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CD Review: Sammy Hagar’s Cosmic Universal Fashion

To me, Sammy Hagar has always typified a straight-up rock and roll kind of guy. He’s never found a place on my list off all-time favorites, but as I have said here before, I think Van Halen’s best years were during the time Hagar was with them. Besides preferring Hagar’s voice over Diamond Dave’s, I’ve never cared much for big egos. Maybe those old VH videos with Roth throwing his blond locks around and casting those“come hither” looks towards the camera just creeped me out a bit too much to ever take the guy seriously. Some footage from the most recent Van Halen tour with Roth riding a giant inflatable microphone around the stage surely didn’t help.

As far as being a straight-up rock and roll kind of guy goes, this latest effort is a bit of a departure, and some if it can definitely be classified as music with a message. Awareness about the environment seems to be a key part of the message Hagar is trying to convey with Cosmic Universal Fashion.

The CD is packaged in a cardboard case that is described right on it as being “Printed on 40% recycled paperboard,” as well as “Environmentally friendly package: No booklet, no waste.” Indeed, there is no booklet accompanying the CD as you would normally expect, which is really not a big deal for me and the cardboard packaging certainly was easier to open than that shrink-wrapped plastic fortress that CDs are usually encased in. You can however, visit Hagar’s website and view or download the booklet if you choose.

If you’re a Sammy Hagar fan, there’s a fair chance that you will enjoy this new album. For someone like myself who is  a bit more neutral where the Red Rocker is concerned, I found myself left with only one track that I really liked. I certainly don’t consider the other tracks “unlistenable,” but the one I found myself playing over and over a number of times was “Loud.” Now that’s straight-up rock and roll, and the kind of thing I would have liked to hear more of on a Sammy Hagar album.

Getting to the title track, “Cosmic Universal Fashion,” it is not your typical rock song, and it’s a difficult one for me to classify, although it has more of a machine-generated sound to it which is a bit too repetitive and certainly does not sound like any of the old classic Hagar I remember. Of all the tracks on the album, this was the one I liked the least. It’s creation is an interesting story however, since it was born out of a collaboration between Hagar and an Iraqi fan took place over the internet. Unfortunately, I found the story of the song’s creation more interesting than the song itself.

The whole album is somewhat of an odd collection, since some of the tracks don’t seem like they belong on the same CD and were made up of a collection of songs that Hagar did not know what else to do with. That’s confirmed to some degree by the credits where Hagar talks about a couple of songs he wrote with Neal Schon just before he signed on for the Van Hagar reunion and had to put his plans with Schon on hold. Those two tracks, “Psycho Vertigo” and “Peephole” are on this album, with “Psycho Vertigo” being the better track in my opinion. Deen Castronovo’s hard-driving drum work really provides a strong backbone to this guitar-driven track.

Although I have seen some criticism of Hagar’s singing on this album, I think he’s holding up pretty well at the age of 61, and to me he sounds pretty much like the Sammy Hagar I remember from the 80’s.

As someone whose favorite groups include Rush, Yes, Heart and Kansas, Hagar’s creative work, much of which has that party-inspired feel to it, has never been much of a draw for me. For Hagar fans however, this album may be worth checking out.

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Tags: Album, Cosmic Universal Fashion, Review, Sammy Hagar

Classic Rock Briefs For November 21, 2008

Sammy Hagar Answers Questions From Boneheads

Well, that’s hw San Francisco radio station KSAN, “107.7 The Bone” refers to their listeners, many of whom were probably pleasantly surprised to hear a surprise visit from Sammy Hagar who dropped by the studios to talk about his current activities and answer call-in questions from fans.

In addition to getting his voice heard live on the Bay Area radio station, Hagar’s visit was also filmed by someone who is known, affectionately I presume, as “Baby Huey,” who wielded the “Huey Cam” to capture Hagar’s visit for fans to enjoy. You can check out the station’s website for the interview and video.

Roger Waters And Bon Jovi on Live Earth Roster

The city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the financial capital of India will host the Live Earth event next month with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Bon Jovi scheduled to perform. Along with the veteran rockers, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Hritik Roshan are expected to be in attendance to lend their support to the effort.

Former U.S. Vice President and former Presidential candidate Al Gore, who is credited as the founder of the Live Earth events is also expected to be present. Full Story.

Tags: 107.7, Bon Jovi, India, KSAN, Live Earth, Roger Waters, Sammy Hagar, The Bone

Michael Anthony And Sammy Hagar Let Loose on Van Halen

Until now, former Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony has been pretty kind to his former band mates by not sharing his true feelings about his experiences while he was with the group, and his more recent exclusion from the Van Halen reunion tour. At least not publicly. Although he still seems reluctant to say anything really nasty about Van Halen, he does reveal a little more about the process that led to his separation from the group.

Although Anthony concedes that he sees himself as the ultimate “sideman”, and not necessarily the guy in the spotlight, he stresses that the role of a sideman is vital, and holds things together when the guy who is in the spotlight plays a ten-minute solo.

Although Anthony has talked about his disappointment that resulted from his exclusion from the Van Halen reunion tour which featured the return of original vocalist David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang on bass, he is talking more about his feelings now and admitted that he would have loved to have been part of it.

Revealing some of the negative feelings and disappointment about his parting ways with Van Halen, Anthony sounds like he has it all behind him now and seems to be very excited about the new group he has been playing with, which is being called “Chickenfoot” for the time being.

You can read more from the interview Anthony did with Music Radar and even download the audio from the interview.

Sammy Hagar, on the other hand, is a lot more open about his feelings when he talks about his time spent with Van Halen – a period in the group’s history that resulted in some of the group’s best material in my personal opinion.

Hagar, talking with Classic Rock Revisited not long ago, was clearly not pleased about the way Michael Anthony was treated by Van Halen when he was excluded from the last tour. “He got f***ed and it was horrible. I am not going to go on about ‘why and what,’because I have no idea…(The fans) have been waiting for this reunion and they (Van Halen) did it wrong. It is one more strike against those guys. They are not healthy, mentally, and they make bad decisions. They don’t take the fans in mind for one second and it is not good."

Hagar also relates the story of how a drunken Eddie Van Halen tried to knock the window out of a plane the group was flying on during a tour, and almost left the group as a result. Although Hagar remained in order to finish up the tour, he insisted on flying in a separate airplane for the duration of the tour to avoid being exposed to Van Halen’s alleged dangerous drunken rampages.

Hagar has his own album that was released just yesterday called Cosmic Universal Fashion, and he is also heavily involved with Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith in the aforementioned “Chickenfoot” project, something Hagar is no less excited about than Anthony and has described in the past as something that “could rival Led Zeppelin.” A bold claim to be sure, and it will certainly be interesting to hear this new material when it finally starts making its way out for us all to hear. They are hoping to complete the album they are working on sometime next summer.

For more on Hagar’s comments, check out KBS Radio.

Tags: Chickenfoot, interview, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Van Halen

Former Van Halen Bassist Michael Anthony Back on Track

Thinking back on how he was booted out of Van Halen evokes some painful memories for Michael Anthony. After a long career with the Van Halen brothers, Anthony learned early last year that he had been replaced by Eddie Van Halen’s son, Wolfgang.

According to Anthony, that wasn’t the most painful event that marked his split with the group, who had decided to reunite with frontman David Lee Roth for a full-blown tour. The real low blow was delivered by way of the Van Halen website where Anthony had discovered that his picture had been removed from all Van Halen album covers that appear on the site – including the first one – and replaced with pictures of Wolfgang.

Outraged fans made their voices heard, and Anthony’s pictures were soon restored to their rightful positions on the album covers as a result. “I mean, to think that somebody would go to the trouble of trying to erase me from the band’s past, that hurt. But I think the fans felt the same way because a day or two later the website was changed and my pictures were put back,” Anthony said.

These days things are looking up for Michael Anthony. He’s joined up with Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith to form what is currently being called “Chickenfoot,” but word is that the name may be changed when they settle on what they actually want to be called.

The group is currently finishing up work on their new album, which Anthony sounds quite enthusiastic about – comparing the group’s energy to the early days of Van Halen.

No official release date for the album has been announced yet, but the group’s earlier plans were to finish recording by the end of September.

Read more at Music Radar.

Tags: Chickenfoot, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, Van Halen, Wolfgang

Classic Rock Briefs For October 30, 2008

A Stroll Down Memory Lane With MTV

For those of us who remember the early days of MTV, when all they played were music videos, there is a new website you can visit and reminisce about the old days. Taking a quick look at the new site, I’ve run across some of those old videos that stand out in my mind such as Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again, Rush’s Tom Sawyer and AC/DC’s Back In Black. To check out some of this nostalgic videos, head on over to MTV Music.

Sammy Hagar To Appear on Biography channel’s ‘Celebrity Ghost Stories’

Some people love them and others think they are ridiculous. I’m talking about ghost stories, and if you happen to be one of those people that love them and you are a Sammy Hagar fan, you may want to tune into the Biography Channel tonight at 11:00 p.m. Eastern, since Hagar will be a guest on Celebrity Ghost Stories. Sorry for the short notice on this one, but for a few folks, maybe better late than never. Program details.

New Audio Interview With Klaus Meine of the Scorpions

The BDFM Classic Rock Show interviewed Scorpions frontman Klaus Meine recently. You can listen to the interview online or download and listen to it on your computer. Be aware that the interview is not the only thing you’ll hear however, there’s a lot of rock music on the recording as well, but it sounded like pretty good stuff. If the interview is all that you are interested in, you’ll want to download it so you can pick out the parts you want to hear. The interview starts at around 32 minutes into the recording.  Check it out at the BDFM Classic Rock Show.

Tags: Celebrity Ghost Stories, Klaus Meine Interview, MTV Classic Videos, Sammy Hagar