Charlie Sheen Show #3 in Cleveland – Review

Okay. Everybody update your Charlie Sheen scoreboard as follows:

Detroit – Disaster
Chicago – Better
Cleveland – Winning!

After again rewriting much of his flailing live show, and being booed off the stage in Detroit, Charlie Sheen gave his third live show a go in Cleveland Tuesday night.

His "Violent Torpedo of Truth Defeat Is Not an Option" show at the State Theater at Playhouse Square in Cleveland was met with an audience more accepting of his comedy.

Sheen kicked things of by taking questions from the audience through a moderator. People just yelled questions out to him.

But fans were actually laughing and not booing this time. He told jokes about the “weed” in Cleveland, he paraded his Goddesses, he talked about his dad Martin Sheen, and dealt with hecklers like a pro.

In the end, Sheen ended with a standing ovation – finally.

After bombing with his first two shows, it looks like what they say is true: “The third time is the charm”

Now, can he still finish a winner after the remaining 16 shows?

Lucky Pierre - 1978-1988

Okay, I'm to blame for this one. Here's the story...

Sometime back in the nineties, I can't remember exactly when, I lived in a little country town. Down the street from me lived a young woman in her early twenties who was a fellow music lover and told me how she had interned at Alternative Press and worked for the Rock Hall in Cleveland. Her name shall remain unspoken for her privacy. She and I had some great discussions about music and what we did or didn't like in the then current musical landscape. She introduced me to Geggy Tah and played me a tape by some of her friends. Geggy Tah are pretty awesome, though her friends' band sucked, and she told me she appreciated my honesty because she thought they sucked too.

Eventually, as it seemed everyone at that time did, we started talking about Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Nothing Records and Prick. She asked me if I'd ever heard anything by Lucky Pierre, Kevin McMahon's pre-Prick band, and I answered no, I had only heard the name. She told me she had a tape I should listen to and gave me the aforementioned cassette featured here. I liked it. I liked it a lot!

I asked her about the tape and she told me that her uncle, Dave Zima, had been the drummer for Lucky Pierre and he'd given her the cassette, and because of her relation to Zima she also knew Kevin, Trent, Manson, John Malm and most of the other Nothing-related folks that were based in Ohio. She told me a few things which were certainly none of my business and I'll leave them where they were spoken, but it was pretty clear she wasn't pulling my chain and I really appreciated her honesty and friendliness.

Our friendship was somewhat short-lived as she was off at college and I was stuck in high-school, making no money, driving a car the size of a boat that was older than I was and was a major geek. While everything else has changed, the geek part has remained consistent, and upon my leaving for college I continued to chat with people on message boards and arranged trades for interesting recordings. I can't remember which particular recording I exchanged it for but I met a super-cool guy whose name, once again, will go unspoken, this time for political reasons, and I sent him a copy of the Lucky Pierre tape. A few months later I found that he was trying to find more information about the recordings contained therein and that these were apparently the only Lucky Pierre recordings available anywhere on the net, at least at that time. We started talking frequently and remain friendly to this day.

Somewhere along the way, my friend uploaded images of the front of the cassette that I'd sent him, computer printed track list and everything, and may have traded a copy of the tape somewhere along the line. People started asking about the cassette quite a bit. I can't remember if it was him that uploaded the first rip of the tape or me, but it was a LONG time ago and I can't tell you the first thing about it. I can say that I was listening to a few tracks from another copy of that rip and it sounded like crap, so I decided it was time to re-rip the tape and I should put it up here for all to enjoy.

As this tape is rather old, features lengthy blocks of space between some of the tracks and the whole thing is by no means mastered, I took it upon myself to normalize the tracks individually and clean up those breaks. It sounds better, but don't expect anything terribly professional sounding. It's a rip of copy of a cassette that is probably a copy of another cassette, and the original tape is probably over twenty years old. That said, it doesn't sound terrible, just don't expect any miracles. Also, I do have a lossless copy of this, but I don't see why it's really necessary to be posted. If there are enough requests I can either post the cleaned up version in FLAC or the unedited tape sides, whichever is preferred.

If you're a fan of Prick, Lucky Pierre, Kevin McMahon or any of the other groups tied to their lineage, you absolutely have to visit luckyPRICK, a site run by another friend of mine named Rob, where you will find information about everything Kevin McMahon-related as well as how to purchase Kevin's officially released Lucky Pierre, Prick and associated bands reissues.

I want to give a big thanks to everyone that I've been in touch with regarding this tape over the years and, on the off chance that Kevin is reading this, I hope my posting this music doesn't offend or anger you. If you are in some way put off by my sharing these recordings, please let me know and I'll be more than happy to remove them. I don't want to steal any of your income and, as this tape consists almost entirely of recordings that have never been made officially available, with the ones that have been made available sounding much better on your official releases, I don't think this would hurt your sales in any way. Regardless, if you have any issues with this post please let me know and I'll happily resolve them for you. I know I'm not the only one who loves your music Kevin, we really just want to hear more of it.


Lucky Pierre - 1978-1988

01 Tough (Live)
02 Sock Rockers
03 Florence and Constantine
04 Pi Squared
05 No Fair Fights (Live)
06 Fans & Cameras (Live)
07 Hire A Lover
08 National Rap
09 Man Against The Wall
10 Sonnet 13
11 Actress
12 My Analyst Says (Live)
13 Cadillac
14 Match (Live)
15 Allusshia (Live)
16 Think About You (Live)
17 Take The Pain
18 Communiqué
19 Crack That Mirror
20 Lunar Eclipse

Lucky Pierre - "Communiqué"

When you read the post on Prick a few weeks ago, did you follow the link to Kevin McMahon's new site and business venture, Lucky Pierre Music? If not, treat yourself and head over there to get the Lucky Pierre compilation featured there, as well as the other releases up for sale as MP3s, FLACs and CDs. Great stuff and very worthy of your time and attention.

That said, as wonderful a compilation as the Lucky Pierre release is, as it features almost every single released under that banner, all of which are practically impossible to obtain otherwise (at least in good quality), it somehow skips some of Kevin's best-known material. Specifically, the "Communiqué" EP and 7", both of which are completely different from each other and as essential as anything else in the Lucky Pierre or Prick catalogs. Apart from Man Against The Wall, the closing track from the "Communiqué" EP, the other four tracks were all re-recorded as Prick songs and have been left off the Lucky Pierre compilation. One could argue this was because the songs haven't changed that much and the Prick versions may be considered definitive, or that the original versions sound dated, but neither argument holds water. If we're talking about dated sounding recordings, why reissue any of the Lucky Pierre singles? They're mostly from the seventies and early eighties and sound like it. If we're talking about definitive versions, why bother releasing alternate or "inferior" versions in the first place? Kevin has re-recorded Lucky Pierre songs on more occasions that just the first Prick album. Regardless, Kevin should be commended for finally making these records available again, but he should have made them all available, not most of them.

I'm sure no one will be surprised that I have both the "Communiqué" EP and 7" here for you to download and examine for yourselves. As to how they're different from each other, the 7" was released in 1984 and I've copied the text from it's discogs reference for your viewing pleasure:

Limited to 100 copies & came in a plain white sleeve. Features a very early version of "Communiqué" on the A side, recorded in Tom Lash's living room to 4-track w/Kevin McMahon playing pots & pans as drums and singing into a $5 microphone run through a guitar amp. The B side has lyrics etched into it, and plays an approximately 12 second backwards segment of "Communiqué" before hitting a locked groove that plays a short loop over & over.

That description of the 7" is spot-on accurate! As for the EP, it was released in 1988 with the reformed group and sounds very much of it's age. Hell, Trent Reznor even makes an appearance on backing vocals and saxophone. YES! TRENT ON THE SAX!

Unfortunately, that's where the Lucky Pierre story ends until Kevin recorded some LP songs for the second Prick album, The Wreckard, in 2002 and then in 2004 when he released a new album, ThinKing, under the Lucky Pierre name. For me, I'm okay with him not putting new stuff out as Lucky Pierre, the real LP stuff ends in 1988 as far as I'm concerned, I just wish Kevin would release music under any other name more frequently. He's a true talent and, despite what he may fear, he's not remembered solely as a NIN-related project, he's remembered for being himself and writing great songs.

Enjoy the music and remember to visit Lucky Pierre Music for more great music from Kevin and company! Also, if you'd like to see more information on the "Communiqué" EP, follow this link to it's discogs reference.


Lucky Pierre - "Communiqué" 7"

01 "Communiqué"
02 Locked Groove


Lucky Pierre - "Communiqué" EP

01 "Communiqué"
02 Tough
03 Analyst Says
04 I Need To Get To Know
05 Man Against The Wall

Prick - Prick: Alternate Version

Kevin McMahon is an Ohio hero. In the seventies and eighties he fronted Lucky Pierre, a glam rock group deserving of a major label contract but unable to secure one for reasons unknown. In the early nineties Mr. McMahon got a solo contract with a young Interscope Records and went to work with Warne Livesey when he had a chance run in with an old pal of his, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor. Trent and Kevin go way back having worked together on the Cleveland scene. Trent even played sax on Lucky Pierre's Communique EP, sounding decidedly non-Nails like. Regardless, Trent took Kevin back to the studio and produced some new, industrialized recordings of Lucky Pierre songs, and with that, Kevin became a member of Trent's Nothing Records family and gained the band name Prick.

Prick toured and gained airplay with their song Animal, but Kevin was always a recluse and he quickly disappeared back into his personal life. For years there were rumors about a new album for Nothing Records but that never happened. A second Prick album as well as a new Lucky Pierre album did receive independent releases, but a lot of people, for understandable reasons, never got to hear them.

I won't be posting any other Prick or Lucky Pierre goodies as they are all available legally via Kevin's website, Lucky Pierre Music, but today's post is an early, slightly different version of the self-titled Prick album, of which the released version is no longer available. The track order is different and some of the mixes are a little different, but it's not THAT different, so please don't expect some rough demos or anything. Apparently this version was given out as a promotional cassette and was clearly close to being released, but something happened and, apart from a promotional single for Communique, none of the different mixes showed up anywhere else.

Apart from the track order and the mix of Communique, the only other big differences are the version of Riverhead, which has a completely different ending from the released version, and Other People which has a significantly different mix. So, if you dig NIN or are a certified NINny as I've heard them called, this will be right up your alley. If you like good, strong songwriting you'll also find yourself playing this album incessantly! Finally, if you dig what you're hearing, visit Lucky Pierre Music and buy something, be it a physical release or digital download. The Lucky Pierre compilation alone is worth your time, but I'm sure you'll find yourself fascinated with the rest of the goodness to be found there!

By the way, I'd be doing you a disservice not to mention the excellent fan site, luckyPRICK. Visit them for a great run down on Kevin's music and projects.

Prick - Prick: Alternate Version

01 Communique
02 Animal
03 Other People
04 Riverhead
05 I Apologise
06 No Fair Fights
07 I Got It Bad
08 Tough
09 Crack
10 Makebelieve


PS - Follow this link for photos of a copy of the promo cassette this version of the album was released upon.

Artful Dodger - Self Titled 1975

I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining the history of this band, especially since there are a lot of sites that do it much better, including their very own site, just DO NOT confuse them for the similarly named British group that produce dance music. That said, this probably won't stay up for too long anyway because the band is pretty vocal about not having their stuff shared online, but that's a problem since all but one of their albums are unavailable, and when I get asked if I have any of their stuff, it's always this album that no one has but everyone wants. The band has said several times that this album, as well as their third and fourth albums, are awaiting reissue via American Beat records, but that's been said since 2007 and nothing has come of it, so I honestly don't think I'm doing anyone a disservice by posting this, but if anyone from the band or representing them would like this removed from my blog, please leave me a message either in the comments or by e-mail and I will gladly comply.


Artful Dodger - Artful Dodger (1975)

01 Wayside
02 You Know It's Alright
03 It's Over
04 Follow Me
05 Long Time Away
06 Think Think
07 Silver and Gold
08 Things I'd Like To Do Again
09 Waiting Place
10 New York City


UPDATE: Sorry guys, but as requested by the band, I am removing the album from download. I feel it's only right that if the artist in question takes the time to request their work is not shared, even if it's not available anywhere else via legal channels, that it is only right to respect their wishes. Let's do like they asked and support the band by requesting the label that owns the distribution rights, American Beat Records, get more reissues on the shelves as soon as possible.

Elton John & Billy Joel - Live In Cleveland 5/23/09

First things first, man is that an old photo! They look NOTHING like that anymore! Now back to the regularly scheduled program already in progess.

Oh boy, do I feel lazy. I know I don't post everyday like some blogs to but if I don't post every other day I feel like I'm a real schmuck. That said, I don't post every other day either so I already feel a little schmuckish to begin with, but until this becomes my job, which I'm sadly certain it won't, there will be long breaks and short breaks between posts, although the long breaks are probably not all that long be regular internet standards. Anyway, there will be another post this coming weekend about an album very dear to me and my woman which has never seen release. Pretty damn convenient since that's what this blog is all about, eh?

Since I'm beating myself up for not posting regularly, I'm giving a little gift tonight that I posted for some friends at another site. This is Elton John and Billy Joel's show from this past Saturday. I was at this show in what would normally be called the nosebleed seats, although they were more like the aneurysm seats due to the position of the stage in regards to my location. That said, we had a very good screen and the sound was great so I didn't miss too much.

I've seen Billy Joel several times over my life, dating all the way back to 1984 at the Richfield Coliseum. I've always loved his music and I don't give a damn what elitists have to say about his pop-music career, he's a great songwriter and doesn't get the credit he deserves. He's also a great entertainer and makes it a habit to talk to the audience and keep them involved. I can't say the same for Elton John though, as he barely spoke to the audience, didn't introduce his band, played a number of songs that only die-hard Eltonites would know and took many of his songs to an attention breaking point by making them last forever. I like Rocket Man as much as the next person but it doesn't need to last nearly fifteen minutes. I'm sure you can tell which part of the show I enjoyed more, although I must note that when Billy and Elton shared the stage and vocal duties on each others hits, they were amazing. The finale of Candle In The Wind and Piano Man was simply beautiful.

I know this isn't much of a review but I'm tired and I've been working all day. That said, I am pleased to present to you the complete show and hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Also, unlike my Wilco post, while this show is split into multiple files, these ones are independent of each other, which is to say you can unzip each on it's own. So, please feel free to indulge yourself in this wonderful show.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5