PiercingMetal Musings

Artist: Blondie
Title: “Parallel Lines” (20th Anniversary Edition)
Label: Capitol Records/EMI Music
Release Date: 6/24/2008
Genre: New Wave Rock
Rating: 4/5

Reviewed By: Ken Pierce (copyright 2008) for PiercingMetal Musings

It’s hard to believe that it has been 30 years since Blondie released “Parallel Lines”, an album that while it wasn’t the bands first, was one that definitely secured them a place in music history for the decades to follow. The main tune on the release as many well know is “Heart Of Glass” and this became a radio staple and has even been referred to as one of the best song’s ever written by Blender magazine. Of course growing up on your more conventional Hard Rock and Punk of the time, I preferred the album’s other offerings such as “One Way Or Another” and “Hanging On The Telephone” for they were more in line with the tempo and styles that I was finding myself into. “Sunday Girl” was another winner, and getting the chance to enjoy them on a new remastered edition of the album was fantastic. During their heyday, I always found myself enjoying some of the musical adventures that guitarist Chris Stein and the stunning Debbie Harry were up to, and I even remember that I used to try and slam out the drumming that Clem Burke used to do for the numbers I referenced earlier. The whole release includes an insightful liner notes booklet and there is commentary from Stein and Harry who explain their thoughts of the time on the album’s creation. If you are someone who still has an old musty vinyl sitting around, now is your chance to upgrade and hear these tunes with the memory of how important to you they once were, and probably still are. Congratulations on the anniversary, it’s great to realize that a New York band like your own had the staying power and that your music still sounds fresh when compared to the current scene.

DVD: “Picture This” (promo video), “Hanging On The Telephone” (promo video), “Heart Of Glass” (promo video), “Sunday Girl” (BBC TV “Top Of The Pops”) - previously unreleased.
*** The DVD delivers the band’s promotional videos for the songs and older fans will remember these films from the early days of MTV where they were all in constant rotation. There is also the bands appearance on the BBC program “Top Of The Pops” and that was an awesome inclusion since while a lot of footage like this exists, we so rarely get a chance to enjoy it. Lucky for us, Blondie decided to add their clip to the release.

Track Listing:  1. Hanging On The Telephone,  2. One Way Or Another,  3. Picture This,  4. Fade Away And Radiate,  5. Pretty Baby,  6. I Know But I Don’t Know,  7. 11:59,  8. Will Anything Happen?,  9. Sunday Girl,  10. Heart Of Glass,  11. I’m Gonna Love You Too,  12. Just Go Away,  13. Heart Of Glass - (7′ single version), 14. Sunday Girl - (French version),  15. Hanging On The Telephone (Nosebleed Handbag Remix), 16. Fade Away and Radiate (108 BPM Remix)

No dear readers we are not changing the way we do things so please don’t be alarmed by the title of this musings post. We have no intention of disappointing the PiercingLegions by shifting musical gears in such a dramatic fashion but the title is based on the events of the most recent evening of attempted Rocking and Rolling. It began very simply enough with the appearance of a band called Orange Sky who were set to play a club called The Annex this past Sunday. I had caught them perform once before when they were direct support for Yngwie Malmsteen back in late 2005 and with the group hailing from Trinidad and Tobago, they don’t exactly get around to these parts all that often. I liked what I saw that first time around and the band was playing most of their debut album “Upstairs” for that show. Since that time they have delivered “Dat Iz Voodoo” and while I had only recieved the CD a day or so before and hence not absorbed it yet, I did get to hear samples online that made me realize it was heavier than the previous effort. This was surely something that will appeal to those who enjoyed them in the first place and could also possibly generate additional interest in those who are just learning about them. We have provided a Widget for you to snare their albums should that interest you. So please have at it……

I got to the club’s vicinity about an hour before the showtime was to happen and there were already a lot of people outside milling about, but to be brutally honest this didn’t appear to be a Rock crowd at all and instead more along the lines of what one would see gathered together for a more urban event. I looked over and saw Nigel (the lead singer of Orange Sky) who actually remembered my face and name (always a good thing from a band one has written complimentary things about) and he informed me that they were going on in an hour but right now there was a Rap event going on and they were remaining outside. It didn’t seem like the security staff wanted the two events cross-mingled, but of that fact I am not 100% certain. Anyways, I exchanged pleasantries with the other dudes in the band and we put the CD on to get a better lock on it. It sounded good and Nigel made sure to point out the new material that would be played this evening. The Annex club is located down on the Lower East Side (Chinatown) near Delancy Street over on Orchard. Its a nice club and PiercingMetal.com had been to a party there once that found Joe Perry (from Aerosmith) performing. Look for that item under our Concerts somewhere should you like to read it. Anyway, while we are standing there two dudes start opening the doors of the bands van. Apparently they are cops and they are answering “complaints” from the neighbors. Now, to be honest the band and I were just idly standing and waiting to get inside to Rock and even the Rap guys hanging out where not doing much more than talking but the lawmen are the lawmen and just doing what they were told to do. They searched the van, the band and even me. Yeah, I got frisked for weapons if you can believe that and as you readers know, I am always armed (but it’s either with a camera or my PiercingZune and not much more). Anyway, our lovely lawmakers tell us they smell weed, but its not coming from the band at all, and instead it turned out to be one of the party goers hiding across the street. Probably the nature of the complaint now that I think about it. They find nothing at all among the musical folks and I and make there way down the street to address their next complaint I guess, and tell us they that they don’t want to come back and the very authoritative “it ends here”. To be honest none of us knew what they meant by that unless they meant leave (which was hard since we were only waiting to be allowed inside. Moments later one of those small trucks where you see them toss people in to take them away to the pokey drives down the block and I suggest to the group that we make our way inside no matter what the security guy outside wants us to do. Once inside the band and I found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a full on Rap & Hip Hop party and it was a bass loaded, singing and rhyming type of thing. Now we can move into the whole “PiercingRap” aspect of the musing

The Rap party was for a young lady named Mala Reignz who was somehow involved in the “Miss Rap Supreme” program which aired on MTV. I admit that I never watched it so was just taking what I heard to mind for reference in this piece. She was enjoying the release of her mix tape and presenting videos she had done for it on the screen up on the stage. There was an issue with the video so she turned it off and got up on the stage and said she was going to actually perform a number of the tracks and joining her would be a number of special guests. Since I was already armed with the PiercingCamera and was waiting for the band I decided to keep myself amused by taking some photos of Mala and her friends while they performed. I had to admit that I was definitely the odd man out in the place but figured if I looked and acted like a paparazzi that I would be fine. No issues encountered and I was able to safely mingle in one piece despite a bump here and there with the camera bag slung over my shoulder and to be honest the Rappers knew I was there and at times seemed to play up to the lens for me. By this time I had lost track of Orange Sky, but soon would find out that they were in the process of cancelling the performance. This party was at its zenith and people were grooving and drinking and dancing, so with the bar making some money I didn’t think that an ill-attended Rock show was even a concern of theirs.

Mala Reignz was joined by here Brother Elus at one point and also a gentleman by the name of Chino Boy. Chino had another dude singing with him, but I did not manage to catch his name. He did a few songs which sounded fine for the style of Rap that he was doing. Of course I am far from being the study of this genre and cannot effectively compare it to anything since I know less than nothing about it but felt its safe to say it was good if this is the kind of thing that gets you through the day. Mala came back up to sing and at one point called up a girlfriend to join her onstage to do the same, but her name escaped me also. There was a nice crowd there for her and everyone seemed to know about here and what she was up to. We’ve provided their MySpace pages should any readers musical preferences cross both lines between the Rocker and the Rapper.

Mala Reignz MySpace Page
Chino Moy MySpace Page

I also mentioned that I shot photos of the performance and was glad I did because this allowed me to see how I handle a completely different genre from the likes of what I am most used to. The Rap performer is a lot more casual during a set than one of the Extreme Metal bands that you feel are going to jump off stage and attack you. Of course I tend to prefer the latter since it keeps me on my toes. Linked below are the galleries for Mala Reignz and Chino Moy should you want to see how the PiercingMetal guy’s eye captures a Rapper in action. I know some of you are probably saying to yourselves “yes Ken can capably photograph bands like Poison and Rush, but can he photograph LL Cool J or Eminem?” LOL. To be honest I did find it educational in the photographer sense and now realize that I can shoot for magazines that cater to the genre if such action is ever required of me.

Mala Reignz Shotz
Chino Moy Shotz

As a member of the media who does what he can to bring the world at large information about talented people, I wanted to extend wishes of good luck to these performers as they adventure forward on their own quest for greatness.  Hip-Hop & Rap may never become my thing, but there is definitely a lot of people who love it and let’s hope that those fans get to hear what Mala and Chino are up to on their behalf.

By the way, Orange Sky did eventually cancel their gig and it was both unfortunate and good at the same time. Unfortunate because they should never have been booked on the night of such an event with no advance promotion for them to generate any interest outside of a handful of people and good for the exact same reason. Hoping you future Rock and Rollers are paying attention because there are some nights where this stuff is not exactly what you had hoped it would be and drama often awaits you in every single city you visit. Oh and yes before I forget to tell you this, we will not really be launching a “PiercingRap” anytime soon and that’s largely because there are enough people covering the genre effectively which allows me to keep my focus on the heavier side of things. That’s fine by me because in the end “PiercingMetal.com” sounds so much better…….

“Social Networking” - The term itself boils down to the ability to network oneself in a social manner, but the interesting thing about it in today’s society is that a lot of people are networking themselves via websites from behind the “safety” of their computer screens. Over the last few years there have been quite a few social networking websites popping up and while some of them offer a person a lot of cool things there are those that are a complete waste of time. As a website, PiercingMetal.com has its presence on several of the notable ones so those account holders could better be aware of what we are doing over on the web page. In addition to this, like most others in the world, the Editor himself (aka Me) has a few profiles on and around cyberspace to upgrade personal networking goals. However, before you begin reading too deeply into this little musing, let me begin by saying that this is by no means a gauge of one versus the other but instead a place where I can map out the existing other places online where we keep some manner of PiercingMetal.com presence.  We will of course give our opinions on them as we go along so try to stick with me.

PiercingMetal.com on…..
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/piercingmetal
- MySpace.com is without question the Big Kahuna of the Social Networking sites and at present has over 150 million accounts signed up for it.  When I first heard about the service I created a personal profile for the chance to network what I am up to in real life as well as reacquaint myself with long lost friends from the past (barring one or two minor exceptions). The site profile became the one that I primarily use and we have been adding individuals more than adding bands. Of course if a band is someone we are interested in covering or already know then we add them, but otherwise based on the amount of them out there, any blind requests without emails to my Piercing HQ are denied faster than a door to door salesman. We do this because there are too many “friend collectors” out there and while we want everyone to know about PiercingMetal.com there is a right way to do it and a wrong way. Many of the sites truest believers have our profile on the top of their friends list, and are always telling their own friends to come check us out. We created a Group for the site in their area for such practice but it is sorely unmaintained and there is also a blog which we use to direct people over to the new content that is posted. We also tell them what is new over here to read and just hope that it is keeping the engine moving steadily forward and upward.

Ning: http://piercingmetal.ning.com
- I’ll be upfront here and say that I have not yet “gotten” the whole Ning.com idea other than it allows those who sign up for it the chance to create their own social network and then add friends to it by inviting them with their e-mail addresses. It has some interesting aspects, as you can add yourself to other Ning.com networks as you build it up and we have not only done one for PiercingMetal but also signed on to the one for Nonelouder, Believers In The Power Of Heavy Metal, and NYC Metal. My goal with the Ning.com profile is to have most of the friends who have added me on some of the other networks also add the PM.com page to one they belong to. We shall see how that pans out. If you are on there somewhere, we welcome you to join in and maybe even create a network of you own.

Facebook:
- Facebook didn’t appeal to me at first since I found its setup a little weird, but I soon got over it when I learned that a number of my friends had set up accounts of their own. The main difference is that the profile I set up was a personal one but when it came to PiercingMetal.com I created a Fan Page and also a Group. In the end it serves the same purpose as the MySpace blog and becomes a sign post of sorts but I will admit that I will be playing with the Facebook things a little more as time goes on. I like the feel of it and encourage anyone who has interest in the site and lives on their Facebook to please add these items to help us reach more people. I don’t need or expect everyone to add my personal profile to their friends as that doesn’t make much sense. That is for the direct connections in life.

Facebook Fan Page Link
Facebook Group for PiercingMetal.com Friends and Fans

Orkut: PiercingMetal.com Orkut Community
- Orkut is a social networking site that is run by Google, and originally the users needed an invite to create an account of their own.  According to research this is the top most visited site in Brazil and the second most visited site in India. Based on these statistics it made perfect sense to check out what was going on over there. Like MySpace and Facebook the service had a unique look and feel to it and offered Groups and Forums. Since we didnt want too much in the way of maintenance we created a “Community” for PiercingMetal and for those who might not be aware of it, the community is how they label what we know as groups over on things like MySpace and the others. We use the community on the network to post major site initiatives, concert reviews and interviews. So far this has been met with a positive response and of course we hope that our Orkut friends find us on MySpace, Facebook or Ning.com for that matter. Any readers of the musings who might be on Orkut we ask that you please try to add the community and share its existence with your other friends.

Trig: http://trig.com/piercingmetal
- Trig was one of the newest one of these networking sites that I added something for PiercingMetal.com on, and this was at the suggestion of one of the music industries staunchest supporters. I liked this service instantly because there were a ton of bands that I had never heard of right at my finger tips and while MySpace might have the same thing, there is a bit of searching to do when one tries to find the good bands among the bad. We only post updates to the site on this for the most part, but recommend you give it a whirl if the time allows.

Woozyfly: http://www.woozyfly.com/PiercingMetal
- I will be the first to admit that I have not made much use of this outlet since starting up an account at the request of one of the sites “EJ’s”, but I do think that it serves a bit of a unique purpose. The basic idea of a Woozyfly account is that is serves up a lot of video and allows people to do their own shows. To me this is just another means to do what is already possible in YouTube.com land but who knows if its any better or not. Our link is presented there for readers who might have an account and wish to add us but be aware we haven’t played around with this since signing up and should we do anything video related on PiercingMetal.com it will probably be embedded into the site to keep our own traffic on the rise or be something akin to a YouTube.com Channel.

Friendster: Nope, we are not on Friendster and while a personal profile page is there I might delete it soon since I get nothing but spam add requests or proposals of marriage and the advertisements for herbal viagra and that really pisses me off. I also get a lot of those scam emails, you know the ones that pretend to be someone but are really those travel or visa scam emails? If not, look them up for good measure. I used to post review links on Friendster, but realized that was a waste of valuable time to do.

There are also personal profiles for me on LinkedIn, Multiply, Wayn, and HI5 but to be honest outside of LinkedIn none of them are serving the site any purpose or good and instead only once in awhile direct people or spam bots to the site when they hit the profile. I made sure to use our PiercingMetal.com link as my homepage on every account I ever set up. I’ll probably dump all of the ones I just mentioned except for the LinkedIn one, because that is more for business networking. I think anyone in the industry should create something for themselves on that one if they hope to upgrade their game.

You might be wondering where anyone could find the time to have all these profiles and maintain them, but like we mentioned in the musing, most of them are mere sign posts to the main site while a choice few others are edited and kept up regularly. Maybe moving forward I will have one of the PiercingLegions take over the unedited ones and make them a little more interesting, but until then at least you know how we feel about the things. That’s about it my friends. Choose your weapons and we shall see you online……

Last Summer I purchased my friend’s Creative Zen Vision M music player as he had chosen to get something much smaller and not as cumbersome as he felt this particular player was (it’s no worse than the size of the I-pod but he can be rather fussy at times). I think he went with a smaller Creative Labs device in the end and since I didn’t really have a player of my own yet I was totally interested in it. The size was 30GB and while smaller than the newest I-Pod I was one of those consumers who wanted to give the other guys a chance (plus he had not cleared off all of his music before giving it to me which was cool since he had a number of albums that I didn’t own on CD to upload myself). I was happily rolling along with said device and even did the proper tech guy stuff of updating its firmware and making sure everything it needed to be a cool addition to my arsenal was put into place. Better categories and stuff along those lines but after several months the device started to grow tired of me and chose to run off with the thief who rifled through my bag while covering an event. Believe it or not, this wasn’t even a Metal show, but something a little higher brow, and that’s where the friggin’ thing gets lifted from me. “Bah” is all that I have to say about that occurrence. Of course this began the craving for a new device because I was now officially addicted to having a music player on me so while I had debated upon an I-pod I found the price of the one I wanted to be too pricey. Creative Labs had a newer Vision M which was 60GB but it was around the same price as that I-Pod I just mentioned which was far bigger - alas what to do and what to choose was beginning to drive me crazy. Then it hit me - a few members of my PiercingLegions were using Microsoft Zune’s and while they were the initial run of the device, they had said that the really liked the difference and it also made them feel good since they were so anti I-pod. Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti I-Pod at all, and rather like the ones that my friends have but I tended to agree that perhaps I should continue the aspect of “giving the other guys a chance”. As luck would have it they now offered a device that was in my price range and also the newest model on the market. Having tried my friends 30 gigabyte Zune I was immediately impressed at how much lighter this 80 gigabyte one was and I immediately ordered myself one via Amazon.com - I’ve provided a link below for you to do the same should the rest of this musing about the item fall in line with your own thoughts. Keep reading to find out what I liked and didn’t like about it.

Main Features:
Size: It’s an 80gb device and I currently have about 182 albums on the thing which amounts to 1,992 songs and just under 10gb of space used. From this you should be able to get the picture that at least another 1,638 albums can be loaded on it. Perhaps that is something I will try to do when I have about a week free to just upload music to the device. For now it’s loaded with music that I am reviewing and a few podcasts that I enjoy listening to. The official specs line out that it can hold up to 20,000 songs, 25,000 pictures and 250 hours of video.

WiFi: This is super cool as a feature and I have been noodling around with it for awhile. The Zune actually allows you the means to synchronize your music and whatever else you have loaded up with a wireless signal and that prevents you from having another cord laying around and tripping you up. You have to set it up on your wireless router if you block signals which I had to do but once its set up I found no difficulty in using the feature. It’s pretty cool and will take a little longer to do based on how much you are updating but either way the I-Pod currently does NOT offer this feature on their numerous devices. The other thing you can do via the wireless power of the Zune is share your music with other Zune users. All you need to do is open up the “Social” option on the menu and select “nearby” from it. You can then connect and select songs you want them to have. I tried this during lunch the other day and shared a Billy Idol track with someone who sent me a Reggae artist they recommended (hey it was the only thing he had on his device that even remotely interested me). I did his transfer from 10 feet, but he did mine when I was at least 30 feet away and that was awesome to test since the speed was still rocking. The music one shares is only going to let you listen to the tracks three times and offer you the means to buy it via the Zune Marketplace which is a lot like The I-Tunes Store. Once your three plays are up, the songs must be deleted since they will not work anymore. I should have left mine in place to see what the exact process was but I didn’t. The Reggae song was not all that good in my opinion.

Weight and Design: The new Zune 80gb is very light in terms of the device weight. I also purchased the specific Zune protective case and together they still are lighter than the first version Zune 30gb device on its own. People enjoy sleek and lightweight devices nowadays and Microsoft did good in this area. The device is also thinner than its predecessor but ups the game all the more with its bright and vivid color 3.2 inch display screen. Functionality is left to three buttons with the largest center one being your main controller for scrolling and browsing your contents while the two small buttons on either side are your power, play and reverse navigation controls. Volume is also controlled by the master button. A user can master these controls with ease and that’s a plus.

The Social: Zune builds in its own little social networking aspect by allowing you to join communities of fans who might be listening to similar music as you. You get to name your Zune to something you would like and I named my own “PiercingMetalNY” because apparently “PiercingMetal” on its own was taken by someone else. I found that amusing and inquired to the person about what had led them to the name and they replied that it was a line in a movie. That really made me scratch my head a little since no movies inspired me in calling the website that at all. I really need to dig more around the Social aspect of this thing but should any Metal music fans have Zune’s and wish to add me please feel free to do so. I would love to see how this aspect works a little more as I move forward with this device.

FM Radio Tuner: It has one. Plain and simple and the I-Pods do not. My Zen had one and my little Sandisk 2gb device does as well but its a little easier to plug in and save your favorite FM stations here. Personally radio bores me now, so I hardly use it at all. Either way it’s nice to have another feature to use as opposed to ones it didn’t have.

So What Didn’t I Like?

OK, well, I am using my Zune on the laptop and many of you Mac users or even PC ones who have I-Pods are doing the same. The thing I don’t like is that the songs remain resident on your PC as opposed to only being on the device. My Zen Vision M allowed me the means to have the music stay on the device or in my computer library and no matter where they were there was always a reference to it. Since my Zune hard drive is the same size as my laptop’s hard drive I will never even be able to come close to using the device to its capacity. Maybe some future software upgrade and device patch will make this a possibility so I will remain hopeful.

I also didn’t like the fact that there was no recording device built into the functionality of the Zune. Given the fact that I do interviews with bands from time to time, it would have been a great feature to have on it just in case I was at a show and got the urge to interview. No extra tools necessary, just turn on the Zune, hit record and then talk your heart out. The Zen did have this, and this is the reason that I also own that Sandisk 2gb device. It’s sole existence is for band interviews but more about that little Tool Of The Trade is for another musing on another day.

The main thing is that I love my Zune, and look forward to it being upgraded by an even sleeker and larger capacity device with more features as time goes on. Knowing how fast technology updates I am betting that before my device is half full of songs that I will start seeing commercials for the new one. For now I will be fine, and I think the Metal music public would agree that it is a solid device for the money that they would have to lay out for it. If you are one of those who enjoys being different or just has issues with the current superpower in music players then give Microsoft’s Zune a chance. I did, and am a very happy customer. Remember if you order the Zune via the link we have in this musing that Amazon.com will offer us some referral stuffs and we always apply that to the betterment and continued function of PiercingMetal.com

Artist: Ringo Starr
Title: ”Liverpool 8”
Label: Capitol Records
Release Date: 1/18/2008
Genre: Rock
Rating: 4/5

Written By: Ken Pierce (copyright 2008) for PiercingMetal Musings

I had to admit that I was a little curious about the 14th album that legendary Beatles drummer Ringo Starr actually had delivered after I heard the opening track on a live appearance several months ago. The album is called “Liverpool 8″, and this is also the opening track that takes us back to the drumming singer’s earliest days with the Fab Four as he reflects on how wondrous his life actually had been. Lyrically it might seem a little hokey, but its telling a story, and based on that premise it works out quite well. There are also little Beatles riffs and quotes that make it rather appealing. The album is a collaboration with his long time writing Mark Hudson and the albums producer Dave Stewart (from that little band called The Eurythmics). The pair also join Starr on the whole album on guitars, piano, and backing vocals. There is a lot of tasty music on this one, and I found it a nice refreshing change from my usual musical menu and while others have offered up different views based on the drummers longtime partnership with Hudson, this didn’t effect me as I have not really followed all the releases that preceded this one outside of what would be played on terrestrial radio that focused its attention on Rock music. Highlights are “Gone Are The Days” which has an almost Pink Floyd, old Genesis opening to it and “Give It A Try” which is rather catchy. “Harry’s Song” definately comes across as a lost Beatles number and the Spanish themed “Pasodobles” is rather charming. The album doesn’t close with a rocker like I expected but instead a very Blue Grass sounding “R U Ready” and while something kicking might have worked out better, this track made for a pretty cool segueway into the silence of a CD that has just finished playing.

The music is direct and to the point on this one and while there is a booklet included there are no lyrics provided. That bummed me out just a tad as I would have liked to read and possibly sing along to some of them. Oh well, I am sure that after a few listens I will pick it all up. Ringo’s drumming is as good as ever and while he is a bit more reserved than some other players manages to remain solid and steady. He was always a 4/4 guy and that’s never a bad thing when it comes to this kind of Rock music. It’s not as much about flair and proving you can outplay anyone as much as it is about keeping the time and the tune in the best place possible. Kind of a ready, steady, go thing. His voice seems pretty good for his 68 years and overall this is a good enough record to give a chance if you are remotely curious to what he has been up to lately. I enjoyed it and am certain that you will as well. Good job Ringo.

Track Listing:
1. Liverpool 8, 2. Think About You, 3. For Love, 4. Now That She’s Gone Away, 5. Gone Are The Days, 6. Give It A Try, 7. Tuff Love, 8. Harry’s Song, 9. Pasodobles, 10. If It’s Love That You Want, 11. Love Is, 12. R U Ready

2008 began the fourth year of website life for PiercingMetal.com, and when the year began we made some modifications that took the “Other” sub-section that fell under the main heading “Reviews” and changed the way it delivered its content to readers. When the site launched “Other” was for those reviews that were outside of your conventional CD or DVD item and as result was where the reader could find Event coverage, Book Reviews and Demo Release reviews. However as time went on the need for expansion led me to move any demo or unsigned review into the main CD or DVD section but something still needed to be done for Books and Events. Those who read the Editorial for 2007 know already that individual headings are now available for those items and the response has been wonderful and it makes things a little easier when it comes down to it. This blog posting is not about those sections but instead about a redelivery of that which you have already seen along with a little explanation about it.

Many who have read my work since the beginning or even had the chance to meet and talk with me know that I began this little adventure as a Concert Reporter for The Metal Circus out of Barcelona, Spain. With that I also I began taking photos of the bands that I was reviewing in order to have something that accompanies the article and brings it to larger than life feel for those who are sitting on the couch or surfing their MySpace accounts. When the reader checks out the concert review for the main artist they can also see the Gallery of images that we loaded up for the performance and while we aimed larger attention to the headliners, we would also offer up some photos of the opening bands as well. We did this because you never really know who you are catching at these shows sometimes or just how fast their own climb to the top of the musical heap is coming along. The downside of this was the fact that all of these galleries would only be seen if the reader was looking at that particular headliners concert review and after some hard thought I realized that this was a problem - until now….

Presenting the PiercingMetal.com Gallery section which now sits comfortably on the main menu of options snugly between Concerts and News.  Let me explain how we have set it up and how you can best enjoy it. Clicking the Gallery menu item brings you to a new page where you will see the last twenty band photo gallery pages that have been loaded into the database. We’ve added them into the system in a “from the beginning” chronological order so the reader will take a little bit of a time travel trip with me and see those first times out shooting the bands and watch as it slowly progresses closer to where we are today.  At present only the last twenty records are visible on the page but the great thing is that you can search for Artist, Label, Venue and Photographer if you like and the query result will launch a seperate page for you to browse through. This is great if you are a fan of Behemoth or Into Eternity and want to see all of the galleries that are related to them. It even allows you to search your favorite provider of the photos since there are some folks who help me out in this, or have in the past. The pages can even be browsed through as if it were a book one was reading. We didn’t use the means to present the contents in any number of ways like our CD, DVD and Concert pages and have left it as most recently added to the table going back to our beginnings.

Looking back on this when it was ready to be presented to the web visitors I had to admit that it took me back a little bit as well because some of my earliest shots are rather primitive and not the best that there is. However, this was also my own beginning in this role and I was not only learning how to do this properly but I was also learning how to follow the processes and channels in order to deliver to you some really crushing Heavy Metal entertainment. I’m excited about this new development in the site as it allows us to revisit stuff that you knew was in there but couldn’t find as easily as you might like to. Take a look when time allows and as I mentioned keep on watching for new additions of our past work. Thanks for the support as always, we raise the horns to you.

Important: We want those who begin digging into this section of the site to realize that it will be a continual work in progress as far as content goes so you should check it out often if it interests you at all.   There are at present over 400 individual galleries of bands to load into the table and since we shoot new shows each and every week that number will have increaded by the time you read this musing.  As previously mentioned we are are only doing this a little bit at a time to have something new for you to re-enjoy almost every day.   It’s important to remember that the core review content takes precedent over our walk forward from the early days to the present.  Eventually we shall be right where we stand today but please understand that it made no sense to load every single gallery in at the same time.   We are also taking this time to see in the original reviews that the galleries came from if we had any shots of other bands who we might not have featured at the time the review first ran.  Overall, our repurposing of this stuff is something I am very proud of and I think that you will enjoy it as much as me.

If you have been following any of the notable Heavy Metal sites that are currently online then you are probably already aware of one called “Talking Metal”, but if you are not let’s get a little introduction going. Talking Metal is a podcast site and its hosted by Jon Ostronomy and Mark Strigl who do interviews with some of the big guns in the Metal music world and with them try to provide an interesting outlet for those who like to hear those kinds of things. Over the last year, podcasts such as theirs have been taking off pretty rapidly in the online world and with the continuing dominance of digital music players like the Ipod, are something that people are really getting into. If you doubt me, just login to your I-Tunes or your Zune Marketplace and browse for them because I am sure you will find a podcast related to any number of topics that you find of interest. Once you sign up for them, you download it to your player and you can continue on in your day and listen to the show at your leisure. The Talking Metal podcast is also available on their website and can be enjoyed that way, but I like using the player myself since I am still learning about all its features. I’ve been happy to meet with the guys during my own Metal travels as I adventure out into the Concert scene of the Big Apple and I have to say that I really admire their dedication to it as well as the strides they have made in getting the Metal word around. As a provider of Internet Metal media content myself I know full well just how much work something like this requires. We had discussed and planned my appearance on one of their podcasts in the future but the scheduling was not really open for us to do it and that whole thing leads me to the subject of this little blog tale. Since its launch the Talking Metal guys have been able to generate some super high visibility with it and its impact did not go unnoticed for it all led to the fine folks at The Fuse Network giving them their own program that will air every week and let them expand upon the ideas and topics normally covered during the podcast.

The Fuse Network is pretty much an MTV for the new generation because they show videos and concerts and band interviews about the most current and relevant acts in today’s music scene. MTV started this way before they launched a couple of hundred inane “reality” shows. Fuse was once also the home for the lovely Mistress Juliya, but she has since moved on to other adventures of her own. Anyway, I digress about my original point. One day while coming home from the day job I received a phone call from Mark about my potentially taking part in one of the episodes that was being filmed the following day and of course barring a hurricane I knew I would be there. One doesn’t always get the chance to do something cool like that so how could I resist. I arrived at the Fuse TV studios and was instantly awed by the visual of the place because its loaded with neon and flashing lights. It sure does get a lot of the tourists attention and makes their arrival into the city from Penn Station something they will not soon forget. When I got inside I really didn’t know what to expect but I was sent down to the “Green Room”, which amused me greatly since the room was painted red. Mark and Jon came in to say hello and told me briefly about the bands that would be discussed for the show. My particular episode would feature Killswitch Engage and the might Lamb Of God so I felt that was kind of cool. “Metal” Mike Chlasiak from Halford and Sebastian Bach’s band was their musical director and I would also meet their comic relief Bud Friendly. While enjoying a beverage and some wonderful Famous Amos cookies in the red green room I was joined by a lovely young lady who worked at the Coyote Ugly bar. Apparently she would be participating in the show as well, and hey the more the merrier and of course I was now super curious as to how it would all work out. After a short time the producer came down and brought us up to the studio room and it was a cool little stage with the desk for the guys to sit at and behind them it looked like a wall of amplifiers. The other cast members sit right next to them so there was a chair for Bud and Mike and then a couch for the guests which were in this case Julianna, a Metal dude who’s name I believe was Adam and me. There was not much direction to be given from the production team, and it was essentially that you would know when they wanted you to speak up about something so you just had to pay a little more attention to the conversation. With my being so fascinated by the cameras and overall mechanics behind the whole thing I knew my paying attention would not be an issue this afternoon.

The way the show runs for a taping is rather interesting because the show is not done with a true live audience like the David Letterman or Conan O’Brien show and instead focuses on footage of the hosts that get worked together with pre-recorded clips of the interviews and activities with the band. Periodically the guys would direct their attention over to us folks on the couch and it was fun because you never really knew when they were going to toss an inquiry over to you. While the show was taping there was a lot of couch folk banter with the hosts but since it is only a 30 minute program that needs to fit everything into the time there was a considerable amount of editing done. I spoke to the guys about a number of different things that were directed to me such as Metallica, Stryper, Dio and even Probot of all things but in the final cut only the topics about Dio and Probot made it on. I admit that it really cool to see it when it aired as beneath my image was the text of “Ken Pierce, PiercingMetal.com”. If only television offered hyper linking to websites, we could have garnered some additional traffic straight away. Perhaps in the future this will be an option and wouldn’t that be cool. Julianna spoke a couple of times and so did the young lad of Metal who was on the couch with us, but in the end only one comment of hers made the cut while none of his input was included. I think he was a last minute addition to the mix since there was a different guest mentioned to me when I arrived but I guess they ended up not being able to make it. Either way, it was pretty cool to have PiercingMetal.com’s name up in the lights and also being able to offer some input on the topics that were being discussed. It was also fun to joke with Metal Mike who was playing guitar right next to my spot on the couch. He is a really solid player and has a lot of interesting stories to tell and while it would have been a lot more fun if the random chit chat we all were doing was part of the show, alas this was not to be the case since there was a format to follow. Jon does a moment in “KISStory” which is always cool with me as I am a super huge KISS fan for three decades now (yikes) and Mark briefly mentions a couple of the new hot releases on the market. The show I was part of found the recent releases by Airbourne and Black Tide being presented. Having heard these albums myself I can attest to their being necessary music for your collection. They will of course be reviewed on the site, or are already there based on the time frame that you are reading this blog item.

The show was apparently set for seven episodes, which included the pilot and the episode that I taped was the second of them. If you’ve missed it there is no need to worry since the whole series is currently in re-runs so you can get those DVR’s recording them all, or checking that the VCR still works and taping them for posterity. I hope it gets picked up again because it was such a fun show on the whole and even more of an honor to be a part of one of the episodes. I have to admit my doing this did set off some bright lights about how to possibly make PiercingMetal.com a little more interesting so lets see what I can come up with in the future. During the breaks in the shows taping I had a couple of moments to snap some candids of the guys and the set along with some of the cast and these photos can be viewed by clicking on the graphic below.

If you have been able to check out the Fuse TV and you really liked what you saw, you can help by offering up your voice to the proper Public Relations channels that are featured on the link below. Remember that the viewer always has a voice about programming and when we want something to come back we CAN make it happen.

Fuse TV Contact:
http://press.fuse.tv/Contact/

In the meanwhile you can also check out their podcast site and download a bunch of them to your music player of choice via this link below. Since the time of the show taping I was also one of their guests during a podcast and while it was unexpected for me to actually participate, I gladly will raise the horns for the Metal in whatever fashion I may.

Talking Metal Podcast: http://www.talkingmetal.com

Looks like it’s time for me to get back to the review process. Keep on reading Legions, and we shall keep it all coming to amuse and entertain. Thanks as always for your support.

Don’t be alarmed dear readers for I have not chosen to wander upon the snowy paths of addiction in any fashion but I can honestly say that this article is really about my evening with Cocaine. For those who are still somewhat confused let me clear it up by stressing that this is a band who sports the tricky narcotic as their name. According to legend and their press bio of course, the group had been in a deep freeze for sometime (2 decades give or take a year) and when I heard about their coming back I chose to seek them out and present the details in one of our concert review articles. Regular readers of the site will appreciate our using the existing format for the manner in which it flows. Just click the logo below to be brought to the coverage as well as a few dozen photos of the band in action. We hope you enjoy it.