MUSIC BLOGS
MUSIC BLOGS
category: music
14 Apr 2008

“15,” the blockbuster third album from Eleven Seven/Atlantic recording group Buckcherry, has been certified platinum by the RIAA for sales exceeding 1 million units. Released April 11, 2006, the Los Angeles-based hard rock outfit’s “15” kick-started the rock revolution with a remarkable 91-weeks-and-counting on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, powered by four enormously successful multi-format hit singles: “Crazy Bitch,” “Next 2 You,” “Everything,” and “Sorry.”  Accolades for the band’s success through real music are pouring in, lauding the band for bringing rock back despite the music industry’s failed focus on manufactured hip-hop and pop. Said fellow Eleven Seven Music label mate, Sixx: A.M. and Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, “Few bands are savvy enough to write hit songs that aren’t just the flavor of the week. Buckcherry have stood the test of time and overcome adversity – which allows them to not only make rock history, but pave the road going forward, too.” Or, as Jed Gottleib at the Boston Herald put it, “Hundreds of bands score gold records. Hundreds more have Top 40 singles. Yet only a handful of lucky and brilliant artists. . . become part of the American experience.”

Ike Reilly’s “Poison The Hit Parade” is a collection of songs taken from demos from his brilliant debut “Salesmen and Racists” and alternate versions of songs from the blistering “Sparkle In The Finish” and 2007’s “We Belong To The Staggering Evening,” as well as the previously unreleased title track and the massive and poignant cancer anthem, “Dragonflies.”  ”Poison” showcases Reilly and his bandmate Ed Tinley as producers unencumbered by the major label system and willing to frame a song in any vibe needed to hold the melodies and tales of Reilly’s unique vision.  Beginning with the title track, “Poison The Hit Parade” continues Reilly’s prolific assault with images of characters in a conflicted middle America:  patriotic doubt, the celebration of life and death, high school girls in summer dresses and more theoretical assassination attempts.

Echovalve. To their fans, the band is a refreshing anecdote to over-processed, cookie-cutter rock music. Mainstream in their own right, they have managed to take a distinctively original approach to a familiar genre. With searing and melodic riffs, tasty bass lines, pounding beats, and intensely haunting, hook-laden vocals, Echovalve has honed a sound that sets them apart.  Through the challenges of the highly competitive, ever-changing world of the music industry, Echovalve has remained steadfast. What kills most has given life time and time again to a band that has refused to go away. Though the band is clean now, members have been plagued with drug and alcohol addictions and one band member was declared clinically dead following a drug overdose (he lived to tell the tale). The band has toured the country with no money, sleeping on park benches as they went from town to town. One band member was actually homeless and living on the streets for a while. That which did not break them only made them stronger and has made the successes that have come their way even sweeter.

Here are this week’s GHIDRAH songs:

SONG 1: Buckcherry - “Sorry”
SONG 2: Ike Reilly - “Poison The Hit Parade”
SONG 3: Echovalve - “Dirty Little Secret”