A while back I had read on Blabbermouth how Ozzy would be rereleasing Blizzard Of Oz and Diary Of A Madman, and my first thought was here we go again! Would this rerelease contain Trujillo and Borden? Or Daisley and Kerslake? The other thing to come to mind was an old VH1 special where Ozzy bashes Kiss and Gene Simmons, when they’ve had the dignity to only rerelease their albums once, while this is the fourth release on CD of these two albums.

I’m happy to say that Ozzy and his team have gone out of their way to make this release special. I purchased the 30th Anniversary Collectors Edition, it contains the following items:

Blizzard Of Ozz (expanded edition)
Diary Of A Madman (2 CD- Legacy Edition)
Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman (Vinyl Edition)
DVD – Thirty Years After The Blizzard
100 Page Coffee Book
Poster and replica of Ozzy’s cross

The tracks are remastered with Daisley and Kerslake being featured on both studio albums. This boxed set also features the first vinyl I’ve purchased in twenty years. The vinyl looks exactly like the original vinyls that came out in the 80s on Jet Records. The Diary Of A Madman CD is exactly the same as the original album, while Blizzard of Ozz contains the tracks “You Looking At Me, Looking At You”, and a 2010 remix of “Goodbye To Romance” which only features Ozzy and RANDY RHOADS. The one thing that is confusing is the live CD, it is listed as Ozzy Live on the back of the boxed set, and when I pop it into my system, iTunes detects it as Diary Of A Madman CD 2.

That aside, the real gems here are the live CD and DVD. Listening and watching both of these brought me right back to when I bought the Tribute album on vinyl as a kid. I remember getting home, going over to my neighbor’s house and reading him the notes, and checking out the pictures with him. Playing the album was mind blowing. I was too young to see Randy live (I was 9 when he died), and hearing him play so many classic songs live was just amazing.

RUDY SARZO’s book Off The Rails makes reference to the show that was used on the Tribute album, and alludes to the fact that one other show was recorded for WESTWOOD ONE. I am assuming that this is the show included in the boxed set. On a side note the track “No Bone Movies” that appears on Tribute actually comes from this other show. Randy’s playing is just amazing on the new CD. Although some of the licks are the same on these tracks, most are not. How many bands do you see nowadays that do this? Normally they’re playing everything identically the same no matter when you see them on tour. If you’re not familiar with his playing, he doesn’t get to the point where his playing is over the top, he’s tastefully accenting the songs.

What really blew me away was the DVD. It is great to see people like LEMMY talk about Randy and OZZY, ROB HALFORD. But what about STEVE VAI who mention something to the effect of Blizzard Of Ozz being the first album in a long time to offer something new guitarwise. The live footage is what makes this all worth wild, seeing Randy play live makes it all worth wild. Of course we’ve all seen bits and pieces of the band on AFTERHOURS. This footage is on YouTube and was heavily featured in the “Crazy Train” video that came out along with the Tribute album. Seeing him live at the Palladium in New York, in San Antonio during the Diary Of A Madman Tour is just way beyond cool. He shreds so effortlessly, and conveys emotion through his playing in a way that we haven’t felt and heard before on the studio albums, or in countless pictures that we’ve seen over the years. It almost makes his loss even greater.

Rounding out the live band is the aforementioned SARZO on bass and ever so influential TOMMY ALDRIDGE. All you have to do is compare his playing on the live tracks to KERSLAKE’s on the studio albums to see what I’m referring to (can you say double bass).

I would recommend this boxed set to any die hard OZZY or RANDY RHOADS fans. The live components alone make this boxed set worth its wild. Throw in the coffee book which features a lot of obscure pictures from that era, the poster, the cross (will anyone actually wear this?), and some classic vinyls and CDs, and you’ve got one of the best boxed sets that has been released in the past few years.

Grade: A+

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of talking to Frankie Banali from Quiet Riot. This band has always been one of my favorites and instantly caught my eye the second I saw their videos on MTV. What wasn’t there to love the mask, the straight jacket, the larger than life camera angles, and the black and white stripes which seemed to be everywhere! I have to confess that I immediately took two roles of electrical tape from my father, one black, the other white and proceeded to tape up my drum sticks to emulate the patterns they had everywhere in their videos. The cool thing about the band is no matter what fads were taking place, whether they were being cheered or jeered in the media, they always managed put out great music. Most will know them from obvious hit albums like Metal Health and Condition Critical. Some may also remember QRIII and the video for The Wild and The Young, but the band has always been so much more than that. Great albums like Terrified, Down To The Bone, and Guilty Pleasures for some reason have always fallen under the radar. All of their albums ranged from good to great in my opinion.

I had the pleasure of seeing the band live back in 2001 with Enuff Z Nuff, Warrant & Poison. No doubt in my mind what group I was going to see. They easily stole the show, hands down the best band to hit the stage, it wasn’t even close.

In any event, I had great fun doing the interview with Frankie; hope you guys enjoy it as well. The reason Frankie came on was to promote the new Quiet Riot documentary he’s trying to put together. During the interview you’ll hear him discuss all of the work he’s already put into the film, and why he’s pared up with Kickstarter.com to attempt to raise money and make the documentary come to life. But he isn’t just asking for you to fork over some cash, he’s offering plenty of cool items in return for your backing of the project. You can gohere to find out about all of the items you will receive in return for becoming a backer of the documentary. Items include gold album awards (the real ones with the RIAA certificate of authenticity), dinner with Frankie or a two hour drum lesson with him. Check the link out for more details.

If you’ve listened to my podcast enough you’ve heard me say support the bands you love, buy their music, etc. Quiet Riot is a band I love, help me support Frankie and get this documentary made! Go to the Kickstarter.com link I have posted above, or go to their site and search for Quiet Riot or Frankie Banali. Let’s make the Quiet Riot documentary happen!

Tracks heard during the episode are as follows:

The Ritual
Down To The Bone
Shadow Of Love
Run For Cover
Terrified

During the episode we discuss the following:

Quite Riot, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Randy Rhoads, Kevin Dubrow, Paul Shortino, Rudy Sarzo, Carlos Cavazo, Frankie Banali, Marilyn Manson, Metal Health, Condition Critical, Rainbow Bar and Grill, Bob Turner, Tony Cavazo, Chuck Wright, QRIII, Sean McNabb, Kenny Hillery, Down To The Bown, Alive & Well, Guilty Pleasures, Alex Grossi, Rehab, Tony Franklin, Neil Citron, Bobby Rondinelli, Terrified, Marilyn Manson, Santa Monica Civic Center, Footloose, New York Yankees, A-Rod, Ratt, Motley Crue, The Dirt, Chipster PR

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The second Mars Attacks Podcast contains an interview I conducted with Joey Z from Life of Agony Back in November 09.

Items discussed during this interview are the shows being done in commemoration of the band’s 20th anniversary, the live album that will follow in 2010, Keith Caputo’s original departure from L.O.A., River Runs Red, Ugly, Soul Searching Sun, Broken Valley, Whitefeld Crane, Steromud, Eric Rodgers use of the Steromud name, Peter Steel, Carnivore, Type of Negative, Josh Silver, Metallica, Andreas Kisser, Sepultura, Road Runner Records, Ill Niño, Dave Chavarri (confused him for Joe Nuñez during the interview, sorry), Megadeth, Dave Mustaine, Seak N Destroy, Isolated Fear, Misfits, Devil’s Whorehouse, Schecter Solo 6, Gibson Les Paul, Jimm Archie, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Peavey, Seymour Duncan, Boss Kelli, Pink Floyd, Road Runner United, Misery, Coery Lowery, Stuck Mojo, Perfect Self, Sony, Epic Records, Sick of it All, Anthrax, The Greatest Fear, Sworn Enemy, Incubus, System Of A Down, Korn, Snot, Ozzfest, Seven Dust, Soulfly, Tool, Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead, Super Metal Records, System 2 Studios, Randy Rhoads, Kirk Hammett, David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Method of Groove Studios, his production work, and the possibility of recording new material with Life of Agony.

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During this episode I had the pleasure of interviewing Life of Agony’s Joey Z. The follow tracks where featured during this episode:

This Time, Tangerine, The Calm That Disturbs You, Fears, Heroin Dreams, The Day He Died, My Eyes, and Sunlight by Stereomud.

The following songs where played behind my banter:

Define This, Steppin Away, Oldman by Stereomud, Last Cigarette, Hope, and Love to Let You Down by Life of Agony.

Items discussed during this interview are the shows being done in commemoration of the band’s 20th anniversary, the live album that will follow in 2010, Keith Caputo’s original departure from L.O.A., River Runs Red, Ugly, Soul Searching Sun, Broken Valley, Whitefeld Crane, Steromud, Eric Rodgers use of the Steromud name, Peter Steel, Carnivore, Type of Negative, Josh Silver, Metallica, Andreas Kisser, Sepultura, Road Runner Records, Ill Niño, Dave Chavarri (confused him for Joe Nuñez during the interview, sorry), Megadeth, Dave Mustaine, Seak N Destroy, Isolated Fear, Misfits, Devil’s Whorehouse, Schecter Solo 6, Gibson Les Paul, Jimm Archie, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, Peavey, Seymour Duncan, Boss Kelli, Pink Floyd, Road Runner United, Misery, Coery Lowery, Stuck Mojo, Perfect Self, Sony, Epic Records, Sick of it All, Anthrax, The Greatest Fear, Sworn Enemy, Incubus, System Of A Down, Korn, Snot, Ozzfest, Seven Dust, Soulfly, Tool, Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead, Super Metal Records, System 2 Studios, Randy Rhoads, Kirk Hammett, David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Method of Groove Studios, his production work, and the possibility of recording new material with Life of Agony.