Alice Cooper Loses His Head (and blood, and fake needles etc)

Some British Airways employee must have gotten a shocker when he went through a lost bag owned by Alice Cooper. According to an article in The Express:

As the star flew in from the United States yesterday for his Halloween Night Of Fear shows on Sunday and Monday at the Roundhouse, North London, he discovered that British Airways had lost his bags. He then had to describe the contents of his snakeskin suitcases to bemused airline staff: as well as missing his fake blood and a giant syringe (in parts) that he uses when he “dies” four times on stage, he was also missing his skulls and skeleton limbs.

Hopefully this won't put him on some sort of weird no-fly list!

It's Official - The Cars Reunited and Recording

I posted earlier this year about some cryptic photo posted to The Cars' Facebook page that showed the surviving four members of the Cars in a studio somewhere (Bassist Benjamin Orr passed away in 2000). On Friday it was confirmed that the band is reuniting and recording.

According to Yahoo! Music:

After a 23-year break, the Cars have reunited with original frontman/songwriter Ric Ocasek and are working on their first album together since 1987's Door to Door. On on their Facebook page the band recently posted a 73-second clip of themselves in the studio working on a new track called "Blue Tip," and Billboard reports that the Cars are recording a new album and may be planning tour dates.

In July the Cars hinted at a possible reunion with Ocasek, who previously said he'd never take part in one, when they posted a photo of the four surviving bandmembers together in a Boston studio. In 2005, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and guitarist Elliot Easton launched the New Cars with Todd Rundgren at the microphone, but that project ended in 2007. Any hopes for a full Cars reunion ended in 2000 when bassist-singer Benjamin Orr passed away from pancreatic cancer. The Cars' official website is currently "under construction," so more information is likely to come.

As I noted previously, The Cars were always boring as paint drying onstage but I gotta say that every time I hear an old school Cars tune on the radio, I think they were just a tight rock and roll band. The New Wave image put them in a weird box for me, but they are right there with bands of the era like Cheap Trick, Tom Petty etc who just made great radio-friendly rock songs with good players.

Ocasek's recent work with No Doubt showed me that he has not lost his touch. The songs Don't Let Me Down and Platinum Blonde Life from the band's Rock Steady album sound like, well, Cars songs! I was actually shocked how much Don't Let Me Down sounds like mid 80s Cars, down to the keyboard sound and part. Check it out for yourself.

Check out the video mentioned in the above article. It's full bore Cars but sounds very contemporary. I have feeling this comeback is going to go well.

Bloggers Unite!

Hey everyone, sorry for my lack of blogging as of late. Work has been insane and I have not been able to devote much time to anything else. Should lighten up soon though and I do have some CDs, DVDs and shows to review in the next couple of months, so there.

But I did make time to meet up last Monday night with fellow blogger and international spokesperson for the city of Philadelphia not taxing bloggers, Seano of Circle of Fits. Seano is a great singer who joined the Boston band Bang Camaro and toured the country, entertaining us all with his postings from the road. He is also a HUGE KISS fan. So be sure to drop him a comment if you see any news about Gene Simmons.

Here are the two of us. Sean looks great and I look like I am in a pressure chamber. What the hell happened to my HEAD?

Jason Bonham Trots Out the Zep

So let's recap. After the Zeppelin reunion a couple of years ago, there were loads of rumors that the band would get back together and tour. But of course Robert Plant scuttled the idea - he was doing great on his own thank you very much, and despite the fact that they totally pulled off that reunion show, a close examination of the bootlegs reveal some dropped tunings and Plant doing a great job but really JUST pulling it off. No way he could do a whole tour.

So next the rumors were that the other three guys were looking at singers so they could go on without him. Even this year there were confirmations that Page, Jones and Bonham had been chomping at the bit to get out and play but nothing clicked with singers, so it didn't happen. Jones joined the truly excellent Them Crooked Vultures, Page put out a book and Bonham re-joined...ahem...Foreigner.

Until this year. Bonham announced the Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience - basically a Zeppelin tribute band with the son of a founding member. Like if Julian Lennon trotted out a John Lennon Experience Tour or something. A little bogus and kind of obvious.

I thought this was totally skippable until I saw the below video clip from opening night.

From Bonham's Web Site: [10-09-2010] The opening night of the Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience tour was a fantastic show! Jason would like to thank the fans for the well wishes and support.

Setlist of the first show included: Immigrant Song, Celebration Day, I Can't Quit You Baby, Your Time is Gonna Come, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Dazed and Confused, Lemon Song, Thank You, Moby Dick, [Intermission] Act 2: Friends, Since I've Been Loving You, Black Dog, The Ocean, The Song Remains the Same, I'm Gonna Crawl, Stairway to Heaven, Kashmir. Encores: Whole Lotta Love, Rock & Roll.

Sounds pretty sweet. What do you think?

An Oldie But A Goodie - Geddy Lee My Favorite Headache

I ran into a video on the blog WeWillRockYou, of Geddy Lee making his one and only solo album, 2000's My Favorite Headache. I remember a couple of things about this CD - first off, it came out during Rush's hiatus when Neil Peart was dealing with his family tragedies. So I remember tripping out on thinking what this would sound like if it were a Rush album.

Next I thought - wow, Geddy can write lyrics! Musically there was some super heavy bass stuff and some ballady types of things, but pretty much what you would expect. My other thought was that he brings a LOT to the Rush equation and that a lot of these songs would be great Rush songs. But I also thought the same thing about Alex Lifeson's Victor CD. So I don't know. I think their contributions are pretty equal.

Anyway, overall the Geddy CD is good - the link to iTunes is here. At least blaze through the 30 second samples and see what you think. Oh, and I guess the reason this was posted in the first place is that there are various reports that Geddy might do a second one. But the closest I could find is him saying he wouldn't rule it out, which doesn't sound like much to me.

I had never seen this video. Enjoy:

Vote For My CD in 2011 Portland Music Awards - Please

Hey everyone. I have been blogging here for about five years - this is post #666 as a matter of fact (ooooh scary!) and I have done a minimal bit of self promotion in all of that time. I have posted videos from my various bands - colorfield, Flat Stanley and Pink Floyd tribute band The Floydian Slips but for the most part have blogged about the music and musicians we love to love and love to hate.

Of course this year I did pimp my first ever solo CD pretty hard, called A Fear of Flashing Light. The response to this CD has been past my wildest expectations and I am very proud of the effort. So it is in this spirit for the first time in 666 posts that I ask you to actually DO anything beyond indulging in my musical musings.

Portland's annual Portland Music Awards voting is open, and if you feel so inclined, I'd love for you to vote for my CD in the best Indie album category. You don't need to register, provide an email, name or anything. You simply copy "Paul Lesinski - A Fear of Flashing Light," paste it into the "best album - indie" category and hit submit. It will take you less than a minute. That's it! Can you do it now, while the idea is right in front of you.

A Million Thanks!

--Paul

Gillan and Iommi To Pair Up Again for Armenia

Various reports this week tell of Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi's intention to do another rock song for charity. According to the We Will Rock You web site:

The pair originally collaborated in 1989, when they re-recorded the Deep Purple classic “Smoke on the Water” to help raise money for victims of the Leninakan earthquake that struck Armenia in 1988.

In October of 2009 the pair traveled to Armenia to see first-hand how those funds had helped rebuild the community, but while visiting a local local music school they found that it had not been rebuilt in the wake of the disaster. So next week Iommi and Gillan, joined by ex-Deep Purple/Whitesnake keyboardist Jon Lord and Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain, are slated to go back into the studio. The foursome will record a new song entitled “Out Of My Mind,” and the money raised will go to rebuilding the music school in Armenia.

That is an interesting lineup! Gillan, Iommi, Jon Lord and Nicko McBrain? I have never heard of Nicko playing on anything but Iron Maiden albums. Wow, very cool.

But to say Gillan and Iommi "originally collaborated in 1989" is a vast understatement. Check out the below video. It is a virtual who's who of classic rock in 1989. Roger Taylor from Queen on drums, a thin Chris Squire on bass, Keith Emerson on keyboards. Vocalists include Gillan, Bruce Dickinson and Paul Rodgers. I saw Geoff Downes from Asia in there and the guitar player lineup is off the grid - Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Alex Lifeson, David Gilmour, Brian May. Holy moly! Why had I never heard of this before?

It's not the best version of the song but that lineup makes it worth watching all the way through. Also nice to know that half of the Born Again era of Sabbath will be working together again soon. I do love that weird assed album.