Niki N. Phaser

               Alice Cooper is best known for… almost everything he does, his name being one of the quintessential pillars of heavy-metal. His 1991 album, Hey Stoopid  (the title refers to drug addiction), didn’t receive as much attention as his 80′s work, probably because of the grungy circumstances of those days. But, when you draw the bottom line, you realize that the album contains some of the master’s most recognizable hits, like the title track, Feed My Frankenstein or the symphy Might As Well Be On Mars.

                The horror-like intro (phasy pads, high piano keys, door effects), the classic whiny guitar solos suitable for hair metal ballads, they extend the song to a seven minutes length, but it all goes so fast, as if you are listening to a three minutes no.1 pop hit. Might As Well Be On Mars is what you would call a classic heavy ballad: it’s about love, heartbreak, alienation (as the title suggests), but from that ‘tough guy with long hair’ perspective: “You’ve, turned my world into a dark and lonely place, Like a planet lost in space”. It’s torch song for biker chicks, yes, but of the best quality. If you are familiar with Cooper’s Poison, you can expect the same kind of big loud, but romantic chorus, that anchors the track in mainstream and makes it appealing to non-rockers.

MIGHT AS WELL LISTEN TO IT

          Irish 90′s wunderkinds, The Cranberries might just take their recent reunion to the next level, meaning they are working on new material. In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times,  singer Dolores O’Riordan stated that both she and Noel Hogan have been writing new music and the possibility of a new album seems appealing to the recently reunited gang.

         Currently, the band are on an approximately one month tour of North America, enchanting fans, old and new, with The Cranberries hit-list of honour, as well songs from O’Riordan’s solo albums. Due to a personal matter of the singer’s, a recent gig in Detroit had to be cancelled, but now the tour is back on track. 2010 will bring two other legs on their reunion tour, one in South America for the winter and then, Paris in the springtime… plus other major European cities.

          Hopefully, the audience’s response will encourage the Zombie authors to grace us with new material. Their last album was 2001′s Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. See a performance of their 1996 classic, When You’re Gone, played in Philadelphia, on November 17:

Reunited