Rock Music

www.kissarmynorway.com Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer will be guests at the Norway KISS Fan Expo in Stavanger, Norway on Friday 7 June. The guitarist and drummer of KISS will spend the evening with 250 lucky KISS fans who all want to meet guys, take photos, and get an autograph. Fans will also have the opportunity to ask KISS members questions. The event will also offer sales of KISS merchandise from the official tour outlets, as well as live bands etc. Event: www.facebook.com/events/523665854347229/ More info HERE: www.kissarmynorway.com

www.podkisst.com In the 70?s and 80?s Marvel Comics had a comic called “What If” , in which they explored how the life of our heroes would have been different if one event changed, how would it alter our heroes lives? Join Gary, Ken and the mighty Chris Karam (PodKISSt Fan extraordinaire) as they discuss ”What If” with KISS. “What If” KISS broke up in 1979? How would it effect the 80?s and beyond? Listen HERE: http://podkisst.com/?p=1541

www.classicrockmagazine.com Kiss released their Dynasty album on May 23, 1979 – exactly 34 years ago today. Here are 10 facts you may not know about the album: 1. The decision to use Vini Poncia as producer came about from the band wanting to smooth over the declining situation with Peter Criss. Vini had produced Peter’s solo album and he [Peter] had demanded that Vini produce the next Kiss record (another considered choice was apparently the disco guru Giorgio Moroder). This tactic would backfire when Vini decided that Peter’s drumming was not good enough for the album. [Anton Fig drums on all tracks except for Dirty Livin'.] 2. Notable acts Vini produced, prior to Kiss, included Melissa Manchester and Leo Sayer. Read more HERE: http://bit.ly/16XctKG

Review by Dr?mmarenAdrian — Ange's second record "Le Cimeti?re des Arlequens" which features Christian and Francis Decamps, Jean-Michel Brezovar, G?rard Jelsch and Daniel Haas is another fantastic record. It has not really the same splendor that their debut record had but it is still a piece of amazing progressive music. First the cover. I think that this record has of of prog history's most amazing covers. I think it's hypnozising me even if I have never touched the real vinyl and just seen the picture. I have became a big fan of this french group recently and I find them very interesting. Here they continue the same winning style as on "Caricatures". The first song "Ces Gens-L?" with edgy organs and strong dramatic speaking vocals goes in a special direction, a brave song. It is like they were demonstating in a parade. "Aujourd'hui c'est la f?te de l'apprenti socier" has a nice recirculation and a dramatic melody and powerful "Bivouac l?re partie" lets the spirit out and develops to a total difference from the beginning. "L'Espionne lesbienne" is calmer and interesting, it sounds like jester music. "Bivouac final" is instrumental and has a very powerful and groovy feeling. "De temps en temps" is another theatrical piece with unique vocals and nice bass work. In "La route aux cypr?s" there is nice flute, this is a more acoustic thing and the closer "Le cimeti?re des Arlequins" is slow and builds up the song to a dramatic ending. Good expressive vocal work. The last song is though not the best song. It's length had been entitled and perhaps made this a five star record with a more clever composition. What I like with "Cimeti?re des Arlequins" and Ange's music is the expressive vocals, the very heavy organs and the edgy rhytm. This makes me happy. Another plus for the outstanding cover!

Review by Todd — An interesting find from an unexpected sourceRiccardo Fogli was the bassist and one of the lead vocalists for I POOH from 1966-1972, when he left for a solo career. He soon found success singing popular ballads. But in 1978 he wanted to mix things up a bit and decided to write a concept album, complete with proggy music. Interestingly, most of the popular artists who dabbled for an album or two in prog did so in the early 1970s. But perhaps Fogli yearned for something a bit meatier. His first four solo albums featured music written almost entirely by other people. But for his first attempt at writing his own material, he went back to his prog roots. "Matteo" is a concept album chronicling a man living his life in reverse (similar in concept to Fitzgerald's short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"). The concept album was recorded in 1978 and musically has more in common with the proggy singer-songwriter albums than with the solo material he had previously released--think of artists such as Mario Barbaja, Gino D'Eliso, Franco Maria Giannini, and Gianni D'Errico. The melodies conveyed by Fogli's wonderful voice are the focus, with some nice guitar and keyboard work. There are some orchestrations, but they are pretty tasteful. There are some nice rhythm changes as well, as well as some RPI grooves ("Verita' Dov'e'" comes to mind)."Matteo" was such a departure from his pop style that Fogli's label refused to release it, fearing that his newly-found momentum would be derailed and his new fans alienated. (One track, "Festa," managed to find its way onto his next album, 1979's "Che Ne Sai," the title track of which proved to be his breakthrough single.) "Matteo" would have remained in the vaults, but in 1999 the magazine "Raro!" released the album as a limited run of 1000 CDs. Although the CD version is difficult to find now, the album has been officially released digitally.Fogli is not a prog artist, and unless you like syrupy ballads you can safely skip the entire discography outside of "Matteo," as far as I've heard. But now that "Matteo" is available, you should at least give it a listen. The entire album is currently on YouTube if you don't like samples, and the digital versions can be purchased at iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, etc. Any RPI fans who want to broaden and deepen their collection would do well to check this one out. Three stars (Gnosis 10/15)

Review by BORA — Temporarily lost in the Labyrinth.NUCLEUS have been one of my fave bands for decades. Oddly, this album has escaped my attention for much of that time and I only managed to track it down in recent years. Perhaps there was a reason for that?At this point, bandleader Ian Carr finds himself without a band as half of the previous members have defected to SOFT MACHINE. A leading British composer/musician. Carr had no problem with finding replacements. He is also very good at getting grants that help with getting over the odd glitch.The release of this album was perhaps rushed as the end result appears to be somewhat underdeveloped. The musicianship is excellent - as always - but the compositions just don't stack up, lacking the collective input of a well established band. It's more of a Carr solo project than NUCLEUS as we've known the band. The title "Labyrinth" is apt as the result appears to be directionless, A few steps this way, a few steps there, still searching for an exit.Special mention is due to the featured singer, Norma Winston, whose beautiful and sensual voice is either overused here on a few tracks, or should have been a feature throughout the whole album. Contrary to the talented musicians, this is the weakest album Carr has released. Thankfully, by the time he gets to the next work "Roots", we are back to more familiar territory that befits the band much more.

Review by octopus-4 — My relationship with this album is very unusual. I knew all the songs since almost when it was released. I have played them on guitar teached by friends but I did never manage to get a copy of the album and listen to the originals until recently, after discovering that AMT were included on PA and a quick chat with some chaps of the RPI team. Now I have a tape cassette (unbelievable!) and my feelings are very controversial as some of the songs have different arrangements respect to what I have imagined for years."Marilyn" is a song with a particular meaning: it was the favorite song of a friend of mine who died recently and I can't not think to him speaking of it. I have never liked this song much, honestly. The lyrics about the star system which should have lead Norma Jean to death appear moralistic, I don't like how it's sung by Lilli Ladeluca who wasn't a bad singer, but I don't think her voice fits well with this song and, last but not least, in the last chorus they've had to add a beat to fit into a metric horror. The wooden flute sounds ridicously hippy while a harmonica would have probably brought a bit of blues into this forgettable country ballad. Have I been harsh enough? Well, not all the album is so weak luckily. It has its good moments."America"starts like a country-rock ballad but the classical guitar gives it a RPI flavor. Also the pauses and the possible mistake of the guitarist before the first chorus don't sound bad. The bongos sounds even kraut, the keyboard bass and drums are added and this country ballad becomes a prog song. Alloisio's voice is excellent as usual and the lyrics about the American way of life referred to the cold war and all the bads in the actual foreign politics, but also with mentions to good people like saying "we hate your government but we love your people" which was a quite common position within the actual left-winged Italians. America was sometimes an enemy but sometimes a promised land. "Gli Indiani" (The Indians) seems to indicate that initially this was conceived as a concept album about USA, as it's the third consecutive song with an "American" subject. Musically this song is more similar to the debut album, surely more progressive. It reminds a bit to a song from an Italian singer-songwriter of the same period, Francesco De Gregori and his "Bufalo Bill". Similar also in the subject."Tutto e' spettacolo" is a swing song, with very funny lyrics totally out-of-topic. No more America. It's about the end of the "revolutionary" age and anticipates what the 80s will be. Prophetic."Le Condoglianze" (The Condolences) is about the same arguments of the previous song, but it's not aggressive. It's a melodic song with some nasty moments like when they sing "If you are a German who comes to the sea, think to how many Meinhof's you will let be killed" Ulrike Meinhof was a German terrorist, founder of the "Rote Armee Frakton" who was found dead in jail, but likely killed as it happened to her mate Andreas Baderand other belongers to that group, all officially suicided. Howes ver this is just a reference and not the song's subject which is about ancients retired, football supporters and many other characters of the time."La Citta' Futura" (The Future City) was a common concept in the actual communist area. It was also the name of a radio still active today (which also transmits a lot of prog). It's mimic of a brass band with ironic lyrics. "If the future city will be made of waste, give a pill to all the family. For the little sister dioxyne is ready and with heroin she will achieve the peace" This is more or less what the lyrics say."Festa" (Celebration) is about the "Festa dell'Unita'", an annual celebration organized every year by the Communist party to raise money for the party which was in Italy a counterpart to the religious celebrations and with almost the same contents with people eating sausages, playing games, making music and sometimes listening to a meet

Review by Neu!mann — Their self-titled third album is still the neglected stepchild in the greater Kraftwerk discography, overshadowed on one side (even today) by the raw Krautrock grunge of their earlier 'traffic cone' albums, and on the other by the international success of "Autobahn". The album's namesake duo refuse to even recognize it anymore, and to date have never sanctioned an official CD release, frustrating many older fans in the process.And yet it was the first Kraftwerk album to formulate anything resembling a genuine group identity. The original cover photo showed the genesis of that immaculate Kraftwerk image, embracing an ironic caricature of German efficiency and discipline that would soon go a long way toward selling the band around the world. Ralf still wore the shoulder-length hair of a precocious chemistry professor, but how many young musicians in 1973 were dressed and groomed as neatly as Florian, complete with musical lapel pin?Clearly this wasn't the same team of counterculture vandals who fabricated buzz-bomb attacks on their self-titled debut LP. But for the time being the two were still in the process of shedding their primitive Krautrock epidermis. You can hear it in the crude attempts at real melodic figures, and in the punchier rhythms of "Kristallo" and "Tanzmusik". The latter in particular was a brightly laminated road map to a lucrative trans-global future: the most upbeat and simple tune so far in their rapidly evolving catalogue, yet still disarmingly German (if that isn't an oxymoron).And then there's the (almost) side-long "Ananas Symphonie", an evocative tone poem to swaying palm trees and undulating native girls, strikingly out of step with other German music trends at the time. The track doesn't really arrive anywhere after nearly fourteen minutes, but like the whole album it's a very pleasant journey, and one more confident step away from the labored Teutonic experiments of the past.Maybe Ralf and Florian were later embarrassed by the low-tech clutter of their home studio, as it appeared in 1973 on the album's rear sleeve. Or maybe turning their collective back on the past was a calculated ploy to increase the cult appeal of those anomalous early efforts. Either way it's a shortsighted attitude: the sleek computer world of future Kraftwerk wouldn't look the same without the man-made nuts and bolts of makeshift analog albums like this one.

Earlier this week we spilled quite a bit of pixel dust in praise of Blank Realm’s LP Go Easy, out now via Fire Records. As such, we thought we’d conjure up the opportunity for one of you to get your hands on the release, on glorious pink vinyl. “Blank Realm has been knocking around Brisbane, Australia for over half a decade, spurting out small-press underground rumblings on all sorts of formats. But with the release of Go Easy they are swaggering confidently into a bigger spotlight. The record actually came out last year and kicked up a fair amount of positive dust, but in the end that response just wasn’t satisfactory, for the UK label Fire Records has recently given it another well-deserving and higher-profile press, this time on pink vinyl. Listeners favorable to a meeting of Royal Trux’s more rocking moments and the raggedy thrust of the current garage scene should find it a keeper.” “The group is composed of two brothers and a sister, Daniel (vocals/drums), Luke (bass), and Sarah (synths/vocals) Spencer, with Luke Walsh (guitar/engineering) completing the lineup. Based on a casual first impression, the foursome seems to be tapping into a definite ‘90s indie vibe, a circumstance that’s only deepened by the comparisons between the band and the early/mid-‘90’s recordings issued by Royal Trux… Very frequently when listening to a record, a song will arise and immediately reveal its destiny as the consensus “hit” of the platter. That’s not the case here. Understandably, lots of folks are currently celebrating the odd pop of “Cleaning up My Mess,” but from where I’m listening, Go Easy has four more cuts out of a grand total of eight that are just as strong. And that’s a downright impressive feat. Due to the surface familiarity of their sound, Blank Realm is likely to be underrated a bit, but with this LP they’ve charted a fresh entry in the annals of Australia’s rocking history, and that’s a circumstance deserving of generous praise.” Enter to win our pink vinyl copy of Blank Realm’s Go Easy by sharing with us in the comments below the coolest record you own on any color vinyl. (There’s actually a Best of 70′s Porn Music LP here at TVD HQ and uh, yea…pink vinyl too. No joke.) We’ll choose one winner on 6/3! The band’s on tour too—would it kill you to check ‘em out live? Didn’t think so. Blank Realm Tour Dates: May 24 – Chicago, IL – Burlington May 25 – Cincinatti – Chameleon May 26 – Columbus, OH – The Summit May 27 – Washington – DC – Black Cat May 28 – Brooklyn, NY – Death By Audio May 29 – Philadelphia, PA – Ortlieb’s Lounge May 30 – Chaos in Tejas Red 7 – Austin ,TX June 1 – San Francisco, CA Hemlock Tavern June 2 – Permanent Records in store, Los Angeles June 3 – San Diego , CA – Che Cafe June 5 – Portland, Rotture June 7 – Seattle, Cairo Advertise here with BSA

Review by Dark Nazgul — The noise of a jack that connects a guitar to the amplifier. It's the first thing you hear, and it is indicative of the style of the album. An album deliberately rough and crude (in some ways minimalist) and unfortunately, in my opinion, not very successful."The Great Leap" is the first album of a trilogy dedicated to the crisis of the ecosystem. In terms of musical style, is a continuation of what has already been heard in the previous album "313". Although the tracks are closely related, this album has a few characteristics of progressive rock. The songs are short and direct, with no frills or unnecessary pomp, with a prevalence of distorted guitar riffs and aggressive tones: it seems a strange mixture of punk and melodic pop. The voice of Valerie Gracious remains in the background, all the tracks see Phideaux as lead vocalist, and his tones are aggressive and not very reassuring.Unfortunately, only a few songs are effective. Almost always prevails monotony, and the melodies do not intrigue. The opening track Wake Up , for example, is a crude and obvious song with a hard rock guitar riff and nothing more. In other tracks, such as Tannisroot , One Star and I Was Thinking melodies have little appealing; they are boring even from the first or second listening. They Hunt You Down is in my opinion the least successful song of the album. It has a slow and exhausting pace and miss the mark completely. In the middle of this song there is a disturbing contrast in styles, and it's really hard to overcome the temptation to skip the track.Things go better with Rainboy , despite a questionable choral introduction and a poor first singed part. The second half of the song is one of the best moments of the album. Not bad even the catchy Long And Lonely Way and The Waiting , where finally the melodies are enjoyable, and the final track, the melancholic Last .Of excellent quality, however, the aggressive and dark Abducted , characterized by the slow rhythm of the bass, the distorted guitar and a nice change of pace in the instrumental part. Even excellent, for rhythmic variations and atmosphere, the melodic You And Me Against A World Of Pain , the best track on the album.Despite some good track, I recommend it only to hardcore fans of Phideaux, and only to complete the "trilogy". The most amazing thing is the contrast (for the style of the work, and also, in my opinion, for the quality of the music) with the second chapter "Doomsday Afternoon", which is a masterpiece of contemporary progressive rock.****star songs: You And Me Against A World Of Pain, Abducted***star songs: Long And Lonely Way, The Waiting, Rainboy, Last**star songs: Wake Up, Tannisroot, One Star, I Was Thinking*star songs: They Hunt You DownMy final rating is 4/10. Best song: You And Me Against A World Of Pain