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Apr 05 2012
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2012, Live, Review, Steel Panther

Steel Panther @ 02 Academy Glasgow, 28/03/2012

I’ve got so many good things to say about Steel Panther live. They have the personas, they have the look, they have the screaming girls and everything else any 80s Heavy Metal band worth their salt had.

Steel Panther are justifiably considered a comedy rock band but these dudes seriously know how to play. Let’s go back 30 years for a minute and replace every profanity Steel Panther use with the word ‘Love’. We would suddenly have song titles such as ‘It Won’t Love Itself’, ‘Supersonic Love Machine’ and ‘Party all Day (Love all night)’. If it wasn’t for the swear words and crude (oh so crude!) lyrics, these guys would have been up there with Mótley Crúe and Def Leppard and not supporting them on their comeback/anniversary tours. The point I’m trying to make is that as entertaining and comedic Steel Panther are, they are worth checking out based on talent alone.

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Mar 29 2012
2012, Garbage, Review, Single

Garbage – Blood for Poppies (2012)

Garbage are back, and that makes me very happy (not just when it rains!). OK that’s a bad pun, but on hearing ‘Blood for Poppies’ for the first time one thing is clear – a seven-year hiatus was absolutely the best thing which could have happened if the resultant music is as good as this!

‘Blood for Poppies’ is being given away on Garbage own website when you pre-order the new album, Not Your Kind of People and is their first single. As the song starts a familiar-sounding electronic drumbeat kicks of proceedings before a dirty guitar sound takes over. The first surprise is that the song is definitely reggae in style! But boy does it work. Shirley Manson’s vocal lends itself very well to the style and before you know it the chorus has crept up on you! Continue reading →

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Mar 24 2012
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2012, Album, Iron Maiden, Review

Iron Maiden – En Vivo! (2012)

Iron Maiden have released a new live album.

Yes, another one! Iron Maiden must have the most live albums ever (well except for Pearl Jam, but arguably that doesn’t count) and En Vivo! is a document of their most recent The Final Frontier Tour. Musicscramble were lucky enough to catch Maiden on this tour three times, at Sonisphere 2010, Glasgow and Birmingham 2011. Each time they were as stunning as ever.

With such a strong back catalogue, it would be easy for Maiden to rest on their history and play the ‘hits’, but as En Vivo! proves they don’t need to rely on previous great songs; the recent material is just as strong as anything which has gone before. The album (and accompanying DVD which we have not yet seen) starts with three songs from The Final Frontier album; the first half of ‘Satellite 15′ is a long intro tape whipping up excitement in the crowd – just listen the rising wave of chants – before the band hit the stage to play the later-part of the song. ‘The Final Frontier’, and ‘El Dorado’ are next proving without question just how good the new material Maiden have written is. Continue reading →

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Mar 21 2012
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2012, InMe, Live, Opinion, Personal, Review

InMe @ Stereo, Glasgow, 16/03/12

InMe, Stereo, Glasgow, 16/03/12 #2InMe. If I was a girl these are the first two words I’d be saying to the band after a sterling performance in Glasgow on Friday night. Was it the best sounding gig I’ve ever heard? Well no, but that was absolutely no fault of a band that looked to genuinely please with a varied set-list of fan favourite old songs and technically impressive new songs.

MusicScramble had the pleasure of interviewing Dave McPherson (Guitar and Vocals) prior to the gig (interview due to be posted next week – keep an eye out!). An absolute gentleman, almost shy and very modest, but 40 minutes later seeing him on stage the transformation was akin to The Hulk! Suddenly you were being enthralled by a man whose vocal range could rival the best pop singers yet coupled with a snarling vocal that could rival the best metal singers out there. Continue reading →

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Mar 08 2012
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2012, Bruce Springsteen, Review

Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball (2012)

20120308-184531.jpgBruce has often tried to be a social commentator on the state of America. Hell, you only need to look closely at ‘Born In The USA’ to appreciate that it’s not the rebel-rousing anthem for proud Americans everywhere. The reality is very far from that.

Starting with ‘We Take Care Of Our Own‘ which is a great rock song. The lyrics reveal a darker side, very much akin to ‘Born In…’. With a verse which asks “…where is the work, where is the spirit, where is the promise…” it is clear that Bruce once again has an agenda; this time to comment on the broken state of America for the common man.

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Feb 25 2012
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2012, Album, InMe, New Music, Review

InMe – The Pride (2012)

InMe - The PrideI’ve had my eye on this one for a while. Another album financed via the Pledge Music website, InMe have been providing samples, demos and behind the scenes snippets for the last few months during the creation of The Pride. All those little appetisers indicated The Pride was going to be good and now it has been released I can finally enjoy the main meal.

I was a big fan of InMe’s early material although I hadn’t heard much of the last two albums I gave them a whirl again when the Pledge Music project launched. Having heard those albums again so recently, The Pride doesn’t feel like any sort of radical departure. It sounds like you’d expect an InMe album to sound and that’s no bad thing. Continue reading →

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Feb 22 2012
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2012, Halestorm, Live, Review, Shinedown

Shinedown / Halestorm @ O2 Academy Glasgow 16th February 2012

Liberty Lies, Halestorm and Shinedown all on one ticket is a very strong lineup, and I had been looking forward to it for a very long time.

It is shame then that I managed to miss Liberty Lies completely. In truth due to unbelievable car parking conditions I nearly missed Halestorm! Thankfully though, I got in with just a few minutes to spare before Lzzy and the band stormed on stage and blasted through current single ‘Love Bites (And So Do I)‘. Continue reading →

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Feb 19 2012
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2012, Album, Review, Soundtrack

Themes For An Imaginary Film (2012)

Our sister website Moviescramble has just posted a review of an album soundtrack for a film which didn’t exist!! You can read the whole review for Themes For An Imaginary Film over there now…

A bit of a stretch this one for a movie review site. A review of the 2012 album Themes for an Imaginary Film by the band Symmetry featuring Johnny Jewel and Nat Walker.

During the making of the 2011 film Drive, the director Nicolas Winding Refn and star Ryan Gosling approached Johnny Jewel to provide the score. Jewel is a prolific musician and producer for a number of acts on the Italians do it better label including The Chromatics and Desire. The Chromatics album Night Drive (2007) had been extensively used while location scouting for the film took place. A score was produced by ultimately not taken up as the production turned into a much bigger deal than first thought and seasoned film composer Cliff Martinez was drafted in. The soundtrack retained some input from Jewel in the form of a Desire track and a Chromatics track (both featuring the two members of Symmetry) . Since the film was released there has increased speculation that the unused score was superior to the official one and it would receive some sort of release. Continue reading on moviescramble →

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