For anyone who doubts Spotify as a music discovery device, you're not using it correctly. While it is The Mystery of Me just blew me away.
not my main music discovery vehicle (I rely on blogs and social media for a lot of it), it can be very effective. Spotify recommended for me Danielia Cotton. Never heard of her before from anywhere. Her latest album
The Mystery of Me is a rock album akin to the rock albums I grew up listening to. Rockers, ballads, swamp, blues, Motown and soul all rolled up into something interesting and entertaining. Think a funkier, bluesier Southern Rock with a Lzzy Hale/Janis Joplin vocal mashup.
If you like diversity in an album, The Mystery of Me has it. If you need lyrical depth in an album, this one has it as well.
There is not going to be any in-depth analysis here, words just get in the way of listening to good music.
So Lita Ford dug up some old songs from the 80's that featured Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Gene
Simmons, Dave Navarro, Billy Sheehan, Bruce Kulick and Jeff Scott Soto.
Then Lita went and put them all together and released an album.
The results are magical. At least for those of us that love 80's hard rock.
Time Capsule is raw. It's unadulterated. It rocks. And above all, it's good.
While Lita has never had the pipes to create awe-inspiring vocals like Ann Wilson or Lzzy Hale, or the shredding ability of Eddie Van Halen or Randy Rhoads, her combination as a singer/guitarist/songwriter puts her in the realm of hard rock royalty.
It's just a shame these songs never saw the light when it might have mattered.
I will admit it. I am enthralled with Lzzy Hale. My daughter said I was a fan girl. OK. But I prefer fan boy.
But I'm not a blind follower. Of anyone. I may love an artist and have all of their previous work, but if the new stuff is not up to par, I'm gonna call it out.
The new Halestorm record, Into The Wild Life, exceeded any expectations I had.
Is every song for everybody? Nope. Is there something there for everyone? I say yes.
It seems as though all of the influences over the years come through in this record, but not in a nostalgic way, but in a new and fresh way.
With Halestorm, heavy rock will always be their base. That's who they are, unapologetically. I don't know what their influences are, but when listening to the album, I hear Michael Jackson, country, industrial, classic rock, rhythm and blues, heavy metal and funk. And when I listen to the record again, I'll hear something else.
Here's the joy in listening to the record, the next song is not going to sound like the last. For some people that may be a turn off. For me, that's magical. I love the unexpected, especially if it's good.
I will offer this caveat, if you're easily offended, skip this. It ain't for everyone, but if you're a real music fan, check it out.
Here's the vid for "Apocolyptic".
And today, it may change tomorrow, but this may be favorite song on the record, "Bad Girls World".
If you haven't heard, apparently some country radio stations are relegating Little Big Town's most recent single "Girl Crush" to low rotation. The reason? Listeners have been calling in complaining about the stations pushing a lesbian agenda. There is only anecdotal evidence of this as far as I can tell.
There are scads of these reports all over the internet. I'm not going to link, just Google it. You're reading this, you have access.
If you listen to the song, it's about jealousy and has nothing whatsoever to do with lesbianism. But according to some reports, those complaining don't care to even entertain that conversation.
Then came the reports that this controversy was all over blown. That there really weren't many complaints being logged.
Whatever. I'm just using this controversy non-controversy controversy as an excuse to post another Halestorm video.
Halesorm's Lzzy Hale got in on the action a few days ago with these tweets:
Halestorm opened on several dates of Eric Church's tour and Lzzy made appearances with Church on a couple of awards showing playing and singing with him on "That's Damn Rock and Roll". Also residing and recording in Nashville, Halestorm are no strangers to country music.
Here is the Little Big Town lyric video of "Girl Crush". Not much can be misinterpreted unless you really try.
And this was just posted to YouTube today or last night if you're in Europe (3/28/15) from Halestorm's show in Germany. Halestorm covered "Girl Crush" for the first time. Lzzy didn't offer any explanation to the German audience other it was a song they liked. It was recorded on someone's mobile device, I suppose, so the audio is not stellar, but I've heard much worse.
And now Halestorm played an acoustic rendition of the song on SiriusXM recorded here:
February is almost over and I had to get out of my singer/songwriter melancholy funk. Not that I don't enjoy that, it just seemed to be encompassing my music. So I go back to when music was fun. A little Sunset Strip 80s rock. This comes from RATT's Dancing Undercover album, which I think is their best and by far most underrated record.
The next song was recommended to me specifically from one of my tweeps. (I love twitter). A band out of California called Walking Tall. Since hearing this song, I have delved into more of their music. Good stuff. County tinged Southern Rock with a hint of 80s pop. What's not to like.
I don't know where the new Kid Rock fits into today's musical landscape. I had the chance to listen to his latest record ,First Kiss, all the way through today. There is no "Bawitdaba" or "Cowboy" on it. It's very reflective and nostalgic. I wouldn't say it's great, but every tune is catchy. If this is what he decides to do, I'm all for it. Here's the title track from the album. It reminds me of a cross between Bryan Adams and .38 Special. Whatever, it's better than anything played on mainstream radio. My 14-year-old daughter, who used to love country, but got bored with all the sameness, digs this song.
I know a lot of people won't get this, but I'm in love with Lzzy Hale's voice. From their upcoming album, here is Halestorm with "Mayhem".
The last thing I'll leave you with is Chelle Rose. I can't believe I haven't heard of her before. Expressing that sentiment on twitter, she tweeted back that we find music at the right time in our lives. I can't argue with that. Swampy and sultry, she's good.
I originally had this one pegged for Metal Monday, but then dropped the ball on getting it posted. But it works here. The new Halestorm song "Apocalyptic".
For my 2.5 readers, sorry I've been away for a while. But I'm back with a strong recommendation.
Sunny Sweeney's latest album Provoked is nothing short of brilliant. I tweeted earlier "Smart, witty, poignantly funny at times." That's the short version. And that could be the entire version and be accurate.
Let's get this out of the way early, Sunny Sweeney does not possess the soaring vocal capabilities of Carrie Underwood or Ann Wilson or Lzzy Hale. But she does have the ability to convey plenty of emotion in the songs that she wrote. And what a fantastic songwriter she is.
Heartache, heart break, the other woman, the flawed partner, the bad girl, the snark, sarcasm and playfulness. And a lot of real life. It all comes together seamlessly.
We are almost to September, and this is in my top two records this year.
I don't know if this is my favorite track on the record, or just my favorite lyrics. But either way, I like "Second Guessing".
This next song is on the record, but it's just more fun in any live setting. There are plenty of youtube videos of it as she has been doing it for over three years, that I know of, maybe longer. I like this one.
I wrote about the Eric Church and Halestorm pairing before. I though it was an interesting, maybe even good, idea. Although that had to do with Halestorm opening for Church on his current tour.
At the CMT Music Awards this idea went a bit further when Church performed with Halestorm frontwoman and leader Lzzy Hale on Church's song "That's Damn Rock & Roll".
And it was damn rock & roll. Nope, wasn't country, but that ship left port a long time ago. The best country performance was put in by LeaAnn Womack and Kacey Musgraves in their Alan Jackson tribute. But I digress.
Full disclosure here. I'm a big fan of Halestorm and Lzzy Hale's vocals specifically. While Church is a good enough vocalist in his own right, he could never bring to that song what Hale did: soaring, powerhouse, straight up rock vocals.
Right now what I'm most disappointed about is that the Halestorm leg of Church's tour gets no closer than 13 hours away from me.
With "Chicks That Rock" we've covered old school with Heart, middle school with Grace Pottter, so now it's time to go new school.
I present Lizzy Hale and Halestorm. Along with brother Arejay Hale on drums, Joe Hottinger on guitar and Josh Smith on bass, Halestorm's 2nd full length album The Strange Case of..... is probably the most listenable hard rock albums from start to finish since Appetite for Destruction.
It runs the gamut form full throttle rockers like "Freak Like Me" to tender ballads like "Break In". But throughout it all, Lzzy Hale's voice shines.
I'm not a critic. I will only post stuff about music that I enjoy. Is it critically celebrated, panned, indifferent? I don't know and more importantly, don't care.
Sometimes you just find something totally by accident and it strikes a chord within you. Such is my current obsession with Orianthi. My daughter is calling me a fangirl. I prefer fanboy. Semantics. But I get what she is saying.
When I find something new (to me) that I like, I need to immerse myself in it for a few days. Just to make sure it's not a fly-by-night infatuation but something that I really enjoy. So, Orianthi, I enjoy.
I don't know a whole lot about her, and I'm not an investigative reporter. But here's what I do know:
Her full name is Orianthi Pangaris and she can shred on the guitar. She's 28 years old and from Australia. She was pegged to play guitar on Michael Jackson's tour before his untimely death. She has played guitar with Alice Cooper's touring band. She has recorded a song with Steven Tyler.
That's enough right there to give her credibility. And all that means squat if the songs don't hold up, right?
Well, the songs hold up. But where they fit is up for debate.
Let me put it this way, Orianthi's solo work is part Taylor Swift, part Grace Potter, part Lzzy Hale, part Katy Perry*, part Eric Johnson, part Jimi Hendrix, part Journey, part Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart), part Lita Ford.
*I picked Katy Perry because I'm not that familiar with current pop music and she was the first one that came to mind. Could be Demi Lovato. The "Call Me Maybe" chick. Whomever.
I have really enjoyed her latest album Heaven in this Hell. Save for a couple of ultra-poppy tracks, It is very good start to finish. Although, if you get the CD, get the one without the bonus tracks.
The 12 tracks on the non-bonus song CD are mostly quite good. The first three songs on the album all have a bluesy feel to them. As do several other tracks. The blues-based tracks are my favorites.
The song, "How Does That Feel?" could be at home on one of Foreigner's later albums. A couple of songs, if recorded by the right artist (Carrie Underwood? Taylor Swift?) would be a mainstay on current country music radio.
The song "Sex E Bizarre" featuring Steven Tyler would be right at home on any Aerosmith release post Done With Mirrors.
For anyone who doubts Spotify as a music discovery device, you're not using it correctly. While it is The Mystery of Me just blew me away.
