Days of Yore

I'll admit that I get trapped in the closet sometimes with my hair metal past. I was really craving the bad ass riff at the beginning of 'Green Tinted Sixties Mind" by Mr. Big, so I bought Lean Into It from the cyber cutout bin known as eBay for a dollar. Shipping was $2.95, but all together not that bad. The solo section of "Addicted to that Rush" is also nothing to be scoffed at. Dude, fuckin' Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert shredding with Makita drills? At the time it was mind blowing. Eddie Van halen had held one up to his Peavey guitar with Van Hagar, but no one was using it to just fucking shred riffs like that. Is Poundcake not like the shittiest song ever? A fuckin' travesty, man. Listen to Poundcake and then put on Panama and see how you feel. The difference is just paramount.

So the reason for the post is that I came across this album called "Influences & Connections, Vol.1: Mr. Big." It's some kind of tribute album from 2003, I guess. It's got some motherfuckers on there, though. The King's X cover is kind of awesome. Then, you have John Waite, Paul Rodgers from Bad Company and Free, and Richie Kotzen taking responsibility for the songs with guest spots from everyone. Stevie Salas, Matt Sorum, Marty Friedman, Steve Lukather, and Yngwie just to name a few. Those are some deep cut dudes right there. Anyway, the album can only be described as interesting, but it lead me to this record label in Italy that put this album out and uh, did you ever wonder whatever happened to the dudes from Circus magazine in the early 90s? They are in fuckin' Italy.

The label is Frontier records. They are keepin' the dream alive for dudes in El Caminos all over the world. If you are a man of useless music knowledge like myself, flipping through their releases will jar some memories. It's like a giant dollar bin, but with current releases in it. Umm, maybe you've heard of a band called White lion, but have you heard of a band called Tramp's White Lion? There are also solo albums by Mike Tramp from White Lion. There are Journey albums, Richie Kotzen, Toto, Great White, Halford, Night Ranger, Dokken, Kingdom Come...It's like a giant compilation of Day on the Greens from the days of yore. Like the yore of "Yore too young to go to an all day concert with dudes smoking reefer in tank tops while Kingdom Come jams out the hits at the Oakland Coliseum."