Pyromania Deluxe: Def Leppard 1983 classic gets remixed, remastered, rerocked

Def Leppard
Album: Pyromania: Deluxe Edition (Island/Mercury)
In stores: Tuesday, June 23
Why we care: Back in ’83, when Def Leppard was king and its drummer still had two arms, rock radio (not to mention a relatively fresh phenomenon called MTV) was overrun by the flaming hits of Pyromania. Produced by Robert “Mutt” Lange, whose isolated guitar riffs and lumbering drums helped break AC/DC, the album charted big, fat head-banging goodness: Photograph, Foolin’, Rock of Ages. It was style over substance — and it sure defined that magical decade.
Why we like it: This special ’luxe treatment gives you the remastered album plus a full, shaggy live show from ’83, which features a surprise appearance from Queen’s Brian May. (1992's Adrenalize has also been spiffed up, this one with B-sides, covers and live cuts.)
Reminds us of: Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick play Tampa's Ford Amphitheatre on Aug. 14 (TICKETS)
Download this: Travelin’ Band (w/May) (LISTEN)
Grade: A

And now...FIVE BEST DEF LEPPARD SONGS!!
5. Bringin' on the Heartbreak (1981) (VIDEO)
4. Stagefright (1983)
3. Photograph (1983) (VIDEO)
2. Foolin' (1983)  (VIDEO)
1. Hysteria (1987) (VIDEO)

Hate Mail! Chickenfoot review has loyal reader taking aim, action

Sean:

I have got to tell you: Your review today finally proved to me while I will be canceling my subscription after 27 years.

I am 55 years old, a successful businessman, who doesn't have a lot of time to listen to music on the radio or Internet. So it was of great interest to me when I opened the paper this morning and saw an almost half-page review of "Chickenfoot" whom I have not heard yet.

You are a music reviewer, right? So where is the review? How many songs? What type of tempos? No, you spend almost the entire article hammering the musicians. "It's hard to hate on a merry band of millionaires jamming just for the fun of it"? What has that got to do with the music? Anyways, good luck to you, Sean. I actually feel sorry for you to be under so much pressure from the paper to be negative.
 
Sammy and Mike snap: Associated Press

Review: Jonas Brothers new album 'Lines, Vines and Trying Times'

Jonas Brothers
Album: Lines, Vines and Trying Times (Hear)
In stores: Now
Why we care: On their whiningly titled new album, the JoBros air out all the problems inherent with being the richest, cutest, most popular boys in the world. For instance, what’s with all the girls chasing them? And, like, why are so many people talking about them? Plus it’s soooo not as cool making out with Taylor Swift as you might think.
Why we like it: Ditching pure power pop for self-penned drip-hop (a Common cameo!) diet funk (Earth Wind & Fire the Producer) and uncountry (the fauxbilly of What Did I Do to Your Heart), Nick, Joe and Kevin don’t catch like before. This album feels rushed, but more than that, it sounds snotty (don't hate them, 'cause "Hey, America built me"). But at the very least, they sure do goose the gossips, dinging Swift on Much Better (“Now I’m done with superstars / All the tears on her guitar”).
Reminds us of: So Miley Cyrus, who used to date Nick, is best friends with Swift, who used to date Joe. But now Miley is back duetting with Nick on Before the Storm. Drama!
Download this: Fly With Me
Grade: C

The JoBros play the St. Pete Times Forum on Aug. 18. (TICKETS) 

Fowl Play: Best of the Bird Bands!

With supergroup Chickenfoot squawking up a storm, our hungry minds developed a taste for other poultry-inspired bands. Here’s our controversial cluckdown, from Chicks to Eagles...to Wings.

10) The Partridge Family I think I love you, Shirley Jones.

9) The Ravyns Charm City rockers “raised on the radio.”

8) A Flock of Seagulls Definitive band — and ’do — of the ’80s.

7) The Black Crowes Robinson bros think they should be higher.

6) The Yardbirds Clapton, Beck and Page — ’nuff said.

5) Dixie Chicks Liked ’em better killing Earl than drilling Bush.

4) Counting Crows Definitive band — and dreads — of the ’90s.

3) The Byrds Jingle-jangle Dylan thieves still sound great.

2) The Eagles Definitive band — and Don Henley gigantic ’fro — of the ’70s.

1) Wings Paul’s post-Beatles bird calling is criminally underrated. “Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun.” Total bliss.

Others that just miss the cut: The Orioles, Eagles of Death Metal, the Jawhawks, the O'Jays, the Housemartins 

Chickenfoot's Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Chad Smith, Joe Satriani raise summer ruckus

Last week, a spunky lil’ band with a clunky lil’ name raised a ruckus by topping Billboard’s Indie Albums chart. Perhaps you’ve heard of Chickenfoot? If not, maybe you’ve heard of its members: Van Halen howler Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitar-geek god Joe Satriani.

Okay, not your typical up-and-coming indie crew. But the supergroup formed at a 2008 Hagar show, started messing with new tunes and signed with Nashville’s humble Redline label. Sales have been crazy good so far, and why not? Besides being skilled at their job — especially Smith, who plays drums like Kong swats planes — each player has a huge following.

But are they any good? Well, that depends on how many Cabo Wabo tequila shots you’ve done. At its best, Chickenfoot ultimately sounds like post-Diamond Dave VH, aka Van Hagar, with its polished thunder, harmonizing from Anthony and sexual innuendo with zero room for interpretation. (Hmm, what are they trying to say on Sexy Little Thing and  Get It Up?)

In between the nookie numbers, they sneak in message music, tackling Latin American violence and border wars on Avenida Revolucion, national woes on Runnin’ Out and, uh, sadness on Learning to Fall. Hagar and Satriani co-wrote most of the cuts, and while they’re tasty in a 7-Eleven Big Bite sort of way, the lyrics are faux-deep and silly (“Runnin’ out of money / Runnin’ out of dreams / Runnin’ out of sex / We’re runnin’ out of future / Runnin’ out of past...” And so on and on.)

My biggest problem with Chickenfoot is Joey Satch, the guitar virtuoso. The man can fly, and pick, and stick a lick for sure. But there’s no soul, no joy in his playing. Eddie Van Halen was a showoff, too, but there was a liquid glee in his tapping. Satriani’s solos, while technically mind-blowing, just don’t engage.

Still, it’s hard to hate on a merry band of millionaires who are playing just for the fun of it. Hagar’s comments that Chickenfoot is better than Led Zeppelin lets you know that the Red Rocker is feeling this (if totally nuts). The album crunches and rumbles and catches, and I thumped the steering wheel more than once. It’s summer, the beach is packed and the radio is loud. Who’s up for another shot?

Daly TV: Talkin' Pat Benatar, Bob Marley and...Amanda Overmyer!

First of all, John Thomas of ABC Action News has the greatest posture of all time. Dude should run for president! I swear I was sitting up straight when we taped the following video, but jeez, I look like I should be schlepping brains for Dr. Frankenstein. Anyway, here's another fast, sweaty segment on upcoming albums and concerts: Today we're talking Steve Martin's The Crow and Ziggy Marley's Dad tribute B is for Bob, plus Pat Benatar's June 27 show at Tropicana Field and the July 4's Amanda Overmyer-Daly throwdown at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Pete. GO HERE!

Best Pixar Music: Randy Newman & Co. get 'hits' treatment from Disney Records

In the peerless pantheon of Pixar flicks — the new Up makes it an even 10 gems — A Bug’s Life always seems to get ranked last. It’s not that the 1998 movie is bad; it’s just not Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., the two Toys, etc.

But if you revisit A Bug’s Life — and you should — pay attention to Randy Newman’s score. The harrumphy satirist has worked five Pixar jobs, and his marching music for Flik & Co. is nothing short of magnificent. It’s Fanfare for the Common Ant, and it nods not just to Americana composer Aaron Copland and Manifest Destiny, but to the magic of Marceline, Mizzou’s famous son: Walter Elias Disney, a guy who knew about patriotism, pluck and talking insects.

A Bug’s Life Suite is presented in its entirety on the new Disney Pixar Greatest, a compilation of nine songs and 16 orchestral pieces. Pixar genius, and my personal hero, John Lasseter writes the liner-note intro, saying, “Music can help bring out the underlying emotion of a scene.” He’s right, of course, but more than that, Pixar’s music — some of cinema’s best in the past 14 years — humanizes and makes visceral digital ’toons created on emotionless machines.

Thomas Newman, Randy’s cousin, has scored two Pixar movies, and both of his soundtracks — Finding Nemo and WALL*E — are masterworks of minimalism, each one slyly evoking its movie’s theme: the soothing undulations of the big blue sea, the starry weightlessness of space. I have both on my iPod, and routinely use them to (1) chill out and (2) chase the crud from a bad day.

Michael Giacchino is the third composer in the Pixar bullpen, and his score for Up is an appropriately buoyant homage to the flying music of both John Williams and the Sherman Brothers, Uncle Walt’s songwriters for Mary Poppins, Jungle Book and so on. By slyly referencing Disney movies of old, Giacchino reminds adult viewers (subconsciously and otherwise) of when we were young, thus making Up, a movie about the brutal passage of time, even more heart-breaking.

Speaking of sobbing like a giant ninny: The first half of Disney Pixar Greatest is made up of vocal tracks, and Sarah McLachlan’s When She Loved Me, from Toy Story 2, is just waiting to tear your heart out — again. Also devastating is James Taylor’s Cars weeper Our Town, about the dissolution of a once-gleaming burg. Randy Newman wrote both of the above songs, and I blame him for my snozzling loudly into movie-theater napkins. The best Pixar music never settles for bouncy and fun — it often longs to move you to tears, as well.

I’m obviously a big drooling fanboy, but I’ll admit that Disney Pixar Greatest isn’t perfect: Rascal Flatts’ cover of Life Is a Highway is a stinkeroo. Giacchino’s Ratatouille Francophilia is tedious. And I never liked Peter Gabriel’s cloying Down to Earth from WALL*E. Plus there are glaring omissions: Where’s Strange Things from Toy Story? Or Robbie Williams cheeky take on Beyond the Sea from Nemo? It also would have been cool to have the Randy Newman-Lyle Lovett duet of You’ve Got a Friend in Me.

Still, there’s a reason Pixar songs and scores have been nominated for, and won, scads of Grammys and Oscars. The music is rousing, multifaceted, seductive. Kudos for including Randy Newman’s The Cleaner from Toy Story 2, which plays when that gentle old man puts poor Woody back together again. The music borrows from the elfin whimsy of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. Crossing continents and generations, Giacchino’s Incredibles score swings with ’60s jazzbo velocity and cop-show swagger. Both are smart, vibrant lessons in history — Pixar’s, popular music’s and ours.

Review: Animal Collective at the State Theatre, St. Pete

The sunshine dreams of Brian Wilson as remixed by Pablo Picasso. Or maybe: the Mormon Tabernacle Choir directed by the HAL 9000. Or how about this one: ringing Vegas slot machines as programmed by Timothy Leary. Yeah, that might do it.

You could spend great chunks of time, and a whole lotta drugs, trying to describe the deconstructed pop puzzles of Animal Collective, the Baltimore-based sound artists that have become the It Indie Band of 2009. They are restless, roving spirits -- definitely not radio ready. And yet they are hugely popular, hugely beloved, especially by the 705 fans at a sold-out and sparkling State Theatre on Monday.

Animal Collective -- sampler and sequencer Brian "Geologist" Weitz, singer/guitarist/spaz David "Avey Tare" Portner and singer/beatmaker Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox (pictured) -- is touring behind its eighth album, the newish Merriweather Post Pavilion, a titular nod to the Frank Gehry-designed concert venue in the planned prefab community of Columbia, Md. It's a brilliant concept album: an examination of suburban responsibility (the musicians are husbands, fathers) through fractured, but ultimately harmonious, pieces.

These guys make Radiohead look as grounded as the Stones, and yet in many ways, the good-natured AC is more accessible than Thom Yorke's mercurial crew. They blend the natural (guitar licks, real banging drums, angelic harmonies, quasi-yodeling) with blinking, bleeping electronic equipment that looks swiped from the the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. The ACers are also incurable romantics -- you just need to know where to listen.

Review: The Black Eyed Peas' new album "The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)"

The Black Eyed Peas
Album: The E.N.D. (Interscope)
In stores: Tuesday, June 9 
Why we care: The Black Eyed Peas have as much use for subtlety as fierce floozy Fergie has for pants. The quartet deals in oomphy, obvious, below-the-belt gestures — look no further than Boom Boom Pow, the biggest pop hit of the year, for a taste of what else is on The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies). Ringleader/beatmaker Will.i.am has no qualms (aka shame) biting iconic hooks for his own rumpy, midnight means, this includes swiping the juice from dance-floor classic It Takes Two by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock.
Why we like it: Fergie, who's even bigger as a solo star, and Will get all the loud parts, with Taboo and Apl.de.ap filling in the cracks. The vibe is buzzing synth, laser strikes, robo-beats -- buck-naked Buck Rogers. Zero calories, but good drunk food.
Reminds us of: The future...circa 1988
Download this: I Gotta Feeling
Grade: C+

A Wild 'n' Foggy Mountain Breakdown: Steve Martin's new banjo album 'The Crow'

Steve Martin
Album: The Crow (Rounder)
In stores: Now
Why we care: “This is the most expensive banjo album in the history of the universe, and that includes possible alternative universes, too.” Yes, it’s that Steve Martin, and yes this is a serious, star-studded undertaking. The day-job comedian has been playing the banjo (and playing it well) for 45 years, and for a vanity project, it's altogether winning. The bluegrass is straight-faced, the clawhammer is frenzied, yet there’s great yuks, too. From the droll, entertaining liner notes to the joyous kids’ cut Late for School (go to the 1:43 mark on the video above -- it's the only cut he sings on), the Other Steve is always lurking.
Why we like it: Lord of the banjo Earl Scruggs shows up to get down. Vince Gill and Dolly Parton duet on heartbreaker Pretty Flowers, which Martin performed on an admittedly odd, awkward American Idol spot. (It didn't help that he was saddled with Megan Joy and "Big Oil" Michael Sarver as vocalists.) Although it probably wasn't intended for young'uns, The Crow makes a great children's album, too.
Reminds us of: Wild ’n’ Foggy Mountain Breakdown (or maybe My Bluegrass Heaven)
Download this: Late for School
Grade: A