release the song “Cowbell King” as a digital single (mastered) on legendary Canadian drummer Corky Laing’s 76th birthday. Digital streaming links are out today – Spotify, YouTube, Apple etc..
Maria Hänninen, a singing multi-instrumentalist/songwriter, has admired the band Mountain @mountain2178 since she was young. Dreams came true when she and Mountain drummer Corky Laing got on stage in 2019 to perform a couple of Mountain’s hits live. Since then they have been doing collaborations, Maria also appears on Corky Laing’s latest solo album Finnish Sessions (2022) and she was also a soloist/guitarist/violinist on the Scandinavian tour in the spring of 2023 in the Corky Laing& The Bobos line-up. Maria’s hard rock band Mount Mary recently released their second album Diamonds Of A Fool, and it was a great honor to have Corky Laing guesting on percussions for a few songs. Corky himself is working on his new material for his next solo album as well.
“Cowbell King (Tribute to Corky Laing)” composition, arrangement: Maria Hänninen & Tony “TT” Helander words: Maria Hänninen -Vocals, guitars, bass, recording, mixing: Maria Hänninen -Drums, percussion : Tony “TT” Helander -Mastering: Petri Majuri
Outsider Rock 