"Walk Through Exits Only" by Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals

There is nothing more in this world than Phil Anselmo loves than starting new bands, right? (Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritutal, and then his litany of side projects.)

Today we're looking at Phil's latest musical brainchild: a solo album. (Shouldn't that be your first step when you have music to get out and your 800 bands just won't let you get it out?) I kid, I kid and Phil's a strong, crazy fella who could really hurt me....so....

Interestingly enough, Phil did not create a lineup with household name, metal lifers. At this point, Phil's got enough pull to pretty much line up any metal guys he wants.Honestly, I don't know who any of the other players are: Marzi Montazeri on guitar, Bennett Bartley on bass, and Joe Gonzalez on drums.

"Specter At The Feast" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

This album kind of arrived to me as a surprise really. While browsing, I saw this vintage looking cover and I took a look at it. The cover art is cool and their name is cool. Frankly, having both of these things does make me interested in your band. Cool cover art and band names that aren't horribly stupid seem to be a thing of the past honestly.

In this day and age, most of us can check the googles for any information in an instant. So, a quick google search of this band showed they have been at the music game for quite some time. They were described as a Lo-Fi indie rock band. OK, this is something that might be enjoyable to me, so I left with it.

It really appears to me that the term Lo-Fi has been co-opted like my can of Coke in the office fridge. To me, Lo-Fi has meant the opposite of Hi-Fi, i.e. less than clear sounding. I can't really tell you what it's supposed to mean now, but it certainly means something else.

Album Review: "Super Session" by Bloomfield, Kooper, and Stills

Super Session

This is a first look at a classic album for me. As has been mentioned in other posts, I play a Gibson Les Paul, poorly. I've also joined a Les Paul community online and from that community many new artists have made their ways into my library.

One of the guys whose name is bandied about frequently is Mike Bloomfield. Well, he has not been played on my local classic radio stations in St. Louis, so his music never made it to my ears.

It was suggested to me that I purchase this album. Well, honestly, I'm still not terribly familiar with whom Al Kooper is, but I think everybody knows who Stephen Stills is. Recently Stephen Stills was profiled in Guitar World for his boxed set and that has also piqued my interest.

"Now Honey, Now Baby, Now Listen..." by White Trash Blues Revival

Remember when you were just a little one and you built musical instruments because, hell, you were only eight and it was fun. Personally, I built some "drums" out of two pieces of plywood and used a pair of swizzle sticks  (remember those?) as drum sticks. They worked great because they had little balls on the end of one side...JUST LIKE REAL DRUM STICKS!

Well, imagine if you were a professional musician and at a bar you frequent/play frequently that they were having a best of the worst bands contest. Would you ever conceive of calling your buddies and asking them to create something horrific as a joke. Like the drummer not even playing drums, but an empty beer kg, a bucket, and a cardboard box instead? Or the guitarist not even using a cigar box guitar, but a skateboard with pickups? Well that's what Sausage Paw of Left Lane Cruiser did. It worked so well that after a 20 minute set, they were booked for real and a band was born.

"Lickety Split"by Robert Randolph & The Family Band

Now this is some exciting stuff to me. Do you recall The Slide Brothers review from a couple months back? This would be the man that could be qualified as their mentor. Robert Randolph was the first person to bring the sacred steel guitar outside of the churches and into the public view, but his music is very different than that of the Slide Brothers.

This could quickly turn into five hundred words comparing and contrasting these two albums and it very well shouldn't be, so the last comparison will be whereas The Slide Brothers play bluesy hymns, Robert Randolph and the Family Band play wide open blues influenced rock.

Instead of Robert's slide guitar being the primary instrument, it's one of many instruments, though featured and this album features a great many guitar solos, both by Robert and Brett.

Album Review: "Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor" by Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie is now an elder statesman of metal. He can only be about four to five years away from Alice Cooper like acceptance amongst the elders of America.

It's still a bit difficult to think that twenty three long years have passed since this man's  music first came into my life, White Zombie's "La Sexorcisto." After that album though, they swung in a decidedly techno direction with "Astro Creep" and then moving even further to the darkside with the remixed version of the same album. It was hard to not be offended if you were a young metal head.

Rob then went solo and put out "Hellbilly Deluxe" which was even more of a techno album than the last two White Zombie releases. At this point, Mr. Zombie was dead to me, but here we are about fifteen years into his solo career with the latest record. I was drawn to this album because of Mr. John 5.

"The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" by Alice In Chains

Remember Alice In Chains? The last time that this band had any relevance to me was when Jerry Cantrell opened up for Metallica on the Re-Load Tour.

Before that it was when Alice In Chains opened up for Kiss on the reunion tour. Honestly, neither of these performances made a believer out of me. Having seen both of these acts does give me a bit of insight on the artist of the day here, Jerry Cantrell.

Sure Alice In Chains is a band and not Jerry's solo band, right? Well, not so much.Cracked.com even listed Alice In Chains as to why it very well might be.

In the end, Layne Staley may have been the face of Alice In Chains, but he was not really the voice of the band because he just said what Jerry told him to say, at least in the songs where Jerry wasn't singing. It's easy to forget just how much of this band really is Jerry Cantrell. Some of their biggest hits were either sung all or in part by Jerry.

Album Review: "II" by Unknown Mortal Orchestra

This album has a really cool cover. It caught my eye and then a google search was done to find out something about this record. Google came back with it being an indie lo-fi album.

The moment when I became a fan of lo-fi rock is very clear to me. I saw the Black Diamond Heavies at the Schlafly Tap Room opening for Exene Cervanka and The Original Sinners. Since then the audio quality of my music library has taken a hit, but often times for the better.

A good lo-fi record, that has well written and crafted songs, can wonderfully encapsulate and "recreate" the vibe of early rock'n'roll when dirty guitars weren't created by stepping on your distortion pedals, but by diming the knobs on the amp because volume was more important than clarity because even though they were playing professional gigs, the musicians couldn't afford amps big enough for the place. Ah, early rock'n'roll and blues and it's amazing how a Lo-Fi record can capture that spirit!

"Topanga" by Atheist

I've said it before, but the coolest thing about this hobby of mine is when an artist emails me and says that they'd like me to hear their music. So, once again I'm taking a look at some music I'd never heard of but received via email and that's totally cool.

The artist is question is Atheist and his album is "Topanga." Yes, he has an affinity for Boy Meets World. I was never a fan of that show because Fred was the best Savage.

This album touches on such pertinent topics like Topanga, The Warriors, James Franco's Ph.D's, hipsters, organic weed, and Drake "freestyling" with the aid of a BlackBerry. (Off topic: Am I the only one who sees Drake and wonders how Jimmy Brooks got out of the wheelchair? Degrassi Jr High rules.)

This album could best be described as old school hip hop done by a new school rapper. Keep reading to find out what the hell that means.

Album Review: "You Can't Fall Off The Floor" by What Made Milwaukee Famous

From time to time, we all hear about bands without really knowing why that's happened. It would be the most appropriate for this to be said about the Austin, Texas outfit, What Made Milwaukee Famous, by me. It should be highlighted that this group is not in fact from Milwaukee, nor did they make Milwaukee famous. Their name was taking from the Jerry Lee Lewis song, "What's Made Milwaukee Famous Has Made A Loser Out of Me."

In most normal cases, these group would not get much of a second look from the likes of me, but upon watching their video on Youtube, it felt like there was something there that was really worthy of a second look. It very well could have been the quite well done music video. It could have been the catchy hooks and vocals. All in all it was probably the fact that this group can write a damned fine song. This was the group that caused me to stop buying CDs only. This album is not available in a physical form, but on iTunes, Amazon, etc as MP3 only.

Album Review: "Surrealistic Pillow" by Jefferson Airplane

Looking backwards in time and thinking of Patricia Kennealy's book. In that book, though she famously loved the Doors and Jim Morrison, she referred to Jefferson Airplane as her favorite band.

How is it that their music has never graced my stereo?

Well, that's about to change. I won't even go into that time I saw Starship live whilst working for Kiel Center. It's frankly just too painful and frankly, there's not much I could even recount about it now as that show as in 1995....

The Airplane, as we all know, is a psychedelic band from the late 60's that featured the inimitable, Grace Slick. It is equally pleasing and infuriating to me that Grace Slick has stuck to her guns about not performing after she had reached an advanced age, by rocker standards anyway.

Album Review: "Man In Motion" by Warren Haynes

Another foray into the blues has to be made. Warren Haynes certainly fits that bill, so you're welcome?

His is a name that is bandied about by people who are not me along with his other band, Gov't Mule. Before getting this record though, you would have never heard me mention him before and had you mentioned him to me, I'd probably have dismissed it out of hand, because I was stupid.

Knowing that guitarists tend to enjoy Mr. Haynes's  music, there was some excitement in the offing for me. Though I really do love shredders, it's also very nice to hear some down home emotive leads, and Mr. Haynes has that in spades.

About 30 years ago, this would have been called a rhythm and blues record, but nowadays it's just electric blues. Warren is accompanied by what could be described as a multitude of musicians for this album.

Album Review: "Heaven In This Hell" by Orianthi

Recently, sitting in the seats of the Family Arena in St. Charles, MO this blogger was waiting for Alice Cooper to begin his set on his latest tour stop in my "hometown." (St. Charles is 30 miles west of the City Proper where my family and I live.)

When the lights went down, the sparks and fire abated, and out walked the band onto the stage. There were three guitarists on stage, but one of them stood out to me. A white PRS guitar was being carried by him and he was wearing a long black jacket, a fedora, and long blond locks. Looking a bit closer it was noticed that he was also wearing stiletto healed boots and he had become she. My mind raced quickly and sadly the cell service was only 3G in the seating bowl, so my mind raced faster than my iPhone searching. but my initial reaction had turned out to be correct. Orianthi was standing on the stage with Alice Cooper as she's been a part of his live band for a few years now.

Album Review: "Unstoppable Momentum" by Joe Satriani

It's certainly been a long time since Satch has graced these ears. Everyone has heard "Summer Song" off of The Extremist. Certainly Sony helped out Satriani in that endeavor...

However, it has been far longer since the wider world has heard anything else from this fretboard master and there is absolutely zero hesitation in calling this man a master or any other superlative that can be thought of. This man not only has a strong catalog of his own music, but he was the guitar teacher of other guitar heroes, such as Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett. The world of guitar owes a large debt of gratitude to Mr. Satriani for his contributions, not only to his own music, but to the music of his now famous students as well. It's interesting to note that Vai took lessons from Satch when they were both children, but Hammett took lessons from Joe after the recording of "Kill 'Em All" to improve his technique, and the difference was striking.

Album Review: "Electric Warrior" by T. Rex

Even though part of this journey is to find current bands to listen to, there will always be a tendency to look back into the past. I'm shamed to admit that not only is this band absent from the library but completely unknown to my consciousness.

Upon a close listen to this record, the song "Bang A Gong" stood out to me as something that's made its way around and into my ears, but it's still shocking to me how this band was an unknown to me. This is another gross failure by St. Louis's Classic Rock Radio. KSHE and the U-Man, I'm looking at both of you, and don't even mention KSHE Classics if you play them there.

That got a little angry there didn't it? Let's try to find the plot again shall we? This album just drips 70's rock guitar tone. The guitar sound that defined the 70's, ike a whetted sharpening stone being put to use, has its muddy paws all over the songs.