JAIMIE VERNON – CAR TOONZ

Bravo to those that waded into the Neil Young debate with my blog from last week. I’m still getting hate mail so clearly it hit a nerve. When Neil solves the energy crisis, world peace and how to tune a guitar, let me know. I’ll retract the entire piece. Now on to something a little more frivolous…

This week Forbes magazine released their straw poll of the Top 20 best driving songs. The list is here. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2014/01/14/journey-places-two-hits-among-best-driving-songs-list-really/

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock – Heavy Metal Thunder

Defining what constitutes heavy metal is now damn near impossible. Much like the debate on what is or is not classic rock there are not set guidelines. In the seventies heavy metal was pretty easy to define: fast, hard rock, blues based and guitar dominated. Bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were the poster boys for the genre.  Things changed in the late seventies with the introduction of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Post punk bands relied less on the blues and performed a faster more aggressive version of metal.

Cameron Carpenter: The ABC’s Of Rock – M

Montrose
For my money there is not a better hard rock album than the eponymous debut by Montrose. Released in late 1973, and produced by Ted Templeman, the record paved the road for the L.A. scene that would be developed in the late seventies with Van Halen being at the epicentre.

Templeman was a rocker before he became one of the in-house producers at Warner Brothers. He had cut his teeth in the late sixties with cult favourites Harpers Bizarre. At Warners he produced the self-titled debut by The Doobie Brothers as well as their second album “Toulouse Street”. He is credited with co-producing “Tupelo Honey” with Van Morrison and it was here when he first worked with guitarist Ronnie Montrose and Bill ‘Electric” Church.