2009 Year In Review: Music

Lots to talk about here so let's get right to it.

What went wrong? My least favorite CDs that I really wanted to be good would have to be the new ones from Brand New Sin, Distilled, and Lita Ford's Wicked Wonderland. I just hated almost everything about both of them and I've liked a lot of stuff by both artists. Bleh.

Comebacks... Ace Frehley returned with Anomaly and I really dug a couple of songs on it, but most of it wasn't good I thought. I was disappointed. I did however like Cheap Trick and Foreigner's new CDs and welcomed them back with open ears. Nothing compares to the comeback of Alice In Chains in my book though. I didn't really think it could be done without Layne but I'll be damned if Black Gives Way To Blue isn't just awesome. It got a whole lot of spins from me this year and will in future years I can assure you. KISS finally put out a new CD, Sonic Boom, and while it didn't blow me away by any means I thought it was a catchy pop/rock CD and was pleased.

New bands... my very favorite is Heaven and Hell, which you could technically say isn't a new band as Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice feel more like the Dio-era Sabbath. It's just a big, heavy CD that you can't possibly listen to and not make the devil horns and bang your head. Not possible. Another "super group" of sorts (I hate that term for the record) that tops my list of favorite new bands is Chickenfoot, featuring Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith. I wasn't blown away by their CD at first, but within a week I really got into it and have played it a lot. It's fun, catchy rock n roll with excellent harmonies from Anthony and Hagar. Not a new artist per say, but new to me this year and I love the dude now, is country artist Jamey Johnson. I just love this guy and his old school country tales. Lastly, another heavy band that I just got into this year is Destrophy and their self-titled CD.

Favorite country CDs... well this isn't really fair as I only buy a few country CDs a year (I download singles though) but I'm confident my 2 choices are great CDs no matter how many I bought... Jack Ingram's Big Dreams & High Hopes and Keith Urban's Defying Gravity. Both CDs rock at times and are probably under the "nu country" banner.

Best laugh... Steel Panther's magnificent opus "Feel The Steel" is just absolutely brilliant... also filthy, catchy and funny as all hell.

Arkansans... our very own Kris Allen had a pretty good year I guess, winning American Idol and releasing his first post-Idol CD. The CD debuted at #11 and he wrote or co-wrote 9 of the 12 tracks. I didn't buy it, but I downloaded "Live Like We're Dying" and think it's a pretty good upbeat, poppy little track. I hope he has a long career personally.

Let's get to the big stuff I guess.

My favorite songs of the year for various genres:

* The Lonely Island ~ I'm On A Boat (comedy)
* Steel Panther ~ Stripper Girl (comedy)

* Brad Paisley ~ Then (country)
* Keith Urban ~ Kiss A Girl (country)
* Rascal Flats ~ Summer Nights (country)
* Randy Houser ~ Whistlin' Dixie (country)
* Jamey Johnson ~ My Way To You (country)

* Eminem ~ Bagpipes From Baghdad (hip hop/rap)

Rock/Pop:

* Cavo ~ Champagne
* Chickenfoot ~ Sexy Little Thing
* Heaven & Hell ~ Bible Black
* Breaking Benjamin ~ I Will Not Bow
* Hurt ~ Wars
* Alice In Chains ~ Check My Brain
* Creed ~ Rain
* Deepfield ~ Give Until It Hurts
* Far ~ Pony
* Destrophy ~ Why I Hate Goodbye
* Maylene and the Sons Of Disaster ~ Step Up (I'm On It)
* Marilyn Manson ~ Four Rusted Horses
* Chevelle ~ Letter From A Thief
* Seventh Void ~ Heaven Is Gone
* Tantric ~ Coming Undone
* Sick Puppies ~ You're Going Down
* The Last Vegas ~ I'm Bad

And lastly... my 20 favorite CDs of the year:

20. Throwdown ~ Deathless
19. Daughtry ~ Leave This Town
18. Five Finger Death Punch ~ War Is The Answer
17. Jack Ingram ~ Big Dreams & High Hopes
16. Bruce Springsteen ~ Working on a Dream
15. Wolfmother ~ Cosmic Egg
14. Burning Borders ~ Yesterday's Gone
13. Queenrsyche ~ American Soldier
12. Papa Roach ~ Metamorphosis
11. Pearl Jam ~ Backspacer
10. Tantric ~ Mind Control
9. Maylene and The Sons of Disaster ~ III
8. Creed ~ Full Circle
7. Megadeth ~ Endgame
6. Marilyn Manson ~ The High End of Low
5. Breaking Benjamin ~ Dear Agony
4. Keith Urban ~ Defying Gravity
3. Chickenfoot ~ s/t
2. Heaven & Hell ~ The Devil You Know
1. Alice In Chains ~ Black Gives Way To Blue

As I've said before, 2009 was another great year as far as I'm concerned. There was a lot of music that I'll still be playing years from now.

Paul Gray 1972 - 2010

Here's a really nice video tribute to Paul Gray, bassist for Slipknot, who passed away this week. R.I.P. Paul.

Here's the official statement from Slipknot, "Our brother will be greatly missed. This world will be a different place without him. We love you Paul."

*language warning*

Four Decades of Sammy

A clip from the upcoming DVD "Been There Once, Be There Twice" that features a live version of "RED" with video footage covering 4 decades of Sammy Hagar's career. Directed by Paul Ware. Check out the new RedRocker.com for all things Sammy!

STP on JKL Part 2

Stone Temple Pilots were on Jimmy Kimmel Live for a 2nd night in a row Thursday night (1st night post) and here's the videos to prove it! They played 2 songs again, one off the new CD, "Hickory Dichotomy", and one classic from the catalog, "Vasoline" (my favorite STP song).

KISS Rocks German TV

KISS was on the popular German television show, "Wetten, Dass..?" (Wanna Bet?) yesterday and here's the video. They played a track off the new CD Sonic Boom and a classic track off Dynasty.

Kiss performs "Say Yeah" and "I Was Made for Lovin' You":

Another Arkansas Idol?

It looks like there's another Arkansan heading to Hollywood this season on American Idol and it's an adorable 16-year-old from Baptist High School right here in Little Rock named Charity Vance. I don't know how far she'll get on the show, but the judges seem to like her quite a bit. It's good to have someone from local to root for I think. I hope she has a great run.

STP on JKL

The Stone Temple Pilots were Jimmy Kimmel Live last night and they played 1 new track, Between The Lines, off their newly released CD and closed the show with one of their many classics, Big Empty. Both videos are below.

Saw VI Comes Home

Good week ahead, except for the predicted Winter storm. That better not mess up my week! Quickly, get the bread and milk! Um, anyway... UALR hoops tomorrow night (ladies) and Thursday night (men) and Paul Thorn live at the Rev Room after tomorrow night's game. If you know me very well, you know how much I love Paul. This will be about the 10th time I've seen him and he's always great. And women's hoops you say? Well, yes actually. Our women's team is VERY good and have reeled off 10 in a row while Chastity Reed averages 24.3 per game and is one of the best players in the country. You bet I'll be there.

I'm about to catch up on movie watching too, and some new ones will hit Red Box today that I'll be watching for. Here's the release list as I see it:

* Saw VI (horror) DVD

* Surrogates (Bruce Willis thriller) DVD

* Michael Jackson: This is It DVD

* Pontypool DVD (horror)

* Day of Fire – "Losing All" CD

* Living Sacrifice – "The Infinite Order" CD

* Taking Dawn – "Time to Burn" CD

* 7DayBinge – "7DayBinge" CD (this came out in digital format a few weeks ago... it rocks)

* MAG video game (PS3)

* Mass Effect 2 video game (X360)

New Ozzy Press Kit

Ozzy Osbourne has posted a video on the making of his new album "Scream", which is due out June 22nd. It's his 10th studio album and his first with former Firewind guitarist Gus G.

Another Cool Rock Doc

From the same people who did the awesome Iron Maiden: Flight 666 documentary last year now comes Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. Looks like it's going to be at a few festivals, like Tribeca, and then on to a very small theatrical release, but it's television debut will be on June 26 on VH1 and VH1 Classic. I'll be holding out for the Blu-ray release myself.

I've always liked Rush, but was never a huge fan. Back in the 80s I bought Moving Pictures, Signals and Grace Under Pressure and considered myself a casual follower. Through the years I sort of lost touch with them but every time I hear Tom Sawyer or Fly By Night or Spirit of the Radio come up on my iPod I crank it. This trailer alone makes me want to break out their music and reacquaint myself with them, so I know the film itself is going get me on a Rush kick. Check it out for yourself:

Drowning Pool Will Shame You

Here's a pretty cool acoustic version of "Shame" by Drowning Pool from a couple of weeks ago for RevolverTV. I've always been a fan of singer Ryan McCombs voice, since his days in the band Soil.

We Are The Fallen Cover U2

Here's We Are The Fallen covering U2's classic "With or Without You" and some clips of the U2 version with band interviews.

These guys are in Little Rock tonight playing at Juanitas.

Hang In There Bret

I'm actually seriously bummed about Bret Michaels having some life-threatening health problems at the moment. I hope he has a full recovery and continues rocking for many years. I've seen Poison 5 different times since the 80s and always dug their stuff. I think they're a fun party band. I've never met Bret, but I have met C.C. and Rikki both. Also one of my guilty pleasures has been Bret's Rock of Love show on VH1. I know it's trash TV, but it's just so much stupid fun.

Get well Bret.

The All-American Rejects Rock Kimmel

Stillwater, Oklahoma's The All-American Rejects were on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night and they played "Gives You Hell" and "Swing, Swing", so you know I'm gonna share 'em. And presto... here you go. So yeah, they're not actually on the Kimmel set, but playing live from the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas.

Check Out Down From Up

This is a cool band from Knoxville, Tn which opened for Sevendust and Drowning Pool on Sunday night called Down From Up. I hadn't heard of them at all but it didn't me to long really get into them. They played a 10-minute or so Zeppelin medley during their live set that was just smokin plus some solid originals. Consider me on the bandwagon.

Check 'em out for yourself. Here's their electronic press kit and a video for their song "Victim":

After Dark Tuesday

This is finally the day once a year where After Dark Films releases their Horrorfest. All 8 films hit at once, so look for specials. The best deal I've found yet is Best Buy has them at 2/$25. That's not as good as the last 3 years when Best Buy did all 8 for $70. Not sure why they're not staying with that price again. If you wait a few months though, most of them drop to $9.99 pretty quickly and they should even be down to $5.99 at a lot of place by Halloween. Me, personally, I've got $55 in Best Buy coupons so I may just snag them all and waste my money by being impatient, but I've got an After Dark Festival planned so I gotta get right on it. Also, here's a quick recap/review of all the titles by the gang at Dread Central in case you're just wanting to buy a few and want to know which are they think are the best this year.

Anyway, here's all the interesting new releases today:

* After Dark Horrorfest 4 DVDs (Dread / The Final / The Graves / The Hidden / Kill Theory / Lake Mungo / The Reeds / Zombies of Mass Destruction)

* Scorpions ~ "Sting in the Tail" CD (rock legends say this is their final album)

* Disturbed ~ "The Sickness: 10th Anniversary Edition" CD (2000 album; remastered, with two bonus tracks, "Welcome Burden" and "God of the Mind")

* Saliva ~ "Moving Forward in Reverse: Greatest Hits" CD (13 tracks, plus a new song, "Time to Shine")

* Social Code ~ "Rock 'N' Roll" CD (see blog here)

* Seasons After ~ "Through the Summer" CD

* Joe Bonamassa ~ "Black Rock" CD

* The Blind Side DVD (sports drama with Sandra Bullock)

* Brothers DVD (drama with Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey McGuire and Natalie Portman)

* The Men Who Stare At Goats DVD (comedy with George Clooney and Ewan McGregor)

* Damage DVD (action film with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin)

Rob Zombie Invades Jimmy Kimmel Live

Rob Zombie played a couple of songs live on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. He started with a newer one "Mars Needs Women" and then played them off the air with a high-energy White Zombie classic "More Human Than Human" where he got up close and personal with the audience:

Hot Rockin' Summer Releases

We're on the 2nd day of Summer and it's already smokin' hot here down South. I can't grab the paper in the morning off the front steps without getting sweaty. By 7:00 AM it's in the mid-70s with the humidity and heat index in the 80s. Awesome! Well, it was awesome when I was off last week and didn't have to strap a tie around my neck every day. Only 8 more weeks until my next vacation!

Summer heats up today with some excellent musical offerings though from some of my favorite artists. Plenty of blog links and a couple of videos to check out. Check out the release list:

* Ozzy Osbourne ~ "Scream" CD (see blog here)

* Vince Neil ~ "Tattoos & Tequila" CD (Motley Crue's lead singer... see blog here)

* Danzig ~ "Deth Red Sabaoth" CD (their first studio album since 2004... see blog here and see more below)



* Paul Thorn ~ "Pimps and Preachers" CD (I already got my copy and it's excellent... see blog here)

* Eminem ~ "Recovery" CD

* (hed) p.e. ~ "Major Pain 2 Indee Freedom: The Best of (hed) p.e." CD (2 CDs, 34 tracks)

* Sister Sin ~ "True Sound of the Underground" CD (see blog here)

* Green Zone DVD (Matt Damon thriller)

* Transformers: War for Cybertron (Video Game for PS3, Xbox, WII, DS)



Wooo! That's a helluva day.

Pearl and Scott Rock Late Night

1 day after the release of her their new CD, Pearl was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. The awesome lead singer is Pearl Aday, Meatloaf's daughter, and that bald cat on guitar is her hubby Scott Ian of Anthrax fame.

The new CD Little Immaculate White Fox rocks. So go buy it.

Here's 3 songs from the Kimmel show:

Sevendust To Spartacus

Dang I've been busy. Besides logging about 1,500 miles on my car in the last 3 weeks between New Orleans, Little Rock and Nashville (and around Memphis) I've been using my season tickets to the Travs' game pretty well. I went to 3 of the 6 games in the first home stand... not too bad. I'm sort of thankful they're out of town for a week though so I can catch up yardwork, housework, reading, DVR etc... you know, the important stuff. Also it's about time to clean, fuel up and launch my boat ("Sweet Amber") for the year. The next nice weather weekend should see me up there firing up the grill and the tunes and getting things ready for another awesome Summer. I've got to get the tent out this weekend too and make sure some parts didn't mysteriously disappear or something.

Caught the season finale of Spartacus: Blood & Sand over the weekend and I must say, one of the best season finales of all-time. Awesome bloodletting and such. This has become one of my favorite shows on TV and I'm really looking forward to another season next year, which I hear is in production. I'm going to re-watch the whole 1st season on Blu-ray just as soon as that sucker hits the shelves, you can bet.

Lots of new stuff out yesterday to catch up on, and I'll start it with one of my favorite bands...

* Sevendust ~ "Cold Day Memory" CD (see more here)

* Airbourne ~ "No Guts, No Glory" CD (AC/DC style party rock from down under... see more here)

* Cypress Hill ~ "Rise Up" (release on 4-20... get it? guests include Tom Morello, Mike Shinoda, Daron Malakian, Marc Anthony, Pitbull, Everlast, Young De, Evidence, The Alchemist, Cheech & Chong)

* Ratt ~ "Infestation" CD (first studio album in 11 years... see more here)

* AC/DC ~ "Iron Man 2" CD/DVD (15 songs from AC/DC's back catalog from 1976 to 2008)

* Motörhead ~ "Motörhead: The Early Years" DVD

* The Lovely Bones DVD (drama/fantasy with Mark Wahlberg)

* 44 Inch Chest DVD (crime/drama)

* Avatar DVD (comes out tomorrow... see my review here)