Listening Post: Van Halen - Diver Down

When I was about 15 or 16 my best friend in the summer vacation town of Bar Harbor was a guy named Pete. I met him while we were both prep cooks at the town's greasy spoon. Pete was a metal guy all the way. Used to listen to Pantera before anyone knew who they were. He took me to see Ozzy at the Blizzard of Oz tour stop at the Bangor State Fair, (Randy Rhodes was 5 feet from me and a little band named Def Leppard was the opener). Pete also had a pair of pants tailor painted with white stripes to emulate Eddie Van Halen's guitar. While I was immersing myself in Queen, Pete was learning to shred. I never even gave the Pasadena boys a chance.
Let's remedy that now, shall we?



Van Halen - Diver Down - 1982 (Buy it)

"Where have all the good times gone?" the band asks on the opening track and I feel the same way after listening to this entry in their catalog.
Diver Down was sort of where I come in during VH's history. Because, well, who didn't love Pretty Woman? I bought the 45, the b-side of which was another cover, the goody a cappella "Happy Trails".
Now, here I am, 26 years removed from the days when I would hum those tunes in Mrs. Sprinkle's english class and I am finally diving in (pun intended) and what do I find?
This is the least inspired album in the band's oeuvre. Obviously they were burned by testing experimental waters on Fair Warning.
There is still the Eddie solo masturbation excercise (cathedral) which is a signature of the group but the rest of this is a sleepy, slunky exercise in retread.
The damned thing is chock full of covers which I would have expected from the band on maybe their first couple of entries but they are seasoned vets here. It's sort of inexcusable. And yet, it worked. At the time, this album was huge.
But it's as boring as can be.
Whatever fire was ignited on VH, whatever cocksuredness was put forth on II and W&C1st and whatever branching out that was achieved on Fair Warning is put to rest here.
There are no surprises.
In short, you don't need this album. You don't even really need the singles. Although Pretty Woman IS one of the best covers ever and The Full Bug is a blues number that is a harbinger of things to come.

Grade C
A Side: Pretty Woman
BlindSide: Big Bad Bill is Sweet William Now (Pulling a Queen here with the dixie-swing/white man blues) & The Full Bug
Downside: Secrets

Listening Post: Van Halen - Fair Warning

When I was about 15 or 16 my best friend in the summer vacation town of Bar Harbor was a guy named Pete. I met him while we were both prep cooks at the town's greasy spoon. Pete was a metal guy all the way. Used to listen to Pantera before anyone knew who they were. He took me to see Ozzy at the Blizzard of Oz tour stop at the Bangor State Fair, (Randy Rhodes was 5 feet from me and a little band named Def Leppard was the opener). Pete also had a pair of pants tailor painted with white stripes to emulate Eddie Van Halen's guitar. While I was immersing myself in Queen, Pete was learning to shred. I never even gave the Pasadena boys a chance.
Let's remedy that now, shall we?



Van Halen - Fair Warning - 1981 (Buy It)

From the first crunchy sounds of Eddie Van Halen's guitar we know that this is a different sort of VH record. It's more progressive. It's more assured. It takes chances and risks.
Of course it was their worst seller.
It's a shame, really, because after two records that are carbon copies of the same roller rink rock idea, and one that sounds like the stadium version of the previous two, Fair Warning is a breath of fresh air.
David's sleaziness is match note for note by Eddie's guitar.
Fair Warning isn't a friendly album. It's a stinky album. It's a dense album. It's a short album. And it's a great album.

Grade B+

A Side: Mean Street & Unchained
Blindside: Sinner's Swing
Downside: Push Comes to Shove (We don't need creepy grooves from the party boys)

Listening Post: Rick Springfield - Venus in Overdrive

Taking a breather from the retrospective nature of Listening Posts (and the redundant nature of the Van Halen Brothers Masturbation Projects), I got a note today that there was a new Rick Springfield album released (thanks, Mr. Orwell, I mean, iTunes!).
If you know me, you know that I am a Springfield fanatic. I came to him late, which is sort of a theme of mine. I was actually buying my girlfriend a vinyl copy of Working Class Dog (mocking the whole way) and spent an afternoon listening and saying, "WTF? This is great!".
Since then I have collected every album of Rick's on vinyl, save Sahara Snow & Anger....which are on CD.
This is the first ephemeral only Rick purchase. So, when I want to share it with my daughter, I will be hauling out an external hard drive and saying, "THIS is my music collection, behold the....abstract disposable, intangible nothingness!"

Is Venus in Overdrive good?
It's a shitload better than that crapfest album of covers he did a couple years ago, that's for sure.
And it's an interesting companion piece to Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance. Where that album took the dense depression that was Rick's wheelhouse in the late 90s and early aughts and melded it to a thick power pop conceit, ViO is much more acceptable.
In a way, Venus bridges the gap between Jessie's Girl and Beautiful You. Rick is accessible again, visiting the same pop hookiness (and mining his own sound in the process) of the former and melding it with an elder statesman viewpoint.
Much of it sounds like he listened to too much Jimmy Eat World but, that's okay, because I like Jimmy Eat World.
She is as good a John Lennon song as anyone has ever mimicked (and without anything new, it's nice to have someone besides Utopia to ape the sound), it actually kind of reminds me of The Monkees' Porpoise Song.
Allmusic is pretty dead on when they say that Mr. PC is a dynamite Foo Fighters tune, but I think it's got a little more teeth than Mr. Grohl can muster.
I feel bad for Rick, to be honest. He's a good little popsmith who is pigeonholed as a nostalgia act. His appeal is limited, perhaps by age, perhaps by his dedication to a song style that no one seems to be interested in anymore. it's kind of a shame. The same thing is sort of happening to REM.
I'm not sure anyone will buy this album that isn't already a fan, so Rick is preaching to a pretty devout choir. I have to wonder if there is anything to get new fans to buy this, though. I wish they would. The world needs a little Power Pop.

Buy Venus in Overdrive

Grade B+
A Side: Victoria's Secret
Blindside: 3 Warning Shots & Mr. PC
Downside: God Blinked (Swing it Sister) [late model Adam Ant quasi-neurotic angular dance music.]

Defender!

Okay, mofos, this has gotta be quick. I'm in a coffee shop in Big Bear on vacation. Helped my niece get online for her college stuff.
There is an arcade in this town. It has a Defender machine. I used to play Defender every day as a lad in Bar Harbor in the summertime. I never got more than 50,000 points.
A few years ago Beth and I were in Big Bear and hit the arcade and I dropped about 3 bucks in the game, once again, never getting more than 50K.
2 months ago I was at a production company where they have the game in their lobby. It's free. I got killed before I got one extra ship.
I suck.
Then we walked into this arcade in Big Bear again. Beth, Aaron, Tommy and I. I put four quarters on the machine and started.
I cracked 50,000 and ran out of smart bombs. Then I lost my spacemen and I was in outer space, where it is all frenzied mutants and pods and it's impossible to survive, at least for me.
Something odd happened this time, though.
I survived space.
I got back to the planet.
I broke 100,000 points.
200,000.
If I could just get, 300,000 that would be cool, I thought.
Then 3, 4, and half a million points.
Beth was ready to go. Ready to GO!?!?!? Are you crazy????? Don't you see what's happening here? My thumb and last two fingers on my joystick hand are blistered and bleeding. Dare I hope? Do I dream of a million?
I've never gotten more than three screens on ANY video game!
Then it happened.
994,000...996,000...998,000.....
And the game turned over.
One million.
Back to zero.
After that I just tried to die so I could put my name in.
I had 25 smart bombs and 40 ships. I could have played all day. I was in the zone.
I saved the fucking galaxy and achieved a lifetime dream.
I'm a geek, yes, but a geek who turned Defender over, fuckers!

listening Post: Van Halen - Women and Children First

When I was about 15 or 16 my best friend in the summer vacation town of Bar Harbor was a guy named Pete. I met him while we were both prep cooks at the town's greasy spoon. Pete was a metal guy all the way. Used to listen to Pantera before anyone knew who they were. He took me to see Ozzy at the Blizzard of Oz tour stop at the Bangor State Fair, (Randy Rhodes was 5 feet from me and a little band named Def Leppard was the opener). Pete also had a pair of pants tailor painted with white stripes to emulate Eddie Van Halen's guitar. While I was immersing myself in Queen, Pete was learning to shred. I never even gave the Pasadena boys a chance.
Let's remedy that now, shall we?




Van Halen - Women and Children First - 1980 (Buy it)

This is different. This sounds like the soundtrack to Almost Famous. This is classic rock determined to stand shoulder to shoulder with the giants of the day. There's a broader palette being drawn here. The soundscape is wider and more dense than anything that has come before.
Once again, the party atmosphere is present but, like I said, this is....different. It's a sound best played in a 50,000 seat amphitheater but it works great at a kegger, too.
The roller rink atmosphere is gone, though. Replaced by a prog-rock sensibility. W&C1st is not as easy to sink your teeth into. It's actually a more demanding record. Chunkier, groggier. At the same time it's a quick record and not just by elapsed time. Though that is swift, it's a breeze to get through most of this stuff. It sits nicely in the background and works well on your headphones.
Behind it all, VH has a sound and formula that just works. I'm not sure you need to hear anything but the first record, though.

Grade B+
A Side: And the Cradle Will Rock
Blindside: Everybody Wants Some! & Could this be Magic
Downside: Fools. It's just a little bloated amidst the streamlined stealth.

listening Post: Van Halen - Van Halen II

When I was about 15 or 16 my best friend in the summer vacation town of Bar Harbor was a guy named Pete. I met him while we were both prep cooks at the town's greasy spoon. Pete was a metal guy all the way. Used to listen to Pantera before anyone knew who they were. He took me to see Ozzy at the Blizzard of Oz tour stop at the Bangor State Fair, (Randy Rhodes was 5 feet from me and a little band named Def Leppard was the opener). Pete also had a pair of pants tailor painted with white stripes to emulate Eddie Van Halen's guitar. While I was immersing myself in Queen, Pete was learning to shred. I never even gave the Pasadena boys a chance.
Let's remedy that now, shall we?



Van Halen - Van Halen II - 1979 (Buy it)

Softer. That's my first sense of this album. A little more sheen. A little more pandering to the sounds of the times. Not as much edge. This is a supergroup that wants to sell more records the second time around.
This is not a bad thing. It just means that it's not full of surprises. It is EXACTLY what the title says.

Number 2.

Just another collection of songs by the rockingest cockrockers from Pasadena, California.

It opens with a sleepy, creepy blues cover of a Clint Ballard tune. Not how I would choose to open the album, but what the hell, doesn't matter.
This is more party rock.
Actually, it's better than that. This is roller rink rock.
There is no change to the formula. It worked the first time, it works the second time around.
Trouble is, after the first album there's really no reason to own this. Together, the two albums are barely over 1 hour in length so, by today's standards it would qualify as one cd.
However, 30 minutes is perfect. It's just right. Albums really shouldn't be much longer than 35 minutes, should they? Is there really anything you can't say in 35 minutes?
There's another Eddie solo piece on this. It's very different from "Eruption". "Spanish Fly" is an acoustic treat.
Eddie Van Halen. Show off. If only he wasn't so fucking good.
God, I can hear future Motley Crue all over this. And Poison. And Ratt and Warrant and all those big haired buggers. Just how influential was VH? Considering that they are really just Zeppelin Lite. But I hear the future of Rock and Roll through this album and it's just around the corner.

Grade A (But you don't need it if you have the first album)
A Side: Dance the Night Away
Blindside: Somebody get me a Doctor & D.O.A. & Beautiful Girls
Downside: You're No Good.

VH1 honors The Who

My good friend Jeff Christian, a high school buddy and school radio show co-hort has been extolling the virtues of The Who and the VH1 honors show for weeks. He emailed me his thoughts this morning so I thought we would make him Guest Blogger for the day.



From Jeff:
A few random thoughts on the VH1 show...

1. Dave Grohl is the coolest mofo on the freakin' planet! "Young Man Blues" was absolutely searing. I only wish they hadn't let that douchey little guy in the fedora come out to do vocals on “Bargain.”

2. Incubus gave "I Can See for Miles" just the right psychedelic edge, but missed the mark on "I Can't Explain.". I was craving Moonie's machine-gun fills and Pete's jangly Rickenbacker lead.

3. The Flaming Lips are totally insane…in a good way. And I want to crowd surf in a hamster ball before I die.

4. I loves me some Jack Black, but does he need to appear on every awards and tribute show?!? At least Mike Myers stayed home.

5. Eddie Vedder's vocal cords must have looked like ground beef after "Love Reign O'er Me," but it was worth every burst capillary. I think he's the most powerful vocalist of his era.

6. The introductions were fawning and generally unnecessary. When I think "rock gods," David Duchovny does not leap to mind. A little more Who history would have been appropriate.

7. I'd like to shake the hand of the VH1 salesperson that convinced Garnier Fructis that women15-24 are huge fans of The Who!!

8. Roger and Pete still have that amazing sound and interplay. But the banter was forced and Townshend's windmilling is beginniing to look unbecoming and self-parodic at his age. If they (as Daltrey foreshadowed) choose to do this into their nineties, I hope they won't keep smashing instruments.

9. My 4-year old was inconsolable when the show started because when I told her we were going to be hearing The Who, she assumed it would be Dr. Seuss.

Long live rock!!!

Listening Post: Van Halen - Van Halen

When I was about 15 or 16 my best friend in the summer vacation town of Bar Harbor was a guy named Pete. I met him while we were both prep cooks at the town's greasy spoon. Pete was a metal guy all the way. Used to listen to Pantera before anyone knew who they were. He took me to see Ozzy at the Blizzard of Oz tour stop at the Bangor State Fair, (Randy Rhodes was 5 feet from me and a little band named Def Leppard was the opener). Pete also had a pair of pants tailor painted with white stripes to emulate Eddie Van Halen's guitar. While I was immersing myself in Queen, Pete was learning to shred. I never even gave the Pasadena boys a chance.
Let's remedy that now, shall we?



Van Halen - Van Halen - 1978 (Buy It)

Samurai Frog was the first to respond. His missive was quick. It was terse. It was direct. He wanted VH. I shall oblige. For that reason and also because, driving to the farmer's market, "Running with the Devil" came on my ipod and I got hooked.

Holy fucking god.

It really really was better to grow up and listen to music in the 70s than the 80s or now, wasn't it?
Van Halen is one of, if not the, most assured debuts I have ever heard. Every note, every lyric, every pound of the drum is fashioned with such assuredness that one would assume that these guys had been around forever.
As a collection of songs, it doesn't let up. There is no moment of shit. No filler.
Eruption? Not only was it apparently so insanely influential that it inspired a legion of guitar gods to pick up the axe and shred, but it sounds fresh today!
And, any band that takes an iconic rock song, like The Kinks's You Really Got Me and make it sound like their own, really have something going on.
In fact, there is a uniquely wonderful thing happening here. This is the sound of a band so at ease yet so fired up, they want to prove something to the world, to themselves, to some parents, to some girl, while at the same time, they never beg you to like them. The KNOW they are the shit and they have the chops to prove it.
Classically trained children of a classical musician bring rock to a new place. Instead of going the prog-rock route that so many of that kind of student does, Eddie and Alex just redefine rock to meet their talent.
And Roth! He is Joel Grey's emcee dipped in a vat of sex.
You've heard about 75% of this album already. There's no way you couldn't have. But, if you don't own it, you really should. I can't believe I missed it, eschewed it, passed it by.
Pete was right.

Grade A+

A Side: Running with the Devil, Eruption, You Really Got Me, Jamie's Cryin', Ice Cream Man......
Blindside: On Fire & I'm the One (Even though it sounds like a warm-up for Hot For Teacher)
Downside: Little Dreamer, it's good, just not up to par.

Listening Post in your hands

The Listening Post series has turned out to be the most fun I've had in a long time. I've come to love some music, hate some, discover some. I thought I knew some things and I knew nothing in comparison.
I am about to go on vacation and I will be bringing the ipod and computer with me. Will I be listening? Will I be blogging? I don't know. But I do know that I have narrowed the field to two bands. Both are iconic. Both got their starts in the early 70s, had some rough times, replaced some key players, revitalized themselves then fell apart in the ways of music and drugs.
One is from the west the other from the east. Pasadena vs. Boston. You would think I would know more about them than I do, but the truth is, until recently, I had never had a complete album by either.
So, I leave it in your hands. You vote in the comments section (all three of you) by the end of this weekend and I will do the band who gets the most love. (I will do the other one next, of course.)
If you so desire, and you have a blog with readers, please compel them to vote as well. Each of these bands has over 100 songs in their catalogue and they have both been in the news lately.
That said, you control the next 10 hours of music that I will be listening to.
Here are the choices:


Aerosmith
or


Van Halen (All three versions)

You decide.

Listening Post: Bon Jovi - Lost Highway

And so we come to the end of another Listening Post. With Lost Highway we have traversed more than a quarter century of pure MOR.
Thanks for sticking it out with me.


Bon Jovi - Lost Highway - 2007
(Buy it)

To paraphrase Captain Kirk in Wrath of Khan: "I'll say this for them, they're persistent" and consistent.
The formula is in place and no one is straying. The only experimentation is the calculated ripping off of what's hot. In this case, the hottest thing going in America is Carrie Underwood so, Bon Jovi is now a "Nashville influenced" Rock band. This means adding a do-bro, some drawl, more tambourine (just a touch) and some arpeggiating.
Other than that, what's to say? These guys just keep pluggng along, the lone survivors of the 80s glam metal, carrying the torch of arena rock and doing it well. They ride the middle of that road so hard there is a trench where the white line used to be.
The duet with Leanne Rhimes, "We Ain't Strangers Anymore" might have been okay, but I can't help but feel pandered to. Like they just know they will sell x number of records with a country ballad duet and that pisses me off.
It's hard to condemn something that is basically harmless. It isn't great but it's fine if you are on a long drive somewhere, or want something on in the background while you do your taxes.

Grade B

A Side: Lost Highway
Blindside: We Got it Going On
Downside: One Step Closer. I am officially over JBJ's lovestruck whiny balladeering.