Rikk
10-18-2004, 08:19 PM
Once again, thanks to Sesh for starting this thread idea and giving his blessings for me to continue it. Sesh did an excellent Re-Appreciation of VAN HALEN II, and I did ones for DIVER DOWN, 1984 and WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST. Here’s my first Re-Appreciation of a Roth-solo album: DLR BAND (1998).
In 1996, Van Halen fans were excited beyond the belief at the prospect of a Van Halen reunion. The band was super-hyped by Warners, MTV and the radio that summer. Fans were on the internet talking potential set-lists of the reunion of the decade. This was going to make KISS's reunion seem useless. Hagar was crying like a baby that Eddie had fired him. Eddie himself was declaring that Dave has a better work-ethic. I guess too much lying in the sun in Mexico hurt Hagar’s career (even more than his atrocious lyrics). In September 1996, Van Halen walked onstage at the MTV Awards…not just Eddie, Mike and Alex but Dave too! And it wasn’t hyped as Van Halen AND David Lee Roth. It was announced simply as Van Halen. Unfortuntately, the band (which later claimed Roth was only in for the two songs) certainly knew how to fuck fans over. Why make the appearance at all and bring fans’ hopes up if Gary Cherone was already on-hand to add vocals to WITHOUT YOU, desecrating it?
It was the ultimate fan-fuck. If KISS’s appearance at the Grammy’s in February 1996 had been followed with a tour and album with Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer, fandom would have exploded in anger. It’s amusing that Eddie didn’t understand why fans were so upset when he invited Gary Cherone to join the band instead of Dave after VH showed up on the MTV awards with Dave. Regardless, they let him know it with the lackluster sales and tour revenues of the VH3 fiasco.
And what of Dave? He was used-and-abused, as far as I’m concerned. Fans were so upset with Van Halen and feeling so sorry for Dave that they chanted “Eddie sucks!” when he appeared with Howard Stern on T.V. that Fall. And Dave, ever the gentlemen, told them in return that Eddie didn’t suck. Big man, after what the band had just done to him. He should have led the chant...but Dave's always been a man of high integrity. And bless him for it.
So did Dave crawl back into a hole and await an early death? Did he retire from show-business, embarrassed that his ex-friends had indeed had their revenge on him for his stupid (but inevitable) decision to leave 10 years earlier? Fuck no. He first released a Greatest Hits set (with one new song, the bluesy DON’T PISS ME OFF) to finish up his Warners contract, and then soon after began work on the independent-release, DLR BAND. Instead of treading new (and scary) ground like his ex-bandmates, Dave decided to resurrect his classic sound. His new bandmates were young and ready-to-go. The CD (although heard by very few) proved that Dave had more energy in him than ten Hagars on Viagra. Furthermore, it proved that Dave was indeed plenty-ready for a tour (unlike what Alex tried to claim in the awful Alex/Eddie 1996 MTV Interview: “The Dave of 1996 is not the Dave of 1984.” Okay Shemp.)
And how were the songs? Well, let’s not go too far and say that this album was the second coming of FAIR WARNING. Six-pack material this was not. But some of the material was Dave’s best work in years. In fact, a few of the songs were right up there with some of Van Halen’s classic material: namely, COUNTER-BLAST, LITTLE TEXAS, KING OF THE HILL, BLACK SAND, and a few others. So let’s move on and look at the material in question.
Quick note: Ray Luzier played drums on the entire record. B’urbon Bob played bass on all songs except LOSE THE DRESS, GOING PLACES…, TIGHT, RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB, and the afore-mentioned BLACK SAND. John Lowery, Mike Hartman and Terry Kilgore all played guitar…and both Terry and John (who later joined Marilyn Manson’s band and was recently fired from it) played their hearts out on several numbers.
SLAM DUNK – Okay. You hear the opening riff and you think to youself, this sounds like classic Van Halen. Easily the best choice to open the album with…although it still must be said that this isn’t anywhere near the album’s best songs. It has the quick Alex drum-fills, the booming and repeating-note Mikey bass line and the Eddie-style guitar solo by Lowery. Dave is amazing…you actually cheer when he declares “Winners, they come and go, legends, they’re forever.” As a song, it doesn’t do anything new. But for sheer energy and enthusiasm, this is unbeatable. This was Dave telling the world that you can knock him down but he’ll come back and beat up not just you but your whole family as well! Even then, better songs are to come.
BLACKLIGHT – Great track. An awesome bluesy lick that could have come straight off of WACF…this is a slow groove and features the same band from the last song. Dave’s new “higher-voice” style works well here. He belts out verses such as “Summer of love, one you might have missed, peace love and harmony, at the flick of a switch” between Lowery’s bone-crunching riffs. Luzier really plays like a Bonham-inspired madman here. My god, who thought we’d hear Dave rock like this again? It’s funny that if Dave had instead done a Van Halen reunion album in 1997/1998, it probably would have had no material as heavy or young-sounding as this. Of course, the song’s best moment (and one of the album’s best moments) is Dave’s Plant-inspired harmonica solo. And is that a turntable on the middle-eight? (And can someone tell me what Dave is actually singing about?)
COUNTER-BLAST – One of my favorite tracks on the CD. This just rocks like a mother fucker. And again, the SLAM DUNK/BLACK LIGHT line-up. Dave sounds like vintage 1982 Diamond Dave on the verses before digging out the double-tracking on the chorus, singing “My engine searching like a harpoon in your chat room” on the chorus. Lowery then hits a simple non-musical chicken-scratch while the rest of the band shuts up. Astounding stuff. Lowery’s solo proves that sometimes it’s great to have a player not quite as technically-efficient as Vai backing Dave up. He does the Eddie licks well, but not with too much space-age skill. And it forces him to keep it simple, stupid. Of course, after the quick solo…Dave begins another rap on a middle-eight that sounds an awful lot like the quiet part in MEAN STREET. Bravo, Dave! One of the album's best moments!
LOSE THE DRESS (KEEP THE SHOES) – “I respect your intellect, more important are your sporting skills…do I detect integrity and self-respect?” I can just see Dave picking up women with this shtick. Dave just wants to get laid. But he knows how to say it while making the woman think he’s honorable. It’s hilarious. How’s the music? Good descending intro riff that’s repeated on the chorus. As for the rest of the material, it’s not up to the high standards of the first three numbers. I never liked Kilgore quite as much as LOWERY (who plays on this one), but Kilgore’s quick bluesy solo is very neat. Not bad at all.
LITTLE TEXAS – In my humble opinion, this is Dave’s best moment since leaving Van Halen in 1985. Just astounding. He sounds like the Dave of HOT FOR TEACHER on the verse, rapping away with bluesy wonder and reckless abandon about deep Texas legend before his band (with Lowery back on guitar) kicks into it. After a couple of runs of this, Dave kicks into the catchiest chorus of his solo career (well, catchy-with-integrity)…”From Broadway to Cheyenne, aces wild yes we am, say hello to my best friend, Little Texas.” Fuck yeah! The time-change there is perfect. I love songs where the chorus goes to a different beat from the verse. And it’s all done so powerfully and forcefully…I can’t believe this is an indie CD. Lowery smartly doesn’t overplay his solo…he just throws in some great licks before another run-through of the back-alley verse. Well done, Dave! I’m almost glad the reunion didn’t happen just so I could hear this.
KING OF THE HILL – "Knock knock, Daddy’s home. Well, don’t look at the screen all funny." That’s what Dave sings at the beginning of this catchy rock ‘n’ roll song. Anything would sound a little lackluster after the amazing LITTLE TEXAS, but this still follows that classic quite well. Jesus, this whole album proves one thing: piss a rock star off, and that rock star’ll come back with the heaviest album of his career. I can’t really say I understand what Dave is singing about in this song. (No, he’s not singing about the fucking T.V. show!!:mad: .) But does it matter? No, it never does. It’s the feel that counts. Hartman’s on guitar on this one, riffing away with the odd bluesy lick. The slowed-down middle-eight with Dave yelling echoed “go”s is great…but it’s the “nah nah-nah-nah-nah nah-nah” choruses that really make the song. Hartman’s slow and bluesy solo, however, is pure bliss. Great job, Dave.
GOING PLACES… – Holy bluesy, batman. This is great. It’s not as good as the album’s other super-mellow moment, BLACK SAND. But Kilgore’s acoustic-riffing here (especially on the intro) almost convinces you that you’re in some amazing New Orleans jazz-and-blues club. And Dave gives the boy a whole 1:29 to play his licks without vocals or a band. Whoever said Dave just thinks about himself and not the bigger picture is a fucking idiot. By the time the intro ends, you’re just relaxed and gently high as Dave announces “Hey boom town, I’m bound for Dixie”. It really sucks that so many people that would love this album haven’t heard it. This album is WAY, WAY better than VH3. In fact, this track sort of reminds me of TAKE YOUR WHISKEY HOME. It’s got the same attitude. Know what I mean?
WA WA ZAT!! – Lowery’s back on guitar for this one, and it’s got an interesting lead riff on the verse. It sounds like a keyboard is coming in on the chorus, but it could be a guitar. If it is a keyboard, Dave isn’t acknowledging a keyboard player on this album (probably on purpose). Unfortunately, this song which shares the name with Dave’s new independent label (invented just to release this album) doesn’t really have anything on the first seven songs on the album. There’s no key change, just the same basic rock riff and some so-so vocals from Dave. Pardon me here, but I still feel DLR BAND would have been stronger with maybe three or so cuts removed.
RELENTLESS – Now this is more like it. You can really here the bass drum here, and the guitar sounds a lot like the stereo-effect guitar sound Eddie has come to rely on in later years. No wonder Marilyn Manson plucked this boy from Dave’s tribe soon after the CD was recorded (anyone who hasn’t heard Manson’s late-1998 MECHANICAL ANIMALS release really should…it’s actually very good, and I think Lowery is playing at least some of the excellent guitar on this album). Dave is screaming away about a “pencil weenie in elephant clothes”...LOL. Loud verses, strange-beat choruses. It’s different. And a great solo! Actually sounds more like Vai than Eddie.
INDEEDIO – A bit too 80’s-rockish for me here. It sounds a bit like a poor man’s BLACKLIGHT on the verses. I really think Dave played his best hand first on this album. The song (and the guitar playing by Mike Hartman) is just too generic for me. It’s still miles above anything Hagar could pull off. But it’s just not Dave’s best. It does rock, but more in a tired swagger kind of way. Anyone have a different opinion?
RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB – A very interesting, jazzy guitar-intro. The tune is rather basic blues…some basic Dave lyrics. Again, this just isn’t one of the album’s most interesting moments. When it comes to blues, I’d rather listen to DON’T PISS ME OFF. That one sounds more alive and more energetic. More earthy too. Still, I have to admit that I love Kilgore’s very bluesy work on the solo, though he overplays it a bit at the end before the vocals kick in again. I could listen to Dave sing the blues all day long…but this sure isn’t as good as LITTLE TEXAS or COUNTER-BLAST. Sounds more like a studio jam to me.
TIGHT – Again, a bit more 80’s-sounding. This is another example of Kilgore not providing the best musical-material. But vocal-wise, this sounds a lot like Dave in his double-tracked SKYSCRAPER days. Too bad Dave didn’t cut out a few tunes to keep this album a bit leaner. This is my least-favorite track on the album. Energetic solo, though.
WEEKEND WITH THE BABYSITTER – Easy to recognize Lowery’s edgier tone right back in the mix. Dave sounds so awesome on the verses here. “There goes my beeper, kids must be in bed, wake the little rug rats up.” Dave is definitely role-playing here…LOL. Dave with kids? Still, this ain’t stellar material compared to the album’s first half. The chorus is lackluster, and the verses don’t really go anywhere. I prefer it when Dave doesn’t repeat the verse riff on the chorus…it’s better to change keys and get a new groove going...that more often makes a hook. Still, this Lowery solo is possibly the most-inventive on the album. It starts like something off of FAIR WARNING, but then Lowery’s true technical abilities and individuality shine through on the ending. This is followed by a cool percussive part before the ending riff. I can see Dave, hearing more about the Cherone crap on MTV, shaking his head, going into the studio and singing: “Suddenly occurs to me, maybe I need therapy, ‘cause I’m also hot for teacher!” Oh yeah, Dave. Glad to know that you’re still around. I wonder whatever happened to that guitar god, fuckin' Eddie Van Halen.
BLACK SAND – Pardon me if I declare that this is some of the best material Dave has ever recorded. DAMN GOOD seems to split the Dave fans down-the-middle…it’s such a hotly-contested song. Me, I love it. And I bet a lot of fans loved this one with some hating it...again, down-the-middle. But just listen to that breathtaking and haunting acoustic, bass, cymbals, keyboard intro. Then the band kicks in a minute into the track. Dave lets them play for a bit, lets them get their groove going. Finally, his ghostly voice comes in and he declares, “Catch a wave, feel the power, now you are solar-powered.” Damn straight, Mr. Roth. The Diamond one is alive and well. Pardon me here if I piss anyone off, but where was this kind of inspiration during most of the A LIL AIN’T ENOUGH sessions? This is pure bliss…real reefer-material. You can just see the band all in a circle in the garage-like studio, cutting live this song that provides more vocal-inspiration than every cut on VH3 combined. When Dave declares, “Goin’ to the ocean, come away with me, we’ll slide right off the backside of a dream,” you want to smack anyone that declared that Dave was never a romantic. Of course, there’s little time to think because then Kilgore kicks in with one of the album’s best solos. It’s straight, to-the-point and ghostly as hell. As much as I wish Lowery handled all of the guitars on this album, Kilgore has some amazing moments. This song sure is fucking one of them!
And so the album ends. And Dave hasn’t cut an album of originals since. I read that in its first week, this little-known record sold only 8000 copes. I bought one of them. But it’s an atrocity that it’s been so little heard. It’s an atrocity that BLACK SAND, COUNTER-BLAST, SLAM DUNK, LITTLE TEXAS and others sat in one CD-jewel-case in giant downtown record stores while local suburban shit stores carried fifty copies of CD’s with songs like HOW MANY SAY I and ONCE. What’s the world coming to?
The saddest thing about this album for me, however, is what also makes 1984 sad for me. This album was never properly followed-up. It’s been over six years. We’ve had a cover album. But no album of originals. I’d love to see Brian Young come up with the riffage goods after playing Eddie licks for long enough. Or have John Lowery come back to the fold and into the studio (since he's just been given his dismissal papers in the Marilyn Manson band). I’d like to see a neat 12-song album come out on something like Rhino records, containing tons of heavy rock and maybe another acoustic song plus one jazz cover. I’d like Dave to sing about suing Van Halen. I’d like him to sing about Sammy Hagar being an asshole. I’d like him to sing about the blues of reaching 50.
But more than anything, I’d just like to see him back.
Do another one, DD. “It’s about time.”;)
In 1996, Van Halen fans were excited beyond the belief at the prospect of a Van Halen reunion. The band was super-hyped by Warners, MTV and the radio that summer. Fans were on the internet talking potential set-lists of the reunion of the decade. This was going to make KISS's reunion seem useless. Hagar was crying like a baby that Eddie had fired him. Eddie himself was declaring that Dave has a better work-ethic. I guess too much lying in the sun in Mexico hurt Hagar’s career (even more than his atrocious lyrics). In September 1996, Van Halen walked onstage at the MTV Awards…not just Eddie, Mike and Alex but Dave too! And it wasn’t hyped as Van Halen AND David Lee Roth. It was announced simply as Van Halen. Unfortuntately, the band (which later claimed Roth was only in for the two songs) certainly knew how to fuck fans over. Why make the appearance at all and bring fans’ hopes up if Gary Cherone was already on-hand to add vocals to WITHOUT YOU, desecrating it?
It was the ultimate fan-fuck. If KISS’s appearance at the Grammy’s in February 1996 had been followed with a tour and album with Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer, fandom would have exploded in anger. It’s amusing that Eddie didn’t understand why fans were so upset when he invited Gary Cherone to join the band instead of Dave after VH showed up on the MTV awards with Dave. Regardless, they let him know it with the lackluster sales and tour revenues of the VH3 fiasco.
And what of Dave? He was used-and-abused, as far as I’m concerned. Fans were so upset with Van Halen and feeling so sorry for Dave that they chanted “Eddie sucks!” when he appeared with Howard Stern on T.V. that Fall. And Dave, ever the gentlemen, told them in return that Eddie didn’t suck. Big man, after what the band had just done to him. He should have led the chant...but Dave's always been a man of high integrity. And bless him for it.
So did Dave crawl back into a hole and await an early death? Did he retire from show-business, embarrassed that his ex-friends had indeed had their revenge on him for his stupid (but inevitable) decision to leave 10 years earlier? Fuck no. He first released a Greatest Hits set (with one new song, the bluesy DON’T PISS ME OFF) to finish up his Warners contract, and then soon after began work on the independent-release, DLR BAND. Instead of treading new (and scary) ground like his ex-bandmates, Dave decided to resurrect his classic sound. His new bandmates were young and ready-to-go. The CD (although heard by very few) proved that Dave had more energy in him than ten Hagars on Viagra. Furthermore, it proved that Dave was indeed plenty-ready for a tour (unlike what Alex tried to claim in the awful Alex/Eddie 1996 MTV Interview: “The Dave of 1996 is not the Dave of 1984.” Okay Shemp.)
And how were the songs? Well, let’s not go too far and say that this album was the second coming of FAIR WARNING. Six-pack material this was not. But some of the material was Dave’s best work in years. In fact, a few of the songs were right up there with some of Van Halen’s classic material: namely, COUNTER-BLAST, LITTLE TEXAS, KING OF THE HILL, BLACK SAND, and a few others. So let’s move on and look at the material in question.
Quick note: Ray Luzier played drums on the entire record. B’urbon Bob played bass on all songs except LOSE THE DRESS, GOING PLACES…, TIGHT, RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB, and the afore-mentioned BLACK SAND. John Lowery, Mike Hartman and Terry Kilgore all played guitar…and both Terry and John (who later joined Marilyn Manson’s band and was recently fired from it) played their hearts out on several numbers.
SLAM DUNK – Okay. You hear the opening riff and you think to youself, this sounds like classic Van Halen. Easily the best choice to open the album with…although it still must be said that this isn’t anywhere near the album’s best songs. It has the quick Alex drum-fills, the booming and repeating-note Mikey bass line and the Eddie-style guitar solo by Lowery. Dave is amazing…you actually cheer when he declares “Winners, they come and go, legends, they’re forever.” As a song, it doesn’t do anything new. But for sheer energy and enthusiasm, this is unbeatable. This was Dave telling the world that you can knock him down but he’ll come back and beat up not just you but your whole family as well! Even then, better songs are to come.
BLACKLIGHT – Great track. An awesome bluesy lick that could have come straight off of WACF…this is a slow groove and features the same band from the last song. Dave’s new “higher-voice” style works well here. He belts out verses such as “Summer of love, one you might have missed, peace love and harmony, at the flick of a switch” between Lowery’s bone-crunching riffs. Luzier really plays like a Bonham-inspired madman here. My god, who thought we’d hear Dave rock like this again? It’s funny that if Dave had instead done a Van Halen reunion album in 1997/1998, it probably would have had no material as heavy or young-sounding as this. Of course, the song’s best moment (and one of the album’s best moments) is Dave’s Plant-inspired harmonica solo. And is that a turntable on the middle-eight? (And can someone tell me what Dave is actually singing about?)
COUNTER-BLAST – One of my favorite tracks on the CD. This just rocks like a mother fucker. And again, the SLAM DUNK/BLACK LIGHT line-up. Dave sounds like vintage 1982 Diamond Dave on the verses before digging out the double-tracking on the chorus, singing “My engine searching like a harpoon in your chat room” on the chorus. Lowery then hits a simple non-musical chicken-scratch while the rest of the band shuts up. Astounding stuff. Lowery’s solo proves that sometimes it’s great to have a player not quite as technically-efficient as Vai backing Dave up. He does the Eddie licks well, but not with too much space-age skill. And it forces him to keep it simple, stupid. Of course, after the quick solo…Dave begins another rap on a middle-eight that sounds an awful lot like the quiet part in MEAN STREET. Bravo, Dave! One of the album's best moments!
LOSE THE DRESS (KEEP THE SHOES) – “I respect your intellect, more important are your sporting skills…do I detect integrity and self-respect?” I can just see Dave picking up women with this shtick. Dave just wants to get laid. But he knows how to say it while making the woman think he’s honorable. It’s hilarious. How’s the music? Good descending intro riff that’s repeated on the chorus. As for the rest of the material, it’s not up to the high standards of the first three numbers. I never liked Kilgore quite as much as LOWERY (who plays on this one), but Kilgore’s quick bluesy solo is very neat. Not bad at all.
LITTLE TEXAS – In my humble opinion, this is Dave’s best moment since leaving Van Halen in 1985. Just astounding. He sounds like the Dave of HOT FOR TEACHER on the verse, rapping away with bluesy wonder and reckless abandon about deep Texas legend before his band (with Lowery back on guitar) kicks into it. After a couple of runs of this, Dave kicks into the catchiest chorus of his solo career (well, catchy-with-integrity)…”From Broadway to Cheyenne, aces wild yes we am, say hello to my best friend, Little Texas.” Fuck yeah! The time-change there is perfect. I love songs where the chorus goes to a different beat from the verse. And it’s all done so powerfully and forcefully…I can’t believe this is an indie CD. Lowery smartly doesn’t overplay his solo…he just throws in some great licks before another run-through of the back-alley verse. Well done, Dave! I’m almost glad the reunion didn’t happen just so I could hear this.
KING OF THE HILL – "Knock knock, Daddy’s home. Well, don’t look at the screen all funny." That’s what Dave sings at the beginning of this catchy rock ‘n’ roll song. Anything would sound a little lackluster after the amazing LITTLE TEXAS, but this still follows that classic quite well. Jesus, this whole album proves one thing: piss a rock star off, and that rock star’ll come back with the heaviest album of his career. I can’t really say I understand what Dave is singing about in this song. (No, he’s not singing about the fucking T.V. show!!:mad: .) But does it matter? No, it never does. It’s the feel that counts. Hartman’s on guitar on this one, riffing away with the odd bluesy lick. The slowed-down middle-eight with Dave yelling echoed “go”s is great…but it’s the “nah nah-nah-nah-nah nah-nah” choruses that really make the song. Hartman’s slow and bluesy solo, however, is pure bliss. Great job, Dave.
GOING PLACES… – Holy bluesy, batman. This is great. It’s not as good as the album’s other super-mellow moment, BLACK SAND. But Kilgore’s acoustic-riffing here (especially on the intro) almost convinces you that you’re in some amazing New Orleans jazz-and-blues club. And Dave gives the boy a whole 1:29 to play his licks without vocals or a band. Whoever said Dave just thinks about himself and not the bigger picture is a fucking idiot. By the time the intro ends, you’re just relaxed and gently high as Dave announces “Hey boom town, I’m bound for Dixie”. It really sucks that so many people that would love this album haven’t heard it. This album is WAY, WAY better than VH3. In fact, this track sort of reminds me of TAKE YOUR WHISKEY HOME. It’s got the same attitude. Know what I mean?
WA WA ZAT!! – Lowery’s back on guitar for this one, and it’s got an interesting lead riff on the verse. It sounds like a keyboard is coming in on the chorus, but it could be a guitar. If it is a keyboard, Dave isn’t acknowledging a keyboard player on this album (probably on purpose). Unfortunately, this song which shares the name with Dave’s new independent label (invented just to release this album) doesn’t really have anything on the first seven songs on the album. There’s no key change, just the same basic rock riff and some so-so vocals from Dave. Pardon me here, but I still feel DLR BAND would have been stronger with maybe three or so cuts removed.
RELENTLESS – Now this is more like it. You can really here the bass drum here, and the guitar sounds a lot like the stereo-effect guitar sound Eddie has come to rely on in later years. No wonder Marilyn Manson plucked this boy from Dave’s tribe soon after the CD was recorded (anyone who hasn’t heard Manson’s late-1998 MECHANICAL ANIMALS release really should…it’s actually very good, and I think Lowery is playing at least some of the excellent guitar on this album). Dave is screaming away about a “pencil weenie in elephant clothes”...LOL. Loud verses, strange-beat choruses. It’s different. And a great solo! Actually sounds more like Vai than Eddie.
INDEEDIO – A bit too 80’s-rockish for me here. It sounds a bit like a poor man’s BLACKLIGHT on the verses. I really think Dave played his best hand first on this album. The song (and the guitar playing by Mike Hartman) is just too generic for me. It’s still miles above anything Hagar could pull off. But it’s just not Dave’s best. It does rock, but more in a tired swagger kind of way. Anyone have a different opinion?
RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB – A very interesting, jazzy guitar-intro. The tune is rather basic blues…some basic Dave lyrics. Again, this just isn’t one of the album’s most interesting moments. When it comes to blues, I’d rather listen to DON’T PISS ME OFF. That one sounds more alive and more energetic. More earthy too. Still, I have to admit that I love Kilgore’s very bluesy work on the solo, though he overplays it a bit at the end before the vocals kick in again. I could listen to Dave sing the blues all day long…but this sure isn’t as good as LITTLE TEXAS or COUNTER-BLAST. Sounds more like a studio jam to me.
TIGHT – Again, a bit more 80’s-sounding. This is another example of Kilgore not providing the best musical-material. But vocal-wise, this sounds a lot like Dave in his double-tracked SKYSCRAPER days. Too bad Dave didn’t cut out a few tunes to keep this album a bit leaner. This is my least-favorite track on the album. Energetic solo, though.
WEEKEND WITH THE BABYSITTER – Easy to recognize Lowery’s edgier tone right back in the mix. Dave sounds so awesome on the verses here. “There goes my beeper, kids must be in bed, wake the little rug rats up.” Dave is definitely role-playing here…LOL. Dave with kids? Still, this ain’t stellar material compared to the album’s first half. The chorus is lackluster, and the verses don’t really go anywhere. I prefer it when Dave doesn’t repeat the verse riff on the chorus…it’s better to change keys and get a new groove going...that more often makes a hook. Still, this Lowery solo is possibly the most-inventive on the album. It starts like something off of FAIR WARNING, but then Lowery’s true technical abilities and individuality shine through on the ending. This is followed by a cool percussive part before the ending riff. I can see Dave, hearing more about the Cherone crap on MTV, shaking his head, going into the studio and singing: “Suddenly occurs to me, maybe I need therapy, ‘cause I’m also hot for teacher!” Oh yeah, Dave. Glad to know that you’re still around. I wonder whatever happened to that guitar god, fuckin' Eddie Van Halen.
BLACK SAND – Pardon me if I declare that this is some of the best material Dave has ever recorded. DAMN GOOD seems to split the Dave fans down-the-middle…it’s such a hotly-contested song. Me, I love it. And I bet a lot of fans loved this one with some hating it...again, down-the-middle. But just listen to that breathtaking and haunting acoustic, bass, cymbals, keyboard intro. Then the band kicks in a minute into the track. Dave lets them play for a bit, lets them get their groove going. Finally, his ghostly voice comes in and he declares, “Catch a wave, feel the power, now you are solar-powered.” Damn straight, Mr. Roth. The Diamond one is alive and well. Pardon me here if I piss anyone off, but where was this kind of inspiration during most of the A LIL AIN’T ENOUGH sessions? This is pure bliss…real reefer-material. You can just see the band all in a circle in the garage-like studio, cutting live this song that provides more vocal-inspiration than every cut on VH3 combined. When Dave declares, “Goin’ to the ocean, come away with me, we’ll slide right off the backside of a dream,” you want to smack anyone that declared that Dave was never a romantic. Of course, there’s little time to think because then Kilgore kicks in with one of the album’s best solos. It’s straight, to-the-point and ghostly as hell. As much as I wish Lowery handled all of the guitars on this album, Kilgore has some amazing moments. This song sure is fucking one of them!
And so the album ends. And Dave hasn’t cut an album of originals since. I read that in its first week, this little-known record sold only 8000 copes. I bought one of them. But it’s an atrocity that it’s been so little heard. It’s an atrocity that BLACK SAND, COUNTER-BLAST, SLAM DUNK, LITTLE TEXAS and others sat in one CD-jewel-case in giant downtown record stores while local suburban shit stores carried fifty copies of CD’s with songs like HOW MANY SAY I and ONCE. What’s the world coming to?
The saddest thing about this album for me, however, is what also makes 1984 sad for me. This album was never properly followed-up. It’s been over six years. We’ve had a cover album. But no album of originals. I’d love to see Brian Young come up with the riffage goods after playing Eddie licks for long enough. Or have John Lowery come back to the fold and into the studio (since he's just been given his dismissal papers in the Marilyn Manson band). I’d like to see a neat 12-song album come out on something like Rhino records, containing tons of heavy rock and maybe another acoustic song plus one jazz cover. I’d like Dave to sing about suing Van Halen. I’d like him to sing about Sammy Hagar being an asshole. I’d like him to sing about the blues of reaching 50.
But more than anything, I’d just like to see him back.
Do another one, DD. “It’s about time.”;)