R.I.P. Jani Lane

OMG!!! I am so devastated! I just went online to check the daily news and see that one of my favorite 80's rockers was found dead last night.  Jani Lane - ex-frontman for Warrant - is gone.  Rest in peace, Jani!!!  We'll miss you.

Black Stone Cherry Music Online

I just thought I'd let my rockin' friends know that you can stream Black Stone Cherry's new album "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" (from RoadRunner Records) online. The album hit music stores on May 31st. Click on the album cover picture to start streaming now!Don't forget, if you enjoy it online, you'll definitely want to go out and buy a copy of the CD to take along in your car with you, too! Or, you can order the Special Edition with 15 tracks (instead of just 12 like the edition you can stream online for free). I order my music from Amazon, where you can get that special edition for only $9.99. I tell you, that's some kick ass rock on that album!

Def Leppard, Take Two

 

Joe Elliott of Def Leppard

This Tuesday, I wanted to look back in time to the 80's - when the long-haired rockstars were the ultimate dream guys of girls my age.  The 80s was also the peak of glamour rock and the so-called hair bands.  And one of the guys I really, really dug was Joe Elliott of Def Leppard.  While other popular long-haired musicians  fit LiggyzDreamz's definition of "hot", Joe Elliott was different because he had a very rugged, masculine sex appeal.  That was unlike my other 80's rockstar crushes - Jani Lane of Warrant, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row, or Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme.  I listened to their music over and over on my stereo while dreamily gazing at every magazine picture I could find of them.  Yeah, they were all eye candy to the giddy teen that I was.  But they were probably all teeny-bopper material compared to Joe Elliott, whose majority of female fans were (I would guess) probably all over the age of 20. 

I hate to sound like physical appearances are what count the most (after all, when you like a musician you  should also be a fan of his music, right?)  But I came across more recent pictures of Joe Elliott and I started thinking about that 80s crush I had on him.  I'm not saying he's ugly now, but he just doesn't look like the 80's rocker that I had a major crush on back in the day. 

 Joe Elliott in 2010

Okay, maybe he doesn't look all that bad.  After all, I know we all age, our skin will droop, we get wrinkled, etc...but celebrities get so much attention and they can't help getting photographed in public.  When those pictures start showing up all over the Internet, though, it just kinda makes me wonder what I ever saw in some of these rockstars when I used to dream about them.

I'm guessing that the years of grueling international tours, irregular schedules, partying, smoking, alcohol (and maybe even drugs), lack of sleep, and the celebrity lifestyle eventually take their toll on the body.  So many famous people (Lindsay Lohan for one!) treat their bodies like they think there's no such thing as "aging".  Then there are others (Sally Field for instance) who must've learned how to say "no" to the things that could detrimental effects on their bodies and their health.  So even in their "senior" years, you look at their pictures and say, "She's how old?!"  Why people abuse their bodies by not taking better care of themselves is something I have trouble understanding. 

I wanted to end my Two Thoughts for Tuesday with another look back at Def Leppard in the 80's.  Here's one of my favorite Def Leppard tunes from a concert performed 6 years after the song became a huge international hit: 






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Firefox Themes for Music Lovers

 Three Days Grace

Hinder

Thirty Seconds to Mars

If you use Mozilla's Firefox web browser, did you know that you can customize your browser theme with their Personas add on?  Yes, you can!  And if you love music as much as I do, there are tons of music themes available in their gallery.


I also have a few music-related themes that I recently decided to share with others.  Please check them out here -

LiggyzDreamz Music Themes for Firefox

And while the other designs below are not related to LiggyzDreamz, I thought I'd let my readers know that I have also designed some Firefox themes for health and wellness supporters, particularly for Xooma Worldwide members.  Xooma Worldwide is a health and wellness company that sells directly to consumers.  I use many of their products myself.  Although I'm not one of their distributors I like to help spread the word about their amazing products.  I've also been doing work on the side as a publications assistant so some of their distribution teams are already familiar with what "Liggy" does there.  :)

Xooma Green Theme

Xooma Pet2O Treat

Kardiaxyme - One of Mother Nature's Best Kept Secrets

There's more available at Personas for Firefox.  Be sure to check them out and have some fun!!! 

Hinder Concert Review

 Wow!  I had the most amazing experience January 30th and I just could not get past the excitement to be able to blog about it...until now.  Even now, I still feel like I must've been dreaming and I wish that night was never over! 


Let me tell you about it.   On January 30th, I had the opportunity to meet the members of HINDER after their awesome concert in Norfolk, Virginia.  It was unforgettable because the guys were so much more down to earth off-stage than I had anticipated.  You know, for guys known in the media as "the bad boys of rock", what would you expect?  But like I said, these guys were fantastic!

 That's me in the middle, my hubby in the brown jacket, and HINDER!

I attended the concert with my husband (who's from Oklahoma City - just like the band!), my almost 13-year old son (who really digs My Darkest Days - one of the three opening bands), and my sister (who also loves Hinder and as a matter of fact, gifted me with Hinder's Extreme Behavior CD). 

The show started with a set from Kopek, a three-man rock band from Ireland.  Kopek is one of 16 bands (including of course, HINDER, Saving Abel, and My Darkest Days) featured in the SAW 3D soundtrack, in case you didn't know.

The next act to follow was the Canadian band, My Darkest Days, whose popular song Porn Star Dancing got people dancing around on the already crowded floor.  To be honest, other than that song, I really didn't know much about this band before the show.  So when this mohawk-haired fellow kept walking past me several times, I had no idea it was actually MDD's guitarist Sal Costa.  He was so friendly with everyone around that I thought he was just someone that the locals knew.  No wonder all these girls kept asking to take a picture with him!

Saving Abel took the stage next. Although they were really good, too, I kind of expected a little more from Saving Abel's performance.  A Saving Abel fan that I spoke to said that they usually have  more energy at their other shows. I'm guessing that the size of this stage was just a little restrictive on their style that night.

See how small the stage looked with Saving Abel there?  Might be because all of Hinder's equipment were hidden under the covers behind them, occupying about half of the stage.

But hey, check out this really cool shot I got from side stage of Cody Hanson, Hinder's drummer, in action!

Overall the concert was unforgettably awesome and exciting!  If their tour makes a stop in a venue close to you, I recommend you make it a point not to miss it.  It'll be entertainment well worth spending money on and four hours of solid rock music that you'll be singing along with and rocking your socks off!

...I promise!!!

Team Coco Fun

I decided to follow Conan O'brien's new talk show thru the Team Coco website and the fan page on Facebook. Since I don't subscribe to cable TV or satellite TV, I just watch the video clips and episodes they post online. (Yeah, why pay extra for cable when you can see the same things online at your convenience?) So far it's been a blast watching all those hilarious interviews and fun clips on the Team Coco site.

My Chemical Romance 

And a music-lover like me even gets a good fill of musical entertainment. I've gotten to see My Chemical Romance perform on the show, caught the legendary act Social Distortion sing, and even got to watch the iconic rockers Motorhead "explode our eardrums" (as they quoted on the site) with their song "Get Back in Line".

Motorhead

You ought to check out Conan's late night show if you can. Check your local TV/Cable listings for the schedule. Or go to TeamCoco to watch selected episodes which are posted daily, enjoy awesome interviews with all the latest popular celebrities, laugh at the crazy comic skits they put together, and chill out with some of the best musical performers from the past and present. I visit the site because it's a lot of fun!!!

Arcade

Arcade
This is an album from one of those so-called "supergroups" that recorded music, created a stir, followed it up with two more albums, and then kind of disappeared...

The members of Arcade include Stephen Pearcy (best known as the lead vocalist of Ratt) singing lead, Frankie Wilsex (from Sea Hags) on guitar, Donny Syracuse (studio musician?) also on Guitar, Michael Andrews on Bass, and Fred Coury (former Cinderella drummer) on drums.

The tracks to "Calm Before The Storm" include the following:

1. "Dancin' With The Angels"
2. "Nothin' To Lose"
3. "Calm Before The Storm"
4. "Cry No More"
5. "Screamin' S.O.S."
6. "Never Goin' Home"
7. "Messed Up World"
8. "All Shook Up"
9. "So Good... So Bad..."
10. "Livin' Dangerously"
11. "Sons And Daughters"
12. "Mother Blues"

The song "So Good So Bad" is one of my favorites from their first CD release.  This song, along with "Cry No More" details the pain felt by heartbreak and disappointment without making the listener feel depressed.  It's almost like saying there's hope somewhere beyond this all, but there's no avoiding the turmoil you have to go through before then.   Or maybe it could be that Stephen Pearcy just has that sexiness to his voice that makes you fall in love with the song anyway.  I just love it!