If you’re thinking with the current state of the economy that the timing couldn’t be worse for opening a brand new casino along the interstate in Washington state outside Seattle, you wouldn’t know it by the size of the opening weekend crowd at Snoqualmie Casino (warning: sound onload).

Let’s skip over the fact that the website just linked has one of the most annoying navigation schemes ever. You move your cursor down and the page jerks down and up and it jumps in reverse. Why?! You hover over something and it expands and plays a mini-movie. Congrats to some Flash designer who likely got paid a bunch of dough to frustrate site visitors.

Stay with me, this trend continues offline as well.

Via Seattle PI:

A modest roadside casino — instead of a lavish, multimillion-dollar facility — would not have worked, [tribal administrator Matt Mattson] said.

"Given the socioeconomic status, the sophistication of the people who live there, we think that doing more and starting out with a high-level property instead of a roadside casino gives us a better opportunity to succeed.

Kara and I hopped in the car and drove 43 miles to check it out last night. As the PI article indicates, you can’t see any neon sign or hulking structure from the interstate.

The first thing that struck me as we pulled around the stylish looking casino and drove downhill to self parking in the back and underneath the casino was the lack of sidewalks. $375 million and no sidewalks from the rear parking to the front? Nope, your choice is to wait among the crowd for the elevators or make a perilous uphill walk on a narrow road not intended for pedestrians.

Seeing sandbagging around the drains is an odd sight. The landscaping behind the casino looks a bit like an ice cream cone in 130 degree weather.

Of the many terrestrial casinos visited over the years I’ve never seen such a poor design from parking lot to casino. Sure, it’s great if there aren’t tons of people waiting for an elevator (which on opening weekend there were). It’s just … strange.

It caused confusion with others too, and there was nobody around to explain how or why the only way into the casino from the self-parking was through a bank of three elevators servicing 5+ levels of garage parking plus a huge rear self parking lot. When saw people coming down the parking garage stairs complaining that there was no way to get into the casino from the stairs. The stairs just go up and down to the parking lot.

We were joined by others who said screw it to waiting for the elevators and took our chances walking up the road — and being honked at by a few cars.

So if you’re planning on going this weekend then don’t do what we did, use the valet parking around the front at the top of the hill. Valet is the only way to fly.

The casino has a pleasant look to it around the front but when you walk in you get the immediate feeling you’re in a sardine can. There isn’t nearly enough space in the aisles to walk and slot machines and gaming tables are way too closely spaced. We were thirsty for some kind of soft drink and were surprised there wasn’t any serve yourself drink stations.

There are several bars, including a big luxurious one in the center of the casino. There were long waiting lines at the restaurants. There wasn’t an overly casino smoky air to it which was a positive. Another positive: you can use cash in the machines and they have ticket redemption machines so you aren’t forced to go to the cashier or wait in line to buy tickets to use in the machines.

But what about the gambling

We retreated to the least busiest area of the casino toward the end near the ballroom. Kara stuck $20 in some Egyptian slot and I stuck $10 into something with 7s and a bonus game. My machine quickly swallowed the $10 of which I stuck another $20 … and then another $20. Meanwhile Kara got into a bonus game and cashed out with $70.

As I was about to see my $50 disappear, I hit five symbols which paid $40. Then I upped the bet to the maximum $2.50 per digital spin. About five or six spins later I got 15 free bonus games. At the end of the bonus round my $50 had been turned into $150. I added Kara’s ticket to mine and cashed out.

Went to the nearest cashier station and the cashier informed me that she didn’t have enough twenties and could only pay us in big bills. The big cage in the center of the casino could help us. No thanks, we went to the machine thinking that might give us twenties. Nope, it spit out big bills too. Good thing these machines double as bill breakers so we just slid a $100 bill back in and got five crisp twenties.

Getting out easier than getting in

We’d had enough.

We exited via the elevators. Surprisingly, only one single guy was leaving at the same time as us. The elevator waiting area was eerily quiet. The elevator indicator lights turned red and door opened. After a full elevator of new arrivals passed by we entered, pressed ‘5′ for the level of the parking garage and in seconds were whisked back to the parking garage. We exited, got in our car and snaked our way out of the parking garage.

Of all the casinos we’ve seen, I’m sure it’s well over 100, we’ve never seen a casino that was designed to be easier to leave than to enter but hey, maybe this strategy will work for them. Add to the fact that they didn’t seem to have any of the machines we like to play: Keno or Bingo. I didn’t even see any video poker machines. They have 1,700 slot machines, mostly the ones with five symbols and dozens of winning combinations, so if that’s your thing you might dig it. They also have a bunch of table games. I enjoy craps but the tables were hopelessly crammed.

Hey, it’s opening weekend, not taking away any points in this review for them being busy. More power to them for being busy. I don’t know if it was in anticipation of Jessica Simpson playing, that it was less than 24 hours after they opened, it was a Friday night, that it was new and other gamblers were curious or some combination thereof.

I do know the experience wasn’t for us.

We enjoy visiting new casinos but doubt we’ll be back to this one any time soon. It’s not often we can say that about a casino where we spend 30 minutes there and leave first visit winners. If you’re going to enter and exit a casino, leaving a winner is always a good thing. I’d sooner recommend Emerald Queen which is off I-5 or if you’re taking the ferry over the sound, try Clearwater Casino. Clearwater in particular is a good example of a smaller casino geared for big crowds. Both those casinos offer bigger aisles and can better handle large crowds.

Grade: C-

Update November 1, 2008 8:19am PST: Activision/Red Octane that make Guitar Hero World, have offered a drum tuning kit download (Windows XP only) which is supposed to fix the issues discussed in the review that follows. You will need a USB to midi cable which they will send you if you fill out a form here.

Saturday night at the stroke of midnight we joined a small line of people at the Tacoma, WA Best Buy as the first to buy the newest installment of Guitar Hero (Guitar Hero World Tour). After buying the $29.99 warranty for the bundle the total rang in at $233.90 USD. 

We got it home and immediately dug in. The drum setup was quick and painless and give you a sense of quality that the Rock Band drums do not have. They seem more realistic — until you start actually playing.

The laggy band mode drum syncing ruined the first time gameplay experience for me. The drums are better synced in solo mode and even when playing with one other player, but add two or three more band members and it’s a mess.

When hearing the beat and when to hit the notes is all wrong. I tried recalibrating in the options several times but never found the sweet spot in band mode. I hope an update through Xbox Live comes along that fixes this as a quick survey of the Amazon reviews show many complaints from other reviewers about the same issue.

In a music game like this, quality calibration is vital. I give drum calibration a 0 out of 5 stars. I was failing on medium difficulty whereas I’m able to play hard and even expert drums on Rock Band 2. The plan was to play all night, but our band grew tired of me failing on what should have been easy intro songs and we quit playing around 2:30am.

We didn’t break out the Guitar Hero microphone or guitar, preferring to play with Rock Band gear there. Reports on the guitar, bass and singing in Guitar Hero were all thumbs up from other band members.

Activating star power on drums and microphone

Your drummer and singer may wonder how star power is activated. It’s in the skimpy six page manual, but we’ll throw you a bone. To activate star power on the drums, hit both yellow and orange cymbals at the same time. On the microphone just tap the top of the microphone, no yelling in the yellow spots required like Rock Band. Kind of prefer Rock Band’s approach here.

GH Tunes sans vocals

Being able to create and share your own tunes with other players was a promising feature I was stoked about. We peeked at it briefly Saturday night and people had already created and shared some tunes mere hours after launch. Sunday after a fresh night’s sleep I checked it out in more detail.

Bummer alert: only instrumental tunes are allowed — drums, bass, guitar and even keyboards, cool — but no vocals. This is going to lead to a lot of axe shredding and drum pounding but will be a non-starter for vocalists.

Hopefully vocals will be added as part of an update someday (?). Or do we need to wait another year for Guitar Hero 5 to come out?

Summary and grade

For guitar, bass and singing, Guitar Hero World Tour is solid. Major thumbs down on drum syncing.  I think until this is fixed we’re going to see a bunch of drumless bands. Or bands where the drummer marches, literally, to a different beat.

As for the GH Studio? No vocals hamper but not ruin the experience. I’m sure others will disagree with wanting to hear people screaming out of tune, karaoke style, but the absence of vocals is noticeable.

Surely there must have been a way to add vocal tracking to GH Studio? Since the software can detect when the music is in tune, was it that difficult to add the ability to match GH Studio created vocals? Or was this a copyright concern, afraid that bands would be creating an endless stream of unlicensed covers? I’m guessing technology was a small part of the concern here and copyright issues are playing at least some part.

Whatever the case, Guitar Hero World Tour’s strength remains its roots: guitar. Bass and vocals for the game part are a decent add, but while the drums are fun to pound on they aren’t much fun to play — outside of single player mode — because of the lag/syncing issue. I also don’t like that the bass pedal isn’t attached to anything like rock band to keep it in place, although must admit not having any trouble with it moving all around.

Guitar Hero World Tour as a package ends up a mixed bag and feels way too first generation in everything but its namesake. Perhaps our band is spoiled by competitor Rock Band which really has the band experience down and sports a solid lineup of hundreds of songs available, while Guitar Hero World Tour pretty much is limited to what comes with the game. Almost all the prior downloadable Guitar Hero songs and previous songs in games are not forward compatible.

Guitar Hero World Tour sports an impressive list of tunes, don’t get me wrong — and there is the ability to download for $$ a small few tracks (like Metallica’s complete Death Magnetic album) as well as what other players create in GH Tunes for free, but it doesn’t come close to matching Rock Band’s currently available music library. And with the AC/DC Live at Donnington track pack coming November 2nd, Rock Band will raise the stakes further.

Put all this together and I wouldn’t recommend to readers or friends looking to form their first music game band experience to buy Guitar Hero World Tour over Rock Band 2 this holiday season. Being my favorite baseball hat of the moment is my Guitar Hero cap pictured above, I’m conflicted, but the differences between the two in band mode are glaring.

Hardcore music game fans like our band will buy it regardless. I wouldn’t label GH World Tour a totally disappointing band experience, but it’s not up to par with all four band members (sans the drums, it works good). If all you care about is a cool guitar, bass or vocal experience in Guitar Hero World Tour then stop reading and buy this game now. You might want to skip the bundle and just buy the game otherwise.

Grade: C+

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a comedy in or out of a movie theater that’s made me laugh out loud. This past weekend I tried unsuccessfully to convince my wife to see the latest Star Whores, pun intended, "Clone Wars" (which might be a blessing considering the many unfavorable reviews). Second choice was "Tropic Thunder" with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Tom Cruise.

source: box office mojo

Whatever you want to say about Robert Downey Jr’s offscreen problems — and he’s had many — his acting skills are superb. You can see why he keeps getting solid starring roles. In Tropic Thunder he goes into an area that seems almost universally taboo in this day and age, blackface, and yet he pulls it off. His portrayal of an actor who can’t get out of the grips of his role had tears in my eyes during some spots. Ben Stiller’s lead character has similar same hang-ups, a victim of one too many sequels and trying to get past a role he played that was panned, but loved by his a niche following.  Jack Black’s character was famous for fart movies and has an unhealthy penchant for drugs off screen. I’m not a big Jack Black fan but this was him at his funniest.

Tom Cruise sporting a beard and some heavy make-up plays a movie exec with an anger management problem. Cruise should do more comedies and get away from the whole action and drama movie scene for awhile.

The backdrop of the movie is the making of a Vietnam era war flick penned by a character played by Nick Nolte of 48 Hours fame. The trio of Black, Downey Jr and Stiller are dropped into a jungle where cameras will catch their every move. Away from all the pampering actor trucks and special favors given to stars. It takes a humorous amount of time before these actor soldiers realize they aren’t shooting a movie, they are embroiled in a real conflict with drug harvesters that require real soldier actions.

There aren’t enough movies that make fun of themselves and do so creatively. Example: before the Tropic Thunder movie started there were previews of the movies the characters in Tropic Thunder are playing. Talk about spoofing where you sleep. I’m going to take a few points off for parts that could have moved a little quicker. Pretty much all the parts right before the ending sequence were too slow narratively and could have been edited out to make the movie tighter.

As far as controversy and the parts that could make you cringe: I didn’t find the humor surrounding the mentally retarded character ("Simple Jack") that Ben Stiller’s character played funny. I’ve never found humor involving the mentally challenged or disabled people humorous. Maybe it’s because I know people are disabled and there’s nothing funny about being disabled.

It seemed like if "Simple Jack" had really existed, this movie would have drawn protests far greater than Tropic Thunder has done and rightfully so. And if filmgoers are to believe Stiller’s character would take on such a blatantly offensive project, why would he do it when his action movie sequels were less dangerous content? Plausibility problem for me, nevermind whether or not one thinks humor about the disabled is funny.

As the LATimes opinion piece aptly points out:

The "retard" jokes are a harder case, and I don’t quite buy the rationalization that Ben Stiller’s performance as "Simple Jack" derives all its laughs from its lampooning of Hollywood’s naive lionization of the mentally challenged. Yet it’s funny in a sophomoric, guilt-inducing way. I confess that I laughed both at "Simple Jack" and the Downey character’s advice to Stiller’s character never to "go full retard" if he wanted an Oscar.

The action movies Stiller’s character were most popular for ("Scorcher") seemed much more plausible and easier territory to score with laughs. I think Stiller and company could have used the action movie character scenes with more humor and am somewhat puzzled why that wasn’t used instead. It seemed more like a cheap shock jock type device rather than a vital part of the film. As for the protesting groups, I think you have somewhat of a point, but you probably did more to promote the movie than hurt ticket sales. It didn’t work for me. A friend had to tell me you were protesting, but I probably would have been more intrigued to see if the film was offensive if I’d known you were protesting. That’s always the danger with drawing too much attention to something you hope others won’t pay to see. Controversy sells tickets.

Tropic Thunder is a comedy worth seeing. The LATimes review reminded me that it borrows somewhat from Galaxy Quest in that the actors extend their roles beyond the screen, but I think it’s a different enough twist that it’s still creative.  Grade: A-

Turbo is considered to be one of the worst Judas Priest albums, so let’s hope the turbo theme works better for DISH TV. Got this email today:

Did I read that right? We’re getting full on 1080p action through DISH? No, not exactly, they will only be offering 1080p video on demand movies (pay per view). Will this cost extra? It doesn’t say if the 1080p pay per view movies will cost more than the standard definition like Xbox and the PS3 are currently doing through their networks.

All DISH Network HD customers have been Turbo-charged! In the early morning hours of 8/1 DISH Network reinvented high definition! Current HD customers had the next generation of HD downloaded right to their receivers!

It sucks that this is for pay per view and not for all of their HD channels. Sort of a non announcement. Turbo … what?

Add to that today seeing the release of Starship Troopers 1-3 trilogy Blu-ray (2008) for $56.95 at Amazon or $59.99 at Best Buy (where we bought it). Oh yeah it’s a beautiful day to be at 1080p!

The trilogy offers the first Starship Troopers movie (a classic!), Starship Troopers 2 which was kind of lame and the newest straight to DVD Starship Troopers 3 Marauders. This is BD-live enabled which means extras and goodies through a separate menu including the ability to "join the fight" against the bugs by uploading a headshot of yourself. Just click on the "BD-Live" option in the main menu screen and wait for BD-live to load.

Expect to be staring at this for an awkward amount of time, even if you have a fast connection:

Waiting. Man, why does the loading take so long for BD-live? And it’s every me too. I have a PS3, use the hard drive already, cache some content, buy some faster servers, whatever it takes. Once you get into the BD-live menu, you still need to register for an account before you can "join the fight." That only takes a little bit of time, but then you are sent to your email to find a link to upload a head shot.

It’s a clumsy, laborious process. Will save you some hassle, make sure your headshot is 640×480, anything larger or that much smaller and your face will not fit in the matte. Once you’ve done that you can watch scenes with your face super-imposed on a Starship Trooper solider. Would have preferred a networked game blasting bugs with a fellow Starship Troopers fan.

As for the Starship Troopers 3 movie? It’s better than the second movie, but not as good as the first. Good to see Casper Van Dien back but I miss Denise Richards. Her absence isn’t explained in the movie at all. The Marauders part doesn’t come until the last act of the film and feels kind of Robocop to me. Grade: C

Night Ranger Hole In The Sun is the newest album from one of the favorite 80s bands. Dawn Patrol (1982) and Midnight Madness (1983) were two awesome albums from a band that might have pigeonholed themselves as being too mellow, but these guys can seriously rock. 7 Wishes (1985) was the last studio album I liked a lot. Since the late 80s they’ve released five studio albums: Man in Motion (1988), Feeding off The Mojo (1995), Neverland (1997), Seven (1998) and their newest album Hole In The Sun. Where does Hole fit in their body of work? I’d say in the middle. It’s not among their best, but it’s no embarassment.

Warning: before buying this album through musicane - read the section at the bottom of this post

I’ve had Hole In The Sun in the playlist cycling and trying to get into it. The problem with Night Ranger is their first two albums were so good that everything that follows is being compared to a high benchmark. It’s a good thing they have some great musicians in Jack Blades who got together with Damn Yankees and more recently with Tommy Shaw in the project Shaw-Blades (recommended). Blades keeps the bass line down as well as Night Ranger vocals.

Brad Gillis is the whammy bar master axe grinder who was good enough to enjoy a short stint with Ozzy on the Speak of the Devil album covering Sabbath songs. If you don’t think that Gillis can play, just pick that album up someday. Add Jeff Watson as a co-guitarist (their description, not mine) and you have a solid one-two punch on the six strings. Hey, and Kelly Keagy is no slouch pounding the skins either.

As for the guy with the shades on the back of the Midnight Madness CD (Alan Fitzgerald?)? Seven seems to have been his last studio album with the band. Fitzgerald is also absent from "the band" page on nightranger.com. Disappointed to see him missing too as keyboards are an important part of the classic Night Ranger sound. Don’t worry, they have Great White’s Michael Lardie on the keys on the album.

Unfortunately you won’t find Watson or Lardie on the 2008 Night Ranger tour to support Hole In The Sky.

That’s right, Watson and Lardie have both left Night Ranger again already. Watson has been replaced by Joel Hoekstra and Lardie by Christian Cullen. Who are these guys? I’d have to Google them to learn more because apparently they aren’t important or well known enough to make "the band" page on nightranger.com yet. Why do they diss new band members like this? Somebody get their webmaster motoring.

Track List and review notes

1. "You’re Gonna Hear It From Me" - thundering drum intro with nice use of power chords and floor tom. Makes a statement that this isn’t album isn’t going to be as mellow as Night Ranger fans might expect. I like this one.

2. "Tell Your Vision" - Another good rocker track. Didn’t immediately like this one, but it grew on me quickly. Solo rips. The main riff reminds me a lot of another song by another band, but I can’t think of the name. This album is off to a strong start.

3. "Drama Queen" - I’m not sure who’s singing the main vocals on this one, but the vocals seem off. This one has a Def Leppard type of feel to it and would be better with Joe Elliot singing, especially with the whole "come on, come on, come on…" part. The dueling guitar solos are pure Night Ranger and great stuff.

4. "Whatever Happened" - breaking out the cry baby wah for the intro and outro, nice. Rest of song kind of reminds me of "All Star" by Smash Mouth. Would have liked to have more of that wah peddle doing something like Gary Richrath did on Wheels or Turning album by REO Speedwagon. A little too fluffy.

5. "There Is Life" - the first mellow track which starts with a piano. Think "Sister Christian" or "Sentimental Street" but without the strong lyrical hooks. The chorus is sticky, but it doesn’t have classic written on it. Not bad, not great, but solid and satisfying.

6. "Rockstar" - I don’t care for the tinty verse sound or the chorus. Seems too whiny. This is my least favorite track thus far.

7. "Hole In The Sun" - The guitar solo is great. Easily my favorite part of many lesser known songs like this by them. The rest of the song is just OK. This feels like we’re on B-side material.

8. "Fool In Me" - Acoustic guitar. The second mellow track on the album with a nice melody and lyrics but the bongo drums ruined it a bit for me.

9. "White Knuckle" - strong guitar intro and some effective keyboard work. This feels like one of those grow on you over multiple plays tracks.

10. "Revelation 4AM" - Another mellow track, some good bass work here.

11. "Wrap It Up" - this one’s not for me.

12. "Being" - mellow track number four and the weakest of the bunch. Would have rather seen them end the album on a rocker note.

13. Don’t Tell Me You Love Me (Acoustic) - see below

14. Sister Christian (Acoustic) - it’s nice hearing acoustic / unplugged versions but the inclusion of these tracks on the album seem more like a sales thing than adding anything that thrilling to the original versions. Don’t get me wrong, the acoustic guitar playing is skilled and entertaining, but I’d rather hear the originals.

Thinking that some fans might only buy the album if it comes with bonus acoustic tracks of past versions. Personally, I think if they want to do bonus songs, they should provide live versions of the new studio tracks so fans can get an idea of how the songs would sound live rather than trying to return to the hits well from the past. It makes sense that people are going to want to hear how the tunes would sound live on the upcoming tour. Bands that don’t do complete versions of their studio tracks live are missing a sales/marketing opportunity.

Rocky Musicane purchase experience
Purchasing the new Night Ranger Hole In The Sun album through Musicane 320kbps proved to be more challenging than it should have been. Musicane is in beta, so they should be given a little slack, but nightranger.com is promoting using them — and so am I in the top of this post, so I want readers to be on high alert.

First off I kept receiving "invalid token" errors when trying to pay via PayPal. Then I used my PayPal credit card and the transaction went through the first time, but also displayed error messages. When I logged into PayPal, I learned that they had charged me three times for the same album.

Grr. I fired off an email to customercare [->] musicane.com to see if they would please cancel the two extraneous charges and waited for a response. Right away I was given an automated ticket number to track the sale information, but didn’t hear back from a customer support person right away on a Monday. Not a great sign. I’ll update this section as to what happens, but I added a "warning:" message below the link above for readers. You might want to get this CD at Amazon or your local music store instead of buying online like I did.

The quality of the MP3 files is high, although it didn’t come with album art. I was able to get that from the Night Ranger official website.

Summary and grade
My first listen-through on the album yielded different feeling than subsequent ones have. It’s no Dawn Patrol or Midnight Madness, but you likely expected that. It’s not even 7 Wishes, but I’d put this ahead of Seven and tied with Man In Motion. There are a few scattered tracks that I really like here. I’ve never seen Night Ranger live and feel like this album and accompanying tour would be a good opportunity.  Do regret the fact that I can’t play any of these tunes on Rock Band or Guitar Hero (why not?), but that has nothing to do with my review grade that follows. Grade: B

It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of the various fake music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. This weekend we took some time to purchase and review the two most current offerings in the Guitar Hero franchise: Guitar Hero On Tour Nintendo DS ($49.99) and Guitar Hero Aerosmith ($99 at Wal-Mart) for the Xbox 360.

Guitar Hero On Tour Nintendo DS
Guitar Hero On Tour has an interesting, but uncomfortable glove-like control pad that literally wraps around the DS. When I saw a demo of it online a couple months back (sorry, can’t remember what the publication was to link), I didn’t think it would be as uncomfortable to hold and play. It is. I felt uncomfortable with it after playing a couple songs. Carpal Guitar Hero Tunnel syndrome anyone?

It was a nice touch to include an adapter for the game that fit those of us with the older style Nintendo DS. Just have to unscrew a couple flat-head screws and pop out the control circuit, then put in the replacement one. Takes a couple minutes.

The game itself has an already lampooned mechanism for activating star power: either yell something into the microphone or blow in it. If you blow in it or yell at it you look equally foolish. Why didn’t they include some picture of an amp or something to knock over on the right screen? Who wants to give their Nintendo DS a blowjob?

The pick is the one part that feels good in the hand but no so much with the back and forth motion on the virtual guitar displayed on the touch screen. To whammy you just move the pick in a similar motion over the whammy bar. It’s not nearly as satisfying as using the whammy bar on the full size game.

I give high marks for effort and am glad to see something on the DS for portable rocking out, but I’m not sure we’ll be taking this game many places because it is awkward and not as much fun to play as the full-size version.

Also, my son pointed out that if you have longer fingers like him, it’s a little more tricky. And there are only four buttons instead of five (no orange button), which is another knock for hardcore Guitar Hero players. Guitar Hero fans will buy this, heck, you probably have, but I wouldn’t recommend for non diehards. Grade: C-

Guitar Hero Aerosmith
The first thing to disappoint is that the game wasn’t available separately at Wal-Mart. Maybe other stores are selling the game elsewhere, but Wal-Mart was forcing their shoppers to buy the Aerosmith guitar bundle which cost $99.87 or some weird penny price like that. I thought about hitting Best Buy or Circuit City to see if it was the same deal there but it was a hot day yesterday and I didn’t want to spend it shopping.

According to Amazon, the game sold separately won’t be available until tomorrow, Tuesday July 1, 2008. So for two days of impatience, we’re paying. We should have waited. Oh well. I don’t blame them for releasing the game this way, so the review score doesn’t reflect this annoyance.

Since we bought the package to get to the game, I’m not going to review the guitar itself. It’s essentially the same Guitar Hero III guitar controller, as best as I can tell. We left it in the package. Might be handy to have an extra axe in case the others go down and when you figure they are selling the guitars standalone for $59, it’s actually a deal buying the package.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith takes the player through the career of Aerosmith and boasts some 25 tracks from the band’s extensive music library. It’s nice hearing and being able to play along with great songs like “Kings and Queens” and more well-known songs like “Sweet Emotion” but if you aren’t an Aerosmith fan be warned: you will likely be disappointed.

I don’t know why anybody would buy a game with Aerosmith music if they didn’t like Aerosmith, but if that fits you, then I’d pass. If you are a Guitar Hero collector, as I said above, you probably already were waiting in line Sunday morning at 12:01am. That wasn’t us. We went Sunday afternoon.

Mad props for another Guitar Hero game, but we didn’t see that much new here to warrant a completely new game. Why not just release Aerosmith song paks? I know, I know, there’s an Aerosmith storyline that goes with the game, it’s not just the songs, but at the end of the day — and the career mode — you’re left with replay value being the songs themselves. I’d rather have paid $30-40 for the songs than $100 for the game and extra controller, but that’s just me.

I’m not at expert skill level at these games and tend to play and be challenged by the ‘hard’ difficulty for most of these type games. I don’t have enough time to practice and get as good at these games as I’d like. I’d rather use this time playing real music instruments. At the same time, I do enjoy them and think they offer a huge benefit to the struggling music business.

My middle son and younger son are both experts at these games and were able to beat both Guitar Hero on Tour for the Nintendo DS and Guitar Hero Aerosmith at expert difficulty in a few hours. Aerosmith has 31 base songs (with 9+ more unlockable) and Guitar Hero On Tour has 25 (not sure how many more unlockables). None of the songs, according to our sons were extraordinarily difficult. Nothing that matches “Through The Fire and Flames.” This was a letdown for them. They were hoping for something to shred and more challenging.

As the one who purchased the games, I was disappointed there wasn’t more challenge as well. Why not throw in some speed death metal tracks just to keep the replay factor high for players like them?

Here’s an idea — and missed opportunity — release each new version with new types of game controllers. Don’t have just another guitar, have it be one that has special effects that the other doesn’t have. That’s not my idea, BTW, Activision competitor Rock Band is planning to do just that by promising new type instruments (keyboard, maybe?). Oh yeah, sign me up.

My son who beat it on expert (pictured above), said Guitar Hero Aerosmith is “ok.” The time to beat this on the expert setting, was much too easy (for him). Therefore, at least in our household, I don’t see this one having very much replay value, so I’m marking down for that. Just being a new Guitar Hero game isn’t enough when one can buy new songs online every week. Nobody in our family are huge Aerosmith fans, but the music selection is good. Not sure I’d want to emulate Joe Perry though. Grade: C+

It’s not often that we see 98% movie review scores from the Rotten Tomatoes collective. WALL-E is getting lots of reviewer love.

This morning skeptical, but curious, I told our recently graduated son who has been working with me in our online business: “Hey, you want to go see this really quick?” At first he wasn’t that interested, but then he read some of the reviews and changed his mind.

The single line synopsis of this movie is irresistible:

What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?

Off to the 10:45am PST showing we went, intrigued.

There was a deaf person with her family in front of us buying tickets who were having some animated sign language about the movie. We ended up sitting behind the family during the movie. About 30 minutes into the movie I realized just how great a movie this is for the hearing impaired. How many movies are made that don’t need subtitles?

The first 40 minutes of the movie have almost no dialogue and the final hour have very little dialogue. WALL-E is one of those extremely rare films that don’t need much in the way of dialogue or subtitles and yet can not only sustain interest but entertain. While we’re on the “how many movies …” kick, how many movies can get laughs out of sporks?

Sporks!

WALL-E is Pixar’s latest compelling animated tale. A science fiction love story about a final remaining trash compactor named WALL-E operating on a trash-ridden future version of earth somewhere around the year 2800. Where did all the people go? And what happened to humanity? WALL-E offers a bleak, and somewhat believable premonition of mankind 800+ years from now. Without spoiling the movie, I’ll just say we haven’t become the most sedentiary beings. You’d think mankind would learn not to leave too much control to robots. This is a well-trodden path many science fiction writers have been writing about and warning us against for the last 75+ years.

The only company WALL-E has on earth is a cockroach (who doesn’t speak thankfully) until a probe droid named Eve (”Eva”) is sent back to earth. WALL-E who spends his time making cubes out of garbage and picking out the good stuff like old VHS tapes (what, no DVD?), watching movies through an old iPod, and popping bubble wrap, takes an immediate liking to Eva to stave off his loneliness.

Can’t say I ever imagined liking a romantic story involving a trash compacter but WALL-E fires on all cylinders. This is the best animated movie I’ve seen in a long time. No animated movies come to mind to compare it to, which is a high compliment. I’ve written hundreds of reviews and never given an A+ to anything. I have no problem giving WALL-E the first A+. It’s that good. It’s family friendly too. The 98% Rotten Tomatoes reviewers are giving it is well-deserved. My son gave it a B-, but his only other favorite animated movie was Toy Story. WALL-E is better than Toy Story. Get out of the heat and into the air conditioning. Take your loved ones to see this film. Grade: A+.

Loved Motley Crue’s first few albums but have drifted away as a fan since then. Or rather, I’ve kept hoping they’d put out albums as great as Shout at the Devil. Who can’t love a party band that can jam like them who are equally notorious offstage for sniffing ants with Ozzy?

Sadly, they became too much about being glam rockers of the 80s with cheesy commercial radio tracks like “Girls, Girls, Girls” when we wanted their harder, edgier side in tracks like “Red Hot” and “Live Wire” and “Too Hot for Love.” I like their cover of Helter Skelter better than the original Beatles version. That says how much I liked this band at one time.

At one time.

It’s similar to the way I felt about Great White (note: I’m not saying Great White is a better band than Motley Crue) who started as a hard rock band and then went all blues and too mellow, but at least Great White has remained fairly prolific with new material the last 20+ years.

Can’t say the same about the Crue, who have put out only *9* studio albums in the last 27 years (maybe one album every three years isn’t that anemic) including yesterday’s newest release Saints of Los Angeles. Only 7 of the 9 albums contain the four founding members of the band:

Vince Neil - vocals
Mick Mars - guitars
Nikki Sixx - bass
Tommy Lee - drums

Before we get to the strong and weak points of the Saints album, which I purchased on AmazonMP3 ($8.99) and took off Judas Priest Nostradamus to listen to instead for awhile, let’s revisit Motley Crue’s studio albums to date.

Motley Crue Studio Albums
1. Too Fast for Love (1981)
2. Shout at the Devil (1983)
3. Theater of Pain (1985)
4. Girls, Girls, Girls (1987)
5. Dr. Feelgood (1989)
*6. Motley Crue (1994) - *John Corabi on vocals (instead of Vince Neil)
7. Generation Swine (1997)
*8. New Tattoo (2000) - *Randy Castillo on drums (instead of Tommy Lee), later replaced by female Hole drummer
9. Saints of Los Angeles (June 24, 2008)

Studio albums 1-3 (purchased in this order: Shout at the Devil, Too Fast for Love, Theater of Pain), are highly recommended to add any rocker’s collection. It gets a little more sketchy (for me, anyway) after that.

While Girls, Girls, Girls disappointed this fan, it brought great commercial success for the band Dr. Feelgood had some good tracks like the title track and ballad “Without You.” I’d put Dr. Feelgood as purchase #4 for your Motley Crue studio album collection.

I never took to the self-titled album where Vince Neil didn’t even sing. WTF? How do you put out a self-titled album and not have your original singer? Quiet Riot did this too when once upon a time (1986 I believe) they fired recently deceased Kevin Dubrow and replaced with the raspy, Rough Cutt singer, Paul Shortino. I liked Shortino, BTW, but his time with Quiet Riot was short lived.

Van Halen did something similar with the critically panned (and for good reasons) Van Halen 3 with Gary Cherone at the pipes, but strangely Van Halen 1 and Van Halen 2 both had Diamond Dave behind the mic. Shouldn’t VH2 have had the second singer of the band, Sammy Hagar? Who says rock and roll needs to make sense? Braincells be damned.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to rate Generation Swine or New Tattoo, because I don’t recall listening to either of them, much less buying them. They might have some good songs, or totally suck, so get those reviews elsewhere from somebody who has listened to them (or wait for me to buy them and review them). The reality is Motley Crue ceased being as interesting to me when they broke up the first time. I do realize Vince Neil rejoined the band for Generation Swine and Saints of Los Angeles is an intriguing enough listen for me to go back and see if I missed anything noteworthy.

New Tattoo doesn’t have Tommy Lee on drums, so I’m a little less interested in buying that one. For those who don’t know much about Motley Crue, Tommy Lee has the chops and is considered one of the best rock drummers around. Replacing somebody of his caliber is like replacing Neil Peart of Rush. This isn’t like replacing the drummer for Loverboy.

But hey, now that the original Motley Crue is back together again (third time? fourth time?), let’s get to the stuff that was released yesterday and see what’s good.

Saints of Los Angeles Track List with my thoughts
1. “L.A.M.F” - is this supposed to be like the opening to “Shout of the Devil” (in the speaking sense), only using Los Angeles as the backdrop? I like the Shout intro better but this is alright.
2. “Face Down In The Dirt” - solid track with some good riffs. Nice musical intro to the album.
3. “What’s It Gonna Take” - girls singing as backing vocals toward the end ruined this a bit for me. Seems like ripping (the wrong) page out of the Girls, Girls, Girls book. Otherwise, some good moments.
4. “Down At The Whisky” - a lot of L.A-based rock bands have a fond connection to playing at The Whisky, which I believe is sort of like the Madison Square Gardens of small clubs. This is a decent song about The Whisky with some great drumming by Tommy Lee. I was a bit disappointed that Mick Mars didn’t break out with a ripping solo. The song was made for it, but the solo he does put in there seems kind of mailed in (too short and not much flash or flare).
5. “Saints of Los Angeles (Gang Vocal)” - with the title track, I expected the boys to pull out all the stops. It starts with a very effective bass track by Nikki Sixx. The opening guitar riff explodes and Vince is in top form. Very nice.
6. “Mutherfucker of the Year” - how can any rocker not appreciate a song with an MF bomb as its title? The opening is an all out left-right speaker assault. This one jams from intro to close. Some familiar, but expertly placed guitar wah effects by Mars.
7. “The Animal In Me” - old school Crue with a great thumping bass (Nikki) and drums (Tommy). Vince nails the catchy vocals and Mick Mars shreds the axe. Motley Crue is clicking on all cylinders with this one. Crank it up. I liked this one on the very first listen and it is my favorite track on the album.
8. “Welcome To The Machine” - great guitar solo and drums (I know, I keep saying that but it’s hard not to appreciate Tommy Lee pounding the skins).
9. “Just Another Psycho” - I need to listen to this one more.
10. “Chicks = Trouble” - a throwaway track for me. Didn’t care for it. Music jams but it doesn’t gel.
11. “This Ain’t A Love Song”
12. “White Trash Circus”
13. “Goin’ Out Swingin’” - need more listens to the last five tracks, nothing really sticking out as great.

Summary and Hmm thoughts
Must admit I was surprised a bit by Saints. I figured it would be mostly crap, but there are some good jams on there. I’m going to go back and visit Generation Swine and maybe the other albums. Saints doesn’t give me the same Crue pleasure that their first three albums and Dr. Feelgood did, but it’s not bad. I have a feeling it might be their best album since Dr. Feelgood but can’t say that officially because I’ve been out of the Crue loop.

Motley Crue is on the short list of bands that I like but haven’t seen live to date yet. Going to keep my eyes peeled the next time they come to town. If you like the earlier Motley Crue stuff, give Saints of Los Angeles a listen. It’s not as raw as Too Fast for Love or as gritty as Shout, but it’s not the crap glam rock that drove fans like me away for awhile. It’s also not some huge breakthrough album that will sell better than their biggest albums of the past, but it’s refreshing to see the Crue getting back to their roots, somewhat.

The first half of the album is very strong but it fades kind of like the B-side of Theater of Pain. I might get flamed for saying this, but where is the rock album token ballad? Coming from a band with solid ballads like “Home Sweet Home” you kind of expect one ballad? Yes, no? Oh well, I don’t think the lack of a ballad hurts Saints. Now if only the boys stay together and put out more albums like this, and limit time spent in Vince Neil’s tattoo parlor, I bet they suck back in more of their older fans. Grade: B-

Judas Priest has remained my favorite heavy metal band for 25+ years now. I was delighted when Rob Halford rejoined the band, but enjoyed the time Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens (of Iced Earth) spent with the band. I’ve seen Priest in concert several times and they never disappoint live.

While some might argue JP aren’t as heavy as they used to be, they were and still are pioneers in the genre. With their newest epic studio album Nostradamus, 23 songs telling a story in a way musically that only Judas Priest can tell.

The description from the official Judas Priest biography page:

Long in the works, ‘Nostradamus’ takes epic storytelling to a whole new level, as it recounts the life of this mysterious, world-known 16th Century French prophet. Some of the events that Nostradamus experts have interpreted as his predictions include the great fire of London in 1666, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and most recently, 9-11, among countless other renowned events.

Here I thought they were just going to release another 10-15 song album and to my delight I discovered 23 songs waiting in the AmazonMP3 track list. I know what I’ll be listening to for awhile. Oh, and yes, I’ll be going out and buying the CD as well. Probably one of the two special editions:

In addition to the regular jewel case double CD version of the album, collectors will undoubtedly be interested in hunting down a copy of a Deluxe Double CD housed in a 48 page hardbound book package. But that’s not all - a Super Deluxe Box-set version will also be available with triple vinyl, the double CD, an expanded booklet & a poster.

Nostradamus track listing
These are the songs on Nostradamus in order with a few comments as I listen (will continue to update this, so check back after the post is published):

1. “Dawn of Creation” - a Priest album that starts with piano and continues with organ to intro the next track, it’s no Hellion but portends well for what follows. Prepare to be rocked in the next track.
2. “Prophecy” - just try to listen to this a few times and stop singing ‘Nostradamus’ - I’m guessing this will be played on their tour to support the album.
3. “Awakening”
4. “Revelations”
5. “The Four Horseman”
6. “War”
7. “Sands of Time” - the line “sands of time running low” an accidental (intentional?) tribute to fellow metal heads Iron Maiden?
8. “Pestilence And Plague”
9. “Death” - verse has the pace and feel of the classic Sabbath tune “Black Sabbath”
10. “Peace”
11. “Conquest”
12. “Lost Love”
13. “Persecution”
14. “Solitude”
15. “Exiled”
16. “Alone” - the acoustic guitar work on this track is some of the best of Priest’s career. If you were disappointed with how synthesizers were used in Turbo, this will restore your faith. Halford has a scream near the end that is one of his best ever. If you ever doubted that he still has the pipes, listen for it and enjoy. “Alonnnnnnnnnneeeeeeee!” Chilling. We keep playing this one over and over, it’s that good.
17. “Shadows In The Flame”
18. “Visions”
19. “Hope”
20. “New Beginnings”
21. “Calm Before The Storm”
22. “Nostradamus” - a thrasher in the spirit of “Screaming for Vengeance” and “Freewheel Burning”
23. “Future of Mankind” - one of the best dual guitar solo tradeoffs and a fitting close. KK Downing and Glen Tipton smoke the fretboards.

AmazonMP3 has easily slipped into my favorite place to shop for music online. I’ve collected all Judas Priest albums available through AmazonMP3 in the Judas Priest Store embedded in the post below (RSS readers might need to click through to the post to see)

Chronological order of Judas Priest studio albums
By my count this is Judas Priest’s 16th studio album beginning in 1974 and still rocking 34 years later:

1. Rocka Rolla (1974)
2. Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
3. Sin after Sin (1977)
4. Stained Glass (1978)
5. Hell Bent For Leather (1979)
6. British Steel (1980)
7. Point of Entry (1981)
8. Screaming For Vengeance (1982)
9. Defenders of the Faith (1984)
10. Turbo (1986)
11. Ram It Down (1988)
12. Painkiller (1990)
13. Jugulator (1997) - Ripper Owens on Vocals
14. Demolition (2001) - Ripper Owens on Vocals
15. Angel of Retribution (2005) - Halford returns as vocalist
16. Nostradamus (2008)

Judas Priest Studio Albums - best to worst list
If you’re looking to buy the past Judas Priest studio albums, my son and I collaborated on buying and listening in the following order. If you feel like the buying order should be different, we welcome your comments below (we had a fun debate over this), trackbacked from your blog, FriendFeed, whatever. I linked the albums available in the Judas Priest store (via AmazonMP3) with the price as of this writing:

1. British Steel ($7.99)
2. Screaming For Vengeance ($7.99)
3. Hell Bent For Leather ($7.99)
4. Defenders of The Faith ($7.99)
5. Sad Wings of Destiny ($8.91)
6. Sin after Sin ($7.99)
7. Point of Entry ($7.99)
8. Stained Glass ($7.99)
9. Ram It Down ($7.99)
10. Painkiller ($7.99)
11. Jugulator (the only Judas Priest studio album not available at AmazonMP3)
12. Angel of Retribution ($7.99)
13. Turbo ($7.99)
14. Rocka Rolla ($7.92)
15. Demolition ($9.99)

I haven’t had enough time to fully listen and enjoy Nostradamus yet but through the early listens I’d already place it in their top 10 studio albums. Our oldest son thinks it should be #7, ahead of Point of Entry, but I’m not sure if any tracks have the staying power of Desert Plains or Heading Out To The Highway. Time will tell. The title track “Nostradamus” is perhaps the only real thrasher and could easily have been on Painkiller or Ram it Down. The Halford scream at the end of the haunting song “Alone” puts it way, way ahead of anything on Rocka Rolla and Demolition (with Ripper Owens).

Summary and grade
Nostradamus is clearly stronger than their reunion with Halford album Angel of Retribution and despite Turbo maybe being more commercially successful than other better albums, Nostradamus belongs in company with Ram It Down, Stained Glass and Painkiller. Their worst studio efforts to date are Rocka Rolla and Demolition, so save those for last and try not to hold against the band if/when building upon your Priest music collection.

Overall, it’s a good time to be a Judas Priest fan. Feels a bit like the late 80s as they were off the heavy success of Vengeance and Defenders tours. Judas Priest are going to be in Seattle at the WaMu theater next month, July 22. Yes, I want to go. Tracks from the tour are already making their way to YouTube.

If I were to grade Nostradamus on first listen, purely in scope, it deserves no less than a B. Tracks that stuck out on first listen include: “Prophecy”, “Alone”, “Nostradamus” and “Future of Mankind.” I feel like I’m going to be listening to this album for a long time. Next stop: the limited edition CD! Grade: A-

Update 6/20/08 8:28am PST: Yesterday, after posting this review I did two things:

1. Went to hang out in the official Judas Priest chatroom. Why? Wanted to see what other Priest fans were saying about Nostradamus. Nobody in the channel was giving the album bad reviews. In fact, a few were annoyed by some negative reviews on Amazon. If the album sucks, you’d definitely hear about it in the official chatroom, but so far the early opinions — there at least — are positive.

2. I went to Best Buy and bought the Deluxe CD version. It’s on sale for $24.99 (regularly $34.99) and comes with a full booklet and a free ticket to one of 12 different concerts on their tour. Good luck on that though because I checked the closest venue to me: Mountain View, CA which is still 800+ miles away and the free tickets were all used up. The package is nice though, it comes with a 48-page book containing the lyrics to all Nostradamus songs and some fantastic artwork:

One CD is in a special compartment at the beginning and the other is at the end. The spine of the book is professionally bound.

This is quality workmanship. We saw the Super-Deluxe version which contains the vinyl for sale at Best Buy for $69.99, BTW. Good prices for both version comparatively to what I’m seeing online.

I’m now at 200+ song listens to Nostradamus and getting even more into the storyline. You’ll see some of my passion in the comments below. This is a great story and one where following the lyrics are not optional. I’m sure one of the lyrics sites has them already, but go buy the deluxe version already with the booklet. If you like albums that tell stories, you’ll gobble this one up.

Journey needs a Revelation, literally. They need to Escape to Steve Perry’s house and convince him to take up the microphone again. I was blissfully unaware that Perry replacement Steve Augeri had throat problems on the 2006 Journey tour and was replaced mid-tour. At first by Jeff Scott Soto and then permanently by Arnel Pineda who sings the 11 new tracks on Journey’s newest studio album Revelation, available now at Wal-Mart exclusively.

Major props to my music buddy Matt who yesterday through his good blog Addicted To Vinyl tipped me off to this news. There have been a lot of 80s bands releasing new music recently like Asia, Dokken and Whitesnake which I’ve bought and been listening to as well. I’m feeling a small 80s-type uprising. Good time to be a rocker again?

I went out yesterday and bought the Journey CD and have been (mostly) listening to it since. Although I’ll expand in greater detail below, I share many of Matt’s feelings on the vocals:

as much as Arnel Pineda might have the goods vocally, there is NO doubt in my mind that Cain and Schon kicked his ASS in the studio to get the results they wanted to hear on the album, and you can hear it.

Let’s cast aside my irritation that Journey pulled the same stunt as The Eagles by forcing me to get in the car and pay too much for gas to visit the local Wal-Mart. I would have much rather bought ‘Revelation’ online through AmazonMP3 or one of the other non-DRM stores. These music exclusives might be good for the band but they suck for those of us who would rather buy the music from our music retailer/e-tailer of choice.

Must admit that I agree with Matt on the Journey Revelation package as being a good deal for $11.88. Not sure if we should thank Journey, Wal-Mart or both for this one. How many new albums come with 11 new songs, a new singer singing 11 old songs completely re-recorded, plus a DVD of a bonus concert in April of this year.

First up, the re-recorded songs aren’t as good as the originals. They sound old — and not in a good way. Pineda is a somewhat plastic version of Steve Perry. Dude needs more emotion. On one hand I like the fact that they included examples that Pineda could sing the songs, but on the other this feels kind of Karaokeish.

“Wheel In The Sky” - too fast! Come on, Neal Schon, you’re great on the fretboards, listen to the timing of the original and compare. When Journey plays Wheel live they always play the tempo faster than the original and it doesn’t work as well fast. I imagine with a few beers in you, it wouldn’t be as noticeable, but without a buzz it’s easy to hear. Pineda hits most the notes, but seems labored.

“Faithfully” - this is Pineda at his best singing the classics, I liked this one. He’s close to feeling it here. Music is about as close to the original of any of the re-recorded tracks.

“Any Way You Want It” - Remember Caddyshack? This song will always remind me of Rodney Dangerfield cutting it up on the course with a dancing gopher. Pineda’s vocals and the music are faithful to the original. Nice job.

“Who’s Crying Now” - listen to the weak vocals right before the guitar solo at the end and that’s all you need to hear from Pineda as to how he inserts emotion into a classic (answer: he doesn’t). Disappointing. Schon smokes the guitar and the keyboards and bass are there. Sometimes it is the singer, not the song, and that can be no clearer than listening to Journey.

“Separate Ways” - the guitar isn’t mixed as heavy in this re-recording and it’s noticeable. It needs more layering in the mix and some more distortion. Sounds a little too raw for my liking and normally I like raw. The keyboards are as haunting as ever. This is a great Journey song. Pineda covers it ok until he reaches the part about “in vain - vaaaaiiiinnnn” it chokes. I’m surprised they didn’t have him do another take there. Major misstep.

They also do semi-decent re-do versions of “Only The Young”, “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Lights”, “Open Arms”, “Be Good To Yourself” (w/ extended solo? I like that) and “Stone In Love”. I think you get where this extra disc goes. It gives you an idea of what you might expect if Pineda had been Perry or [gasp] even Augeri. Bottom line: I don’t think it would have worked as well.

Onto the new tracks.

The 11 new songs on Revelation
I’ve been listening back and forth to the new songs and waiting for something to gel with me like a couple of the tracks from Arrival with Augeri on vocals and it’s not happening enough yet. Going to keep trying because some of the riffs are starting to stick out.

“Never Walk Away” - made me feel a bit like I did when I first heard Higher Place on Arrival, but I like Higher Place better because it has a better bass riff. I wish this jammed a little more. The Neal Schon guitar solo smokes, but stops short of really breaking out. It’s not a very strong introduction to Pinera vocally. He’s competent, we get that, but what else? This might have been something on Trial By Fire as a B-side reject, maybe.

“Like A Sunshower” - has a rhythm that goes something like “Lights” but with a lot less charm and sans the catchy lyrics. Somebody turn up Ross Valory’s bass. It’s like they mixed him down. It’s not the same with him toned down.

“Change for the Better” - the only thing I’d change about this track is change to another song. Again, this feels like B-side filler from Perry’s worst Journey album: Trial By Fire. I’d add track 4: “Wildest Dream” to this list. Forgettable.

“Faith in the Heartland” - I learned from Matt’s post that this is a remake from a track on Journey’s last album with Augeri singing called Generations which I barely remember listening to on Napster (the legal one) and giving a C+ grade. Never bought that one, but might go out and hunt it down on AmazonMP3, iTMS or the Zune marketplace if it’s available. I like the opening riff, but it just feels like a dozen other (better) Journey songs to me.

“After All These Years” - has the familiar Journey ballad components, but Pineda lacks the passion to go with the score. It comes off like something one of the American Idol voted off finalists would sing instead of Journey’s lead pipes. This track is getting some airplay. It sticks out.

“Where Did I Lose Your Love” - Like the last track, I totally dig the opening riff, but then it we get to the verses and it doesn’t work as well for me. The chorus is very catchy though. Feels like something that might have been on Raised on Radio. B-side again, but I like this one overall. It’s starting to stick.

“What I Needed” - With the piano/keyboard opening you’re thinking Open Arms but it gets heavier. Jonanthan Cain can still tickle the ivories. Ok track overall, nothing groundbreaking.

“What It Takes To Win” - Love the delay and other guitar effects. The chorus isn’t catch enough, but this is among my favorites on the album for guitar work. This might be my favorite track of the whole lot in fact.

“Turn Down The World Tonight” - Next to “After All These Years” this is mellowest track on the album. One too many mellow songs, even for a Journey album. These guys aren’t Air Supply. Crank up the amps already. Give us some anthem rock. A ’show us the lighter’ song every once in awhile is ok, but we need that rocker to mix up the tempo.

“The Journey (Revelation)” - Instrumental. Journey isn’t known for having that many instrumentals so it’s a nice break. The music is ok, it’s no YYZ by Rush or anything but it fits the album.

Summary
I wanted to like Revelation more than I actually have so far. At least I bought it, unlike Generations, but once I lay down $$, I tend to even be more picky, not less. It’s kind of sad that after a day worth of listens I can only point to a single song that I will continue to listen to going forward. That song ironically titled “What It Takes To Win” doesn’t win me over for the whole album. I’ll keep trying to listen and see if something will stick because I feel like I’m missing some sort of brilliance here. I think it’s that I want to like this because it’s Journey more than anything, not because the music is that good.

Must admit I feel badly for Steve Augeri. He seemed like a nice guy and I could hear passion in his voice that I don’t hear with Pineda. I don’t understand what throat problems he had, if it was brought on by the stress of touring or something else, but I would have liked to see him stay — if he could medically anyway. From what I could find from some searching around on the web, it seemed like an amicable split, possibly due to medical reasons more than a fallout with the band. If you know more on the story, please use the comment section below or your blog to trackback in and tell me about the details. I’m curious.

Better yet Journey, just bring back the real Steve. Perry has been in the basement too long. It’s time for him to come out of hiding and do a real reunion with Journey. It’s kind of sad to see a band of Journey’s caliber playing smaller gigs when they used to pack concert arenas. If Diamond Dave and Eddie can hook up and Zeppelin can get together with Jason Bonham what’s holding back Perry?

In fairness to Pineda, he’s a competent singer and sings the songs well. I haven’t watched the DVD yet of his concert and maybe he tears it up vocally there. As a package for value I give Revelation high marks, but at the end of the day it’s not how many extras and much filler you jam into a CD package, the music must do the talking. Sorry, Journey’s Revelation is mostly lips sealed. Grade: D+