Pissed Off

I love it when rock stars bitch, moan and fight, especially when former bandmates duke it out through the press and blogs! It’s great entertainment. First up we have Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine –vs- former guitarist Jeff Young. Dave has a new book coming out, but Jeff is claiming that he made a bunch of stuff up and he’s having none of it. Here’s a taste:

Look around man, read the responses online about yourself. Even your own fans can barely stand you anymore. You've lost your grip on reality and no one cares about your narcissistic warped views of the world. We mere mortals in Megaland simply can't wait for your forthcoming biography. "Countdown to Extreme Bullshit" is a title I would like to submit for your consideration.

Jeff really goes off on Mustaine, so check out the entire awesome rant HERE!

Now on to Live, the 90’s band known for “I Alone” and “Lightning Crashes,” among other hits. I once coordinated a meet and greet with Live backstage at Red Rocks and they were all wearing matching bathrobes and fuzzy animal slippers. It was funny, but it also showed that they were good friends in addition to bandmates. Well, I guess those days are over. Here’s a snippet of what guitarist Chad Taylor wrote about now ex-lead singer Ed Kowalczyk:

As bandmates and friends and despite the lack of fresh material we continued to support Ed with all of our integrity. The final blow was Ed’s request for a $100,000 “lead singer bonus” to perform as surprise guests at this years Pink Pop Festival. I was informed of his request by our management and politely told them to “fuck off.”

Again, read the entire pissed off rant HERE!

What does this all tell us? Well, sometimes things get a little nutty in the world of rock and roll. Sometimes bandmates try to throw you under the bus and sometimes you have to fight back! I like it when rock stars are called out on their bullshit. It helps to know who the good guys are and it makes it easier to support them (or not support them) with your record purchases. Nicely done, Jeff and Chad!

Still Writing

It’s been a very productive few weeks of songwriting and I’m very proud of what I’ve written so far. In 2-3 weeks, I actually have seven songs that are at least 95% complete. If you would have told me that two months ago, I wouldn’t have believed you. I’d like to get at least 10 – maybe 12 for a CD. I think it would be cool for at least one of those to be a cover. And I have some ideas for some bonus tracks, too. I hate the term “bonus track," but these would be totally unrelated to the main program.

Comcast Spotlight finally called me back to schedule a second interview on December 29 so wish me luck. I’m shifting to Comcast mode now because I absolutely need to land this job. If and when some extra money starts coming in, we’ll be able to get the finances back in order and then maybe I can start thinking about buying a new guitar. Then I’ll focus on recording some demos for the songs below:

HOLD ON
This song is kinda exciting for me, because it’s the first one that doesn’t necessarily sound like another band or artist. It starts with a short acoustic piece before it goes into the main groovy riff. It was pretty scary how quickly the verse, vocal melody and bridge came to me. The only part I’m struggling with right now is the tempo, because I might need to slow it down a little bit to keep the vibe intact. It’s not really a rock song – I can almost hear it being stripped back to acoustic guitar, bass and voice.

LOVE/WAR/RIOT
I’ve written seven songs in the last 2-3 weeks and this is the only instrumental track. Whether it stays that way remains to be seen, but I don’t hear a vocal melody jumping out of what I’ve written yet. This is absolutely 100% from the Metallica playbook of epic heavier than shit instrumentals. It even includes a slow mid-section that sounds like I lifted it straight off Master of Puppets. I’m pretty sure Lars and James would sue me if he ever heard this. Then again, “The Day That Never Comes” is Metallica ripping off Metallica so maybe they won’t care! I’ll just call it my “Metallica tribute.” The title “LoveWarRiot” comes from the early 90’s when Jeff and I were driving around Boulder. We saw a brick wall that had “Love War Riot” tagged on it and we always thought that would be a cool title for a song.

DON’T BREAK MY HEART AGAIN
Stealing seems to work, so this time I ripped off a Dokken song called “Don’t Lie To Me” but I really just simulated the dual guitar intro before it dips into a mellow D Minor verse. ("The saddest of all keys. It makes people weep instantly.") But the tempo picks up for the chorus and I wrote the guitar solo in one take.

COME A LITTLE CLOSER
I wrote this song in the last week and it came out of reviewing what I’d already written and thinking about what pieces are still missing. I was looking for a good “hit single” to be the second song on the CD. I think “Baby I Need” fits perfectly as the opening track and I wanted something that would pop and hit hard coming immediately after that. I mentioned that this songs is “KISS meets Krokus meets AC/DC” and that’s just due to the simple nature of the chord progression and less than poetic lyrics. But it’s a rockin’ tune with a big KISS-like chorus.

PHOENIX
I emailed a short piano piece to Bobby this week to see if he can help me with this song. “Phoenix” is the working title, because that’s where I wrote the piano intro/chorus in 1995. I took four semesters of piano in college, but I can’t really play that well so we’ll see what Bobby can help me come up with. I did work up an idea for a verse and bridge on guitar – he’ll just have to transpose it to piano for me. No ideas lyrically yet.

BORN AGAIN
Jeff recently burned me a copy of the new Alice In Chains CD and this song came out of wanting to write something darker and heavier. This is the favorite out of all the songs I’ve written so far and I’m excited about how it’s coming together. The riff is flat heavy and nasty and the lyrics are much more personal experience, although not exactly what the title would indicate. Check out a sample of the riff and verse below:

Five Years Ago Today

Wow, it's hard to believe that Ivy was born five years ago today. So much has happened since 2004, but that's life. We're very fortunate to have two happy, healthy kids who continue to amaze us and make us very proud. Just don't grow up too fast, guys. Happy Birthday, Ivy! We love you so much...

I Write The Songs

I received my first electric guitar on my 13th birthday. I took six months of lessons and then learned everything else I know by ear. The first song I ever learned how to play was “I Still Love You” by KISS. My best friend Brandon and I used to record ourselves playing riffs (very badly) from Def Leppard, KISS and Twisted Sister. As I became a better guitarist, I continued to make tapes of short riffs and musical ideas. I still have those tapes, too including “Let’s Rock” and “Let’s Rock 2” that Jeff and I made in the early 90’s.

Shortly after I got my guitar and Brandon got his first bass, we started writing “songs.” I put that word in quotes, because there was usually NEVER any music written, just horrible poetry. Trust me, these lyrics were absolutely dreadful. Don’t believe me? I kept a folder of all those songs including classics such as “Take Down,” “Always The Same,” “Searchin’ For You,” “Voices In The Night,” “Under Rage” and “My Way.” UNDER RAGE? HA! I was 13 – what the hell was I writing? I must not have wanted to do my math homework that day!

The only lyrics that also had music written with it was for a song called “Rock And Roll Night.” Not to be confused with “Rock and Roll All Night” by KISS. (No, I wasn’t stealing!) Even then, it was only an intro riff that never went anywhere. But check out some of these lyrics I wrote when I was a freshman in high school. Seriously, Bob Dylan had nothing to worry about…

UNDER RAGE
Inside my head, afraid of you
I know you’re lying to me
Terrified that you’ve changed my life
Your moves cut like a knife
I saw you come, I couldn’t hide
My last chance to live
Weakening at your every move
I can feel you come
I’m running into your trap
Fear grips me
I’m under rage

TAKE DOWN
You bitch me all day
You bitch me all night
I’m sick of your lies
I’m ready for a fight
You’re gettin’ me mad
Why don’t you turn down your sound
You think you’re so bad
You’re headin’ for a take down

Another day, another fight
I want you out of my sight
You’re turnin’ my smile into a frown
You’re headin’ for a take down

(Bass Solo)

“Take Down” is so hilarious, where do I start? OK, I wrote “You bitch me all day, you bitch me all night.” I couldn’t even write “You bitch AT me all day?” The line “You’re turnin’ my smile into a frown” makes me wonder if I was writing a Toys R Us jingle! And “Why don’t you turn down your sound” is just priceless. But the "Bass Solo" takes it over the top...

What’s the point to all of this? Well, for someone that majored in music business, studied voice and has played guitar for 25 years now, I never once started a band or joined an existing group. I never once sat down and wrote an entire song start to finish. I want to change that. I want to write and record my own album just to prove to myself that I can do it. So with my most recent extended period of unemployment, I decided to at least try finish writing two songs using the ideas I wrote years ago as the foundation. Beginning with…

BABY I NEED
This song includes two riffs from the “Let’s Rock” cassette. Both riffs are in the key of A, but they were too similar so I wrote a bluesy verse after the first riff and the second riff became part of the chorus. I started humming a melody during the verse an almost immediately came up with some “Baby I want you, baby I need you” lyrics. Not exactly poetry, but neither is AC/DC.

There’s a cool breakdown section in the middle followed by a fiery guitar solo which I can’t wait for you to hear. After all these years of sitting on these riffs, it was fairly effortless for me to finish writing the song. Go figure. I just had to sit down and think about the arrangement and then actually WRITE IT! When I finish this project, this will more than likely be the leadoff track on the CD. Partially because it’s the first complete song I’ve ever written, but also because it’s an up-tempo rocker and it would be a great way to kick it off.

YOU’RE SO FAR AWAY
Jeff and I paid a visit to Billy and the boys in his band Silence at their rehearsal space in 1995. After their rehearsal, Silence guitarist Scary Larry G. helped me record a demo that consisted of a mellow verse and bridge I’d written in my head that night. Larry and I worked together for another hour to program the drum machine rhythm. What you hear on this demo is a spontaneous, one-take performance. I’d literally written it that night and two hours later it was a finished demo. When it was time to record it, Jeff grabbed Billy’s fretless bass and we played everything straight through, including the first guide solo and the heavy guitar solo at the end. The only overdubs are the little harmonic accents I threw in over the opening chords and that was it! Check out that demo below and let me know what you think:



Nearly 15 years later, I’ve finally picked up where this demo left off. The song never had a chorus, so I came up with “You’re So Far Away” as a theme and worked something up from there. I also inserted a short section leading up to the guitar solo so it wasn’t coming out of nowhere like you hear on the demo. I extracted one more “metal” riff from the “Let’s Rock” cassette and ended up using that as part of the chord sequence during the guitar solo.

I reserve the right to tweak these lyrics, but what you see below came pretty quickly once I had a melody line for the lead vocal and a working title for the chorus.

VERSE
Here we are
Miles away
Night after night I’m dreaming of you
And day after day

In your eyes
I see oceans of blue
Wherever you are wherever you go
I’m following you

BRIDGE
I close my eyes and I feel you
How long before I can see you

CHORUS
You’re so far away (repeat x4)

Right now the song is about 95% written. It’s been a really weird process, because I’m a little shocked at how easily things are coming together. I liken it to a puzzle where if you have all the puzzle pieces, you’ll eventually figure out how to put the puzzle together. But there’s no right or wrong answer with songwriting, it’s just whatever you want to do. So my plan is to find a way to finish writing at least 10 songs and try to record them next year. Call it a mini mid-life crisis, but I’ll turn 40 next September and this is something I want to do for myself. This is something I probably should have done when I was 22, but better late than never!

9 Of My Favorite Bands From The 90's

Justin was nice enough to invite me to the Gothic last night to see The Cranberries. What an enjoyable show – the band was very fluid and lush. Dolores sounded great and she really worked the crowd well. It’s been a while since I’d pulled out my Cranberries CD’s (just added them to my iPod) and I’d forgotten how many great songs they’ve written.

We got to talking about our favorite bands of the 90’s, so I thought I would put some further thought into that topic. Here's my Top 9 of the 90's.

9 – GARBAGE – Shirley, my sweet Shirley Manson. But don’t forget superstar guitarist and producer Butch Vig, the man behind the desk for Nirvana’s Nevermind. Garbage has such an amazing sound – I love this band!

8 – THE CRANBERRIES – Last night’s show really helped me remember how much of an impact they had in the 90’s. It’s great that they are still out there playing to packed houses. So many great songs, go dust them off right now…

7 – COLLECTIVE SOUL – Funny thing about CS, I didn’t jump on board immediately when “Shine” was a huge single. I liked it, but I didn’t really become a fan until their second CD in 1995 and the hits “The World I Know” and “December,” among others. Ed Roland and the guys are seriously good at what they do.

6 – STONE TEMPLE PILOTS – Man, those first two CD’s were huge, weren’t they? They were heavy enough for the metal heads, but still attractive to the young, alt crowd. Again, tons of great songs.

5 – VERTICAL HORIZON – Matt Scannell is the man! Beginning with their breakthrough CD, Everything You Want and the title track, these guys can do no wrong in my book. Their first new album in forever just came out a few months ago, so check out the excellent Burning The Days.

4 – ALICE IN CHAINS – I’ll admit, I didn’t fully get these guys when they hit the scene. We were too busy trying to hang on to Firehouse and Extreme. But they fucking rocked! C'mon - "Would" and "Angry Chair" alone are legendary, not to mention other hits like "Man In The Box" and the excellent acoustic EP, Jar Of Flies. Too bad Layne had to leave us so early. But AIC is back in action with a great new studio album. Thanks, Jeff Rock…

3 – TOAD THE WET SPROCKET – Remember these guys? Trivia Time – TTWS’s Fear was the first compact disc I ever purchased! It was before I even owned my own CD player – how weird is that? Glen Phillips has been playing solo shows for years now, but it’s high time for a Toad reunion, don’t you think?

2 – THE SUNDAYS – I fell in love with The Sundays the moment I saw the video for “Here’s Where The Story Ends.” Then I heard the debut album and was absolutely floored. Their three CD’s are among my favorite of all time. And one of the best concerts, too…

1 – TONIC – Why this band never sold a billion records, I’ll never know. Can’t people hear real talent and songwriting genius? Go buy Head On Straight (produced by Bob Rock – see Metallica, Motley Crue, etc…) and tell me it’s not phenomenal. Thank God Emerson Hart is recording solo albums so we can still hear his voice. Tonic rule!

HONORABLE MENTION – Live, Twenty Mondays, Faith No More, Counting Crows, Fury In The Slaughterhouse, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Wilson Phillips, Blind Melon and Right Said Fred. OK, just kidding about that last one…

Random Thoughts on Tiger Woods

BREAKING NEWS: Tiger Woods ran his SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree while backing out of his driveway this morning at 2:20am, but police say alcohol wasn’t involved.

Yeah, right. And I’m the Queen of England.

I’m guessing the police officer was a BIG Tiger fan. Either that, or Tiger wrote him a really big check to look the other way.

What the hell was he doing LEAVING his house at 2:20am if he wasn’t already effed up. Sounds to me like he wanted to keep the party going.

They say alcohol wasn’t involved, but what about drugs? I’m just sayin’ – brotha was on something. (Don’t drink and drive, kids…)

I love the way his publicist called it a “minor” accident. If Tiger’s wife HEARD the crash, came running out of the house and smashed a window with a golf club (that’s funny!) to get inside the SUV and drag him out, that’s not a “minor” accident.

I’m guessing we’ll never know what really happened, because money talks. What do you think?

LOST CLASSIC ALBUMS: Richie Sambora - Undiscovered Soul (1998)

This fact may surprise you, but I never bought even one Bon Jovi album back in the day. The first Bon Jovi album I ever bought was Cross Road, their greatest hits CD. The first time I saw the band live was in 1987 on the Slippery When Wet tour. I remember Jon Bon Jovi stepped aside halfway through the show and let Richie sing a song. When he finished, I said, “Damn, Richie is the one with the talent in this band!”

Stranger In This Town is a brilliant album from start to finish. He had a couple minor hits, played the talk show circuit, sold some records and then went back to his day job in Bon Jovi. When he released his second solo CD Undiscovered Soul in 1998, I don’t think anybody even knew it was out. I may have just stumbled upon it at Best Buy, but I picked it up without hesitation.

When you listen to Undiscovered Soul, you quickly realize how accomplished he is as a singer, songwriter and performer. You KNOW the songs are good when you just look at the song titles and the chorus melodies immediately pop into your head. You'll have to listen to some of these tracks to get a feel for what Richie brings to the table, but the disc is a great mix of rockers, mid-tempo tracks like “All That Really Matters” and acoustic-based ballads like the gorgeous “Harlem Rain” and “In It For Love.” Below you can see Richie singing "Hard Times Come Easy" on Letterman. The performance features a guest appearance by Little Steven on guitar - and Bon Jovi's Hugh McDonald on bass. Check it out...

Join The Book Club

I don’t enjoy reading. Before my literary friends jump down my throat, hear me out. I like books, I really do. But I’m BLIND – and it literally hurts my eyes to read small print. That combined with my passion for music means that I don’t get around to as many books as I would like. If only every book I wanted to read had a size 42 font. Of course, then they would all be 1,800 pages long. Anyway, I wanted to mention a few books I've finished in the last few months.

KATHY GRIFFIN – OFFICIAL BOOK CLUB SELECTION
Kathy is so quick, so smart, so funny – she cracks my ass up. Her book is a great balance of hilarious behind-the-scenes showbiz stories and insightful personal life tales. One minute she’s talking about being an up and coming comedienne being mentored by Phil Hartman - the next she’s talking about her plastic surgery nightmares. SUPER BONUS – My boy Justin just hooked us up with a pair of tickets to her Denver show this Friday night! What a great surprise – and she’s one act that Christine is actually excited to go see in concert. I wonder why she doesn’t want to go see Poison for the 13TH time?

PAUL SHAFFER – WE’LL BE HERE FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES
Paul has done it all. This cat has a million stories to tell and they’re all great. Between Saturday Night Live, David Letterman and his gig as band leader for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he’s played with everyone – and I mean everyone – at least a dozen times, but he still comes across like a really down-to earth guy. He tells a great Bob Dylan story from the early days of the Letterman show. Paul nervously walked back to Dylan’s dressing room and worked himself into a lather gushing over Bob and his legendary recordings. Dylan barely acknowledged Paul was in the room, but finally looked over and asked him, “Do you think you can introduce me to Larry ‘Bud’ Melman?”

The one thing that reading his book caused me to do was to DVR the Letterman show. Of course, Dave has seen his ratings increase in the last few months since the news of his alleged extortion plot. He’s still a funny cat – and the show is great – but I could have lived without the interview with that airhead Mariah Carey. That’s ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

DAVE THOMPSON - I HATE NEW MUSIC
This book caught my eye because the cover is a replication of AC/DC’s For Those About To Rock, We Salute You LP. Thompson’s premise is that the only good rock music EVER was recorded between 1968-1976. Period. As far as he’s concerned, Boston’s “More Than A Feeling” was the last great classic rock song. I really didn’t connect to his writing style – he was all over the map. So I ended up skipping through quite a bit of this. He never made any comment about “new” music and how it differs from rock music recorded 30-40 years ago. Although it’s obvious that the industry is light years away from where it used to be.

There’s plenty of decent music out there today – along with plenty of garbage. The problem I have - and the thing that Thompson didn't touch on - is that many artists seemingly don’t have the ambition, talent or desire to want to record the next legendary album. I hear average songs with average singers and average performances and I think “Is that all you got?” When will we hear the next Eagles or Fleetwood Mac? Please lock yourself away and don’t show your face until you’ve finished your Thriller.

THE SIMPSONS – AN UNCENSORED, UNAUTHORIZED HISTORY
I’m just getting started on this one – a little behind the scenes gossip about Matt Groening, how the series was developed and other useless trivia. Speaking of trivia, we recently broke out our Simpsons trivia game and we do need to brush up on our Krusty and Mr. Burns knowledge a little bit. We have every Simpsons Season DVD with the exception of Season 12 which just came out last month. (And Season 20 is available now, too which is weird – I guess they wanted to jump ahead?) We’re somewhere in the middle of Season 10 right now so we’re playing catch up as best we can. We really don’t watch that many new episodes on first run anymore, but we caught one last Sunday. Marge almost had an affair with Ned Flanders! Anyway, I’ll DVR an odd episode every now and then but I’m usually watching Sunday Night Football. I figure they’ll all be on DVD eventually.

SARAH PALIN – GOING ROGUE
Nah, I don’t need to read Going Rogue to know she’s a lunatic. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind reading it. Even though reports are that some of it was fabricated. I’m sure it would be good for a few laughs. (I see the $27.00 cover price has been slashed at Walmart to $8.98. That can’t be good.) From what I’ve seen, she’s already contradicted herself on several key subjects. I’ve been watching the coverage of her press blitz, book tour, Oprah, Newsweek, etc… and I can’t understand why she has any credibility whatsoever. She is really much more of a pop culture figure right now than a legitimate political figure. The Republicans can do much better.

Palin really lost me when she claimed Katie Couric “ambushed” her and asked her what newspapers and magazines she read. I gave her a chance, but quickly moved on when she couldn’t even come up with an answer. (Say USA Today! Say Mad Magazine! Say anything, Sarah!) And before you accuse me of being the only one to bash her, a new CBS poll shows that more than 70% of Americans feel Palin is unqualified to be President. To which I reply, ONLY 70%?? That number scares the Hell out of me because it should be much closer to 98%. Oh yeah, don’t forget she quit her job as Governor. Oh well, good luck to Sarah, Todd, Bristol, the baby daddy Levi and his Playgirl photo shoot. I’d love to be a fly on the wall at that Thanksgiving dinner…

Ken's Def Leppard Record Collection

WARNING: This video will bore you to tears if you have no interest in collecting albums/CD's or if you don't give a crap about Def Leppard. Everyone else, proceed with caution. The one piece of Leppard vinyl in my collection that I forgot to include is an Ibanez Guitars 12" Phil Collen interview picture disc that was originally issued as a freebie when you bought an Ibanez Guitar. I bought it from a dealer for $75 more than 10 years ago, but I still haven't heard the interview because I don't have a turntable! Yes, I'm insane.

Crabby. Extra Crabby.

I’m EXTRA crabby this afternoon. I was supposed to have an interview with Comcast on Monday, but got a late phone call asking if I could re-schedule to Wednesday. No problem, I’m flexible. So I study up and get myself mentally prepared again for the interview today only to receive another extremely late phone call asking if I could re-schedule again. All dressed up and nowhere to go! This time there’s no new interview date in sight. Maybe late next week – maybe after Thanksgiving.

As a Cubs fan, I’m inherently patient, but how much can a guy take? It’s not easy playing the waiting game this close to the Holidays. We’re barely making ends meet, now we have MORE car problems and Christine got passed over for a job she interviewed for at Greenwood Athletic Club. Yes, it’s Veterans Day and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. My problems are clearly insignificant compared to the families affected by the tragedy at Fort Hood – I get that. It’s just hard to deal with the emotional rollercoaster of it all – trying to stay positive and stay sharp mentally. Hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait some more. It’s not easy, it’s really not.

Sifl and Olly - Crescent Fresh

Sifl and Olly was the funniest, low-budget sock puppet show ever to appear on MTV. Without a doubt, they were crescent fresh!

Halloweeeeeeeeeeen

When it comes to Halloween 2009, these pictures really do tell a story. First of all, Ivy is adorable and more than ready for trick-or-treating festivites in her snow princess costume. Zander (aka Pablo from The Backyardigans) wanted absolutely nothing to do with the party at the Castle Rock Rec Center. He heard the loud music booming from the gym and was tugging at us to go play on the elevator instead. That's OK, I have a feeling he'll be ready to go next year. Halloween night was nice - the weather was very mild and most everyone had shoveled the snow from the sidewalks. We hit the streets just after 6pm and Ivy cleaned up with a boatload of candy. Just like last year, some neighbors from up the street handed out candy to the kids and mini shooter bottles to the adults. At the last minute, I threw my Cubs jersey and hat on as a pseudo-costume. A good time was had by all! Now it's time for me to gobble up some Kit Kats!

Let It Snow... And Keep On Snowing

It started snowing Tuesday night and didn't stop until early Friday morning. We got upwards of 18 inches in Castle Rock when all was said and done. It's nothing new for us Colorado folks, but it is pretty early in the year for us to see such a big storm. We finally got out of the house this morning and we're looking forward to some Halloween fun with the kiddos. Bring on the candy!!

Random Thoughts on Video Tape #33

A while back, I shared my random thoughts on my Video Tape #5. This time I threw tape #33 into the VCR. (For those of you born after 1980, a VCR is a primitive recording device that uses either Beta or VHS, ahhh never mind!) Thanks to You Tube, I've included links to most of these videos and clips so feel free to play along at home and enjoy...

RODNEY DANGERFIELD YOUNG COMEDIANS SPECIAL
Wow, there’s Jerry Seinfeld before he was SEINFELD. Robert Townsend became fairly successful, too. But Sam Kinison was a maniac. And I mean that in the most flattering way possible. The guy was just on another level. A major comedic talent gone too soon. I love his cameo with Rodney in "Back To School."

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN – YOU DON’T REMEMBER, I’LL NEVER FORGET
The first of a few “World Premiere Videos” I have on this tape. Who the hell is singing in his band this time? It’s not Jeff Scott Soto. Some guy named Mark Boals. Yngwie goes through singers like I go through socks. The chick at the end of the video looks like the same chick in Ozzy’s “Shot In The Dark” video.

MTV NEWS
Check it out, Alan Hunter has a beard!

QUEENSRYCHE – GONNA GET CLOSE TO YOU
This was Queensryche’s weird phase and this video is definitely NOT your standard heavy metal fare. Hair metal bands like Dokken and Poison were bright and colorful. This video is dark and the song is about stalking. I bought the Rage For Order cassette the day it came out thanks to MTV tipping me off. It took me weeks to really wrap my head around what they were doing. After that, it became my favorite QR album ever. The chick in this video kinda looks like the chick in Yngwie’s video – who looks like the chick in Ozzy’s video. Recycled rock video vixen.

VAN HALEN – DREAMS (BLUE ANGELS VERSION)
What a cool concept for a video – nothing but 4:54 of kick ass Blue Angels footage.

GTR – THE HUNTER
You may remember GTR’s first minor hit “When The Heart Rules The Mind,” but this was a pretty cool song, too. Steve Howe from Asia is on guitar. You just don’t hear tenors in rock bands anymore. Everyone just growls and sings about two octaves lower. I saw this CD at Media Play once – I should track it down.

ROUGH CUTT – DOUBLE TROUBLE
This video actually suckered me into going to Sound Warehouse and buying the tape. What a horrible mistake that was. Rough Cutt sucked! The only other time that happened was with a band called Icon. I saw the album cover and thought it looked cool, so I bought the tape. It sucked so bad I returned it the next day saying it was “defective.” The only two reasons Rough Cutt are worth mentioning are because their singer Paul Shortino sang on “Stars” by Hear N' Aid, the heavy metal charity single for African famine relief. Then Paul quit Rough Cutt to become the singer in Quiet Riot after they fired Kevin DuBrow. Why do I know this stuff?

IT’S GARRY SHANDLING’S SHOW
Check out the cheesy Showtime graphics! I like Garry Shandling’s stand up, but I don’t remember watching this show very often at all so I don’t know why I taped this. But it’s a funny show. The wardrobe and hair is screaming 80’s. I just saw Garry on The Joy Bahar Show promoting the DVD release of this show. So pick it up for the Garry Shandling fan in your life.

JOURNEY – GIRL CAN’T HELP IT
Another “World Premiere Video” – this was Journey’s first video from the Raised On Radio album. Steve Perry, baby! This is after Steve fired the old rhythm section and hired a short, fat drummer wearing a pink hat and pre-American Idol judge Randy Jackson on bass. He’s a bad ass. Trivia – Randy Jackson plays bass on Stryper’s cover of “Shining Star.”

BOSTON – AMANDA
No, Boston never released a music video for “Amanda.” This was me taping something off the classified ads channel on United Cablevision. This is hilarious! You should see the lame ads: “Square Dance Lessons.” “Adorable Kittens – free to a good home.” “’86 Chevy Pickup, $15,000 or best offer.” I taped this because it was before Boston’s Third Stage album had come out and I wanted to be able to hear the song whenever I wanted. Kinda like taping songs off the radio, but more pathetic.

CINDERELLA – NIGHT SONGS COMMERCIAL
This was right when Cinderella was hitting with “Shake Me.” The end of the commercial says “Available on Mercury records, cassettes and compact discs.” Holy crap! Records died in the late 80’s, cassettes died in the 90’s and compact discs are just about dead now. You know what Cinderella says about change…

POISON INTERVIEW – MTV STUDIOS
Here’s Bret Michaels and Rikki Rockett in full on Look What The Cat Dragged In glory. Martha Quinn seems thrilled to be talking to the girls, er, guys. “What’s your philosophy?” she asks. Bret replies, “If you can’t do it right, do it anyway!” How would you describe your style?” she asks. Bret replies, “We’re somewhere in between Motorhead and Duran Duran – we just can’t figure it out.” This is classic shit.

COAST SOAP COMMERCIAL
This is the worst commercial I’ve ever seen! The over-the-top jingle is very 80’s and is making me ill. “Coast picks you up and makes you feel alive.” Really? A bar of soap can do that?

DAVID LEE ROTH – MTV SPECIAL
This is Dave introducing the Eat ‘Em And Smile album, band and tour to the world. There’s Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan tearing shit up in the “Yankee Rose” video. And Diamond Dave is basically interviewing himself for the full half hour, with hilarious results. This takes me back to the Van Halen breakup, Sammy joining Van Halen and releasing 5150 and DLR doing his solo thing. Who could have guessed that it would have taken another 20 years to get DLR back in Van Halen?

MTV NEWS
Check it out, Alan Hunter shaved his beard! Here’s Queensryche talking about the Rage For Order tour. OMG, look at Geoff Tate’s hair stuck up 10 inches in the air. Now Alan is telling me that Yngwie Malmsteen has fired Mark Boals and Jeff Scott Soto is back in the band. I seriously can’t keep up with Yngwie’s lead singer hirings and firings. And now some concert information for David Lee Roth with Cinderella opening up. That’s a good package – I wonder if it ever made it to Denver? I saw Bon Jovi and Cinderella the next year.

VAN HALEN – SO THIS IS LOVE?
Speaking of Van Halen, here’s some vintage Fair Warning live footage. I read an interview a few years back with DLR and he was talking about the huge amount of stuff Van Halen has in the vault. These guys are in need of a box set big time with tons of old concert footage like this for a DVD. They were untouchable back then.

VAN HALEN – THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY TO ROCK
Another live performance – this one with Sammy Hagar on the 5150 Tour. Holy crap, Eddie is still on fire and you can see how much fun the band was having on stage. I loved both eras of Van Halen, but they were two different bands. This show from New Haven (aka “New Halen”) is the same as the "Live Without A Net" concert film. It came out on DVD a while back – awesome.

‘TIL TUESDAY – WHAT ABOUT LOVE
I frigin’ LOVE this song. People think 'Til Tuesday were a one hit wonder with “Voices Carry,” but they had this track and “Coming Up Close.” The guitar solo in this song has the absolute perfect tone. Flawless. The video is four minutes of Aimee Mann making out with her boyfriend.

DWEEZIL ZAPPA – MTV VEEJAY
Whenever Mark Goodman called in sick, MTV called Dweezil Zappa to fill in for the afternoon. They should have hired him full time, because I thought he was hilarious. After ‘Til Tuesday’s “What About Love” video, Dweeze went into a long rant about how he thought their first album was over-produced but he loves the second album. Then he went off: “I think they are a candidate to be the first band to sell one billion records. I think Ratt can do it. I think Iggy Pop can do it. And I think ‘Til Tuesday can do it. Everyone just needs to buy 1,000 records each. (Producer off stage gives him the correct math.) OK, MTV has 25 million subscribers, so all we need is for everyone to buy 40 copies of the new ‘Til Tuesday album and they will sell one billion records.” Now he’s interviewing a half naked Wendy O. Williams! Now he’s talking to Julian Lennon! Now Moon Unit is on the set. I love Dweezil…

I LOVE ELWAY - MUSIC VIDEO
Denver folks will no doubt remember this piece of local sports history. Dr. Joe Jones, a Littleton vet, changed the words to “I Love L.A.” as a tribute to John Elway and the Broncos. Gary Cruz (remember him!) and Channel 7 shot the music video all around Denver. There’s the Barrel Man “rolling down Valley Highway.” There’s two DJ’s from KPKE! The cameos keep coming – Mayor Pena, Governor Lamb, Janet Elway. The rest of the video features John Elway highlights and fans tailgating. There’s a Broncos fan wearing a long sleeve “Coca-Cola” shirt – I used to have one of those! Good Lord, this footage is incredible!

I Like Sportz

I like sportz and I don’t care who knows! If you haven’t seen the hilarious “We Like Sportz” video, CLICK HERE…

Just like concert tickets, I’ve kept all my sporting ticket stubs going all the way back to the early 80’s. The first Chicago Cubs game I saw at Wrigley Field was with my family in August 1977. I remember a foul ball shooting up to the upper deck and hitting about six inches from my mom on the aisle, but I don’t remember much about the game. My Dad wrote “Cubs won 4-3” on the back of the pictures they took. I’ve written the final score to most of the games I’ve seen on the back of the tickets, but a lot of them were blank so I jumped on Google to find the box scores to each of those games. When I Googled the 1977 Cubs season, the Cubs actually won that August game 4-2, not 4-3. I thought it would be interesting to see the W-L record of the Cubs, Rockies, Broncos, etc… in the games I’ve attended. So after some research, here’s the totals:

CHICAGO CUBS: 23-20
COLORADO ROCKIES: 43-42
DENVER BRONCOS: 19-5
DENVER NUGGETS: 10-8
COLORADO AVALANCHE: 1-1-1

What does this riveting information tell us? Each team is barely playing over .500 ball when I’m in the stadium with the exception of the Broncos who are absolutely on fire at 19-5. You’re almost guaranteed a Broncos victory if I go to the game!

Eventually we want to make it to every MLB ballpark to see a game. Here’s a list of the few MLB parks I’ve been to – we’re hoping to significantly add to this list in the near future. Maybe St. Louis or Seattle to see the Cubs in 2010 if I get a job!

Wrigley Field, Chicago
Candlestick Park, San Francisco
The Astrodome, Houston
Mile High Stadium, Denver
Coors Field, Denver
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
Angels Stadium, Anaheim