MusicBowl 53: New England Vs Los Angeles

Last year, we skipped doing MusicBowl 52 because I couldn’t find a suitable band from Philadelphia to challenge a band from New England. Well that has all changed thanks to some tweets and some Instagram posts courtesy of Nikki Sixx. Nikki has proclaimed his allegiance to the Los Angeles Rams on several occasions and I have seen Steven Tyler of Aerosmith sing the national anthem while wearing a Patriots jersey. So, I figured the perfect matchup for this year’s MusicBowl was to have to be Motley Crue vs Aerosmith as it is the LA Rams vs the New England Patriots in SuperBowl LIII (53 for those who do not know Roman numerals). It makes the most sense since Aerosmith threw the first shot at Motley Crue in 1987 with Dude Looks Like A Lady, but it didn’t matter much when Motley Crue silenced their critics with 1989’s Dr. Feelgood which happened to be the band’s biggest selling and charted album of their careers with great songs like the title track, Kickstart My Heart, and Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away). One thing you do have to remember is that the original Toxic Twins were in Aerosmith who were making waves in the 1970’s when guys like Tommy Lee and Vince Neil were still in junior high. Both bands have had legendary careers and were the tops of their genre and have had some legendary comeback stories as well. The problem is that only one of them can win MusicBowl LIII much like only team will come up victorious tonight in Atlanta. I am going to run the poll in two areas with this one being one and the second run through Twitter where you will have until 8:30PM ET tonight to decide. Two legendary bands, but only one can win, vote and enjoy!!! Also below the voting poll is also some examples to help you decide.

Unsigned Band Of The Week: Love And A .38

For this week’s Unsigned Band Of The Week, we are leaving Missouri and we are continuing to travel out west as we land in Los Angeles, California for this week’s band Love And A .38. I wish I could remember how I discovered Love And A .38, but it was definitely when I was searching out young and hungry rock bands on Twitter. the band definitely possessed a raw energy that proved rock and roll was still alive and well out in Los Angeles and it definitely attracted my attention. The song I chose for you guys that possess that raw punk/rock energy that drives you like a supercharged race car is the track I Won’t Wait from the bands album Nomads. After hearing this track and many of the band’s other tracks, it’s clear to see that the band possess the abilities to write great music so it begs the question why the hell are they not signed yet? If I had my own label, I would definitely scoop these guys up. I definitely suggest that you check these guys out if you are a fan of rock music because rock and roll is alive and well. Check them out on Facebook and Twitter and check out the track below:

 

Lemmy’s Memorial Streamed Online

Last month the world lost a legend in Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister. We’ve seen all of the tributes pour in whether it was a band performing a tribute or kind words and posts from the rock community. Now, we all have the chance to be part of something special and something I have never seen anyone do before. Lemmy Kilmister’s Memorial Service which is being held at his favorite spot in Los Angeles The Rainbow Bar & Grill, is being streamed online through Motorhead’s Youtube page. They want everyone that was a fan to be apart of the service by watching the live stream which can be found here. So, while the petition to change the name of a jack and coke to a Lemmy is going, let’s kick back, enjoy a couple of those, and watch as we pay tribute to the Man, the Myth, and the Legend. The Live stream begins at 2:30 PM Pacific Time (5:30 PM  Eastern Time). God Bless Lemmy Kilmister!!!

Steel Panther Says Goodbye To House Of Blues In LA In Style

One of my favorite comedy/metal/glam rock bands hit the stage at The House Of Blues in Los Angeles earlier tonight to celebrate the 21 years that the venue had been open. Why were they celebrating the 21 years of the venue? Well, they were because it was the last time that Steel Panther was ever going to play a show at The House Of Blues because it’s closing it’s doors very soon. The show was titled Steel Panther and Friends because the band was promising one heck of a celebration and they did just that with some amazing special guests to go along with their brand of comedy in between their amazing songs. The band hit the stage after being introduced by Sirius Jose Mangin with their roaring classic Eyes Of A Panther and then right into Tomorrow Night before the joking sessions started. The band is unpredictable and that is what is awesome about them. The crowd found first hand when they invited a young female fan onstage as the band performed Party Like Tomorrow Is The End Of The World. They would invited a young Asian fan onstage to dance onstage while they performed the classic Asian Hooker.

Nuno Bettencourt

The real highlight of the night for me were all the musical guests that they invited on stage with them (it usually always happens at a Steel Panther show), but tonight it was turned up a notch. The first guest they had on stage with them was the great Nuno Bettencourt of funk metal band Extreme who performed You Really Got Me by Van Halen. The next guest that came on stage later on was NYSNC’s Joey Fatone who performed Girl From Oklahoma and Community Property and was surprisingly really good. The next guests of the night came in the form of Ninja Sex Party, who much like Steel Panther are a musical comedy duo. They came onstage to perform Party All Day and that was followed by Dane Cook who performed Panama with the band. The biggest surprise of the night though as far as guests was the fact that Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus were actually there. Billy Ray Cyrus came on first to perform the Billy Idol classic Rebel Yell before his daughter joined him to sing backup for the Def Leppard classic Pour Some Sugar On Me. Ron Jeremy came onstage later on laying a harmonica of some sorts, but it only meant one thing and that was Steel Panther had one song left to play which was the anthem Death To All But Metal. It was a sad moment when the band said goodbye, but Michael Starr always looks on the bright side as he claimed that the show was already a back in the day moment.

SETLIST

1. Eyes Like A Panther

2. Tomorrow Night

3. Fat Girl

4. Party Like Tomorrow Is The End Of The World

5. Asian Hooker

6. You Really Got Me (With Nuno Bettencourt)

7. 17 Girls In A Row

8. Gloryhole

9. Girl From Oklahoma (Acoustic) (With Joey Fatone)

10. Community Property (With Joey Fatone)

11. Party All Day (With Ninja Sex Party)

12. Panama (With Dane Cook)

13. Rebel Yell (With Billy Ray Cyrus)

14. Pour Some Sugar On Me (With Billy Ray Cyrus & Miley Cyrus)

15. Death To All But Metal

Tuesday Stand Up: Sam Kinison: Breaking The Rules (1989)

One of the reasons for starting Tuesday Stand Up was not only to view the stars of today, but to also see and review specials of the legends of yesterday. To be perfectly honest, I had never seen a stand up special with Sam Kinison, but he was sort of like the rock star of comedian because a lot of musicians loved the guy and he tore up Hollywood int he 80’s. This was one of Sam’s HBO specials titled Sam Kinison: Breaking The Rules and it was a performance that was taped at The Roxy Theater in Hollywood and it is considered one of his best specials. In the special, Sam tackles everything imaginable from God, Hell, relationships, Lepers, Jesus, preachers (considering he used to be a minister), being attracted to heart breakers, Vietnam, sex education and the disadvantages of being a guy, performing fellatio, AIDS & Gays, and other disturbing topics as well as a special performance at the end of the show. He even pays homage to Hugh Hefner who is one of the people enjoying the show.

One of the great things about this particular show is the fact that Sam Kinison was intense and he really was in a league of his own. Jay Leno once said, “Sam scared the hell out of you…and was the funniest comedian…” Which is a very true statement because the man pushed the envelope, but he did with pure genius. One of the issues that would be considered not okay in this day and age was his topic on AIDS & the Gay community. They would have never stood for that if it was today, but it was the 80’s and not a lot was known about that topic back then. The man was respected by many including a lot of his own peers like Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, and so many more. Sadly, there will never be another comedian quite like Sam Kinison and to be honest I am OK with that because we don’t need clones. The special is available to watch on Youtube which is how I watched it so I definitely suggest watching this special to see how he pushed the envelope and made intelligent jokes. He does give all guys a very important lesson on how to please women in this special so it’s definitely worth watching. I am going to give the special an A for a final grade.

Tuesday Stand Up: Jo Koy: Lights Out (2012)

For today’s Tuesday Stand Up, I was looking to watch and review a comedian that I didn’t know any of his work per-say and thanks to the advice of a co-worker, I decided to check out the work of Los Angeles Filipino-American comedian Jo Koy. Jo Koy released a comedy special through Comedy Central (the home of great stand up comedy) called Jo Koy: Lights Out which was recorded at The Alex Theater in Glendale, California which was also his second stand up special ever.  In the special, he tackles everything from bad advice from mom, roofies vs the roofie voice, being in the middle of a tornado in Louisville vs a earthquake in Los Angeles, Pulling out, pinkeye and ting ting (various other issues with kids), not messing with a Filipino mom (other issues with mom), his grandmother, and his battle with sleep apnea in this special that is non stop laughs.

I love Jo Koy’s style of comedy because he gets very involved in his jokes with the facial expressions and the impressions of his family which is just hilarious and fun to watch. One of my favorite segments is when he is talking about his mother because he does such a funny impression of her. He talks about how his mother never helped him with anything like if he was looking for his keys, his mother busted his balls about it. One of the other jokes that I thought was funny was when he as talking about his son contracting pinkeye three weeks in a row and he couldn’t understand why. Then he found out that his son was touching his ass and then rubbing his eyes. There are tons of great bits like this one on the special which focuses heavily on his kid and his mother. This was definitely a really funny special from Jo Koy and I really couldn’t stop laughing and it’s been a while since I laughed like this. To enjoy the special, you can see clips of it on Comedy Central’s website or you can watch it on Amazon Prime, but you have to rent it at the moment. Like I said, I enjoyed the special which is why I am going to give it an A for a final grade.

Ass Whoopin Wednesdays: Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave (1976)

For today’s Ass Whoopin Wednesday film, I was looking to choose one that starred Bruce Li who tried to take over in Hong Kong as the next martial arts action star and as I was searching I cam across something that caught my attention. I see in the suggested titles “Bruce Lee Fights Back From The Grave” and it features really cool poster art to go with it. So, I watched the film and it’s basically about two brothers named Han Ji-Hyeok and Wong Hang (Bruce K.L. Lea). They are two completely different people as Wong believes in honor while Han wants to make some serious money. So, Han decides that he’s going to move to America to make some serious money and he is successful or at least that is what it seems to look like to Wong. Wong travels to Los Angeles to see his brother when he discovers that Han is dead. So, Wong declares that he’ll do whatever it takes to track down the men that killed his brother. The film also stars Deborah Dutch (Hard To Die) as Susan and the film was directed by Doo-yong Lee. Before we get into the review of the film lets check out some of the stats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I do want to remind you guys that there is only one scene that has anything to do with Bruce Lee in this film and that is the image of an impersnator jumping out of the grave after it is struck by lightning. After that, it switches to the story that I described above in this Bruceploitation (yes that was a real thing) film. I truly believe directors would use titles like this to sucker people into the films at the local grindhouse. As far s the film is concerned and the stats, he has 20 1/2 knockouts/kills in the film and five of them come against what I thought were the big bosses, but you’ll b surprised to see who that ends up being in this film. I also love the fact that when he was defeating one of the bog bosses, the scene would go in slow motion. His love interest in the film is Susan and she is constantly in danger in the film and she’s constantly getting hurt. As far as the technical aspects were concerned, it was a very choppy film with bad angles and bad lighting to go with a mediocre screenwriting. It was all over the place at times, but what do you expect from these films. Overall, I am going to give the film three fists out of five even though the fight choreography was a little off as well ,but it was still fun to watch.

Music Video Of The Week: Mona Lisa by Dead Sara

We are being generous today and we are giving you a double shot of Music Video Of The Week posts. Los Angeles rock band and Vegas Rocks! Magazine Awards Best New Artist 2012 winner Dead Sara are back with a brand new record that they are gearing up to release called Pleasure To Meet You via Pocket Kid Records. The album which is a follow up to the self titled debut is gearing up to be released in March of 2015 and the band has unveiled the first single off the record which happens to have a music video for called Mona Lisa and it’s this week’s Music Video Of The Week. The track itself has some soul to it while having some beefy, chunky riffs to it as well that gets in your face while the video gets a little awkward in the beginning. We see the band doing some finger snapping before the riff kicks in an meanwhile you are seeing some creepy house guests at this house party that is being thrown. After a while though it becomes total absolute unapologetic rock and roll debauchery at this party because these people are getting down and they throw a party like only Californians can throw. I absolutely love the bands sound and guitarist Siouxsie Medley can jam and I love front woman Emily Armstrong’s voice which reminds me a little bit like Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac. This is definitely one band to check out and if you want to pre-order the new record all tyou have to do is visit their Pledgemusic page right here. Otherwise sit back and relax and enjoy the video below.

Ass Whoopin Wednesdays: Cobra (1986)

If you were to ask me what film I really wanted to review for Ass Whoopin Wednesdays, I told everyone that it would be a certain Sylvester Stallone that is my absolute favorite. When I think of action movies and Stallone, I always think of his 1986 film Cobra because it was my first movie I watched with him that wasn’t Rocky. In Cobra he plays Marion Cobretti or Cobra for short, who is a tough as nails, no nonsense police Lieutenant on the zombie squad. The zombie squad is basically the strong arm of the law doing the jobs that no other cop wants. In Los Angeles, a killer known as the Night Stalker (Brian Thompson) is running around killing a lot of people until one of his victims, a model named Ingrid (Brigitte Nielsen) manages to get away and now Cobra has to protect her from the maniac before he gets his hands on her. The film also stars Reni Santoni (Dirty Harry) as SGT. Gonzales, Andrew Robinson (Hellraiser) as Detective Monte, John Herzfeld (15 Minutes) as Cho, Lee Garlington (American Pie 2) as Nancy Stalk, Art LaFleur (The Sandlot) as Captain Sears, Marco Rodríguez (The Crow) as The Supermarket Killer, David Rasche (Men In Black III) as Dan, and the film was directed by George P. Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood II). Before we get into the actual review of the film, let’s check out some stats:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of my favorite movies because Stallone plays a complete badass who is very conscious of what he puts into his body as far as food is concerned. The mentality behind the way his character operates is almost a pre-cursor to Judge Dredd, so it almost seems that Stallone was perfect for that role as well. Alright, so Brigitte Nielsen wad totally slammin in this film and she eventually becomes the love interest later in the film hence the reason I wrote sort of and as far as a sexual conquest is concerned we don’t see it and it doesn’t really seem implied either hence the question mark. She really isn’t too injured although they did try to kill her which I guess is bad enough. The film has some action and some humor to it, but you have to check out the car that Stallone drives in this film, it’s my absolute favorite car from the movies in the 80’s (its a 50’s car though). The one thing I will say is that Brian Thompson plays a really convincing creepizoid in this film. So, I definitely recommend this film to any 80’s action movie fan. I am giving the film four fists out of five.

Album Of The Week: Sonic Highways by Foo Fighters

I was super excited for this week’s album of the week because one of the coolest records was released this week from the Foo Fighters, the band led by Dave Grohl (Guitar/Vocals) and featuring his band Taylor Hawkins (Drums), Pat Smear (Guitar), Nate Mendel (Bass), and Chris Shiflett (Guitar). The album is called Sonic Highways and it’s the eight studio album the band has released through RCA Records. A documentary series that aired on HBO titled Foo Fighters Sonic Highway accompanied the album which saw the band record eight songs in eight different cities and you got to hear stories from the band and various musicians from each city. The album also features guest musicians from all eight of the different cities on each track and the cities are Austin, Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Seattle, New York, and New Orleans. Butch Vig produced the record with studio assistance from the people at each studio.

1. Something From Nothing– This was the track that was recorded in Chicago at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studio and the guest musician on the track is Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen. The music is just as rocking as it is hypnotic and psychedelic at times as it lyrics were inspired by the Chicago scene which started from nothing and turned into something great. 5/5

2. The Feast And The Famine– One of my favorite tracks on the record that was recorded at Inner Ear Studios Arlington County, Virgina and the lyrics were inspired not just by the music scene in Washington DC, but by the spirit of the people in the city that actually tried to stand up for something. Bad Brains is the guest musicians on this particular track. 5/5

3. Congregation– This was the track recorded in Nashville, Tennessee at Southern Ground Studios with Zac Brown as the guest musician. Besides the lyrics being inspired by the mind set of people in Nashville, but the sound of the song kind of reflects that Nashville sound. 5/5

4. What Did I Do?/ God As My Witness– This is the track that was recorded at the world famous KLRU-TV Studio 6A in Austin, Texas that was once home to Austin City Limits. The song features Blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr. as the guest musician that sort of mixes the same style of music as Congregation, but with a little more swagger. The song is broken into two different parts, but it kicks ass. 4/5

5. Outside– This was recorded at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, California with legendary Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh as the guest musician. The track is very melodic with Joe Walsh playing lead guitar which is pretty awesome and I love the harmonizing during the verses which reminds me of how great The Eagles are. 5/5

6. In The Clear– This track was recorded at Preservation Hall in New Orleans with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band as the guest musicians. While the song can get melodic at times, it’s a hard charger with a driving guitar riff, but what I love is the inclusion of the trumpet, trombone, etc. that give the song that New Orleans influence within it. 4/5

7. Subterranean– This is apparently the track that Dave Grohl writes about the end of Nirvana and how he felt before he started the Foo Fighters. This is one of the most honest songs that I think Dave has written that sounds like it comes from the heart. The song was recorded at Robert Lang Studio in Seattle, Washington with Benjamin Gibbard as the guest musician. 5/5

8. I Am A River– This is the last track on the album that was recorded at Magic Shop in New York City. The song sounds like it’s the perfect ending to an album and a journey that the band went on. The song is very melodic and melodramatic at times, but it has a nice orchestral string piece to it. 4/5

My Final Thoughts– I had a lot of fun watching the series and discovering every song and all of the meanings behind each song. This is a great release for the band and it’s definitely one of my favorite Foo Fighters releases besides The Colour And The Shape. This is definitely an album worth checking out if you love music and Dave Grohl and Co. I am going to give this album four and the half stars out of five for a final grade.