dUg Pinnick, Naked

Someone who sings "all you got is you, what you gonna do?", who has come on hard blue times, scuffling, in a tough-chew of a world where things are not quite right...that person has my sympathy and gets my ear if there's music worth hearing that goes with it. This totally applies to dUg Pinnick and his latest, Naked (Rock Army MVD 5819A).

Who is dUg? He's leader of hard-rock trio King's X, but mostly on this he's playing everything--lots of guitars with thick drop-down growl, basses, drums, and of course vocals.

What I like about this is the edgy hardness of the group sound, good riffs and structure, songs with punch, and the in-your-face honesty of it all.

His singing reminds me of Smithereens vocals by Pat D. is it (?), but harder and no trace of power pop here, except, yeah there are definite SONGS that hit you full force after a while.

It's a slammer and it's well done!! Whoo!

Fastway, Eat Dog Eat

If you know the rock unit Fastway, you will be happy to hear that their first studio since 1990 is out. If you don't you wont care I suppose. But beyond this fact, Fastway's Eat Dog Eat (MVD 5317A) has such a nicely solid hard-rock (as opposed to metal) immediacy that you might find yourself wondering about the last one if you hear this one a few times.

That is, if you dig the big guitar-bass-drum and traditional hard vocal sound. This one has it. Power chords, riffs, smacking drums, hard-rock song form.

It's what it is, of course. But that's a good thing. Fastway isn't trying to put one over on you. It's honest, real, itself. Rock isn't dead. This is an example why.

Huw Lloyd-Langton's LLG Comes Through with "Hard Graft"

Toward the end of this month Huw Lloyd-Langton's LLG will be releasing Hard Graft (LLG CD 009). It is dedicated to keyboardist Tim Rice, who passed away from cancer just two weeks after the recording was finished.

Huw Lloyd-Langton, for those who don't know, has had a long time association with prog-psych dynamo Hawkwind. Now that to me does not totally prepare you for this album. This is hard-edged wall of sound contemporary rock with Huw's extraordinary guitar presence, his vocals and good rock songs the central focus. Imagine late Hendrix filtered through later period Frank Marino/Mahogany Rush, then filtered through Hawkwind and you begin to get the feel for the guitar sound and the sound of this recording.

It's a beautiful record and it is well worth your ear-time!! I'd say more but it is what it is! One of the rock albums of the year for me.

Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power Live, September 2010

The Stooges were unvarnished and a little bit dangerous sounding to the majority of rock listeners when they hit the stage in the late-sixties, early-seventies. It's a well-known, well-told story of a band that was one of the first to return to the garage in a consistently excellent way. Like the Velvets, they ignored the increasing sophistication that was generally taking over. Unlike the Velvets, though, they took a little longer to reach cult status.

Cut to September of last year, when the reunited Stooges, complete with a very energized Iggy, played the All Tommorrow's Parties Festival in front of rolling "tapes".

What happened that day is well captured on an LP release, Raw Power Live: In the Hands of the Fans (MVD Entertainment). It's a blazingly overbearing (in a good way) performance of what was probably their seminal album (Raw Power, duh).

There's no point in discussing the niceties of this album--because with the Stooges as they should be, there ARE no niceties. It's rude, man, as it should be. And it's most definitely the band totally ON it. No need to say more.

7 Day Binge: Bluesy Metal

Sometimes the promo review copies pile up and I feel like I am on a factory treadmill, to be frank. Yet each one has behind it a musician or group of musicians that put (one assumes) much time and effort to get to the point where I can hold the plastic jewel case in my hand. I take my somewhat humble role seriously. If something deserves to be heard I cannot let myself become blase.

So if I listen and review a CD by a group called 7 Day Binge, in fact a self-titled album of that description (Rock Ridge 61265), it behooves me to pay attention and not come forth with some kind of blithe horse manure designed to flatter my own notion of self-worth.

This is a band that draws upon and builds upon the bluesier elements of hard rock/metal. To suggest a group like Free or Led Zep has some relation to this music is not at all a stretch. There's also a Southern rock aspect to them. Yet they pull together with songs that do not sound as if they were cloned from the parental stock.

This is a now sort of venerable way to proceed: blazing guitar, punchy bass, hard, organic drumming and soulful rock vocals. It's not so much formula as style.

Seven Day Binge do a good job of it.

A band like this merits the attention of those who dig this kind of music.