Still Raging Against that Damn Machine

XX- 20^th Anniversary Edition

Legacy Recordings

XX is a multi-format celebration of Rage Against the Machine’s debut album. Rushing the scene with incendiary lyrics and Hip Hop influenced rhythms, the band quickly found mega-fame as audiences everywhere embraced the volatile sounds of “Bombtrack”  and “Killing in the Name.” Grunge was just taking over the airwaves and RATM’s debut spilled over with anger and resentment, making it the perfect fit alongside artists like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Alice Chains, despite the fact that the band had little in common with them aside from said anger.

Disc one here contains the debut album in its entirety, fully remixed and remastered. Normally, I don’t go for this sort of thing as the production (or sometimes lack thereof) is often key to the album’s timelessness. RATM gets a solid treatment here though, everything sounds a little bigger and a little clearer without losing any of the punch the original had. It’s the trudging “Fistful of Steel” that benefits most here in my opinion. The DJ work and the little guitar effects that are spread throughout the song really come alive in a way that you didn’t hear so much on the original. “Settle For Nothing” comes alive as well, with the wailing guitars sounding crystal clear and the vocals becoming much more distinct on this version. This disc also contains live versions of “Bombtrack,” “Bullet in the Head,” and “Take the Power Back,” all of which were only available on singles.

Disc two contains the entire RATM demo. This is the release they sold for cheap at their early shows and helped cement their record deal. This is my first exposure to the demo and I have to say that it’s easy to hear why they would have gotten signed so quickly. The demo has lot of fire in the belly and a rawness that doesn’t always come across on the first proper album. The funky “The Narrows” is a highlight here in my opinion, showing how much the band (particularly Tom Morello) had in common musically with Living Colour (particularly Vernon Reid who had been doing this for a number of years by the time RATM rolled around). “Bombtrack” rolls a little slower here as well and I prefer it to the album version personally.

As I have a digital promo of this, I can’t comment on the rest of the set. Also included are two live show DVDs and  a vinyl version of the album as well as liner notes for Public Enemy’s Chuck D.

For the most part, if you are a diehard fan than you have everything here BUT the official release will have much better clarity and I can’t imagine you’d prefer a half-assed version over what Legacy offers here. If you aren’t a diehard fan than this probably isn’t for you. This is RATM’s weakest album in my opinion but its great teaser for what I hope we get when the anniversary of the band’s real classic, Evil Empire, rolls around soon.

Reviewed by Mark Fisher

Big Dreams, Nightmares, and Growing Up

Ann & Nancy Wilson

Kicking and Dreaming is the official memoir of sister rockers Ann & Nancy Wilson. The book follows their journey from humble beginnings to mega stardom, from crashing and burning to an unlikely new millennium rebirth. Setup as a series of stories as told by both sisters, former band members and managers, and close friends, Kicking and Dreaming reads much more like a collection journal entries than a proper book. It’s that approach that makes this such a strong offering though as you gain insight into the very private world of Heart as well as what was happening in each of their lives that caused them to unite, and sometimes divide, throughout their legendary career.

Heart is one of the few bands that can very neatly be categorized into decades. So, if you are a fan of a particular decade but not another, it’s easy to just pick and choose what interests you here. I will say though that as a fan who grew up on eighties Heart albums, I was particularly fascinated by the portions of the book that deal with the seventies. The band were much more of…well….a band…in the seventies than they ever were in the eighties and as someone pushing forty, it’s much easier to appreciate that reading this now. I love how both sisters spend so much time discussing how Roger Fisher, and his brother Michael (their one time manager), were such an integral part of Heart and it’s shaping in the formative years. As a matter of fact, the sisters do their past proud through the entire book by giving credit where credit is due and not downplaying the contributions of others. This book could easily have focused entirely on them.

Overall, this book is certainly primarily for Heart fans. In a bigger way though, this will appeal to any fan of biographies or memoirs that loves music. The Wilson’s have a fascinating personal story and their take on the music industry is spot on. These ladies may not have seen it all but when they were seeing things they were entirely aware of what was happening. A great example of this are their thoughts on their eighties work (best summed up with the phrase “Leave it to cleavage”!). This is a great read from start to finish and their recent albums leave me with high hopes that this is just Volume 1 of Kicking and Dreaming!

Reviewed by Mark Fisher

Frontiers Records

As Frontiers Records are so awfully good at, they once again present us with a reincarnated version of a B-list eighties rock band. Featuring four out of five original members, the band follow labelmates Tyketto by asserting their rock dominance late in the game. While most of us remember Kix for the MTV hits “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “Cold Blood,” they provide us with much more here. The rabid hometown crowd digs it as Kix shows how down and dirty they really were a set of rock tunes along the lines of Kiss, early Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, and Great White.

The band rip right into the fiesta with “No Ring Around Rosie” with its dirty guitars and gritty vocal work. It’s hard to not notice by mid-song that the band are in prime form, in fact, I doubt that they have ever sounded as good as they do in 2012. It rips flawlessly into “Atomic Bomb,” a similar sounding tune that does well to keep the high energy flowing. By track four the band slows the pace and offers up their massive MTV hit, “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” In retrospect, this dark and dreary tune has quite a bit in common with Enuff Z’Nuff and the latter day Oasis. It was a great song then and it holds up just as well now. “Cold Blood” fares just as well, gaining a little extra aggressiveness from the live setting that makes it reek of cool. The audience is really into it and they jump in with a classic rock and roll drunken sing along! The AC/DC riffage of “Blow My Fuse” is the highlight here for me, sounding a lot grittier than I remember it and just coming off like a wall of sound. The boogie beat “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” ends the show in a sixteen minute plus fury that makes me want to go see Kix the next time they come to town.

Overall, this album really surprised me. I have always liked Kix but I’ve never been as excited about their music as Live In Baltimore makes me. These guys are rockin’ live and with a reunion album in tow for 2013, it’s quite likely we’ll see a lot more of these guys in the near future!

Reviewed by Mark Fisher

Wilson Phillips Love Their Parents

Sony Masterworks

Is Wilson Phillips making a comeback? I’d say so, considering the recent success of their covers album Dedicated, which features the trio singing their parents (that’d be The Beach Boys and The Mamas & the Papas, for those of you living under a rock for the last two decades or so) biggest hits. Live From Infinity Hall is it’s followup and spotlights both the covers material from Dedicated and the biggest hits from the ladies own back catalog. The DVD also features a music video for “Good Vibrations.”

This DVD is set up really nicely. There are no real frills about it such as multiple discs or four hour long interviews or ten different concerts included in one set. Instead this is one wonderful performance, that is pretty near flawless, sprinkled with a couple of stories to keep everything moving along.

The setlist here is a delicate balance. Most of the material is from Dedicated but when you hear the big Wilson Phillips hits like “Hold On,” “Release Me,” and “You’re In Love,” you can’t help but want more of their own material. The ladies sound amazing even now, their voices blending in those unique harmonies that made them megastars in the nineties. They definitely still have that “it” factor! The covers sound great, interestingly though  they really do have a Wilson Phillips spin on them. Perhaps it’s the lack of male voices dominating the songs or perhaps it’s just that they grew up putting their own spin on these songs, but either way it’s distinctly them.

In my opinion, the highlights include the Wilson Phillips hits above all else. These songs have been out of our consciousness for far too long. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” sounds spot on, as do “Monday Monday” and “California Dreamin’” which come back to back causing a crescendo about three fourths of the way through the set.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy Wilson Phillips. They just don’t make music like this anymore, it’s beautiful and smooth and positive sounding without being completely boring or produced to death. This is an excellent DVD for any fan, old or new, of pop music and vocal harmonies. And with a list price just under ten bucks how can you afford not own this?!

Reviewed by Mark Fisher

A Titanic Comeback

Sony Classical

As 2012 is the 100^th Anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Titanic, Sony Classical has released an Anniversary Edition of the chart topping soundtrack to the record-breaking movie. The movie itself was also re-released to theaters in a digital 3D format to commemorate the anniversary. The Anniversary Edition also includes a second disc, which contains unreleased film music by I Salonisti (the ships band in the film), while the Collector’s Anniversary Edition contains a third disc entitled Back to the Titanic and a fourth disc that features popular songs from the early 1900’s.  Both include four Titanic luggage stickers as a bonus.

To say this soundtrack is an epic moment in pop culture history would be an understatement at best. The album is full of iconic pieces such as the gentle and hopeful sound of “Southampton,” the romantic sound of “Rose,” and the introspective “A Life So Changed.”  Of course, the coupled “The Sinking” and “Death of the Titanic” will make you nervous all over again as they musically recount the film’s climax. Titanic’s love theme remains its centerpiece though. Celine Dion’s absolutely stunning vocal on “My Heart Will Go On” will soften even the harshest of critics. It’s quite literally the performance of a lifetime and firmly cemented the song, the film, the soundtrack, and the artist herself as a quintessential piece of popular culture of the 1990’s.

The second disc included here is entitled Gentlemen, It Has Been a Privilege Playing With You Tonight. This part of the collection features the band I Salonisti, known best for performing as the Titanic’s house band in the film. The songs here are considered to be pieces that would have been played on popular cruises in the early 1900’s as re-recorded by the band. “Valse Septembre” opens the collection in a dynamic way that surely would have encouraged formal dancing. “Wedding Dance” and “Blue Danube” are still well-known pieces that would have lent themselves to the theme of the evening’s festivities. “Song Of Autumn” appears towards the end of the collection. It is rumored to be the song actually played as the Titanic went down and does not appear in the film.  Disc Two wraps up with a beautiful rendition of “Nearer My God to Thee,” a traditional hymn that has probably never been more perfectly placed in a film.

Overall, this is a collection that is very hard to ignore. You may not like classical music, Celine Dion, big budget movies, or soundtracks, but this one overcomes them all. The music James Horner composed for this film is timeless and tells the story of the film as brilliantly as the film itself.

Reviewed by Mark Fisher

UDR/EMI

The brainchild of rock god Ritchie Blackmore and his wife Candice Night, Blackmore’s Night is a folk-inspired tour de force that paved the way for many artists to use traditional/pagan/medieval instrumentation and rhythms in their music and still get signed to labels. It could certainly be argued that Blackmore has now done more than his fair share of bringing new music into the world. Their latest release is a live album recorded  at a concert in 2011 at The Opera House in York, England.

While this doesn’t feature the entire show, it does give a well-rounded sampling of what Blackmore’s Night has to offer. The production is top notch as you can easily hear each instrument instead of the muddied mix that plagues similar traditional folk bands. The package includes both a DVD and a BluRay disc that look superb. Everything is sharp and well-shot, capturing the band’s modest stage set and the obviously fun atmosphere. Everyone’s smiles which really endears you more towards the music if you are standoff-ish about it. The smiles culminate with the band breaking into Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”- proof positive that pop music borrows much from the pagan sounds of yore.

The highlights here include the driving “The Circle” which comes dangerously close to rock and roll (Zepplin style!), the gorgeous “Darkness” which really highlight’s Night’s beautiful vocal work, and the rollicking “All the Fun of the Fayre.” The latter is a carnival romper that could probably be compared to a modern day barn dancing tune. “Journeyman,” while not my favorite tune here, has a rippin’ guitar solo that reminds you that a guitar god is in tow in case you’d forgotten.

Overall, this is a solid live album. The video doesn’t really make it any better but it’s a nice addition to a diehard fans collection. I would say that this or either of the band’s prior live releases are the best place to start for new fans or curiosity seekers. There’s a good sampling of songs and just a little extra spark that could never be captured on a studio recording that makes it just that much better.

Reviewed by Mark Fisher

Heart's Strange Euphoria Gets Boxed

Epic Records/Legacy Recordings

After delivering four decades of blistering, straight-forward, true blue Rock and Roll Heart have really hit their stride. While the band seemed to struggle musically through much of the nineties as well as the early new millennium, 2010’s Red Velvet Car revealed them to be focused, mature, and more comfortable in their skin than they had been in decades. Strange Euphoria, follows that lead by revealing deep cuts, demos, alternate takes, and live performances that leave little question as to how this band survived over the years. Superb musicianship, integrity, and more raw talent than you can shake a stick at come front and center on this three disc, one DVD collection. For the most part, this box set explores Heart’s inner workings in three eras. Disc one is basically the seventies, disc two is basically the eighties, and disc three covers the nineties and on.

The highlights here include pretty much everything if you are even a semi-well-versed Heart fan. Disc one starts out with the pre-Heart (but still pretty much Heart) “Through Eyes & Glass.” It’s a beautiful early track and is billed as Ann Wilson & the Daybreaks (which sounds like a Motown band doesn’t it?!). The demos of “Magic Man” and “Crazy on You” aren’t as biting as their official versions but you definitely get a better sense of the sister’s urges early on. They have a different kind of groove, despite the fact that they are not a million miles from their finished versions.  Disc two highlights include the often overlooked “Bebe Le Strange” (I always felt that this was a classier version of “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You”…) and an acoustic live performance of “Never” featuring John Paul Jones. “These Dreams” and “Alone” are two of my favorite Heart songs and I was excited to hear the versions on Strange Euphoria- to say they lived up to those expectations would be an understatement. Disc three rounds it all out simply by including three tracks (two of which are live) that are technically Lovemongers songs and a live track from Nancy Wilson (“Everything”) that quite assuredly rivals anything on Strange Euphoria. The “Any Woman’s Blues” demo is performed with the Seattle Blues Revue Horns and stands out due to its different musical nature. It really highlights what vocalist Ann Wilson has become over the years as it’s undeniably her but also an entirely different kind of thing. The semi-comical box set title track is also contained on this disc. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I smirked a little bit when it was playing. The recent hit “Hey You” is a highlight here as well and kisses the box set off in a way that lets the fans know that Heart’s well is nowhere near running dry.

The DVD included here is from The Second Ending. It was recorded in early 1976 for KWSU-TV and contains hits like “Dreamboat Annie,” “Crazy on You,” “Magic Man,” and “Heartless.” The band rips it up here musically, sounding loose and anthemic all at once, but it’s quite honestly not much to watch as the band doesn’t seem to have much room to move. I also thought the bass player was a girl at first until I noticed that I could see his nipples so it couldn’t be a girl (they were on television and all). Weird. Fans of Heart’s early history will most enjoy this and it’s a nice inclusion on the box set, even if you won’t find yourself returning all too often to it. On the other hand, aside from a Jethro Tull performance, where else will you see a rock and roll flute solo?

One of the most impressive things about Strange Euphoria though is the booklet. Bound as proper book, it contains a ton of great photos spanning the band’s amazing career. It’s really easy to see the band’s different eras visually through the photographs, names on the tour passes, and, of course, the use of different logos. It’s a fun trip through time for us older folks. Additionally, there are fairly detailed descriptions of each song choice. The Wilson sisters explain why they like each song, why this particular version was chosen for the set, and why they feel it represents this or that in a real way. I’d buy this book as a stand alone without a doubt and it makes me look forward to their upcoming memoir.

“Personally curated by Ann and Nancy Wilson” is the phrase that says the most here. Strange Euphoria feels very natural. It has an artistic flow that you don’t always get on a Heart album. After hearing their choices and reading about why they chose them, you realize that Heart’s veins run even deeper than you may have thought. You also realize quickly what kinds of things they were “talked into” over the years and what was really representative of who they were as people and as a group. Strange Euphoria, in some ways, sets the record straight for both longtime, die-hard fans and music enthusiasts. This is a great piece of musical history that any fan of rock and roll should own.

Reviewed by Mark Fisher