Attention Deficit Delirium

View from the ground floor of the Hard Rock Cafe in NYC on Grammy night, January 31, 2010. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

One of the perks of being a voting member of the Recording Academy is that I can attend special seminars and screenings, go to Q&As with major industry talent, get discounts to conventions and be part of the annual members viewing party for the Grammys in NYC. For 2010, the Recording Academy held a free event with food and drink at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square that was packed to the gills with members and governors. It was fun to watch the event on a giant video projection screen with a big sound system to outdo my big screen TV. WPLJ DJ Christine Richie hosted and gave away prizes.

As for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards show itself, there were plenty of flashy numbers (particularly Pink’s impressive suspension act), surprise pairings and one-liners from host Stephen Colbert to keep people watching, and it was entertaining to witness the entire crowd in the Hard Rock singing along to “Livin’ On A Prayer”. Then again, we were in the NY/NJ area. But I have a complaint: While I applaud the musical diversity (especially non-pop) that the Recording Academy embraces, from blues to jazz to classical, I wish there had been more rock ‘n’ roll in the show. While Jeff Beck’s tribute to the late Les Paul was warm and heartfelt, the rest of the night was mostly powered by pop, and a lot of it bland. Bon Jovi doesn’t really count as hard rock anymore, and their choices were pretty safe. I’m not even sure that the unorthodox pairing of Jamie Foxx and Slash made a difference in the edginess department.

Slash and Jamie Foxx rock the house. Sort of. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

As a lifelong fan of metal and hard rock, I’m disappointed at how few true rock performances there have been over the past few years, and how the awards for those two aforementioned categories don’t even get mentioned during the telecast anymore. I also find it funny how groups like the Black-Eyed Peas can have a dance troupe outfitted in the most ridiculous costumes, yet many people would probably mock equally (or even less) cheesy metal attire.

Last year Kid Rock and Paul McCartney with Dave Grohl took the stage in the rock department, but admittedly the songs were crowd pleasers. It was cooler when the Foo Fighters jammed with Chick Corea a few years ago because it felt more improvised. And even if you’re not a fan of either group, Linkin Park and Nickelback sell oodles of albums and accounted for some of the biggest sellers of the ’00s. What, are they too big to play? And hey, AC/DC and Judas Priest won their first Grammys ever this year, and AC/DC’s last album Black Ice sold 2 million copies in America alone.

I say let’s bring back the rock next year. As a lark, someone I know suggested that GWAR play to stir things up. An interesting thought. I think it would be awesome to see Muse shake the Grammy rafters.

The Hard Rock marquis on Grammy night. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

Inside the party on the upper level. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

WPLJ DJ Christine Richie chats up the crowd and gives away cool goodies, like $100 Master Card gift certificates and a new iPhone. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

Christine Richie during one of the commercial breaks. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

Only the lucky ones, get to dine at the show. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

Stealing a moment alone on the red carpet. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

Monitoring the mix while host Stephen Colbert gives thanks for his award for Best Comedy Album. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

Paul McCartney's bass because, well, it's Paul McCartney's bass. (Photo ©2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

I have been writing liner notes for Sony Music for seven years. My first project was their reissue of Who Made Who, one of AC/DC’s biggest selling albums in America, followed by the four-disc Judas Priest box set Metalogy. What a way to inaugurate a long-standing relationship — documenting the music of two bands I grew up listening to, with Priest being my all-time favorite. Over the years I have worked on many different Sony projects, and I have recently been contributing to their Playlist series, which is billed as offering the very best songs from each artist’s career. My first three Playlist credits were Judas Priest, Fuel and Toto.

Within the last 15 months I was asked to write notes for Playlist retrospectives of guitar shredder Joe Satriani, thrash crossover kings Suicidal Tendencies and upbeat, genre-fusing rockers 311. I expected them to be released at separate times, but when I received a package last week with copies of all three collections enclosed, I learned that they were all arriving in stores on Tuesday, January 26th! That was a nice surprise. The Playlist series is doing well for Sony. They’re smartly priced ($7.98), colorfully packaged and eco-friendly (in slim, recycled paperboard sleeves) and offer liner notes and photos on the enhanced portion of the disc.

The biggest challenge in assembling my essays for any of these projects is encapsulating an artist’s career in a succinct and lively way. In our ADD world you have to draw people in quickly, and I relish the challenge. I hope that these career-spanning discs will act as a springboard for new or casual listeners to dive deeper into each artist’s repertoire. They’re certainly a good place to start.

To peruse my complete discography, check out my Liner Notes page. To purchase any of my Sony-related work, look through the Amazon box below.



Age Of Evil frontman Jeremy Goldberg commands center stage.

It’s a little surreal to be sitting across from two musicians who are half my age and play energetic classic metal as if it never went out of style. But they do, and that’s what their band Age Of Evil thrives upon. They’re the new school of old school metal, a bombastic quartet that revels in slightly thrashy, somewhat dark and melodic heavy rock for fans from their generation. Frontman/rhythm guitarist Jeremy Goldberg (age 19) and lead guitarist Jordan Ziff (18) certainly have reverence for their genre and for classic rock in general, and during our interview over dinner they toss around influences as wide-spanning as Jimmy Page, Warren DeMartini, Nuno Bettencourt and George Harrison. Not only do they honor the greats, but they embrace diversity, having been weaned on a variety of rock influences throughout their childhoods.

Part of the key to their power is their chemistry. The Arizona-based Age Of Evil is comprised of two sets of brothers — bassist Jacob Goldberg and drummer Garrett Ziff round out the highly proficient group — who have pretty much known each other since they could walk. Get Dead is their new, six-song follow-up to their full-length debut Living A Sick Dream, which featured a guest appearance by shredding legend Marty Friedman. The recently released Get Dead features two new songs, two live tracks and lively covers of Skid Row’s “Slave To The Grind” and Judas Priest’s “The Hellion/Electric Eye”. And it proves that the members of AOE are primed and ready for a bigger career. For those in the New York and Boston areas, the group will be opening shows for all-star metal band HAIL! on January 26th (B.B. King’s) and 27th (Showcase Live).


Obviously this style of music was around before you were born, so I’m curious as to why it resonates with you today?
Jordan: To me that was the most badass era, the ’80s. They’re gone now so I like to kind of put myself in that world, that I do live in the ’80s. There are so many death metal bands out nowadays, and we didn’t want to be a part of that at all.
Jeremy: The genre of metal rock is so timeless that whether we had come out now or 30 years from now we’d still be playing the same music.

Old school look, old school fisheye lens.

Metal has experienced a resurgence in recent years. I guess it’s not considered old hat anymore by many of your peers?
Jordan: A couple of them. We mostly hang out with metal kids, but obviously most kids my age listen to hip-hop and rap and all that bullshit. It’s in our blood to do this. You can’t ask why we think it’s cool. It is because that’s what we do.

Why did you guys choose to cover Judas Priest’s “Electric Eye” and Skid Row’s “Slave To The Grind”?
Jordan: There was no particular reason. We just thought that we play them really badass, and they sounded cool.

What about those songs did you identify with?
Jeremy: It’s all about the energy and attitude for us. With the Skid Row song, Garrett thought about doing that song when we were in the studio, so it was kind of an on-the-spot thing. Right when he suggested that song we knew that it was fast-paced and that we could make it really cool. And the Priest song we originally chose because we were playing in London with Girlschool, and we wanted to play a song that the fans there would appreciate because they wouldn’t necessarily know us that well or know us at all. We wanted to connect with them in that way, and it was really cool when we played it live — a good energy and a good vibe. So we knew that that was a song that we wanted to record. It’s a classic Judas Priest song that shows what we listen to and what we like. I think our tone makes the song heavier and a little more fresh for today.

How long have you guys been playing guitar?
Jordan: I’ve been playing guitar for 10 or 11 years.
Jeremy: And I started when I was 12. I’ve probably been playing for about six or seven years. Jordan does all the leads. We play dual harmonies together, which has become part of our sound, but I’m rhythm and Jordan’s lead.

Marty Friedman played on a song on your debut. How did that come about?
Jeremy: Marty became involved through our producer, John Herrera, and he basically sent the track to Marty in Japan saying, “I’ve got this band here. If you like them, let me know, and maybe we can work something out.” So Marty loved the song and wanted to play on it. He sent the tracks back to us from Japan, and it just made the song. It just finished it. Another guy that we worked with on the album was Tom Gattis from Deuce and Ballistic, and his first band was with Marty also. It was kind of cool. Small world, I guess.

Lead guitarist Jordan Ziff: "I like to kind of put myself in that world, that I do live in the '80s." (Photo credit: Shelley Jambresic.)

Do you think that videogames like Guitar Hero are inspiring kids to go out and learn to play or are they just having fun mimicking people?
Jordan: Both. Some people have fun mimicking and some people are inspired to go play guitar, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be good. This one chick came over to my house with her son, and she said, “Oh, my son can play Guitar Hero on expert, so I think he would be a really good candidate to take guitar lessons from you.” And I’m sitting there, really offended. I’m shocked that she’d say that. Then she asked me how much I’d charge, and I told her I charged more than I normally do because I was kind of pissed off by what she said.

You actually teach guitar?
Jordan: Sometimes, yeah.
Jeremy: I actually think kids will start writing songs in the key of blue one day. [laughter]
Jordan: Green sharp minor.
Jeremy: People practically record music today on the computer as it is with Pro Tools and all that stuff, which we do not do whatsoever. So many people program drums or punch in and punch out guitars, and our CD was pretty much recorded [live]. On the Skid Row song, Garrett [on drums], that was his first take. He played all the way through, and we were like, “You’re done.” Then guitar we played all the way through in one take. That’s it.
Jordan: We weren’t even planning on recording it because it was our day off, and we were stoned and drunk. The producer goes, “You guys want to track this today?” And we were like, “Yeah.” What you’re hearing is unsober Age Of Evil.
Jeremy: I was sitting in front of the mic with the lyrics on my iPhone because I pulled them up on the Internet. I was having to sing the lyrics while looking at them for the first time. It was really on the spot, just do it, basically not even learning it. And the vocals were only a couple of takes.

Young rockers who have a legit reason to throw the horns. (Photo © 2009 by Bryan Reesman.)

My old bandmate had a friend who didn’t really play drums very well, but he could play decently when he was stoned.
Jordan: If you only practice drums when you’re stoned then you’re going to play better when you’re stoned. It’s like when people say that if you study for a test [when you're] high, it’s better to take the test when you’re high because you’ll remember it.

How much are young bands partying today?
Jeremy: I actually can’t tell because a lot of people take pills, so I don’t know. You can just pop a pill and be wasted.
Jordan: That’s what kids are doing nowadays.

So not a lot of craziness?
Jeremy: It is craziness, but you don’t necessarily see it happening. It’s really weird.
Jordan: At school, man, kids are fucked up all the time.
Jeremy: It’s hard to trace sometimes because you can take a lot of Advil or Tylenol or cough medicine, and then you’re wasted.

Why do you think that so many kids are on drugs now?
Jordan: Because they’re gay.
Jeremy: And they’re lazy. I actually think there’s a lot of social pressure.

To do drugs?
Jeremy: No, a lot of social pressure which makes kids take drugs. You have to look this way, you have to act this way, and if you’re part of the norm then…
Jordan: All the rappers are singing about that shit, and kids are like, “Oh, so it’s cool?” Everyone is so stupid, and they always follow blindly just what they see on TV or what they hear. Like idiots. The problem is that there are so many prescription drugs that kids are like, “Well, I can’t find any weed tonight, so I’m just going to go into my parents’ drug cabinet and get fucked up that way.” That’s just how it is.

Which bands have you toured with and which festivals have you played?
Jeremy: Bang Your Head [in 2007] was the first festival that we ever played. That was the show that opened the door for us. This past summer we toured with Jon Oliva’s Pain, and that was really cool. Then we played a show with Tesla in Switzerland, which was probably my favorite show of the tour. We also played with Soulfly and on some other festivals with bands like W.A.S.P., who are friends of ours, and Arch Enemy.
Jordan: [We played] the Metal Dayz Festival in Switzerland this past summer, and it was totally death metal.
Jeremy: Us and Jon were the only bands who sang, so we were probably the most well-liked, even though it was a death metal crowd. People were into it because all of the bands there sounded the same, so we were a breath of fresh air for those people.

The state of mane, 2010.

How do people react when they see a band as young as you getting up on stage and doing this?
Jeremy: It’s always positive.
Jordan: It’s always really good. They are really happy that people are relighting the torch for metal because a lot of the old bands are just burnt out, dude, and someone who needs to come in and take over.
Jeremy: What happens when Maiden and Priest and Ozzy can’t play anymore? That’s a question I ask myself all the time. What happens to the genre?
Jordan [laughs]: We have to take over.

Obviously it’s a lot harder to sell albums these days. How are you going to market this EP, especially given that the whole industry is in a state of flux right now?
Jeremy: I don’t think we are worrying too much about the industry. It’s just about getting our name out there, laying the foundation and then building a career from there. There’s always things you can do. Me and the rest the guys have tons of ideas for ways to generate income, but touring and more touring is going to be the big thing for us. And video games and movies and stuff like that. We write our songs to be played live, and if they can’t be played live then we don’t record them. Again, the touring thing is going to be big for us.

What do you think fans would be surprised to learn about you?
Jeremy: Even though we’re a metal band, we have a lot of influences from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, and bands you might not think of when you think of metal bands. I think people will start hearing that being incorporated into our music more and more. I like Boston and Foreigner and Muse, who are amazing. We usually go where the melody and the great guitar singers and players are. I love Aerosmith, David Lee Roth, Van Halen, Guns ‘N’ Roses and all these bands, and while I think this CD is really metal, people will start hearing more of that other stuff come out in our new music. We also really like Extreme, and I wish a lot of kids our age knew more about bands like that with amazing guitar players and groove and originality. Extreme is so original to me, especially putting trumpets and funk into the music on Pornograffitti. It’s really cool. In our new music there is a groove to each song. I think that a lot of bands today think the heaviest thing to do is to scream and have blastbeats and play as fast as they can and drop low guitars, but the heaviest thing to me is the groove, especially [with] bands like Pantera. That groove to me is the heaviest thing you can do.

Could you imagine this band without this frontman?

In the late Robert Altman’s satirical film The Player, Hollywood executive Larry Levy proposes that his studio can save money on hiring writers by developing scripts themselves, tearing ideas right from front page newspaper headlines. To which the film’s anti-hero, fellow executive and competitor Griffin Mill, retorts: “I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we’ve got something here.”

That same wisecrack can now be applied to lead singers — after all, who needs someone with a famous face to deliver the words? With the near departure of vocalist Steven Tyler from Aerosmith on the eve of their 40th anniversary, his bandmates immediately began contemplating who might take his place. That seemed like a rather hasty move, but then again this is a group that is in middle age and would not have years to wait for their frontman to decide to return. And these days famed rock gods, particularly vocalists, are becoming more replaceable than ever, something rarely heard of twenty or more years ago.

Replacing famous singers is not without precedent. When Bon Scott died, AC/DC brought in an equally distinct but different screecher in Brian Johnson, and they became huge. That’s a rare exception, but there are others. After Peter Gabriel departed Genesis, the British art-rockers soldiered on with drummer Phil Collins as frontman (so to speak), but he did make them more commercially viable and generated bigger hits. (For true progressive music fans, though, that was heresy.) Sammy Hagar’s turn in Van Halen allowed them to go more pop as well (not that everyone liked that). Hagar was also a star in his right when he joined VH, but lightning did not strike twice for them after he left their ranks. Remember the Gary Cherone era? Further, Ronnie James Dio kept Black Sabbath successful for two albums (and subsequent reunions) after they fired Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, and their music remained as hard and heavy as ever, even today under their new moniker Heaven & Hell. Dio also gained fame previously fronting Rainbow.

Van Halen reunited with Sammy Hagar in 2004.

My friend Eric Vitoulis went to see Journey three years ago at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island. Prior to the show it was announced that former Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Jeff Scott Soto would be filling in for Steve Augieri, who was having vocal problems that soon lead to his departure after eight years with the group. A woman in front of Eric turned to her friend and said, “Steve Perry’s not here?” (Not since 1996, my dear.) That ironic statement is proof that many fairweather fans — i.e. the casual listeners who turn musicians  into platinum hit machines — do not really pay all that much attention to the lives of the artists they listen to. It’s what I call the “Rock Of Ages syndrome”. The opening night crowd for that Broadway hit were true ’80s fanatics, right down to their attire, while a subsequent audience months later was mainly comprised of suburbanites, many of whom clearly do not often listen to the songs that were performed nor always remember who performed what. But they love the nostalgia and kitsch factors that Rock Of Ages represents.

Alice In Chains with new frontman William DuVall (at right).

There are many Journey fans who would vehemently argue that no one could fill Steve Perry’s legendary shoes. Yet three vocalists have since, and the latest one, Filipino native Arnel Pineda, has helped boost their careers once again, both in terms of album and concert ticket sales. Journey are admittedly an anomaly, a beloved institution who do not seem to get sidelined for long due to limited warranties on replacment singers, two of whom have purposely sounded very close to Perry. Conversely, when revered metal bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Ratt and Black Sabbath replaced famous frontmen who left — in Sabbath’s case there were two — fans did not respond as well. They were still there but in diminished numbers. More commercial bands like Foreigner, Styx and others seem to be able to pull this off a little better. Queen certainly made it be known that they were not attempting to diminish or tarnish the legacy of the late Freddie Mercury by bringing in former Bad Company and Free singer Paul Rodgers, and fans responded favorably. They also performed songs by Rodgers’ previous groups to hammer home their point that they were Queen + Paul Rodgers, rather than with. Similarly, ’90s rockers Alice In Chains have soldiered on with William DuVall as original frontman Layne Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002. Like Journey did last year with their platinum Revelation, AIC’s latest album Black Gives Way To Blue hit #5 on the Billboard charts.

Could anyone truly replace Steven Tyler in Aerosmith? Of course not. When guitarist Joe Perry was gone from the band between 1979 and 1984, the group experienced a dip in popularity. Imagine what would happen with a Tyler-less line-up? Plus he has always been the singer. Groups that have experienced downtime between singers often were going through a quiet phase (the ’90s comes to mind for many) and were a little younger when it happened and thus have been able to cope with such a transition better. A decade after the departure of original frontman and songwriter Dennis DeYoung, Styx has persevered with vocalist Lawrence Gowan. Guitarist Mick Jones has been the lone original member of Foreigner since singer Lou Gramm departed in 2003, and they had been the two lone original members for years prior. And Perry hasn’t been in Journey since 1996, nor performed live with them since 1987. (And who knows when he’ll reemerge publicly.)

Styx ten years after with frontman Lawrence Gowan (at bottom center).

We should not begrudge a group that wishes to continue once a famous member, usually the frontman, departs. This is their livelihood. They deserve to make a living. And there are people who still want to hear the music, regardless of who sings it, as long as they’re good. The irony that the aforementioned Journey follower did not even know who she would be listening to onstage may be ironic — some casual KISS fans probably do not know that Ace Frehley and Peter Criss are long gone — but the upside of this situation shows how some fans really just want to hear the music. Purists will certainly argue that point and are certainly free not to attend the shows or buy the new albums. In terms of replacing iconic singers, the cliché business concept “what the market will bear” comes to mind — even if some people think the results are unbearable.