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it's all killer. tomorrow night i'm beering and cranking her up on the big rig.
off to beddy byes; work tomoz.
stay frosty people!!
off to beddy byes; work tomoz.
stay frosty people!!
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Another great review..
DEEDS: If Van Halen actually rocks, there is hope for us all
- Idaho Statesman
Copyright: © 2012 Idaho Statesman
Published: 02/03/12
1 Comment
It’s been tough to rally up much enthusiasm for the new Van Halen album, “A Different Kind of Truth,” which arrives Feb. 7.
We’ve been burned too many times before by “comeback” records.
Does Guns ’N Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” ring a bell? Or The Eagles’ “Long Road Out of Eden”?
Kiss’ “Sonic Boom”? The Stooges’ “The Weirdness”? The Who’s “Endless Wire”?
As Roger Daltrey once sang, we don’t get fooled again.
Oh, wait. Yes, I do.
This is Van Halen’s first album with original frontman David Lee Roth in almost three decades. The baby-boomer band provided a taste of the new album about a month ago online: a song called “Tattoo.” Ugh. Mediocre at best.
But in the last week or so, tons more song samples have trickled onto the Internet. (Check my blog for half a dozen.)
Several sounded shockingly good. Huh? They’re hard-charging. Full of Eddie Van Halen’s unmistakable guitar pyrotechnics. And although he can’t do the splits with his vocal cords anymore, Roth sounds like Roth — and not too intolerably full of himself.
So was “Tattoo” a bizarre bait-and-switch tactic designed to lower expectations? (It’s also the album’s first song, which makes everything else sound that much better.) Or is the band’s management just totally clueless?
Don’t know. Don’t care. This still could be the best Van Halen record since “1984.” These tracks will make fans of the group’s David Lee Roth era jump.
Trash-talking Roth replacement Sammy Hagar still can’t drive 55. But the original members of Van Halen apparently still can rock after 55.
Could this album set a new geezer-rock precedent?
Fans will find out Tuesday.
If that’s the general consensus, it will be like Eddie Van Halen snatching away Hagar’s tequila, slamming it, then squirting the lime in Sammy’s eye.
And if Van Halen somehow recaptures the magic after all the fighting and booze and egos and divorce and cancer, anything becomes possible.
Let’s beat IdahoStatesman.com commenters to the punch and twist this article into a ridiculous, far-fetched political debate: President Obama may not convince me that there is hope for our economy, but if this Van Halen comeback miraculously does rock the planet?
Then Obama is right: There is hope for our nation.
If Dave and Eddie kick butt under Obama’s presidency, that might be enough for a second term.
Now pass me the rest of Sammy’s tequila, so I can mix it with Kool-Aid."Ya know what they say about angels... An angel is a supernatural being or spirit, usually humanoid in form, found in various religions and mythologies. Plus Roth fan boards..."- ZahZoo April 2013
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I made Natra's thread the Album Review thread....Eat Us And Smile - The Originals
"I have a very belligerent enthusiasm or an enthusiastic belligerence. I’m an intellectual slut." - David Lee Roth
"We are part of the, not just the culture, but the geography. Van Halen music goes along with like fries with the burger." - David Lee RothComment
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Van Halen: A Different Kind of Truth – review (Interscope)
Despite the multi-platinum gluttony of the Sammy Hagar era, true Van Halen devotees have never been in any doubt about who they want to front their favourite band. Some 28 years after Jump and Hot for Teacher, David Lee Roth has squeezed back into his old spandex pants, his lascivious yelping at last reunited with legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen's nimble-fingered pyrotechnics (see page 12). In truth, this would have to be a dismal affair to fail to outstrip 1998's scorned Van Halen III, but once the DLR-related euphoria dies down, A Different Kind of Truth is a frequently thrilling return. These songs crackle, fizz and bulge with priapic exuberance, and not just due to the reliably demented Roth. Seemingly inspired by the presence of his 20-year-old son Wolfgang on bass, Van Halen is on extraordinary form, whether churning out sumptuous grooves on Tattoo and Big River, or gleefully setting his fretboard alight on China Town and the bug-eyed Bullethead. Against the odds, the party metal kings are back and blazing. Fun times.Eat Us And Smile - The Originals
"I have a very belligerent enthusiasm or an enthusiastic belligerence. I’m an intellectual slut." - David Lee Roth
"We are part of the, not just the culture, but the geography. Van Halen music goes along with like fries with the burger." - David Lee RothComment
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Sorry, no idea how to embed articles properly, so cut and pasted..."Ya know what they say about angels... An angel is a supernatural being or spirit, usually humanoid in form, found in various religions and mythologies. Plus Roth fan boards..."- ZahZoo April 2013Comment
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Van Halen – A Different Kind of Truth (2012)Posted by Nick DeRiso
Van Halen was one of the smartest, funniest, toughest bands around at the turn of the 1980s. Three decades later, the greatest fear surrounding a reunion was whether they could recreate any piece of that. And they did, all of it.
That they did so by returning to previously unissued scraps of songs from those glory days has been the subject of furious debate in the run up to the Feb. 7 release of A Different Kind of Truth, Van Halen’s first full-length project with David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen since 1984. (Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen has taken over for the departed original bassist, Michael Anthony.)
Listening, I kept thinking: What’s all the fuss about? Is there a more fertile period for this band than the late 1970s? And wasn’t that the sound fans wanted rekindled for this project? Further, and this seems the most germane thing of all, it’s nothing new for Van Halen: 1979′s Van Halen II included tracks that had been developed from demos recorded in 1976 by Kiss’ Gene Simmons and in 1977 by Ted Templeman, including “Beautiful Girls.” Similarly, “Hang ‘Em High” from 1982′s Diver Down was an update of “Last Night,” also found on those ’77 demos. “House of Pain,” from 1984 Van Halen’s most recent album with Roth, traces its history back to initial sessions with Simmons, as well.
So, enough with the frowny face-emoticoned indignation. Stealing from themselves is old hat for Van Halen.
Whatever the impetus here, tracks like “China Town” and “The Trouble With Never” end up representing their own high points for the group, even at this late date. There, and elsewhere, you find new licks and new sounds, and a darker complexity, but also a break-neck attitude — familiar on records like 1981′s Fair Warning — that you worried was beyond Van Halen at this point.
It’s interesting that A Different Kind of Truth doesn’t always go for the easy hook (again recalling Fair Warning), something that may surprise late-arriving fans of keyboard-driven pop successes like “Jump” (and certainly the subsequent period with Roth’s successor, Sammy Hagar). For instance, “Honeybabysweetiedoll,” with a title right out of a darkened saloon’s last-call come on, crunches and heaves like a old muscle car running a couple of quarts low on oil. Meanwhile, any questions about Wolfgang’s ability to keep up with dear old dad are answered during “China Town,” as the two dash through a swirling, pacemaker-smashing interlude.
Some of the material requires more than one listen to completely absorb, and Anthony’s cloud-bursting tenor is missed at times. But A Different Kind of Truth has a way of burrowing in.
That’s largely thanks to the presence of Roth, of course. He’s always good for spandex-splitting laugh or two. And, so you have “Tattoo,” which boasts all of the deviant allure that a great single from this band simply must possess. “Never” may be the best track here, with its Hendrix-inspired flame-kissed guitar signature, a classic crotch-grab Roth vocal (“when you turn on your stereo, does it return the favor?”) and this stunningly deep groove led by Alex Van Halen. Later, “Blood and Fire” finds Roth howling with a robust vigor, as Eddie returns to the pop-metal vibe that propelled “Dance the Night Away.” Roth then positively skips through the scalding “Beats Workin,’” sounding like a man who simply couldn’t be happier to be back amongst friends. They even downshift for “Stay Frosty,” which fills the old acoustic-ditty-turned-peacock-rock slot that’s earlier been occupied by the likes of “Ice Cream Man” and “Little Guitars.”
Better than expected, Van Halen’s A Different Kind of Truth is a return to form in the most complete sense of the word. They sound — and, given the history of these tracks, that’s no surprise — like their old selves again. To complain about any of it seems to misunderstand not just the history of Van Halen, but also how much ass-shaking, riff-taking fun this record ultimately turns out to be.Eat Us And Smile - The Originals
"I have a very belligerent enthusiasm or an enthusiastic belligerence. I’m an intellectual slut." - David Lee Roth
"We are part of the, not just the culture, but the geography. Van Halen music goes along with like fries with the burger." - David Lee RothComment
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This album will signal the end for Chickenfeed.
Seriously.
How could that self-proclaimed 'supergroup' remain intact after getting their asses handed to them by the TRUE GODS of rock?=V V=
ole No.1 The finest
EAT US AND SMILEComment
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After 28 years they sound as good as ever. I'm shocked how good this album is. They will open the shows with Bullethead (my guess) then drop into Tattoo (my guess). I hope this album gets BIG, and brings rock back to the for front. I can't stop smilling and pissing on the other guy and his band chickenshitComment
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Even Hagar fans would have to know this is Van Halen at its peak again.
If all Sammy can do is write books against them, slam them in every interview,
say how crap the new music is, his slide into obscurity has already started.
Chickenfoot are about to disband, you heard it here first 3/3/12
(After some comittments they have to fulfill)BABY PANA 2 IS Coming !! All across the land, let the love and beer flow !
Love ya Mary Frances!Comment
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So true. Chad's done. Joe can't be happy with any of the shit talk instigating going on. Mike, well we know where he'd rather be. To refer to CF as a footnote in the history of rock is an insult to all other footnotes. Perhaps Mike will show up on Joe's next serving of instrumentals.Comment
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