JC_AOR

Okay I've just had another look through the Azintex catalogue. There are some great titles there that are long out of print and which are difficult to obtain as originals. And yes I'm sure the quality is of a very high standard and as everyone has said, it is difficult to distinguish between these and the originals.

But there are two things that bother me about Azintex:

1. A large percentage of the CD's are new releases, still in print, just off the press in fact, from as recent as this year. I really feel sorry for the artists who have put in so much hard work to record and promote their album, and then to have a company like this start mass re-producing their brand new CD and selling them off at cheap prices. The artists are totally losing out here. You might say, well what about the illegal sharing of brand new albums on MP3 format, it's been hapenning for years. But MP3's are advertised as MP3's and everyone knows they are not legitiment (unless purchased from I-tunes etc.). But here we are talking about false advertising - physical CD's being disguised as the real thing when in fact they are unauthorized CDR's (albeit very good quality ones). I know from looking at the Azintex website that they do not make a claim one way or the other as to whether the CD's are legitiment original pressings or CDR's; but this doesn't make it okay - it is still misleading people.

2. The flow on effect that this website has is that other sellers from around the world are buying these CD's in bulk and selling them on E-Bay, claiming that they are genuine original CD's. I can name several E-Bay sellers who I strongly suspect of doing this. You can easily tell because these sellers will have half of the Azintex CD catalogue for sale, all in brand new condition. One such seller who's auctions I was just browsing through, has nearly every Aztinex CD for sale and on each one it states "Mint condition. We don't sell CD-Rs or promos. Only official releases." - What bullshit. I hate to think how many sellers are telling us blatant lies like this.

As I said above, I don't mind CDR reproductions of long out of print/obscure/insanely expensive/never released material, just as I don't mind downloading MP3's of long out of print/obscure/insanely expensive/never released material. But reproducing new stuff as CDR's and claiming them to be original is very wrong in my books. There is already a problem in the AOR/Hard Rock/Metal community with too many bootlegs floating around so just imagaine how much bigger the problem will become if everyone starts re-selling these Azintex releases.

So for me, unless Azintex was to release a CDR of something very obscure such as the Aussie bands Blue Ruby or Avalon, I'll be staying away from them.

And lets face it, looking at the Azintex catalogue, aside from a handful of only moderately rare titles, there is nothing really obscure there at all. If your going to re-produce CD's illegally and make a business from selling bootlegs and CDR's, why not make it ultra rare stuff that can't be obtained by other means. There's plenty out there.

These are just my thoughts. Feel free to agree or disagree, in a friendly sort of way of course.

Not bad... just to confirm, can you actually download it for use on an Ipod, or is it just there to be played on the net?

No, there's a lnk where you can download it from.

I'd love to have a CD too. Hey Todd, how many original tracks do you guys have recorded with similar sound quality to the 4 songs mentioned above in this thread?

I'm told there are about 30 demos of similar quality to these, some better than others. I've been speaking with one of the band members and they are going to try and get the best 10 or so of these demos uploaded and available on i-tunes. Can't wait for that!! In fact I'd been keen to hear all 30. Also fingers crossed for some brand new songs some time as well.

 

 

Did I miss something really obvious, or who the hell is "James" who got stabbed on stage back in 1985??

 

 

 

Peter Sharman = Peter James

 

BTW, there are 2 Peter Sharman from QLD on facebook. I just sent a PM to both asking if either were the vocalist from this band.

Cool, let us know if your hear anything from them. Maybe they can hook us up with a copy of the 'Take Me Home' album.

You lost me at tits...where are those pics?

 

 

 

Actually, no you didn't. Not my upload but try this for the Daddy's Little Girl EP:

 

http://rapidshare.com/#!download|329l32|89254576|VICE_-_Daddy_s_Little_Girl_EP__AUS-1985_.rar

Yeah photos of tits are definitely missing from this topic. Anyway, thanks for the link...I'm downloading it now.

Wowee after that read I would love to get that 'Take me home' album. Sounds very interesting.

 

So uh, the cover of the debut EP? Wowser. I like it.

 

Did I miss something really obvious, or who the hell is "James" who got stabbed on stage back in 1985??

 

Mmmmm, norks.

Yeah it sounds like 'Take Me Home' is the album to get from these guys. I'm guessing it was only released on vinyl. Their third album 'Bad Girls' might be interesting too. It sounds like their early stuff ie 'Daddy's Little Girl' was much heavier.

Here's the first single titled 'White Rabbit' from their upcoming album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye__GEn594s

Yeah a pretty cool album this one. There are two versions, the original was independently released in 2005 and it was re-issued with more tracks and different (worse) cover art in 2008.

2005 Release:

2008 Release:

Will be keen to hear some new stuff from them.

I was watching an Australian teenage horror movie from 1990 called 'Bloodmoon'. Pretty shit movie really, but it's not all bad. It's about a serial killer at an all girls private school who strangles girls with a piece of barbed wire and gouges their eyes out. There's also a lot of tension and fighting between the rich private school boys and the local poorer surfer boys. But what really makes this movie is all the hot girls taking their tops off and showing their jugs.

So anyway...., aside from the tits, there was a live band playing during the high school dance scene that grabbed my attention. I could see the banner behind them, in big red letters reading 'Vice'. They looked like a hair metal band crossed with a goth band, like The Cure, all members wearing black lipstick etc.

I know of at least two other bands called Vice but had never heard of an Aussie band by this name so I did some research.

First of all, it turns out this band is from my region of the world, Brisbane, Australia. The songs performed by Vice in the film were really cool slabs of Melodic Hard Rock with keyboards. 'Standing In the Line of Fire' was the first song and it turns out that it was actually written by Jean Beauvoir. The next song was 'Keep Holding On'. Both of these songs are from their 1990 album 'Take Me Home'. The other song is the title track to the movie soundtrack 'Bloodmoon' which was written by Brian May but performed by Vice for this film.

Here's an excerpt quoted from ausmetalguide.com:

"Vice was an early Brisbane entry into the true metal stakes, forming in 1984 and establishing a sound that flirted with thrash and speed metal. Michael Hannah replaced Michael Black early on and Vice backed up the mini-album release with an interstate tour and support slots with The Sweet and Stryper, however the band split up after James was stabbed on-stage by an enraged punter in 1985.

The singer reformed the band late the following year under the name LA Rokk, before reverting back to Vice. The band had an all new line up of Darryl McDonald (drums, ex-Black Widow and Gypsy Rose), Peter Cook (bass, ex-Black Widow), Robby Peters (guitar, ex-Trooper) and Dave Roberts (keys), keeping the name but changing Vice's musical outlook toward a mellower, hard rocking style in the vein of Bon Jovi.

Vice carried on in varying incarnations into 1990 but split that year."

Line-Up:

Scott Allard (drums 84-87)

Mikel Black (bass 85-86)

Will Clayfield (bass 84-85)

Peter Cook (bass 88-89)

Chris Furphy (drums 90)

Michael Hannah (bass 86-87)

Joel McCall (bass 87-88)

Darryl McDonald (drums 88-89)

Mathew Mickelson (guitar 90)

Dave Roberts (keyboards 88-90)

Peter Robinson (guitar 88-89) aka Robbie Peters

Peter Sharman (vocals) aka Rodent, Peter James x Storm

Ziggy Straten (drums 87-88)

David Warner (guitar, bass 84-88, 90)

Daddy's Little Girl (EP)

1985 Sundown Records

1. Morpheus 04:44

2. Stop In The Name Of Love 03:42

3. Into The Night 05:04

4. Thriller Between The Sheets 02:37

Take Me Home (LP)

1989 Raw Deal Records RD001

1. Vice (Instrumental)

2. Simpleman

3. Out of Love

4. Standing In the Line of Fire (Written by Jean Beauvoir)

5. Lonely Lady

6. On Fire

7. Take Me Home

8. Keep Holding On (Written by James, Peters, Roberts & Warner)

9. Put Up Or Shut Up

10. Skin Tight

Bad Girls (LP)

1990 Raw Deal Records

(No track list or artwork found)

Now the hunt is on to find some of their music...

They are very short samples though as you say they give an idea of what to expect. From what I can hear these songs sound quite promising. I'm more than happy for a few extra ballads/softer tracks, as 'Summer Rain' and 'All I Want All I Need' were two of my favourite tracks from their excellent 'Good to Be Bad' album. Though for those who don't like the softer stuff, I wouldn't be disappointed as this sounds like it will be similar to their last album in terms of mixing up the style with old and new Whitesnake with plenty of rockers.

I had a few trades with Frogstomp last year. He seemed like a great guy. This is very sad news. RIP.

I picked this up a few weeks ago from Music Buy Mail. Think I paid a bt more than $27 for it though.

Excellent concert. Visually, one of the best Blu Ray discs I've seen.

Arnel Pineda is so full of energy, jumping all around the place. He never seems to stop and have a quiet moment on stage. Great vocalist though.

Excellent song!! I absolutely love it. Would love to hear more from this band.

Yeah I'd be very keen to have these songs on CD. This stuff would make a great release for a small label like Andrews melodic rock records.

Not in the typical Warrant style (if there is such a thing), but still sounds pretty good.

Looking forward to this album. The samples above seem pretty good.

A real shame that COT have cancelled, though as others have said, not really a big surprise. Lesser known Melodic Rock / Hard Rock bands such as themselves are only going to attract attention if they get on the bill with some more well known acts of the genre.

On another note, I'm wondering if Mr. Big will tour Australia in support of their new album. I know Eric Martin came out here a few years back for a solo tour which seemed to be quite successful.

And as Lindsay says, what about bands like Crashdiet? They have a pretty solid fan base here in Oz.

Cool, I'll definitely be keen to pick that one up - I liked theit first album. Do you know of any other releases that AOR Boulevard Records have in the pipe line? Do you know if they are releasing the Garrison stuff as well?

Nice investigative work, Justin. So just to confirm, since 1985 they have only recorded those 4 original songs? Is this true?

 

So I'm assuming a live set includes these 4 songs and a bundle of covers? Anyone know if they have more originals? Also, judging by the set up of the site, there was never a physical release of that EP, was there?

On their MySpace page there are lots of pictures, a few of them show set lists / song lists which have a bunch of other originals listed so I'm guessing there are more where these came from. Plus there are a few more aongs you can try out on their MySpace page.

Alright, mystery solved. A full bio, photos and everything can be found here:

Dreams Homepage

Dreams MySpace

The band is currently trying to win the support slot for Bon Jovi this year. They are up against quite a few bands, one of them being a band that is very well known around here - 7th Heaven. My support would go to Dreams, followed by 7th Heaven. Vote here.

Let's hope Dreams put out a CD od original music (including 'the Fear of Being Alone' etc.) very soon.

'Baby I'll Drive You Crazy' (1995):

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=UFwzJjQ1VKc

'Does It Feel Like You Want It To':

http://il.youtube.com/user/dreamschicago#p/a/u/1/VqLTEEnsFjE

From the Ridge Fest website:

"Dreams 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.

One of the best 80’s rock cover bands to come out of the Chicago suburbs, Dreams will be opening Friday’s classic concert in the park. Wear your big hair!"

Could it be that Dreams were a cover band from Chicago, IL? It now seems this way. But are the four songs we know about originals? I'm pretty sure they are.

Okay I've discovered some more clues as to who the band is that wrote and played these amazing songs.

Firstly to comment on the album cover artwork. I don't think the cover shown above is the actual artwork used by the band. Why not? Look at this:

These are the supposed covers for Dreams:

And these are the actuall covers for a Spanish compilation album called 'Dreams - Cafe Del Mar'.

It seems that someone made up their own artwork by editing the cover for the 'Dreams - Cafe Del Mar' compilation. They even left the same catolgue number on it which is what I was searching for when I made this discovery.

Next, I discovered that the band in question 'Dreams' played a re-union gig in 2008 at the Ridge Fest in Chicago Ridge, IL. Which whould lead one to believe that this band is from Chicago, IL, not Australia, Sweden, Switzerland or Spain all of which I have been told. According to the Ridge Fest website, Dreams played at the festival again in 2010 with Joan Jett and .38 Special also on the bill.

The following video shows the band playing the song 'The Fear of Being Alone' at Ridge Fest 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/user/pauldavidsmith1968

The information listed with this video states "Originally written and recorded in 1989, this is the first time the band has performed live since 1997." This would indicate the they are a late 80's/early 90's band, which judging by the sound of these songs is pretty accurate.

So there you have it. Now I'm calling upon all those Melodic Rock / AOR / Hard Rock fans from Chicago/IL to ask around and find out more.

I just got hold of the new album as part of my latest order from AOR Heaven.

Whilst I love most of Bad Habits catalogue, for me, this is their best album yet. Excellent songs from start to finish. Not as good as last years Treat - Coup De Grace, but seriously not far off it. I'm looking forward to playing this one some more.

Which CD was it out of curiosity? I recall recently seeing something for sale by this seller that I ws a bit hesitant about. However, I have dealt with this seller several times in the past and can say that on every occassion they were very reliable and professional.