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Aerosmith: Still full of filth and soul

November 22, 2005 / Jamey Codding

The bad boys from Boston are back in vintage fashion with a new concert CD and DVD (on the Sony dual disc format) called Rockin’ the Joint: Live at the Hard Rock Hotel. Performed in 2002, this show finds Aerosmith returning to their sweaty roots by blowing the dust off several old relics and laying them down in a small club setting like it was 1972 again. Breaking from their rehearsal schedule as the road vets prepare for a year-long world tour, original bass player Tom Hamilton afforded Bullz-Eye’s Red Rocker a few minutes recently to tout the strengths of Rockin’ the Joint, share his take on illegal downloads, and explain why his son might already be a better musician than he is.
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“Bullz-Eye: A record like this (Rockin’ the Joint) comes out and it just makes me want to go home and dig out Get Your Wings and Toys in the Attic. I had a cassette copy of Live Bootleg back in, what, ’78, ’79 when that thing came out…?

Tom Hamilton: (chuckling)

BE: I flat wore that thing out! So are you allowed to have a favorite Aerosmith album?

TH: Yeah, sure. Picking one is really hard. But I’ll say Rocks. Toys or Rocks, it’s pretty hard to nail down which was a favorite.

BE: I saw a quote from your website recently. It was Little Richard saying, “I looooove Aerosmith! They’re one of my favorite rock and roll bands. They’re full of filth and full of soul.” Why are you guys so strong and so vital 35 years later?

TH: I just think we were so drastically imprinted during the ‘60s. You know, when you’re a kid and you go see a really powerful rock band, it goes deep. At least for me it did. So the next thing is, “Man, I’d really like to do that. I wanna be on stage!” And you just always keep that point of view. We’ve managed to keep that point of view, wanting to spit out the kind of stuff that really inspired us when we were just learning how to play, and do it in a way that we really love.

BE: Looks like you guys are going to be touring now through the end of the year. What’s next for you guys? What does 2006 and 2007 hold for Aerosmith?

TH: Well, the rest of this year and next year we’re gonna be touring pretty much straight through, but we’re gonna try and get an album out.

BE: Of new material?

TH: Yeah.”

Read the rest of Red’s interview with Tom Hamilton here.

Artists, Concert CDs, Concert DVDs, Interviews, Rock

Deep Cuts: Dave Matthews Band

November 21, 2005 / Jamey Codding

“If your exposure to the Dave Matthews Band consists of the 40,000 times your girlfriend forces you to listen to “Satellite,” you probably can’t stand them. That’s fine. But if you’ve gone to one DMB show, you know that Dave is anything but some lone crooner softly singing sweet nothings.

Dave’s a man possessed on stage. Every photograph of Dave in front of a microphone shows him either coiled like a snake at the ready, or the moment immediately after, where he’s literally attacking it, leaning into the crowd like a thrill seeker on a beach in a hurricane leaning into the wind, almost held upright by the energy of the crowd which leans in equal dependence forward onto him. He is an aggressive front man, shouting out his music as if to shout harder would kill him.

It’s in that spirit that Deep Cuts DMB features a lot of live recordings. There are some studio cuts…most notably from 2002’s Busted Stuff, regularly cited as DMB’s best studio album. But to appreciate DMB, you must listen to them live, on stage, creating an incredible place that is, to paraphrase Dave, “better than this” to find “the best of what’s around.”

Founded in 1991 in Charlottesville, VA, DMB takes its spiritual lead from Dave, born in South Africa, a musical influence evident throughout the music. The best musician in the band, by far, is drummer Carter Beauford, who is regularly named as one of the greatest drummers who have ever lived. A musician friend of mine, asked to compare Carter to guys like John Bonham, Keith Moon or Stewart Copeland, once said that Carter is capable of executing riffs that none of those guys ever even attempted. At one show, I watched in amazement as he blasted out a solo more complicated than I could imagine, all the while smiling like this was the most fun he’d ever had…oh, and he was also chewing on bubble gum, and blowing bubbles. With violinist Boyd Tinsley, bassist Stefan Lessard, keyboardist Peter Griesar, and saxman Leroi Moore, DMB creates a unique sound as identifiable as any rock band of our time.

So here are my DMB Deep Cuts. Be prepared: if you put all this on one CD (it’ll probably require two), you may be listening to it for months.
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“Don’t Drink the Water” – Concert at Central Park
DMB often starts shows with this rocker, and you can hear the awe in Dave’s voice at seeing Central Park filled with humanity as far as the eye can see. His vocals are a tour de force.

“#41” / “Say Goodbye” – Crash
Two studio cuts to give you a breather after listening to “Don’t Drink the Water.” Rarely performed together on stage, but they work together incredibly well on Crash.

“You Never Know” – Busted Stuff
Not often played live. If you’re feeling down, listen to this cut. You’ll feel better. Dave has a way of making you feel better.”

Take a look at the rest of Tim Russo’s DMB Deep Cuts along with his Dave Matthews Band profile.

Alternative, Artists, Concert CDs, Deep Cuts, Lyrics, Playlists, Rock, Songs

Sexy Album Covers

November 21, 2005 / Jamey Codding

From Bullz-Eye’s “Sexiest Album Covers” feature:

“We realize this is not the most original idea in the world. In fact, okay, just about every men’s magazine on the planet, along with a few enterprising individuals on the Web, have assembled lists of the sexiest album covers of all time. But with each passing year comes new candidates for the throne, and as it turns out, our #5 album is only a few months old. The timing, therefore, seemed right to strike, again.

We asked various members of the BE staff, from our staple of music writers to movie critics and even BE Grand Poobah Gerardo, to assemble a list of their 10 favorites. We then assigned points based on their ranking (10 points for a #1, nine for a #2, etc.), and the following 10 albums were the winners. In truth, this contest was a blowout; nothing came even close to challenging our Number One pick. We think you’ll agree.”

This is one list you’ve got to look at, and I’m sure some of you will stare. Meanwhile, BE readers who disagreed with the selections on the original list had their opinions expressed in the Readers’ Picks follow-up.

Got a nomination of your own? Let’s hear it.

Artists, Lists

Deep Cuts: U2

November 21, 2005 / John Paulsen

The Joshua Tree was the very first CD I ever bought – can you believe that? It wasn’t Europe or Huey Lewis & the News or White Lion; it was arguably U2’s greatest album and maybe the best album of the decade. I listened to the disc over and over and when it became too scratched and my prehistoric CD player couldn’t play it, I went out and bought another copy. In those days, I didn’t explore a band’s back catalog like I do now. I think I may have bought a copy of Under a Blood Red Sky just to hear “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” but I didn’t go out and buy The Unforgettable Fire or War to see what the boys from Dublin did before they delivered this beautiful work to me.

In the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to explore the band’s back catalog of album releases and most of their B-sides as well. Much like my Rolling Stones Deep Cuts article, I’ve compiled a list of all of U2’s best music that I feel is underappreciated. Take a listen to these album cuts spanning U2’s entire career and maybe you’ll discover a few new songs. Be sure to check out Part II of our U2 Deep Cuts, which features live tracks, non-album tracks, remixes and covers. Also take a look at the list of essential U2 and the band’s biography.

1) “An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart” – These two songs from Boy are listed as separate tracks but are seamless on the record. The group resurrected these tracks and performed them at many of the shows on their last tour. Both tracks are certainly raw, but you can hear the classic U2 sound starting to form. “An Cat Dubh” is Gaelic for “The Black Cat” – the song is apparently about a woman that Bono had an affair with after a falling-out with his longtime girlfriend and future wife. There isn’t much to the lyrics of “Into The Heart,” but they seem to be about growing up.

2) “Out of Control” – First released on the three-song single Three, this song was re-worked by producer Steve Lillywhite before appearing again on Boy. Bono has been quoted (Hot Press, 1979) as saying that this song is about “waking up on your 18th birthday and realizing…that the two most important decisions in your life have nothing to do with you – being born and dying.” Certainly one of the catchier songs off Boy, this track is largely ignored by casual fans.

3) “Fire” – This song from October was released as a single in parts of Europe, but not in North America. Despite being one of the more memorable songs off of the first two albums, it wasn’t really a hit for the band and was subsequently left off their Best of 1980-1990 greatest hits compilation.

4) “Gloria” – The second single from October was also never officially released in the US, though the import sold well enough for it to peak at #82 on the US singles chart. This track features great guitar work by the Edge and a rare bass solo from Adam Clayton before it kicks into high gear.

5) “Wire” – Released on The Unforgettable Fire, this song is about heroin addiction. U2 has stayed mostly drug free throughout their career, but had friends who died from various addictions. It did chart as a single, but it still remains unknown to a lot of casual fans as it rarely gets radio airplay. Listen for the growing U2 sound in Bono’s vocals during the chorus and the Edge’s stuttering guitar throughout the song.
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I included 21 songs in Part 1 of my U2 Deep Cuts playlist, and another 16 live tracks, non-album tracks, remixes and covers in Part 2. And don’t miss my U2 Essentials and U2 profile.

Artists, Deep Cuts, Lyrics, Playlists, Pop, Rock, Songs

Lost Bands: Tribe

November 21, 2005 / David Medsker

Three days after I moved to Boston in the fall of 1991, Lynne Shaughnessy, the girl that would one day become my sister-in-law, took me to Avalon, a rock club on Lansdowne Street behind Fenway Park’s Green Monster, to see a local band called Tribe. I’d never put much stock into local bands, though that had more to do with where I grew up (central Ohio) than anything else. But these guys, they were unlike any “local” band I had ever seen. A quintet with the standard Bon Jovi/Duran Duran setup of gtr/bass/keys/vox/drums, their songs were hard edged and insanely catchy, boasting lyrics that were far deeper and darker than their hook filled melodies would suggest. They weren’t flashy musicians, but they were solid, with guitarist Eric Brosius’s laid back guitar playing complementing the boisterous rhythm section of Greg LoPiccolo and drummer David Penzo perfectly.

And then there was Janet.

Lead singer Janet LaValley was simply mesmerizing to watch onstage. She didn’t just move around, she prowled the stage like a big cat. Dressed mainly in black, to match her jet black hair, she had a voice like Siouxsie Sioux’s but with better pitch, exotic but also extremely powerful. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about her was that she wasn’t even the prettiest girl in the band (that honor belonged to keyboardist Terri Barous). Still, just try and take your eyes off of her when she had a mic in her hands. She was a truly blessed front woman.

Read more about my quest to find Tribe here.

Artists, Lost Bands, Pop, Radio