Soothing Soul Suckers

Got my kid hooked on this song by singing it to her while brushing her teeth. I played it on the surround today and she yelled out “Kiss!”. When I was a little kid I was all about Kiss. In 76′ at age 5 I asked my dad to buy me the Destroyer LP in a Mentor, Ohio Gold Circle. She’s right on track.

One more day until Iron Maiden announce their North American tour dates. I’m super psyched and hope I get a chance to see them. Some friends of mine saw them in Christchurch a year ago and Maiden kicked total ass. I’ve seen them three times, 1986 Somewhere On Tour, 1996 X-Factor tour and the 1999 Ed Hunter Tour aka the return of Bruce.

It’s time man. Gorge or Salt Lake please!

Click here

Just received the latest Ocrilim offering from Mr. Mick Barr (best known as the kick ass guitarist in Krallice). Three albums forming a trilogy. Ixoltion, Sacreth and Hymns. Did a quick scan and each one is different. I’m going to rock the shit out of these tomorrow. Pick up one of these handmade CDR sets from Mick at the Ocrilim myspace if you want one. Info is in the blog. He’s only making them until he gets bored and moves on to something else so don’t hesitate.

So the Scorpions are leaving us after a new album and a monster tour.

My favorite stuff is Lonesome Crow, Fly to the Rainbow, Virgin Killer and In Trance. Here’s some video put to “Fly to the Rainbow”. No idea what the video is all about. It was the only album track version of the song that I found on the tube. The song kicks ass.

It’s been a while.

But it’s time to fire up the SSS engine again. A long layoff, a brief return followed by another shorter layoff. Sometimes a break is needed to reload the music machine gun. I’m ready to rock now.

Woke up with this in my head for some reason.

Possibly because I was having dreams about people from way back. Regardless of the reason….it’s fuckin’ Maiden. NEVER a bad way to start the day.

I like the Grateful Dead. I’m no hippie and I never followed the band and sold veggie burritos or traded hits of acid for blow jobs but I saw them four times. Two times were great the other two….well, the Dead wasn’t always the most consistent outfit around.

I picked up one of my favorite Dead discs real cheap the other day and got to thinking. I figured I could be happy with three Dead discs in the collection and have everything I need. Here’s the three….

One From the Vault

This was the one that got me hooked on the Dead. I was travelling around Europe in 1993 and brought along a few cassettes a buddy gave me. One From the Vault was one of them. The first half kicked my ass. “Help Is On The Way” through “Eyes of the World” on the first set are awesome. And a sweet Phil Lesh solo in Eyes is the highlight. The whole thing is good but that stretch is killer.

Europe 72′

The most popular live Dead album, Europe 72′ has a ton of jams. “He’s Gone”, “Jack Straw”, “China Cat Sunflower”, “Brown-Eyed Woman”, “Ramble on Rose” and “Tennessee Jed” are some of the highlights. Solid as fuck.

Dicks Picks Vol 1

A lot of Wake of the Flood material including a full “Weather Report Suite” that just kills. A nice “Stella Blue” on there too. Real good shit.

Believe it or not this set is really good.

I’m diehard Zep and own the box set and various other things and normally I never would have given this pairing a second thought. I picked it up out of a pawn shop for two bones with no intention of keeping it. But after throwing it on I was pretty pleased with it. Way better than the Page/Plant collaborations or that Zep O2 concert. Jimmy rips and the Crowes don’t try to do too much but hang in there. The Zep songs are fairly standard and don’t try to go nuts (like Song Remains the Same, which I love btw) but they sound good and have a lot of energy. The six blues tunes are pretty damn sweet too. Chris Robinson’s vocals beat anything Robert Plant has done live since 1975.

If you ever run across the set at a good price, get it.

Still hooked on ZZ Top. I haven’t listened to this much ZZ in almost 20 years. The cream always rises to the top and the boys from Houston jam hard. I’ve been obsessed with guitar videos on YouTube that feature the solo from La Grange. So, my POTW is Tres Hombres. I still haven’t put it in the collection but that will be rectified shortly. The remastered version from 2006 is the only way to go for CD. The older versions were all fucked with.

Here’s the guys ripping it up back in 1980.