Tag: Steve Perry

Jul192013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
GFS Record Club: Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – White Teeth, Black Thoughts

GFS Record Club: Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – White Teeth, Black Thoughts

Music
I largely stopped doing music reviews on this site for two reasons -- one, I find that the process of reviewing an album takes a lot of the joy out of just listening to it, and reviewing music doesn't quite fit in with the shifting focus of this site. I make an exception for that today because I got a wonderful surprise and I want to share it with you. You may remember the heady days of the late '90s Swing Revival, when mainstream music became fun once again (even if just for a few years). You may also remember one of the acts from that revival that rose to prominence during the time -- Eugene, Oregon's own Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Their 1997 album Zoot Suit Riot was not only a surprise hit that year, but became one of my favorite releases of the genre. The Daddies strayed from th
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Feb182013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Album Cover of the Week: Journey, Look into the Future

Album Cover of the Week: Journey, Look into the Future

Album Cover of the Week, Music
Once upon a time, there was a Journey that was not massively successful. I speak of course about the band's first three albums -- which were certainly harder and more progressive than later material, but were nonetheless not very popular. So for this entry let's look at one of those three albums, and the one with the weirdest cover -- 1976's Look into the Future. So it looks like we've got a little bit of an MC Escher thing going on here, but less complex. It does fit with the vibe of Look into the Future, however, which is definitely more progressive and jazzy than the band would become after Steve Perry joined. Journey, which was a five-piece outfit for their first album, lost rhythm guitarist George Tickner and was reduced to a quartet. The four band members, shown here as
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Jul262011 by GFS Staff2 Comments
30 for 30 — Our Favorite MTV Music Videos of All-Time

30 for 30 — Our Favorite MTV Music Videos of All-Time

Featured Posts, Music, TV & Radio
It seems like forever since watching videos on MTV was a regular part of our lives, but once upon a time it was. We could go on and on about how the station -- which turns 30 on August 1 -- turned to crap years ago for one reason or another, or about how the "M" in MTV seems to stand for Mook now, but let's not go there. Let's make this post a happy remembrance, one in which we celebrate what was rather than lament what isn't. So in that spirit of celebration, here is a list of our 30 favorite music videos of the MTV era (which kicked off on August 1, 1981). Not the best videos, necessarily, but the ones that had the most impact on us. Oh, and for you ranking junkies -- sorry, this is strictly in alphabetical order. 1. Daft Punk, "Around the World" In college we had a primitiv...
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Jun172011 by Chris Holmes1 Comment
Album review: Chicago — Live in ’75

Album review: Chicago — Live in ’75

Music
To read the Ben Edmonds-penned essay that accompanies Rhino Handmade's 2011 Chicago offering -- Live in '75 -- you'd get the impression that the two handsomely packaged discs contained therein contained a glimpse of the band at its apex. This is true to an extent, as Chicago was on a hot streak when they rolled into Maryland to play a series of shows in Largo's old Capital Centre. That tour -- which saw the group join forces with the Beach Boys -- marked the band's graduation to the Big Time, aka stadium and arena concerts. But artistically, the band was straying further and further from their jazz/rock roots and was on the precipice of Cetera Ballad Country. So in a sense, Live in '75 does offer diehard fans a service in that it presents Chicago as they were right before the bad times ...
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Aug152007 by Chris HolmesNo Comments
Extreme Makeover: Band Edition – Journey

Extreme Makeover: Band Edition – Journey

Music
The Problem: How does a band that has been around for more than 30 years and is more than 20 years past its commercial peak stay relevant? Well for Journey, it ain't easy. Life after Steve Perry has been rough for the group, which is currently without a lead singer. Except for the recent popular buzz generated by the use of "Don't Stop Believin'" in the series finale of The Sopranos, Journey's role is now limited playing old hits to a small core of devoted fans. The Solution: A makeover is just what this group needs to shed its image as washed-up corporate rockers! And that makeover starts with the name, because like it or not, "Journey" is primarily thrown around as an insult outside of fan circles. As in, "Man, after David Lee Roth left Van Halen they turned into Journey", "...
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