Sari Schorr's 2018 release Never Say Never is the kind of blues-infused hard rock that I love. Schorrr's raspy, powerful, badass vocals are definitely the star. But if you've been reading my blog at all, you know it's all about the music first.
Never Say Never reminds me most of an album that not many have heard: When The Blackbird Sings by Saraya. That is a compliment.
Schorr evokes the best of the 80s. Reminiscent of Bonnie Tyler, Stevie Nicks and bluesy hard rock, in the best way. It also has a 70s vibe to it.
Forget what you've heard about rock being dead. It's just being repackaged.
We all listen to music for different reasons at different times because of different circumstances or moods. Maybe something takes you back to a distant memory that you don't want to forget. Maybe a song or album is something you really relate to and helps you get through a difficult time. Maybe the lyrics speak to you and make you think. Maybe it's a gloomy February day and some mood music is what you need. Maybe it's a sunny spring day and you want something light and peppy. Music can inspire, music can heal, music can fit any situation you find yourself in. That is the beauty and power and magic of music.
Why did I waste so many words on that? Because sometimes music just needs to be fun. And enjoyable.
The Amorettes' latest album Born to Break is fun. It's, to me, AC/DC meets the Go-Go's. That sounds fun, right?
This Scottish trio is unapologetically rock. And they tug at my heartstrings because they do it late 70s/early 80s style. Guitar, bass and drums. No frills. Straight up hard rock.
Don't look for any deep meaning in the lyrics. As Eric Church once penned "that's damn rock n roll".
There is not much variety on Born to Break. It's twelve in your face songs rock songs. That's not a bad thing. AC/DC made a hell of a career out of doing just that. I respect artists who know who they are/want to be and just go for it.
And, just a head's up, with newish bands like the Amorettes making killer rock music, rock ain't dead in reality, it's just dead on mainstream American radio. It's alive and well and flourishing elsewhere.
Enough words, here is "Everything I Learned - I Learned From Rock and Roll":
Mud is the perfect title for Whiskey Myers' fourth album release. Mud is dirty, it's gritty, it's grimy, it's greasy and it's swampy. So, yeah, it's muddy. Mud is not slick and polished, it's not saccharine and glossy, it's not good times and parties. It is real and raw and hard times and making do and living in the good times.
Although honing their skills on the Texas Red Dirt scene, Whiskey Myers is not a country band. They are a Southern rock/hard rock band with country leanings. They recently wrapped up the Carnival of Madness tour with Shinedown, Halestorm and Black Stone Cherry. They are another entry into my "Rock Ain't Dead" campaign.
The torch of Southern Rock is in good hands with Whiskey Myers, who, along with Blackberry Smoke, have re-lit it and have it burning brighter than it has since the early 80s. Just as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels, The Allman Brothers, etc. all had their own unique sound within Southern Rock, Whiskey Myers borrows heavily from the pioneers while still sounding uniquely Whiskey Myers.
Produced by Dave Cobb, as was the previous album Early Morning Shakes, Mud seems to have Whiskey Myers and Dave Cobb hitting the sweet spot together. Mud is, in my opinion, the best Whiskey Myers album yet, edging out 2011's Firewater by a slim margin.
The album closes with "Good Ole Days", a collaboration by Cody Cannon with Brent Cobb. It's a fun acoustic song, but what got me was the baseball allegiances revealing themselves in the final verse.
Here are couple songs that show the diversity of the album, "Mud" and "Stone".
The Amorettes second album White Hot Heat is a lot like their previous album Game On. And that is not a bad thing. When you hit upon something that works, why deviate? AC/DC has been doing it for years.
The Amorettes are a trio from Scotland that has stripped everything down to guitar, bass and drums. And attitude. Straight up, no-frills, punch-you-in-the-face rock.
For anyone old enough to remember, think Fastway. It's got that kind of vibe.
Ok, I really try to stay current. It's hard. Jasmine Cain originally released White Noise in July of 2015. Then it got picked up by Entertainment One Music and re-released in May 2016. That's when I found it. So I missed out on almost a year of this good music.
Paraphrasing here, but Jasmine Cain is pretty much the bass-wielding ringmaster of her own rock and roll circus.
I won't compare Jasmine Cain to Lzzy Hale, or Cain's band to Halestorm. That would be unfair to both. But if you like Halestorm, then Jasmine Cain will be right up your alley. There are definite similarities, and definite differences.
I'm still baffled at the "rock is dead" narrative. OK, it might not thrive on radio, but get out and go to shows. Rock is alive and well. Jasmine Cain rocks and rocks hard.
Here is "Hole" from White Noise:
And since I'm just now discovering Jasmine Cain, here is "Highway Prophet" from a few years ago:
The Amorettes are a Scottish three piece rock and roll outfit that has cut out everything extraneous and just plain rocks. Just the basics: guitar, bass, drums and attitude.
Stripped down, raw, loud, no frills rock. They remind me of early 80's Fastway with their second record Game On that came out early in 2015.
The Amorettes are Gill Montgomery on guitar and lead vocals, and sisters Heather and Hannah McKay on bass/backing vocals and drums/backing vocals respectively.
The Los Angeles-based duo Plastic Rhino recently released their third album Recondition. You can read on their website what they think. Here's my take: very good hard rock album. Sure, you can try to break it down and do all the sub-genre stuff, but what it all boils down to is that it's hard rock done well.
For all the doomsayers saying "rock is dead", artists like Plastic Rhino are proving that it is not. You can read my Album Spotlight here.
Vocalist Atara Gottschalk and guitarist Jack Glazer were kind enough to to grant me a Q and A. The results follow.
I will freely admit that Europe fell off my radar after their sports stadium classic "The Final Countdown" ran its mainstream course. Sure the album of the same name had some other minor hits with "Carrie", "Rock the Night" and "Cherokee". The album The Final Countdown and the songs from it never did that much for me. So I dismissed the band.
Fast forward almost 30 years and combine my rekindled love of discovering new music with Europe's March 2015 release of War of Kings and it's like I discovered a new band.
Europe the band is very popular in Europe the continent. And hugely popular in their native Sweden. It's a shame that mainstream radio in the United States has abandoned any and all good music for the sake of chasing the whims of 14 year olds. But I digress.
War of Kings is an epic album. And it's very European. With influences such as Deep Purple, Ronnie James Dio era Rainbow and Whitesnake shining through.
This record was also produced by Dave Cobb. Why is that significant? Only because he has produced some of my favorite recent albums from Whiskey Myers to Chris Stapleton.
I made the mistake of dismissing artists based on their past. Don't do that. You will miss gems like this.
Here is a track from War of Kings. Not released as single, but is so good.
Sometimes you find a gem where you least expect it, or weren't even looking for it. Such is the case with the band The Answer. Someone suggested the song "Under the Sky". I liked it okay. It was some 80s-style hard rock.
Upon further investigation, that song was from their 2006 debut The Rise. Then I found they just released a new album in March of 2015 called Raise A Little Hell. So, of course I had to check it out.
The Answer definitely has some throwback elements in their sound. To what specifically, I'm not exactly sure. I hear Deep Purple, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, funk, power balladery, and 80's L.A. sleaze. And that's just scratching the surface.
Beyond the songs, what stands out is the individual musicianship. Of the four members, I don't hear a weak link.
So, hey, judge for yourself. Here is "Long Live The Renegades" from the new record:
Sometimes stuff gets missed for whatever reason. The second album by the band Saraya was missed by me and apparently 99.99% of the world's population. And that's a shame.
Saraya was a hard rock band named after lead singer Sandi Saraya and had couple of minor hits from their self-titled debut that came out in 1989. I bought the cassette (yeah, I'm that old) for the first album based off "Love Has Taken It's Toll", which I still love. Great hard rock song.
The rest of the record, along with the other single "Back To The Bullet" was even more pop metal than this song and not near as good. One good song, I thought. Therefore, I kind of forgot about the band.
Saraya's second album, When The Blackbird Sings, was released in 1992. Classic case of bad timing. Nirvana and the Seattle grunge movement was in full force. This fantastic record fell through the cracks, and that's unfortunate.
This record is over 25 years old and I just heard it for the first time a few days ago. And I must say, it's one of the best hard rock albums, cover to cover, I've heard in a long time. Sounds fresh and not dated. If you like Lita Ford, Queensryche, Whitesnake, Badlands and Halestorm, then you just might find something here for you.
Unfortunately there are no videos, but here's a youtube audio of what I think is a great representation of the entire album.
I have been searching out new music that has in-your-face guitars, melodic vocals, good musicianship and is just a little over-the-top. Pretty much, 80's-style hard rock. I'm not talking about hair/glam/pop metal. Though I'm not dismissing that either. I'm talking about the hard rock that dominated the 80's with such acts as AC/DC, Scorpions, Motley Crue, the Cult, Guns 'N Roses, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Cinderella, etc.
There is some good stuff out there. And I have a theory as to why: Now is the first generation of musicians that have 80's hard rock as an influence. They are far enough removed from the atrocities that became of hard rock in general and hair metal specifically to be able to connect with the quality stuff that did exist. Also, they had parents who grew up with this music. And they have probably played with older musicians who played this type of music. It all rubs off.
I doubt there will ever be a new wave of hard rock, but for those of us that enjoy fun, loud guitar-driven rock, there is hope.
The members of Australia's Koritni, named after lead vocalist Lex Koritni (and let's just get this out of the way: horrible name) make no bones about naming Motley Crue, GnR, RHCP among others as influences. Listening to their most recent studio album Welcome to the Crossroads, the influences can't be denied. You can hear the Cult, Aerosmith, Tesla and the funk of RHCP or maybe more accurately, Extreme.
Million Dollar Reload, hailing from Northern Ireland, have definitely taken hold of the dirtier, sleazier side of the 80's rock scene. Reminiscent of Faster Pussycat, early GnR, L.A. Guns, but also holding onto an Aerosmith and AC/DC vibe. M$R knows how to write a hook as evidenced by songs such as "Wicked" and "Tatoos and Dirty Girls".
Unfortunately, I don't see this type of music taking hold in the United States anytime soon. But as long as there are thriving rock and metal communities in Europe and Australia, then we can at least get our hands on it.
Both of these bands bring the old sensibilities while not sounding dated, in my opinion. Judge for yourself.
Y&T was one of the most underrated hard rock bands of the 80's. They have always been one of my favorites from that era. Personally I never understood why they didn't get swept up in the wave of Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Poison, Def Leppard, etc.
Maybe bad luck. Maybe never at the right place at the right time. Maybe an unfortunate twist of fate. Maybe bad karma. Whatever, it was never meant to be. Oh, sure, they had their one unfortunate hit with "Summertime Girls", but that was never what Y&T was. They were always much more than that.
Staunch Y&T aficionados will disagree with me, but I feel 1983's Mean Streak is their best work. I won't disagree with those who have an affinity for Earthshaker and Black Tiger, both fantastic albums, but I have a visceral connection with Mean Streak as it was my first introduction to Y&T, so it holds a special place in my heart.
Lead vocalist/lead guitarist/lead everything for Y&T, Dave Meniketti is one of the best combo vocalist/guitarists (along with Tom Keifer) in hard rock. Along with longtime partner in crime Phil Kennemore (RIP), Y&T never wavered from their particular brand of hard rock.
If you never heard them, here's a bad 80's video of a great song:
This is something new I'm doing: Album reviews. Only I wouldn't exactly call them reviews, I'm not a music critic. So it's more of an album spotlight of something I find good. So that's what I'll go with: Album Spotlights from the Cheap Seats.
I grew up on 80's hard rock. Call it Hair Metal, Glam Metal, Pop Metal, whatever. Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Poison, Cinderella, etc. I still like that type of music. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of good stuff out there.
When I find some, I will let you know. And now is the time.
Stryper was right in the middle of 80's pop metal, sans debauchery. Yes, that Stryper, the Christian hard rock band. The yellow and black attack.
Being a Christian and also a fan of heavy metal/hard rock, I really wanted to like Stryper when they emerged in the 80's. But, their music just lacked something that I was looking for. Listening back to the old records and comparing it to their new release, I know what it is. They lacked musical direction. Lyrically, they were always on point, musically, not so much. The older records waver from Journey to Motley, from schmaltzy power ballad to Iron Maiden-type galloping. And the vocals never matched the harder stuff.
With the release of No More Hell to Pay, Stryper has finally nailed it. From the fantastic cover art -
- to the music. It rocks and rocks hard.
They are playing tighter than ever. The entire album is very focused musically. There are a couple of slower songs, but not of the power ballad type.
Singer/guitarist/chief songwriter Michael Sweet's vocals sound better than ever and match with the music so much more than in past recordings.
This album has everything I loved about 80's hard rock, but does not sound dated. The more I listen to it, the more I like it.
This video is from the new album. Listen to the song, the video, not so sure about. What is up with the drummer? Can he not figure out how to put his kit together?
And the other single from the new album. Enjoy.
If you're a fan of Stryper and/or 80's style hard rock, this record is definitely worth checking out.
Sari Schorr's 2018 release Never Say Never is the kind of blues-infused hard rock that I love. Schorrr's raspy, powerful, badass vocals are definitely the star. But if you've been reading my blog at all, you know it's all about the music first.
