Welcome one and all to episode 372.
It is the first episode of 2024 and it is our look at 2024 and what we are looking forward
to in the year.
It is basically our look ahead to what 2024 has in store for us.
There is a cool episode that is exciting and it is up next.
If you have ever followed me in the past you will know that I am a huge proponent for new
music.
New music from new bands, new music from bands that have been around for a million years.
It's just new music in general that is something that I strive for checking out.
There is always something good out there to listen to and I know, I know people say well
that album will never replace this other album.
But again I always say it, I correlate it to food.
The spaghetti and meatballs that your grandma made you, regardless how good anyone else
makes it, it's probably never going to hit the spot the way that your grandmother made
it.
So does that mean that you won't take a chance on anyone else's spaghetti?
You won't eat out, you won't eat spaghetti out anywhere, you won't make it yourself.
It's kind of the same thing to me.
So it's cool to get together with some of my patrons.
We have Brad Dahl, we have Ed Ferguson, we have Johan, a cavalcade of guests from around
the world, both in the States and overseas in Europe, and talking about things that we're
looking forward to checking out in 2024.
There's a lot of great things in store and another thing you guys should be checking
out tomorrow night, I will be recording live on the air with Jeremy Weltman.
We'll be talking about new music that was released in January, a lot of cool stuff that
has come out already.
And we do this for the year end voting for what our favorite albums of the year have
been.
A lot of times people forget about stuff that comes out early on in the year.
So we do this for that reason.
If you haven't been paying attention, well just check out one of these episodes.
If you're unfamiliar which one to check out, you can go to signalsfromr's.com, scroll
down and you'll see the album reviews separated from regular interviews or regular music.
Discussions.
And Jeremy and I go through, listen to a bunch of different albums and select what we feel
are some of the best that are available.
So there you go.
There's a bunch of other ways you can support the show.
I just mentioned my patrons, you can go to Patreon and support us for as little as two
bucks a month.
You could also do a PayPal donation if that's not your thing.
You can also pick up merch.
There's different articles of merch that I've designed.
I should say Anthony Mackie, one of my patrons has designed the logo and I've created different
items of clothing based on his design.
So there you go.
And it looks cool.
I have a t-shirt, I have a sweatshirt personally and I think that they look awesome.
If you ever check out the live stream, I've got the logo behind me as well.
But yeah, those are a few ways you can support and you can just simply tell your friends
about us, tell them, oh yeah, remember how we used to have all these really cool music
discussions?
Well, these guys are doing it on Signals from Mars and it seems like people's voice really
matters on that show because their opinions are respected and we talk about, or they talk
about all this cool stuff.
Maybe we should join them.
You know, you could do that.
If not, you could always just share one of the posts on social media.
There's a bunch of different social media platforms where the show is available.
There's a lot of different places where you could subscribe as well to the podcast and
to the video version of the show.
Go to signalsfrommars.com and you can check out where you can follow and share and all
that great stuff there.
I do want to send a shout out to all of my patrons.
I don't have enough time to name them all right now, but thank you guys for your support.
Thank you people that are listening as well.
And let's get on with the show.
Welcome one and all.
That wasn't what I was looking for.
That's what I was looking for.
All right.
The first Signals from Mars of 2024 and I am joined by an illustrious cavalcade of gentlemen
from around the world.
Let me introduce them to you as we kick things off here.
In Kentucky, we have the grandfather of the group here.
Ed, how are you, sir?
Doing pretty great.
Thanks.
Awesome.
Out in Idaho, one cavalier ish gentleman.
We have what are you showing us on screen there, Brad?
And by the way, if you are seeing this, whether it's live or the replay, what Brad is trying
to show you is this for $20, you can get your own Signals from Mars t-shirt.
Here you go.
That's really nice.
I'm just going to say this is a, I mean, the Signals from Mars logo makes it 10 times better,
but the shirt by itself is a really, it's a really nice shirt.
It's very comfy.
We can thank Anthony Mackey for the logo design.
All right.
Thanks, Anthony.
And the politician of the bunch, we have Johan.
Johan, I see that you have a bandaid on your finger.
Did you cut yourself cooking by any chance?
Yes, I did.
Actually today was the day that I cut myself again.
I've done it probably a thousand times and today it was the thousand and one time.
So yeah, I'm a politician and cook.
Yeah.
There you go.
What were you slicing there?
Johan beside your finger.
Brad, I cut myself on a refrigerator.
So yeah, so much fun about that.
Okay.
Yeah.
When I was in high school, we had a teacher who would always tell a story about working
in a deli and how one of her coworkers, no, no, was on the old deli machine slicing ham.
And she ended up, she was supposed to be making the joke was ham sandwich and she ended up
making hand sandwich.
She cut a slice of her hand with the machine.
So there you go.
Joining us in the chat is Mr. Sean Richmond.
We have, including Sean, everyone here present at the moment is a Patreon, is a patron on
Patreon, on the signals from ours, Patreon.
And Sean has been suggesting a bunch of different videos lately.
And we've had others sent in by Mike Jones, Metal Dan sent some into me yesterday as well.
So I'm all about letting people's voices be heard.
And if you want to check out some of the cool stuff that Sean is sending my way, join us
on Patreon.
You could do so for as little as two bucks a month and chat with this merry batch of
fellows.
Sean, you did that on purpose.
I did.
Well, it's two, two, two dollars a month.
Right.
Okay.
Best two dollars you could possibly spend.
There you go.
So as you could possibly spend right here.
Anyway, so today's show is going to be about 2024.
We finished 2023 with a show about 2023, but we're speaking this show off this year off
with talking about the year to come, what we have in front of us.
We're going to talk about albums.
We're going to talk about concerts, festivals, anything else that may pop in our minds that
we're looking forward to in this year.
So all right.
So right off the bat, I know that there have been a few releases that have come out so
far that we've talked a little bit about.
I posted a few Saxon videos this week and Jeremy is away this week, so he didn't join
us tonight.
But shortly, Jeremy and I will be recording an episode talking about January's releases
shortly, is what I'm getting at.
We're almost at the end of January and I'm sure the Saxon album will come up.
And that's probably one of the first releases that people were looking forward to for 2024.
I know one of the biggest things that people talked about in Patreon was that they were
kind of expecting something a little different from the band.
It seemed like the lyrics were kind of pedestrian and that the music kind of was people expecting
something else, basically, at least some of the comments.
Yeah, yeah.
I guess some people are saying that they expected something different given their history.
And also, the other thing you have to throw in there is that they have a new component
in the band that I don't know how much they let Brian Tatler write, but obviously his
pedigree with Diamondhead speaks for itself.
I think there's three songs that he had the initial riff on.
OK.
So yeah, they got him involved and put him right in the band.
And I don't know.
See that's funny because I thought the album was significantly better than like the last
three albums.
OK.
Yeah, I thought they actually kind of like, yeah, the production much, much better, far
less overdubs and stuff.
And I know they used, oh, what's his name?
Jews Priest Guy.
Andy Sneep.
Yeah, Andy Sneep.
He was Andy Sneep.
They claim that he's their producer and they're letting him produce Judas Priest.
Interesting thing, I heard Biff talking about this, that Judas Priest album, they've been
working on it in Las Vegas.
Hmm.
I wonder where.
I'll have to look into that.
But of course, it's obviously done.
But I think the saxophone is fantastic.
I think lyrically, it's actually better.
I thought the last one was really kind of phoned in.
I mean, lyrically, I think this album is significantly better than the last one.
But I guess that's the cool thing about music is one of us can think it's great and the
others think it's like, eh.
OK.
So, all right.
So let's talk about music that we're looking forward to coming out in 2024.
Ed, let's kick things off with you.
That is our extreme metal, Bert.
And I'm sure there are things that you have on your list that you want to hear that you're
looking forward to hearing.
What's some of the stuff that you're looking forward to hearing in 2024?
First that comes to mind is I believe Anthrax should have a new album this year.
Am I right about that?
They've been looking on one and I think they said it'd come out sometime this year.
Yeah, I heard either late this year or early next.
So really might be that long.
So we don't know really.
Well, here's well, I would like to hear that.
Yeah.
Things to consider is that Charlie's playing a lot with Pantera this year and Mr. Bungle
just announced dates, which Scott is a part of.
Yeah.
And Joey's got his Journey Tribute thing going on as well.
So yeah, you know, unless they put something out, it may be an off year for some of these
bands because I feel like a lot of them have just released records in the last year or
so.
Testament hasn't had one in a couple of years, but I haven't really heard news of what they're
doing because Alex or who left the band recently?
No, I was a drummer.
Yeah.
But they have.
Yeah, they brought Lombardo in for like a hiccup, which to me, in hindsight made no
sense because they brought him in for essentially a tour, got rid of Gene Hoagland.
And they're, of course, claiming that the new drummer that they have is putting, you
know, pumping new blood into the band because he's a lot younger than the rest of the members
of the band.
So that'll be interesting to hear.
I'll be excited to hear it when they do.
Of course, now the big and this will be a big holiday for me is when Kerry King releases
his new album, which he said he's going to have Phil doing the vocals.
Has he confirmed that?
Yeah, that was in the news in the last week or two that Phil's going to be the vocalist.
I'm pretty sure they were saying that was a solid info.
And regardless of how Phil might end up sounding live, they can at least do their studio magic.
So I'm hoping that the record is going to sound awesome.
I'll probably take off work and just wait for everybody to be gone and turn it up to
11 on my stereo and enjoy hearing those Slayer sounds again.
Because Kerry said it's going to be, you know, extension of Slayer, which is what I was hoping.
I want to hear that sound.
Just kind of like and I don't see how it couldn't be because it's just like with Dave Lombardo,
with all his bands.
Have you ever noticed in Phantomous and the Empire State Bastards and some of the other
stuff he's done, Mr. Bungle, you hear Slayer in those records that he's playing on, even
though it's another band's music.
Yeah, it's the signature.
You almost feel like it affects the guitar player sometimes.
It makes that guitar player sound a little more Slayer like.
Right.
But so, I mean, yeah, how could Kerry not sound like that either?
So it's going to be a lot of what people have heard in the past, but people like me are
going to love it.
But you know, like I said, a lot of the bands that I'm enjoying right now, I feel like they
just released records, so I'm not too sure what else might be coming out.
Unless you've heard of anything, Death Angel, maybe.
It's been a couple of years since they've had something.
Yeah, that's the other one that I was going to mention.
I know Sacred Rake is working on a new album as well.
Testament, I believe I read somewhere that Alex Goldnick said they had five or six songs
written and they had a few more to do.
So yeah, that should all be interesting.
My question to you with regarding to Kerry King and his band, how long until he realizes
that the Slayer name garners him more money?
And how long until we see some type of infighting where he wants to go out under the name Slayer
because it's going to make more money?
I really hope that never happens.
That would be disappointing.
But yeah, you never know.
I can't say, you know, everybody's different too.
So it's hard to know, but yeah, money is awfully powerful, isn't it?
Yeah, it would be disappointing.
But if you enjoy what he's doing, you know, with his first solo release, would that make
it easier for you to accept him playing under the Slayer moniker?
With that band in particular, I mean, I would still listen to the music, but I'd still be
disappointed in him trying to use...
Because Slayer is the one band to where, to me, it's Dave Lombardo, it's Tom Marea.
They're so...
I mean, especially Tom, his vocals is so much of the personality of that band that it just,
it can't be Slayer without him, just as much as it couldn't be Slayer without Kerry.
That's just in my mind.
So with that one band, that would bother me a lot, even though with other bands, I may
not care so much.
So here's Devil's Advocate for you, because we've already seen that Jeff Hanneman was
replaced with Gary Holt.
Yes.
And you know, I had a hard time seeing anybody replace Hanneman, but Gary was a good, almost
perfect replacement for him.
Because I've always enjoyed Gary's playing.
He's a nice, thrashy, heavy guitar player.
He's grown up with those boys since the beginning.
He was the one guy that could do it.
I think if it wasn't Gary, I probably would have lost a lot of interest maybe in the last
record they did.
Of course, it also depends on how it turns out in the end.
You know, I make my final judgment when I hear the artwork that you produce.
Yeah, because Holt isn't a part of this new project, if I'm not mistaken.
He's not supposed to be.
He says he's too busy doing other things.
But see, that to me boils down to once again, money.
To me, I think Slayer, probably the Slayer brand name makes more money than the Exodus
brand name, but the Exodus brand name probably makes more money than the Kerry King name
does.
It's more established.
Well, yeah, for now, for sure.
It'd be hard to see.
I don't know.
You never know.
I mean, Exodus has such a deep history.
It'd be kind of hard to see Kerry coming up with a side project that could be bigger than
that.
But still, it's Kerry King, one of the men who built Slayer.
We'll see.
This will be exciting.
Does he cover?
Does he do No Sleep Till Brooklyn live since he played?
Please, God, no.
Johan, an album that you're looking forward to in 2024?
First of all, for the record, I would like to see Alex and Kerry do something to their
hold on.
Hold on.
We'll get to that later.
Albums for.
Okay.
That was a wish.
Yeah.
Crazy Leaks are releasing an album in March.
For those who don't know, Crazy Leaks is a Swedish band.
They play 80s metal and they do it really well.
They're releasing an album in March and I think it's only, I don't know, but the songs
they released so far are pre-recorded songs of early albums, but in a modern way.
And that's better this time.
And one of the songs are Sword and Stone by Kiss or Paul Stanley, Victor?
Paul Stanley wrote it and then it's been covered by Bonfire is probably the most famous one.
I think that Bonnie Tyler or someone like that may have covered it as well.
Or someone that's known for pop music that's covered.
It's been covered a bunch of times.
It's a good song.
So if I have one album just right off the bat, it's Crazy Leaks.
Perhaps an odd choice, but I really like that band.
Yeah.
Very talented.
Let me ask you this with Crazy Leaks.
Crazy Leaks, Eclipse, all the other bands that are kind of doing 80s type hard rock.
Who do you think out of all the Swedish bands is the one that people should check out?
Is it Crazy Leaks or is it someone else?
We have a bunch of them.
That's why I'm asking.
Crazy Leaks is my favorite since a couple of years.
I can't point out just them because we have so many of them from the Sunset Strip era
bands.
And they're really good.
So now Crazy Leaks is one of the best, of course, because they tour the world and they
get a lot of quite big gigs, I must say.
Excellent.
Crash Diet, of course.
But I think Crazy Leaks has a bigger worldwide audience.
I don't know.
Perhaps they are better on social media, but I think that Crazy Leaks are ahead of the
bands right now.
Okay.
But if you have a different opinion, please let me know.
Okay.
Brad, how about you?
An album that you're looking forward to?
Okay.
It's going to be probably the best album of the year.
Okay.
And it's going to be Kansas with Blues, Serenade playing guitar.
How's that forgetting two of our...
There you go.
They're going to bring back that album cover, but they're going to Photoshop blues in there
behind the guy in the front.
Yeah.
Sorry, I had to do that.
I have a question for Johan.
I see he's over there cutting something.
Crazy Leaks, I don't know that I've seen them playing in the US.
Have they toured here?
They have a lot of the boats tour.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Everybody gets on those cruises.
I don't know how they pull it off and not...
They should play here too.
I mean, use the cruise to get over here.
I know it's tough.
It's expensive.
Of course, Saxon album was one I was really looking forward to and I'm very happy with
it.
I'm enjoying it a lot, but we already talked about that.
The New Judas Priest album, I got to say that I really like what I've heard off of that
and I'm kind of excited to see that or listen to it, I should say.
I'm not going to really watch it.
Bruce Dickinson, we have a second song.
Yeah.
I'm excited to hear the album.
What was the other guys?
The one that Derek Sherinian is doing, Whom Gods Destroy with Bumblefoot and Dino Jelucic
singing.
I don't know if I'm saying that right, but Dino.
Yeah, there you go.
That I'm interested to hear.
And I wonder if they'll actually play.
I wonder if Dino will actually go out and tour with those guys.
That's the problem with a lot of these things that come out now.
It just seems like they're projects and not real bands and as far as being able to see
them.
Tough.
So we'll see what that's like.
But those are the ones I've kind of got on my radar.
Yeah, for me, I was definitely looking forward to the Bruce Dickinson album.
That was the biggest one for me.
But these first two singles have kind of left me cold.
Instead of Bruce kind of doing his thing as he has in the past, I feel like it's Bruce
with leftover Iron Maiden material from the last few albums is just not exciting at all.
And as as detuned as the guitars may be, as kind of that kind of heaviness that is being
added that Maiden doesn't add, there hasn't been anything that's really wad me yet.
And unfortunately for me, the Judas Priest kind of falls into the same category.
I think that the songs sound okay, but there's nothing that's kind of like, oh, shit, this
one's really caught me.
Whereas with Firepower right away, the title track and then the other two singles that
they released shortly thereafter really got me enthusiastic for the album.
And maybe that had a lot to do with the fact that I didn't really care for the previous
few albums.
But this one, what I've heard so far to me has been kind of lackluster.
I don't know.
I'm hoping that there will be some deeper cuts that I'll be into.
Let's hope so.
Yeah.
I kind of feel like the videos have distracted me from the music.
So I'm looking forward to just actually listening to the album.
Another one that sounds intriguing is North Sea Echoes, which is the Fates Warning Boys.
But everything that we've heard apparently is what the rest of the album is going to
sound like.
There's two of them and acoustic or just one guitar.
There's no drums.
There's no bass on the album.
What?
Okay, screw that.
There's no bass.
I'm out.
If I read the press release correctly, which maybe I messed that one up, but I believe
it's just the two of them, the entire album.
Well, then screw that one.
Let's move on.
Lords of Black have a new album coming out and I never get enough Ronnie Romero.
I'm actually giving a pass to those guys because that is like a real band.
They've never played over here that I know of, but I do like this stuff.
I'm excited to hear that.
And believe it or not, I'm kind of interested to hear the McMarr's album, all of it.
The McMarr's album to me, the three songs that I've heard actually sound pretty cool.
I mentioned it.
I believe I posted a video off of it today.
It's kind of what I wanted Motley Crue to do with that last album and some of the stuff
that they've done since.
You can tell that Mick is still trying to write some heavier stuff.
I know right away after this third single was released, we started getting bombarded
with John Five interviews, at least reading about them.
So I'm guessing that Motley Crue is going to release their new music around the time
that Mick drops his stuff just as a way to screw with him, especially since he's already
won kind of the first round of court hearings that they had.
So we'll see.
That will be interesting.
Yeah.
If I can jump in, I mean, Mick Mars is a legend.
And if he releases a solo album and in this time and this age, I'm going to buy it directly.
It's so exciting to see what he has to, you know, Mick Mars, I mean, he's always been
in shadow of the other three guys in Motley Crue.
So I think it's going to be nice to hear what he has to and probably good because the songs
that we have heard, they were good.
So yeah, you know, sorry, my English is so...
Yeah, I pause.
But yeah, I have a lot to say about Mick Mars.
I respect Mick Mars.
That was what I wanted to say.
Yeah.
To me, it was interesting hearing this last single and thinking back about, especially
with the first three albums, some of his just really good solid soloing that he's done on
a lot on those three albums specifically, where he probably doesn't get the recognition
that the other three like Johan just mentioned, but because a lot of that recognition also
has to do more with stuff that happens outside of the studio or off the concert stage more
than the actual music, which kind of sucks because you think about, I was thinking about
it today or yesterday when I posted the video, I scheduled it.
I think about a track like Fight for Your Rights off of Theater of Pain, the last song
off of Theater of Pain, which the song onto itself probably isn't that big of a deal in
comparison to the rest of those three albums or to their catalog.
But the solo off of that is just so good.
I think back at how Mick hasn't garnered that attention that the other people have through
his music, but because I think by the time we got to Girls, Girls, Girls or even Dr.
Feelgood, his soloing, I think, was kind of cut back by that point.
It wasn't as extravagant or out there.
And I'm not saying that he was in vain Malmsteen, but some of those solos, you go back and listen
to them and you think, wow, he was really on the top of his game.
He was really, I think, rubbing elbows with George Lynch and Vivian Campbell and some
of the other people.
I'm not saying that he was better, but you listen to some of those solos and you think,
yeah, he was a gunslinger back then.
And unfortunately, you think of some of the big singles that they've had after that.
And his soloing kind of wasn't there.
Again, listen to something like the solo off of Look That Kills.
It's not in vain, but it hits the sweet spot when that solo comes up.
It's right.
It propels and takes the song to another level for me.
Well, you can remember a Mick Mars guitar solo as opposed to an Invi.
All of his guitar solos are memorable, just like George Lynch and Warren D. Martini and
all those guys.
You can remember those guitar solos in your brain when you're singing those songs to yourself.
And also, Mick Mars, Motley Crue, the sound of Motley Crue is mostly in Mick Mars to me.
He's got a tone that no one else has ever matched.
It's his own personal tone.
It's really in his hands.
And yeah, like you said, great riffs, great guitar solos.
And without him, just like Slayer without Tom Haraya in this band, it's not Motley Crue
to me without him.
And really, the only guitar player in the world they could have now is John Fybe, because
that guy has a pretty amazing ability to mimic someone else's sound like you heard in those
Van Halen cover songs he did with David Lee Roth.
He's the one guy that may do justice with Motley Crue, but that tone will not be there
that Mick has.
The thing is, now the rumors are, and I don't know if the band are the ones that have been
floating this out, that everything after New Tattoo was John Fybe to begin with.
So I don't know if that's true or not.
I know that there were rumors that DJ Yashba had his hand in some of that stuff as well,
because he was working with Nicky.
But yeah, I mean, John Fybe is a ridiculous player.
So I'm hoping that he helps take them someplace else where it makes the music worthwhile, because
we know how talented he is.
And I know I'm trying to think of, I was listening to a conversation on another show where they
talked about how John Fybe's work in Rob Zombie wasn't really that good and this or that.
And I'm thinking, maybe you really haven't listened to him in John Fybe, because he's
done some, or in Rob Zombie, he did some cool shit in that band and some memorable riffs
where the riffs themselves, it's a classic thing where you're humming along to that riff
with the lyrics in your head.
Yeah.
You know, being in an industrial metal type band is not a good place for someone like
John Fybe.
He's not going to be able to shine as much as his talent should let him.
So it's good to see him go off and do other things.
Yeah.
Well, that's why I think he had the solo albums that he's released as well.
And his day job helps those types of things take place.
That's right.
All right.
So my next question shows that you guys are looking forward to seeing some tours that
have been announced, some festivals that have been announced.
Let's talk about that.
Brad, before we move on, how about Ace Freely?
He's got a new album coming out.
Yeah.
You know what?
And I love Ace, but he's really fucking everything up with his comments in the meeting.
Oh, for sure.
He sounds like an old man.
Yeah, I get that.
I get that Gene and Paul have been slagging him for years and whatnot.
And a lot of what's coming out now, it makes me feel that it has to do with the fact that
he didn't make any money off of those two with this end of the road tour and he was
banking on it.
I know some behind the scenes stories that would make a lot of people go, what the hell
is going on in this guy's head?
But it's his prerogative.
Who knows if what I've been told is true anyway.
But yeah, I'm looking forward to the album.
The album comes out next month and we've only heard one single so far.
So that kind of frightens me at the moment.
I'm interested in hearing the rest of the Steve Brown and PJ, you know, the two guys
from Trickster.
Plus Joey from Z Rock, from Z02 is involved in this album as well.
I mean, what I don't get is why he didn't write with his band, with the band, because
they're ultra talented guys and it seems like they're brought in to do these tours, but
nobody's writing with them outside of Accept.
So I mean, I don't know.
I want to be positive.
But every time that I hear it's the best, it's the best album since the 78 solo album.
Yeah, you say that every fucking album.
You know, you were so close to doing that impression.
He started and then he just kind of didn't go there.
What?
Yeah, it's early.
It's the best album since 78.
There you go.
Nailed it.
I'll give it a period out statement.
Well, I can just give you his laugh.
Very good.
And let's see, we got a new end machine album coming out.
I wasn't real impressed with the first single.
So I'm still trying to see.
Here's the thing.
That second Lynch Mob album to me.
Look, I think the first Lynch Mob album is classic.
But that second one with Robert Mason, you kind of get rid of that Queen cover, which
what?
The cover, Tie Your Mother Down.
Yeah, your mother down.
Great song.
But yeah, the solo in that is ridiculous.
Not in a good way.
But it's just bland.
That cover just so damn bland.
The rest of the album is great.
It's a bunch of songs towards the end of that that are just so good, which rival what he
did with those first few Dockin albums.
And I get it.
All right.
So we bring Robert back.
We bring Steve Brown in.
Okay.
And it seemed like they were about to hit their stride.
And then Robert Scott, and we have Gresh in the band.
I'm guessing that Jeff Pilsen is probably now writing all the lyrics instead.
And Jeff, to me, as much as I love him as a bass player, is kind of hit and miss with
a lot of stuff.
He's either great or just kind of vanilla with stuff.
I don't know their idea to cover all these pop songs.
It's no sense to me at all.
Why?
I mean, I'd rather them cover.
And then have Glenn Hughes sing on that second album.
Was like, what?
But I was not.
Cover some obscure Van Halen song or an obscure Blue Oyster Cult song.
Cover something that who the fuck wants to hear these two cover?
What the hell is the name of the guy from Nsync?
Justin Timberlake.
Why are they covering Justin Timberlake?
Who's going to buy that?
I don't know.
It's no different than a black metal band doing a cover of a pop song and seeing people
say, wow, that's so great.
Fucked with the original.
Yeah, I don't care about somebody fucking with the original.
I want something that's entertaining or something that sounds good.
And it just why?
You know, it just doesn't make sense to me at all why those two guys have to do that
specifically.
So, okay.
I mean, I got one more album I want to talk about.
They will move on to concerts.
Okay.
I listened to about half of this today.
Riley's LA Guns.
Okay.
I was kind of bittersweet being that he just died.
Right.
And I mean, obviously, I don't know if this band is going to carry on or not, but I got
to tell you that the album is pretty.
It's pretty nice to listen to.
It's really good songs and good performances.
I'm pretty impressed with it.
Like I said, I've only heard four or five songs, but it's pretty good.
And we'll see what happens with those guys.
So they have announced the show without him, at least.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
And it's not M3.
It's somewhere in Connecticut or something, if I'm not mistaken.
But.
Yeah.
Anyway, from what I've heard on the album, I really like it.
So I would encourage people to check it out.
Yeah.
Real quick shout out here to Tony in the chat as well.
Another one of my great patrons.
Thank you, sir, for joining us.
He says he's really.
Hey, Tony.
Yeah.
So anyway.
All right.
Let's go back to Ed here.
Are there any shows that are tours that have been announced that you're interested in checking
out?
You're going to laugh at this one.
The Flock of Seagulls is on tour.
They're coming to Lexington.
I think I might have to go see that.
Of course.
And by the way, I just saw here, I was looking at the.
They're having some band called Strange Love Open, which is a Depeche Mode.
Yeah.
Have you heard of that?
One of your favorite bands, the Depeche Mode?
Yeah.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
So the reason I know about that is because we did buy tickets to see the Depeche Mode
here in Spain.
Nice.
That's what I thought.
And the thing is, I was asked by my oldest son if they were playing a specific song on
this tour.
And I said, I don't think they're playing that song.
He goes, well, that's my favorite song.
And I said, right, but you have to understand that's off of their not their last album,
but their next to last album, which isn't one of their bigger albums.
So that's replaced by something off of their newest album.
We're one tour too late on this.
And when I went to go look up the set list, I saw with Flock of Seagulls.
I'm like, oh, so Flock of Seagulls is opening up.
And then I said, I saw no Strange Love tribute to Depeche Mode.
So that's why I knew that that was actually taking place.
Jeff Tate is coming in March.
And I have a friend that wants me to go with him to see that.
Pantera Lama God is coming to our local arena.
That'll be the first time a band like that has come here.
Although I'm not going to that because I think I told you it costs like $65 to get a back
row seat.
I'm just I don't want to sit in the back row and watch that.
But I'm still happy they're coming.
It's a need for Lexington to do that.
And then Black Flag is coming here.
They came here in 2013.
I went and saw that.
I don't know if I'm going to go this time because when I went the last time, one of
their old singers, Ron Ray's, was touring with them.
So that made it a little more significant to go.
This time it's just going to be Greg Jinn.
He's kind of a strange dude.
I remember his opening band was himself and another side project where he just kind of
doodled progressively in his Greg Jinn way, if you know what I mean, listening to his
old lingering guitar solos on some of those latter records of Black Flag.
It was kind of like that.
It wasn't very interesting.
But it was kind of cool, though, to go to the show and hear those songs played in a
big club like that with a crowd.
And I'm going to go see Colin Hay again.
That's another nonmetal thing.
He's come into Lexington for the first time.
I usually travel to go see him.
And of course, he's the singer from Men at Work who's had a great solo career.
I can't see on the schedules that I have here what's coming the second half of the year.
I don't ever go to festivals anymore.
My older body just can't handle.
Also, being self-employed, it's kind of hard for me to go off to a festival either because
a client may need me at any time.
But I need to be able to plug into a laptop, that kind of thing.
So that's about it for this year, which is not a bad start, I think, if I hit one or
two of those.
All right, cool.
Johan, we were kind of talking before the show started about some of the stuff that
you're looking into.
What are some of the concerts or festivals that you're interested in checking out?
Well, there are Arch Enemy and In Flames are going out together, as you perhaps may have
seen in the world.
They're coming to Gothenburg and Sweden, I think it was November 24.
Of course, I have to attend that concert because that's the...
I mean, Arch Enemy and In Flames, that's in Gothenburg.
That's going to be something special.
Besides that, this is the thing.
My son is turning 18 this year and he wants to go to Wacken.
Yeah, yes.
And I have never been to Wacken, but I have a friend and his son and my oldest son are
friends.
So they want to go to Wacken together and so we are planning to go to Wacken on a bus
trip.
Yeah, quite expensive.
We have not decided yet, but yeah, probably if because my wife says that, of course, he
has to go to a hard rock festival when he turns 18.
So I guess we have to go to a hard rock festival when he turns 18.
So I have to go to Wacken and sleep in a tent at the age of 51.
Yeah, and see a lot of metal bands.
So we'll see.
So guys is good, but that's...
That's mother of the year right there.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
Good job.
Tell her I said she's awesome, man.
That's cool.
Take your boy.
You think that you do?
Yes.
You got to do this stuff, even if it's expensive, man.
These are times with your son you're never going to be able to have back.
So yeah, I know, I know.
Yeah, I know.
Go all in.
Yeah.
But yeah, so probably I will go to Wacken.
I didn't expect that.
You're going to bar a soap with you.
I'm a bit disappointed of the lineup at Sweden Rock this year.
So far, I must say.
It's good bands.
I mean, Judas Priest, of course, but I've seen Priest now for...
I've seen them so many times.
So yeah, perhaps Wacken is the new... my new thing to see.
A new experience.
That's awesome.
Yeah, I don't know.
We'll see.
But yeah, probably Wacken.
Okay.
Yeah.
Brad, aside from M3.
Yeah, and we're definitely doing that.
Hopefully, Shelly will be going with me.
If not, I'm going to make Ed drive down from Kentucky or maybe I'll go pick him up.
But yeah, M3.
Yeah, I'm not... there's just some good bands on there, but I can't even remember who all
is going to be there.
I'll be there.
That's the important thing.
For me, Saxon.
We're back to talking about Saxon.
They're coming to the US.
I'm going to go to...
Nathan and I are going to take your son.
We're going to Texas.
We're going to do all three Texas shows, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas.
And it's going to be awesome.
URI Heap warming up.
I've never seen URI Heap.
I realize that's kind of a tribute band at this point, but they seem that the last album
was good and yeah, they seem to be good live from what I've seen on YouTube.
So I'm excited about three shows in Texas and being able to eat some good Texas food.
And that would be something, Johan, is to get you to Texas with me.
And we'll just eat Tex-Mex for a week.
Is Texas food good?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
It's really good.
Yeah.
It's fantastic.
I do have to say, and I know this is in the food channel, but New Mexico, which is right
next door.
I love New Mexican food and it's unbelievable.
Okay.
All right.
Enough about food.
Udo, who I love, of course, he postponed his tour last year.
Haven't heard anything about it coming on the books for this year, but I know that they
told people to keep their tickets.
They didn't refund.
You might've been able to get a refund, but they didn't cancel.
They postponed, but I haven't heard anything about that.
If they come, I'll be going to see them at least once.
And I know this isn't a concert, but I'm hoping to see Victor on this side of the ocean.
We'll see where he ends up in his adventures.
We'll see.
Yeah.
Although I do have to say it'd be worth it just to go to New Jersey to eat a pizza with
him and Steve and Mike.
That'd be pretty incredible.
That would be a good time.
We'll see if we can make that happen.
Yeah.
And if I'm driving out that way, hey, Kentucky's on the way, Ed.
That's right.
You might have to pick me up.
Yeah.
Well, at least I got to have dinner with you or something, Ed.
So yeah, that's one of my, there you go.
One of my New Year's resolutions is to meet up with at least three signals from Mars dudes.
So that's a good three different or the same person three times.
No, different.
Yeah.
When's I haven't?
Yeah.
I'm trying to like, I'm like a collector here.
Okay.
I don't know.
Metal Dan seems to be the easiest, the lowest hanging fruit of the bunch.
Because I know I'll be going to LA more than a couple of times.
And I realize he's not in LA, but he's close enough.
Close enough.
Yeah.
Oh, I should be able to make that happen.
I won't be able to get to Spain probably this year, but you never know.
Like I said, they still, I'm sure there's still a cruiser too, that they need to.
Isn't it?
Wait, Tony, Tony, aren't you in Barcelona, Barcelona?
Yeah.
Okay.
A lot of cruise ships go to Barcelona.
I've in fact, I've done that one.
It's been two days.
I was, it was great.
Biggest port in Europe.
Biggest cruise port in Europe.
So I really want to do the, of course I got to get to Sweden.
I have to get to Sweden.
So you have to.
Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, it has to happen.
Cool.
So for me, I just mentioned the Depeche Mode with our stateside trip.
It kind of, um, so you're seeing them here.
You're seeing them in the U S. No, I'm seeing the Depeche Mode in Spain.
Where in Spain?
In Bilbao.
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
And then, uh, we had bandied about seeing, uh, Metallica in Madrid and, uh, and the same
exact day that Metallica is playing Madrid, one of the two days, Scorpions is playing
a festival about an hour and a half away and it's Scorpions and Royal Blood and Queens
of the Stone Age.
So there's a few bands that we actually enjoy in this household.
The thing is we're going to the States three days later, so I don't want to go out to a
festival and be out of whack for a few days when the trip to the States is already going
to be, you know, enough of a grind.
So I'm looking at having to drive either from Boston to New Jersey or from Long Island to
New Jersey.
So, um, tack on a festival to that and it won't be pleasant, but while we're stateside,
there are a few shows that we've already seen that are going to be taking place.
Must be my youngest son's delight.
Limp Bizkit is actually playing in New Jersey on July 30th.
So when I told him that he started freaking out saying, we're going, we're going, we're
going.
And this week I told him, I said, look, so long as everything lines up and hotels don't
all of a sudden become out of whack after that show and we're going to try to go.
Because the other option is at the same venue.
I mean, Bush is playing who I'm not a huge fan of Bush, but it's one of these things
where are we're there.
So I want to go to, I want to go see some sort of show.
So it's Bush, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Candlebox playing on a bill with
with the Limp Bizkit.
You have Corey Feldman as one of my good.
Yeah.
So that would almost be worth it to, I mean, it's just like a car wreck, you know, you
get a comedy show with your music show.
Well, there's, there's a band from Sweden that's opening up as well.
See if I can pull up the names of the, of all the artists involved.
Name of the tour is Loserville tour.
Name that one right.
All right.
And the bands are.
Oh, okay.
Actually, Johann already answered something from this.
Okay.
So it's, it's Bones.
Nate No Face, Corey Feldman and riff raff.
And it's saying riff raff is only going to serve as the MC.
So that means it's going to be three, three, three bands.
Okay.
Plus Limp Bizkit.
I've seen Limp Bizkit live already at a festival.
Yeah.
And you want to do that again?
I mean, I realize it's for your son and I think that's the best reason to go to that.
Johann is saying he would see them.
Yeah, I saw them.
Now it was 20 years ago, perhaps almost now, but they were good live back then.
Right.
And they felt very fresh at the rock festival here in Sweden.
So only good memories, but I don't own a record of them.
And I have, I don't think that I have ever listened to a song from them besides from
the radio.
But the show was good.
Really good.
Yeah, my son has the entire catalog at this point.
Listen, whatever you think about their music or think about Fred Durst, who most of people's
ire goes towards them, they're actually really good musicians.
Wes Borland is a sick guitar player.
If you check out some of his solo stuff, he's released stuff under the moniker Black Light
Burns and it's actually pretty cool stuff.
If you ever saw the first Underworld movie, he did soundtrack to that.
And there's a song off of that, that they put a quote unquote supergroup together.
Tim, it's Richard Patrick of Filter.
It's Charlie Closer, I think is his name on bass from Nine Inch Nails.
The drummer was somebody well known as well.
It's slipping my mind right now.
I don't know.
I think it'll be an interesting show.
We'll see.
We'll wait to see.
It's early on the year.
It's January, so there can be a lot of added between now and the summer to that area.
I know Green Day is actually playing as well, but the tickets are just astronomical.
Similar to what you said, Ed, the last row of Citi Field in New York where the Mets play,
the tickets are $180.
That's insane.
And that's a 70,000 seat venue.
They're playing a few days later at Hershey Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is about
three hours away.
And the most expensive ticket is like $100.
I'm not saying that that isn't ridiculously expensive either.
I wouldn't normally spend that much, but to see a show in the States while we're there,
I would splurge a little more.
The other two shows that I mentioned are a little bit more economical and closer to home.
That makes them a little bit easier to digest.
Anyway, all right.
Last question for everyone from tonight's show.
John kind of started going down this route already, so I'm going to have Johan kick this
off.
If there's one thing you wish would become true in 2024 music related, Johan, you already
started to say it.
Continue your thought.
What would you wish for?
Yeah.
I would wish for Alex and Geddy to perform live again with some drummer, new music, old
music, whatever.
I would like to see those two gentlemen perform live music again.
I would love to hear some Rush live before it's too late.
They are still active in music, both of them.
It's a shame that the legacy of Rush is buried with Neil because I think they have such a
big fan base and Rush has a fan base that is beyond normal fan base.
It's almost like following.
I think it would be good to the world to hear Rush again.
That perhaps sounds a bit big, but I think you guys know what I mean.
I would like to see Geddy again on Scandinavian soil, or at least European soil, with Alex
to perform again.
I miss those guys a lot.
Yeah.
Real quickly here, I missed Tony's comments.
He mentioned that he's got tickets to Mr. Wigg and Ramstein in Barcelona.
They play together?
No.
I've seen Ramstein on a pretty funky bill here in Spain, so it wouldn't surprise me.
Anyway, Brad, what's your one wish for the year, music related?
That's a great question.
I know I've been racking my brain.
My wish is actually coming true.
It's Saxon.
Musically, it's Saxon in Texas.
That ought to check all the boxes for me.
You're good with that?
Nothing else?
Oh yeah, there's a lot of things I'd like to see.
Go to Ed.
Oh, I want to see Raven.
I feel like I need to see those guys now that I've been listening to so much of their music
for the last year.
Who got me into that?
Was that you, Ed?
Yeah.
I'll claim that one for my list too.
I would love to see Raven.
All right.
So if Raven comes near Kentucky, I will make that trip.
We'll go together.
Because those are the kind of bands that will come through Lexington or some smaller acts
to the same place like Jeff Tate's going to be.
So the question, are you referring to something like projects that you know are about to happen
or you could dream up something?
You can dream up.
This is fantasy land.
Well, besides bringing people back from the dead like Dimebag and Bon Scott, one of my
greatest wishes before these two bands are gone, I would love to see ACDC and Def Leppard
write a good old classic hard rock record like they did back in the early mid-80s.
With of course my greatest wish I've spoken of is Cary Camortig.
I love his vocal style.
So I'm excited that the one thing that I would dream is inviting Dave Lombardo over Paul.
I respect Paul.
I love the guy.
He's a head brother, but he's still not my favorite when it comes to him and Dave.
But yeah, I think that's my, I can't think of anything else.
Well, yeah, let me also put on that list.
I hope Anthrax writes a good thrash metal record.
I wasn't terribly disappointed in Worship Music or the other one.
For All Kings.
For All Kings, yeah, they had some good thrashy tunes.
In other words, they were getting a little more back to what I want to hear and I hope
they ramp it up a little bit more.
You know, like Dave Mustaine, still writing some good thrash metal songs that I want to
listen to over and over again.
So that's high on my wish list too.
What about you, Victor?
Okay.
Real quickly, I just wanted to confirm that I did see Ramstein with on that same day,
Cohedent Cambria actually was on the bill.
So that's probably the wackiest one out of the bunch, but Ramstein, Alice in Chains,
F-Tones, Megadeth, Soulfly, Cohedent Cambria, Meshuggah.
And I didn't get to see any of the other bands.
It says Annihilator and a few other Spanish bands.
Johan, you've seen Meshuggah?
Yeah, of course.
Not my kind of...
Yeah, yeah.
Does a place go nuts when they play there?
Of course.
They have, you know, the drummer has a fan base that is like Neil Peirce.
It's, yeah, very special.
But very nice guys.
Meshuggah, very, very nice guys.
Oh, they're Swedish.
Of course they're nice.
Yeah.
They are.
Yeah.
Good guys.
Yeah.
So, so for me, one thing that I would like to see happen to me, it would be, and this
is no surprise to anyone, would be some sort of John Bush involvement with either with
Anthrax directly.
I was thinking about this today, you know, could we see Anthrax and Armored Saint go
out together now that Anthrax is going to be playing less shows?
And that way at some point we have John come up and sing a few songs from his era.
I think that they would go down well.
Here's the problem with that is that it makes too much sense.
I mean, it would be, you know, if I don't know what the deal is with those guys.
I mean, I don't think there's any bad feelings between them.
There was for a long time, there is no longer at the moment because over the course of the
last few years, things got smoothed over, but when they initially split, things were
bad on both sides.
I think the whole Metal Allegiance, Metal Alliance thing kind of helps smooth that over.
But previous to that, things weren't the greatest.
Yeah, that's actually a brilliant idea, Victor.
You should get the promoter's fee for that if they do it.
Well, and if that doesn't take place, have John go out with some other well-known people
to do some of those songs.
I think it's...
He has talked about that, right?
I mean, he's talked about it, but I think that there hasn't been the demand that they
expected.
But I think for that to be big and draw people, you need to surround him with known players.
You know, you can't just go out with...
Me on bass.
Right.
Well, outside of that, but I mean, imagine that the biggest guy in the band is James
Christian, who was the bass player of Testament.
That's really not going to get a lot of people in the seats.
You need to get...
If they had his sister in there, though.
Oh, well, that changes things, of course.
No, but what I'm getting at is if you get a drummer, if you get a Dave Lombardo or Mike
Portnoy or someone who's been a fan base of their own, that's how you make that work.
You surround him with four guys that are going to pull people in, and then you sell that
tour that way.
If it's going to be him with Rob Caggiano and Paul Crook and Joey Vera on bass and I
don't know who on drums, then no, you're not getting a lot of people in there.
You know, because...
Probably two to three hundred people.
Right.
But you need to get people that are important within the metal community to make that happen,
of course.
Yeah.
You're right, man.
In any event, I do want to thank Johann, Ed and Brad for joining me today.
I do want to thank Sean and Tony for joining us in the chat as well.
Thank anyone who's listening to the replay or watching the replay of this.
We are back with Signals from Mars, hopefully every week from here on out.
At least that's my plan.
Let's see if we stick to that.
And that's pretty much it.
Any parting words before we wrap things up here, Ed?
Any parting words?
I'll just keep it metal in 2024.
We'll see you soon, hopefully.
Awesome.
Johann.
Go out and see shows.
We see you there.
Brad.
Johann's correct.
First of all, I want to say it's really cool that Tony's hanging out there and I hope he
has fun at any shows that he goes to.
And hopefully Sean's still there.
Sean's still there.
Keep sending Victor ideas for videos to show.
I've enjoyed the stuff you've been sending.
Yeah, everybody needs to keep rocking.
I got to be honest here.
I'm still overwhelmed with my 2023 list.
And I've been listening to so much music lately, which has been great.
And I'm going to do a better job for 2024, staying up with the music, not wait till 2025
to start listening to it.
It was a weird year for me, this 2023.
So anyway, it's good to see everybody.
Good to see you, Victor.
Good to see you, Johann.
And of course, Ed.
Ed's awesome.
Ed's over here.
Yeah.
As you all are too.
I appreciate it.
We didn't get to Jeremy's stuff.
Which is fine.
It's like if you're not going to show up for the show.
No, you don't get to have a list.
No, no.
Jeremy sent a list of stuff.
Well, he can talk about it next time he's on the show.
Oh man, and it's not loading on my end.
Oh, that's all right.
Oh boy.
I promised him I would read his stuff.
Yeah, Jeremy, Jeremy Weltman, everybody follow him on Twitter.
You can just see everything he's doing there.
You can now follow, you can now follow Ed on Twitter as well.
I'm not going to call it that.
I opened a Twitter account so I could follow Brad's yardmell.
See that?
I'm secretly planning some stuff with Ed in the future.
So we'll see.
Okay.
So real quickly, let me go over these before we wrap things up.
So thank you.
Jeremy's not going to watch this.
There's no way he'll know.
Yeah, no, not at all.
Like he's not watching this tomorrow.
No.
All right.
So he's saying Saxon, which is out.
East wasp, except Europe and others.
Looking forward to the Tony Martin Black Sabbath box set.
Yes.
Looking forward to the heavy metal assault tour with girls school Raven Alcatraz and
Air Force.
That would be good.
Let's see.
Priest Saxon and Uriheap tour.
He's also let's see a one off UK gig in London by Scorpions and ZZ Top with rival sons.
Wow.
That's a weird bill.
He's looking forward to great weather for festival season.
Finding a new band or two to listen to or maybe even catch live.
Watch to Johan's heart rush going for it live again for Johan, obviously, is what he says.
And he's also looking forward to some great signals from our shows on the usual topics.
So there you go.
We did the proper icing on the cake with that.
Thank you, Brad, for reminding me.
And I apologize, Jeremy, for not remembering.
Been a crazy day.
Anyway, guys, thank you once again.
I appreciate you spending time with us tonight.
Both everyone here present and those that are checking this out after the fact.
See you, Tony, who just said goodbye.
And we will see all of you next time right here on signals from Mars.
See you, folks.