Sammy Hagar's Cosmic Universal Fashion - The Bring Back Glam! Album Review

Sammy Hagar will release Cosmic Universal Fashion November 18th. This album is straight Sammy, guitar and all. The album also marks the first release for Loud and Proud, which is a RoadRunner Records imprint. Cosmic Universal Fashion is nice and heavy - with a definite nod toward the Montrose days. The album features Michael Anthony, Billy Duffy, Matt Sorum and Billy Gibbons!  One listen and I was hooked.

The tracklisting:

1. Cosmic Universal Fashion
2. Psycho Vertigo
3. Peephole
4. LOUD (Featuring Matt Sorum and Billy Duffy)
5. Fight for Your Right to Party
6. Switch On the Light
7. When the Sun Don't Shine
8. 24365
9. I'm on a Roll
10. Dreams/Cabo

There's a good reason track number five looks familiar. Sammy does a fine job covering the Beastie Boy's signature tune. When Sammy Hagar played Rock the Bayou, he closed his set with "Fight With Your Right to Party" - and it fit. The song fits here, too. Of course, Sammy juiced it up a bit and made it less rap and more rock - as it should be, natch.

Overall, the guitar work on Cosmic Universal Fashion is strong. Heavy in quite a lot of places, but not overpowering for the artist. That said, "LOUD" is probably my favorite song on the CD. Sammy doesn't need the help of Matt Sorum or Billy Duffy, but their presence is a nice touch.

Mellow Sammy is here, too. "When the Sun Don't Shine" sounds a little country. Sammy likes to dip his toe in the twang waters from now and then. "When the Sun Don't Shine" is probably my least favorite track on Cosmic Universal Fashion. I prefer the heavier side of Sammy, but I appreciate his effortless ability to cross over to many genres.

As you would imagine, "Dreams/Cabo Wabo" is a remake of the song he originally sang with Van Halen. Cosmic Universal Fashion gives the tune the live remake treatment. The addition of the live track means stage banter which I can always do without, but this is my only real complaint about the album. "Dreams" itself is a decent song - it was never one of my favorite Van Halen tunes, but it serves a purpose. Naturally, the crowd sings along loudly. That's par for the course at any Sammy show. I'm not sure where or when the track was recorded. Cosmic Universal Fashion is delivered in an environmentally sound digipack - that means "no booklet/no waste." The digipack sent me to Sammy's official website - but the credits page for Cosmic Universal Fashion doesn't seem ready. No matter - we'll figure it out soon enough I'm sure.

If you're looking for a solid rock record, I'd give Cosmic Universal Fashion a shot. This isn't Sammy Hagar's career defining moment, but the rock is still damn good.

Here's the video for the album's title track. It's a modern remake of the concept for Van Halen's "Right Now." It also features our friend Michael Anthony.

Songs for Sunday

Do you have any songs for Sunday?

There are quite a lot of songs for specific days of the week, like "We Don't Celebrate Sundays," "Monday, Monday" and even "Eights Days a Week." This isn't what I mean when I say a "Sunday song."

I mean something a little mellow.

Some study I read determined that Americans pick Sunday as their favorite day of the week. I'll go out on a limb and guess that most of the world feels this way.

Songs for a Sunday usually need to be a little more mellow. By the time Sunday rolls around, I like to rest. I try to forget that Monday follows Sunday - as we all know, Mondays suck.

Here's my top 10 songs for Sunday:

Round and Round - Aerosmith
Cry No More - Arcade
Lonely Train - Black Stone Cherry
Light from Above - Black Tide
I Wanna Be With You - Pretty Boy Floyd
Starry Eyes - Motley Crue
To End the Rapture - Avenged Sevenfold
House of Pain - Faster Pussycat
You Know That - Richie Kotzen
Rooster - Alice in Chains

So - what sort of songs do you like for a mellow day?

Willie Basse - The Money Grind

The name Willie Basse might be familiar. He was part of the Los Angeles band Black Sheep, which also happened to feature  drummer Randy Castillo.

Now, Willie has a new album (under his own name) called The Money Grind. Considering our current economic situation, I can't think of a better title. The very first time I listened to Willie Basse I immediately thought of my friend Sean. He loves funk and soul and rock - and the mash-up of all three. That's exactly what you get on The Money Grind.

Willie Basse is a great bass player - so it's no surprise funk is big here. Still, Basse has his roots in the 80s Metal scene, so the album comes off as a sort of quasi classic rock. I really like "Po' Boy" with its reggae influences. Listening to such songs make me think I'm on vacation - even if I'm stuck in a cubicle in Ohio.

"Don't Waste My Time" is also a strong track - and you can listen to this one of the official Myspace.

Basse himself is a bit of a jack of all trades. Not only does he play bass but he also writes all his songs and engineers/produces his work. That said, Willie Basse may have been better off hiring a producer to help him with The Money Grind. The production here is terrible - perhaps the worst of any "professionally" released album I've ever heard in my life. The songs have a lot of external "noise" and each track sort of ends in a "stop-start" fashion. In other words, there is excess music that wasn't clipped when the song ended. This drives me freaking crazy. I hate clutter in life - and that applies to messy music just as it does to a chaotic room or desk.

Production rant aside, The Money Grind is good for what it is: fun, classic rock that is bass-driven. It's Glam with a punch - heavy and smooth.

Update on Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 01:46PM by Allyson B. Crawford

An update: the label sent me a new copy of this disc. Apparently there was a technical glitch at the factory and the first run of this disc had the horrible clipping issue I mention. I must admit the correct copy of The Money Grind sounds much better - real rock/funk fusion!

Get ShipRocked!

We've known for awhile that the Motley Cruise was a no-go for 2009. What I haven't told you is that I've known of an alternative for quite some time. I was promised the story first - but a leak meant a few details landed on Blabbermouth.

The crux of the matter is that ShipRocked essentially replaces the Motley Cruise as the flagship (get it?) standard for water-based festivals. So far, ShipRocked includes a roster of Queensryche, Lynam, Endeverafter, Stonerider and Skid Row. There are two more bands to be added - and they are headline-level acts. Trust me!

Cabins are available for sale very soon. As five day cruises go, ShipRocked is cheap. Just $599 bucks. The cruise departs next November from Fort Lauderdale and ports in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Grand Cayman. The cruise happens aboard the MSC Poesia.

You can visit the official website here. Cabins go on sale November 17. I'm not lying: I want to go on this cruise. I like the length and the time of year. Besides concerts there are other activities, like heavy metal karaoke and charity auctions. Plus, you get to do all the traditional cruise stuff like eating too much and laying like a slug by the pool. We'll see if I can scrounge up the cash for this. I think I can promise you some pretty good coverage if I can make it happen.

New Steelheart - Music and Video

Steelheart are grossly underrated. Lead singer Miljenko Matijevic effectively is Steelheart. Still, a band is not made by singer alone, so Milli added Chris Risola, Bill Lonero, Rev Jones and Mike Humbert to the band.

Steelheart are huge with the Rocklahoma crowd. The band has played at both festivals. This past summer, fans actually booed when Steelheart were forced off the stage. That's right! Steelheart ran out of time and the Rocklahoma promoters wanted to keep the show on the road so they forced the band off - and the crowd got a little unruly. Fans were chanting "One more song!" for quite some time...but no luck.

The new Steelheart album Good 2B Alive has been in the works for what seems like forever. Friday night (November 7), you'll be able to hear the entire album at www.g2ba.net. You have to log on at midnight (eastern) to listen - and yes, it's free.  Good 2B Alive is available for sale on November 11, 2008.

If you've been to Steelheart's Myspace recently, you've probably heard the new single "LOL." I'm sure you'll agree it's basically awesome. I've also heard the song quite a lot on the Boneyard - especially at lunchtime.

Here's the song list of the new CD:

Samurai
LOL
Buried Unkind
Twisted Future
Shine Light for Me
I Breathe
UnderGound
You Showed Me How 2 Love
Good 2B Alive

Steelheart also produced a promo video for the song "LOL." According to YouTube, that promo clip was posted less than 20 hours before the time of this article. That means many of you will see the clip for the first time right here.

Anyone Been to ZRock Festival?

So, I get all sorts of updates from the Z Rock Festival. Interesting since I've never attended the event. I'm sure that some PR person somewhere picked up my blog and grabbed my email address. This is great, actually, because I get lineup announcements.

Speaking of lineups...Z Rock Fest has a very diverse band selection. Here's the lineup so far:

 
WIG WAM, TONY HARNELL, STORMZONE, JOHN WAITE, BIG NOIZE, VON GROOVE, EDEN , NEWMAN, LEC ZORN with more acts to be announced. 

If you're not familiar, Z Rock Fest happens in England during the last weekend in May. 

Z Rock is a hard rock label over in Europe. They have quite a lot of Glam bands on their roster, including Britny Fox, Black n' Blue, Jani Lane and the like.  You might want to give them a look because I suspect there are some cool albums to discover courtesy of Z Rock. Visit them here.

Back to the festival. The tickets to the two day event are pretty cheap, so it might be a fun time if you're in the U.K. this summer. If only it didn't cost a mint to fly to England from the U.S...

Update on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 03:42PM by Allyson B. Crawford

It's true: it appears Tyketto is not playing this festival. Eden is supporting Tyketto and this is mentioned in the same press release.

Bummer. Tyketto is a good festival add. Sorry for the confusion.

It's Election Day in America

It's election day in America. This is a big election, people. I mean, we're talking about presidential politics here.

Presidential election day is like my Super Bowl. I live for this sort of thing. I love politics as much as I love Glam. Moreover, I'm drawn to politics because of the chance for change. After all, there's nothing better than democracy in action.

Over the past month, my email account was flooded with press releases from musicians endorsing either Barack Obama or John McCain. You'll note I posted none of them. Quite frankly, I think it's a little ridiculous when Metal musicians make a big deal about political endorsements. I mean, Aerosmith is my favorite band. Joe Perry endorsed John McCain. Did this sway my political opinion? No. By the same token, Slash endorsed Barack Obama. Did that make me feel any more sound in my choice for president? Nope. I think musicians have a really big role to play in politics. That role is exciting people - especially the young - to vote. You know, there's a reason Rock the Vote has been around for so long. Holding drives to get kids registered is only half the battle. Musicians need to go along the campaign trail all political season to keep people interested. So, I could care less who Steven Tyler, Nikki Sixx or Axl Rose likes for President. I care more if these musicians are using their celebrity for good. Are the musicians using their influence to motivate? Can they get people interested in donating time and money to charities? Are they giving back themselves?

If you're an American - and you're registered to vote - make sure you get to the polls and cast a ballot. I don't care who you vote for, although if you'd like to write me in, I'd be sure to have at least one Glam band at the inaugural ball. Seriously, if you don't vote, you don't get to complain. This election doesn't just affect Americans. The world is small. We're all in this together. Go vote. Now.