"That Metal Show" podcast spinoff "That Rocks" review

 

Editor's note:  All of this was written a day before the latest That Rocks episode where the hosts addressed many of the issues and announced the show would be ending. They did express interest in wanting to continue the show in the future so this column is still to be considered an overall review of the web series and what could be done differently next time. 

Hello everyone and thank you once again for reading the CSM blog.  This past year Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jameson of the VH-1 show "That Metal Show" reunited to form a YouTube show/podcast called "That Rocks".    That Metal Show ran 14 seasons from 2008 until 2015.  The show was memorable for it's interviews, off-the-cuff banter between the 3 hosts, live music and their countdown lists where they would pick a topic and rank certain things such as songs, albums, etc...

TMS ended in 2015 and Eddie Trunk has been regularly asked over the years if the show will ever come back. He has expressed that he'd love to do the show again, but no network is interested.  Considering its been 8 years since the show ended, it's time that people moved on, but you don't need to move on. You can have the next best thing. That Metal Show in YouTube form.

Sounds great, right? The crew is back together... err uhh.. via Zoom.  Ready to talk to the hottest names in rock today like Lita Ford, Nuno Bettencourt, Brad Gillis and Carmine Appice. The future of rock is in good hands with those hot names. Yes, I'm being factitious.  I'll cut to the chase. As much as I was looking forward to this reunion of sorts and I have watched every episode to date and this reboot of sorts has been a complete flop. Here's why.

Technical Difficulties:  From the start, this show has had issues with microphones (Don, in particular), connection both with the host and guest. It started out as a minor nuisance that I hoped would be fixed quickly, but it hasn't been. In one of the later episodes, Don finally got a good mic.  However, because of the nature of Zoom calls, you're always at the mercy of the whims of one's internet connection or the very server of the software you're using. A problem that you don't need to worry about in the TV days of in-person interviews.

Which brings up another issue. The chemistry of the trio is still in there somewhere, but because they operate online their timing at times is awkward and a lot of jokes fall flat or go ignored by the others.  It's just not the same as being in person. Another issue is with who they call their producer. I forget his name, but he does talk at times during the show, but you never see him.  He's in charge of the graphics, but more times than not he messes that up.  For instance, when they do their countdowns, often the picks are out of order, attributed to the wrong host and sometimes the picture of the band they're talking about isn't even a picture of the right band. I don't and never have produced a podcast, but this seems like simple stuff and these gaffes are not rare occurrences. They're the norm and it was a little funny at first but now it just comes off as low rent when you consider there are small-time YouTubers out there with much-much-MUCH more professional looking shows than this one. I mean, these guys, especially Eddie were in the TV business and Trunk has been in radio for 40 years. You'd think he'd be able to get a professional looking web show going.


The guests are... well... old. Very old. 

Look, I love classic rock. If you look back at some of my album reviews you know I have a taste for the older stuff. In fact my favorite decade for rock music would be the 1970s and my second favorite would be the 90s stuff I grew up on, which is also old, but a guest from a 90's band would look like babies compared to the "gets" they got for this show.  So far their youngest guest has been guitarist John 5 whois 53 years old. That's right. This show about rock and metal, which everyone insists is alive and well, has not had a single guest under the age of 50.  Most of the guests are over 60.  Guests KK Downing ,Glenn Hughes, Ted Nugent, David Copperdale and Carmine Appice are all in their mid 70s!

No disrespect to these guys, but come on...  It's the same old guys from the same old era telling the same old stories that we have heard many times in the past. Many times on Trunk's own shows.  Some of these guys are legends but these guests come off as both that Trunk has no ties to the current generation and is only calling in favors to older guys that he knows and is comfortable with and that the guys, especially Eddie, don't really follow new music.

I follow Eddie Trunk on social media and he recently posted about how he is going to have the exclusive break on Mick Mars' solo debut album with about the same level of excitement one would have if it were 1970 and Paul McCartney said to you "I'm going to debut my first solo album on your show".  Dude... It's Mick Mars.  Yeah, he's the most talented guy of Motley Crue and its his first solo album, but come on. Get real.  He's been working on it on and off for almost a decade. He's 72 years old. You may be a huge fan of his work with Motley Crue, but him releasing a solo album is not huge news. Its not something that many people under 50 themselves are going to care about at all, yet Trunk is acting like he has some hot exclusive here.

Listening to this show, I heard a common old head trope that I'd hear regularly from Eddie.  In the late 2000s or perhaps early 2010s I remember Trunk referring to bands like Godsmack, Disturbed and Marlyn Manson as "newer bands".  Well, yeah I guess they are newer if all you talk about is what the guys from Kiss, Def Leppard and UFO are up to these days.  On this show Eddie had a similar eye-rolling remark when he said something about how KK Downing launching KK's Priest as possibly akin to Ozzy Osbourne going solo in 1980 and how big that was for his career.  I know age is a sensitive topic to some, but you can't ignore a key detail here that KK Downing is 71 years old and Ozzy was 31 when he was fired from Black Sabbath and went solo. Even if you love the KK's Priest albums, you have to realise what a ridiculous thing that is to say.

Scott Ian, 59 (will be 60 later this year) is one of this show's younger guests, but he feels like another favor call to Eddie since they are old friends going back to the 80s.  Scott didn't even have anything to talk about. Like most of these guys. They got nothing to talk about. Most have nothing to promote.  They might tell an old road story or two. That's it.  Its stuff like this why I stopped listening to Eddie Trunk's old podcast a long time ago. I think after the 5th or 6th time of Ace Frehley being on shooting the breeze it was clear to me that Eddie really had nothing.


Trunk could inject some "youth" into his show by having a more current guy like Tobias Forge of Ghost on his show, but Eddie has made it clear that he doesn't like that band. I know Ghost debuted 13 years ago and Forge is now 42 years old but we need baby steps when dealing with a guy who still though Marilyn Manson was new in 2010. 


The interviews are just unnecessary. 

As I said, most of the interviews are just them shooting the breeze because they don't have much to promote, if anything at all and many of them don't have too many interesting stories that they feel like sharing.  If it were my show, I would just get rid of the interviews.

For some reason, Trunk has it in his head that he needs a guest, but the best parts of the show are when Ed, Jim and Don are debating something and often they are talking about current news in rock.  Of course, they are never talking about current bands, but at least its something relevant. It kills the whole vibe when they have a great discussion going and they are sharing real opinions and then suddenly its "oh we have Jack Russel on the line" or some shit and they have to ask boring questions about stuff that doesn't matter to the audience at all.

Again, it bears repeating, I mean no disrespect to these guys. Old, young, big names, small names, names that used to be big, many of these people are legends in their field, but they don't have much to talk about. Little to promote outside of reissues, and relying on the same old names just comes off as out of touch.


If you're going to ignore newer bands, market it as a retro rock podcast.

Don't tell me rock is alive and well because the 3 people who listened to Europe's last album think it is the album of the year and don't tell me rock is alive and well because KK Downing and Judas Priest both plan on touring.  You can't tell me rock has a bright future and do nothing to show the audience what the future looks like. Instead we are stuck in the 70s and 80s. We barely even talk about the 90s on this show and many of those great 90s albums are celebrating 30th anniversaries now. 

The 2000s? Forget about it. The Blink 182 reunion is one of the biggest stories of the past year and it has NEVER been mentioned on this show. Evanescence is back out there, anything? Nope.  At least they briefly mentioned the Creed reunion and Eddie has expressed being a big fan of Alter Bridge. That's probably the newest band he actually likes. How about the 2010s? Mastodon was red hot for a bit and I'm not sure if he's ever interviewed anyone from that band. One new (by comparison) band that Trunk talks about a lot is Rival Sons. Let the audience get to know them in an interview. If not, just stick to the old guys and market it as a nostalgia show.

Everything beyond here was written after seeing the last That Rocks episode

With the announcement that the show is ending, the guys even admitted that their favorite part of the show was just the three of them talking and went on to say how frustrating it was to have to deal with guests who weren't prepared for live interviews over the internet.  Well, if that's the case why have guests? You don't need them. I don't get why they insist on having guests on the show. All it did every week was kill the vibe.  Ed, Don, and Jim have great chemistry together. The show should just be them and then on rare occasions if you want to have a guest, bring in someone who has a relevant topic to discuss. Not just "oh hey we got James Young on while he's taking a shit, what's happening?" 

I hope the show returns, but just with the three of these guys. The show should just be they pick a topic, discuss some news, get in some heated discussions, have a few laughs and that's it. Simple.   We don't need to know what the bass player of Toto had to eat at a Holiday Inn back in 1979 or what some scab member of Foreigner is up to these days.  The show is there. You guys talking. That's the show.  The hosts said it is their favorite part. Based on the comments of the videos that is their favorite part. So just do that.  By this point well into the golden age of podcasting, I've seen enough shows to know that once they end, they never come back and when they do it doesn't last long. Don tried to paint it positively as "think of it like we did two seasons of shows".  Podcasts don't work that way. People are creatures of habit and there are so many podcasts out there. You need to be consistent and on a regular schedule to keep that audience. That means weekly content.  If you take a break for a few months that audience is going to be long gone when you come back. 

Album Review: "Little Songs" by Colter Wall (2023)

 

Artist: Colter Wall

Album: Little Songs

Year: 2023

Genre: Country/Western

Hello everyone and thanks again for reading the CSM blog. Last week I reviewed the massive "Whitsitt Chapel" album by Jelly Roll. An album that in many ways represents the present day and perhaps the future of country music if he indeed decides to stay down that path.  Today's album in many ways is a celebration of country music's past.  The great thing about country music is that there is always room for both traditionalists and the more progressive type artists to succeed.

I don't know much about Colter Wall.  I liked his Facebook page around the time his 2018 album "Songs of the Plains" was released. I remember liking it but I never bought the album so I likely haven't listened to it since. (Again, another reason why I like to buy physical music...)  Thanks to Facebook I was informed by Colter Wall's page on July 14th that he had a new album out so I went on Amazon, bought it and then went on YouTube Music to actually hear it.  Usually, I do that the other way around, but judging an album by it's cover I had a feeling it would be up my alley.

Look at that cover, though.  What you see it what you get. It look like an album cover you'd see of a country artist from the mid 1960's and the music within matches that motif. If I played this record for you and told you it was some forgotten singer-songwriter who got lost in the glitz and glamor of the late 70s, you'd probably believe me up until the fourth song, "The Coyote and the Cowboy" and hear the line "The whiskey bottle costs thirty-two bucks The big prairie moon is free So who is a dumber son of a bitch The little coyote or me?"   Yeah, that's $32 in 2023.  

While listening to this album, I was loving every moment. Colter has a very story-teller way of singing. Something pretty rare these days. The songs are as easy-listening as a cool breeze and as traditional as church on Sunday morning. To be honest, I can't recommend this album for everyone. If you are more of a modern pop-style country fan, you may find this album a little slow and rough for your liking.  Unless my ears deceive me, it almost sounds like Wall didn't even put new strings on his guitar when the first song hits and I'm not complaining one bit about that.  It adds to a nice warm, vintage sound that carries this album throughout. Little Songs sounds like something of a bygone era, but instead of harping on nostalgia for a half hour, what we really find is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. You have to keep in mind, Wall himself is only 28 years old. You are just getting these old stories of a simple, quiet life told through the new youthful lense of someone of this generation and it works wonderfully on this album.

What you get here is a 10 song/32 minute ride of classic country. Not classic in the sense of George Strait or Randy Travis. You have to go back to Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash with some notes of Bob Dylan in there as well. An album I'd absolutely recommend for a more folk-flavored country fan. After listening to it, I was glad it was already being processed by the fine people at Amazon to arrive at my doorstep in 3-5 business days.

My 3 Stars of the Album

1. Prairie Evening/Sagebrush Waltz

2. Eveangelina

3. Corralling The Blues

Album Review: Whitsitt Chapel - Jelly Roll (2023)

 

Album: Whitsitt Chapel

Artist: Jelly Roll

Year: 2023

Hello, and thanks for reading the Coffee Stain Music blog.  Today's album I'm reviewing is "Whitsitt Chapel" by Jelly Roll.  Jelly Roll is a 38 year old singer/songwriter that I never heard of until this past year. I know it is uncool to admit you didn't hear of someone who has been a charting artist for a decade now, but its true. Mostly because Jelly Roll was and is primarily a rapper and my rap/hip-hop collection is a short stack of old CD's and I don't follow modern rap at all or check out how the hot new rappers are. I have not checked out his previous albums and from what I understand he mixed in some rock elements and either way I know its very different than the album I'm reviewing today.

Whitsitt Chapel is Jelly Roll's country debut. It's very much a modern country album with enough beats and bars to remind (or inform to new fans) the listener that he is a hip hop artist as well and not abandoning those roots.  The intro song "Halfway To Hell" kicks off with a hard rocking country tune that teeters on southern rock. It sets the tone for this album very well and has a catchy chorus that is easy to sing along to in the car... Something you'll find will apply to almost every song on this record. Halfway... is probably the hardest rocking track on the album. One of my favorites, "The Lost" comes close as a straight-up rocker as well.  Regardless, expect a good diverse mix on this album.  There is one theme that carries throughout the entire record and that's raw honesty.

While listening on repeat the past couple of weeks the word that I thought best described these songs is "honest".  It hit me at just the right time.  I'm a classic rock guy first who loved checking out new rock and metal bands but it seems so many of them are playing rockstar. Trying too hard to be what the template was in the 80s. Singing about Dungeons and Dragons fantasy bullshit and doing the same old tired phony Satanic crap that 98% of metal bands have been doing for DECADES now.  When I popped in Whittsitt Chapel it was like a breath of fresh air. Every song sounded real. Every song was relatable to a degree and every verse felt like it really meant something.  I wasn't just listening to saying singing about what they felt they had to sing about in order to get air play or fit in with some scene. I felt like I was hearing real stories about topics that really matter to people and the artist himself.

It was back in April that I was listening to my local country station. The DJ said something about playing this new song that was going to blow up. That song would be "Need A Favor". I heard it and loved it and thought "I'm going to have to look this artist up" and I never did. I was busy that day. It was my daughter's baptism and as the story goes you lose track of things you meant to do. Then I started seeing Jelly Roll pop up everywhere since this album dropped and I was reminded to check out that song and I still loved it.  Later that week I went to the mall and bought the CD (really the best way to support the artist short of seeing a live show, by the way) and popped it in the car and I thought every song was great. I really felt like I was listening to one of those albums that will truly be associated with its time and it's great to see the success Jelly Roll has earned from this incredible release.

"Need A Favor" has been a breakout crossover hit. It reached #1 on the rock charts and when I got the CD it was #4 on the country charts in the US. As of this writing, it has climbed up to #3.  Rarely when speaking of one's own faith do you hear someone point out their own hypocrisy. "I only talk to God when I need a favor... So who the hell am I to expect a savior if I only talk to God when I need a favor, but God I need a favor."  The line itself is so real and impactful and an honest admission that many of faith experience when they only turn to God when things are bad or out of their control, but we don't look around and appreciate the good He has done. We go to church around Christmas and Easter but are sleeping in in the middle of July and watching NFL pregames in September, but when shit hits the fan who do you turn to first?  The song has many layers to it that can speak to so many people, even if, or perhaps especially if, you aren't much of a church-goer and religion isn't a major part of your daily life.

Whittsitt Chapel closes with the aptly titled "Hungover in a Church Pew" thus putting a fitting end to the concept that runs throughout this album from start to finish. The album has a good mix of everything. Every song has a southern flare over a miss of rock, hip-hop, and some nice ballads as well.  The album, though tackles some heavy personal issues and isn't shy about talking about the dark side of life is also very Christian as well.  It's the type of Christian music that really clicks with me.  I like hearing a flawed human being talking about their problems and how they remain faithful through it all instead of it always being bright, happy and singing praise. Listen to Jelly Roll on Joe Rogan's podcast. He gets into a lot of that rough side of his early life. He has a lot of darkness to shine some light on through his music.

I'll wrap this up with my 3 stars of the album:

1. Need A Favor

2. The Lost

3. Hungover in a Church Pew


My final rating for this album is 10/10  While I don't believe any work of art can truly be perfect, a 10/10 rating doesn't mean it is a flawless record that I'm positive everyone will love.  It is however perfect for what it is and the album never loses the plot. Every song is good. It doesn't stick around too long with mindless filler.  It starts and finishes strong and it's an honest effort. I can't ask for much more.  Giving it something like a 9.5 would feel like I'm nitpicking. If I don't have any obvious issues with a great record, its a 10. Keep it simple. No need to overthink a great release when it is starring right at you.

Metallica - "72 Seasons" Album Review

 

Artist: Metallica

Album: 72 Seasons

Year: 2023

Thanks again for checking in on the Coffee Stain Music blog. This month Metallica released their latest studio album titled "72 Seasons".   Their previous album "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct" (2016) was a massive favorite of mine. It was everything I wanted in a modern Metallica album.  I'm not asking for them to turn back the clock to 1986. I'm just looking for good rockin' tunes that sound good and connect with me on a deeper level than just being excited that a legendary act has released new music only to be merely checked out as a curiosity piece. 2016's Hardwired checked all those boxes. It had it all.  The album had thrashers, heavy rockers, an epic ballad and closed with one of their best and heaviest songs in decades all in a well-produced package.  What more could I ask for? In my opinion that album delivered on every front.  No, it wouldn't be my favorite Metallica album, but I really had nothing to complain about.

Last November 72 Seasons was announced. I woke up to the song "Lux Æterna" being dropped as the lead single and I had that same feeling I had when I heard the song Hardwired for the first time. It's definitely a throwback rocker. Like something you'd hear off of the band's debut album Kill 'em All, and it makes its point and is over in just under 3 and a half minutes.  I really enjoyed the song, but to be honest, I was a bit concerned if this new album would live up to Hardwired. Even Lars himself once said they could not have possibly made a better album than what they did with Hardwired in 2016.  Regardless, because I'm such a fan of this band, I preordered the album on day one and almost a week after it had already been released, it came in the mail.

Of course, like many of you I listened to the album on release day. I personally listened to it three times that day and have listened to it multiple times since.  As I'm sure having a review up the day of the release after one single listen would have been better for my view count, I believe in a more educated approach that is more honest to my true opinions and one that is less reliant on web algorithms and clickbait.  Luckily, this blog is just for fun so I have no monetary pressures to release an album review the morning it first drops on Spotify. Enough about all of that, here are my thoughts.