Anthrax: I'm the Man

Anthrax: I'm the Man

1987

Island Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. I'm the Man (Censored Radio Version)  2. I'm the Man (Def Uncensored Version)  3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath  4. I'm the Man (Live)  5. Caught in a Mosh (Live)  6. I Am the Law  (Live)

Welcome to Metalhead theater...Today's episode is Anthrax...The "I'm the Man E.P"...

"Dude! Look what I scored!" 

"Woahhh!"

"The 'I'm the Man' EP! Where did you get that?" 

"I did a trade...I swapped some guy a Savatage CD for this and a King's X cassette..."

"You got ripped off dude...King's X sucks..."

"I like some of their stuff...They've actually got some pretty heavy shit in there..." 

"They suck..."

"Yea, but Anthrax is cool...This one's hard to get..."

"Yea, but it's not even a full album...I maintain a strict two full-length cassettes-per-CD trade policy..."

"An EP and a full-length cassette for a CD makes a lot of economic sense, actually...Cos a CD costs $16.99 and each full-length tape is $9.99...EP's usually only cost about $6.99..."

"Still, that only equals $16.98...I would have at least made him toss in a penny, man..."

"I'm cool with it...Although the guy's starting to run low on EP's...They only made so many of them...After 'Maiden Japan' and 'Haunting the Chapel' what else have you got?"

"Metallica, 'Garage Days,' dude..."

"Yea, but Metallica sucks..."

"Yea, but they used to rule, dude..."

 

"They used to, but ever since Cliff died, they suck..."

 

"Nuh-uh...They were good until the Black Album...That's when they sucked...'...And Justice for All' fucken ripped, dude..."

 

"Naw, man...It had a power ballad on it...Can you imagine? Metallica doing a power ballad?"

"Yea, but it was about war and shit and some dude who got his arms blasted off in war...War is fucken badass, dude..."

 

"Yea, but it's still a power ballad..."

 

"Wasn't 'Fade to Black' a power ballad?"

 

"Yea, but that was different...That was about killing yourself, dude...Killing yourself is fucken badass...Can you imagine? Just taking a gun and...BOOM! You're just dead at that point...There's no turning back...That's badass!"

 

"Yea, dude! We should totally make a suicide pact and kill ourselves...That would be metal..."

"Totally fucken metal, dude..."

"Yea..."

"But first, let's check out this Anthrax EP..."

 

(Rewinds tape and pushes play)...

"THUMP THA-THUMP THA-THUMP...NOT! THUMP THA-THUMP THA-THUMP... NOT!" (wacky record scratching)

 

"What the fuck dude? This Anthrax tape is rap?"

 

"Yea, but not all rap is bad...The Beastie Boys are alright..."

♪  "WE'RE ANTHRAX AND WE TAKE NO SHIT..." ♪

 "DUDE! TURN IT DOWN! I don't want my Mom to hear this..."

"Haha...You're afraid of your Mom...Not me...I'll say 'fuck you' and 'asshole' and 'poop butthole' in front of my Mom...I don't care...My Mom let's me play with Machetes..."

"My Mom's cool...She likes Metal and stuff...She just doesn't like swearing...But she'll listen to Metallica 'Fade to Black' and Steelheart and some of the slower stuff by Kick Tracee...

"Steelheart isn't metal, dude!"

 

"Some of it is!"

♪ "THE ONLY THING HARDER IS THE SMELL OF MY FEE-EET..." ♪

"That's fucken hilarious, dude...I'm gonna start saying that at school all the time..."

 "See?!?! I told you some rap was good..."

  "Woah! They're covering Sabbath now!"

 

"Joey sounds just like Ozzy!"

 

"I know...That's the only way I like covers...If they're exactly like the original...No difference...Otherwise, what's the point?"

"I totally agree, dude...I mean, you can make the guitar heavier, but that's it..That's the only difference I'll accept..."

"Woah!  Did you hear him cough at the end and go into 'Sweet Leaf'? That's hilarious..."

"Yea, I bet we're the only people who'll get that..."

"Even though it's mostly just re-runs of the rap song and live versions, it's a pretty good tape..."

"See, I told you, dude...Now you have to suck my dick..."

"What?!"

"Yea, remember earlier when you said if it didn't suck, then you would agree to suck my dick? Well, you just admitted that it didn't suck, start, so..." 

(unzips pants)

"I never said that!"

"Dude, you totally did!"

"No, I didn't! I'm not gay, dude!"

"Yea, me neither..."

 (zips pants back up)

******************************************************

I hope you all enjoyed Metalhead Theater....Alright, a couple of thoughts on this record...Sometimes I'm amazed at the shit I'll listen to in the name of "Nostalgia" (also see M.O.D)...But I saw this on vinyl, took one look at the cover and was instantly transported to my Junior High days, holed up in my bedroom, playing this on cassette and laughing at the dumb jokes...It's hard to imagine anybody getting much out of it these days...It's essentially a Beastie Boys pastiche, and it's beyond dopey, still I can't help but feel a twinge of warmth towards it...Maybe it has some historical import due to it being arguably the first rap-metal song, although I can't imagine anybody being too quick to claim credit when your offspring looks like this:

So this is only strictly recommended to folks who were there and even they'll probably be vaguely irritated by it...New kids won't recognize it as either rap or metal, due to the lack of blast beats and bragging about bags of money...Although it would be great if there was still some dumb, dorky kid sitting on the monkey bars with a boombox repeatedly rewinding "I'm the Man" to show the other kids the swear words...

Anyway, here's the Def Uncensored version of "I'm the Man" by Anthrax...Enjoy...

Agnostic Front: Liberty and Justice For...

Agnostic Front: Liberty and Justice For...

1987

Relativity/Combat Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Liberty and Justice  2. Crucial Moment  3. Strength  4. Genesis  5 Anthem  6. Another Side  7. Happened Yesterday  8. Lost  9. Hypocrisy  10. Crucified  11. Censored


Oh yea, I didn't check the condition when I bought this and brought it home only to find it was covered in...I dunno....Drywall plaster, maybe? I had to chisel away a sheet of chalky rock, but eventually I located the black vinyl underneath and surprise, surprise, it plays great...Maybe the white crust helped to keep the record perfectly preserved...Hey, "White Crust" sounds like a pretty cool name for a Hardcore band...

Anyway, it's great to have a copy of this around the house...80's tough-guy music with thick, slabs of clear, pounding metal/hardcore... Roger Miret cleanly pukes out the vocals while the band alternates between speedy blur and black sludge...Highlights? You might have to listen to it fifty times before much of anything stands out, but I've always viewed the "The blood, the honor, the truth!" gang chant on "Anthem" to be a fairly definitive moment in hardcore...I also find the choruses of "Hypocracy" and their cover of Iron Cross' "Crucified" sneaking into my head here and there...

 To be fair, there are very few hardcore records that I listen to for their melodic content (Youth Brigade might fall in that category)...I listen to hardcore because I want barely-controlled chaos...A mad rush of adrenalin...I want to mindlessly flail around around while punctuating gang chants with my fist...If there's a catchy melody there, great...If not, it's not a deal-breaker...And I do honestly believe that nowadays they scan as "generic hardcore" only because their distinct style became the standard default for less imaginative bands..Not their fault... C'mon....That opening pledge of allegiance leading into the title track? Freakin' classic...

Despite my enjoyment of some of their later stuff, I consider the run of albums from "Victim in Pain" to "Live at CBGB" to be the band's peak...Where they went from "Punk/Hardcore" to "Thrash" to "Punk/Metal" and finally on "Live at CBGB" fitting the pieces all together and putting a point on the whole New York Hardcore thing... "Liberty and Justice For..." was vital in that progress, showing they could metal it up a bit but were not going to lose that hardcore sound that keeps bald kids in red suspenders stomping around in circles for all eternity...

Here's "Anthem"...Enjoy...

Ryan Adams: Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams: Ryan Adams

2014

Pax Am Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Gimme Something Good  2. Kim  3. Trouble  4. Am I Safe  5. My Wrecking Ball  6. Stay with Me  7. Shadows  8. Feels Like Fire  9. I Just Might  10. Tired of Giving Up  11. Let Go



Man, I hope he doesn't kick me off this blog for saying it, but this album kinda sounds like early Bryan Adams...Think "Run to You" or something from that era...And that cover font looks awfully familiar...



 It also reminds me of various other albums that rootsy artists put out in the 80's...I hear a bit of "Scarecrow" by John Cougar Mellencamp,  80's Springsteen,  some old Tom Petty and a tiny scrap of "Tim" or "Pleased to Meet Me"-era Replacements...Simultaneously sterile and cavernous, yet gravel-throated and heart-rending...Oddly enough, it feels like an 80's throwback album without keyboards on it, which is a very difficult thing to convey when you think about it...

It's also, by far, my favorite Ryan Adams album...And possibly the best album I heard in 2014, which is hard for me to admit, since this was also a year that saw the release of a Stephen Malkmus and two Guided by Voices albums...But goddamn, this record is good...

Remember how those rootsy 80's anthems would be kind of cool until they inevitably reached some corny, overblown  chorus? Well, the simple fix to all that is never let the cool simmering verses come to a complete boil...No cathartic "Na na na's or "Oooo Sha la la's"...This adds an odd air of mystery and endless replay value suggesting a sort of infinite possibility...There are exceptions to this... "Feels Like Fire," finds a repetitive, laid-back, almost Motown-ish drum beat blooming into a knock-out chorus and "Gimme Something Good" would have been a huge hit back in '84...I can't shake the weird feeling that I'm hearing a song I once loved but had somehow totally forgotten about...A deju vu head-rush of a pop-rock single...

And the 80's MOR keeps on coming with "Kim," "Trouble," and "Shadows" that all sound like some playlist from my childhood in some alternate universe...And I'm this close to declaring "I Just Might" as Springsteen's finest Reagan-era release...This is one of those albums that I cannot pick a definite highlight...As every new song come on I find myself repeating, "Oh yea...This one is the best one..."

This is the exact type of album I'd always hoped Ryan Adams would make...I'm drawn to his more "rocking" side than the quieter stuff, but when he put out a full-on rock album with 2003's  "Rock N' Roll" it was a bit hit or miss for me...The songs either knocked my socks off or left me shrugging...Honestly, prior to this, my favorite Ryan Adams album was "Orion," but this lives up to the promise of those handful of stellar tracks that kept me coming back album after album...Holy shit, can we please have some more of this?

 Here's "Gimme Something Good" by Ryan Adams...This is a pretty good video...It kinda looks like the video for Danzig's"Mother"...Plus it has Elvira in it...

Adam & the Ants: Stand & Deliver/Prince Charming

Adam & the Ants: Stand & Deliver

1980

CBS Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1.  Stand & Deliver  2. Beat My Guest

 Adam & the Ants: Prince Charming

1981

CBS Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Prince Charming  2. Christian D'Or


Woah! I think I get to air a re-run today since I already covered most of the songs in previous blogs!  Huh? No re-runs? Alright...

I already owned three of the four songs contained on these two singles..."So why did I buy them again," you ask? Cos' they have beautiful sleeve photos that were in immaculate condition and I found them for a buck apiece at Eastside...

I'm still kind of puzzled as to why Adam Ant is such a divisive figure in pop history...His early shit can't be topped. I still don't fully understand how he arrived at his signature sound...I can hear some American Indian whooping and drumming, definitely some punk and post-punk, lots of glam and glitter rock, a bit of yodeling...To this day, there was never really anyone else like him...And if there was one song that sums up everything that was great and unique about him, it's got to be "Stand & Deliver"...No need to go praise it up and down all over again, since I'm sure you can dig through the old posts for that...The B-Side is the classic "Beat My Guest," which is a must if you're at all curious about the sub-genre "yodel punk"...

I was especially stoked to find the "Prince Charming" single...Aside from the A-Side (which is possibly my personal favorite Adam Ant song) we also get a non-album B-Side that I hadn't heard before... With all the filler on the "Prince Charming" album, I wasn't expecting much from an outtake from that album, but "Christian D'Or" is fan-flippin'-tasic...Funny, flashy pop rock with Adam giving a run down of his various fetishes using a buncha funny vocal deliveries...My favorite section?

"Big man,
Big shoes,
No style.

Damp squibs,
Retard..."

 How can you not love a song with the phrase "damp squib" in it? I believe this song also appeared on some B-Sides compilation that came out in the 90's...I should probably look for that sometime since I've been listening to so much old school Adam Ant lately...

 

Alright, let's cut this short today and listen to some Adam Ant...Here's "Christian D'Or"...Dig it...

The A's: A Woman's Got the Power

The A's: A Woman's Got the Power

1981

Arista Records

Track Listing: 1. A Woman's Got the Power  2. Electricity  3. Heart Of America  4. How Do You Live  5. When The Rebel Comes Home  6. Johnny Silent  7. Little Mistakes  8. Working Man  9. I Pretend She's You  10. Insomnia



Once I heard "C.I.A" the hunt was immediately on for any and all A's albums but unfortunately they didn't seem to pop up very often...Then one day at Eastside records...Boom...There was a copy of some album called "A Woman's Got the Power" by the A's with a girl drinking milk on the cover...Turns out it's the band's second album, released in '81 (still keeping my eyes open for the first full-length)...

Once I got home, cracked a beer and threw it on the turntable my immediate reaction was, "huh?" The opening title track was some sort of soft, soulful 80's pop...Think ABC or maybe "Avalon"-era Roxy music...Some guy with  a deep voice crooning over a suave, silky backing...Was this the same band? But in the second verse Richard Bush's vocals take on their usual higher, strident quality and it became recognizable to me...

But the title track turns out to be an exception and isn't indicative of the rest of the album at all (although the disco-ish "How Do You Live" might be some sort of close relative)...The remainder of "A Woman's Got the Power" mostly consists of the band's usual jittery, slick power-pop/new-wave sound, although a lot of  Side One feels slightly more controlled and relaxed than anything on the self-titled 10-inch...But the energy isn't missed too much when you have solidly crafted pop tracks like "Electricity" up your sleeve..."The Heart of America" kind of reminds me of a truck commercial or something...There's a sax-y Huey Lewis quality to it, but as the lyrics get more and more cynical it really starts appealing to me...

Side Two definitely picks up the pace with high impact moments like "Working Man" and " I Pretend She's You" (which might just be the album's  poppiest track)  which move along at a pretty brisk clip...And the closing track "Insomnia" just flat-ass rules...A mix of horror music organ and 60's garage rock delivered at top-speed...Damn..If this was just an EP that only consisted of "Electricity" and the entirety of Side Two, it might rank as one of the strongest power-pop statements ever made...Instead, it's one of those odd albums you might enjoy more by playing Side Two first...

(here...check out "I Pretend She's You")

I still have zero idea why this band didn't rule 80's radio...Their instrumentation was beyond most of the other groups in the power pop scene and they had that magic mix of bombast and theatricality that always sounds great blasting through car speakers...As it stands, you can't even buy their albums on damn CD... A shame, these guys deserve better...

Here's "Insomnia" by the A's...

The A's: The A's (10-inch)

The A's: The A's

1979

Arista Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. After Last Night  2. Who's Gonna Save The World  3.C.I.A.


Here's how I would introduce myself each night on stage if I was in this band:

 "GOOD EVENING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...WE'RE THE  FUCKIN' A's!"

"YAAAAAHHHHH! WHOOO-HOOO!"

"You guys are going to be on a live album tonight, so make some fucken' noise!"

"WHOOO!! LET US, THE AUDIENCE, SUCK YOUR DICKS!!!" 

  "...but seriously...Can we get serious for a moment? Every five minutes 1,800 children die of malnutrition in America...Every five minutes..."

"TONIGHT WE'RE SINGLE!!!"

 "So let me do some quick math here...(carry the 3)....That means America's going to run out of children in a little over three days..."

"YOU'RE HARSHIN' OUR BUZZ, MAN!" 

 "Just thought I'd give y'all something to think about tonight...Anyway, This is a new song from our latest album, it's called..."

"BOO! WE'RE AN AUDIENCE! COLLECTIVE ENTITIES KNOWN AS "AUDIENCES" ONLY LIKE OLD STUFF!!"

"Well, Alright then! We're going to play our entire first album..."

"YEEEEAAAA!"

"In the exact order the songs appear on the album!"

"HOTCHA!!!!"

"In fact, we're just going to put on a record and pipe the album over the loudspeakers and go back to our hotel rooms and do some blow...See you assholes later!"

"THE FIRST WORLD SERIES OCCURRED IN 1903 AND WAS PLAYED BETWEEN PITTSBURGH AND BOSTON!!"

************************************************************

Boy, that introduction really got away from me...Still, you can tell people you were there to witness the single most pointless entry on the Friday Night Record Party blog...I should probably get around to talking about this A's record...

 This appears to be a promotional 10-inch for the band's first full-length (also self-titled, which I've never heard)...I think the record companies were really trying to push the 10-inch record as a legit format around this time...It seems like every major lable 10 inch record I own came out in '79-'80...

Jens and I were at Eastside one night and we pulled this out of one of their bins...We had never heard of the band, but we took a chance on that cool cover and the eye-popping red vinyl...

 Turns out it was a pretty good find...Very '79 (which is an era I love)...If I had to shoehorn it into a genre, I'd probably go with power-pop but there's a bit of punk bite and a bit of FM radio bombast...It kinda reminds me of a much better version of early Loverboy or something...Very radio-ready but I think it has just a liiiitle too much nervous energy to actually be played on the radio...

The real find here is the final track, "C.I.A" which just a flat-out great song...Lots of energy, catchy hooks, tightly-coiled playing...Everything I look for in a New Wave/punk/FM-rock/power-pop song and ever since I've heard it, it's been in the steady Friday night rotation...The other two songs, while fine, can't top "C.I.A," but "After Last Night" comes pretty close...Pretty much a quintessential, all-cards-on-the-table power-pop opener...If you're were in a power-pop band in 1979, a barn-storming, relentlessly hooky opening track was pretty much mandatory...Otherwise you had to sit at the kids table with the Outfield...

Alright...I think it's time to check out some A's...Here's "C.I.A"...Enjoy...

 

Drive by Truckers: English Oceans

Drive by Truckers: English Oceans

2014

ATO Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Shit Shots Count  2. When He's Gone  3. Primer Coat  4. Pauline Hawkins  5. Made Up English Oceans   6. The Part of Him  7. Hearing Jimmy Loud  8. Til He's Dead or Rises  9. Hanging On  10. Natural Light  11. When Walter Went Crazy  12. First Air of Autumn  13. Grand Canyon


Happy New Year, everybody!

It's completely unbelievable that I don't have a hangover today...I drank a bunch of beer and rum...

So many rum and cokes that they actually started to taste good after awhile...I was like, "Did they always taste like this? Huh, they tasted bad earlier...This must be a different kind of rum..."

Naw, Rummy, you're just all drunked out...I'm not a big fan of mixing liquor with pop...I usually prefer to do a straight shot and then chase it with the soda, but for some reason I didn't do that last night...

I have some vague memories of listening to Tom Waits' "A Sight for Sore Eyes" while the TV flickered on in the background...I remember seeing Carson Daly and some shirtless dude endlessly flexing his pecs well into the wee hours...

Blog-wise, I think I'm going to do the same thing I did last year..I'm going to restart at letter "A" and go alphabetically through the A-DR"  albums I bought in 2014 until I regain my place in the alphabet...But since we're on the final DBT album I own, I'll finish off the Drive by Truckers section...

And how is "English Oceans"? It's fan-fucking-tastic...I'm sorry I doubted the Drive by Truckers..."Go Go Boots" seemed somewhat tired and after years passed without another release I kinda assumed they were over...But then "English Oceans" came out and they sounded completely refreshed.. Possibly the most, fire-breathing, all-out rocking album the band ever put out..

When I first put this on and heard "Shit Shots Count," I couldn't believe this wasn't an "Exile on Main Street" outtake...Which is possibly the highest compliment I can bestow upon a rock song...But it's true...It has that same, shaky, drunk-yet-ready-to-take-on-the-world abandon of prime Stones...A style many others have attempted but so few have mastered...

And as the album plays on it struck me there was an awful lot of Mike Cooley on here...He writes roughly half the songs and even handles lead vocals on a Patterson Hood penned track ("Til He's Dead or Rising") which is an approach I don't think they've ever tried before...This decision was beyond wise, since one listen to "Go Go Boots" confirmed that  Cooley seemed to be on a hell of a roll lately...

Alright, time for my personal favorites:  ""Hearing Jimmy Loud"  which is another Stonesy rocker sporting one of the album's funniest lines:

"She had a tanning habit,
She's like a talking leather couch..." 

 And "Grand Canyon" builds on the promise of "I Do Believe" from their last album, which hinted at slowly unfurling country rock on a grand cosmic scale...That  feeling where you have no choice but to put your head down and go through the day-to-day drudgery while the unknowable forces of life and death build and destroy all around you...Understanding that control is an illusion...I'm impressed they pulled this off...

I was also pleasantly surprised by "Natural Light"...It's done in a barrelhouse blues style that reminds me of the type of thing the Kinks might have attempted on their "Muswell Hillbillies" album...They should play this in Natty Light commercials...Wait, is there such a thing as a Natty light commercial?

I don't know..."English Oceans" may have upended "Southern Rock Opera" as one of the best starting points to get into DBT...If it had a single song as instantly unforgettable as "Outfit," "Heathens" or "My Sweet Annette" it might also top "Decoration Day," but that's not the case so "Decoration Day" still occupies their "best album" spot...But still, this is damn close...A lot closer than I would have ever guessed...

Here's "Hearing Jimmy Loud"...Enjoy....