Odds and Ends

Each week I use this space to post some mini-reviews, cool tracks, random thoughts, neat news, or whatever else I damn well please.

Looks like I am not the only one disappointed with the new one from The Cars. See more reviews here.

Review: Raining Jane “Paper Nest” EP (2008)
Raining Jane is comprised of four women creating high quality organic folk pop. Exquisite songwriting, vivid imagery, and harmonies that remind me of what the Bangles might have sounded like if they were folkier. Check them out if you like Dar Williams, Melissa Etheridge, or Sarah McLachlan. They are working on their next record in the midst of collaborating with Jason Mraz and opening for Sara Bareilles.

Surprise of the week:
The latest from Sixx A.M. is killer – one of the best modern hard rock records so far this year. Full review coming soon.

Can’t miss this:
Goo Goo Dolls John Rzeznik performs with Daryl Hall on the latest installment of “Live From Daryl’s House”. Check out the news here.

Live Whitesnake double-album and DVD package coming June 7
CD1 : Slip Of The Tongue; Slide It In; Judgement Day; Slow An Easy; Kitten’s Got Claws; Adagio For Strato; Flying Dutchman Boogie; Is This Love; Cheap An’ Nasty; Crying In The Rain (featuring Tommy Aldridge Drum Solo).
CD2: Fool For Your Loving; For The Love Of God; The Audience Is Listening; Here I Go Again
Bad Boys; Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City; Still Of The Night.
DVD: Slip Of The Tongue; Slide It In; Judgement Day; Slow An Easy; Kitten’s Got Claws; Adagio For Strato; Flying Dutchman Boogie; Is This Love; Cheap An’ Nasty; Crying In The Rain (Featuring Tommy Aldridge Drum Solo); Fool For Your Loving; For The Love Of God; The Audience Is Listening; Here I Go Again; Bad Boys; Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City; Still Of The Night.

Random iPOD song of the week:
Slaughter “Street of Broken Hearts” from their sophomore release “The Wild Life”

Classic melodic rock CD of the week

By Stephen Kasenda

SLAUGHTER “The Wild Life” (1992)

"The Wild Life" saw daylight in 1992, when most 80s bands began to suffer as the grunge wave started sweeping in. Slaughter managed to produce several hit singles and hit gold status, but after this album everything went sour commercially for them. Ironically, the next release, “Fear No Evil”, in my opinion, is their peak of creativity. This album showed a rich variety of musical perspectives, from those mandatory emotional-fueled ballads, to psychedelic hard rock, to groovy melodic rock, to early 80s heavy metal.

"Reach For The Sky" and "Out For Love" are good openers, but the title track steals the show. That first single has a blasting chorus and Blas Elias pumped up the groove nicely. "Dance For Me Baby", with its naughty Van Halen-ized beat, and "Old Man" with its Aerosmith flair, are great examples of Slaughter taking on some past references. "Days Gone By", "Real Love", and "Streets of Broken Hearts" are all sensational ballads - hard to top them all and they remain timeless classics to this day. I always found the songs to be very inspiring and adorable.

At the verge of glam's decadence, Slaughter still delivered a classy effort. This is their second best album of all time after "Fear No Evil", and together with the debut, all three are essential must buys for glam fans.

Read more of Stephen’s features at MetalMusicArchives.

Re-live "The Wild Life":