Archive for April 2010
Deathwish – Demon Preacher – 1988
Here’s an old one and a tad bit obscure. I remember first buying this on tape when it came out. I saw an ad in a magazine and 
thought the cover looked cool. Remember back in the old days when you had a good chance of picking a good band by their album covers? Not so much these days.
Deathwish hailed from England. While this isn’t a great thrash album by any stretch of the imagination, it’s worth giving a listen to once a year or so. I picked it up on CD a few years after its release and got it in a cutout bin for maybe $5. What an investment it was! A few days ago I sold my copy on eBay for $65!
Falling In Love With Music All Over Again
I go through phases where I just really don’t want to hear music. Conversely I go through times where I can’t get enough of it. As some of you 
faithful readers may know, I have been selling off a large portion of my CD collection. “Why?” you may ask? Mainly because most of the stuff was just sitting there taking up space. I tend to move a lot. I’ve been here in Austin for 3 years and just moved into my 4th place. Moving all those boxes gets to be a bit laboring! haha.
I did a purge around 2000/2001 and got rid of about 200-250. This time I plan on getting rid of about 1000. Many I kept simply for nostalgic reasons. “I loved this album. I’ve had this CD forever.” etc etc. Sure it made for nice conversation when folks would come and peruse the collection, but really, who gives a shit? I will be keeping some sentimental faves, around 600 of them…Iron Maiden, some Stones, Triumph, Warlord, WASP…the albums that really matter to me. They’ll also be on the iPod.
As I’ve been going through this selling process, I’ve been converting many of them to MP3 format. Last week I bought the 160gb iPod. For years I said I’d never get one. “Screw those things! I love my CDs!” Now, and it hasn’t even been a full week of ownership, I love this thing. Right now I just have it loaded with the stuff that I have pulled out of the collection and sold, much of which isn’t even my favorite stuff from the collection.
I just put it on shuffle and let it go. It’s nice. There are a few times when I have to grab the iPod and look at who’s playing as it’s something that I don’t recognize. “Wow. I forgot all about this song!” It’s been nice revisiting much of the stuff that just collected dust over the years. Conversely, there are many CDs that I am not bothering to convert. I mean I really don’t need to hear Defiance’s Void Terra Firma ever again. I never really liked it but kept it and their others just to be a completest. Completest no more!
I did add some stuff like Triumph’s Thunder Seven (my least fave of theirs) and heard a few tracks coming and going San Antonio last weekend and thought, “Wow, this was a good album after all!” This morning on my way to work I heard Toy Matinee’s Ballad of Jenny Ledge and it just gave me that warm comfortable feeling that music can often give me. It’s just got me back in the music mood again and I love it.
On top of that add in that my main band is playing out again and last week’s show was great and I think we picked up a lot of new fans. Life is good…and thanks to music it gets better.
For as much smack as I talked about iPods over the years, I now want to thank them for renewing something in me that was always there.
I had a great conversation with a friend about this over a sushi dinner on Sunday and we both came to the same conclusion…Music is life and life is music. Amen, sister. Amen.
Music is and always has been my one true love.
Carry on.
Lizzy Borden Concert Review – 041710
As stated before, I am a pretty big fan of Lizzy Borden. so I was pretty excited when I heard that they were coming to
Give 'em the Axe!
San Antonio to do a show…a FREE show! I saw them in 2001 opening for Malmsteen at the NORVA in Norfolk, VA and they were great even though they didn’t play Give ‘em The Axe. My problem, not theirs, eh?
So McMaster and I head down to San Antonio (75 miles) around 6PM and go to the legendary Hogwild Records before heading to the venue. I’ve been there one other time and it’s a great store, lots of San Antonio metal history there. I ended up buying 6 shirts while I was there: 2 S.A. Slayer, Sepultura – Beneath The Remains, 2 Dark Angels designs and Mercyful Fate – Nuns Have No Fun. They had tons of other great shirts, but sold out on my size (tent-makers must be running behind! haha!) I really wanted the Sin After Sin shirt. *sigh*
So after doing our damage there, we head to the venue just to see where it is. It’s an old warehouse, huge place. After we spotted it we went to Denny’s and grabbed a quick meal. I hadn’t eaten since that morning so I was feeling pretty weak.
We get to the venue around 9:30PMish and catch up with McMaster’s girlfriend and 2 of her friends who flew in from Oklahoma City…April and Angie. good looking rock chicks. Super funny and very cool. Had a blast with them.
The venue is called Backstage Live and they are bringing in a lot of shows, mostly 80s rock and metal. The place is friggin’ huge. I imagine it can hold 1000 comfortably, maybe twice that. They did a nice job doing the rehab work in there. It was a very nice place. Some cool swag on the walls as well like this German KISS poster from the Unmasked 
Tour with Iron Maiden opening up. Damn!
It took almost an hour for Lizzy to hit the stage after the opening band, One Of Six. WTH? It was ridiculous. The club owner spoke from the stage saying they were delayed in getting there, but I don’t know. There was a point where they all walked out from backstage to come on then went back in…seemed like it was another 20 minutes until they finally came on.
Jason and I moved practically 5′ from the stage with ease and room to spare around us. There may have been 100-120 people there, but the place is so big that the crowd looked tiny.
Lizzy finally hit the stage dressed in a hooded robe and a black screen covering his face. Honestly, the sound quality
Lizzy Borden, one of many masks
was so bad that I have no idea what song they opened with. I think it may have been from their last album of which I am totally unfamiliar with. Give ‘em The Axe was next but I had no idea what it was. Jason elbowed me and said, “They’re playing your song.” Really? Couldn’t tell. I could tell that Lizzy’s voice was good, though. Really he sounded great. He has such a unique voice and it can cut through just about anything. His band was really good too. Marten Andersson is a fantastic bassplayer. Lizzy’s brother, Joey Scott Harges is still on drums and he had 2 hot shot guitarists with him. Both of those dudes could play.
Lizzy changed masks and costumes between just about every song. I have to say that I think I would have preferred a stripped down Lizzy show without having all of the “show”. Their music can hold it’s own. But then I guess it just wouldn’t be a Lizzy show without all the props and such.
nice mullet, hero.
They only did 14 songs and it really seemed like fewer because of the sound there. I really left the show very disappointed…one, in the sound quality and 2, in the setlist. I thought it was pretty weak and very short. This is one of 4 USA shows, play a longer set!
I’m not so sure that I’ll ever go see them again.
Setlist:
? (inaudible)
Give ‘em The Axe
Voyeur
? (inaudible)
Tomorrow Never Comes
Under Your Skin
Master of Disguise
There Will Be Blood Tonight
Me Against the World
American Metal
Hollywood? (inaudible)
We’ve Got The Power
Notorious (encore)
Redrum (encore)
If anyone can fill in the blanks on the setlist, it would be greatly appreciated.
I’m really hesitant to see other shows at this venue even though they have a lot of good stuff coming there…Y&T, Dangerous Toys, Pat Travers, etc.
Oh well. I had fun with Jason, his girl and the OKC girls…and I got to meet the legendary Don Van Stavern Riot, SA Slayer).
We all bleed American metal!
****UPDATE****
Someone sent me the setlist. Three songs were not played although they were listed: Crawlin’, Deal With the Devil and Come Out At Night.
setlist
photo courtesy of Rockerazzi Photography
Headbangers – The Worldwide MegaBook of Heavy Metal Bands
So back in 1995/1996 I was still married to my now ex-wife. She was a voracious reader and during our brief marriage inspired me to do some reading. Most of the time it was band/musician biographies. Sometimes it was just catching up on John Saul books (all of which suck anymore). One day I went to the library and was just thumbing through the reference books and came across “Headbangers – The Worldwide MegaBook of Heavy Metal Bands” by Mark Hale. I cracked it open and just started freaking out. This book had just about everyone in it that was a metal band. It spans from the late 60s to about 1990 and does a wonderful job of cross-referencing bands, listing albums and catalog numbers. There’s an index in the back of musicians, band names, countries of origin and record labels with catalog 
numbers. It’s a pretty extensive hardcover book. This book blows away any of that Martin Popoff crap.
Hale gives descriptions of the bands and does his best not to inject bias. It’s 540+ pages of heavy metal goodness.
My ex and I split up in late 1996 and by early 1997 I had started my own CD sales business. I was mostly doing it by word of mouth between friends, eBay and had started an online music store, Acacia Music (defunct). I checked the book out from the library several times and finally called the publisher to see if they still had any copies. Luckily they did. Having a business license and tax ID number, they sold me the book for $75. One of the best investments that I have ever made.
The book has 2 editions. The first edition had a run of 750 copies and the second run of the first edition had 250 copies. That’s it!
Somewhere along the line I decided to get it signed by bands that were in it. If I remember correctly the first signatures were by Warrell Dane/Jim Shepherd (Sanctuary) and Jon Schaffer (Purgatory 60 aka Iced Earth) when Nevermore and Iced Earth were touring together in 1999.
From there and if it was convenient, I would get bands to sign it. If it meant having to lug the 5lb book around all day or night, I wouldn’t bother with it.
Over the years I’ve met a lot of bands who are in it and some of the encounters were pretty random. I think in the coming months I’ll start writing about the signatures and how I obtained them. Many of them had some good stories attached to them. Typically I get the same reaction, “What the hell is this and where the hell did you get it?”
If you’re a fan of metal, especially the pre-1990 stuff, this book is a must have. They typically don’t come cheaply but you can generally find some on Amazon.com. Most of the copies there are ex-library copies.
Here’s the current list of signatures (updated 2/6/13):
Agony Column – Stuart Laurence
At War – Paul Arnold, Shawn Helsel
Battlezone – Paul Di’Anno
Black N Blue – Pete Holmes
Dark Angel – Gene Hoglan
Deceased – King Fowley
Devastation – Rodney Dunsmore
Dirty Looks – Paul Lidel
English Dogs – Graham Butt (one of the funniest inscriptions ever…you had to be there)
Faster Pussycat – Taime Down, Brent Muscat, 2 non-original members
Forbidden – Tim Calvert
Raven/Pentagram – Joe Hasselvander
Helstar – James Rivera
Lizzy Borden – Alex Nelson (RIP), Lizzy Borden, Joesy Scott Harges
Megadeth – Dave Mustaine
Militia – Mike Soliz, Rob Willingham, Phil Achee, Tony Smith, Jesse Villegas
MSG – Michael Schenker
Mystic Force – Keith Menser
Nuclear Assault – Dan Lilker, John Connelly
Obituary – James Murphy
Ozzy – Tommy Aldridge
Pretty Boy Floyd – Steve Summers, 2 non-original members
Iced Earth/Purgatory 60 – John Schafer
Raven – John Gallagher, Mark Gallagher
Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force – Yngwie Malmsteen, Anders Johansson
Scorpions – Uli Roth
Sabbat – Martin Walkyier, Andy Sneap, Simon Negus, Simon Jones
Sadus – Steve DiGiorgio
Sanctuary – Warrel Dane, Jim Sheppard
Slayer – Dave Lombardo
S.A. Slayer – Bob Catlin, Art Villareal
Takashi – Danny Stanton
Tesla – Troy Lucketta, Tommy Skeoch, Brian Wheat, Frank Hannon, Jeff Keith
Testament – Chuck Billy, Alex Skolnick, Greg Christian, Eric Peterson
Thin Lizzy – John Sykes, Scott Gorham
Triumph – Rik Emmett
Turbin – Doug Morrison
Vendetta (Chicago) – Klyph Black
Watchtower – Jason McMaster, Ron Jarzombek, Billy White, Rick Colaluca
Forte’ – Rev Jones (band not in the book)
Enuff Z’Nuff – Chip Znuff, 3 non-original members
Ace Frehley – Anton Fig
SOD – Billy Milano
Hirax – Katon W. DePena
Deliverance – Glenn Rogers
DRI – Felix Griffin
DIO – Rowan Robertson
Odin – Sean, Jeff and Matt Duncan, Randy O., Aaron Samson
Rotting Corpse – John Perez
Exodus – Gary Holt, Tom Hunting
Celtic Frost – Tom G Warrior
Assalant – Mike Botello
Pentagram – Bobby Liebling, Victor Griffin
Riot – Don Van Stavern, Bobby Jarzombek
Motorhead – Lemmy Kilmister
King Diamond – Mikkey Dee
Fates Warning – Frank Aresti, John Arch, Jim Matheos, Victor Arduini, Steve Zimmerman
The Rods – Carl Canedy, David Feinstein, Garry Bordonaro
Salty Dog – Michael Hannon
Armored Saint – Joey Vera
Metal Blade Records – Brian Slagel
Trouble – Ron Holtzman
Juggernaut – Harlan Glenn
Great White – Jack Russell
Overkill – Bobby Ellsworth, D.D. Verni
Flotsam and Flotsam – Eric AK, Kelly David Smith, Ed Carlson, Michael Gilbert
Anthrax – Dan Spitz
Hawkwind – Nik Turner
Queensyche – Geoff Tate
