About a year ago, she was at my house, and noticed a pair of glasses on one of my stereo speakers.

“Whose glasses are those?”

“They’re mine.”

“Oh no.”

Read: those glasses suck.

There’s a bit of a humorous story connected to this pair of glasses. I got them a few years back while visiting my parents, who were at the time, living in Florida. Okay, make that five years ago, because I was in Florida for the holidays, unemployed, and feeling crummy about it all. My parents offered to take me for an eye exam to get glasses, knowing that I was sick of wearing contacts. Somewhere in the whole process, I managed to forget that they dilate your eyes before an eye exam. I hadn’t picked out frames prior to this, and had to squint like hell afterwards to pick glasses. It was pretty horrible.

I don’t blame the incident for the apparent lack of cool attached to these glasses. I liked them at the time, and was okay with them until they got pretty scratched up over the past couple of years. At that point, they just became annoying to me, and that’s been the status for the past year.

I’ve always thought that Yayhoo/Del-Lord rock and roller Eric Ambel had cool specs. Speaking of that, wouldn’t you know it, “Roscoe” has his own signature guitar now. Hopefully he can bring that guitar back to Cleveland soon for a show at the Beachland!

Of course none of this has anything to do with the subject line, as you’re probably thinking. But here’s the connection: I’m thinking I’ll be able to see these laserdiscs on my HDTV that much better, with the new glasses.

How about that for a connecting point? Please, don’t throw things at me for such a shaky transition - ya’ll should be used to that by now!

I’m continuing to make my way through some lasers in my collection that I either haven’t watched, or haven’t watched in a long time. In fact, I just picked up the laserdisc of the famous 1985 Hall and Oates “Liberty” concert off Ebay the other day. Those of you that heard the MP3s will understand how much I’m looking forward to receiving the LD when it shows up at some point next week.

The other day, I was watching Bon Jovi’s Keep The Faith: An Evening with Bon Jovi. This was one of my favorite MTV broadcasts from “back in the day,” with one of the other ones being Springsteen’s Plugged. We could mention Eagles Hell Freezes Over, the Don Henley Unplugged, and the list goes on and on.

I was pretty stoked when I got my hands on the Jovi laserdisc a few years back. I think I paid about 40 or 50 bucks for it, which was well worth it in my mind for the set. The Keep The Faith broadcast is probably the last live show from Bon Jovi that I REALLY enjoyed. The setlist is eclectic - an acoustic/electric mix of hits and covers performed in the round. They really were at the top of their game, and they really shine in this stripped down broadcast which is impeccably mixed.

Bon Jovi - Fever/We’ve Got To Get Out Of This Place/It’s My Life

That last song in the medley was in the setlist at a time before Jon had completely ripped off the entire Bruce playbook. By the time I saw the band on the Crush tour several years ago, the transformation was nearly complete.

I forgot about the Ross Perot shout-out prior to the mellow version of “Living On A Prayer.”

Bon Jovi - Living On A Prayer

Bon Jovi - With A Little Help From My Friends

Love some of the Youtube comments on the above video:

biglebowskir: thats a cover of a cover, thats a double cover

BloodOfObsession: It’s kinda amusing..because you have the gall to say that Bon Jovi made this better because HE slowed it down and made it rock’n'rollish….well, do your research. It was originally done by the Beatles but this version is more like Joe Crocker who started the whole “slowed down/ soulful rock” version. So, Bon Jovi rocks. The Beatles rule. And Joe? Crocker owns. I think they’re all amazing and this is a classic, wonderful song. Long live rock’n'roll.

SexualTourettes: I would call this an “attempt” One of the worst singers in the world ringo starr did the original - and its better than this. Sgt Pepper was named the greatest rock album ever, so basically beat bon jovi as his own game, even the beatles are more rock than he is.

Keep The Faith: An Evening with Bon Jovi is yet another laser title that remains unavailable on DVD. I’ve got a list of lasers building up that I’ll hopefully be able to ship off to a friend to have them transferred to DVD.

As long as we’re talking about Bon Jovi, my buddy Chris was THRILLED to find out that I have a DVD copy of the Japanese import LD Tokyo Road ‘85. We all have those killer musical moments locked in our memory banks, even if it’s been years since we’ve seen/heard them. For Chris, he had a photographic musical snapshot in his brain, of Sambora’s guitar solo leading into “In and Out of Love.”

Richie Sambora guitar solo

Bon Jovi - In and Out of Love (Tokyo ‘85)

What are some of your favorite live performances - officially released, bootleg, etc?

It’s A Shame About Ray and Come On Feel The Lemonheads are two of my 90s desert island discs from my teenage years. If it was possible to wear holes in a CD, I would have done it with those two albums, without a doubt.

Beth was telling me about attending a post-Lemonheads Evan Dando solo show at the old Grog Shop that featured Juliana Hatfield playing with Evan, and a setlist featuring pretty much the entire It’s A Shame About Ray album.

I’ll admit that I had severe reservations when Dando resurrected the Lemonheads name a few years back for a new self-titled album release, until I heard the album and found it to be a release worthy of the Lemonheads banner. My good friend Pat and I were at the new Grog Shop on a chilly night in December 2006 to see Dando and his band play a setlist featuring a number of songs from the new album, and also plenty of old favorites. With “The Great Big No” as the first song of the night, I knew it was going to be a great show, and the Grog Shop was the perfect intimate setting for a night of 90s nostalgia.

Sometime after that, I got my hands on this bootleg of a 1994 Lemonheads radio broadcast, recorded live at Grant Park in Chicago. Clocking in at just under an hour, Dando and crew run through 20 of your Lemonheads favorites. Lemonheads candy might make you grimace, but this set will make you smile big for days.

I listen to this show on my Ipod at least once every couple of weeks!

Enjoy…

Lemonheads
Petrillo Shell
Grant Park
Chicago, IL
7/4/94

broadcast by WXRT-FM

complete zipped download

Down About It
Rest Assured
It’s A Shame About Ray
Rockin’ Stroll
Favorite T
Hannah & Gabi
Ride With Me
Big Gay Heart
My Drug Buddy
Kitchen
Into Your Arms
Allison Is Starting To Happen
The Great Big No
Paid To Smile
It’s About Time
Confetti
Dawn Can’t Decide
You Can Take It With You
Being Around
Rudderless

Relevant Links:

Purchase It’s A Shame About Ray collector’s edition from Amazon - CD

Come On Feel The Lemonheads - CD

The Lemonheads - CD or MP3

Best of The Lemonheads: The Atlantic Years - CD

But let’s talk about the previous holiday weekend, which I’ll sum up in one word:

Productive.

I went to the thrift store to drop off a couple of boxes of CDs, and while I was there, I picked up an old school desk that I had an immediate vision for. Once I got home, it was indeed a perfect fit next to my existing audio/video empire which has outgrown its current space. With the new desk, I finally have a place to set up my turntable AND laserdisc player.

What? You didn’t know about my laserdisc habit? Oh yeah. You can probably picture the amount of cursing that my friends who helped me move, were doing while moving THOSE boxes of laserdiscs and vinyl. As if all of the boxes of CDs weren’t enough….

I got into laserdisc in the late 80s as a kid, and picked up a number of musical titles, including my prized Japanese copy of Van Halen’s Live Without A Net, which prior to the DVD release, was the only way to get the concert film digitally. The same was true for the Star Wars movies - there were plenty of releases for Star Wars fans to salivate over, including this “definitive edition” box set, which was on my Xmas wish list one year.

Like director Kevin Smith, I was kicking and screaming against converting to DVD. I finally made the conversion when my laser player bit the dust, and I was able to get a Pioneer combo unit that played both lasers and DVDs.

As laser collectors know, there are still a number of titles that remain unreleased on DVD. Sting, for example - the concert video from The Soul Cages tour, the MTV Unplugged performance, and the album-length performance video for Ten Summoner’s Tales.

This was my first chance to use the laserdisc player with the newish television I picked up about a year ago, and I was amazed at how good laserdisc quality still looks, even on today’s TVs.

The Soul Cages Concert was the first laserdisc that I put into the player, a concert film that remains one of my favorites. It’s a crime that it still hasn’t been released on DVD. Sting’s band for this era - legendary drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, guitarist Dominic Miller, and keyboard player David Sancious produced some of my favorite material in the Sting catalog with The Soul Cages and Ten Summoner’s Tales releases. Thankfully, the period is well-documented with the videos that I mentioned above.

So that was Sunday in a nutshell, a good mix of watching laserdiscs, taking care of various biz, and also catching some quality Z’s in between it all!

But let’s talk about Saturday. Oh man. A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from Steve, a radio buddy of mine in Detroit. He’s getting ready to move into a new house, and wanted to know if I’d have interest in picking up his collection of vinyl. With warm weather in the forecast (a rarity at this time of the year,) Saturday looked like a good day to make the drive to Detroit, and the weather forecast held true. With the exception of some slightly crummy weather on the Detroit side, it was a drive that was thankfully uneventful.

Looking through the titles, “Subject” by Aldo Nova was one of the early ones that I saw, “Cool!” I said.

“That’s what he thought,” was Steve’s reply, smiling as he later pointed out an album by Japanese heavy metal band Loudness and asked “how many people bought the NEXT album from Loudness?”

As a fellow rocker, the expected titles are there from bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Armored Saint, etc; although Steve noted that he had “played the Maiden albums to death,” and that the actual Maiden vinyl might be in bad shape, but the covers are in nice shape, thanks to the plastic covers that are on most of the albums.

After I got home and started going through the stacks, I was the most stoked about the vinyl copies of Van Halen’s 5150, Queensryche’s Empire, the self-titled Alice in Chains album, Peter Gabriel’s solo material, and one of my absolute favorites, Joe Satriani’s Flying In A Blue Dream. Listening to the Satch album brought back so many memories - it was one of several albums that was locked in my CD player in the 90s.

I promised several people that I would post the complete rundown of everything that I picked up, and as you can see from the list below, there’s quite a few titles, including probably as much Ted Nugent as any one person needs. Although surprisingly, my favorite Ted Nugent album Free-For-All is AWOL.

Steve did mention that he held back about 40 albums for sentimental reasons, and perhaps Free-For-All was in that bunch!

Apologies in advance for those of you that get carpal tunnel from scrolling through this list.

Enjoy!

2010 - soundtrack
38 Special - Tour De Force
38 Special - Special Forces
38 Special - Wild Eyed Southern Boys
707 - s/t
Accept - Restless and Wild
Accept - Russian Roulette
Accept - Kaizoku Ban
Accept - Balls To The Wall
Accept - s/t
Accept - Metal Heart
AC/DC - For Those About To Rock
AC/DC - Highway To Hell
AC/DC - Back in Black
AC/DC - Powerage
Bryan Adams - Cuts Like A Knife
Aerosmith - Get Your Wings
Aerosmith - Greatest Hits
Aldo Nova - Subject: Aldo Nova
Aldo Nova - s/t
Alice in Chains - s/t
Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters
Apocrypha - The Eyes of Time
April Wine - The Nature of the Beast
April Wine - First Glance
April Wine - Stand Back
April Wine - Power Play
April Wine - Harder Faster
Armored Saint - Delirious Nomad
Armored Saint - March of the Saint
Armored Saint - Saints Will Conquer (live)
Asia - s/t
The Babys - Union Jacks
Badfinger - No Dice
Badlands - s/t
Batman - Batman soundtrack (Elfman score)
The Beatles - White Album
Blackfoot - Marauder
Blackfoot - Siogo
Blackfoot - Strikes
Black n’ Blue - s/t
Black n’ Blue - Nasty Nasty
Black n’ Blue - Without Love
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Blue Oyster Cult - Some Enchanted Evening
Blue Oyster Cult - Fire Of Unknown Origin
Blue Oyster Cult - Imaginos
Boston - Boston (2 copies)
Jackson Browne - Hold Out
The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy
The Cars - s/t
Tracy Chapman - s/t
Cheech and Chong - Greatest Hit
Phil Collins - Hello, I Must Be Going
Alice Cooper - Trash
Alice Cooper - Raise Your Fist And Yell
Alice Cooper Goes To Hell
Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare
Alice Cooper - Killers
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Alice Cooper - Flush The Fashion
Alice Cooper - Lace and Whiskey
Alice Cooper - Greatest Hits
Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance
John Cougar - Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did?
Robert Cray - Strong Persuader
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle
The Cure - The Head On The Door
The Cure - Standing On The Beach - The Singles
The Cure - Disintegration
Damien - Stop This War (2 copies)
Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
Deep Purple - When We Rock, We Rock, and When We Roll, We Roll
Deep Purple - Nobody’s Perfect
Def Leppard - High n’ Dry
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Demon - Night Of The Demon
Demon - Unexpected Guest
Demon - British Standard Approved
Dio - The Last In Line
Dio - Holy Diver
Dio - Sacred Heart (2 copies)
Dio - Dream Evil
Dokken - Breaking The Chains
Dokken - Back for the Attack
Dokken - Tooth and Nail
Dokken - Under Lock and Key
Doobie Brothers - Best of Vol 2
Doors - Greatest Hits (2 copies)
Doors - Strange Days
Doors: An American Prayer
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Pictures At An Exhibition
Extreme - Extreme
Fastway - s/t
Firestarter - soundtrack by Tangerine Dream
Focus - Making Waves
Foghat - Stone Blue
Foreigner - 4
Foreigner - Head Games
Foreigner - Double Vision
Foreigner - s/t
Peter Gabriel - s/t (car)
Peter Gabriel - s/t (melt)
Peter Gabriel - Security
Genesis - s/t
David Gilmour - About Face
Great White - Once Bitten
Sammy Hagar - VOA
Sammy Hagar - Standing Hampton
Sammy Hagar - Three Lock Box
Sammy Hagar - I Never Said Goodbye
Eric Hamilton Band - Limited Edition Vinyl
Stuart Hamm - Kings of Sleep
George Harrison - Somewhere in England
Heart - Dreamboat Annie (Mushroom Records pressing)
Helix - Long Way To Heaven
Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys part one
Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys part two
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Smash Hits
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love
Jimi Hendrix - The Jimi Hendrix Concerts
Greg Howe - s/t
Icon - Night of the Crime
Icon - s/t
Billy Idol - Vital Idol
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Iron Maiden - Killers
Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time
Iron Maiden - Live After Death
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
Jethro Tull - M.U. - Best of Jethro Tull
J. Geils Band - Best Of
J. Geils Band - Love Stinks
Journey - Escape
Journey - Frontiers
Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith
Judas Priest - Point of Entry
Judas Priest - Stained Class
Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather
Judas Priest - Sin after Sin
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
Judas Priest - Turbo
Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance
Judas Priest - British Steel
Kansas - Best of Kansas
Kick Axe - Vices
King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King
King Crimson - Three of a Perfect Pair
King Kobra - Ready To Strike
The Kings - Are Here
KISS - Dressed To Kill
KISS - Rock And Roll Over
KISS - Hotter Than Hell
KISS - Love Gun
KISS - Alive
Kix - Blow My Fuse
Krokus - Hardware
Krokus - Headhunter
Led Zeppelin - s/t
Led Zeppelin - IV
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Led Zeppelin - III
Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Lillian Axe - Love + War
Living Colour - Vivid
Living Colour - Leave It Alone/Hemp 12″
Lizzy Borden - Master of Disguise
The Jeff Lorber Fusion
Loudness - Lightning Strikes
Loudness - Thunder In The East
Loudness - Hurricane Eyes
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nothin’ Fancy
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gold and Platinum
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping
Tony Macalpine - Maximum Security
Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force - Marching Out
Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force - S/T
Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy
Yngwie Malmsteen - Odyssey
Ray Manzarek- Carmina Burana
Bob and Doug McKenzie - Great White North
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Metallica - …..And Justice For All
Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits 74-78
Modern English - After the Snow
Eddie Money - s/t
Eddie Money - Playing For Keeps
Montrose - s/t
Monty Python - The Monty Python Instant Record Collection
Moody Blues - Voices In The Sky (best of)
Gary Moore - Victims of the Future (2 copies)
Gary Moore - Run For Cover
Gary Moore - After The War
Gary Moore - Corridors of Power
Morrissey - Viva Hate
Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil
Nazareth - Loud n Proud
Nazareth - Malice in Wonderland
Night Ranger - 7 Wishes
Night Ranger - Dawn Patrol
Night Ranger - Midnight Madness
Ted Nugent - Little Miss Dangerous
Ted Nugent - s/t
Ted Nugent - s/t (1982)
Ted Nugent - Cat Scratch Fever
Ted Nugent - Intensities in 10 Cities
Ted Nugent - State of Shock
Ted Nugent - If You Can’t Lick ‘Em, Lick ‘Em
Ted Nugent - Scream Dream
Ted Nugent - Great Gonzos
Ted Nugent/Amboy Dukes - Call of the Wild
Ted Nugent/Amboy Dukes - Survival of the Fittest - Live
Patrick O’Hearn -Ancient Dreams
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Ozzy Osbourne - Speak Of The Devil
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark At The Moon
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Alan Parsons Project - I, Robot
Joe Perry Project - Let The Music Do The Talking
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Hard Promises
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Long After Dark
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut
Robert Plant - Pictures at Eleven
Jean-Luc Ponty - Mystical Adventures
Prince and the Revolution - Around The World In A Day
Prism - s/t
Queen - News of the World
Queen - The Game (MFSL edition)
Queen - The Game (regular)
Queen - Greatest Hits
Queensryche - Queensryche
Queensryche - The Warning
Queensryche - Rage for Order (2 copies)
Queensryche - Empire
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Trevor Rabin - Can’t Look Away
Ratt - Out of the Cellar
Ratt - Invasion of Your Privacy
Raven - All For One
Raven - The Pack Is Back
Raven - Stay Hard
Lou Reed - Mistrial
REO Speedwagon - Live: You Get What You Play For
Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks
Rolling Stones - Still Life (American Concert 1981)
Rough Cutt - s/t
Rush - All The Worlds A Stage
Rush - Signals
Rush - Grace Under Pressure
Rush - Exit Stage Left
Rush - Moving Pictures
Rush - Permanent Waves
Robert Schimmel - Comes Clean
Joe Satriani - Flying In A Blue Dream
Scorpions - Blackout
Scorpions - Best of
Scorpions - World Wide Live
Shooting Star - s/t
Skunk Anansie - Selling Jesus EP
Soft War - One Day It Will All Come Down
Soundtrack - Heavy Metal
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen - The River
Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness
Billy Squier - Tale of The Tape
Starz - Violation
Starz - Coliseum Rock
Steve Stevens and the Atomic Playboys - S/T
Stryper - Together as One 12″
Styx - The Grand Illusion
Suicidal Tendencies - s/t (Frontier Records)
Supertramp - Paris
Supertramp - Breakfast in America
James Taylor - Greatest Hits
Ten Years After - The Classic Performances of
George Thorogood - Move It On Over
George Thorogood - Live
George Thorogood - Maverick
George Thorogood - Bad To The Bone
Billy Thorpe - Children of the Sun…Revisited
Three Dog Night - Captured Live at The Forum
TNT - Intuition
Triumph - Never Surrender
Triumph - Allied Forces (2 copies)
Triumph - Thunder Seven
Triumph - Just A Game
Triumph - The Sport of Kings (2 copies)
Triumph - Stages
Triumph - Surveillance
Triumph - Progressions of Power
U2 - Under A Blood Red Sky
Van Halen - s/t
Van Halen II
Van Halen - Diver Down
Van Halen - 5150
The Velvet Underground - VU
Andreas Vollenweider - Down To The Moon
Joe Walsh - The Confessor
Warrior - Fighting For The Earth
WASP - s/t
Roger Waters - Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking
Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S.
Whitesnake - 1987
Who - Who’s Next
Who - Hooligans
The Wooten Brothers - My Grass Is Blue
Yes - The Yes Album
Yes - Relayer
Yes - Classic Yes
Y&T - Mean Streak
Y&T - In Rock We Trust
Y&T - Contagious
Y&T - Open Fire
Frank Zappa - The Man From Utopia
Frank Zappa - Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch
Zebra - s/t
ZZ Top - El Loco
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
ZZ Top - Best Of

Got the following email/question from one of my ATV readers:

Dear Mr. Vinyl,

Thanks for your help and Happy New Year,
Jak R

If you can be of assistance - Drop me a line, or leave me a comment and I’ll connect you with Jak!

Thanks!

Matt

Steve Martin - Comedy Act for Dogs

After my dinner last night with blogger/Clevo/Nashville buddy Kevin Mason, I was re-inspired and researching a future webcam purchase today. During lunch, I went to Best Buy to see a couple of the options in the flesh. I think I found (thanks to Kevin’s help,) the model that I want to get, and I’ll likely purchase it at some point soon.

Tonight after work, I met up with fellow vinyl lover Beth, a Twitter friend o’ mine, to hand off a stack of vinyl, and talk some tunes. After that, it was back to the west side for dinner at Buckeye Beer Engine.

Tomorrow night: New Year’s Eve with my buddy Kevin (we’ll call him the original Kevin) at the Beachland Ballroom for the Jason & The Scorchers reunion show. Can’t wait!

For now, I’m at home listening to a recently acquired copy of the 38 Special album Tour De Force. I’ve always been a fan of 38, and the album opening “If I’d Been The One” was a favorite song of mine as a kid. I remember seeing the video on Friday Night Videos, and it still registers as one of the early videos from back in the day that was cool. I guess if you add flames, it makes anything a lot more interesting!

I’m surprised that the video isn’t on Youtube, but the video for “Back Where You Belong,” also on Tour De Force, is equally entertaining!

38 Special - Back Where You Belong

Tonight’s selections - the Mudcrutch Extended Play Live EP release that I just got in the mail, and after that, Talk Show by The Go-Go’s. Another cool label, and I thought I’d share a cell phone pic of it with you all….

The Go-Go’s on The Drew Carey Show

Smithereens frontman Pat Dinizio recently put up a post with 6 full length videos from Live in Concert. You can click through on each video link to watch a higher quality video, which makes a huge difference and will give you greater appreciation for the “film” effect that they used on the footage.

I’m really looking forward to this release - hoping that the between song chatter will be included (and I imagine chances are good that it will be!)

The Smithereens - Behind The Wall of Sleep

The Smithereens - Drown in My Own Tears

The Smithereens - Top of The Pops

The Smithereens - Since You Went Away

The Smithereens - Any Other Way

The Smithereens - A Girl Like You

Assuming that you’re not drunkenly passed out from too much of that “special” eggnog, here’s some more special holiday musical cheer for your ears.

A few years back, I received a suspiciously labeled package in the mail with my address scratched semi-illegibly on the face of the package. While I would normally mark “return to sender” and send it back, I opened this particular package and a new holiday tradition began.

Cleveland Scene writer dude and friend D.X. Ferris puts together a yearly holiday-themed CD mix that finds its way to my mailbox each year at some point in Nov/Dec, inevitably packed with an additional bonus random musical inclusion that could only come from the mind of Ferris.

Last year’s musical bonus was a disc of Donnie Iris oddities. And this year? A CD with a printed Itunes playlist labeled “Danzig Slow Jams.”

Is Ferris screwing with me, or did he REALLY send me a Danzig mix just in time for the holidays?

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about a little known member of the Rat Pack, I’m talking about the one and only Glenn Danzig, the OTHER short metal dude.

I put the CD into the computer, and discovered that it was indeed as advertised, a disc of “Danzig Slow Jams:” One hour, 16 minutes, and 51 seconds worth. 22 tracks, including three 6 second vinyl “crackle” tracks in a row - “666,” get it?

Fantastic.

I know you’re expecting me to post the Danzig mix here, and don’t get me wrong, I totally would. Because as we all learned a few years back, even I could take Danzig in a fight.

But since we’re gleefully buried in the midst of the Xmas/Hannukah season right now, I think it’s probably best for me to post the holiday mix now, and save the Danzig mix for a more appropriate holiday like Valentine’s Day, or maybe even Grandparent’s Day.

Does Grandma like Danzig?

Anyway, I’m getting distracted.

Welcome to DXmas VII: The Lost Xmas! This year’s holiday disc is rated PG-13, not quite “E for Everyone,” and came labeled with a Post-It note labeled “Listen first, Read later - Seasonal Greetings, DXF.”

Ferris comments on the holiday mix, and also talks a bit o’ Danzig as well:

The DXmas mix, I keep swearing I’m gonna stop, but I just can’t. It’s my annual goal to make my list of people who get them smaller, not bigger. But it never seems to work. Covers are one of my out-of-control enthusiasms; Xmas tunes run a close second.

Danzig is a goddamned genius. Covered by Metallica, wrote songs recorded by Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. Who else can say that?

Uh, good point, I think.

Feast your ears on holiday stuff from R.E.M., The New Pornographers, Dokken, and many, many, more. I’ll throw up a few individual tracks, and you’ll find the complete mix (with special celebrity holiday guests) in the zip file.

P.S. - I think this year’s mix was personalized for me, because it also includes my favorite Thompson Twins tune. That should be all you need to know to want to download it, right there!

P.S.S. - Enjoy, and happy holidays!

P.S.S.S. - D.X. wrote a killer Slayer book. It makes a great late stocking stuffer.

complete zipped download (tagged, numbered, and ready to rock!)

R.E.M. - Merry Christmas Everybody

Frank Sinatra and Cyndi Lauper - Santa Claus is Coming To Town

Anyway.

Friday night, I got together with my buddy Corey for a long overdue hangout (two years in the making at least) that didn’t involve a concert, or running into each other in public. Corey and I actually MADE PLANS to hang out at his house in his rock and roll man cave, where I could check out his pristine Guns ‘n Roses pinball machine that he picked up about a year ago.

There’s a ton of individual details about the machine here. Corey’s machine is unique because it is an early prototype that never saw the inside of a bar/club/etc - condition is PERFECT. What I liked about it is that while it has the more modern look and feel of today’s pinball machines, it retains the classic feel and action of the older pinball machines. By the 90s, the newer pinball machines had become so modernized that they lost (in my opinion) the actual plot of what a pinball machine should be about. Very similar to music - all of ‘em became digitally based, when all I really wanted was the “analog” feel of the classic older machines.

I had a lot of fun playing with it, and could have easily gotten sucked in for the entire evening, but I was consciously aware that the real reason I was there was to hang out, converse, catch up…..and that’s just what we did.

We of course talked a lot of music, and one of my first topics was something that had just occurred to me in the car ride over. I had to know if Corey had/heard/was aware of one of my favorite nobody-else-knows-this-band-but-me bands, a Chicago band named Supermint. We could probably spend an entire blog talking about Supermint, but here it is in a nutshell. During the late 90s I was co-hosting heavy metal karaoke with Cleveland guitar wizard Billy Morris, at his Parma club The Revolution on Monday nights. For a string of Mondays, I kept hearing this BAND on the club sound system, and finally had to ask who the band was.

I found out from Billy that the band was called Supermint, and acquired their 1999 self-titled CD a short time later from one of the local record stores. It’s been one of my favorite CDs for nearly 10 years now. I never got a chance to see the band live, but recently found out that they do play the occasional reunion show in Chicago, so I am hoping to catch them live someday. They put out a second CD called Off To Stupidville in 2004 that didn’t quite measure up to the debut for me, and called it quits at some point after that.

Most days my favorite tune from the disc is “Shouldn’t It Feel Good.” Recently, it’s been the album opener “What’s Going On,” but really I love the entire disc.

Their Myspace page compares them to Oasis, Elvis Costello, Cheap Trick, Semisonic, and Crowded House. Definitely hear the Crowded House and Cheap Trick comparisons.

Supermint - What’s Going On

As it happens, you can grab the debut as an MP3 download for $5.99 from Amazon, and you should!

Corey had of course, heard of Supermint. Apparently they played a ton of Cleveland shows with Enuff Z’nuff, who practically lived at Billy’s various clubs in the 90s, so I’m not quite sure how I missed seeing them.

As I looked through his CD collection, I came across a bunch of titles that surprised me. Titles that turned out to belong to his wife Lisa. I finally determined that I’m better friends musically with Lisa. The one CD of Lisa’s that floored me when I saw it, was Test Your Own Eyes by Dog Society.

Now that I’m older, I hate everything…

“Love Is All Gone” by Dog Society from Test Your Own Eyes (1993)

The Dog Society album came out in 1993, and the band had a sound that was very similar to other bands of the time like Dig, Dada, and I’m sure if I keep thinking, I could think of other bands that start with “D” as well! I’m guessing that if you know any Dog Society, “Love Is All Gone” is probably the one you know. In my little high school rock band, we covered the album opening “When Your Dead.”

Our cover song criteria was pretty simple - We liked cover songs that sounded cool and were fun to play, yet were uncomplicated enough that we could cover them. Stuff like “Found Out About You” by the Gin Blossoms, “Dream All Day” by The Posies, and “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” by the Spin Doctors all sounded cool. Sometimes we’d cover a tune that might get blank stares from everyone, but we liked it - “A Girl Like You” by The Smithereens, was one. And “When You’re Dead” by Dog Society was another example.

We had heard “Love Is All Gone” on local radio and liked it enough that my friend Jim acquired the disc. When we heard “When You’re Dead,” we knew that we had to work up a cover version. We always had a lot of fun playing that one.

“When You’re Dead” and “Love Is All Gone” are back to back on Test Your Own Eyes, and after that, the rest of the album really didn’t click with me, but those two songs are great.

After I got home from Corey’s, I was curious to look up Dog Society, and see where their story ended. As you can imagine, their band name doesn’t really lend itself to Google. Test Your Own Eyes was produced by Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf for Bongload Productions. The pair had just produced Beck’s Mellow Gold album which um, did pretty well! While searching for Dog Society info, some of the Bongload info led me to this really cool documentary on Mellow Gold that you will enjoy.

After working with Dog Society, Rob and Tom produced several albums for Elliott Smith - Either/Or, XO, and Figure 8. Schnapf was recruited by Smith’s family to complete From a Basement on a Hill after the unfortunate passing of Smith. Recently, Schnapf has been involved with The Vines and Saves The Day. Rothrock has been involved in soundtrack work and also produced James Blunt’s Back to Bedlam.

I guess they’re doing okay - but what about those Dog Society guys? According to their Myspace page, they called it quits about a year after the release of Test Your Own Eyes:

Dog Society was formed in the late 1991 in the New York City area. After making a demo tape and passing it along to various companies, They were signed to East West Records/Atlantic Records, and recorded one album titled Test Your Own Eyes. The album was produced by Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock, who went on to produce a number of albums for big names such as Elliott Smith, Beck and The Vines. They toured and played at a number of venues throughout the United States and They eventually broke up in 1994. Dog Society is Richie Guerzon, Bruce Erik Brauer, Ryan Bay, + Joey Rains. The cover was a life size sculpture created by Hans Nelman. Bruce Erik Brauer designed the logo and imprinted the CD with it. Larry Freemantle was the Art Director.

That’s an interesting story about the album artwork!

I wouldn’t go overboard and call the album a “lost classic” or anything crazy like that, but “When You’re Dead” and “Love Is All Gone” are still two of my favorite songs from the 90s.

Dog Society - Love Is All Gone

Dog Society - When You’re Dead

Relevant Links:

Supermint on Myspace

Purchase Supermint’s music on Amazon - here and here

Purchase Dog Society’s Test Your Own Eyes from Amazon - CD

Dog Society on Myspace

Inside the table of contents, Mickey Rourke.

Sold.

Side note: I kinda have a thing for Chloë Sevigny. I didn’t always like her, but have really grown to enjoy her on HBO’s Big Love.

A couple of interesting moments from What I’ve Learned: Wisdom from all 50 States:

In Changeling, I tried to show something you’d never see nowadays - a kid sitting and looking at the radio. Just sitting in front of the radio and listening. Your mind does the rest.

- Clint Eastwood

Immediately upon working for fifteen years to make it, as soon as we make it, what do I do? I leave, right before the Born In The U.S.A. tour. Everybody bought houses off of that tour. I’m in Africa with an eleven-piece that I’m paying for, using my little money to keep a band on the road talking about politics.

I learned everything I know from leaving the E Street Band. And of course, one of the things I learned is, I never should have left.

- Steven Van Zandt

The Eastwood comment resonates with me because I have so many memories of being a kid, listening to the radio. And also memories of being a teenager, listening to the radio. For so many of my formative years, there really was nothing better.

This is the first time I’ve seen Van Zandt comment at length about his departure from the E Street Band. I’m sure it’s been addressed, but I found the Esquire interview particularly interesting. Of course now that I think about it, I think I always enjoy any interview I read with Little Steven! Check out the full interviews with Van Zandt and Eastwood in the January 2009 issue of Esquire at your favorite newsstand right now.

Here’s a link to the Mickey Rourke article in the current issue.