My Amazon Reviews: Vince Neil "Tattoos & Tequila"

Platinum Roots
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Motley Crue started life as glam-metal before morphing into hard rocking, and "Tattoos and Tequila" is front-man Vince Neil's tribute to the bands and songs that helped formulate his contributions to the band, While it's not terribly inspiring or all that original, it is in good fun and Neil acquits himself just fine. It's also a pretty interesting look into the guy's pysche; just what was he listening to while he was dreaming little rock star dreams?

Some of the choices are obvious. I'd easily guessed Scorpions and Aerosmith, and perhaps Elton John's "The B---- is Back" given Elton's omnipresence on seventies radio. A bit more interesting are Sweet ("Ac/Dc") and a selection from the first Cheap Trick album, "He's a Whore." Then you get the oddballs. I wouldn't have pegged Vince for a fan of Elvis or Creedence Clearwater Revival, but they both turn up with "Viva Las Vegas" and "Who'll Stop The Rain," respectively. And how about them Sex Pistols?

As to the performances, they are spotty. He's got a basic three piece combo backing him for the bulk of the disc, and they bludgeon their way through just about everything here. Drums are pumped to arena boom levels and the drenching of reverb over everything (especially Vince's vocals) doesn't allow the songs much room to breathe. The couple moments of subtlety ("Who'll Stop The Rain" and new song - one of two fresh cuts - "Another Bad Day") unmask the fact that Vince isn't much of a singer these days, which is why he blasts his way through most of the CD. Frankly, the CCR track is painful to listen to.

But this is Vince Neil we're dealing with here. If you were expecting "Sgt Pepper," you were gonna get snookered anyway. "Tattoos and Tequila" is Neil have a good laugh with a night of oldies at the local pub. It's also tied into a book and Vince's own brand of Tequila, so it's just one prong in a three point marketing strategy. He's not taking it all that seriously (I have a hard time listening to him trying to snarl like Johnny Rotten on "No Feelings" without imagining him cracking up), so take "Tattoos and Tequila" for what it is; a bit of a lark and a savvy piece of salesmanship. To assume more would be exaggerating your expectations.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Tinted Windows "Tinted Windows"

Wayne Hanson's Smashing Trick 
3 Out Of 5 Stars

A most unlikely supergroup, Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger asked pal pop singer Taylor Hanson (who'da thunk?) to team with him and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and then hauled in Cheap Trick drummer Bun E Carlos to pound the skins. So you have a multi-generational and multi-stylistic team who cranked out a one shot (so far) album under the moniker "Tinted Windows." Not surprisingly, with Hanson's and Schlesinger's affinity for power-pop and Carlos used to backing the glammy rock of Cheap Trick, the album is a power-popper's dream.

What is so funny about this is just how teen-pop this sounds. Rack up Jonas Brothers' "B-B-Good To Me" with "Kind Of a Girl" and you'll be hard pressed to tell which cut is the Disney act. James Iha is all but a reformed jangle popper this time around, and the whammy he puts into "Messing With My Head" or "Nothing To Me" is going to make you wonder why he didn't ditch Billy Corgan years ago. It's also easy to tell Carlos is having a ball when he digs into "Can't Get a Read on You."

"Tinted Windows" is by no means a brilliant album, at best it will make Dwight Twilley, 20/20 or fans of The Knack get nostalgic for their skinny ties. Or fans of any of TW's respective members (and frankly, there were a couple moments where I found myself wondering what FoW's Chris Collingwood would have done with a few of these. However, for straight-up four-piece power-pop rock with no synths, the Tinted Windows' debut makes me hope for maybe another go-round.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Cheap Trick "Sgt Pepper Live"

Their Production Will be Second to None, 4 out of 5 Stars

Cheap Trick has never shied away from their love of The Beatles. From the early cover of "Day Tripper" to making "Magical Mystery Tour" to lone new cut on their original Greatest Hits CD, Robin Zander, Tom Peterssen, Bun E Carlos and Rick Nielsen could knock 'em out like nobody's business. But to recreate the landmark Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album as a live event, played from start to finish? That takes some Ernie Ball strings of steel.

The surprise is just how well Cheap Trick pulls this off. From the instantly familiar power of the opening chords to the fun Abbey Road encore medley, the band starts strong, works it hard and finishes solid. Guest performers Joan Osborne gives a twist to "Lovely Rita," and Rob Laugher channeling George Harrison for "Within You Without You" is one of many highlights here. The mandocello recreation of George's sitar here is jawdroppingly good.

The band and their pals all sound like they're having a blast doing this, but they're taking it dead serious, too. Geoff Emerick, The Beatles' original engineer, was brought in for the sound. The NY Philharmonic fleshes out the orchestral parts (along with Zander's vocals, you'll get goose bumps during "She's Leaving Home"). Almost all the musical intricacies of the original album are brought out (at least the ones that aren't sound effects, anyways), and Tom just flat-nails McCartney's bass parts. "Sgt Pepper Live" could have been a train wreck of pigpile proportions, but Cheap Trick makes it work. For a band that has long been out of the limelight (their 16th studio album, The Latest, is way better than you'd expect), "Sgt Pepper Live" avoids the pratfall of sounding like a cover band and shows that rock and reverence aren't always mutually exclusive.