Van Halen: Diver Down (Warner Brothers/1982)

After the game-changing monster that was their self-titled debut album, Van Halen took a few years to successfully become a household name with 1984. In between they released their most-consistent and most-loved albums. 1982's Diver Down is far and away Van Halen's most diverse album offering. It contains five cover versions, three instrumentals and four proper, original Van Halen songs. On paper it kind of sounds like a half-arsed affair, however the results are excellent. The band sounds phenomenal and David Lee Roth is well-accounted for. Michael Anthony and Eddie Van Halen's backing vocals are wonderful and all over the place on Diver Down.

The album came to be when, at David Lee Roth's suggestion they cover “Oh Pretty Woman” and release it as a stand-alone single. They did, and it became a surprise hit. Subsequently, Warner Brothers pressured them to record a full-album to capitalize on this and quickly. The album reached #3 on Billboard's Hot 200 and had six songs to chart in the Mainstream Rock charts as well.

“Little Guitars”, “The Full Bug”, “Hang 'Em High” and the understated single “Secrets” are the best songs on the album. “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)” is a nice showcase for Roth but it's the Van Halen brother's father Jan Van Halen who steals the show on clarinet. The David Lee Roth-directed music video for “(Oh) Pretty Woman” managed to be one of the very first banned videos on MTV. And “Dancing In The Street” became an unlikely staple of classic rock radio for many years.

I personally like the album very much and I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't yet heard this overlooked album in Van Halen's album cannon.  

Here's the video review:

Fear: The Record (Kicked In The Throat/2004)

Fear were part of the original Los Angeles, California's punk scene in the late 1970's. Part sincerity and part tongue-in-cheek, Fear were what you'd call “humorously offensive”. With cartoonishly homophobic, misogynistic and misanthropic lyrics, they were what one might describe as being an acquired taste. I remember Trouser Press Record Guide liking singer Lee Ving's vocals to a drunken baseball fan bellowing from the bleachers. Fear had their most widespread exposure in 1981. First in the Penelope Spheeris' classic The Decline Of Western Civilization motion picture and on the Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live in which, as per mega-fan John Belushi, the band played a mini-set (which is worthy of an episode itself).

Nonetheless Fear's debut album The Record is easily something of a classic and one of the best-recorded debut albums from the entire LA late '70's punk scene. The playing is technically very skillful and well-above average in terms of your standard up-start punk band. “Camarillo” has a difficult time signature, “Getting The Brush” is darkly imaginative and “New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones” is kind of hilarious. “I Don't Care About You”, “Let's Have A War” and a re-recording of the 1978 single “I Love Livin' In The City” are bonafide punk anthems in the classic-sense.

Initially released in 1982 on Slash records, this issue is the 2004 Kicked In The Throat release and features their 1982 Holiday single “Fuck Christmas” as a bonus track.

Highly recommended for any and all fans of punk rock. 

Here's the video review:

Certain General: Holiday Of Love (Labor Records/1982)

Certain General spawned from the downtown New York scene. Alongside peers like Bush Tetras and Band Of Outsiders, Certain General were New York's leading purveyors of guitar-based atonal dance rock. The band formed in 1980 is still currently actively playing shows and releasing new music. And in fact they're virtual (cult) stars in France.

Holiday Of Love is their first release and having been released in 1982, as 1982 and 1983 was the era of the EP, this release also happens to be an EP. Released on Labor Records and produced by Peter Holsapple of The dB's and Michael Gira of Swans, the five-song mini-album is a nice mix of jittery-dance rock and somber mid-tempo material.

“Back Downtown” sounds like The Feelies a smidgen, “Hello My God” recalls “The End” by The Doors, “Leader Out” sound not unlike Bauhaus. “B flat, C2” sounds like what would happen if Gang Of Four were a surf rock band. “Holiday Of Love” could've been the hit dance single that X never had. There's something slightly Velvet Underground-y and Televisionesque about Certain General's approach yet lead singer Parker Dulany has a lyrical vision all his own.

Recommended for fans of any of the band I named. Certain General is worth checking out.  

Here's the video review:

Special thanks to: Kevin Tooley, Prefab International & Dennis Landau.