Happy Chichester - Time Test
The world may have lost Prince a few years back but thankfully we still have Harold “Happy” Chichester making new music. I realize this statement probably sounds outrageous but to people familiar with Happy and his body of work it would seem completely reasonable.
Like the Purple One, Happy writes all the tunes and plays 95% of the instruments. Put in some earbuds and listen with awe as each track bursts with more musicality than any one (or ten humans) should possess.
Click here to check out Time Test on Bandcamp
Cheap Trick - All Washed Up
Unlike the Happy record, the latest release from my all time favorite band Cheap Trick is best enjoyed cranked up through good old-fashioned speakers and not AirPods.* This form of listening has become a lost art.
Rockford’s favorite sons are in completely uncharted rock n roll territory by continuing to consistently release new records FIFTY years after forming. There is nothing remotely comparable to what this band has accomplished in the back end of their career.
Do you need to read the lyrics and pore over the album artwork? Or focus all your attention on every nuance? Nope. Just drop the needle, fire that mutha up and go about your business. It won’t be long before you are texting your friends, “I’m kinda digging this new Cheap Trick record.” Another triumph for America’s greatest band.
* The track “Twelve Gates” is worth an AirPod listen.
Aerosmith/Yungblud - One More Time
From the first 20 seconds of the opening track - “My Only Angel” - it’s painfully obvious Steven Tyler has fallen for a ChatGBT girlfriend named Yungblud and hired AI to produce this comeback EP. The first four songs are decently melodic but sound nothing like Aerosmith. Clearly the band are fishing to stay relevant and they have never stopped trying to turn the clock back to 2005. (editor’s note, Ricki C. - When they SHOULD have been trying to turn the clock back to 1975.)
But the fifth track is, by far, the worst thing any favorite band of mine has ever released - “Back in the Saddle 2025 Mix.” An updated version with Steven Tyler sharing lead vocals with a Chatbot, a different arrangement with stupid new parts added and Matt Sorum on drums replacing Joey Kramer’s original track.
That’s not a new “mix” dudes. That’s a new version. Click here to be offended.
Achtung! I try not to curse in print so stop now if that offends, or if you are my Godparents; I am not proud of what comes next but I am irate.
Pretend we are in a bar at 1am talking……
All us diehard Aeroforce One members turned our heads and excused weak stuff like “Pink,” “Crazy” and “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing.” Or when they played the Super Bowl halftime show with Britney Spears and NSYNC.
God that was embarrassing. Stones wouldn’t do that. Or Petty. Or Prince. Or Springsteen.
But we could live with it because they had lost everything to drugs and it was a miracle all five members were still alive, let alone popular. And…we still had all those great records that came before the big comeback.
But for Steven and Joe to dive back in and mess with their own legacy, to mess with a track off one of the most perfect records ever made? For what? This is inexcusable. This is a giant FU to all real Aerosmith fans and I say FU back. A total disrespect to the fans that helped you get so popular you could afford to forget our names.
It almost makes me want to take down my vintage 1977 Aerosmith poster that hangs in the Watershed rehearsal space, but it’s still just too cool. But this abortion of a track has crossed a line and I will never respect or think of the Toxic Twins in the same way. It’s horrible. It’s offensive. Sounds like the perfect track for the JD Vance 2028 presidential campaign.
Video below shows the Toxic Twins poisoning their own legacy.
Saintseneca - High Walllow & Supermoon Songs
Just a reminder that I am not a proper music critic. I’m a guy who plays in a band and occasionally writes stuff for Pencilstorm. In fact I didn’t realize music critics were even allowed to be in bands until my 20’s. It’s like being a referee and a player at the same time. That ain’t right.
Anyway, my point being Saintseneca is a band from my hometown of Columbus Ohio. I think they have been around for a while or maybe not. Perhaps I have had beers with some members or Watershed possibly shared a bill with them at some point.
A real journalist would dig deeper; however, I am literally writing this at Colin’s Coffee while a customer is looking at me, waiting for me to finish so I can get him a coffee, so I’ll cut to the chase.
Everyone I know likes this band. I gave their new record a serious listen and I like this band too. Highly recommended. To celebrate it’s release they are playing two sold-out shows at the Rumba Cafe Nov 22/23.
Click here for all things Saintseneca
The Cars - The Cars
I have been reading The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told by Bill Janovitz. It’s not as riveting as say, Makeup to Breakup by Peter Criss, but it's pretty good, and if you are a fellow music nerd like myself you will find plenty of nuggets to hold your attention.
Things I learned; Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes are really bad-ass musicians. Ben Orr is a rock star. He sang three of the four songs on side two of The Cars in addition to the hit “Just What I Needed.” Drummer David Robinson was in The Modern Lovers.
Also, while he is no doubt a semi-genius, leader & songwriter Ric Ocasek definitely seems like the kind of prick who would almost get into a fist-fight with Ricki C. outside a record store in Boston. Click here for that dust-up.
The upshot of all this is that The Cars' self-titled debut belongs on the very short list of greatest debut records in rock history. If you know this album, you know everything you need to know about this band. Cannot say that about many debut records. A short list indeed.
Colin Gawel plays in the band Watershed and wrote this when he should have been working at Colin’s Coffee.