I’ve mentioned this in past articles, and I’ll mention it
again; there is a huge surge lately of bands trying to revive the classic rock
sound in to modern music. Most bands try it but sound too generic, all of which
remain in a mostly unknown bar band status. One band that I find generic that
was lucky enough to breakout is The
Sheepdogs, but that is the only exception I can think of.
For some time now, I’ve had an acquired taste for country
rock. Country and rock are two genres that have not been mixed in to one often
enough. Two main bands that I can think include two of my favourite artists;
there’s the obvious choice that are the Eagles,
and then there is country legend Charlie
Daniels. The former made a career, particularly on their first four albums,
by releasing music more on the side of rock music but with a definite country
influence at the heart of all of their songs, some songs even being closely
classified to country. The latter artist, Charlie
Daniels, made a career in contradiction to the Eagles, by making music more toward the side of country music, with
a great deal of southern rock influence in a countless amount of his songs.
Among the many living legends from the dawn of the classic
rock era, few are more respected by fellow musicians and less appreciated by
modern music fans than John Fogerty;
the main man of Creedence Clearwater
Revival from1967-1972, and writer of countless hits
still sung in peoples to this day, and someone who I regard as the first truly
bad ass guitarist.
About a year ago, I had the pleasure of discovering Minnesota
rock band New Medicine. The band
managed to develop an important friendship with rising rock superstars Halestorm, so I saw New Medicine when they opened for Halestorm along with Ottawa band Doll. I had heard of New Medicine before; they had toured in
the first ever Rockstar Energy Drink
Uproar Festival on the second stage, but unfortunately something got messed
up during the Toronto stop on that tour and both stages played at the same
time, so I never got the chance to see them perform.
Thin Lizzy were among
the top rock acts in their prime in the mid/late 70’s. Nowadays they are really
just remembered for their song The Boys Are
Back In Town and the odd person should also know the song Jailbreak, but there was a time,
particularly in the UK where when people would hear Thin Lizzy they would think of Whiskey
in the Jar, The Rocker, Still In Love With You, Bad Reputation, the songs go on. The
band enjoyed much success lead by the charismatic Phil Lynott on vocals and bass.
The “Story of Anvil”
sure was a popular one a few years ago in the wake of a documentary released
about the Toronto metal bands career. If you haven’t seen it, here is all you
have to know; it depicted yet another of the countless bands who set out to be
the next big thing but never became a Metallica
or Judas Priest or even a Saxon or Accept. There was, however a point in the early 80’s when it
appeared they might be. Their second album Metal
on Metal was praised by metal fans and metal musicians alike for its
proto-thrash sound, but due to mainly management botcheries the band just
became irrelevant.
The late 80’s/early 90’s “grunge” surge from Seattle was definitely a unique moment in the
history of new music. It’s always debated who are true grunge bands and who just
kind of got the title because they made similar sounding music at the time.
Bands like Stone Temple Pilots for
instance, happened to have been making heavy not-quite-heavy metal music in the
early/mid 90’s so they kind of got thrown in to the mix, but it’s bands like Soundgarden and of course Nirvana who truly carried the torch as “grunge”
musicians through and through. Pearl Jam
has always been referred to as grunge because they are from Seattle and were
making popular music around the same time, but I disagree that they are “grunge”
and more just early since of alternative rock.
Ireland has been the home of a few legends in rock music. In
particular it was the birth country of the late hard rock turned blues guitar
legend Gary Moore as well as the
pride and joy or Dublin himself, the late great Phil Lynott, main man of hard rock giants Thin Lizzy. Even though it has been a while since these two men
graced us with their songs, it has made the country of Ireland a very credible
location to breed great rock talent.
With summer finally starting up to be in full swing, it has
put me in the mood to do something a little different; review a Beach Boys album. The mood just caught
me and I don’t see why not.
