THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: vinyl records (Page 482 of 491)

THE TUBES – Remote Control

January 14, 2021 /

Remote Control is the sixth album from The Tubes, and sees them moving away from the shock rock era of White Punks On Dope, to a more sophisticated new wave/pop outfit. This could have a lot to do with the production of Todd Rundgren. Remote Control is a concept album loosely based on the book, Being There. All the efforts went into the songs and the melodies, as Side 1 is full of them, with the opening salvo of Turn Me On, TV is King, and Prime Time all are Top 40 material.

I’ve always liked this album, and if you were around at the time it all made perfect sense. Fee Waybill was an incredible front man and focal point for the band, so I guess it was only natural it all became about him. Side 2 starts with the instrumental Getoverture, and then it all trundles along nicely until album closer Telecide, which is about as edgy as this album gets. Side 2 is not living up to Side 1 (there’s a surprise eh folks?).

Not a bad look back into Tubes circa 1979 so it gets a 6.5/10 from The Grooveman.

MAHOGANY RUSH – Strange Universe

January 14, 2021 /

This is the 3rd album by Mahogany Rush, and the last before they were to be known as Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush. This is also the last as a three piece, as Frank’s brother Vince would be added to the line up.

Hailing from Montreal, and being on the local Kotai label, their last before signing his soul away to CBS (something that would annoy Frank right up until the present day). This album is probably the point where the band changed from being a sixties psychedelic influenced band, into a more hard rockin’ affair – as it’s split about 50/50 between the two. Make no mistake though, this is all about Frank and the amazing player he is. Everyone is probably aware of the press about him being the reincarnation of Jimi Hendrix after a bad acid trip which put him in hospital. If you can try and ignore that and concentrate on Frank the amazing musician, we can get started, even though vocally at times he is a dead ringer for Hendrix, check out The King Who Stole The Universe.

Tales Of The Spanish Warrior gets things underway in great style with an up tempo groover with some killer Frank guitar. Land Of A 1000 Nights has a spacey theme and vibe going on, and is rescued again by killer playing. Last song of the first side is Moonlight Lady, and it has that late sixties hippy feel to it. Opening up Side 2 is Dancing Lady, a typical sounding funky groove of the period. The almost jazz groover, Dance, follows with Frank showing his virtuosity with differing styles, and annoyingly the fade out kicks in just as Frank is getting started. The last 3 tracks are basically more of the same, with Strange Universe the title track having Corky Laing on drums.

There are hints of what would come later on here, but although enjoyable, it’s not an essential purchase.

6/10 from The Grooveman.

ALICE COOPER – Billion Dollar Babies

January 13, 2021 /

Believe it or not, this was Alice Cooper’s 6th release, and at the time it was the biggest selling, reaching the top of the charts in the US and UK. 3 singles also came from it, Hello Hooray, Elected, and No More Mr Nice Guy.

To a 13 year old Alice was some kind of horror god that hated adults, and that was fine by me. That whole shock rock thing made such an impression on the youth of the time as we had seen nothing like it before, plus, he was getting banned from playing gigs because of the content, which made us love him even more. Sure you listen to it now and it does sound dated, and the production could have been better, but the lyrics are timeless – especially Elected, how apt is that.

The covers were an occasion back then. This one was no exception. It is a green snakeskin wallet with a “real” billion dollar bill, and some pop out family photos of the band. My favourite tracks are Side 2 opener, No More Mister Nice Guy, and the album closer, I Love The Dead, with the super creepy lyrics “I love the dead before they’re cold, They’re bluing flesh for me to hold”. Those lines have stuck with me for years. I love early Alice Cooper as they painted pictures in your mind and put it in your imagination.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

EXTREME II – Pornograffitti

January 13, 2021 /

This is the 2nd release from Boston groove rockers Extreme. This is a concept album, or funked up fairytale, around the themes of pornography and graffiti. This is the limited Music On Vinyl release, and as with all their releases, it sounds crisp and clear.

Kicking things off with the grooving Decadence Dance with a deep funky rockin’ groove with an excellent melody and catchy chorus – this is a killer opening track. We carry on with the funk into Li’l Jack Horny, with ripping guitars and horns – awesome second track in. Closely followed by When I’m President, which starts with a rap style vocal from Gary Cherone and the usual funky vibes. This otherwise ordinary track is lifted by a cool middle eight with some tasty guitar from Nuno. Then it’s onto this album’s finest track, Get The Funk Out. If this doesn’t get you bouncing round the house then you are not alive. Huge guitar riff with a really fat sound, superb singalong chorus, a fat bass groove, and killer guitar. This ladies and germs is Extreme at their best!!!

The squillion selling world wide smash More Than Words follows – every human alive probably knows this. The almost Queen sounding, Money, follows and then another song that everyone should know, Hole Hearted, closes out Side 1. That my dear peeps is how you load up a side with all the hits how possibly could Side 2 fair against that?!

BOOM!!! We start off Side 2 with some wild phased guitar from Nuno into another killer funk groove, It’s A Monster, with yet another sing a long chorus, huge guitars, and awesome bass groove. When will the pleasure end??? Not with the title track anyway, as we have more of the same with another ripping funky groove. Quite possibly the funkiest track on the whole album. The first of the not so good tracks is next with When I First Kissed You, a rather ordinary ballad as is the last track, Song Of Love. In between those two, we have Suzi, which starts off with a Nuno solo piece with some seriously fast pickin’, and then the comic book-esque, He Man Woman Hater.

This was the album that made them an arena selling act, and made a guitar hero out of Nuno and quite rightly so. I really enjoy this album and it gets 9/10 from The Grooveman, basically for Side 1 alone.

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