Here’s an example of why Pearl Jam is the world’s best band ever. Yellow Ledbetter was a Ten outtake and one of the first songs Pearl Jam wrote as a group. It’s a huge fan favourite and a staple of their live shows and this song had such humble beginnings! Yellow Ledbetter was selected by the band to be the second B-side to the 1992 single for the song Jeremy, which was where it first appeared. The song eventually found its way onto radio, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was included on the 2003 B-sides and rarities album, Lost Dogs, and on Pearl Jam’s 2004 greatest hits album, rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003).
McCready’s guitar playing on Yellow Ledbetter bears strong similarities to the guitar style of Jimi Hendrix with the mimicking of Hendrix’s “May This Be Love” from the 1967 album, Are You Experienced, and Little Wing from the 1967 album, Axis: Bold as Love. The version of Yellow Ledbetter that was eventually released was the second take of the song. Without being released as a single, Yellow Ledbetter peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 26 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1994. The song has managed to become a staple among fans of the band. Although the song has never been released on one of the band’s studio albums, it remains to this day one of the band’s most popular songs.
Here is a wonderful live performance of Our Lady Peace’s Are You Sad? A gentle song that borders on hope, it’s a slightly different version from the original but it is so beautifully accented by the lighting effects. I didn’t expect this song to translate this great in a live format but OLP have proved me wrong.
Back in 1988 I first heard this song on a tape that I had bought of Guns n’Roses. The album was called Appetite For Destruction and the song in question was Sweet Child O’Mine. 22 years later, I still feel a euphoric aural wave washing over me every time I hear it, as soon as the opening guitar melody starts. It’s anthemic, its nostalgic, it’s arena filling and it’s fucking awesome.
Back then and for a few more years I thought that guitarist Saul Hudson aka Slash & Guns n’Roses couldn’t do any wrong. I woeruldn’t say that Slash is one of the best guitarists ever; he might not even make my top 25 list of all time greats. Infact, a big complain is that Slash has but one tone for all his solos. But what he made up for it was attitude & image most of all. Which rock fan could miss out the top hat, thick mop of unruly black curly hair that covered a quarter of his face, leather pants, cigarette dangling from his lips & followed by rock star poses on stage? He also gave us one of the most instantly recognizable sounds and beloved guitar riffs of all time.
So post 1993 GNR has been in name only, with Axl Rose owning & controlling the band name and piling a lot of strange musicians on stage with him for what was essentially his solo album & tour. Slash meanwhile released a solo album (sort off, he would call it a group effort) in 1996 and then later form a supergroup in Velvet Revolver and also play on stage with anyone who will have him. He recorded with whoever he liked on their released and had a great time while Axl sulked. Now, Slash has a new solo album out that he recorded with a bunch of his musician friends. I’ll be getting that soon but meanwhile here’s Slash performing live on stage at the Glastonbury festival. Joining him are singer Myles Kennedy (Alterbridge) and Todd Kerns (singer, guitarist of Sin City Sinners, former solo artist and ex member of Age Of Electric) on bass.
One early morning in 2003 while heading home from work in a company cab, a colleague introduced me to the music of Three Days Grace via a couple of mp3s on a mixed cd. Soon I became a casual fan of the band while watching their music videos to their hit songs like Home & Just Like You. That casual fan status would continue however I must admit that some of their songs are just fabulous like the anti-suicide / child molestation single Never Too Late. I’ve got all their albums including the one reviewed here in this post, Life Starts Now.
This is the 3rd album of the Norwood, Ontario quartet, released on September 22, 2009. It is the band’s second album produced by Howard Benson. After being on the road for five years with Three Days Grace, bassist Brad Walst stated, “We all came home and got a hard dose of life,” which the band then used to create a more “musically in-depth and personal album”. He describes Life Starts Now as a record about “confronting life and how fragile it can be”. Opening track Bitter Taste is evidence hinting that the band haven’t changed too much from their previous releases – a simple riff starts the song, and singer Adam Grontier follows with a typical verse and chorus structure and delivers a hook.
In a similar vein but with a lot more radio friendly tune is Break, the first single off the track, which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Rock Charts. Catchy guitar riffs and a thumping drum beat sets this song apart. It’s about breaking free from the situation that you find yourself in and one you do not like. World So Cold is next; a typical 3DG song about a bitter & unfriendly world after a heartbreak. Lost In You is probably going to be a single for the reasons that it’s radio friendly, appeals to multiple listeners, is the obligatory, catchy song of affection, and has a certain degree of repeated listenability. The song sounds a lot like Default to me. We get back to harder riffs in The Good Life.
No More is a good song and should have been released as a single; lyrically it’s a vulnerable look at living in fear and stating that its not the kind of living we should live. The piano led Last To Know is a ballad about broken love and is a moving song. Someone Who Cares is a song about the desperate longing for people to care about each other in a bleak looking world. I really like Neil Sanderson’s Freese-worthy drum performances throughout this album and on this track he lays down a strong groove. The eerie sounding Bully has “creeping-up-behind-you” kind of vibe that cunningly carves out a perfect setting with Grontier’s distorted vocals for the verses. Without You is the protagonist wondering what life would be without the person he is singing about. Walst’s best work on the bass comes in Going Down, and we end the album with the title track Life Starts Now – which is about starting afresh and removing all the negativity. Guitarist Barry Stock who does a bang up job all over the cd, pays homage to the Jerry Cantrell / Alice In Chains sound in his rhythm guitar and lead breaks. Overall a very solid album although it doesn’t beat it’s predecessor.
It’s only appropriate that on Onam I share with you a Malayalam song but since I like so few of them, here’s one from my fav Indian band Avial. It’s called Chekele.
I always seem to be getting good options of things to do online from TorontoMike. Here’s an example of one; here’s Songza a website that let’s you create your own internet radio station. It’s pretty easy to create one online and share your favorite music with anyone who is interested.
Click on the boombox image below to be guided to my station.
So they had their fling with country edged songs and now are back to rocking your eardrums with The Circle. I’d like anything that Jon, Tico, Ritchie & David care to put out. Ofcourse they ar never going to top their best efforts Slippery When Wet & New Jersey or even These Days or Keep The Faith. I thought that the band peaked with those for albums and everything else that has followed has failed to live up to those lofty standards. Ofcourse you have the odd single here or there but not an entire album. Still Bon Jovi are way more listenable than most stuff that seems to be popular these days (and Bon Jovi are very popular even now) even as the members hit their 50s (Jon & David are just 2 years away from the half century mark, Tico is 56 & Richie is 51). The album was released in Germany and Ireland on October 30, 2009. The album debuted at number 1 in several countries, including the U.S., where it sold 163,000 copies in its first week debuting at number 1 on the Billboard charts. This gives them their fourth number 1 album after their 2007 effort, Lost Highway.
So what can you expect from a new Jovi record? More crowd pleasing, arena rocking songs like the lead single and opening track We Weren’t Born To Follow; a song about standing up against all odds, a song of defiance and defining the human spirit. The single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Originally written by Jon, Sambora and Billy Falcon for a Bon Jovi greatest hits collection that got shelved, When We Were Beautiful was released as an iTunes only promo single from The Circle in the US. It became available as a digital download from the US iTunes store on October 26, 2009. The song was released for download to coincide with Bon Jovi documentary When We Were Beautiful on Showtime. The song talks about a bleak world that used to be more than what it has become, and the narrator wishes to find what made that better world work, so he may then try to make his world a better place. The song has since been released as the third official single from the album with the music video being released on May 24, 2010.
Work For The Working Man is a song in praise of the working class masses from which the band has sprung up. It’s all about the people who go through a lot just to get by in life and put food on the table for their families and a roof over their heads. On Superman Tonight Jon explains its about a boy watching a girl going through ups & down in life, from a distance and wondering if she needs a hero to save her and wishes that he could be that for her. The Bullet starts off with a harder sounding guitar riff and is a social commentary about the way the gun, bullets and weapons in general create havoc for humans. When a relationship goes down south, goes sour, then the other person becomes the Thorn In My Side. Although finally acknowledging this fact, this song is also about the positiveness of the inevitable moving on. Live Before You Die is about to appreciate what you have and your youth and to living life to the fullest while you can.
Broken Promiseland doesn’t sound like a Bon Jovi track; it’s just different. This is a good thing as it sounds fresher. Love’s The Only Rule & Fast Cars are ok songs, mostly there to make the numbers but pleasant all the same. Happy Now is a bit cheesy and we end the album with the ballad Learn To Love is about accepting the world that you are living in and loving it is the first step. Overall a good album, not groundbreaking but good enough for many a spin on your cd player. Here’s the video for When We Were Beautiful.
I was very upset when Marty Friedman left Megadeth and got replaced by Al Pitrelli. Then Megadeth kinda went away and brought in Glen Drover. Then he left after one solid & good album and they brought in Chris Broderick. I was wondering who is this guy? Well he is a classically trained guitarist with some neo-classical metal influences. Plus he has this amazingly beautiful pearl white Ibanez guitar. This is his intro video to Chaos Theory; a new video column he is doing for Guitar World magazine. Here he speaks about his beginnings. And there’s that gorgeous guitar !
The Sacrilegious Scorn is off Dimmu Borgir’s In Sorte Diaboli album and is probably one of the Norwegian black metal band’s best songs. The video concept is mainly a paraphrase on Christianity’s core-symbolism and motives.
Such examples are the Roman soldiers gambling over Christ’s garment, the mockery of St. Michael the Archangel, driving Satan out of Heaven by stepping on him and pointing his sword onto him. Now we see this reversed, when the inaugurated Antichrist is doing that to St. Michael. We also witness the inauguration of the Dark Emperor in the Temple of the Baphomet, seeing him taking the oath as the new sovereign while celebrating a mockery of the Last Supper. The story culminates in the Dark Emperor showing up in front of his followers, bringing out blessings. The Empire of Darkness is then established.
Rush sing about smoking the best drugs out there..weed and probably stuff you put in hookahs. Passage To Bangkok played live in the marijuana capital Amsterdam.
One early morning in 2003 while heading home from work in a company cab, a colleague introduced me to the music of Three Days Grace via a couple of mp3s on a mixed cd. Soon I became a casual fan of the band while watching their music videos to their hit songs like 
So they had their fling with country edged songs and now are back to rocking your eardrums with 
