Tag: music

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Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor – Rob Zombie

All the Rob Zombie stuff is good. I bought a load before seeing him at M’era Luna a long time ago apparently, I seem to remember it was just the year before last, covid has fucked memories. I couldn’t tell you anything specific about this album. I don’t think you’d be disappointed if you got it.

This is communication number two thousand and two. Here are some things that happened in that year:

  • The Euro becomes the currency of those countries in the Eurozone.
  • Iraq agrees to disarm wrt UN Resolution 1441.

It’s been curious completing these little lists of things that happened in each year. When I started back in the 1800s I think there were lots of things that stuck out from the rest as I went through the list of events on Wikipedia. I found fires, human rights and climate change things with ease. Now I’m looking at the lists of things from the 2000s it’s becoming harder to find things that resonated with me in that time. The 80s and early 90s were quite clear and events stuck out. But, now, not so much. I wonder if that’s to do with my experience of those years and whether I just wasn’t that aware of what was going on? It will be interesting to see what happens as we come closer to the present day.

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Use Your Illusion II – Guns ‘n’ Roses

Each new communication seems we get a little closer to ending the work that has been the album reviews because that is literally the definition of writing about a finite list. But, I will go back to the beginning and start over with all the EBM, Aggrotech music once I’ve finished this. It looks like there’s around thirty or so to go but I don’t think I’ll finish them this calendar year. Here’s a tweet about a journey around the world that I’m undertaking at the moment. Nothing to do with music but it’s nice to add something into these communications.

Here we go with my review of Illusion II. It’s very similar to Illusion I in its feel and atmosphere. They did come out on the same day.

Civil War – boring.

14 Years – Doesn’t have a huge amount going for it.

Yesterdays – plinky plonky boring.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – great live, but then it’s not their own song. Dull as.

Get In The Ring – something worth listening to. I testament to Axl’s treatment by the metal music press. He calls out the journalists and reckons he could fight them. Look, when you are out of it on drugs and alcohol you think things should be settled in one way only. I do like this song.

Shotgun Blues – Nope.

Breakdown – whatever.

Pretty Tied Up – I quite like this one. It’s a bit more upbeat that most and makes me smile.

Locomotive – I’m playing this right now and I genuinely can’t remember this song!!

So Fine – boring.

Estranged – boring.

You Could Be Mine – used in a film. A good song.

Don’t Cry – AGAIN? What. Isn’t this on number one?

My World – really nope.

I know it looks like I hate this album and I do think I would skip a lot of the songs if they came on now but I loved this and the other one. They forged a part of me. I mean, I saw Guns ‘n’ Roses three times in the early 90s and had a great time at every concert. I’m not sure Illusion II stands the test of time, or possibly the test of my patience with ballads.

This is communication number 1995 and we get closer to the massive TWO THOUSAND each week. I wonder if the end of the second thousand communications will happen this side of my christmas break or in it. It depends how keen I am to keep writing stuff on here. Here are some things that happened in the year 1995:

  • I started learning to be a teacher after a year of doing sabbatical stuff.
  • Genocide in the Balkans.
  • Windows 95.
  • Existence of top quark is announced.
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Use Your Illusion I – Guns ‘n’ Roses

There was a time when Guns ‘n’ Roses were the largest band in the world. This is communication 1994 and it’s quite close to the release year of 1991 for these two albums, Illusion 1 and Illusion 2. I can remember walking around near South Kensington underground station trying to find an “Our Price” record shop to buy these things. My thinking was that that there are shops near the tube station and so there should be an “Our Price”. Where I grew up where there were lots of shops there was an Our Price so I think my logic was solid I just hadn’t realised at that point just how “shoppy” London can be. I had to walk all the way to Kensington High Street to find a shop that could sell me these albums. I know I bought them on album and then transferred them to tape to listen more conveniently, record players being quite rare in drivable vehicles.

I have listened to these albums recently and I would think it’s been around twenty years since my last full run through of the songs. There are some songs that I really like and many that I’m just not fussed by. I wonder how much my experience of these songs has changed over the last thirty years. I think I’ve changed a lot in my tastes. I mean, fuck ballads. But then I don’t think I’ve ever really loved Don’t Cry and November Rain – they are too popular and musically written to create that popularity.

Right Next Door To Hell is a good fast song that smashes the sound and experience into your head. But it’s followed by:

Dust N’ Bones which is a bit bluesy and shit. It was with these two albums that G’n’R started having lots of backing singers on tour and it all went a little not-dangerous. But what are you going to do when you are the biggest band in the world.

Live and Let Die can fuck off.

Perfect Crime is a bit boring and so much of the same. Maybe I’m too old for this shit. I’m not bothered by most of this. I do think Appetite is still an amazing album though.

You Ain’t The First is boring.

Bad Obsession I absolutely love the slide guitar at the beginning of this song. It’s an awesome sound. Is that a harmonica in the mix? Not sure, but I don’t think I like it. The song isn’t terrible though.

Back Of Bitch. I really struggle with the term bitch when referring to people. I don’t like it. It reeks of a poor attitude and behaviour.

Double Talkin’ Jive I quite like the solo and overall I think the song works quite well.

November Rain – utter shit.

The Garden – is that fucking Alice Cooper? Such a malevolent voice. Makes this entire song something worth listening to.

Garden Of Eden – nope.

Don’t Damn Me – again, a decent riff and a decent song. I like this one.

Bad Apples – nope.

Dead Horse – OK.

Coma – I quite like a decent opus and this one works for me!

I guess the next album to be reviewed will be Illusion II with bloody Civil War and other songs that are wildly popular but just piss me off. Oh well. I can’t help being a grump.

This is communication number 1994, so here are some things that happened in that year, the twenty-third of my time on Earth.

  • I graduate and prior to that had won an election.
  • Bill Clinton calls for a ban on assault weapons. I wonder how that’s going.
  • The Downward Spiral is released.
  • Kurt Cobain takes his own life.
  • Ayrton Senna is killed the day after Roland Ratzenberger dies.
  • The Channel Tunnel is opened to passengers.
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Up From The Ashes – Don Dokken

I really do just like some classic cock-rock. And this I think is classic cock-rock. I don’t know anything about the history of Dokken and Don Dokken, it’s mid to late 80s stuff and all information about rock bands came from magazines in those days. I didn’t really care for that stuff. Does it matter who leaves what band and who fought whom? I guess it’s a bit like a soap opera if you are really into that stuff but I don’t think I was really bothered by it. When Izzy left G ‘n’ R it was more a understanding of “yes that makes sense” than OMG G ‘n’R are breaking up. Bruce left Iron Maiden and I wasn’t fussed and so on.

Sometimes I wonder why people give up on a thing that clearly makes them plenty of money. If I had an acting job that meant loads of money but it was shit TV then part of me would want to keep doing that job. However, the motivation of money is much higher in my personal priorities having grown up with not much of it and as an adult choosing a career where the financial rewards aren’t great [even diminished under the tories]. Ah, now I see my motivation – I chose a career path that I find fascinating and fun and the lack of money is just a side product which I cope with – hence other people choosing to leave their success and seek fulfilment. Good on them.

I don’t think Dokken were ever megastars with the ability to retire whenever they want. One of their songs was used for a film soundtrack and that’s about the limit of their fame and fortune. Their favourite album of mine was recorded in Japan and as a previous headteacher of mine said to me once regarding his own music success in Japan – they buy any old shit over there. So as I write this the songs are playing and they are broadly speaking very well constructed rock songs with reasonable riffs and verses that are a little too ballad for my tastes now. I don’t really like songs which slow down. The verse should be upbeat and then the chorus should be even more so. It’s an 80s thing to have ballad shit in songs and keep repeating it. I don’t think I’ve ever really liked it.

Some song highlights are:

  • When Some Nights – I like the guitar and bass combo in this one. It’s the fist song with some life in the album.
  • Give It Up – good bass sound. Good quality sing along song.
  • Down In Flames – interesting opening with mechanical voice.
  • The Hunger – opening drums – amazing, riff – amazing. Balled verse – shit.

Comms #1991, so here are some things from that year:

  • I was working at Raytheon/Cossors and almost considered joining the air force if the Gulf War became “bad” whatever that means.
  • I started university and met some great people.
  • Dissolution of the Soviet Union.
  • The Moby Prince sinks killing 140 people.
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United Abominations – Megadeth

Here’s the thing with Megadeth; since they gave up drugs and became all christian they’ve kinda gone a bit shit. I understand the reasons for coming off drugs, that makes loads of sense, I’m not sure I understand the christian part because doesn’t that mean that god made them an addict in the first place and he’s a fucking asshole? I do know that twelve step programmes might not work that well and one of the steps is to surrender yourself to a higher power. Fuck that shit. In Scandinavia they have a programme that doesn’t depend on abstinence and that works better I suspect. Anyway, it’s a complicated picture and not one that I’m going to do justice to in this here little blog.

This album is not on my iPhone. I think that says it all really. While it’s in my collection and on the NAS drive in the house I won’t listen to it anywhere else. To be perfectly honest if I want some Megadeth in the house I wouldn’t even put this album on. I think there’s only so much twiddly thrash metal you can have in your head at one time before all the songs start to sound the same [I will admit that typing that just made me sick]. The Megadeth albums on my phone are:

  • Killing is my business . . . And business is good.
  • Peace sells . . . But Who’s Buying.
  • So Far So Good . . . So What.
  • Rust In Peace.
  • That One Night – Live In Buenos Aires.

So, there. You now know what I think of this album.

This is communication number 1989 and as has become a recent tradition these are some things, curated by me, that happened in that year.

  • 47 died in the Kegworth air disaster.
  • Union Carbide agree to pay the Indian government 470million for causing the deaths of 3,700 in the Bhopal disaster of 1984. [$127,000 per human life in case you wondered].
  • 97 people die in the Hillsborough disaster.
  • 51 people die in the Marchioness disaster.
  • 11 die in bomb attack at Deal Barracks, Kent.
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Unholy Terror – W.A.S.P.

I had this album playing while I was flying X-Plane yesterday. I had thought that I might recognise some of the songs, but I did not. It could be that yesterday was the first time I actually played this album. W.A.S.P. are a comically larger than life band who sought out the controversy and I’m hoping to see them soon. But this album left me unfazed. Just go listen to Live . . . In The Raw.

This is communication number 1988 and it’s quite exciting writing and finding these little happenings each year as we enter a period of time when I was quite aware of the world and the goings on therein. I was sixteen in this year. ATC summer camp was at RAF Coningsby, I took my GCSEs, it was the very first year of those examinations.

  • 3 members of the IRA are shot dead by SAS in Gibraltar.
  • 167 die in the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion.
  • 75 people are killed in an airshow accident at Ramstein.
  • Total one million dead as Iran Iraq war ends.
  • F-117 acknowledged as existing and first B-2 is revealed.
  • Pan Am flight 103 is blown up over Scotland, the debris lands on town of Lockerbie.
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Undaunted – Mordecai

I saw this band live at Download 2013. They were in a smaller tent and Smith and I just went there out of curiosity. They were not terrible. It was perfectly good rock/metal music. So, I bought their album.

I’m not sure there’s anything special about the album. There’s not really anything that stands out enough to say that this band should be massive. But, that might be the crux. The whole album is crafted really well. There aren’t any shit songs and it all works pretty well. It’s a pretty good choice when I want to listen to rock but nothing superstar.

This is communication number 1987 and as with recent traditions I have been adding a few things that happened in that particular year in the current calendar system. Having typed this I’ve remembered I didn’t do it for my previous communication so I’ll head back that way and adjust it shortly.

  • The Archbishop of Canterbury had sent an envoy to the middle east to try and help but Terry Waite was kidnapped and not released until 1991.
  • 193 people die in the Herald Of Free Enterprise ferry disaster at Zeebrugge.
  • 16 people are killed in a massacre in Hungerford, UK.
  • Mathias Rust lands a small light plane in Red Square Moscow.
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Ultra Payloaded – Satellite Party

I think I got to hear about this album from a television show I watched in Australia, something like that. It’s a side project of the singer for Jane’s Addiction and as such, this is an OK album. I enjoy the songs when they pop up on a shuffle but I don’t think it’s an album I would normally reach for unless it’s summer time and maybe I’m outside in the garden, it’s got that kind of feel to it.

This is the first of the “U” albums and it’s a quite exclusive club. Definitely not as many as “T”, thank goodness. We’ll be at the end of the list soon I guess unless the “W”s have a surprise for us.

This should be communication number 1973 because all the other communications before this one have been building up to number 2000. That’s why I started added year-information-stuff. But now there’s a controversy. WordPress thinks this is number 1972 and not 1973 and I really am unsure why.

I get a “posts” count at the top of my WordPress page and have been using that to figure out the particular comms# but systems have gone wrong somehow. Now I don’t want to repeat a load of information and maybe I should make the content dynamic somehow but I’m going to stick with the system I have been using and hope WordPress catches up with me soon. Maybe this is my “millennium bug”.

Here are some things that happened in 1973:

  • The UK joins the EEC, fore-runner of the EU.
  • US dollar is devalued by 10%.
  • Dark Side Of The Moon is released.
  • Tu-144 crashes.
  • Sydney Opera house is formally opened.
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Tummy – Wat Tyler

Gosh, it has taken a while to get to this point but this is the last of the “T” albums. Once I complete all the albums alphabetically it’ll be time to go back to the beginning and start reviewing all the EBM, aggrotech, albums that I have. Sorry about that but I don’t think there is an end to this portion of this site. If you think these are boring just wait for my list of airports I have used in the Round The World Trip in X-Plane!!

I saw Wat Tyler at a gig in the Square in Harlow way back when I had more hair than now. They were funny and I bought this CD at the merch table. This album is the perfect mix of well written songs and joke songs which make me laugh. I love it.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • Justify Your Book – is it just me or is the singer’s voice remarkably sexy here?
  • It Makes Me Belch – heavy riff and shouty vocals with a great hook into the chorus.
  • Hops And Barley – such an amazing wholesome song.
  • Coming Home – a lovely sea shanty from before sea shanties being popular.
  • Perry Groves – apparently a song about soccer.
  • The Definitive Love Song – a bit of a Freebird rip off with spoken lyrics to make you laugh.
  • Dodgepotterydo – a song with the lyrics of Rolf Harris songs sung to the tune of “Stairway To Heaven”.
  • James Whale – sung to the tune of “I just called to say I love you” but with a chorus of “James Whale you’re a fucking cunt, you’re a fucking cunt”. If you aren’t sure who James Whale is then think Piers Morgan but slightly less offensive.
  • Ruder Girl – If I can find the lyrics I will put them at the end of this communication.
  • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – you will love this.
  • Wet Wet Wet (The Fucking Bed) – hilarious.
  • The Little People Make Lurve – a classic operatic story of elves and dwarves and shit.

Gosh, we’ve reached the 1970s in terms of communications and here are some things that happened that year:

  • Unix time epoch.
  • The USA invades Cambodia.
  • Tu-144 exceeds Mach 2.
  • Stonewall Riot.
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Troublegum – Therapy?

Opening lines:

“I’m gonna get drunk, Come round and fuck you up
I’m gonna get drunk, Come round and fuck you up”

This album has the speed and power of a classic punk album but with a little more subtlety. The melodies are great and I do enjoy playing this. While I might not know what the songs are called when they are played I definitely know the songs and this album gets played or at least not-skipped when it comes up in a shuffle. Heavy riffs with disturbing lyrics, you can’t get better than that I guess. This is well worth getting.

The song Nowhere is super single material, very well crafted.

This is communication number 1967 and curating events that happened in certain years seemed a good idea at the time but I do find it irritating now. But, I want to get to the point where I am making up shit for the future, that’s my dream, that’s my nightmare. These shitty few pages are going to make me the Nostradamus of the future, I best get good at being vague as shit.

  • Apollo 1 fire.
  • North Sea Gas starts pumping.
  • China tests its first H-Bomb.
  • First cash machine in world.
  • Race Riots in USA.
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TRON: Legacy – Daft Punk

I got this because I quite liked the music in the film Tron: Legacy. Also because I’m aware of Daft Punk and don’t really mind their stuff. I haven’t played it that often and so pretty much I have no views on this album.

This is communication number 1966 and here are some things that happened that year:

  • SR-71 goes into service.
  • Plenty of racism in USA. Also evident in UK but less noticed.
  • A B-52 crashes and drops three hydrogen bombs on Spain. They don’t go off.
  • Hovercraft service starts across the Channel.
  • An XB-70 crashes.
  • Aberfan disaster where 144 are killed.
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Trial By Fire: Live In Leningrad – Yngwie Malmsteen

I bought this album on music cassette form in Saffron Walden in the run up to some Christmas sometime. I knew of Yngwie Malmsteen as he was kind of infamous in my sixth form. A number of people had seen him in concert and so I got this. I think he was the first super-speedy, how does he do that, kind of guitarists I had heard about. There are plenty more but there’s a certain melody to his playing. I have and continue to listen to this album regularly.

Now, here’s the thing. When I played this album a while ago I was trying to come up with ways to describe the differences in the songs. You, know , to be able to do a track listing and description of each. Now, the rub is, they all sound quite similar. Same pace, beat, style. I don’t mean to diminish how good this album is because I really do enjoy it. I like every song. If I had to choose a favourite then I would go for “Heaven Tonight”, it’s a lovely romantic song.

All I can say is that Yngwie can play very well. I enjoy this stuff. He was pretty good when I saw him in Shepherds Bush however many years ago.

Comms#1963 so here are some things that happened that year as curated by me:

  • George Wallace becomes Alabama Governor, what a cunt.
  • Valentina Tereshkova is first woman in space.
  • Kenya gains independence from the UK.
  • Sam Cooke and his band are arrested after trying to register at a “whites only” motel in Louisiana.
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Tres Hombres – ZZ Top

I have played this album precisely three times in its entity. I was given this by Shredder as a recommended thing to listen to. He was not wrong. I have played this album when I drove some pupils to Canterbury for a school visit – you want something you think most people will appreciate when driving others around. I have so much obnoxious music that it’s hard sometimes to find something suitable. I played this album over my Sonos system when building a climbing frame for the kids and then finally I played it the other day in preparation for this communication.

This is a brilliant album full of dirty, gritty, blues inspired songs that all sound great. It has a real down low feel to it whilst not being obnoxious. I do like it. I think it’s an album I will go for more often when I need something decent in the background.

This album is not anything like you would expect if all you know about ZZ Top is their songs from the eighties. It’s actually way better and I even like their rock stuff.

This is communication number 1957 so here are some things that happened then in the year of our lord:

  • The first frisbee
  • A hydrogen bomb accidentally falls from a bomber near Albuquerque.
  • A hurricane killed 400 people in Louisiana.
  • The Wolfenden Report was published in the UK recommending the legalisation of gay sex between consenting adults.
  • Gordon Gould invents the LASER.
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Trebuchet – George Hrab

I like this album. I don’t really like the production of the album and I know that’s a personal thing and Hrab is the person who is in charge of the whole thing. George Hrab has a podcast, or used to, called Geologic which I have spent some time listening to. He’s a science communicator and skeptic along with being a talented musician and song writer.

All the songs on this album are extremely well written. They cover lots of ideas from the skeptical community and make me smile whenever I listen to this album. Some ideas of the titles on this record:

  • God Is Not Great
  • Everything Alive Will Die Someday
  • When I Was Your Age
  • Death From The Skies – highly recommended
  • Small Comfort

This album has a lovely style and a great message to push to the listeners. I enjoy it. It’s not metal and that’s fine.

This is communication number 1954 and so here are some things that happened that year:

  • Eisenhower warns against his country’s intervention in Vietnam.
  • The first subway line in Toronto.
  • The Boeing 707 is released.
  • Food rationing ends in the UK.
  • Lord Of The Flies is published by a writer who worked previously as a teacher at MGS.
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Trainspotting – Various Artists

There must be something about movie soundtracks when they are done well because I have a few. I’ve even got the Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs soundtracks somewhere but I’m not sure they are on my Sonos system, I’ll have to look into that. The slightly bigger issue is that my PC does not have an optical drive. I’d have to break out my laptop from 2008 to rip the files onto the system, that’s easy enough even though I’ll have to chuck some coal in the fire.

This album is a great collection of songs used in the film Trainspotting. I think I would say they are all rather middle of the road, gentle paced songs. I don’t think there’s a bad song on there.

I do have some words to say about Born Slippy. This isn’t really anything about the song but more an anecdote about terrible behaviour by me. I was at a wedding reception/evening do, you know, the kind of thing where you aren’t good enough to be at the ceremony but you are allowed the food. I think it was at the Weald Of Kent golf club building thing. It was somewhere there, I don’t entirely remember for alcohol reasons. I might have had some drink because it’s a wedding. The DJ person put Born Slippy on and I danced a stupid dance but they cut the song halfway through before all the drumming bits. I recall having a bit of a go and made them play the whole song. I think it was just me on the dance floor but when the music moves you . . . .

This is communication number 1952 and so here are some things that happened that year of the common era:

  • Rioters target British and upper-class Egyptian businesses, it’s almost as if the class struggle and recognition for fair wages and rights has been eternal.
  • The B-52 flies for the first time.
  • The Roman Catholic church bans the books of Andre Gide.
  • The Great Smog of London.
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Top Gun [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] – Various Artists

I genuinely am unsure where to start with this one. I first saw Top Gun in Eastbourne [I think] on a cadet camp in 1986. We were meant to be going rock climbing and abseiling but the weather was poor so we went to the cinema instead. We were based at Crowborough training camp for this camp. We were a good bunch of cadets and for me there are a few things that are foremost when I try to remember the camp. I remember seeing Top Gun. I remember watching Alien in the girls’ block, it was the only place with a TV, and then after the film I shit bricks running down to where we were billeted because I was scared and it was foggy. We played this album over and over in our billet along with the Status Quo song “You’re In The Army Now”, oh and The Final Countdown, which I was convinced was part of this album for a long time. On a navigation exercise our little troop was going through quite tough gorse stuff and Chaz Randall tried running. I think he made it a few steps and then just crashed into the ground, it was hilarious. Our troop or flight was Nick, Lisa, Charles, Gummy and me. There’s a photograph somewhere, I might try and find it.

So, this isn’t about the film, which [upon adult reflection] is a heap of shit apart from the first 4’06”. This communication should be about the music and so here we go:

  • Danger Zone – a brilliant song made even better with all the references in Archer.
  • Mighty Wings – cuts after the snaps of the snare!!!

Now here’s a problem. I was going to write these reviews of the songs as they played on my system but Sonos has just informed me that the files are corrupted and can’t be played. So, I just checked my phone. Same thing there. Fuck! It could be that only some songs from this album are corrupted and I reckon I could fix them easy enough. But, how do you check all six thousand or so songs on the NAS Drive just in case you want to listen to that particular song? Double Fuck. This has probably opened a can of worms and hours at the computer as I try to check all the music I have. I’m not even sure I have a CD of this, so maybe I bought it from iTunes? If that’s the case it’s easy. If not then the quickest and simplest thing to do is to download the songs from iTunes. I’ll be back shortly.

Haha, shortly! I had though I’d be able to find where I’d purchased this in iTunes and just press the download button. You would think that is how this works, but oh no. It turns out that in the past I’ve “hidden” the downloads for this album and so I had to go through menu options that aren’t obvious to then show which ARTISTS I had hidden before. Now, as you are aware this is a compilation album and so I had to download the songs one-by-one under the headings of the artist. There wasn’t a compilation album download option. Jesus H, this is a pain. How very frustrating almost everything iTunes is. Well, the album is sorted and on the NAS drive so it’s playing right now.

  • Mighty Wings – It’s a great 80s tune, a mixture of pop and a hint of rock there. It’s great.
  • Playing With The Boys – As long as we recognise the masses of macho-homo-erotica included in the film and when this song is playing – so this is a pretty good song for singing along with. Wholly 80s. Much like the entire album.
  • Lead Me On – Gosh, is there a bad song on this album?? This is fantastic 80s pop stuff. Maybe the entire album should represent the 80s at a Decade Of Music competition.
  • Take My Breath Away – The worst song on the album?? Smushy trash, but the hopes and dreams of so many teenage boys during the 80s.
  • Hot Summer Nights – a solid 80s track. Rolls along a little more than the others, a slightly more level headed verse with a great chorus. Oh, and guitars!
  • Heaven In Your Eyes – This beats Take My Breath Away in poorness. I’m just not a ballad fan. Still, it’s a good song to belt out now and then.
  • Through The Fire – A menacing start leading to a mostly normal rock verse and then . . . . a chorus with 80s themes that will take you back to the disaster years [Piper Alpha, Chernobyl and Herald Of Free Enterprise].
  • Destination Unknown – Look I don’t know how the song selectors did it but this album is full of cracking songs to sing along with. This song falls a little flat for me but it’s part of this album and so has a place in my heart.
  • Top Gun Anthem – I dare you to try and play this song and NOT get goosebumps [no pun intended]. The opening of the film [remember the first 4’06” has this song ticking along in the background and it’s fucking great. However, if you fancy getting too much riffage then the main theme of this song can get to you when they perform the key change.

This album is a must for everyone who remembers the 80s. Don’t be giving me that shit about not remembering the 80s because you were out of it on drugs. We all love this album.

This is communication number 1947 and so here are some things that happened in that year of the common era:

  • -67C is recorded in Snag, Yukon.
  • A large loss of civilian lives in Taiwan as there is civil disorder.
  • The Texas City Disaster kills at least 581.
  • The Doomsday Clock is introduced.
  • A bug was found in the Harvard Mark II, a literal moth and the first computer bug.
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Tooth And Nail – Dokken

My relationship with Dokken has mostly been down to an album I bought when I was about seventeen, it’s called Beast From The East. I also had the album Back For The Attack in my collection for ages. This particular album is a much later addition to the collection and bought because I really liked the dynamic shift from the live album to the studio version when I got Back For The Attack. I am not sure I’ve played this one in its entirety. It’s on now and the opening song is a short sketch to get us to the title song. After that it’s a mixture of songs that appear on the live album and songs that don’t. It’s classic cock-rock. I do like it. I don’t think there are any particular surprises here, you know, songs that make you go WTF? It’s a solid album.

This is communication 1946 and I’m hoping I might be able to find more “interesting” stuff in the Wikipedia entries than just death and destruction. Mind you, I get to chose what I write within and I think I’ve been focussing on human rights and natural disasters!

  • Project Diana is successful.
  • The republicans filibuster a bill for equal rights for workers.
  • Women vote for the first time in Japan and Italy.
  • The Philippines is granted independence from the USA.
  • A fire at a hotel in Atlanta kills 199.
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To The Capsules – Senser

I like all music by Senser but most of it just happens to play in a shuffle when driving. The first album by them Stacked Up is very hard to beat and because I’ve listened to that one for around thirty years the newer stuff just gets lost in brain-fog. That’s not to say it’s not worth listening to, I think I’m just saying that I’m an old dog and most new music is like new tricks [are?].

This is communication number 1945, here are some things that happened that year:

  • The US executes a US soldier for desertion.
  • Hildesheim is pretty much destroyed in an air raid.
  • Arthur C Clarke puts forward idea of geosynchronous satellite orbits.

Reading through the Wikipedia pages over the last few communications has been pretty fucking depressing. I know I’ve been trying to put things in these lists that are a little different. I don’t want to focus on the things that people probably know, I want to put things that you might read and go “huh?”. I’d like to think that the years following 1945 will be less depressing but I suspect that I’ll still be reading about plenty of murder and killing of people by governments around the world. Jesus, humans are fucking terrible and horrible most of the time.

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Too Fast For Love – Mötley Crüe

This album is pure cock-rock and I love it. It’s got a very raw early 80s metal sound and isn’t too polished like their later albums. Way back when, there was a controversy about Nikki Sixx appearing in Kerrang! magazine where they thought they had proof that he had been replaced by someone else. I think what makes this album good is that it was self-recorded.

  • Live Wire – great opening fast song.
  • Come On And Dance – the opening riff is heavy as fuck. I love it. The cow bell makes me laugh every time.
  • Public Enemy #1 – has some great heavy riffs but overall is a good rock song. Excellent for singing along.
  • Merry-Go-Round – every Crue album has one shit song, almost by definition. This is the one for this album.
  • Take Me To The Top – a good jogging song. Decent plonky bass and excellent sliding harmonics work from Mick Mars. Good chugging guitars too.
  • Piece of Your Action – Slower paced but not terrible. I do have a thing for lead guitars and just bass with no rhythm guitars added. Speeds up halfway through, goes mental.
  • Starry Eyes – A good start but then goes all soppy and I’m not sure I like it!
  • Too Fast For Love – quality song. Excellent riffage and good start-stop stuff. A classic of its time.
  • On With The Show – A good sing along as well. You can imagine this going down well live. Doesn’t quite hit the spot for me but I can see how it is a good song.

This is communication number 1943 so here are some things that happened that year, avoiding all the obvious shit:

  • Shoe rationing goes into effect in the USA.
  • The Paricutin volcano starts to appear in a field in Mexico.
  • A race riot in Detroit kills 34.
  • 2-3 million die in the Bengal Famine.
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This Is What We Are – Fuckshovel

I bought this album because Smith and I were due to see this band at some festival somewhere at some time. I haven’t seen this band. I seem to remember the album being OK. Nothing special but also not terrible.

This is communication number 1938, here are some things that happened in that year:

  • Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
  • The Yellow River flood kills at least 400,000.
  • “I have in my hand a piece of paper”.
  • LSD is first synthesised.
  • Nuclear fission of uranium discovered.
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