How did we get by before the internet? Cardinal’s always been one of those mythical bands to me – I’ve read about them, heard bands influenced by them, but I can’t recall ever seeing one of their CDs in a record store. It wasn’t until Spotify emerged that I finally got to check out this duo (look up Cardinal’s re-issued 1994 self-titled debut with eleven bonus tracks!) and hear their sweet pop songs.
Richard Davies and Eric Matthews earned comparisons to the Beatles and Bee Gees when they were creating music in the mid-90s, a time in which that music wasn’t exactly en vogue. But after just one release, the duo split, each member moving on to other recording projects.
In early 2012, Davies and Matthews will release their long-overdue sophomore release, Hymns, and the hipster kids (and music supervisors on quirky coming-of-age flicks) sound go apeshit over this retro orchestral-pop sound. Here’s a little taste of what to expect.
Two parts Deep Purple (Ian Gillan, Jon Lord), one part Black Sabbath (Tony Iommi), one part Metallica (Jason Newsted), one part Iron Maiden (Nicko McBrain) and one part HIM (Linde Linstrom) = WhoCares, a classic metal supergroup assembled to raise some money for a good cause – rebuilding and helping the music school in Gyumari, Armenia.
Unfortunately, the group only recorded two songs – “Out of My Mind” and “Holy Water” – but those two tracks, along with a 30-minute documentary showing Gillan and Iommi’s involvement with Armenia will be available later this month. More info on the release can be found here.
The bad weather in the Midwest caused a power outage at the headquarters of Atomic Ned so posting has been light this week. I’ll return back to regular updates next week.
In the meantime, check out this song that I can’t stop listening to.
Not sure how this happened but Dirty Looks and Kingdom Come take up the most room in my iTunes library. I wouldn’t consider either of them among my favorites, but both found a certain borrowed sound early on in their careers and continued to put out album after album of songs that, for the most part, sounded pretty much the same. While Kingdom Come sounded like a modern day Led Zeppelin, Dirty Looks were more in the dirty rock vein and with Henrik Ostergaard’s scratchy vocals, were like the Pennsylvania cousins of Australia’s AC/DC.
I’m pretty sure my first exposure to Dirty Looks was via the old metal radio station, Z-Rock, which undoubtedly spun “Oh, Ruby” and “Cool from the Wire”. I remember buying the Cool from the Wire LP at a used record store in a strip mall of a Cleveland suburb. Being a high school student with an interest in girls and pretty much having a crush on any girl that knew my name, I was drawn to the song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” which I’m sure probably ended up on a mix tape or two for some classmate. Pretty coy, huh?
While I never got to see Dirty Looks live (did they tour regularly?), I’ve kept up with the band and in this digital era, where music can be bought with the click of a button rather than having to go from CD store to CD store to find an independently released hard rock album, it wasn’t hard to consume all of Dirty Looks’ output. Between ’96 and ’07, Henrik Ostergaard took a break from releasing albums but came back strong the last 4 years with new releases Gasoline (2007), Superdeluxe (2008), California Free Ride (2009) and I.C.U. (2010).
Apparently Henrik hasn’t been doing so well the past few years though he’s not a big enough star (cough cough Bret Michaels cough cough) to warrant much press coverage regarding any illnesses. Sadly, Henrik passed away today, at the age of 47, while in hospice care. The cause of death is being ruled as natural causes but obviously a healthy person doesn’t end up in hospice.
