Tag Archives: Steppenwolf

KASP – Gig Review

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KASP

Friday 11th July 2025

The Crown & Liver, Ewloe

The good old Crown & Liver in Ewloe used to be my home from home for many years. In fact, it was utilised as a club house of sorts not just by myself, but the members of KASP and a large chunk of tonight’s audience. Quite apt, then, to see these guys crank out some tunes that effortlessly recreated the sounds of the 1990s in this venue. The Crown may have been jazzed up over the decades, but it’s the same old boozer at heart.

KASP are four mates who got themselves together and formed a band, performing well known and appreciated cover songs. They’ve been gigging in the local area for a while, but this was the first time I’d caught up with them. It was a nice reunion of sorts with several welcome faces and a good atmosphere.

Wouldn’t you just know it, things didn’t get off to a stellar start: the set opener was ‘Rock’n’Roll Star’ by Oasis, and I’m not a big fan! To be fair, it’s one of the better Gallagher brothers songs, and KASP rattled the song out in confident fashion. Simon on lead vocals and guitar slotted right into the role with ease. Next up was ‘You Stole the Sun From My Heart’, a killer Manics cover where Adam ably took over lead vocals from Si and still delivered a formidable guitar part. Now we were starting to get bouncing!

Solid musicianship all round to be fair, meaning that a couple songs I’m not a fan of (that James monstrosity, ‘Sit Down’, being a prime offender) were superbly delivered with self assured style. Of course, this means that the quality songs in the rest of the set couldn’t really go wrong – especially with genuine energisers from Green Day, Stereophonics and even Steppenwolf’s old evergreen, ‘Born to be Wild’!

A special shout out to the closing song of the first set, a devastatingly great rendition of ‘Hate to Say I Told You So’ by The Hives. Classic track, rendered brilliantly by KASP. Kev’s nimble bass playing was particularly impressive, shining in that solo middle section; and Pete’s drums managing to keep everyone on track with all cylinders firing .

The band returned for part 2 after a short break, though I have to admit that my memories of the second set started to get a bit fuzzy…

I do remember a rousing version of Lenny Kravitz’s ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’ getting the crowd moving. And a nice dedication for yours truly from Si in his introduction for Foo Fighters’ ‘Times Like These’ (thanks!). There was more dancing for this set as the audience started to really warm up. More first rate tunes by White Stripes, Kings of Leon and Stereophonics kept the mood high and feet moving as everyone sang along.

KASP at the Crown turned out to be a fun night of solid musicianship and camaraderie. A great band who possess some real skills, delivering a non-stop run of hit songs for all to enjoy. It was kind of cool to have that gig with that band in that pub, too. The evening wasn’t just about nostalgia, though. It was about good times with good people, and that’s what live music’s all about, right?

Check out KASP on Facebook.

Brant Bjork – Album Review

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Brant Bjork – Bougainvillea Suite

Heavy Psych Sounds

Release date: 28/10/2022

Running time: 42 minutes

Review by: Alun Jones

8.5/10

Brant Bjork must be a very busy boy at the moment.  We’ve already had an album out earlier this year from his desert rock supergroup, Stoner, and now here’s a solo effort too.  He’s a multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist singer song writer and no mistake, offering up sonic expeditions of varying styles and pace.  Most of all, though, Brant seems to be a decent bloke who’d be ideal company for a beer or three.

For “Bougainvillea Suite”, we’re in a more laid back, but still rockin’ mode.  The album is like a combination of Santana and Steppenwolf, full of relaxed but vital summer vibes.  ‘Trip on the Wine’, our first song, has a similar stomp to The Door’s ‘Five to One’, but less angsty.  The late 60s-early 70’s groove is maintained throughout, ‘So They Say’ embellished with a sweet, melodic construction and ‘Broke That Spell’ having an early Purple raunch.

Stoner band mate Ryan Gut adds percussion and keys, whilst the final member of that trio, Nick Oliveri, pops up on ‘Bread for Butter’.  This track and ‘Ya Dig’ are two of the more direct, heads-down rockers, whilst the extended blues jam of ‘Who Do You Love’ is trippy territory augmented with some almost Stooges-like lead guitar.  This last track is a real highlight, it’s like a long-forgotten experiment involving all of the bands I’ve mentioned!

And that’s it: eight songs that whilst not easy listening, can be mellow, psychedelic and still rock your bones.  “Bougainvillea Suite” would make perfect summer evening listening, a beer and a BBQ as the clear sky fades to black, good times with good friends after a long day shredding a pool.  But it’s been released in late Autumn, so what do I know?  Just buy it and enjoy.

Find Brant Bjork on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify and on a website here.

More info on Heavy Psych Sounds here, plus Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.

This review has been proudly presented by Platinum Al and Ever Metal.

Nebula – Album Review

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Nebula – Transmissions from Mothership Earth

Heavy Pysch Sounds Records

Release date: 22.07.2022

Running time: 39 minutes

Review by: Alun Jones

9/10

As I write this, we’re sweltering in a record-breaking heatwave.  North Wales, which is where I’m based – and also where the nerve centre of Ever Metal can be found – has had some of the highest temperatures in the whole of the UK.  It’s crazy.  And so, a new album from desert rock titans Nebula seems extremely apt right now.  “Transmissions from Mother Ship Earth” has arrived at exactly the right time.

And it arrives with a welcome burst of fuzz drenched psych rock, exactly as expected, in first track, ‘Highwired’.  Big fat riff, dashes of space rock and a whiff of herbal cigarettes: classic Nebula, really.  Up next is the title track, which adds some nice, sixties secret agent vibes to the melting pot, together with a punishingly heavy section.

‘Wilted Flowers’ begins with a mellow guitar section before exploding into a thunderous head tripper.  There’s a feel of Mudhoney and the Stooges with Nebula’s best work, as evidenced here and with ‘Melt Your Head’.  Other tracks like ‘Warzone Speedwulf’ and “The Four Horseman’ sound like early Monster Magnet dripped in acid fried Steppenwolf and left to dry in a Tarantino desert landscape.    

No surprises then with this latest Nebula release, and with titles like ‘I Got So High’ you can guess exactly what to expect.  But who cares?  “Transmissions from Mothership Earth” is a solid album of pounding rhythms and spaced-out fuzz rock.  It’s bound to make my end of year best of list, and right now it’s the perfect soundtrack for summer.  Enjoy, fellow explorers – it’s gonna piss it down with rain tomorrow.

Talking about nebula and space and galaxies and all that, did I tell you about the great telescope trick we played on Bill Ward once?  It was at Brian May’s house, and he’s well into all that astrology business.  Bri’s got this huge telescope for star gazing.  So Tony, Ozzy, Geezer and me persuaded Bill to take a look.  What he didn’t know was that Brian had put black paint inside the lens, so Bill ended up with a great big, black monocle on his face.  Bill didn’t realise, and walked round like that all night – extremely paranoid as to why all the guests were laughing at him.  Great fun!

You can find Nebula on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Check out Heavy Psych Records online and on Bandcamp.

This review is a Platinum Al and Ever Metal joint presentation.

Singles Night at the Virtual Hot Tub #22

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Time for another twenty slices of 7 inch vinyl goodness, with Singles Night at Platinum Al’s Virtual Hot Tub!

You know what that means: an evening of me playing through a stack of vinyl singles, one after the other, whilst imbibing the booze. It’s more fun than it sounds, honest! There are untold treasures in my pile of records waiting to be rediscovered – plus a few duds that should be consigned to the pop junk pile.

Join me now, on yet another daring voyage into my vinyl collection…

  1. Paul Simon – “You Can Call Me Al” / “Gumboots”
  2. Steppenwolf – “Hey Lawdy Mama” / “Twisted”
  3. Steppenwolf – “Born to be Wild” / “The Pusher”
  4. Iggy Pop – “Livin’ on the Edge of the Night” / “The Passenger”
  5. C.W. McCall – “Convoy” / “Long Lonesome Road”
  6. Belinda Carlisle – “Do You Feel Like I Feel?” / “Do You Feel Like I Feel? (Dance Mix)”
  7. The Dave Clark Five – “Glad All Over” / “I Know You”
  8. Chris Montez – “Let’s Dance” / Lonnie Mack – “Memphis”
  9. Dion & The Belmonts – “A Teenager in Love” / “I Can’t Go On (Rosalie)”
  10. Hank Williams – “Honky Tonk Blues” / “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” / “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in it” / “Baby, We’re Really in Love”
  11. Slade – “Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me” / “Kill ‘Em at the Hot Club Tonite”
  12. M – “Pop Muzik” / “M Factor”
  13. Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra – “Somethin’ Stupid” / Frank Sinatra – “Call Me”
  14. Kylie Minogue – “What Do I Have to do” / “What Do I Have to do (Instrumental)”
  15. Queen – “You’re My Best Friend” / “’39”
  16. 10cc – “I’m not in Love” / “Good News”
  17. Rod Stewart – “Ain’t Love a Bitch” / “Scarred and Scared”
  18. David Bowie – “Sound and Vision” / “A New Career in a New Town”
  19. Eagles – “Witchy Woman” / “Earlybird”
  20. The Sweet – “Hell Raiser” / “Burning”

Well, I had to own a copy of that Paul Simon classic, right? And the Slade B-side is tantalisingly close to hot tub, though I wouldn’t want Noddy and pals murdering anyone in my Virtual Hot Tub.

A couple of Steppenwolf killers there: look at that Easy Rider style double A side! One of the most underrated bands ever. I was lacking an Iggy single in my collection, hence that purchase – but didn’t realise that “The Passenger” was on the B-side. That’s definitely going in my jukebox, when I get one.

Regular readers will know how much I adore the lovely Belinda Carlisle. That single is a picture disc, with a bonus photo and frame (see pic) – not bad for a 50p charity shop purchase. On the other hand, I’ve never rated Kylie (I much prefer her sister, phwooar!) – but that tune’s not bad.

With some legendary country and pop – not to mention awesome tunes from Queen, Bowie and Sweet – that’s a pretty damn fine playlist. “Convoy” was one of my earliest favourite songs, by the way.

I’ll be back soon with another Singles Night – stay tuned!

Brown Acid: the Tenth Trip – Album Review

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Various Artists – Brown Acid: The Tenth Trip

Riding Easy Records

Release date: 20/04/2020 (?)

Running time: 33 minutes

Review by: Alun Jones

8.5/10

 

Between me and you, I’ve been wondering when this series of proto metal/heavy psyche long-lost artifacts would start to go off the boil.  This is the tenth instalment now, and any listener could be forgiven for thinking that maybe, the well might run dry.  That the party is over, the acid has worn off, and the hippies have traded in their kaftans for the last time.  I mean, how much of these rare, forgotten nuggets can there be left, for the rock’n’roll gravediggers at Riding Easy Records to exhume?

Well pardon me for being a fanboy, but the Brown Acid trip is far from over.   In fact, this could be my favourite volume so far.

Yes, it’s more of the same: fuzzy, psychedelic late 60s/early 70s heavy rock; somehow cast aside for around fifty years, waiting to be rediscovered.  Gems that pre-date and redefine the genealogical development of metal and hard rock; throwing the long-standing theories of origin into dispute like some musical Antikythera mechanism.  But this time, if anything, the tunes are better than ever.

Here we have Sounds Synonymous with “Tensions”, a fuzz-rock monster with a “Wild Thing” feel and washes of freaky organ not a million miles removed from Steppenwolf.  Witness also the wonder of “Never Again” from Ralph Williams and the Wright Brothers, melding melodic vocals with an “American Woman” style desert rock vibe.   “Babylon” by Conception rolls with some funky, Hendrix-like riffs and a great pop sensibility, not to mention a fabulous bluesy instrumental section.

Bitter Creek deliver “Plastic Thunder”, which has a Who meets Stooges aggressive sound.  On “Mr. Sun”, First State Bank (rad name!) provide a Mountain-covering-the-Kinks lesson in far-out groovery.  Then there’s Brothers and One with the saucily titled “Hard On Me”, which has a little Hawkwind on a road to Maiden’s “Running Free”.

Probably the best track is “The Roach”, by The Brood (another quality name).  It’s a MC5/Sabbath garage rocker with apocalyptic horns and keys, heralding the end of peace and love and the arrival of the age of doom.

Freaky, fuzzy and far-out: that’s the latest edition of Brown Acid.  If you’re late to the party, jump on the magic bus right now and let your hair down.  Signs are this festival is gonna run and run.

 

Here’s a link to the Riding Easy Records website and their Bandcamp.

You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

This article first appeared as a review on Ever Metal.  Please use the electronic super highway to pay them a visit via this link.

Random Skateboard Playlist

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It’s been a long while since I shared a random playlist with you.

I recently went out for a skate, split between riding my Mindless longboard and spending some time on a classic old school Santa Cruz Street Creep.  Whilst skating around, I switched the iPod onto shuffle and these are the tunes I heard.

  1. Dead Kennedys – “Moon Over Marin”
  2. Steppenwolf – “Live Your Life”
  3. Little Richard – “I Don;t Know What You’ve Got, But It’s Got Me (Parts 1 & 2)”
  4. Motorhead – “Back At The Funny Farm”
  5. Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Gimme Three Steps”
  6. Orange Goblin – “Hounds Ditch”
  7. Rod Stewart – “True Blue”
  8. Wire – “I Am The Fly”
  9. The Wildhearts – “In Lilly’s Garden”
  10. Hypnos 69 – “My Journey To The Stars”
  11. Monster Magnet – “Slut Machine”
  12. Iggy Pop – “New Values”
  13. The Charlie Daniels Band – “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”
  14. Sisters of Mercy – “More”

Not a bad selection by the iPod there.

Winter Rocks – Canada

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Way back when I started this blog, the very first post in the Music section was about Scandinavian bands/artists.  I was inspired by the cold weather in early 2013 to listen to music from Scandinavia as a theme for the winter months.

Two years on and I needed another theme for this winter’s music homework.  So despite no (or very little) snow, I went with another northern country and chose Canada.

Now I’m sure that the summer weather in Canada is very nice, but without falling prey to stereotypes, the theme fits.  Plus there are loads of artists from that country to fill my playlist.

Here they are:

  • Alanis Morissette
  • Annihilator
  • Bachman Turner Overdrive
  • Black Mountain
  • Bryan Adams
  • Cancer Bats
  • Cauldron
  • Death From Above 1979
  • Godspeed You! Black Emperor
  • The Guess Who
  • Neil Young
  • Nickleback
  • Rush
  • Shania Twain
  • SNFU
  • Steppenwolf
  • Voivod

There you go: a fairly eclectic mix of everything from country to thrash metal.

My thanks to Matt Barnes, who introduced me to quite a few artists on this list (but not Shania or Alanis…).

Did I forget anyone?  Leave further Canadian music suggestions in a comment below.

Random Bike Ride Playlist #2

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Nine and a half miles, twenty songs.

  1. Love – “Alone Again Or”
  2. Nina Simone – “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”
  3. Sugar – “Man on the Moon”
  4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – “Running Scared”
  5. Ash – “Out of the Blue”
  6. The Besnard Lakes – “Albatross”
  7. Pink Floyd – “Have a Cigar”
  8. Rush – “Tom Sawyer”
  9. Jimi Hendrix Experience – “She’s So Fine”
  10. Roxy Music – “Ain’t That So”
  11. Tad – “Tool Marks”
  12. Rolling Stones – “On With the Show”
  13. The Saturdays – “Vulnerable”
  14. Steppenwolf – “None of Your Doing”
  15. Joe Walsh – “Walk Away”
  16. Curtis Mayfield – “Freddie’s Dead”
  17. Richard Cheese – “Guerilla Radio”
  18. Iggy Pop – “It’s All Shit”
  19. Led Zeppelin – “Living Loving Maid”
  20. The Donnas – “5 O’Clock in the Morning”