We Will Rock You

Classic Rock is eternal and it is now! The 2008 Now Classic Rock features 20 of the best Classic cuts of the century. From Queen to Heart, from Boston to Kansas, from Kiss to Cheap Trick, the greats of rock bounce through this CD digging way back with ‘Fire’ from the Jimi Hendrix Experience to ‘My Generation’ with the Who. An album so valuable you’ll need several copies for the future ones which will go missing and borrowed!

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     As the title implies, BK3 is guitarist Bruce Kulick’s third solo album, and it’s a dramatic step forward for the former KISS/current Grand Funk Railroad member.

     Not that there’s anything wrong with either Audio Dog or Transformer, Bruce’s previous solo efforts. Both are very solid representations of his capabilities, but in some ways each of them was constrained by Kulick’s own limitations. I don’t mean that as disparagement; it’s just that each of those albums had more of  a tight focus on Kulick’s own strengths,  the greatest of which is his guitar playing. There were more instrumental tracks on those albums, and that always tends to limit the commercial appeal of a project to a die-hard community. And on the tracks that had vocals, Kulick performed most of those vocals himself, with sometimes mixed results. His is an emerging voice; Kulick is not a bad singer, but he’s inarguably a much better guitar player and writer.

     The strength of BK3 lies in its accessibility and in the diversity of the tracks. This is by far Kulick’s most fully-realized solo effort to date, comparable sonically and in its production to the best of the work he did in KISS or Union. There are a lot of different moods here, from the heavy rock riffs, to melodic pop, to instrumental rock, to what could almost be termed psychedelia/progressive rock. Part of what I really like about this album is that it seems like it might have been pitched on some levels toward an audience that appreciates KISS and Union, but not in an obvious, calculated way; instead, it just seems like the work of an artist who understands what his fans want and knows how to give it to them. 

     There are some great guest appearances as well, which really help to give the album its depth of character. Kulick’s former KISS band mate Gene Simmons lends his voice to “Ain’t Gonna Die”, and the results are better than most of the music the pair made together in KISS. But the real revelation here is Gene’s son Nick Simmons, making his recording debut on the first single “Hand of the King”. Let’s face it, that could have been a cheesy promotional move, but the track is actually one of the strongest on the album. 

     Other standouts include “No Friend Of Mine”, sung by former Union vocalist John Corabi; Knack front man Doug Fieger singing “Dirty Girl”; legendary guitarist Steve Lukather going toe-to-toe with Kulick on the instrumental “Between The Lines”; and the album’s final cut “Life”. Sung by Kulick himself, the acoustic-based track is unexpectedly Beatle-esque with its string arrangements and uplifting message. Throw in some sitar and you could almost picture George Harrison playing along. It’s an interesting step outside of the kind of songwriting we expect from Bruce Kulick.

     Overall, BK3 is an album that should please fans of Bruce Kulick’s past efforts, and it’s strong enough to warrant a listen from any fan of heavy rock, guitar-driven rock, or even melodic rock. I think some fans who expect this to be a self-indulgent solo outing from a guy who mainly plays guitar in a band will be very surprised by its diversity and quality.

Bk3
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FROM WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK:

     Ronnie Wood has gone back into rehab for an eighth stint, the Daily Mail can reveal.

     The troubled Rolling Stones guitarist today arrived at a clinic in south London in a bid to conquer the alcohol addiction that has plagued him for years.

     Wood, 62, checked himself into rehab after months of pleading by his family, including his worried daughter Leah and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.

     The last time the hard-living musician went to rehab was in July 2008 before the wedding of Leah- shortly after he had left Jo, his wife of 23-years, for Russian cocktail waitress Ekaterina Ivanova.

     The pair are believed to have led a ‘party’ lifestyle throughout their one-year relationship, with frequent all-night alcohol binges before their split in December.

     It has only just weeks since Wood, who has fought a high-profile battle with alcoholism for years, proclaimed he had given up his party lifestyle, claiming: ‘I don’t drink any more.’

     Last night, a friend said: ‘Mick has always been helpful and supportive of Ronnie when he gets in trouble and falls off the wagon.

     ‘The news Ronnie’s decided to go into rehab is really pleasing for Mick. He has always urged him to get help when he’s had his problems - and this case was no different.

     ‘Mick’s just delighted he’s taken heed and is trying to get himself straight.’

     His latest love is a striking Brazilian artist in her 30s and the pair have been spotted together frequently over the past week, including cuddled up in the back of a cab.

     Wood seemed quite enamoured on Thursday as he carried his new girlfriend’s polo mallets at the Ham Polo Club in London.

     A friend said: ‘Ronnie has been in a bad state of mind since his split with Katia.

     ‘They were in a terrible relationship, but since their break-up he has not been himself. He has been lonely and drinking and has tried to throw himself into new romances.

     ‘Jo and the entire family are just happy that he is seeking help again.’

FROM WWW.SPINNER.COM:

Dial in classic rock radio anywhere in the world and you won’t wait long to hear the distinctive timbre of Randy Bachman’s guitar.

In the ’60’s, Bachman emerged from Winnipeg, that frigid Canadian prairie town, to blaze a trail to the top of the American pop charts. As guitarist for the Guess Who, Bachman co-wrote rock-radio staples such as ‘These Eyes,’ and ‘American Woman,’ before leaving the group to form Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), the arena rockers responsible for the ultimate ode to the workingman, ‘Taking Care of Business.’

Almost five decades into his career, Bachman continues to rule the airwaves, not only as a performer but also as a radio DJ. When not staging concerts with former Guess Who singer Burton Cummings, or working on an upcoming album with BTO’s Fred Turner, he spins tunes, offers insight to classic recordings, and relates stories from a life on the road and in the studio on Vinyl Tap, his weekly show on CBC Radio One and Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 137.

Spinner caught up with Bachman to talk about his love affair with the guitar, his reincarnation as a radio DJ, and the cultural importance of ‘The Beatles: Rock Band.‘

Obviously, you are no stranger to radio. But how does it feel to be on the other side of the microphone?

It’s quite a switch. All my life, DJs have been my conduit to the public. Now I realize what a tough job it is. You have to be on all the time, especially those guys who do morning radio. And then there are those guys like David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Oprah, who are on TV everyday; they got to be on and look good doing it. At least with radio you can show up in your pajamas.

So does that mean you do your radio show in your boxers?

Sometimes I do the show in shorts and with bed head. My wife will ask me, are you really going to wear that? And I’ll say, well, no one can see me but you.

Paul McCartney used to live a block from Abbey Road and he’d show up to the studio in his dressing gown and slippers in the middle of the night if he had an idea, then go back home to get dressed. So it’s okay.

You have a massive collection of guitars. What is so intriguing about the instrument?

The guitar is the most popular instrument in the world. There is currently one or two for every household. For those households that don’t have any, there are households like mine that have a few hundred.

It’s portable and relatively easy to play. It’s the only instrument that you put your arms around. You hold it right to your chest and it becomes part of you. To be a guitar player is the most fantastic and exhausting thing. I sit down every night and practice an hour or two. Creatively, it’s a well that is so deep.

You came up at a time before the invention of stomp boxes and digital studio effects, but as a guitar player you were sonically innovative. I’ve heard artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Bry Webb (Constantines), and Gordie Johnson (Grady, Big Sugar) rave about your tone on ‘American Woman.’ How did you achieve that sound?

I used to plug my guitar into this old tape recorder and then the tape recorder into my guitar amp. When I turned it up loud, the amp would distort. Doing this would cause the amp to burn and smoke, but it sounded great for ten minutes.

Every week I’d take the amp into this guy named ‘Gar’ Gillies who owned a radio and TV fix-it place. The next Monday I’d bring it back in covered in smoke and burn marks. Finally, I asked him to build me something that could create that sound, but wouldn’t burst into flames. He built a prototype tube preamp that is responsible for the guitar sound on ‘American Woman.’ At the time I was reading a book by Werner Herzog, and this thing became the Randy Bachman Herzog.

He went on to establish Garnet Amplifiers and supplied amps to the Guess Who, Bachman Turner Overdrive, and Neil Young. I’m cutting a record now with Fred Turner and we are using a Garnet head because nothing sounds quite like it. I actually blew it up yesterday because I was driving it too hard, and the smell made me nostalgic.

‘American Woman’ is included in the videogame ‘Rock Band 2.’ How does it feel to have a new generation exposed to your music while mashing coloured buttons on a plastic guitar?

Actually, for Christmas this year my wife got ‘Beatles: Rock Band.’ Everyone who came over played it. And it’s amazing to have three-year-old kids singing ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ with me, a guy who is in his sixties. It’s just an absolute thrill. It proves that rock and roll is here forever.

Fans think of you as a rock player, but early on you received lessons from Lenny Breau, the legendary jazz guitarist.

Lenny was my guitar mentor. I skipped school for two years so we could hang out and I flunked grade ten and eleven because of him. He went on to become a great jazz player. I went into rock and became what I became. But I am so grateful to him for those years.

He told me, there will always be a better guitar player than you, but if you can write a hit song, it will last forever. This is from a great guitar player. So, I took it upon myself to try and write great songs and out of the thousands I’ve written, I’ve a couple of dozens that have stuck around.

You’ve written a few hits in your day. Did you know when you wrote ‘Taking Care of Business’ that it would become a working-class anthem?

No. I had no idea whatsoever. I thought it was an album cut. The ones that I think are great, where I feel I’ve worked out great lyrics and interesting guitar hooks, nobody likes. They are too contrived.

But the songs I wrote in five minutes, like ‘American Woman,’ ‘Taking Care of Business,’ and ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ became number one records and are known all around the world.

FROM WWW.SPINNER.COM:

Waiting for Axl Rose is a state most Guns N’ Roses fans are well accustomed to by now. It famously took 15 years for Rose to release Chinese Democracy. Then almost two more years for Axl and his hired Guns to take it on a tour which is currently crossing Canada.

Still, the mood was getting tumultuous in Toronto’s Air Canada Center last night as the clocked crept towards 11:30pm and the boos let up only when a lady doffed her top for the jumbotron. It was starting to get worrisome. After all, GN’R has sparked two full fledged riots in Canada — in Montreal in 1992 and in Vancouver a decade later.

Then Axl rolled out in a wheelchair and did something utterly unexpected. He apologized. “Sorry abut the time delay,” he said with a sheepish grin beneath his new handlebar mustache. “I got carried away jumping off shit last night.”

Alas, the two-hour delay meant songs had to be cut from Guns N’ Roses setlist to finish by 2am — ironically including ‘Patience.’

But after a tepid response to “Chinese Democracy” as the opening track, all seemed forgiven the second the Axl screeched, “You know where you are? You’re in the jungle, Toronto, you’re gonna dieeee.” They then barreled headfirst into Appetite for Destruction classics “It’s So Easy” and “Mr Brownstone”.

Unlike their past two tours, this was Axl’s chance to properly trot out his new songs – unfortunately, Chinese Democracy resembles those ‘Star Wars’ prequels. Aside from a few flashes of greatness — encore number “Madagascar” is a “November Rain” style epic purpose-built for stadium performances while aching ballad “This I Love” provided nice counterpoint — the songs just don’t have much soul.

Same goes for Axl’s band — they’re an extremely talented bunch, especially onetime Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and new, Slash-esque guitar hero DJ Ashba — but as fans discussed ad nauseum during the delay, they’re not quite the same.

Still, GN’R’s back catalogue, including beloved covers of “Live and Let Die” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, are as powerful as ever, even if Axl’s voiced only sporadically hit his old heights until a blazing set-closing rendition of “Night Train”.

“We’re gonna do this for our good friend J.D. Salinger, who passed away today,” Axl said mid-concert, launching into “Catcher in the Rye”. It was an interesting callout because of the similarities — and differences — the two men share. Both were reclusive artistic geniuses whose early work encapsulated the aimless anger of youth. But while Salinger holed up in his home and adamantly refused to follow-up his seminal work, Rose almost drove himself crazy trying to outdo his past. Ultimately, he failed and, in doing so, lessened his legend.

Not that it matters much to Axl, who ran around the stage like a young man. He was in far better shape than on his last two tours, both physically and mentally. Up there on an arena stage, in front of 21,000 fans, he’s rarely looked happier.

And when the guitars chimed out the indelible opening riff to “Sweet Child O’ Mine” or the chorus to “Paradise City” sparked a thousands-strong sing-along, the crowd looked just as content.

FROM WWW.SPINNER.COM:

Following Dave Matthews‘ duet with Neil Young at the ‘Hope for Haiti‘ benefit (which, if you haven’t heard, you can purchase at iTunes…for the cause), the enigmatic singer-songwriter has announced a new Dave Matthews Band EP to further raise funds for Haiti’s earthquake relief efforts. DMB fans of the world, rejoice: the EP, entitled ‘The Haiti Relief Project,’ contains five previously unreleased tracks and costs just $5. The tracks were culled from live performances from 2004 to 2009. The EP will be available beginning Saturday, exclusively through DMB’s download portal.

A limited-edition t-shirt, featuring the EP cover art, will also serve as a fundraiser. Additionally, all proceeds from hard merchandise sales made on Friday through the band’s official online outlets will go to the cause.

And while it seems like every band has rushed to Haiti’s aid, performing benefits, auctioning off memorabilia, creating special merchandise, it is important to remember that a disaster like the 7.0 earthquake experienced in Haiti does not heal with just an overnight care package. To that end, DMB has established the Bama Works Haiti Relief Fund, a special arm of their charitable Bama Works Fund. Its focus will be on the rebuilding effort in Haiti. Looks like someone is trying to teach his audience how to go the extra mile. Hats off, sir.

      I never met Kyle Woodring. I first became aware of him a few years ago when I was working on a book entitled The Grand Delusion: The Unauthorized True Story of Styx. I was trying to get as many interviews with people close to the members of Styx as I could, and Kyle was the drummer for former Styx front man Dennis DeYoung in his solo career. I saw Kyle in concert with DeYoung, and shortly thereafter I e-mailed Kyle to ask for an interview and never received a reply. I wasn’t surprised, as it had become increasingly clear to me that the DeYoung camp was a closed shop to me in terms of that project.

     I finished the book and forgot all about it until last September 8th, when I saw some fan posts on Facebook that Kyle had passed away unexpectedly. That got my attention, because he was young and seemingly healthy, and the cause of his death was unknown. As the day wore on some of his friends and colleagues also posted about his passing, and it was apparent from the tone of what was not being said that everyone was deliberately avoiding mentioning the cause of his death.

     The next day Kyle’s brother Kirk posted to Facebook, “”Kyle struggled for most of his life with depression. At times his depression overwhelmed him. Despite all he had in his life, he often was unable to recognize his worth to the world. On September 8th he succeeded in committing suicide. I feel helpless and saddened to not have been able to help Kyle in his last hours. I’m sure many of you share this feeling of guilt. I also know that those truly intent on suicide rarely reach out once they are committed to the act. In fact the decision to act on these thoughts can bring about a sense of peace and calm. Depression is sometimes a terminal illness. I love my brother deeply and know how wonderful his life was. I will celebrate his light and know that the darkness is no longer present for him.”

     I was struck by his unsurprised tone of resignation, especially in contrast to the slew of tributes that had come online from friends and colleagues who universally expressed their disbelief. ”Talking about Kyle’s death with a friend a day after the news came, we agreed that if he could go off the rails, anyone could,” wrote Robbie Fulks, with whom Kyle had played. ”Almost anyone I’ve worked with, as well as I myself, would seem a likelier candidate for suicide.” 

     Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan posted to Facebook, “I am deeply saddened to have learned of the passing of my friend and one time Survivor Drummer Kyle Woodring. He was the best of people and will be dearly missed by all. Godspeed Kyle.”  Dennis DeYoung posted a picture of Kyle on his website with the caption,  ”A gathering of angels appeared above my head. In memory of my good friend Kyle Woodring. “

    Still, it gnawed at me, why isn’t his brother surprised?

     This isn’t really my kind of story at all. I write about the music business, and sometimes that ends up touching the fringes of the personal lives of some of the performers I cover, and sometimes those people are privately troubled. It certainly isn’t a secret that the entertaiment business, by its very nature, caters to the exploitation of damaged personalities, which helps explain why alcohol, drugs and sexual addiction are sometimes a part of the equation. So there’s no reason to be surprised when yet another musician takes his own life. But I’m interested in the link between mental illness and musical ability, which can’t be defined but nonetheless seems obvious to me. Depression is so pervasive in the music business that I often wonder whether musical ability is, in itself, an illness, or perhaps a symptom of a larger illness. It may be a side effect of depression. I don’t know, but I can state without reservation that the vast majority of people I know who have genuine musical talent also have depression.

     I set out to wrote an ambitious article about the death of Kyle Woodring that would examine the root causes of his depression and suicide. I intended to shine a light into the dark places of the musical psyche and perhaps make it a little easier to understand why a young man who had everything going for him would choose to end his own life.

     But I failed. Kyle’s friend and former Icos band mate Danny McGuinness warned me in an email, “Having lost three friends, all incredibly talented artists, to suicide, I wonder if you’re chasing a ghost in connecting creativity and depression. It’s never as easy or neat an explanation as that.” And so it isn’t. No matter how obvious the link between music and mental illness appears to me, I can’t categorically make any assessment of what drove Kyle Woodring and his decisions. What standing do I have to do that? This isn’t a concert review, where I say whether I thought it was good or bad and then everyone forgets about it and moves on. Kyle Woodring is gone, and it would be disrespectful to his family, friends and colleagues for me to categorize his death through the flawed filter of my own understanding or lack thereof. If his own brother couldn’t really understand his depression when he was here, how can I hope to when he’s not?

     What follows, then, is my audio interview with Kyle’s brother Kirk Woodring in which he shares some of the joys and struggles of Kyle’s life. While it’s not what I intended, I think in the end it’s more fitting than whatever I might have written.

     I want to leave you with one thought that struck me from the interview. “Depression doesn’t have to be a terminal illness,” Kirk told me. “I liken it to diabetes or any other illness; if you treat it, it gets better. It’s not a character flaw, it’s not that you’re crazy. It is an illness.”

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     For more informtion on suicide hotlines http://suicidehotlines.com/

     For more information on depression http://www.depression.com/

    The last few months have been an exciting time for Gentle Giant fans. After years of relative inactivity, punctuated by sporadic releases of varying quality, over the course of the last few months Gentle Giant has released a large slice of its catalog in digital formats for the first time, and now those same re-masters are coming to CD versions as well. On Tuesday EMI released  In A Glass House (1973), The Power and the Glory (1974) and Free Hand (1975) on CD. February will bring additional releases of Playing The Fool, Interview, The Missing Piece, and Giant For A Day, and a DVD entitled GG Live at Winchester College will emerge later in the year as well.

     I have been lucky enough to interview both Derek Shulman and Gary Green from Gentle Giant previously, so I was very happy to get the opportunity to interview keyboardist Kerry Minnear, who called me from his home in the UK on Thursday, January 28th to discuss the new releases and his career with Gentle Giant. Over and over what strikes me about the members of Gentle Giant is how different they are from most of the rock musicians I deal with. I routinely interview some of the most famous musicians of a certain time period, as well as some lesser-known people, and they tend to fall into two distinct categories. The ones who have succeeded but whose success is mostly in the past tend to be embittered, looking back over their shoulders at a time in their lives that has been gone for decades, but continues to define them in the public eye in a way they can never really escape. The ones who took a shot but didn’t really achieve commercial success tend to be embittered by their lack of success.

     The members of Gentle Giant, by sharp contrast, seem to genuinely celebrate the music they created together;  they seem to understand that the very nature of what they created was always going to limit its commercial prospects, and they seem to be okay with that, even proud of it. There’s a humility about the members of the group that isn’t really the norm for musicians. In the case of Kerry Minnear in particular, he is so soft-spoken and unassuming that it’s almost difficult to picture him in a setting where he was required to earn his living by going out and entertaining people en masse, and it’s almost impossible to imagine him having to function in the shark tank of the Seventies music business. 

     Perhaps that’s a part of why Gentle Giant never garnered more commercial success, who knows? I can only say that the band left a unique and lasting legacy, and it’s a great time to be a Gentle Giant fan right now. In this podcast episode Kerry Minnear discusses the recent burst of Gentle Giant business after years of relative inactivity; the new generations of Gentle Giant fans; why In A Glass House was not released in America initially; touring with Black Sabbath; touring with Jethro Tull; The Power and the Glory and why it became a concept album; and the differences between Gentle Giant and other progressive rock bands.

Special thanks to Kerry Minnear and to Anne Leighton for arranging this interview.

Stay tuned for Part Two, which I will post Tuesday.

To listen in streaming click on the “play” button on the player below. To download, right click where it says “Listen to the Interview”. You can also access this podcast through iTunes by searching We Will Rock You in podcasts.

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In Glass House
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Free Hand
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Power & The Glory
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FROM WWW.SPINNER.COM:

Though there have been many posthumous releases from Jimi Hendrix’s archives since his tragic death, the recently-announced ‘Valleys of Neptune’ isn’t meant to be a “lost” album. Rather, it’s a look at the creative period in Hendrix’s life between the 1968 release of ‘Electric Ladyland’ and his legendary appearance at Woodstock the following summer.

“In the aftermath of ‘Electric Ladyland,’ he made a series of recordings with the original Experience,” co-producer, author and Experience Hendrix catalog director John McDermott tells Spinner. “When they effectively stopped working as a three-man recording unit, he brought in [bassist] Billy Cox — this album captures that transition. We don’t want to over-dramatize it. This is that missing period of time.”

The dozen tracks on ‘Valleys of Neptune’ reflect a time where Hendrix, finding his way with a new band while fighting contractual problems, was blossoming creatively. Featuring reworked hits like ‘Fire’ and ‘Red House’ as well as fully-realized songs that have never officially been released, the album shows that Hendrix was embarking in a new direction, one that would later be heard on ‘Band of Gypsys.’ While the album is due out on March 9, check out Spinner’s exclusive premiere of the title track below to hear what McDermott refers to as a “snapshot” into a part of Jimi’s life that’s rarely been heard.

Listen to ‘Valleys of Neptune’ HERE

FROM WWW.SPINNER.COM:

Sly Stone — the reclusive and notoriously quirky ringleader of legendary funk act Sly & the Family Stone — has filed a $50 million lawsuit against his former business manager and associates, according to media reports. Among the charges are fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and converting and misappropriating the artist’s royalties and assets for more than two decades.

“On the eve of the Grammys that celebrate the best of our artists, we see a dark side of the music business where some of these artists are being robbed,” said Stone’s attorney, Robert J. Allan, in a statement.

The lawsuit claims that, in addition to diverting Stone’s royalties for his own financial benefit, Jerry Goldstein, Stone’s former manager, actually registered the Sly & the Family Stone name as belonging to one of his private companies and then borrowed millions of dollars against future royalties.

Meanwhile, Stone — whose songwriting credits include many funk staples including “Everyday People,” “Dance to the Music,” “Family Affair,” “I Want to Take You Higher,” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” — relies on Social Security payments to get by and has reportedly been homeless at various times. The lawsuit seeks to recuperate $50 million in damages and lost royalties. In brighter news, Sly & the Family Stone are scheduled to make an extremely rare performance at this year’s Coachella.