Alice Cooper - Ghouls Gone Wild

Article first published as Music Review: Alice Cooper - "Ghouls Gone Wild" from Welcome 2 My Nightmare on Blogcritics.

Just in time for Halloween, I'm tackling Alice Cooper's "Ghouls Gone Wild" from his latest album Welcome 2 My Nightmare, a sequel to his 1975 masterpiece Welcome To My Nightmare. The song is a throwback to the surf-rock era with witty lyrics and a surprise ending that connects this song to the original 1975 album. Here's the video of myself playing the song:



Recently I was talking to a friend of mine about how most "classic rock" bands/artist seem to lose their fire or passion in making music, and their new releases just seemed forced and lackluster. This new Cooper album is a definite exception: its full of great songs, stellar performances by every musician, pristine production, and lots of Cooper's twisted sense of humour.

"Ghouls Gone Wild" is a clever play on words in reference to the very popular videos Girls Gone Wild, but that is only the beginning of a series of funny puns and double-meanings in the lyrics. My favorite is "We're gonna dance our heads off and we're gonna keep it tight/ If we keep ourselves together we might make it through the night."  It immediately summons the image of decaying bodies dancing to the song. The song would fit perfectly in one of the Scary Movies or Teen Wolf.

Mark Volman, singer from The Turtles, makes a guest appearance here singing the back up vocals. I'm particularly fond of the second chorus where the back-ups answer the main vocal line. Check out what Cooper has to say about the song and Volman's involvement.

The bass part is pretty simple, mainly keeping a steady eight-note rhythm throughout. At the third chorus, the song shifts up a tone and the bass line has a lot more movement and melody.

The guitar solo section is the only "modern" sounding part of the track. It has a harder edge to it, and builds nicely with that chromatic run. In the video I played that part on a different place of my fretboard the second time through. I'm not sure why I did it that way; it just happened naturally.

Scary Ending
If you were a big fan of the original Welcome to My Nightmare record, you might get chills when listening to the end of "Ghouls Gone Wild": if you listen carefully there is the same creepy "backwards" piano sample as in the end of the song "Steven" on the original album. Both songs are track number nine on their respective records.

Chickenfoot's "Up Next" and on Steve Jobs' influence

Michael Anthony rocks!

 
  I have to admit that when Chickenfoot first got together I had no interest whatsoever in even hearing the band. I'm not a fan of either Joe Satriani or Sammy Hagar, and so I never checked them out. However, there has been so much hype surrounding their second album (strangely entitled "Chickenfoot III") that I caved in and listened to it. I was pleasantly surprised and found a couple of songs that I liked. In particular "Up Next". Check it out:



  This song jumped out at me and got stuck in my head from the very first time I heard it. It has so much more energy than the rest of the songs on the album, Satriani's playing is meaner and more aggressive, Michael Anthony's backup vocals are so amazing, and, most importantly for me, its so damn catchy! The whole song is covered with hooks that just make you want to bob your head and sing along.

"I'll show respect, the best I can"

  The main guitar riff at the beginning is awesome because all of those "off-beat" notes contrast so well with the basic quater-note pulse of the bass. Satriani uses a lot of little licks and fills (and a lot of them using harmonics) throughout the song. And the guitar solo is brilliant, very different than the rest of the song in that its moody and dark, and Joe uses his delay effect perfectly to make it sound very space-y. Although when I first heard the solo I was totally expecting it to break out into a ripping shred-fest before going back to the verse. I'm looking forward to seeing if they extend that section live. Also I really like how Satch changes the lick before the chorus and plays it in three different places on the guitar neck.

  Michael Anthony is fantastic in this song, there is so much attitude in his playing here, sliding all over the place, adding fills everywhere, and just generally laying it down with his mean round tone. I'm a big fan of how he takes the spotlight during the choruses, while the guitar lays back and just strums the chords Michael is showcasing himself and adding fills at the end of every 2-bar figure. Oh and did I mention his backing vocals are phenomenal? yeah he rocks!

At the Pearly Gates

  While doing a little research for this post I watched the short videos that Chickenfoot posted previewing the different tracks on the album. It was there that I realized what this song is really about, because even though its very upbeat and energetic, the subject of the lyrics is rather grim. The topic here is death, and how it will come to all of us at some point, and for a lot of people when they least expect it. Unfortunately the one that was "Up Next" was Steve Jobs and I personally owe a ton to him and his team at Apple because I use their products for everything.

  We have all been touched by his influence. In fact, Joe Satriani was commenting on the preview video that he had recorded the demo for this song on his iPhone while sitting in a hotel room. I recorded the audio and video for this on my iMac, using Garageband and iMovie, and I used Safari to put it all on the web. So thank you Steve and everyone that worked with him at Apple for making my life better and easier. And if there is a lesson to be learned here is that life is short, make the best of it and enjoy good music!

  Oh and by the way, is it just me or does Sammy say "I'll PEE myself"?? check out the video at 1:21.

Meshuggah's "Straws Pulled at Random" by Maurizio Villeato

  
Ok so here we go with another guest post. This time its my good friend Maurizio Villeato, all the way from Italy!

  I met Maurizio last fall when I was out on tour with Annihilator. He is the bass player of Adimiron, a progressive metal band from Italy, and they were opening for us for the first couple of weeks of the tour. We all became friends very quickly since they are all very nice people; they are very funny and light-hearted guys, although you can't tell when they're onstage, at that point they're all business and they kick some serious ass. Maurizio impressed me very quickly because he is very versatile in his playing, he can use his fingers, pick, and slap, and he does it all very well and in great context within the band and whatever song he's playing. Here he is playing a song by what I'm sure is one of his favorite bands. This is Messhugah's "Straws Pulled at Random":

 
  Maurizio had this to say about this song:

  "Why did I choose Meshuggah? Very simple, at the moment it is my favorite band. I really love their sound, their way to conceive music, the melodic and rhythmic structures of the songs. Specially this song I think contains the most important Meshuggah elements: catchy intro and verses, powerful chorus and bridge, a beautiful solo, and a simple but circular outro. Don’t forget the tuning! I tuned the bass half a tone up, in F, and I have to say that this little change, if added to a good distortion, gives a unique and violent sound to the bass, which makes it the leading instrument of the song, and of the band. Whoever has seen Meshuggah live in concert knows what I mean; I understood it when we played with them in Turin, Italy.

  "This is the live version, which is the same as the studio record, but just a bit faster, and more violent. This band gives no space for improvisation during live shows, so I tried to be the most faithful as possible, Hope you like the performance!

  "I just wanna thank you guys for watching my video, and my friend Al who gave me the opportunity to play for you from the other side of the ocean, thank you very much brother!

  "Bye guys, see you on the road. Respect!"

  Maurizio Villeato was born in Rome, Italy in 1989. At the age of 14 he started to play bass after watching Steve Harris on TV. He has always listened metal and rock music in his life, and has played all metal genres, from death to power, from classic to thrash. But when he joined ADIMIRON in 2007 he found his real dimension. He recorded “When Reality Wakes Up” in 2008 and “ K 2 “ in 2011 , having the honor to tour around Europe with some metal legends such as Annihilator and Death Angel, and open for  Sepultura and Meshuggah in Italy. Since 2009 he has also been studying Double Bass in The Academy of Classical Music, to play and understand music in all its forms.

Don’t forget to check out ADIMIRON on the net

http://www.adimiron.org/

http://www.facebook.com/adimironofficial

http://www.youtube.com/user/adimironcrew

  Thanks again for checking this out! Don't forget to leave your comments. 




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