If It's Cheap , Why Must I Give It Away?

6 6 06 passed by my world without any real satanic shenanigans, without so much as me even catching Polanski's Rosemary's Baby on the late late show... although I did happen to accidentally see two TV docs recounting the supposed curses on the cast & crews of The Exorcist & Poltergeist film franchises...go figger.

I hear Anton LaVey's daughter was out milking that freaky family franchise with some sort of Satanic legacy appearance at the Cat Club south of Market...

Slayer of course put out a new album, but the one 6-6-06 release that's likely slipped under the cracks was the new Cheap Trick offering... the first studio release by the group in about 3 years... Rockford

The disc is named after their home town just north of Chicago ( never mind that singer Robin Zander now hangs out in Clearwater FL these days). Guitarist Rick Neilsen's folks owned the local music store, and when it came time for a Beatle loving boy to form an illin-noise musical posse... he had the natural advantage.

Cheap Trick - This Time You Got It

I gotta give it up for these guys, 30+ years in the rockin' biz... plus they've got more or at least as many original members than all yer fave & even much newer bands, whether that be Wilco, Weezer, Rilo Kiley,Social Distortion, Slayer, R.E.M, No Use For A Name, Cursive or The Vandals.

Ever since their first official record came out in 1976, they've been doing great things non-stop ever since...see 'em live and learn. They still rock, and unlike a lot of road weathered warriors, they aren't even too fat or very bald...

Now truth be told, and yes, I admit , and so do they, that some of the latter 80s & early 90's stuff suffered under the weight of major label stock shlock songwriter submission syndrome...

But by 1997 they lost the Epic label ties, the crappy staff producers, and the Trick regained their roadlegs, (even if they have to open for lesser bands all the time).

I last saw them on a bill squeezed into a mini set after The Detroit Cobras but before the totally unworthy Cake, yet they still held their heads high, and rocked with more dignity than a thousand Stoned Temple Pumpkins or whatever Courtney Love licking junkie losers they've been billed with lately.


I'll probably end up catching the aforementioned Cake this afternoon in Golden Gate Park, and what i wouldn't do to see Cheap Trick instead...
here they are on the Conan O'Brien show about a month ago still kicking up dust...

The trick still hold the title as righteous & humble rock n rollers and can do little wrong in my book...

here's a couple from their last studio release, 2004's The Special One



Cheap Trick - Scent Of A Woman

Cheap Trick - Hummer

One of the first albums I ever bought was their then new collection "Live At Budokan", recorded in scream-o-rama process with the gatefold & glossy japanese tour booklet... and unlike most records purchased before puberty hit, it unashamedly still gets played to this day. It was this point where they became such a cartoonish sensation that one lovelorn Japanese fan girl shipped herself overseas naked in a box to their Illinois offices. Word was she didn't smell all that good by the time she got there.

Here's some more of Cheap Trick's newish stuff... and a few oldies just to remind ya of where they've been...

I put it all here especially for all you new jack peewees who think the strokes, weezer or maroon 5 somehow came up with their fuzzy pop radio friendly lick shticks in a veritable vaccum...
From the new CD "Rockford"

Cheap Trick - Give It Away

These next few songs were recorded in the rock & roll center of the universe, I can't imagine a more rockin spot to be on New Year's Eve, 1979 as we luded & lunged into 1980 than The L.A Forum. The live energy still rips off these recordings from an FM broadcast on KLOS of what must've been one bitchin' super sold out night...

Cheap Trick - Hello Therelive NYE 79-80

Cheap Trick - Way Of The Worldlive NYE 79-80

Cheap Trick - Downedlive NYE 79-80

(for the whole freaking show, head over to TrickWorld )

Downed was also featured in it's studio version on the soundtrack of "Over The Edge", the movie where a buncha teenage stoners including Matt Dillon, steal cars, smoke weed & lock their polyester wearing parents in a PTA meeting so the kids can reek havoc all over their planned community...

These two from the Dream Police album, a must have back in the day at the turn of the 80's, and still sounding purty darn good tonight some 25 years later...

Cheap Trick - Voices

Cheap Trick - Gonna Raise Hell

and here's a video with Robin in a teal suit from Navy Pier circa 1981

Cheap Tour Dates:



6/17/06 Sheffield, UK
Sheffield Hallam FM Arena
with DEF LEPPARD

6/18/06 London, UK
London Hammersmith Apollo
with DEF LEPPARD

6/25/06 Jersey City, NJ
Liberty State Park


6/30/06 Atlantic City, NJ
Borgata Music Box
at the Borgata


7/01/06 Quebec City, QB
Woodstock en Beauce Festival


7/05/06 Interlochen, MI
Interlochen Cent. for the Arts


7/07/06 Milwaukee, WI
Summerfest/Classic Rock Stage

7/14/06 Lansing, MI
Common Ground Music Festival
Adado Riverfront Park
CT on at 9p

7/21/06 Hammond, IN
Festival of the Lakes/Wolf Lake Park
CT on @ 8:30p FREE SHOW!

7/22/06 St. Louis, MO
"Live on the Levee"
St. Louis Riverfront
CT on at 8pm

7/28/06 Toledo, OH
Lucas County Fairgrounds
CT on @ 9:00pm

8/04/06 Darrington, WA
Darrington Music Festival


8/05/06 Kelowna, BC Canada
Rock & Ride Classic/The Bluff
CT on at 9:00pm

8/07/06 Sturgis, SD
Rockin the Rally
Glenoe Camp Resort

8/18/06 Beaver Dam, WI
Dodge County Fair/Grandstand
CT on @ 8:00p

9/03/06 Highland Park, IL
Ravinia

visit CheapTrick.com for the latest word, and to order the new disc etc.