The Mad Rocker Radio Show Goes Worldwide...

...for an hour, that is.  Rollins College radio station, WPRK, is celebrating 60 years on the air with a week-long celebration and "fund-a-thon" designed to raise money to help upgrade the station's facilities.  I heard the "scoff" from those of you who are familiar with Rollins and its lofty price tag for those fortunate and affluent enough to attend.  I fit the "fortunate" aspect of that equation by having some brains and a fastball in the mid-90's, but I didn't have a trust fund.  Doesn't matter, it's a great institution with the increasingly rare FM signal completely operated by the college, its students and community volunteers.  When I say "operated by the college", believe me, it's on a shoestring budget.  Back in my day, it was funded solely for its classical music programming, which was 70% of its 9 - 12 hour daily broadcast schedule.  When the students left for Christmas and summer breaks, the station went off the air.  Well, it's 24/7 now with Internet streaming to boot, and that's what has me SO EXCITED! 
As part of the celebration week, WPRK is saluting its history with special features, interviews, and the "WPRK Midday Flashback", and the Mad Rocker will hit the local airwaves & worldwide stream Monday, April 2 at Noon EDT (16:00 GMT for you internationals) for an hour-long reprise of the type of show I was known for.  Already have the playlist and not a damn thing on it past 1980.  I doubt I'll have time to play all 14 selected tracks, but there are three artists you all should know, three more that many of you will get, but the remainder will be a challenge for you old farts like me and a treat for you young "rocker" bucks.  For the 20% who are my local readers, tune your FM dial to 91.5 for an example of what Album-Oriented-Rock radio was all about in its late-70's prime.  For the other 80% of my readers in the domestic states of Tennessee, Texas, California, Georgia, and other countries like the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Spain & France, click this link to WPRK's website and select the streaming method of choice.  I truly hope you get a kick out of the music and the blurred recollections that I may spew forth, enough so to donate a few $'s to the cause.  Click this WPRK Basement Radio link and follow the path to the QuikPAY site.  In the "Feedback for WPRK" window, put Mad Rocker so they'll know who to blame. 

I hope you get a chance to listen for a few minutes Monday.  I'd like to be able to make the hour available for a podcast, but since I'm clueless in such matters, don't bet on it.  So please...

TUNE IN!

Van Halen "A Different Kind Of Truth"

Not what you expect from me, is it?  Yet this band sprung into being during my tumultuous sophomore year at Jolly Rolly Colly, the one that allowed me WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too much free time due to blowing out the medial collateral ligament in my pitching arm, resulting in the switch from mild-mannered, soft-spoken college disc jockey into the alcohol and drug-fueled MAD ROCKER!  So many wonderful things happened to me between September, '77 and May, '78, the most notable was falling into true love for the first time as an adult, having been burned by a puppyluv heartbreak at 15.  The second best thing was the discovery of the effects of THC on my musical appetite.  My God...Pink Floyd live at Tampa Stadium on the Animals tour about three weeks into the school year...whew, too many details to go into now.  One of the other life-changing moments took place the following February in someone's dorm room following a lengthy TM session.  Erupting (get it?) from the radio came this storming version of the Kinks "You Really Got Me," and 150 seconds later when the announcer said "Van Halen," the gathered stunned stoners decided then and there to trek to East-West Records in search of this shredding brilliance.  There, in one of the New Release baskets, was the target.  One peek at the striped guitar and the contorted figure of the singer on the back cover and it was mine.  Little did I know at the time that I was holding one of Rock's greatest debuts. 

Being afforded the opportunity to actually participate in Spring Break without the constraints of college baseball, I went home to Tennessee to celebrate the break and my birthday with family and friends.  Turning 20 was a big deal, and my sister knew I would enjoy the concert bill scheduled for 4/7/78 at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville (seating approx. 1500), so she presented me with two tickets as a gift.  Headlining was Journey, whose music I discovered in late '76, but they had added a new singer for the fourth album, Infinity, which had been out about ten weeks.  Obviously, there's more to this story, but it will have to wait for another time...  Middle act was Ronnie Montrose (R.I.P.), one of my favorite guitarists, supporting his first solo album, Open Fire.  And the opening band was Van Halen.  That's right, opener.  I swear to you, their stage set was three microphones, four amps, and what looked to be a bed sheet spray-painted with the VH logo hanging behind them.  They had been on their first tour for a month, also opening for Black Sabbath.  Needless to say, they were phenomenal!  Their live show was so fantastic that word spread far and wide, sparking sales to a point which demanded the band headline a world tour no more than two months later.  So I got to see them in their true infancy, and they deserved every praise they got.

So let's talk a little about the new album.  I'm sure you've all heard it by now, how most of these songs were originally conceived in 1977 for the debut.  There is the band's attempt to write an "Ice Cream Man" called "Stay Frosty," and it may be the least of the assembled tracks.  There's a clone of "Hot For Teacher," too, but overall, this is a fun record, and I was highly skeptical.  Eddie's guitar hasn't changed, Alex still slaps the skins like before and Wolfy VH performs admirably on bass in place of Chickenfoot's Michael Anthony.  The weak link is David Lee Roth's vocals, clocking in at about 75% of his prime, which isn't bad for all the abuse the 58-year-old cords withstood.  You have plenty of chances in the studio to get things right, but I doubt they'll work well consistently on their tour.  And who thought it was a good idea to have Kool & The Gang open?  Really? 

That's two reasons I won't be attending, but it would be impossible to top the memory of the concert from nearly 34 years earlier.  

Anneke Van Giersbergen "Everything Is Changing"

Had to follow through on my Facebook post of a clip of the final track from John Wetton's latest record, which featured this woman on vocals.  Said I would investigate her forthcoming album.  I like to follow through on my promises...

Visited her website for some info and then went off on my search.  She was the vocalist for a Dutch rock band called The Gathering.  I vaguely recall that name from the last half of the 90's due to our store's massive European tourist clientele... or maybe it was the Brazilians who always asked for it...
I believe we had to special order some copies for stock (oops, that broke the rules) and I may have opened one for a demo.  Metal-ish crunch with this pretty voice blended in.  First thing that sprung to mind was Doro and the band Warlock.  There was/is a whole genre of female-fronted metal that's been around in Europe for decades.  Still today, there are viable ways to find it, like this label, which, oddly enough, is operated by Americans.  Never a major fan of the style, but some of it works. 

So now the title of AVG's record makes some sense.  She is approaching the age of forty, out of the band that made her famous for nearly five years, and her music has made a subtle shift towards "commercial" in my book.  This album is very by-the-numbers-heavy-power-arena-metal, or in another simpler descriptor, dated.  Don't get me wrong, it's quite good, very precise.  Her voice is too pretty for the style, not operatic like Pat Benetar's, but that would be an adequate comparison.  Heart would be another.  One track dials it down with basically a piano and synth strings, a more fitting frame for her voice...



Boys and girls, that's a hit in whatever language you speak.  But that's the only track of that style.  This is more like the record as a whole...



Still very good, very crunchy...commercial.  That's OK by me.  She has such a pretty, expressive voice, but I wish it was wrapped in a different style, a la All About Eve. 



Overall, "Everything..." is a good record.  Back in the old days, I'd say this was a "side 2" winner since I like the last half's song mix.  May not hit domestic shelves, but if I can buy it from my seat in Orlando, you can, too.

Maccabees "Given To The Wild"

Another band I hadn't heard of but kept seeing the name.  Ah, you know the story by now...sample, purchase, start the spins... 

British band, six young lads, guitar-driven, third album.  I'm just going to list what I heard through three spins:  Stone Roses, Charlatans, Blur, Muse, some U2 jangle, Bombay Bicycle Club, My Morning Jacket (UK version), Coldplay for the polished production, 21st century alternative version of Roxy Music, and maybe newer bands like Arctic Monkeys or Bloc Party.  Love this first single...



I like the production work with the echoed, multi-tracked vocals.  I also get a thrill from songs that work their way up to a whirlwind of energy, a frenetic finish...you know, the ones that have you eclipsing the speed limit as your foot gets heavy on the gas.  Case in point, the final 75 seconds of this one...




I DARE you to hold still as that track speeds to a close...the hair will stand on your arms!  Cracked up reading the comments with a different spin on my "speeding down the highway" description...like this one:  love the sound orgasm at the end ; or this one, which is more "R" rated but basically says the same thing   2:20. From then and on, my dick was like a out of control hose with jizz. 

Started reading some reviews, some professional, some by people like you and me.  The majority raved on about it, many citing it as an early contender for Album of the Year.  Another common thread was how completely different "...Wild" was from the two earlier releases.  Intrigued, I did something I rarely do with a new discovery, I went backwards.  Yes, I heard that collective gasp from those of you who know me well!  I didn't blindly purchase, no no no, but I hit up the clouds and found the first album.  Would have never guessed it was the same band.  Post-punk-ish with upfront, untreated vocals, very garage band.  Couldn't find the second album for streaming, but dammit, I have to hear it now.  The transition from debut to today may be extremely interesting.

Not sure if this will see the light of day in the States.  It is too smart for anything other than independent radio and I don't know how the hell you'd find it on satellite.  Damn shame...it's a quality recording.

Gotye "Making Mirrors"

Kept seeing this listed on a Best Sellers page and finally committed to sampling a few tunes.  Made the buy in mid-January and started the spins and subsequent research.  Never heard of him before, one-man-band sort of deal.  But now he's blowing up Stateside with a #1 Adult Alternative track...

I am actually stunned by this being a hit here.  Heard the Sting/Police comparisons, but didn't get it at all from the studio version.  This live take captures that subtle reggae-ish lilt, so I suppose I understand the Police references.  He's got the Sting-like wail at times, too.  My brain kept yelling "Howard Jones!" and some other British singer (James Blunt?), but not Sting.  Musical comparisons to Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush?  Eh, maybe, but it's a stretch.  Remember, he's one dude, so that's a lot of electronics and software.  There are a few real horns, but that's it.  Hell, he grew up idolizing Isao Tomita and Vangelis, for crying out loud!  According to his website, he's a Godley & Creme fan, too, so you have to love that about him as well.  One track, called "State Of The Art," is about, and played on, a Lowery Cotillion Organ Model D575.  Lines about its "custom flute presets and Harmony-Plus...patented Orchestral Symphonizer...," "I put the GenieBass on so my left hand can play the choir," "we threw out the television...it's a genuine home entertainment revelation."  At the end of the song, a voice states "Incidentally, there were no keyboard performances, just the occasional pressing of buttons..."  I love it.  This is another excellent track...



There are 60's sounds and soulful-ish swings, yet all replicated with electronics.  One early track could have been a lost Beck tune.  From the first twenty seconds of another, I thought he was covering George Michael's "Faith." 

Add one more track to the Organ song and Eyes Wide Open, and that's all I'm keeping.  I really thought I would like this record better than that...