Takin' A Ride

Tons of releases out TODAY. Here’s a bunch that need your attention.

It’s Bandcamp Friday today, so bands get 100% of the proceeds of sales on this day. First up is CJ Wildheart‘s latest disk of demos called “Devils”. Which are the demos for his excellent album “Devil” (reviewed here) and for his lockdown album “Siege”. 18 songs total! All done by CJ with a drum machine. That would normally bother me, but I can’t tell and these are so raw and delicious, it’s a must have!

Angry Snowmans: “Is This Wreath?” Is it too early for Christmas? YES! But I have to give these punks a pass as this is their first album in 9 years. Their gimmick is that they’re angry elves singing about the oppression of Santa to punk songs. So Minor Threat’s “Minor Threat” becomes “Naughty List”. Misfits “We Are 138” becomes “It’s Time To Decorate”. And Poison Idea’s “Just To Get Away” becomes “Just To Fly The Sleigh”. You get the picture. I love this band and listen to them every Christmas.

The Wildhearts: “Acoustic Albums Are Shit Vol 4” Ginger usually comes up with something interesting for Bandcamp Friday and today is no exception. The fourth volume of his reimagining of classic Wildhearts songs. Not all of this is acoustic. “Geordie In Wonderland” and “If Love Is Like A Lovebank” become total punk songs. Others are redone as acoustic. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. But like Ginger, it’s all interesting.

Los Chicos: “Never Is Enough” EP Saw these guys a couple times in Australia in 2024 and they’re just a ton of fun. They’re big music fans and big drinkers too! Good time pub rock. This is an EP, consisting of what I’m assuming to be outtakes from their “Never Is Too Much” album. Lots of great stuff here that’s worth your attention.

United Stare: “Mental Illness Children” Got the notice for this in my e-mail box this morning. And anything that comes out on Drunken Sailor Records is something that will get my attention. And this does. 2026 is fast becoming yet another incredible year for music and this is one of the bands that’s a part of that. Full on quality punk rock. For people that think there’s no good music anymore, you need to shut up and start paying attention to bands like this.

Midnight: “Satanic Attack Live” For the metal heads out there, this live album of Midnight who are inspired by Venom and Motorhead and all of NWOBHM should suit your needs. I’m a sucker for live albums. I love the energy and I love the rawness of them and this album has both in spades. Great guitar sound too!

Motorhead: “Orgasmatron 40th Anniversary Edition”

Has it really been 40 years? Yowza! There has been a treasure trove of Motorhead releases the past 10 years or so and you can add this one to the list. “Orgasmatron” remastered, “Orgasmatron” remixed, and “Orgasmatron” outtakes, rehearsals, alternative takes, and BBC sessions. I don’t really care about remasters. And I don’t think this album ever really needed a remix, but once you hear the album and the remix back to back, it’s like “WOW!” Ok. The remix, done by Cameron Webb, sounds really good and gives the album a fresh kick in the ass. The main selling point for me though, are the outtakes, alt takes, and rehearsals. The rehearsals are really nice, like the ones for other box sets, they hold nothing back. Motorhead just liked to jam and thankfully someone was there to record all this. “Nothing Up My Sleeve” is over ten minutes! Also nice to hear the in-studio talking in between takes.

KISS: “Rock And Roll Over 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition”

Ok, I’ll be the first to admit that these KISS box sets are way overpriced. But if you’re like me and only care about the music and not the excessive trinkets, you can buy the music and just the music on Amazon for $33. Though not as comprehensive as the Metallica box sets, and KISS always seems to be leaving you wanting more, but you do get a lot with this. A remaster of “Rock And Roll Over”, and also a remix of the album. A disk of outtakes, demos, and alt takes. And a live compilation of 4 KISS shows they did in Tokyo during this tour (I’m assuming that these 4 individual shows will all be released in their entirety for the Alive 2 boxset), all remixed by Eddie Kramer.

Being my 2nd favorite KISS album (first is “Dressed To Kill”), I don’t think “Rock And Roll Over” really needed a remix. A lot of it sounds pretty slow. Like the guitars are toned down too low. Not the volume, but the actual tone of the guitar. Like the wrong speed. I heard that this is how they recorded it and it was sped up for the actual album release, but if the album lengths are basically the same, I don’t know how this is possible. And the bass is cranked up a little too high. Admittedly, this will taking some used to and I’ll probably just stick with the original. “Baby Driver” does sound pretty amazing though.

A lot of the demos have been released and/or leaked before. Still, it’s really cool to hear bits and pieces of songs that became other songs in the demos. The extended outtake of “Take Me” is really cool. And like the Motorhead set, it’s really cool to hear the studio banter. Sounded like this album’s sessions were pretty chaotic. Of special interest is “Queen For A Day” which is a pretty rockin’ song that Ace Frehley was supposed to sing on, but at the time of these sessions, he never found his voice and was too insecure to sing at the time. Would be interesting to hear how his vocals (or any vocals) would come into being for this track.

The live tracks are great, but the mix is a little bothersome to me. Guitars are way separated and the bass is very loud upfront. I know Gene Simmons is a very underrated bassist, but he shouldn’t be the highlight of the songs. The guitars should be. Still it is nice to have all these tracks and I’m grateful to be able to hear them. I may have to take them and see what remixing I can do with these on my own.