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Lou Gramm is a true rock and roll survivor. The man had grappled with a brain tumor for goodness sakes! Unfortunately after going through all of that, Gramm isn’t the same as he once was. He has gained a bit a weight, lost the recognizable quality in his voice and is now a born-again Christian. In fact, Gramm’s most recent album, The Lou Gramm Band is what you would classify as a “Christian Rock” album. Big props to Gramm for having the balls to go the less commercial route. I mean, can you imagine the meetings he must of had with his business managers pleading with him to release something that could be more marketable to the “Foreigner/classic rock” crowd? In any case, what’s done is done and I’m sure Gramm meant well. But in my opinion, this is not the “comeback” record we’ve all been waiting for. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with Christian music and I personally listen to a number of different Christian artists like Lincoln Brewster, Israel Houghton and Michael Gungor. The problem here mainly stems from the material. It’s simply not strong enough. Aside from the track, “Baptized by Fire” (which is pretty good), the majority of the songs are filled with generic chord progressions and cliched lyrics. To compound the problem, Gramm makes some cringe-worthy choices on several of the tracks. Take for instance “Single Vision”. It’s a solid rocker with a nice enough hook but he totally ruins it by including a hokie spoken-word interlude pleading to some unknown entity to not take “the Lord from the classrooms”. WTF. Other cheesy moments include “That’s the Way God Planned It” (which sounds like something you’d hear on a local cable access broadcast of a southern baptist worship service), “So Great” (sounds a bit like old-school worship leader Graham Kendrick from the 80′s) and “You Saved Me” (almost a Meat Loaf parody but in a bad way).

So for now, if I’m in need of a Lou Gramm fix, I’ll simply pull out his 1989 classic Long Hard Look.

retroGrade: D+

title: The Lou Gramm Band
label: Spectra Records
released: 2009

TrackList:
Made To Be Broken
Redeemer
Willing To Forgive
That’s The Way God Planned It
Baptized By Fire
(I Wanna) Testify
So Great
Single Vision
Rattle Yer Bones
You Saved Me
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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Jones Soda. All opinions are 100% mine.

In the time-honored tradition of those so-awful-it’s-too-damn-funny holiday gifts like the fruitcake and the ugly holiday sweater, comes a new soda flavor just in time for thanksgiving – the Tofurky and Gravy Jones Soda . I can see it becoming a staple at holiday gatherings. It’s definitely a conversation starter. I mean, really, who would have thought that Tofurky and gravy would be a good flavor for a soda?? But it’s catching on! As a matter of fact, I recently saw Conan O’Brien talk about it on the Tonight Show. Conan wanted sidekick Andy Richter to try the new soda as part of his ongoing bit “Andy’ll Try It”. Andy, in turn, passed it off to LaBamba for his own segment called “Just Shut Up and Drink It”. Needless to say, LaBamba didn’t like it but the mention on the Tonight Show definitely made the new product a hot gag-gift for the holidays.

I actually received a bottle of the new Tofurky and Gravy soda from IZEA this past week to try for myself. I loved showing it around to friends and family. We all had a big chuckle reading the label and wondering what it would taste like. Even the color of the liquid added to its mystique. Surprisingly, it didn’t taste all that bad. I was expecting worse but it was a sweet tasting carbonated drink with hints of gravy. It’s not something I would regularly drink myself but I’d probably pick up a six-pack for my next family gathering, just for laughs.

Time’s almost up for fans to register to win the brand new Rolling Stones Deluxe Box Set Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!. To celebrate the 40th anniversary, ABKCO records put together an expanded reissue of the original 1969 album. The deluxe set contains 3 CDs, 1 DVD and a 56-page book. Rarities include 5 unreleased tracks by the Rolling Stones and 12 never before released tracks by the opening acts of the Madison Square Garden concert, B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner.

Register for the box set giveaway before the December 3rd deadline for your chance to win.
Not only will the grand prizer winner get the deluxe reissue, he/she will also get a Gretsch Drum kit, a Gibraltar hardware pack, a Let It Bleed book, an official Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out Poster, guitar picks plus an eco-friendly shopping bag. That’s a pretty cool prize pack if you ask me. get your name in the drawing today!

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This is a sponsored guest post written by Matt Kelland on behalf of Moviestorm. Post powered by Sponzai.

Moviestorm is enabling a new generation of amateur film-makers to realize their visions.  It offers easy, affordable animation tools that can produce sophisticated high-quality films on practically no budget. After several years in development, Moviestorm has demonstrated that home movie-making needn’t be limited to cheap hand-held cameras and clips of the kids goofing around. Its virtual movie studio allows users to break free of the limitations of the real world, and allows them to direct, film, edit and distribute 3D animated movies without any knowledge of animation techniques or 3D modelling. And best of all, it’s free, and comes without any copyright restrictions. 

Iain Friar, known as IceAxe, is one of Moviestorm’s many successful film-makers.  His short film, Clockwork, a dystopian vision of a totalitarian Britain after a Soviet invasion in the 1980s, is winning accolades and awards around the world, most recently the audience prize at the Atopic Festival in France and the Grand Prize at the Machinima Expo.  Clearly influenced by both 1984 and A Clockwork Orange, with a visual style that evokes both Communist era propaganda posters and more recent animated movies such as A Scanner Darkly, it is a stark, powerful film that belies its modest origins.

Iain, who’s 42, works in marketing, and started making movies just 18 months ago. “I’ve always been a hands-on person, in music, sport, and everything else,” he says. “I thought it would be fun to shoot a music video, but I’m not the most technical of people, and it seemed extraordinarily hard.  I remember when computer games started using in-game animation to tell the story instead of video clips, and this interested me, especially now that game technology has become so sophisticated. So I bought a book, Machinima for Dummies, which had Moviestorm on the CD, and I was hooked. I liked Moviestorm because it did what I was looking for, even though I didn’t really know what I was looking for at the time, and the Moviestorm community was very supportive.  I initially made comedies, but I could see that the movies people respected were more dramatic, so it seemed that was the direction to go in.”

He spent four months working on Clockwork, and then the same again on his next short, Cloud Angel, a steampunk thriller set on board an airship.  Apart from the voice acting, he made the entire film himself at his home in Basingstoke, England.  “I’m lucky that my friends are so willing to step up to the mike and read my silly scripts!” he laughs. His next film is Gridlock, a science fiction comedy which he is co-producing with another successful Moviestorm director, James Thorpe.  For this, they’ve stepped up the production costs a notch: they hired a recording studio and got the local amateur dramatic group to do the voice acting.

Iain is realistic about his future, though.  “Am I ambitious? Yes. Do I want to keep it as just a hobby? Well, probably yes, because I imagine that if it became a full time activity, the fun might go out of it. I make movies as escapism. That said, I think that this industry would be really interesting to work in, because it’s embryonic; I’m not sure what direction it will go in. It’s exciting!”

Moviestorm’s CEO, Jeff Zie, is hugely enthusiastic and supportive.  “Iain and the many other Moviestorm users are an inspiration to us all,” he says. “We’re really proud that we’re giving talented people like this the tools they need to unleash the creative potential they never knew they had, and to produce these wonderful films.”

Try it and see!

You can download Moviestorm for free: Windows and Mac versions are available. If you want, you can expand your virtual film studio and buy extra costumes, sets, props, and sounds in their marketplace. If you’ve ever wondered whether you might be the next Tarantino, Ang Lee, or J J Abrams, now’s the time to find out!

Well, after all this time desperately trying NOT to jump on the twitter bandwagon, I caved and finally signed up. Yeah, I know, it’s old hat for most people but back when the service first started up, I REALLY didn’t think “micro-blogging” would take-off like it did.

It’s interesting to see the evolution of the service. What was once thought of as a platform for the self-absorbed, it has become a useful tool to get late-breaking news, to give feedback to major corporations and even to promote your music blog. With such a large user-base, there’s no denying that twitter has become an indispensible online tool.

So, if you’re on twitter, you can follow me @retroblog. you can also follow me the “old-fashioned way” via my RSS feed.

as the old saying goes – it’s better late than never!

I’ve been listening to the newly released two-disc audio CDs of Paul McCartney’s Good Evening New York City this week and I have to say that I’m pretty disappointed by the blatant use of auto-tune (pitch correction software) on Paul’s vocals. yes, I understand that auto-tune is pretty much standard practice nowadays in the pop music industry but for an iconic voice as Paul’s, the tell-tale signs of auto-tune just ruins for me. I personally would have preferred bum-notes and all for this live document of McCartney’s July 2009 gigs at Citi Field in NYC. We all know McCartney is 67 and his voice isn’t what it used to be so we don’t expect his vocals to be perfect. So why try to artificially make it so in post-production? I can accept Sir Paul going back into the studio to overdub vocal parts because that’s the nature of the beast (and he’s done that with past releases like Wings over America and Tripping the Live Fantastic) but to utilize auto-tune (or Melodyne, another pitch correction tool) and make Paul sound like a cyborg, is a big mistake if you ask me. The tell-tale signs vary throughout the performance with some songs being more heavily treated than others. Listen for it on songs like “Got to Get You Into My Life”, “Let it Be”, “I’ve Got a Feeling” and “Paperback Writer”. Again, some folks may not know what to listen for so this may not be a bother to some ears but it sure does bother mine. I’m personally going to seek out the audio of the pay-per-view broadcast of Paul’s show in Halifax (11Jul09). From what I’ve heard, McCartney and band sounded great that night and the BIG PLUS is the fact that it’s a more TRUTHFUL document of his show with NO auto-tune to mar the experience!

But if you can get past the artificial quality of Paul’s vocals, there are some positives. The band sounds tight and it’s great to hear songs like “Mrs. Vandebilt”, “I’m Down”, “Calico Skies” and “Only Mama Knows”. And the “Sgt. Peppers/The End” combo is always a great way to end the show. You can’t go wrong there. Another positive is the fact that the CD isn’t mastered “loud”. No signs of brickwalling here, thank goodness.

Before I end this, I DO have to mention one more thing which has to do with Wix’s synth patches. Wix has been with Paul since the 1989 tour and from the sound of it, he hasn’t updated his keyboard sounds since that time. I assume that sampling technology has progressed during the time since then but his “horn” samples in songs like “Got to Get You Into My Life” and his “sax synth” solo during “Lady Madonna” sound just like it did on the first tour. In other words, the synths sound dated now. ..and a bit cheesy. Weird, since I’m sure Wix can afford all the newest gear. so what gives?

I haven’t had a chance to view the DVD portion of this release in any detail but I suspect the visual aspect will help take the focus off the auto-tuned vocals. Well, at least I hope so, anyway.

RetroGrade: C (for the audio CD)

Good Evening New York City
Released: November 17, 2009 (U.S.)
label: Hear Music/Concord Music Group

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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LeapFish Inc. All opinions are 100% mine.

This nicely done video trailer for the new search engine leapfish should remind us all of how the internet is a constantly changing environment. Just think back to the beginning of the decade. Not a lot of us were blogging back in those days. The web was made up of static webpages created by programs like Frontpage and Dreamweaver. In those days, search engines could get away with not re-checking certain sites for weeks since updates and changes were few and far between. But as broadband connections found its way to more and more homes, the internet integrated deeper into our daily lives. As blogging, youtube and social networking became mainstream, the flow of new web content exploded. sharing photos, videos and music have become as simple as sending email nowadays. And now with iPhones and the wireless web, updates on twitter and facebook are at our fingertips. With this constant flow of information coming and going, the internet has actually become the “living web”.

But how do we harness all this new information in “real-time”? Traditional search-engines aren’t currently geared toward real-time access. With twitter feeds and status updates, news can spread in an instant. A great example of this is how word spread on the web about Michael Jackson’s passing before traditional media made the announcement. We’re on the brink of a revolution. We just need some online tools to help access the speed of “now”.

Leapfish is the first that I’ve seen to merge traditional search with social networking. Their online portal integrates all the important tools that we use on a daily basis into one spot. Keep up with all your favorites including twitter feeds, flickr feeds, facebook and Digg without having to constantly surf to different sites. The search portal is definitely a step in the right direction.

It’s fascinating to see how the ‘net has evolved over the years. Our lives have permanently changed because of it. I look forward to the next “game-changer” that’ll once again shake things up on the web.

Last night’s Dancing with the Stars results show proved to us all once again their uncanny ability to stretch what could have been done in five minutes, into a full hour. man, that was painful. viewers had to wait what seemed like eternity to simply confirm the obvious choices for the finale – Donny, Mya and Kelly. And in my opinion, Mya is going to take the trophy home … unless Donny’s faithful fans push him over the top in the end.

Other than getting to the final three, there really wasn’t much else. Obviously there was a bunch of time to fill so they had three musical acts and a dance showcase for the upcoming film Nine.

Alicia Keys screeched her way through her new song “Try sleeping With A Broken Heart”. and then Leona Lewis lip-synced to her new song “Happy” which was a bit of a disappointment since she actually has a great singing voice.

and just when I thought the show couldn’t get any worse, they trot out the two remaining Gibb Brothers to perform “You Should be Dancing”:

yikes! They should simply outlaw anyone over 60 from singing disco music in high falsetto!! it’s definitely hazardous to the ears!

But on the other hand, it was nice to see Cheryl Burke and Chelsie Hightower on the show dancing again. They’re both a treat for the eyes.

as a matter of fact, if it were me, I’d rather watch Chelsie, Cheryl, Lacey Schwimmer and Edyta Sliwinska in those skimpy outfits for an hour and be done with it.

This is a sponsored guest post written by Justin Germino on behalf of Rock Along Productions. Post powered by Sponzai.

Want the very best in local and national music news, events and more? Rock Along Productions is the best online source for everything music related. Great articles, relevant discussions, contest, best in upcoming events and much more. The site is jam packed with music at its best. The site features monthly artist from all over. The company also puts on local concerts in which members of their mailing list can receive special offer and discounts on admission. They also offer up to date music news with Rolling Stone’s Rock N Roll Daily report. The site features an up to date events calendar in which you can find things to do in music and art. Interesting videos and tons of media makes this site one that you can visit everyday to discover new things.

Around this time every year, the market is saturated with Christmas albums done by well known recording artists. From rock to country, jazz and R&B, it’s highly probably that your very own favorite performer released a “seasonal album” at some point in their career. Hell, even Bob Dylan put one out this year.

Not to be outdone, British rock icon Sting has recently released his own seasonal recording titled If on a Winter’s Night. Thankfully Sting didn’t go the typical route of covering the same ol’ yuletide fare that countless of other artists have done over the years. He dug deep and unearthed ancient carols, folk-songs and lullabies from the British Isles. It’s an intriguing collection that challenges the listener with, at times, dark imagery and a somber mood.

If you’re looking for sugary-sweet holiday music, look elsewhere. But if you want thought-provoking and an ultimately rewarding meditation on the winter season, be sure to pick this album up.

On a related note, Sting is also releasing a live performance of the new album on DVD titled Sting: A Winter’s Night… Live from Durham Cathedral. Filmed this past September near his hometown of Newcastle, Sting performs the bulk of “If on a Winter’s Night” along with some extra material not on the album including “Ghost Story”, “Bethelehem Down” and “I Saw Three Ships”.

Deutsche Grammophon will be releasing the 2-DVD set on November 24. Purchase it here via CDUniverse.

And be sure to catch a special edition of this concert as part of the Great Performances series on PBS on Thanksgiving night (Thursday, November 26, 9pm EST, local schedules may vary).

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