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Recorded in 1988 during the European tour for The Fixx's sixth album CALM ANIMALS (for some reason not released until 1996), REAL TIME STOOD STILL is a well-played, crisply-recorded, well-chosen set that shows The Fixx at a critical stage in their career. After 1986's "Secret Separation," The Fixx never had another US hit, and the English group refocused their energies on their continuing European success. Judging by the sound of the audience, The Fixx were big in Germany at this time. Only about a third of these 17 tracks were US hits, including of course "One Thing Leads to Another" and "Stand or Fall," and most of the rest of the disc is devoted to the less commercially successful WALKABOUT and CALM ANIMALS discs. REAL TIME STOOD STILL is an interesting curio for American fans.

Ozzy Osbourne may well be ripe for mainstream acclaim as a founding father of heavy metal, but thankfully Bat Head Soup: A Tribute to Ozzy is not one of those increasingly common, cute, and "eclectic" tribute albums where bands and artists are seemingly chosen on the basis of how far away they are, musically, from the honoree. Nor is it – like Legend of a Madman, Ozzified, and Land of the Wizard, the previous Osbourne tributes – an attempt by record labels to showcase the no-name acts on their roster. This one gives the Ozzy Osbourne songbook the full-bore, hard rock treatment with a lineup that includes members and ex-members of Ratt, Kiss, Night Ranger, Poison, Slaughter, Twisted Sister, and Judas Priest, to name just a few…

Here we go again! Rush are perhaps the only band that can get away with issuing a studio album and following it up with a live record of the tour for that same album, as is the case here. Is there any band on a major label out there that has as many live records as Rush does? People buy 'em. Lots of people. The reason is that yes, Rush fans are fanatics, and who wouldn't want that in a fan base? The other reason is that they issue new studio recordings so infrequently that fans are grateful to have live offerings documenting a particular tour. Another mystery is how, after 33 years, a band with this kind of longevity manages to stay focused and restless, changing gears and musical approaches to its core sound…

This British boogie group was formed on Merseyside in 1976 by the Burrows brothers. The band comprised bassist/vocalist Brian Burrows, drummer Rob E. Burrows and guitarists Sniffa and Col Harkness. After incessant gigging around the north-west, they relocated to London and were eventually signed by RCA Records in 1983. They debuted with Rock 'N' Roll Gypsies, a fuel-injected collection of boogie-based rockers, identical in almost every respect to the style of Status Quo…

This 45-minute disc of primordial Chet Baker rarities shares its name with a companion volume of William Claxton's timeless photographs. The book visually preserves Baker and company during many of the same recording sessions heard on this release. The two presented here - produced by Dick Bock in Los Angeles during the early to mid-'50s - are the subject of some debate. The first date was originally recorded with the intent for Baker to add lead vocals, which he ultimately did. However, to get the most mileage out of the tapes, producer Bock re-released the same recordings three years later on the Pretty/Groovy album as instrumentals by substituting Baker's vocals with a lead tenor sax, performed by Bill Perkins…

It’s impossible to have a conversation about the power metal revival of the early millennial era without Freedom Call receiving at least a passing mention. They stood apart from the pack of German speed metal informed acts by taking the lighter elements of Helloween’s Keepers Of The Seven Keys sound to their logical conclusion, almost to the point of coming off as AOR with an occasional Gospel flavor played at a faster tempo. The magic that made their unique take on the style so auspicious laid mostly in guitarist/vocalist Chris Bay’s prowess as a studio engineer (he simultaneously gave Saxon’s 1999 smash album Metalhead an upgrade with his capability on the keyboards) and his uniquely light and airy voice, though the driving fury of Dan Zimmerman’s kit work and his then ongoing stints with Gamma Ray and Iron Savior definitely helped to promote the Freedom Call brand from the get go…