Showing posts with label Steven Tyler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steven Tyler. Show all posts

Short Cuts: W.A.S.P., Aerosmith, Death Dealer

CD Review: W.A.S.P. – Golgotha
Napalm Records
All Access Rating: B+

W.A.S.P. - Golgotha 2015
Few could have predicted that Blackie Lawless, of all people, would find religion ... again. Unthinkable in the '80s, when he was Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center's Public Enemy No. 1 for his outlandish, unsavory stage antics and lewd, violent lyrics, Lawless has, indeed, turned back to God for salvation. And the more recent output of W.A.S.P. has reflected the change, becoming less dangerous or carnal in the process and sounding cleaner and more idealistic as it leaves behind the furious bluster and viciousness of the band's malevolent past. Not all W.A.S.P. fans have welcomed the transformation, with many leaving the flock in droves after 2009's Babylon and its predecessor Dominator. The first W.A.S.P. album in six years, Golgotha – the skull-covered site of Jesus's crucifixion undoubtedly inspiring its creepy cover art – might draw some of them back, its ominous winds blowing strong melodies across desolate landscapes. It's easy to get swept up in the gathering momentum of high-flying, melody-filled metal anthems such as "Scream," "Last Runaway" and "Shotgun," even as Lawless comes off as some pale, trilling imitation of Meatloaf in this heady rush. Overtly Christian in many of its themes, as the earnest, slow-building title track dramatically pleads, "Jesus, I need you now," the occasionally bloody Golgotha finds Lawless in a vulnerable state, the desperate, emotional ballad "Miss You" – awash in melodrama – baring his feelings of utter helplessness and the darkly melodic "Fallen Under" appealing for protection against evil hordes. In stronger voice, Lawless urges on the galloping bravado of "Slaves of the New World Order," even as leaves himself more exposed than ever on Golgotha.

CD Review: Death Dealer  Hallowed Ground
Sweden Music Group
All Access Rating: A-

Death Dealer - Hallowed Ground 2015
Still looking to eradicate "false metal" from the face of the earth, ex-Manowar and Dictators guitarist Ross The Boss resurfaced in 2013 with Death Dealer and their raging debut album Warmaster. An all-out offensive of racing rhythms, blazing solos and gnarly riffs, Warmaster put Death Dealer on the metal map, earning the newly formed outfit a spot on the upcoming Motorhead Motorboat Cruise. The band's sophomore effort, Hallowed Ground, is all those things and more, another thrilling, white-knuckle ride of aggressive, slamming speed-metal and heavy punishers reminiscent of Painkiller-era Judas Priest. The earth-shaking production is assertive and vigorous, amplified for maximum impact in brutal bangers "K.I.L.L.," "The Anthem" and a screaming banshee called "Break The Silence." Killer hooks abound, hair-raising singer Sean Peck practically devours this material and Ross The Boss and Stu Marshall let it rip on searing leads and vigorous riffs, showing off a dizzying variety of chops on "Total Devastation." Pressing down on the accelerator, the thrashing "Plan Of Attack" goes 100 miles per hour and the spirited defiance of "I Am the Revolution" should galvanize the faithful, while "Seance" infuses mystery into Death Dealer's irresistible onslaught, even if the faint whiff of cheese can be detected over the menacing din. A force to be reckoned with, Death Dealer is metal to the core and has shown everyone how it's done.

CD/DVD Review: Aerosmith  Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: A-

Aerosmith - Aerosmith
Rocks Donington 2014 - 2015
A massive spectacle in every sense, the Download Festival rolled out the red carpet for royalty in 2014, welcoming Aerosmith as a headlining act. These kings of sleazy, blues-infused rock 'n' roll laid down the law in an electrifying outing from the "Let Rock Rule" tour, now available as a lavish, career-spanning two CD/DVD collection titled "Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014." Overly effusive in his praise, Rolling Stone's David Wild gushes and prattles on endlessly in colorfully photographed liner notes that serve more as a mash note to Aerosmith than anything else. On the other hand, he's not wrong about them or this powder keg of a performance, as Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer feverishly tear through a raucous, double-barreled blast of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" and "Eat The Rich" for openers, confidently strut and preen all over the full-tilt boogie of "Walk This Way" and "Same Old Song and Dance," and radiate pure energy in vibrant, crowd-pleasing renditions of "Love In An Elevator" and "Dude Looks Like A Lady." Vividly filmed in high definition, with quick-cutting, sweeping camera work shooting from unusual angles and edited so it comes up with money shots in every scene of the band in full throat, "Aerosmith Rocks Donington 2014" is a truly great concert film. And the sound is just as striking and lucid. Aerosmith is electrifying on this sparkling night, with newer fare like "Cryin'" and "Jaded" shining just as brightly and gloriously as old favorites like a savage "Sweet Emotion," the majestic "Dream On" and a rollicking "Mama Kin." Even with Tyler, ever the ring leader, narcissistically mugging for the camera at various turns and occasionally slurring his way through the words, this is vintage Aerosmith, a full-force gale onstage playing with power and passion as Perry and Whitford trade nasty licks, Kramer kicks like a mule and Hamilton acts as the anchor, his bass phrasing melodic and compelling throughout these 20 songs. Nobody should be jaded about Aerosmith.
– Peter Lindblad


Celebration of sleaze: Aerosmith's 'Toys in the Attic' hits 40

True tales behind one of rock's greatest albums
By Peter Lindblad

A photo of Aerosmith, credited to
Ross Halfin
Music writer Gordon Fletcher didn't exactly fawn over Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic in his original review for Rolling Stone magazine in 1975.

Damning the record with faint praise, Fletcher argued, "Aerosmith can be very good ... and material like 'Walk This Way,' 'Sweet Emotion' and the title cut adequately proves this."

Toys in the Attic wasn't just "very good." It's the archetypal sleaze-rock record, a timeless classic that had only one thing on its mind: Sex. It should have come with a used condom in the sleeve, as the dirty blues-rock of the Rolling Stones copulated with heavy, tumescent Led Zeppelin power all over it. Aerosmith had perfected its formula, and in so doing, stuffed a ball gag in the mouths of critics who figured they were merely counterfeits, aping everything they'd worshipped. The songs cited by Fletcher, however, gave Aerosmith its own identity, with one foot stuck in the mud of rock 'n' roll's gloriously rebellious past and the other stepping bravely into the future.

Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
A couple of days ago, Toys in the Attic, released on April 8, 1975, turned 40, which makes it a horny cougar of an album. Aerosmith's third release, it has outsold every other studio record by the band in the U.S., going platinum eight times over in the States.

And while those kind of sales figures boggle the mind, there are a myriad of other facts and tales related to Toys in the Attic that are far more interesting. We've collected a few here:

Watch it Teddy, he's got a knife!: An open, overflowing chest full of toys and stuffed animals makes for a harmless, innocuous cover that the executives at Columbia Records must have found adorable. The original album art for Toys in the Attic was somewhat more disturbing, however. It featured a teddy bear with its wrist slashed, bleeding stuffing out all over the floor, while the other toys just stood there and looked at him, according to Steven Tyler.

Naming rights: As hard as it to believe, Toys in the Attic was almost christened as either Love at First Bite (groan) or Rocks.

Cocaine is a powerful drug: In a 2013 interview with NME, Tyler recounted how in 1975 he and the band was anxious to get their hands on a rather sizable delivery of cocaine. Joe Perry was onstage, and Tyler ran up to join him, starting a jam session between the two that resulted in "Walk This Way." You can all guess what happened to the coke.

"It's pronounced 'Fronkensteen': It was early 1975, and Aerosmith was at the Record Plant in New York City suffering from a collective case of "writer's block." They'd written three to four songs prior to heading into the studio, where they figured they'd write the rest of Toys in the Attic.

Ideas were in short supply, but they had a song that Perry had worked up in Hawaii. Trouble was, it was missing lyrics and a title. Needing a break, the boys and producer Jack Douglas went to see Mel Brooks' hit comedy "Young Frankenstein." Anybody who's seen it will readily recall the famous Marty Feldman line "walk this way," with Feldman playing a hunched over servant to Gene Wilder's Dr. Frankenstein character. Douglas reportedly thought it'd make a great title, and Tyler, upon returning to the hotel, went to work feverishly writing the lyrics, which he supposedly left in a cab the next day and lost. His bandmates were understandably suspicious, thinking Tyler hadn't actually written anything.

So, Tyler went out into a stairwell with a tape player and headphones, and pencils, but no paper. So he wrote the lyrics for "Walk This Way" on the wall at the Record Plant's top floor and down the stairway, later going back with a legal pad to copy them down.

The fast and the furious: Few guitar riffs in rock 'n' roll history are as iconic as those written by Joe Perry for "Walk This Way." It's been said that Perry knocked out the intro riff and the verse riff in five short minutes.

Under the covers: Down through the years, various songs off Toys in the Attic have been covered by other artists. One of the most surprising was R.E.M.'s 1986 rendition of the title track, used as the B-side for "Fall on Me" and then later thrown in amongst the ephemera of the alternative band's Dead Letter Office and tacked on to the 1993 reissue of Life's Rich Pageant. Metal Church also did a version for its album Masterpeace.

Others included the String Cheese Incident's version of "Walk This Way" on the jam band's eponymous 1997 live album and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones doing "Sweet Emotion" for their Where'd You Go? EP. "Sweet Emotion" has also been covered by Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon, Warrant, Ratt and The Answer, while Velvet Revolver remade "No More No More" and Sum 41 joined forces with rappers Ja Rule and Nelly to do "Walk This Way."

By the numbers: Deemed a stone-cold classic by all right-thinking people, Toys in the Attic did not rise to No. 1 on the Billboard album charts; instead, it stalled at No. 11.

"Sweet Emotion" became the band's first Top 40 single, which led to the re-release of "Dream On," from Aerosmith's self-titled debut LP. Flying up to No. 6, "Dream On" became Aerosmith's top charting song of the '70s, setting the stage for a reissue of "Walk This Way" in 1976 that sent the song into the Top 10 in early 1977.

By the mid-1980s, Aerosmith was in decline, drugs being responsible for much of the damage. Then, along came Run-D.M.C., who initially weren't keen on any sort of collaboration. Their producer, Rick Rubin, wanted it, however, and his matchmaking led to perhaps the greatest rap-rock recording in history, as their re-imagining of "Walk This Way" became a Top 4 single, earning them both a Soul Train Music Award.

Easily one of Aerosmith's most beloved songs, "Walk This Way" has been listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll," Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" twice – the original version checking in at No. 346 and the Run-D.M.C./Aerosmith take at No. 293 – and VH1's "100 Greatest Rock Songs," where it landed at No. 35. Rolling Stone also ranked the original "Walk This Way" at No. 34 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time."

And there's more, but you get the gist.

The housewives of Aerosmith: "Walk This Way," the Aerosmith autobiography, spilled the dirt on tension between the wives of different band members, as did a "Behind the Music" piece on Aerosmith. Tyler has said the some of the lyrics for "Sweet Emotion" were inspired by Perry's wife.

Aerosmith is gearing up to hit the road for the "Blue Army Tour 2015," which begins June 13. All original members are onboard for the 15-city jaunt, which ends in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Aug. 4. After the tour, Aerosmith will perform Aug. 7 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, for the Pro Football Hall of Fame's first-ever "Concert for Legends."

DVD Review: Aerosmith – Rock for the Rising Sun

DVD Review: Aerosmith – Rock for the Rising Sun
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: A-

Aerosmith - Rock for the Rising Sun 2013
2011 was a horrible year for Japan, what with the tsunami and all the death and destruction it wrought – not to mention the radiation bleeding out from the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown. 

Months after the tragedy, Aerosmith, putting fears for their own safety aside, touched down in the small island nation, ready to bring the soothing balm of blues-fired, rough-and-tumble rock ‘n’ roll evangelism to a wounded people in dire need of a good time.

Aerosmith was not able to raise the dead on their “Back on the Road” Japanese tour that fall, nor could they repair the massive damage and trauma Japan suffered. They are not superheroes. They were, however, able to help out in their own small way. Doing what they do best, Aerosmith played a series of raucous, high-energy live sets that made it seem like 1977 – the first year they invaded Japan – was only yesterday, and their mission of mercy is detailed in a lively new documentary titled “Rock for the Rising Sun” that’s part life-affirming tour diary and part electrifying concert film.

The mood is celebratory and not at all subdued in barn-burning performances of rollicking classics like “Mama Kin,” “Toys in the Attic,” “Rats in the Cellar” and “Draw the Line.” Out front and as cheeky as ever, Steven Tyler struts and preens about like the screaming gypsy he’s always been, his voice full of swagger and hardly eroded by time, as Aerosmith confidently swings around “Monkey on My Back,” snarls like junkyard dogs on “Sweet Emotion” and takes a spirited, raunchy romp through “Walk This Way” as the thousands who braved the cold and snow of Sapporo to see the band roar in appreciation.

Joe Perry tears through them all with reckless abandon, giving fire-and-brimstone guitar sermons that could either save souls or send them straight to hell. His playing is inspired and passionate, flashy and mean but also full of substance and drive – see the captivating, almost hypnotic “Movin’ Out” for proof of his wicked powers. And then there’s Brad Whitford, unassuming as ever, working out deceptively tricky combinations of chords and notes in his own quiet, yet lethal, manner on a funky “Last Child,” as Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton keep the rhythmic pot on a rolling boil throughout.

Director Casey Patrick Tebo deftly captures all the action with fluid, flowing camera work and editing, compiling a warm, vivid love letter from Aerosmith to a Japan the band fervently admires. His shots are beautifully cropped, never too tight on the individual personalities of Aerosmith but always close enough to see how they handle their instruments. And he rarely, if ever, cuts away too quickly, preferring instead to let his lenses drink it all in before slipping away to the next subject.

While the live footage is exhilarating and vibrant, with expansive, potent sound that ought to be tested for steroids, there is also a great deal of humor, heart and drama in Tebo’s film. A sobering visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial allows for moments of deep reflection. Tyler talks respectfully about how Japanese audiences “hang on every word and note” that Aerosmith dishes out and reveals how the song “Boogie Man” was created. And then there’s the moment where Hamilton and Tyler spar over whether to leave “Hangman Jury” in the set.

These behind-the-scenes vignettes offer a peek – and only a peek – behind the Aerosmith curtain, giving a taste of what life on tour in Japan is like for a band that isn’t getting any younger but still has an effervescent personality that draws people to them. Osaka, Kanazawa, Fukuoka, Sapporo – Aerosmith hit as many places as possible on this jaunt, and “Rock for the Rising Sun” follows them everywhere, including a knife shop where Perry spends hours looking at collectible blades. It’s hard to shake the feeling, however, that the filmmakers left a mountain of compelling material, both onstage and off, on the cutting room floor in their zeal to tie the movie up in a neat, tidy package. A trickle of bonus video showing Aerosmith barreling through “Lick and a Promise” and “One Way Street” and a booklet of colorful concert photos and sparse liner notes do not alleviate these concerns.

Understandably, Aerosmith is not as raw as they used to be, but Tyler and the boys are still ballsy and exciting, even if their shows these days are more glitzy spectacle than down-and-dirty barroom bashes. What they did for Japan was a good thing, and “Rock for the Rising Sun” is a thrilling visual scrapbook of their historic visit. (www.eaglerockent.com)
– Peter Lindblad