'Let It Rain' - Journey Releases New Song

Journey will release a new album Freedom in early July. Earlier today, the band dropped another song from the album called "Let It Rain." The song has a different vibe than most Journey tracks - and there's a throwback blues feeling too. I love the guitar work! You can pre-order Freedom now.

Let It Rain is out now! Head to the link to take a listen 🎸 https://t.co/IAWAW9kRSZ pic.twitter.com/CWrdsm16sM

— JOURNEY (@JourneyOfficial) May 17, 2022

An Actual All-Glam Festival Is Happening This Summer

There's no mish-mash of styles here! Masquerade 2022 is all glam, all the time. The three-day festival is scheduled for July 28, 29, 30 in Philadelphia, PA at 2300 Arena. Some of the bands set to perform are Autograph, Killer Dwarfs, Pretty Boy Floyd, Hurricane, Steven Adler, Babylon Shakes and loads more. Another cool thing about this event is that dressing up is encouraged... hence the name of the event!

A drawback is that ticket prices seem high. The 3-day VIP is nearly $800 for a pair. Of course, everything is expensive now so maybe that's just average. You do have to wonder when music fans will say enough is enough and stop paying egregious prices to get into shows. At least this is a ton of bands over three days. There are plenty of shows going for $800 a pair for one band on one night. Insanity!

Sunday's Best: Week 19, 2022

It's crazy to me that we are in mid-May already. My cat Roosevelt loves watching all the birds outside since there are so many hanging around the house now that it is warm. Sometimes Rosie wakes me up in the middle of the night because he wants me to open a window for him. The cat is so smart he literally taps my shoulder with his paw. Now he is spoiled but he doesn't get open windows in the middle of the night. But he paces and is restless until he gets his daily bird fix!

While spring might mean more birds for Roosevelt, it means party music to me. On the Hair Metal Reddit, I noticed folks talking about Danger Danger and it is true: they are a party band! Danger Danger's "Slipped Her The Big One" is a great track. It's on the album Screw It! and that's our Sunday's Best for this week.

"Slipped Her The Big One" features most of the members of Extreme, too. I always wondered why Screw It! album didn't do very well, considering it came out in 1991 - after all, Glam was still rolling then.

Danger Danger is criminally underrated, especially since Andy Timmons is such a great guitarist. "Monkey Business" was supposed to be the star single from Screw It! and that was probably a mistake. Should have put more effort and focus into "Slipped Her The Big One" and maybe the album's fate would have been different.

It's The Little Things...

It's nice and hot in my part of the world today, which I love! I had a great 4 mile run earlier, then went for some lunch and the weekly Costco run. While picking out my groceries, I noticed a woman come near me and I couldn't help but squeal a little. This mystery woman was wearing a tank that said "Father Figure" and had a picture of George Michael. Eric snapped around and asked why I squealed and I told him. Instead of rolling his eyes, he nodded approvingly and said "She's your people."

When I sat down to update this blog today, I popped on Twitter for the mandatory 10 minute doom scroll and saw the awesome snippet below. Another George Michael reference and performance! George did "Freedom" for the MTV 10th anniversary special. All the musicians and singers with him were also virtuoso. I included the entire performance clip below the tweet.

George Michael 😎🙏
Freedom 90 🎶
1991 MTV 10th anniversary live 💫

Freedom (I won't let you down)
Freedom (I will not give you up)
Freedom (Gotta have some faith in the sound) 🎶 #georgemichael pic.twitter.com/75vsA4GzEs

— It' s Music That Brings Us Together ❤✌🎶 (@Concert_Feeling) May 14, 2022

But Do We Need A 'Spinal Tap' Reboot?

This Is Spinal Tap is a great movie. Released all the way back in 1984, the film was pretty revolutionary and so spot-on in its mockery of metal and rock bands.

The new film will be called Spinal Tap II.

This Is Spinal Tap will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival this year to get everyone hyped for the sequel. Rob Reiner is a brilliant director. He knew what he was doing with This Is Spinal Tap. I'm going to try and have hope he knows what he's doing with the sequel too. I would hate to have such a great movie diminished in some way. But hey - the world needs more laughter and the guys in Spinal Tap will hopefully deliver us some fun. Reiner apparently told journalists there might be cameos of famous musicians in the film. I hope so!

Break out the stonehenge set —Spinal Tap are making a ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ sequel https://t.co/hAV6fXGdci

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) May 12, 2022

'Strange Desires' -- New Song From L.A. Cobra

L.A. Cobra is a glam band from Pretoria, South Africa. The group formed in 2005 and if you look through their social media - you will see they definitely look the part of an 80s throwback band!

Later this year, L.A. Cobra will release a new album called Superstition and one of the tracks is "Strange Desires." Martin Sweet of Crashdiet mixed the new album and you can definitely hear his influence in the track. The new album is available for pre-order now.

'Guitar World' Highlights Interesting Social Post By Marty Friedman

A great read from Guitar World! The piece is a breakdown of Marty Friedman's recent Facebook post about the decline in guitar solos in streaming music. I shared a sort of similar piece recently about the lack of guitar solos in modern songs, period - but Friedman's take is different. He looked at how people interact with streaming music. That is, how they either listen to an entire song or skip past the guitar solo.

Apparently more and more folks are skipping guitar solos, which is nuts to me. One, I prefer music that is driven by guitar solos like classic rock or metal. Second, who is taking the time to actively skip through solos but not the entire song? That seems like a lot of work. Are these people the nuts who mess with their phones while driving, preferring to look at their screens instead of the cars merging near them? The other day, I noticed a woman full-on reading her phone with both hands - while driving - and I made sure to get away from her quick. I assume she was using her legs to steer, but I digress.

The article linked below is definitely worth a read. It was the first piece of journalism I read this morning and it helped me kick my day off right. Then I felt like listening to Megadeth, so win-win.

Marty Friedman on why streaming listeners are skipping guitar solos: “Solos often have an obligatory existence – they must be there for a deeper reason” https://t.co/CVokfWANqq pic.twitter.com/2R4U4zD2Ob

— Guitar World (@GuitarWorld) May 10, 2022