2 comments about Trailblazer: Live.

1. This is definitely a top-ten album for me. This live album was released at the height of long hair metal-mania, and the few punkers left around were debating whether to pack it in, grow their hair, and admit nobody wanted garage band rock anymore. It was all about rap or faux-metal. And who would save punk? Nirvana? Give me a break...Some stayed true to the music though.
   This album rocks. Plain and simple. Begging to differ with the other user's comments, the sound quality is pretty damn good especially considering the acoustics of CBGBs at the time. That tight-but-loose sound packs in superb guitar work from one of punk's very best players. All of these guys were at one time or another in Black Flag, Descendents, Circle Jerks, etc. Many, founding members. These guys know how to play fast and hard, with harmony and precision. This stuff is so much better than the ripoffs like Tool, Filter, Offspring, etc. Everyone just copies each other now. Punk Rock will never be back. Its the one form of rock that asks you to stay true to independence, avoid mainstream tripe, and seek new avenues of expression. Once you let that go, you can't have it back.



2. The only official All album (released in 1989) gives the fans a small idea of what All sounded like during the Scott Reynolds era. Scott does a killer job doing the Smalley era songs and the Allroy's Revenge songs as well. The musicianship is flawless. And the song selection is okay (except for Copping Z....never liked it, never will). The thing is, they compressed the mix way too much, to the point where it doesn't sound live. Bill's drums are punchy but too synthetic sounding (like there's no snare wire on his snare drum). The guitar and bass are flat in in the mix, and Scott's vocals seem to flow in and out. I can't complain too much though, since for a new fan who might already have the s/t best of CD or Allroy's Revenge, this is a place to get caught up on more obscure All stuff. Dan Armstrong guitars rock, and allow nothing to deter you in your quest for ALL.

1 comments about Bowie at the Beeb: The Best of the BBC Radio Sessions.

1. CD2 - The first CD could be a symphony of (flatus) and I'd still give this 5 stars for the nearly immaculate performances on the second disk. In particular, "Hang Onto Yourself" (track 3), "White Light/White Heat," and "Suffregette City" (featuring Mick Ronson making this totally hot kissing noise with his guitar)crackle with energy. It is truly a thrill to hear these old favorites in such a new (as such) and exciting light. Bowie and Co. burn down the BBC studios. Repeatedly. Any rock fan (but especially an old Bowie fan, of course) is likely to meltdown in ecstacy upon hearing this.
   
   CD1 - Many hardcore fans will surely (sweet milk) over CD1 as well although I'm not personally crazy about all of it. Some of David's early Brittish folk period is represented which can be a bit hippy-dippy at times. The first 4 tracks, recorded in May of '68, fit that description although they do feature brilliant in-studio orchestral accompaniment.
   
   Much of CD1 does in fact rock. "Let Me Sleep Beside You" and "Janine" are very good, easy-going rockers recorded with Junior's Eyes who had a short-lived collaboration with Bowie and the session was never broadcast. Bowie delivers a stunning solo performance of Jacques Brel's "Port of Amsterdam" (vocal and guitar). The same session shows off Mick Ronson just a few days after hooking up with Bowie for the first time. They perform an intriguing, half-written version of "Width of a Circle." Ronson really cuts loose on "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" and "Cygnet Committee" is positively intense. Some studio hum can be heard on the session, an atmospheric reminder of the electric nature of these proceedings (that may or may not appeal to the listener). "Memory of a Free Festival" had sadly been edited for time and remains so.
   
   Recorded in June of '71, the last session on CD1 features all of the future Spiders From Mars as well as some friends on vocals and guitarist Mark Carr-Pritchard who played for a phantom Bowie project called Arnold Corns. Early embryonic versions of "Moonage Daydream" and "Hang Onto Yourself" were recorded and released under that name. The group stomps through "Bombers," a rare HUNKY DORY-era cut that sounds better (and less cheesy) than the studio version which I have as a bonus cut from the RYCODISK release of HUNKY DORY. "Looking For A Friend" is a country-ish, Stones-y rocker and they also turn in a rousing cover of Chuck Berry's "Almost Grown." And Bowie performs "Kooks" solo on vocal and guitar which he had just written for newborn son Zowie.
   
   Note: Those concerned about excessive voice-overs from BBC radio hosts (like the ones that marred the Jimmy Hendrix BBC release) can relax. There's very little talking over the songs and quite a bit of interesting Bowie banter on CD1. CD2 has nothing but back-to-back songs. Tracks begin with actual songs, not the preceeding dialogue.

5 comments about Loco Live.

1. This album is often overlooked by Ramones fans, but it does have some significant things about it. It's the first album without Dee Dee. It's the first album with C.J. It's the first live album released in the US. It's the last album released by Sire Records. Other than that, how is the album? Pretty good, actually. It is a typical solid Ramones concert of the era. The songs are played faster than the studio versions, as usual. C.J. does an admirable job of taking Dee Dee's place, even singing "Wart Hog" about as well as Dee Dee did. The set list doesn't really have any surprises, other than one big surprise. The BIG SURPRISE is the hidden bonus track, which is "Carbona Not Glue". It appears between "Pet Sematary" and "Judy is a Punk". Ramones fans should enjoy this CD.



2. As a joke,when people would squish up their faces and ask me"what do the Ramones sound like,"I would answer"well,they're kinda like the satanic Beach Boys."Yes a joke,but it got the point across to everyone that they're really not like anyone,but it seems that everyone wants to sound like THEM.How craphole bands like Blink 182 and Good Charlotte can sell millions of albums and live in mansions and the Ramones ate dogfood is just further testament to the vast ignorance of the record buying public and the futility of believing in a just and loving god.From the beginning of their career to the end of it,The Ramones were the seminal punk rock group.If you haven't heard The Ramones,you have never,repeat,never heard true punk rock.This is about as close as any newbie will ever be to seeing them live,and that's a shame.The songs are fast,the audience is loud,and the setlist is phenomenal.There's no other band in the world that could plow through that many songs in 65 minutes without an encore.To be honest,The Ramones never once needed an encore to please their fans.This is in my opinion the greatest and truest live album ever recorded,a real treat for the fans,and one of the rare occasions it wasn't just a marketing ploy to further gouge the public at large for a greater profit margin.This is honesty people.Raw and angry sounding,this was the locomotive coming at you full force for the absolute love of their fans.A true gem of an album,Loco Live oughta please even the most jaded and arrogant among you.



3. Even if you are a newcomer to the world of punk rock, you must be aware of the punk tradition of covering songs that came before...sometimes even decades before the current band re-recorded them. The new version is often harder, or faster than the original, and of course contains the new band's particular characteristics of style. Loco Live is an album of covers. The amazing thing is that the covers are done by the same band that did the originals--the ineffable RAMONES.
   
   This album contains 32 of their best songs in all of their "live" glory. This record is unique in the fact that these are songs that you may have listened to for years, but you have never heard them quite like this. Recorded late in their career, Loco Live was an answer to those critics who had declared the RAMONES to be decrepit old men who gave what they could to Rock and Roll, but should now stand back and watch as a younger generation took over. The RAMONES refused, and rocked out this album in response.
   
   I call this an album of covers because these songs are vastly different from their original recordings. Joey is at his bird-like best. So much so that at times he simply neglects the words in favor of whatever melodic throaty sound he can produce. Most of the time you simply can not understand him, unless you know the words by heart. For example, on Ignorance is Bliss, it sounds like he's saying "aneurysm" instead of ignorance is bliss. The words come out so quickly and with such a snarl, that it's almost incomprehensible. This record is faster, harder, and angrier than anything else the RAMONES put out, and that makes it a punk rock classic.
   
   The only caution I have is directed toward the newcomer to the RAMONES music legacy. In order to fully appreciate this record, you need to know the words to these songs. (Much in the same way that you need to know the right lyrics to appreciate The Parasites cover of "It's Alive" where they sing the wrong lyrics as printed in the original liner notes released in Japan!) Anyway...if you don't know these songs, I recommend that you buy some collection of the RAMONES like "All the Stuff and More" or "Loud, Fast, RAMONES" or "Hey Ho, Let's Go Anthology" to get your bearings, and then throw caution to the wind with Loco Live.
   
   This record rocks from beginning to end. Put it in and watch it burn a hole in your speakers. Loco Live embodies the spirit of Punk Rock like none other, and shows why punk bands today still dress like, sound like, and try to play like, The RAMONES!



4. Very good, very fast, very hard. Pure adrenaline from the begin to finish. After 32 songs the spanish punk rockers in Barcelona still loud: HEY HO LET'S GO!... so what can i tell you



5. Picking "Loco Live" after at least two years in which I haven't heard it, I was impressed with the extent to which it still holds as a powerful Rock record. I've been listening to more sophisticated music these few years - blues, funk, experimental rock and some jazz. Yet I'm still attracted to the fast-and-loud, hard edge of rock music. I guess I'm a punk at heart, and that, in order to enjoy the Ramones, you have to be one, too.
   
   But I've also noticed things that I have never heard before - the transformation of the Ramones's musical style, and the way in which the Ramones was such an American band.
   
   The cliché about the Ramones is how simple their music has always been - "no one can play three chords better" than the Ramones, and so on. But Loco Live finds the Ramones far away from the distorted bubble gum pop band that amazingly failed to conquer the world between 1977 and 1981. By the mid 1980s, the Ramones have evolved into a bona fide hard rock act, heavier and faster then anything they've done in the 1970s.
   
   Listening to "I believe in Miracles" it is hard to believe I've never noticed it before. The song is downright blues-y. There is nothing of the bubble gum in "Love Kills" or "Mama's boy", and "Pet Semetary", the title song to the Stephen King movie, has riffs and mood that are as much hard rock cliché as the lyrics (don't let this sound like I don't like the song - it's fantastic). The early songs are sped up and toughened up, and are transformed into something like acid pop. Among the later tunes, the only one that resembles the innocence of the earlier days is "Palisades Park" an old fifties standard. Hell, they even open up the set with a play back of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly..."
   
   I can't help thinking that this change has something to do with the changes in the United States in the 1980s. It seems that the Ramones have grown along with the mysterious zeitgeist, and the music, I believe, reflect where the US cultural scene, or at least some of it, was in the Reagan years. Certainly, the lyrics reflect that - "Bonzo goes to Bitberg (a.k.a "My head is hanging upside down") is about a controversial visit of Ronald Reagan's to a Nazi cemetery, and "Ignorance is Bliss" is an undoubtedly political tune. Joey prefaces "I wanna live" with something of a manifesto: "We believe in freedom... we believe in human rights".
   
   Both musically and lyrically, the Ramones were a more sophisticated band than many critics give them credit for. And while "Loco Live" does not quite catch them in their prime, it is a fantastic live gig of a great hard rock/punk band. "Do you remember Rock'n'roll Radio?" If not, the Ramones will remind you.

5 comments about Live Acoustic America.

1. Howard shows us that he is truly a performer. He and Carol do an amazing job of creating powerful music--just the two of them! I loved these songs in the '80s but this live rendition makes them timeless. Even better than the original! I've always appreciated Howard's uplifting, intelligent lyrics. This is simply an amazing album, well worth having in your collection.



2. Unlike many popular music stars of the 80's, Howard Jones CAN sing and play instruments. This album is proof of that. Not only is this an exceptional album, but its actually fun to listen to. Howard interacts w/ the audience as he reinterprets some of his music. You'll feel like you're in the concert hall w/ all of Howard's fans screaming in between sets (which in and of itself is entertaining). This album revived my interest in some of Howard's older, less popular songs, many of which sound dated and depressing in their original album recordings (ie. Falling Away). I hontestly cannot see myself growing tired of listening to this CD.



3. I won't pretend to be a professional reviewer/critic. I'll just tell it like it is. I've had this CD for several years and it is my favorite. It's fun and absolutely fantastic. If you need a lift - this is the one to do it. - Well worth the money spent!
   Enjoy



4. For a time, this CD was the only pop music I would listen to; the only one that held any interest for me. Live collections have the potential to the best or the worst. They can be so awful, pointing out all of an artist's flaws, or they can allow a talented artist to soar. Live Acoustic America falls in the latter category. It remains fresh and immediate after many playings.



5. Every once in a while you come across a musician who seems to have integrity and a genuineness. For me, Howard Jones has been that artist. Mostly written off by critics and the general public, Howard has managed to survive musically, doing music his way, even losing his record deal with Elektra in 1992. I'm not one to buy live albums but since I have seen Howard Jones live at least three times, I thought I'd give this cd a shot. Consisting of just Howard on acoustic piano and Carol Steele (Tears For Fears) on acoustic percussion, the two of them showcase Howard's fine pop sensibilities. More than just a re-hash of hits, this live compilation, recorded during Howard's 1992 tour, actually breathes new life into his old catalog. Seldom is heard these days, lyrics that are intelligent and positive and music that makes you feel good too. The recording and engineering on this disc is amazing giving the listener great sound quality for a live recording.

3 comments about Live 1991.

1. This album is really great. The boys really sound good and some great vocals by Jack Grisham.... get this cd while you can sounds as good as anything thats came out in years. clean crisp sound to boot.



2. This is, by far, the best live album ever recorded. TSOL, in my opinion, are the best of all the old school punk bands. There is not a bad song on this record. From beginning to end it is simply amazing. Unlike other live recordings, you can still feel the energy you get while being at a punk show. Some of the best tracks are Superficial Love, I'm Tired, Thoughts Of Yesterday, and Funeral March. I love this cd, buy it!



3. T.s.o.l was a great band to go see live and this album proves it. When your in a bad mood or feeling a bit angry put on "Superficial Love", I guarantee it will pick you up.

3 comments about Blue Plate Specials Live.

1. I AM A SPECIALS FAN,AND HAVE SEEN/HEARD THEM LIVE IN BOTH ORIGINAL AND REFORMED LINEUPS.IT IS AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIANCE.THIS RECORDING OF THEM LIVE IS OF POOR QUALITY AND MUDDIED/MUFFLED SOUND.I KNOW THIS AS I OWN IT.



2. This album is great, especially if you want to hear the Specials before they were the Specials (i.e., when they were the Coventry Automatics and The Special A.K.A.). Also, since "The Coventry Automatics AKA the Specials: Dawning of a New Era" CD is no longer available on Amazon, you can still hear rare songs like "Rock and Roll Nightmare" (which has the same beat and some of the same lyrics as "Pearl's Cafe" which is on their last album), "Look But Don't Touch" and "Jay Walker". Even if you're not sure if you should really get this CD, its only $5.99 so get it! You'll be happy you did.



3. This is an awesome CD. A must for Specials fans, not to mention some rare tracks like "Look But Don't Touch", and "Jay Walker". There's also a great version of "Stupid Marriage".

1 comments about CBGB OMFUG Masters: Live 2/3/03, The Bowery Collection.

1. Over their 20+ years in "the biz", the Queers have put out 4 full-length live albums: 1994's SUCK THIS, 2000's LIVE IN WEST HOLLYWOOD, 2007's WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S, and this show from 2003. SUCK THIS has the best sound, probably because it was recorded in a small room in front of a few people. The other 3 are somewhat comparable in sound quality. This show from New York City's CBGB's (a dive bar, but a famous one) is worth getting, if only for the songs rarely (or never) heard on other Queers's albums: "Blabbermouth", "Murder In The Brady House", "I Will Be With You", and "Yeah, Well, Whatever."

4 comments about Im Auftrag des Herrn: Live.

1. I especially like "Alles Aus Liebe", "Hier Kommt Alex", "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Guantanamera". Die Toten Hosen is a great German punk band, which should get more exposure in the United States.
   Great music.
   
   --Alexander Shaumyan, poet and author of "Spirit of Rebellion"



2. this is THE best live punk rock album. track after track of incredibly powerful and creative songwriting delivered with all the adrenaline of a 12,000+ people punk rock concert via studio sound quality. punk rock as good as it gets, this is what it's really about. god only knows what their talkin about, i don't really care. hats off to the "dead trousers" and their album "on behalf of the gentlemen".



3. the best song from this cd is böser wolf and hier kommt alex.ilove
   die toten hosen



4. I had a friend in Hawaii w/ a German girlfriend reccomend this to me. Im auftrag is filled with beutiful live sounds of the great toten hosen. Their sound is a strong, fast, and sometimes slow punk rock, with a significant British punk influence. Every song on this CD is excellent, and you can tell by the way they sing, they love to perform, and party with the crowd. My Favorite tracks are Mehr Davon, hier kommt Alex and Testbild. I highly reccomend this CD

No comments about Sphinctour.

5 comments about Glorious & Idiotic.

1. Glorious and Idiotic share many of the early and brilliant Jazz Butcher songs also on the Bloody Nonsense compilation, now long out of print. The great guitar, and fantastically insightful lyrics make this a must-have for any lover of clever britpop. Let me say again, 'Must-have'.



2. JBC has never yet made a five-star LP, and they probably never will, but that's no reason not to keep hoping. This live effort starts so well that its only challenge is to keep on building from the opening third...and it can't quite manage it. Who cares? It's great anyway. Best of all, it's acoustic, the JBC unglued and unplugged. The guitar work, especially on the quieter numbers, suggests the jazz work of Kenny Burrell.




3. I was also nicely surprised by the release and live quality of this CD. As a compulsive JB buyer, it was an Amazon "instabuy". It is great to see these boys release soemthing again after all this time, and it does not disappoint either. My favorites like Roadrunner and Big Foot Motel are in a styling groove.

   Having said that, I find it a little depressing and irritating that the JB's extensive early works are not available any more. THis is a great album, but frankly, I don't think it has the energy and quirkyness of "Live In Hamburg" and I don't want to live in the past, but I remeber being totally enamoured with "Sex & Travel" and "The Gift Of Music". It is criminal that that work is no longer published.

   Anyone out there hear that ? Anyone ?




4. THE JAZZ BUTCHER CONSPIRACY Glorious and Idiotic (ROIR)

   The jaw-dropping bids on eBay give some indication of the Jazz Butcher's proverbial cult following: a digital copy of 1982's A Scandal in Bohemia, something of a post-punk masterpiece ignored by the critics, recently sold for almost $200, and many of the out-of-print CDs earn triple-digit offers. Copyright hassles with the now defunct Glass Records, keepers of the Butcher's early catalog, have prevented re-releases of the most sought-after disks, while a 1996 compilation with many of the best old cuts is already out-of-print. Thus, ROIR's new Glorious and Idiotic, recorded live in Hamburg during the Butcher's recent tour (a reunion circuit with original guitarist Max Eider that had the Internet cultists buzzing), is less a standard concert disk than a way around the copyright trouble and a chance for fans to access some great rare material. The thirteen songs, most of them old Butcher mainstays, are crisp and intimate - a big improvement from the live Western Family CD released in 1993 - from the loungy chords of "Partytime" and "Just Like Betty Page," to the clean pop of "Rain" (and, why the hell not, the ubiquitous cover of the Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner"). There's little new ground, but that's hardly the point, and fans will appreciate a chance to hear some vintage Jazz Butcher without giving their rent money to eBay. Newcomers, meanwhile, can sample the best of an obscure British artist whose talent, if not luck and timing, has been as formidable as any in the history of alternative rock.




5. Are these the same versions of Partytime, Drink, The Human Jungle, & Caroline Wheeler's Birthday Present as on "Draining the Glass"?