Matt Bankert Digitally Live
I am planning to play a digital acoustic concert via live stream over the Internet! As far as the time and content of the concert, I would love nothing more than to give the people what they want. But I don’t know what they want! If you’d like to see such a concert, oh person, would you please tell me what you would prefer? Just click below!
Stay tuned for my announcement on when the concert will be. I hope you can tune in!
In the Earbuds: “Paranormal” by Alice Cooper
These days seem to be a renaissance of veteran rockers returning to make new and really good music (see Museletters 4, 8, 9 for reviews of Metallica, Ray Davies, Van Halen, and Matthew Sweet). This is the 127th (give or take 100) studio album by the original shock-rocker and evangelical Christian, Alice Cooper. Although he turns 70 next month, Cooper and his signature snarl are as visceral as ever. These songs are gripping and powerful with attractive melodies. There is a spooky Trans-Siberian vibe on the title track and hyped-up Hendrix riffs on “Dead Flies.” “Rats” sounds like a deranged and enraged Chuck Berry howling out a low view of humanity. A “love” song only Alice Cooper could write, “Fallen in Love (And I Can’t Get Up),” has a great ZZ Top blues rhythm – so much so, they had to get Billy Gibbons himself to play guitar on it.
There is an Iggy and the Stooges kind of sound on “Private Public Breakdown” and “You and all your friends.” The production is polished and punchy. This album is hard to stop listening to. Highly recommended!
You can hear the spotlight on Alice cooper on my latest playlist on Spotify: “Give Me Liberty and Give Me Rock”