Shuffalin shuffalin through the first ten songs on the iPod and throwing out my two cents on each.  Happy reading!

“Don’t Look Down” Point Blank, On A Roll

From the band that bought you the classic early ’80s AOR staple “Nicole” comes another fine little tune, kicking off with some dramatic piano and keyboard textures before drifting into some simple riffing and melodic verse/chorus sections.  Definitely a sound of the times, a bit southern rock in style mixed with a touch of reggae bop(?) and a tasty chicken pickin’ guitar solo with singer Bubba Keith’s radio friendly voice leading the way.

“By The Way” Big Wreck, In Loving Memory Of

Sounding like a cross between Led Zeppelin, Jeff Buckley, and Chris Cornell’s mellower pieces from Soundgarden, Big Wreck nails it here with heavily layered guitars to back Ian Thornley’s impassioned vocal.  And speaking of that vocal, Thornley hits some sweet, sweet falsetto highs to envelop you in that warm embrace of song.  Some light hints of percussion and understated drums, but who wants to cover up such a beautiful vocal?

“It Baffles The Mind” Priestess, Prior To The Fire

Loved that first Priestess album but I’ll admit it took me awhile to get into #2’s more progressiveisms, especially something like this with the odd push/pull of the drums against the main riff.  Thought I had two different songs playing at the same time.  Come chorus time things even out a liiiiiittle bit, but I dunno…  I think that riff needs to be more in the forefront of the mix and that snare dropped down four or five notches.  It’s definitely a cool little pattern but it’s fighting for space.  Sorry guys, have to be honest 😦

“From Here To Eternity” Iron Maiden, A Real Live One

I love Maiden but there are times they frustrate the hell out of me.  I was working at the record store when this came out and I was totally, totally bummed at the bootleg quality of this disc and somewhat lackluster performances from the band.  “From Here To Eternity” is a decent little romp, Bruce a bit too fast at the beginning and a bit wobbly in the vocal but all in good sloppy fun.  Great lead from Davey, Steve a little clanky in the bass, and Nicko’s drums?  Like slapping pillows… yeesh…

“Toast Of The Town” Motley Crue, Red White & Crue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3YMNZPDIzY

From the Crue’s first single comes B side “Toast Of The Town”, which I’ve got on their Red, White, & Crue compilation.  Not a bad little cut and certainly fits along with their glammier songs that were big on their first album, although I’ve been more into their chunkier riffsters.  An interesting listen as the elements of the band are certainly on display with Vince offering up his typical vocal and Tommy’s strong drum part, although Mick Mars almost overplays considering his work on the hits.

“Only My Soul” Whitesnake, Snakebite

I miss early Whitesnake…  technically part of his second solo album before he fully donned the ‘Snake moniker, “Only My Soul” fits David Coverdale’s bluesy range to a tee as it steers far far away from the latter day screech.  Stretches the boundaries of the bluesy groove with some spacy keyboards to the end, but that just adds to the coolness of the song.  No oversinging here but he does ramp it up in spots to add some sweet dynamics along with future Snake man Micky Moody’s riffing.

“Too Daze Gone” Billy Squier, Don’t Say No

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNufqe0PRKE

Man, talk about a staple of my early high school “daze”…  Billy Squier was ALL OVER THE RADIO and “Too Daze Gone” was many of the great cuts from his fine Don’t Say No album-  a great riff, fun singalong chorus, and killer Billy vocal.  Oh man, and that lazy groove on here is fab too-  kind of a Zep/Stones mix that just slithers along and slowly ropes you in with its hookiness.  Quick, someone get this to one of the female country singers…  I smell a hit!

“Angels High” Backdraft, Here To Save You All

Oh those crazy crazy Swedes…  “Angels High” and Backdraft cop the southern holler, swagger, ‘n groove of a band like Blackfoot or ZZ Top crossed with Skynyrd.  Maybe a little more metallic in approach but that feel is certainly there and most welcome and almost fresh sounding considering this came out in the early 00s in that post grunge/nu metal cesspool.  Crosses into that stoner rock vibe that newer cats like Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster and Alabama Thunderpussy are mining.  Good stuff.

“Little Town Square” Junior Brown, Mixed Bag

Like the title of this album, Junior Brown’s songs are totally a mixed bag and “Little Town Square” falls on one end of the man’s vast talent spectrum.  If you like old school country, rich and resonant vocals, and lyrics that tell a story you’ll love the double meaning behind the tale of the town and one of its (soon to be) heroic citizens.  One of the reasons I’m a Junior fan is not only his stellar guitar work and rippin’ good uptempo tunes but also how he can write a weeper like this one.

“Big Big Man” The Beat Farmers, The Pursuit Of Happiness

“Big Big Man” is just a great little rock tune, a decent little chugglin’ and lopin’ riff with some killer guitar tradeoffs between main vocalists Joey Harris and Jerry Rainey towards the tail end.  I always liked the way the Harris/Rainey harmonies and vocal line worked too, one keeping a relatively lower range while the other throwing in some higher stretches.  Would have loved to have seen these guys back in the day (RIP Country Dick Montana!).

Wow, hard choice for song of the week but I gotta go with “Too Daze Gone” the clear winner!

“Dude!  It’s Biff!”

It’s not everyday that you meet a bonafide rock star, but Thursday night was our lucky night.  My brother got tickets for us to see UFO and Saxon at Bogarts and I was quite jazzed to go, being a long time Saxon fan since waaaaaay back in the early 80s and never having seen fellow Brit metal stalwarts UFO.  So as the evening came and we headed to the gig, we grabbed a convenient parking spot a few blocks from the venue and made our way down to the show.  We were still a few blocks away when I took notice of a new restaurant on the first floor of the complex we had parked behind.  As I was admiring the airy, open window format I saw two leather jacketed long hairs seated at a table wrapping up their dinner.  Thinking it was some fellow metal fans coming to the show, it wasn’t until I looked again that I realized it was none other than Saxon frontman Biff Byford and guitarist Doug Scarratt.

“Rock star” isn’t quite fitting for Biff Byford considering Saxon’s more cult level status here in the States, but being that the band is in that upper echelon of my all time favorites his impact on my music fandom is quite high.  Once I made the recognition my brother agreed that we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet the man, so we made our way into the restaurant and to their table.  I don’t remember the first words out of my mouth (I think I apologized for disrupting their dinner, although he had just received the check), but I mentioned that we were big fans and thanked them for their music.  As I shook Biff’s and Doug’s hands, I made some goofy comment about the restaurant being fairly new and it being ironic that they were in an English style pub.  Biff replied that the fish and chips were really good!  We didn’t stay too long, but made some small talk that I’d last seen them at the venue back in 1988 and we talked about who was in the band at that time (pre-Doug Scarratt).  I didn’t ask for an autograph or a picture but just wanted to say hello and thank them for their work.  Both guys couldn’t have been nicer and as we made our way out, Biff said “we go on around 8:20”.

Wow!  How cool was that!  Steve and I couldn’t believe our luck and we talked about it the next few blocks down to the show.  We were a little bummed that they’d be on so early as we hoped that they would close the show, but UFO’s popularity in the States was a bit more than their fellow countrymen.  Still, we knew that we’d be seeing a great show and we were extra excited as we got to meet the one and only Biff Byford and Doug Scarratt too!  Fortunately the line to get in wasn’t too long, so we grabbed a couple of drinks and as we were making our way down to the floor the first act of the evening was starting to come on.

Oddly enough, I had become familiar with the name Jared James Nichols only a few days before courtesy of a recent Classic Rock magazine CD sampler.  The song on the sampler, “Last Chance”, was a pretty good blues rock tune so I had a good idea what to expect and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.  Looking like a cross between Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent, Nichols and his trio trotted out a handful of originals to those fans that had already gathered up front.  Nichols’ fingerpicked style is pretty cool to witness, getting a bit of a fatter tone in the process during his tasty blues licks.  His short but sweet set was a mix of simmering yet weighty blues and some uptempo cuts akin to Humble Pie and other similar rock artists of the 70s, and his vocal style was quite strong and soulful.  He quickly had the crowd in the palm of his hand and when he kicked in with a cover of the aforementioned Nugent’s “Stranglehold”, the excitement was upped another notch.  After one final original, Nichols and band were done for the evening (kicking myself for not buying their CD!).

After a brief changeover, the house lights dimmed and the band we really came to see charged out of the gates with the title cut from their most recent CD Battering Ram and did not let up.  Next up we had oldie “This Town Rocks”, the first in a blinding array of classics that had Steve and I roaring our approval as we sang along and banged our heads in the process.  The band tossed in a couple more newer numbers from the past few years (which were fantastic), but the setlist was mostly made up of dead on classics from the early 80s.  Personal favorite “Power And The Glory” was rolled out early, as were killer renditions of “Strong Arm Of The Law” and “Heavy Metal Thunder”, Biff in excellent singing voice and the Paul Quinn/Doug Scarratt guitar tag team in fine form.  As a frontman, Biff does a top notch job interacting with the crowd and even made the comment “I heard that that last time I was here was 1988” much to the delight of me and my brother!

Can’t remember the last time I saw a metal show WITHOUT a mosh pit, which certainly was a welcome sight and made the evening much more enjoyable as I didn’t have to worry about getting a boot to the head or shot to the knee.  Hell, I didn’t even mention top ten fave drummer Nigel Glockler’s rock solid performance or Nibbs Carter holding down the bottom end!  As final cut “Wheels Of Steel” faded out after a good hour and a half or so, the band said their goodbyes to an absolutely raucous crowd that realized they certainly would be a hard act to follow.  The setlist had been fantastic and we got to hear a good chunk of our favorite songs, plus the band performance and energy were off the charts.  A damn good showing from these veterans of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM, for you newbies!)

After a bathroom break and beer run, we settled in for the next act.  I’m a fairweather UFO fan and I will fully admit paying most attention to the Michael Schenker years, but having an opportunity to catch Phil Mogg, Andy Parker, and Paul Raymond from the glory days was going to be good to see.  Kicking off with an oldie in “We Belong To The Night”, the band did a fine job keeping the crowd’s attention and spirit alive in mixing some of their newer material with those Strangers In The Night-era chestnuts that I was most interested in hearing.  “Lights Out” and “Only You Can Rock Me” were up early and the band were tight, Mogg in fine voice all night and the rest of band holding their own.  I will admit the newer stuff is pretty good but I’m not quite as familiar with it compared to the classics, but the overall show was good.  Not near as good as Saxon, but getting a chance to see these legends in action was certainly well worth the money.

Oh yeah…  saving the “other” two guys for a separate paragraph.  Rob DeLuca filled in admirably for Pete Way, who has been out of the band for the past couple of years after health issues have sidelined him.  Thought it was interesting that he was playing a Thunderbird bass, which may have been in honor of the man he was replacing.  And finally, the OTHER “other” guy…  Vinnie Moore has some of the biggest shoes to fill in the hard rock world as the replacement for the aforementioned Michael Schenker, but I must admit I thought he did a really good job performing the old school classics. Moore has always been a huge musical talent in his own right and is arguably better than his predecessors in the band post-Schenker.  He has the right melodic touch on those familiar Schenker melodies but adds enough of his own twist to not sound like a dead on copycat.  Hearing him handle the Schenker staples like “Rock Bottom” and “Doctor Doctor” was a treat; however, I must admit that I would have preferred to see the Mad Axeman up there with the boys.  Still, kudos to Vinnie and his excellent performance, one which has encouraged me to dig into more of the recent UFO material that he has co-written.

After final UFO song “Shoot Shoot” ended we made our way to the exit, chatting animatedly about the entire night:  meeting Biff and Doug, the explosive performance of Saxon, and our thoughts on UFO and Jared James Nichols.  Ever since that night (which was only five days ago), I’ve dug into my old Saxon CDs and DVDs in an attempt to loosely relive the experience from the evening.  I told you it was that good of a show!  Looking forward to their new Thunderbolt CD coming in January and hope to catch them again in the near future.

Picked up a lot of “da blooze” this month, along with lots of other goodies…

Roomful Of Blues – That’s Right!

Roomful Of Blues – The First Album

Charlie Musselwhite – Stand Back!  Here Comes Charley Musselwhite’s South Side Band

Sugar Ray and The Bluetones- Featuring Monster Mike Welch

Mike Morgan and The Crawl- Ain’t Worried No More

Kid Ramos – Greasy Stuff

The Essential Flatt & Scuggs – ‘Tis Sweet To Be Remembered

Riotgod – Riotgod

Deep Purple – Infinite

Thunder – Rip It Up

Gov’t Mule – Revolution Come…  Revolution Go

John Hiatt – The Open Road

Richard Thompson – Amnesia

Richard Thompson – Mirror Blue

Scott Kempner – Tenement Angels

Freak Kitchen – Move

Bonepony – Stomp Revival

J Geils Band – Monkey Island

Supafuzz – Pretty Blank Page

Tool – Opiate

Roine Stolt – Wall Street Voodoo

Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush – Live

Mors Principium Est – …and Death said live

Massive Attack – Blue Lines

The Glasspack – Dirty Women

Farmikos – Farmikos

Abdullah – Abdullah

Primal Fear – Rulebreaker

Acid King – Down With The Crown

Big Hat – Big Hat EP

Racer X – Getting Heavier

Extol – The Blueprint Diaries

D.A.D. – Draws A Circle

Trixie Whitley – Sway: Outtakes & Live Tracks

Kamchatka – The Search Goes On

Kamchatka – Long Road Made Of Gold

Goblin Rebirth – Goblin Rebirth

Tristania – Ashes

Giraffe Tongue Orchestra – Broken Lines

Peter Gabriel – Live Blood

Victor – Victor

Black Dub – Black Dub

The Bakerton Group – El Rojo

Valkyrie – Shadows

I Mother Earth – Blossom (single)

Hey ho let’s go!  Time to pontificate once again on the first ten songs that pop up on shuffle mode on the ol’ iPod…

“A Pleasant Shade of Gray VIII” Fates Warning, Still Life

From live album Still Life comes part eight of their dark progressive album A Pleasant Shade Of Gray, an excellent stab at a moody concept album.  VIII offers up a new flavor of Fates, featuring Kevin Moore’s (ex-Dream Theater) tasty piano lines alongside some fab acoustic work from Jim Matheos.  This cut features no vocals and works decently outside of the album as a whole but is better listening within the full context of its magnificent scope.  Still, some solid playing from the band here.

“Under The Skin” Lindsey Buckingham, Under The Skin

From the mastermind of mid-period Fleetwood Mac (yes, there was a Mac BEFORE Nicks/Buckingham) comes a sweet little acoustic piece from the great Lindsey Buckingham.  Featuring layered guitar work with light percussive touches and soft vocal effects, Buckingham give us an easy listening piece that flows nicely and shows a different side to his work with the Mac.  Definitely more of a floating, airy tune that has a bit of dreamy quality to it.

“Jump” Loverboy, Classics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBGIgx7fHCw

Yeah, when I hear “Jump” I’m certainly NOT thinking of Loverboy but….  ah well.  At any rate, this “Jump” is a fun little ditty, certainly not a big dog from the catalog but a decent rocker featuring some funky keyboard touches and some decent guitar runs from Paul Dean.  Lead throat Mike Reno does a good job selling the song as he gives it a bit of vocal punch during the verses and chorus.  Certainly not one of my fave Loverboy cuts but it’s always cool to hear those non hits from the band’s catalog.

“Searching For A Reason” Michael Schenker Group, Assault Attack

Man, gimme the Mad Axeman on guitar any day and I’ll have a smile on my face for awhile.  “Searching For A Reason” isn’t one of his standout cuts but it bounces along at a fairly steady pace with some sweet, sweet melody lines thrown in for good measure.  Graham Bonnet’s bellow (is there another way to put it?) is relatively in check here; his forceful holler swings somewhat mightily alongside Schenker’s riff, taking a quick detour through a multi-layered solo and slight twist before the melodic intro returns.

“Out Of Cash” Vandenberg, The Definitive

Ah man your loss here as there is no YouTube link to this song, which is actually a demo that can be found on their Definitive collection.  A decent little headbanger that cops the riff from Michael Schenker’s “Armed And Ready” during the intro, even keeping the same tempo.  Guitar work is nice and riffy, Jos Zoomer’s vocal is suitably rockin’, the lyrics a little oddball (NEEEEEED…. CAAAAASH!  uhhh… don’t we all?).  As a demo it does the job, would have been interesting to hear the finished product.

“Bullet To The Brain” Megadeth, Dystopia

From the latest ‘Deth opus comes the cool riffster in “Bullet To The Brain”, which mixes mid-period chug with some decent twists and turns in tempo.  Not really any thrash in sight here but some killer guitar work from Dave Mustaine and new boy Kiko Louriero, a bit European in the noodliness of it all but that’s a good thing.  Nice mix of acoustic and militaristic snare work during the intro before the CHONK comes in (is it just me that thinks Mustaine’s fatter riffs sound like that?).

“John L. Sullivan (Demo)” Blue Oyster Cult, Rarities

What a weird little tune from the B.O.C. box set’s Rarities disc-  kind of a mix of Grateful Dead/Allman Brothers/Kinks on speed and far removed from the vampire rock of the band’s glory days.  Eric Bloom’s vocal sounds akin to Ray Davies’ 60s hits from The Kinks, maybe a bit nasally in tone and somewhat odd but listen to that Buck Dharma guitar!  So many jazzy runs in one and a half minutes.  Gives you some elements for where they were heading, but not quite there as of yet.

“Map Of The Problematique” Muse, Black Holes and Revelations

I really dig the sonic sweep of this one; Muse keeping an almost techno/trance/dance beat with a stately guitar drive, tribal drums, and graces of echoed piano.  There’s not so much of a riff here but a statement of regal noise, a pulsating rhythm that doesn’t stop, and a soaring Matt Bellamy vocal that glides along with the tempo.  One of those more underrated cuts from the band that likely works well in a live environment, featuring a crowd hopping along with the grooviness of it all.

“Death Is This Communion” High On Fire, Death Is This Communion

Talk about gigantic and monstrous…  High On Fire ride a mountain moving riff that contrasts ugliness and beauty in all its twisted glory.  Matt Pike and gang hit us up for eight plus minutes of weighty guitar, tribal drums, and guttural vocals that, taken together as a whole, contain such a spellbinding effect that you are caught up in one endless swirl of heaviness.  Detuned and extremely bottom heavy-  crank it up and feel the rattle deep in your bones.

“Smash Alley” Faster Pussycat, Faster Pussycat

This may sound funny to some, but Faster Pussycat’s brand of drunken sleaze rock was a breath of fresh air in the latter days of the hair metal craze.  “Smash Alley” sounds like it was recorded after a long, tiring day (or night?), or possibly after a three day bender; maybe they just woke up outta bed and laid down some sloppy guitar work and said “fugeddaboudit”.  Taime Downe’s cat scratch fever vocals were totally unique and an acquired taste but his spirited delivery here is the highlight of the song.

Tough to pick the winner of the week here but I gotta go with Muse followed by High On Fire and Megadeth.