So to put it bluntly I’m fucking busy. Baseball season has begun and we’re knee deep in it already so between practices I was able to sit down and get this out…
Record Store Day was Saturday April 18th…needless to say I didn’t make it to a record store on that day. I guess the collector geek in me lost out to the busy Dad and truth be told, the geek will probably always lose. Regardless, I like to think I did my part by visiting the mighty Metal Haven on the Wednesday before.
I had former Midwest Metal colleague Kain (a.k.a. Kain Diamond, Kain Bendix Petersen, Mercyful Kain etc.) along for the ride. A surprise visit from the land of Skynyrd, this would be his first trip to Chicago’s mecca of Metal. Got a bit of a late start so when we arrived the store was closed! Thanks to Mark for re-opening so we could shop!
Here’s a little personal tidbit, I used to dream of owning a record store. I remember when Metal Haven opened back in the Summer of 1999 and I thought, and still do, it’s just the best store of it’s kind, anywhere. These days the thought of owning a record store and being able to feed my family just don’t compute.
However, no one works as hard as Mark to keep Metal Haven rolling. I picked up the new Wolves in the Throne Room as well as the new Grand Magus as well as a few used CD’s.
Finally getting thoughts together on VH1 Classic’s ‘That Metal Show’, from April 11th. Not that blogging about a ½ hour show and my thoughts on it are like compiling NASA data, but like I mentioned before, I’m fucking busy!
The show starts off with a good discussion about classic Heavy Metal bands and their fans. The question being do classic bands consistently get new fans or do they simply retain their original fan base?
Eddie Trunk mentions the last time he saw Iron Maiden there were quite a few kids in the crowd, with their parents or whomever, but still.
Don makes a good point on the merchandise end of Iron Maiden, the shirts, the shoes…Eddie in particular will NEVER go out of “fashion”.
Jim seals the deal with the Guitar Hero games and what they do for the young’ns and as I’ve said several times before, he’s absolutely right.
Me? I think it has a lot to do with the band. A band like Maiden will be around forever. Whether they’re making brand new albums or not, they will always have the younger generation interested in what they’ve done, like Sabbath, Priest and Metallica the music and imagery will be here long after we’re gone.
I) The studio guest for the evening is Queensryche vocalist Geoff Tate. I have mixed feelings about Queensryche…I mean where do they even fit in with today’s music? Not that fitting in is where it’s at, but it’s a nice way of saying “who the fuck listens to them?” Where they started, where they peaked and where they’re at today are totally different from one another but if any die-hard ‘Ryche fans want to chime in, please do so.
There’s some pretty heavy talk surrounding their new LP, 'American Soldier', so heavy that it almost sounds interesting. I have yet to hear any of it, so maybe I’ll take the plunge and buy my first Queensryche album since 1986’s ‘Rage For Order’…that’s right, never ever owned ‘Operation: Mindcrime’.
I learned that Geoff’s daughter’s boyfriend is a touring guitarist for the band…that and the band is managed by Geoff’s wife…that’s rather cool in a familia sort of way, no?
II) On location interview with: Lars Ulrich.
This was a cool piece. Eddie’s history with Metallica dates back to the Megaforce days and the interview is very good. What they aired was nothing spectacular, it was the usual back and forth banter from Lars in regards to: sound quality of ‘Death Magnetic’, ‘Napster’, re-learning ‘Master of Puppets’ and how it translated into the creation of ‘DM’ etc. etc. Enjoyable.
A highlight for the nerd in me was once the Lars interview was done they asked Geoff about Metallica and he had some pretty funny shit to talk about. His first comment though was something to the effect of how grateful Queensryche was to Metallica for the touring opportunities back in 88/89.
This was extremely cool because not having ever kept up with QR press, I never read anything reflecting on the touring they did back then. It was nice to see Geoff rather humble about the whole experience, even though it was 20+ years ago.
III) Stump The Trunk – I went one for three with questions about Krokus cover songs, who played bass on the KISS track “Love Gun” (it was Paul…) and Slayer being known as DragonSlayer back in the day. All I can say is I knew the San Antonio Slayer (S.A. Slayer) were formerly known as Dragon Slayer, didn’t know the Kerry King version did too.
IV) Staff picks: nice plug for Blabbermouth.net which they call the CNN of Rock/Metal. They're right.
V) Whatever happened to? Ex-Queensryche guitarist Chris DeGarmo? Just what has Jamie Lee Curtis’ stunt double been up to? Actually Geoff had the update on Chris, saying he’s good and they get together every now and then to hang out and have even written songs together. The QR nation had to have cheered upon that revelation!
VI) Ending debate on best era for music, the 70’s or the 80’s?
I don’t recall what each voted on, but I’ll go with the 80’s, thanks. Yeah it’d be a tough debate as both have their untouchable bands but you can only pick one.
Overall another good show, one day I’ll have to try and watch a complete episode on the website, but that’d probably result in even more nonsense.
