Home Photos Interviews Contact
Previous month:
March 2009
Next month:
May 2009

TOJ "People Like Us"

April 16, 2009

Toj

"Tears of Joy" are a stranger in town. To ignore them would be foolish, to confront them even sillier. With a band this good the only sensible action is to make friends, an effortless act considering the quality on offer throughout this, their debut album.

The first track, appropriately entitled "Open Up", will instantly subdue any fears that you've been conned by yet another 'me too' affair. This is pop as it should be, catchy ,smooth and original. "Honey" and "Children Of The Night" are as much at home on the dance floor as they are on your hoity toity stereo system. The emotional maturity of "Warrior", "Lovesongs" and "Teardrops" is seldom heard these days. This is a band who grew in the sunny part of the rockery.

If you're expecting comparisons with more established acts for ease of analysis, forget it. I, like others before me, have tried and failed. If you doubt these words, and I don't blame you if you do, listen for yourself and prepare to fall in love with music all over again.

"People like us" is available at 5000records and (very soon) on Itune!

Posted by on April 16, 2009 in About new material | | Comments (0)

| |

California CD, Westcoast Music / AOR compilation 4 CDs released in France!

April 15, 2009

Californiagroove

"California Groove" (Warner Music France) is the title of a new digipack compilation of 4 CDs (75 songs) that will be released April 6, 2009 exclusively in France for the following French records shops: Virgin and Starter retail chains (Cultura, Gibert Joseph et Chapitre).

This new great project has been made possible because of the talent and hobby of David Dutreuil (Warner Music France). It features some rarities... What a great 4 CDs set that every fan of Westcoast Music / AOR can obtain! A must have! A truly gift!

Don't miss it!

Westcoast Rendez-Vous is a mediapartner of the release of "California Groove".


California Groove: tracklisting: 4 CDs - 75 songs


CD1

1. America - Ventura Highway

2. Daryl Hall And John Oates - Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)

3. Nicolette Larson - Lotta Love

4. Bread - Dismal Day

5. Orleans - Dance With Me

6. The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band - Border Town

7. John David Souther - Some People Call It Music

8. Seals & Croft - Summer Breeze

9. Carly Simon - You're So Vain

10. Wendy Waldman - Long Hot Summer Nights

11. Rickie Lee Jones - Chuck E's In Love

12. Linda Ronstadt - Easy For You To Say

13. Firefall - It Doesn't Matter

14. Boz Scaggs - I'm Easy

15. Danny O'Keefe - Junkman

16. Todd Rundgren - I Saw The Light

17. Little Feat - Willin'

18. Terence Boylan - Suzy

19. Poco - Ghost Town

20. Joe Walsh - Life's Been Good (Original Long Version)


CD2

1. Alessi Brothers - Oh Lori

2. Barnaby Bye - Damn You Girl

3. Jim Messina - Break The Chain

4. Gino Vannelli - Mama Coco

5. Felix Cavaliere - Future Train

6. Frankie Valli - Swearin' To God

7. Crackin' - Too Young

8. Warren Zevon - Nighttime In The Switching Yard

9. Ned Doheny - On The Swing Shift

10. The Doobie Brothers - What A Fool Believes

11. Marc Jordan - Survival

12. Vapor Trails - Night People

13. Kenny Loggins - This Is It

14. The Wilson Brothers - Ticket To My Heart

15. Andrew Gold - Genevieve

16. Dane Donohue - Casablanca

17. Bill Champlin - Gotta Get Back To Love

18. Jay Ferguson - Thunder Island

19. Christopher Cross - Ride Like The Wind


CD3

1. Bill LaBounty - Livin' It Up

2. Robbie Dupree - Hot Rod Hearts

3. Michael McDonald - I Keep Forgettin (Every Time You're Near)

4. Ambrosia - You're The Only Woman (You & I)

5. Roger Voudouris - Get Used To It

6. Larsen-Feiten Band - Who'll Be The Fool Tonight

7. Paul Davis - Cool Night

8. England Dan & John Ford Coley - I'd Really Love To See You Tonight

9. Leblanc and Carr - Falling

10. Peter Allen - Fly Away

11. Larry Carlton - Nite Crawler

12. Christine McVie - Got A Hold On Me

13. Con Funk Shun - California 1

14. Leon Ware - That's Why I Came To California

15. Chaka Khan - What Cha' Gonna Do For Me

16. Patti Austin - Stop, Look, Listen

17. George Benson - Please Don't Walk Awa

18. Al Jarreau - We're In This Love Together

19. Toto - 99


CD4

1. Michael Franks - When Sly Calls (Don't Touch That Phone)

2. Eye To Eye - Nice Girls

3. Chris Rea - On the beach

4. Nightshift - Ocean Bay

5. Michael Ruff - More Than You'll Ever Know

6. Randy Newman - I Love L.A.

7. Maxus - The Higher You Rise

8. Jay Graydon of Airplay - She Waits For Me (Early Airplay demo)

9. Peter Cetera Where - There's No Tomorrow

10. Stephen Bishop - The Big House

11. Michael Sembello - First Time

12. Lee Ritenour - Countdown (Captain Fingers)

13. Geyster - Sister's Beautiful

14. Chicago - Hard To Say I'm Sorry

15. David Pack - My Baby

16. Jar - Cure Kit

17. Week End Millionnaire - French Music Par Excellence

Posted by on April 15, 2009 in About new material, Westcoast from France | | Comments (0)

| |

Lou Gramm Band upcoming release!

April 10, 2009

Thelougrammbandcover

Frontiers Records is delighted to announce the European release of THE LOU GRAMM BAND Self Titled album on June 5th 2009! 

Powerhouse vocalist and songwriter Lou Gramm can be heard each and every day, all over the world, on radio, ipods, CD players, television commercials, music videos, and of course... jukeboxes. Gramm – the former lead vocalist and co-writer of the multi-platinum band Foreigner - has become the voice of a generation. Among the most distinctive and powerful voices to emerge from Rock and Top 40 radio, Lou Gramm is also a successful solo artist in his own right and remains one of the most recognizable performers in music today. Lou Gramm, the vocalist on 20 Top 40 singles, which continue to drive sales of nearly 80 million albums worldwide, exploded onto the international music scene with Foreigner on the chart topper, "Feels Like The First Time" in 1977. The stats are impressive: eight Top 5 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and five Top 5 Albums on the Billboard Album chart in the U.S. alone plus a solid history of chart entries in several European territories and Japan ! 

Lou Gramm is in a class by himself. Now, nearly three decades after the debut of Foreigner and chart-topping success as a solo artist, Lou Gramm returns with The Lou Gramm Band, a powerful new CD featuring his own unique brand of Rock'n Roll. 
“The feeling is wonderful and liberating, to be able to once again record an album of songs that I really care about, with my brothers and my friends making up the band” says Lou. The Band is formed by Gramm’s brothers Ben and Richard on drums and bass respectively with Andy Knoll on keyboards and Don Mancuso on guitars. 
“I've always tried to be down to earth lyrically and write songs through experience and with emotion” continues Lou, “Musically, I am really fortunate enough to have creative and expressive musicians around me. When I hear a guitar or keyboard riff from my brother Richard, Don or Andy, a story begins to form lyrically and melodically and the band and I work these ideas. Sometimes very painstakingly, until we have the bare bones of something that we can be proud of ”. 

Whether they are rocking out on classics like "Hot Blooded" or "Jukebox Hero", rolling out a new extended groove on Gramm's massive solo hit, "Midnight Blue," or bringing to life "So Great" and "Baptized By Fire" from their new self titled CD, Lou and his band have been pleasing enthusiastic audiences with a show that captures the essence of Gramm's talent “We would love to tour Europe and the rest of the world playing both new songs and select songs from my thirty year career” concludes Lou, who in the meanwhile gives an appointment to his European fans on June 5th in all the finest record shops for the release of the LOU GRAMM BAND album !

Posted by on April 10, 2009 in About new material | | Comments (1)

| |

Gino Vanelli's new album "A Good Thing"

April 10, 2009

Gino 

GINO VANNELLI released his new cd of 9 brand new songs. Surrounded by some of the best dutch musicians, "A good thing" finds a great balance between the nightclub jazz style of Gino's more recent music with the R&B of his past, performed with his greatest instrument: his voice.

Tracklist: 

1 "A Good Thing"
2. "This Day On" 
3. "Night Drive"
4. "The DutchBeat"
5. "Gypsy Days" 
6. "Knight Of The Road"
7. "Evermore"
8. "The Measure of a Man"
9. "Don't Give Up on Me"

Posted by on April 10, 2009 in About new material | | Comments (0)

| |

Jango "Red Ray Dawn"

April 10, 2009

Jango

Steve Nieves's Adult Contemporary group JANGO has just released it's 4th record in The Netherlands. Born in the thriving LA music scene in the late '90's the band is comprised of a stellar line-up of crack live/session/players/writers who have worked with such notables as Smokey Robinson, Kenny Loggins, Melissa Etheridge, The Motels, Tommy Tutone, and Christopher Cross, among others. 

The CD entitled "Red Ray Dawn" features 9 new tracks plus 2 gems that originally appeared on Steve's JVC solo release in '98. It is currently available on both iTunes and the Go Entertainment Records website. The band looks forward to returning to Amsterdam later this year to play again in front of the gracious Dutch fans.......

Posted by on April 10, 2009 in About new material | | Comments (0)

| |

Keith Urban's new album "Defying Gravity"

April 08, 2009

Urban

Keith Urban is an artist in all aspects of the word. He carefully crafts the songs he records, tweaking lyrics and melodies until they are just right. Keith might argue that a song is never perfect, but judging from the rapid success of his latest single, "Sweet Thing," fans do not agree. After only ten weeks on the chart, the lead single from Keith's March 31st release, Defying Gravity, has already cracked the Top-10! 

"Defying Gravity comes from the lyrics of a song on the album and it just struck me at the time as a phrase that really defined the joyous, optimistic and uplifting spirit that seemed to show itself while making the album," says Keith.

Posted by on April 08, 2009 in About new material | | Comments (0)

| |

James Taylor's Other Covers

April 08, 2009

Covers2 

2009 release, the companion to his successful 2008 Covers album. When James Taylor and his band went into the studio last year to record Covers, he had the foresight to record additional material. He took advantage of the time in the woods with this full touring band. This seven-song, specially-priced digipak CD is as powerful and perfectly conceived as the original.

Posted by on April 08, 2009 in About new material | | Comments (0)

| |

Noble Rot (Division of Collector's Choice music) re-released 90's recordings from Toy Matinee & 3rd Matinee.

April 08, 2009

Toy 

Two of the pop world's most acclaimed behind-the-scenes artisans, songwriter/producer Patrick Leonard (who has worked with Madonna and Elton John) and songwriter Kevin Gilbert (a multi-talented artist whose early demise was a huge loss), created this highly unique and wonderfully original pop album in 1989. Here, TOY MATINEE is remastered and includes five previously unreleased tunes. 

3rd MATINEE, followed with Richard Page replacing Kevin Gilbert on this project. The record is a must have if you like Richard Page and the musical atmospheres of Patrick Leonard. 

Posted by on April 08, 2009 in Re-release | | Comments (0)

| |

Lynyrd Skynyrd at Winterland (San Francisco, CA) 1976

April 08, 2009

Lyrnyrd 

After years of life on the road and with their role models, the Allman Brothers Band, struggling to survive the deaths of two of its most distinctively talented members, today Lynyrd Skynyrd has become the quintessential Southern Rock band. Under the leadership of frontman and primary songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, the group's melodic lyric driven ballads and power driven hard rockers would catapult the group into one of the most popular touring bands in the world. The group’s distinctive guitar attack, combined with an overtly defiant and rebellious attitude, gave them a cultural identity that would help make songs like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird" into anthems of American rock music and staples of FM radio right up to the present day. 

Headlining a bill that also featured the Outlaws, this Winterland recording captures Lynyrd Skynyrd following the release of their fourth album, Gimme Back My Bullets. This was during a transitional phase for the band, following the departure of guitarist Ed King, but prior to his replacement, Steve Gaines, coming on board. The band was carrying on as a six-piece unit, augmented by the Honkettes on backing vocals. 

This is an interesting time to hear the band live, as their trademark three-guitar attack was reduced by one guitar, leaving more room for keyboardist Billy Powell. On the ballads, like "Tuesdays Gone" and the pre-jam verses of "Freebird," Powell displays great creativity and expands the keyboard's role in these songs.

The band is actually at work in Nashville recording a new album to be released later this year. This will be the first set of new studio material since 2003’s Vicious Cycle.

Posted by on April 08, 2009 in In concert | | Comments (0)

| |

Loverboy to release greatest hits album "the real thing" on april 7

April 02, 2009

Loverboy-therealthing-bestof 

Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc. is set to release Greatest Hits…The Real Thing, a new compilation of Loverboy's biggest hits, on April 7, 2009. As one of Canada's biggest rock exports that have influenced an entire generation of rock fans, the release features 16 tracks that include all of Loverboy's most memorable tunes, and looks at the band's exciting career. 

Posted by on April 02, 2009 in Re-release | | Comments (0)

| |

Previous Next