Bill Hicks

I have been a big fan of Bill Hicks since a friend introduced me to him a couple of years ago. I've not got round to watching American - The Bill Hicks story yet, which came out earlier this year but I did get my hands on Bill Hicks - The Essential Collection. I had my reservations about buying it as I know a lot of these re-releases, of what they deem to be an essential collection are just a re hash of things that had been on previous releases. This was partly true, as I had heard some of it on releases such as Salvation and Relentless, however, as I went through the cd there was more and more actual 'previously unreleased' material. Some of this was poorly recorded bootleg stuff taken from tours but it WAS new material. The mp3 download you get with the box set is also well worth a listen, in fact it's nearly worth buying the set if only for the downloads, which are a set of original recordings of songs entitled Lo-Fi Troubadour. 

George Grosz

I have been a big fan of George Grosz for ages and thought I'd put up some of his work. He's considered a Dada artist, other artists from this movement are: Max Ernst, Raoul Hausmann and Richard Hamilton. Coming by any prints of Grosz's stuff is nigh on impossible, so if anyone knows where I can get one, I'd be very grateful :)

Images courtesy of http://www.abcgallery.com/G/grosz/grosz4.JPG, http://farm1.static.flickr.com/26/89260532_3fbc38c077_o.jpg and http://321ignition.free.fr/img/art/pag_004/explo.jpg respectively.

Sandi Thom

I went down to Mr Kyps in Poole last night to see Sandi Thom. I first saw her as a support act for Joe Bonamassa (who also started out at Kyps) after she had just released her new album "Merchants and Thieves" and was pleasantly surprised, she didn't disappoint at the smaller venue. Quite a motley crew had assembled for the gig with age ranges from early teens to late fifties but all were equally getting into it. Luckily, her newest album has moved away from the "punk rocker with flowers in her hair" sound and is more blues based with a harmonica making an appearance on a fair few of the songs. The rest of the band were good, none really awe inspiring players; the lead guitarist had a few Stevie Ray Vaughan fiddly bits and the keyboardist had a few flourishes but it was the drummer that caught my attention as he bounced about a foot in the air in time with some of the beats, also the fact that he looked like Brian Johnson.
Well worth watching if she tours in your area if you're a fan of the blues.

Image courtesy of http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/resources/images/1334224/?type=display

Black Country Communion

 
There have been a few "super groups" of late such as Chickenfoot and Them Crooked Vultures, but I have to say I didn't rush out to buy either of the debut albums. However, I have found a new super group which has got me frothing at the mouth (I'm 90% sure this isn't rabies related) - Black Country Communion 
The members are: Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian
Glenn Hughes is very much a veteran of the rock scene, with stints in Trapeze, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath (amongst others), and an album with Toni Iommi (an all-time hero of mine). I read a recent interview with Hughes and he said that he has gone back to his 'funk' roots on this album, this mixed with Bonamassa's blues background promises to be a crackin mix. I'm also hoping that Jason Bonham brings his dad's energy and that Derek Sherinian brings the melodic rock of Dream Theater to the mix.
To me this all looks very promising, I'm just really hoping that this isn't another super group that never lives up to the hype.
The Album 'Black Country Communion" is out 21st September.

Image courtesy of classic-rock-and-more.blogspot.com

Fireworks

I recently saw this independent magazine (Fireworks) in WHSmith and later found out that this is the first issue that has been distributed throughout the whole of the UK although the magazine has been running for ten years. There is an issue every two months and its main focus is on rock and metal music. There are also in-depth reviews of new releases and gigs. I bought the magazine about three days ago and read it for a couple of hours and I've still got another 3/5th of it to go! I'm well aware that this isn't the best way of quantifying how much material is in there beacause I may be like a slug when it comes to reading but I assure you there's alot in the magazine. The vast majority of it is really well written and for any rock/metal fans I would give it a go. The free CD on this issue is also excellent, with tracks from up and coming artists such as Bronz, Wheels of Fire and Sister Sin. I generally don't hold very high expectations for samplers but all these songs really grow on you.  

Image courtesy of melodicrock.com

A crackin buy

This post may not mean much to many people but hey ho. I'm a bit of a nerd in many respects and today I got myself the complete Jeremy Brett Sherlock Homes collection on DVD, that is a big win! I can recommend this collection to anyone, but if for some crazy reason you don't feel like splashing the cash on such a splendid collection then they're on itv 3 loads.
I also thought it was brilliant on the back of the case where it said 2358 minutes approximately

Pearl Jam Bootlegs

 
I have been a huge fan of Pearl Jam for ages, but only within the last year did I become aware of their live bootlegs on their website! I had no idea how much material they'd covered, from All along the Watchtower to Baba O'Riley. I believe they started this in 2000 in order to beat the bootleggers at their own game by getting fans to upload songs onto napster, the band then turned some of these into albums. Obviously some songs/albums are better than others with some iffy numbers but due to plethora of excellent material on these bootlegs I think Eddie and Co. can be let off a couple. The first bootleg I got was Wembley Arena 29/05/2000 which is a brilliant recording and then two more from 2008, both of these also had great sound quality. The one thing about the bootlegs is that once you've heard a couple you're pretty much sorted and only die hard fans/nutters would get all of them.
Although the idea of a archive of bootlegs was genius and every Pearl Jam fan should get one!

Picture courtesy of sleevage.com