Hour of Power 12/22/12 (playlist)

Highlights from the week of 12/16/12 - 12/22/12

1. Greet Death (Destroyer of Light / ST) 2012 Brand New Video!!
2. Hollow (Alice in Chains / TBA) 2013 Brand New Song!!
3. Snowblind (Black Sabbath / Vol. 4) 1972
4. Secular Haze (Ghost / Infestissumam) 2013 Brand New Song!!
5. Twin Obscenities (Spider Kitten / Cougar Club) 2013
6. Time Out For Time In (Them / Time Out! Time In For Them) 1968
7. Moon Queen (Lord Fowl / Moon Queen) 2012
8. Perfect Monkey (Cube / ST) 2012
9. Drawing Flies (Soundgarden / Badmotorfinger) 1991
10. vier (Mount Fuji / ST) 2012
11. Desert Sun (The Shooters / Planet of the Black Sun) 2012
12. No Better No Worse (Manfred Mann / Mighty Garvey) 1968
13. We Want The Night (Slow Heart / Dead Friends and Angry Lovers) 2012 Brand New Song from the guys in Ice Dragon!!!

Weekly Mailbag for 12/17/12 - 12/21/12

A look at what came in the mail this week with quickie reviews ...

It's been such a crazy busy week here with the year in review posts, not to mention my regular reviews it would have been understandable to not post my regular Weekly Mail Bag feature.  For one thing it's not my most popular feature, but I just can't disappoint its loyal fans.  You two better appreciate this!  If you've taken a look at the year in review posts they have a lot in common with the Weekly Mail Bag only instead of doing 5-10 'quickie reviews' I'm doing 120 over the course of 12 posts!  When I started this daunting task I thought I would burn out but I actually really enjoy it.  So there you go, it's nice to squeeze in a Weekly Mail Bag amid the chaos.  Some really, really great CDs came in the mail this week, pound for pound maybe my best haul to date ...

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY - 1919 Eternal - Now we finally emerge into uncharted territory, this is the first BLS album that I can't say I'd heard anything from before and guess what?  It's their best yet (of the first three)!  Way heavier than their previous efforts, it's more metal than southern rock. This album hauls much ass, and even the slow song is good.  Highlights include "Bleed For Me" and "Graveyard Disciples".  Rating 5/5

BOTTLECAP - ST - This one just came in, took a bit longer than expected, but it arrived.  It came with a pin, too (thanks!).  This energetic Swedish trio has a modernized retro rock sound (the ghost of the 70s haunts a lot of Swedish bands), not entirely unlike Lord Fowl from the states but in more of a Motorhead context here.  Highlights include "Wretches" and "".  Rating ?/5.  Review to follow

GANDHI'S GUNN - The Longer The Beard The Harder The Sound - For some reason I passed on this one the first time around, but after hearing the news of their signing with world's greatest record label Small Stone, I gave them another chance.  They craft terrific hooks and thick fuzz and they now go by the moniker Isaak.  The CD version was something I had to get as a kind of historical document.  Highlights include "Haywire" and "Under Siege".  Rating 4/5

HEAT - Old Sparky - This was just something I had to get.  One of the best releases of the year and definitely one the absolute best in the 70s inspired hard rock genre.  You don't always know what's even available on CD until you check the Ozium records website.  It's a treasure trove.  This CD will now sit nicely on the shelf between Hawkwind and High on Fire.  Highlights include "Warhead" and "Old Sparky".  Rating 5/5

MANFRED MANN - Mighty Garvey - This was prohibitively expensive ($70 - wtf?!?!?!) on Amazon for the longest time.  Finally importcds got some in and it was time to grab Manfred Mann's best album (with the possible exception of the 'Up the Junction' soundtrack).  Their most solid effort with great hook after great hook.  Also has "Mighty Quinn".  One of my top favorite albums of the 1960s.  Highlights include "No Better No Worse" and "It's So Easy Falling".  Rating 4.5/5

THEM - Time Out! Time In For Them - Last week Them's 'Now and Them' came in and I talked about this one.  This is the better of Them's two psych albums, one that I thought was really strange and kind of stagey the first time I heard it.  But before long I realized just how good this album is.  Moments verge on the heaviness of Pretty Things and this album out sitars anything else.  Certainly an underrated classic. Highlights include "Time Out For Time In" and "Market Place".  Rating 4/5

YEAR OF THE GOAT - Angels' Necropolis - Just gave this one its first listen and I can see that the review is going to be easy to write.  Some albums just do that.  The CD is a cool package with a pretty big booklet with full lyrics and photos.  Van records also sent some stickers, one for each of their December 7 releases (YOG, Gold, Vanderbuyst, Attic).  Highlights include "Spirits of Fire" and "I'll Die For You".  Rating ?/5.  Review in the works.

Also ...

Again I just had to gush about a book that came in.

"The Complete Books of Charles Fort" is something I've been wanting for about ten years now and finally I can read the original works of the original investigator of 'unexplained phenomena'.  If you don't know Charles Fort kind of popularized the whole paranormal thing as its own field of research.  His first book, "The Book of the Damned", was published in 1919 and since then his work has influenced countless writers, thinkers and philosophers, etc.  His explanations are tongue in cheek and his idea of a 'cosmic joker' has also gained traction as a popular theme for explaining anomalous or weird events.  He also has a magazine named in his honor, Fortean Times.

Weekly Mailbag for 12/10/12 - 12/14/12

A look at what came in the mail this week with quickie reviews ...

Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties - BOC's third album is like the best parts of their first two combined, creating a more fully developed and mature overall sound to the record.  There are more boogie and funk elements than the proto metal / biker rock of their first album but there are still some fine wisps of the heavy stuff that typically manifests itself in punkier moments.  The band's slower, more whimsical side also gets a good workout in "Astronomy", a precursor to "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" from their next album. Highlights include "Career of Evil" and "Flaming Telepaths". Rating - 4.5/5

Captain Crimson - Dancing Madly Backwards - This is one of my favorites of the year, as evidenced by my raving review of the album.  "Lonely Devils Club" and the title track are two of the catchiest songs of the year.  The whole album is replete with monster riffs and balls out performances from front to back.  There was a ton of 70s inspired music this year and a lot of it was great, but few could match the energy of Captain Crimson. Highlights include "Wizard's Bonnet" and "True Color". Rating - 4.5/5

Hawkwind - Space Ritual - I normally don't like live albums and steer clear of them, but I mean, come on, this is 'Space Ritual'.  I had to give it a go.  First thing I was struck by was the high quality of the recording, it sounds better than most live recordings, probably from some studio touch ups.  Each song gets the Hawkwind treatment and beyond, extended jamming and some of the improvised tracks are really killer.  Listen to this, you'll wish you'd have been there.  The album title doesn't lie.  Highlights include "Born To Go" and "Upside Down". Rating - 4.5/5

Them - Now and Them - This is the first of two excellent psychedelic albums by the post-Van Morrison incarnation of Them.  There were a lot of former hitmaking bands and artists that were making the switch to psychedelia at the time, Them's pair of efforts are probably among the most obscure or, dare I say, overlooked.  Most of this album is very bluesy with a small handful that would qualify as pop psych, such as the Alice in Wonderland inspired "Walking in the Queen's Garden".  "Square Room" is a wonderful sitar freakout.  Great stuff.  Highlights include "Walking in the Queen's Garden" and "Square Room". Rating - 4/5

Vanilla Fudge - Renaissance - Vanilla Fudge's third album is their most accessible.  7 tracks (+3 bonus tracks on the CD), most of them self-penned, the songs are shorter, while still revealing a high level of thoughtfulness and artistry, but let's just say the band doesn't go overboard as in their first two albums.  At least not until the closing track, which just happens to be the longest song and the sole cover version, Donovan's "Season of the Witch".  It's a good recording, very much of its era and if I was Donovan, I would have loved the rendition. Highlights include "All In Your Mind [bonus track]" and "Faceless People". Rating - 4.5/5

And ...

Not music, I know, but a book that helped inspire some great artists who made some great music. The 8th Pan Book of Horror Stories selected by Herbert Van Thal (1967) features a story called "Sad Road To The Sea", which was almost certainly the inspiration for the title of the Leaf Hound song of the same name.  Peter French, singer of Leaf Hound has often mentioned in interviews how the titles of the stories in some of these books inspired him to write his own lyrics (that had little to nothing to do with the actual story itself).  Being a gigantic nerd I had to check these out for myself.  I can't wait to read it.  I also picked up The 3rd Pan Book of Horror Stories selected by Herbert Van Thal (1962), which features less contemporary fiction and more classic tales by the all-time greats like Poe, Blackwood, Faulkner, Wells and others.  Great stuff.  I plan on filling out a complete collection of these anthologies.  Pan always had the best looking covers too.