 |
Welcome To FamousJames.com - Home Of The King Of 80s Metal |
Sometimes Updated Daily! Bookmark so you don't miss a thing! |
|
Main Menu
News & Fun
Bill's Best
Approved Bands
AC/DC
Lists & Boards
80s Rock/Metal
Venues & Tickets
Arco Arena
|
March 28 - Tesla-fy, Brother James! But I finally accomplished a goal I've had for years:  This was the album that completely changed my life when I was but a young boy in a small town... Of course, I had to wait until I was an ugly oaf in a crappy apartment in a big city to finally get it signed, but at least I can check off one more item from my "Nerdy Things To Do Before Yet Another Recording Medium Becomes Obsolete" list. And that record continues to find it's way into my life quite frequently... You know, I really envy people who never feel the need to do the things I do, all in the name of rock n roll... I'd tell you more about it, but I've got to find a Sharpie, go through the rest of the cd collection, and grab a few liner notes from every other Northern California band to ever release an album. You never know who else'll be there... March 27 - Pigeon Update Anyhow, last night before I went to bed at around 1am, I looked out my window and saw Mama Pigeon still at work atop my fire extinguisher box. When I got my paper this morning around 7, the space was empty. The nest was gone, the little sticks that made it up were scattered all over the place, the birds were gone, and the egg was splattered everywhere. Some asshole completely destroyed the nest and killed the baby. Not cool at all. Even if pigeons are just rats with wings. March 24 - Fan Mail!
You all know what this means, right? First, I'm gonna have to plug more sites run by hot chicks. Eventually, they find out about me. Second, now I'm gonna have to go and update the Fan Mail page. More work... Thanks a lot, Gail... Anyhow, go check out Worleygig.com and see that it's perfectly ok to like a little 80s metal now and then even if you're a respected critic. March 23 - Idiot + Photoshop (5 Minutes + Sick Sense Of Humor) =  Actually, I shouldn't pick on those folks too much... This website's spiritual leader, the always-cool Staci Anderson, helps run the show over there. Speaking of shows Staci runs, rumor has it that a certain radio program beloved by Northern California is being considered for an encore run. If you'd like to hear some hard rock on the radio once in a while (and if you're visiting this website, chances are that you would, unless you submitted a google search for midget porn and landed here accidentally) drop a quick support email to Staci and let her know that you're in too. I'm sure that all positive emails will be forwarded to upper management to have her show reconsidered, and hope that negative ones will be forwarded to me so I can post them here and make fun of them. You win either way! Now go out and help spread The Rash! March 22 - In Mourning Y'know, it was bad enough living through that shit in the early 90s. Damned if I'm gonna put up with it again. It pisses me off that no company wants to have anything to do with hard rock anymore - for cryin' out loud, when Yngwie Malmsteen sells out at a local club with virtually no press, when Tesla gets a spot on the Billboard charts, and when Tracii Guns and Nikki Sixx can appear on the Tonight Show and play a hard rock song ALL IN THE SAME MONTH, it should be obvious that there's a market for it. Just because Def Leppard will never get a song in the opening montage of Gilmore Girls doesn't mean that they aren't marketable anymore. And to top it all off, my cat peed all over a box of old tapes I had in the back of the closet. Rock n roll gets no respect... March 21 - Life Happens. So I figure the garbage can wait another 6 weeks or so. Last thing I need is a guilty conscience about scaring a pigeon away from her nesting duties and killing an unborn baby bird, even if I do consider pigeons to essentially be rats with wings. March 17 - About time! To those of you who've already picked up a copy, you've done a good thing. First week sales were a little over 30,000, and that should put them in the top 40 for Billboard's album chart. Not too shabby for a band that had any kind of success in the 80s, especially when they're on a pretty small label (compared to their former label, that is). Although I'll try to sum up how each song strikes me, I've gotta be honest - this isn't really a collection of singles. It's an ALBUM - meaning, you're supposed to get an impression out of the collective work, and not just from each 4 minutes or so of time that I'm gonna talk about here. Anyhow, as promised, here's my reaction to the cd, track-by-track: Into the Now - Strong song. Starts off with a clean, mellow introduction. But just
a few seconds in, you realize that it isn't "The Great Radio Controversy". For much of the album, songs are punctuated
with more percussive guitar riffs and laser-point notes - not the freeform guitar style of the earlier songs. This song
also has a bridge that features an almost-medley of modern style - even a faux-dj scratch. Of course, that's really
just Frank running his hands across the strings, so don't worry about a sell-out... Anyhow, the cd starts off strong
and heavy.
All in all, this is a masterpiece. Though I miss the freeform style guitar work from the days of "Cumin Atcha Live" and "Edison's Medicine", the songwriting is top notch and the production is stellar. Furthermore, Tesla's set out to prove that not only can they compete with modern bands, but they can beat them at their own game while still remaining true to what they've accomplished over their career. I'm convinced. March 9 - Highest Of Holy Days Make sure you stop by your favorite record store sometime today and pick it up. It should be pretty easy to find. If you live in a podunk town without a decent record store, buy it from Amazon. All FJ.com readers need to go out and get this cd - I put every bit of credibility I have as a hard rock fan and collector that you will greatly enjoy this album. It really is a masterpiece, and holds true to the Tesla sound while incorporating elements of modern rock as well. But rather than sounding like a contrived attempt to switch musical gears (Metallica, anyone?) it conveys stylistic change as part of a process, rather than a result. Translation - it sounds like it could go over on the radio between the Nickelbacks and Linkin Parks of the world, but doesn't even come close to sounding like a sellout. It still sounds like Tesla, with guitar solos, songwriting, and actual *singing*. And no, I'm not on their street team or anything like that. All endorsements here are of my own free will, for no gains, commercial or otherwise. Hell, no one from the Tesla camp even reads this website. So my recommendation is sincere - if you liked Tesla back in the day, you will not be disappointed. If you like good American hard rock and are sick to death of half-assed bands whining about their miserable lives, this is your cd. Song by song analysis tomorrow! March 7 - Why Dr. Atkins was rich, and I'm not. But being full doesn't mean your body's getting fed. Same with those ridiculous "all carbohydrates are the enemy" diets. Nothing but another attempt to pawn off personal accountability by making the root cause of America's weight problem the fault of a bread-making straw man. Telling the world that dropping an entire food group from your diet will cure your problems is at best totally incompetent, and at worst, encouraging people to kill themselves by thinking that gorging on fat every day is ok. Now normally, I'm just fine with the thought of more and more people heading up to that giant high-protein feast in the sky and leaving the good parking places for me, but let's get real for just a minute here... You wanna get in better shape? Don't uproot your diet - fine tune your lifestyle. Expecting to go the rest of your life without ever eating another piece of pizza is stupid and completely unrealistic. But getting out and getting some exercise once in a while will help make up for those little splurges and is far easier. Maybe eating some actual vegetables once in a while might help, too. Once you start exercising more regularly, your body will start to crave them - you need the nutrients in a balanced diet to perform at your best. Introduce them slowly - start by just throwing a few pieces of raw broccoli onto a salad. Pretty soon, you'll hardly notice when you're eating entire salads with spinach leaves instead of iceberg lettuce. So now we're stuck with another fad because it's easier to put the blame on something else, and once again prove that people in general can't figure it out for themselves - everything in moderation. Including waffles. March 6 - Today's Observation But on the good side, interest rates are still low enough to pull off a credible refinance. March 1 - Aloha! Not much else to report, site wise. There'll be a new banner and some graphics, a full review of the new Tesla cd posted soon (just in time for you to be excited when you go out and get it... not that I'm biased or anything...), and a long-overdue update to at least one feature column. Which one? Stick around and see. But one thing's for sure: It won't be worth the wait. |
Features
Frequent Visits
Big Dark Cloud
|
First things first - today is the day that 
