Whitesnake, Motley Crue, Judas Priest New Albums

One of my colleague who observed my iPod song collection put it a truly spot-on comment:

“Ben, I noticed you shut off your musical exploration after early 90s”.

Indeed. When the alternative/grunge music started to conquer the rock scene, leaving the long haired metal bands as trend of the past and omitting guitar solo on their songs, I knew I’m done. I never closely looked at rock music scene anymore. As a matter of fact, from then, I bought Indonesian albums more than the western’s. Simply because I think the Indonesians are better (and closer to the heart, I know) 

But recently, I noticed it looks like the trend of “old school” rock is back!. At least there are 3 great rock bands which released their new album–but in old formula: heavy guitar riffs, old song structure and yes, it includes guitar solo. Whitesnake, Motley Crue and Judas Priest, big bands from the 80s came back with a bang.

Take for example, Motley Crue. They released the first album with the original members of the band. Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Vince Neil and Mick Mars joined their forces back to release the first full album since the “Carnival of Sin”. Watch their music video here from the album-titled song “Saints of Los Angeles”, and you will suddenly feel back to those glory 80s days! David Coverdale also still sounds great in his new album “Good to be Bad”, despite missing his rooster of influential guitarist such as John Sykes, Adrian Vandenberg and Steve Vai. Judas Priest is maybe a bit off-topic here, as they release their new album “Nostradamus” which has “new rock music element” at them, instead of hard and heavy formula they ever created in mid 80s. But I’m happy enough they don’t leant toward the ever decreasing ‘alternative’ mainstream (what an oxymoron it is).

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Last night I set up my alarm clock at 00.00 midnight. Went to sleep at 10.30 pm, somehow I did not wake up when the alarm rang. Shut it off and slept again. Until suddently I woke up at 2.45.

I jumped out of the bed and ran to the TV room. “Sh*t, hope I still can catch Tiger’s victory”

Indeed, I was.

When I turned on the television, Tiger and Rocco just finished the 16th hole in their 18 hole playoff. Surprise, surprise, Rocco led by 1 stroke! Oh boy, what I’ve just missed?

9 text messages on my phone, apparently.

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Sorry folks. Need to write this. I still feel the goosebumps two hours after watching Tiger made another clutch putt to force a play-off in Final Day of US Open 2008 at Torrey Pines. And because of that, the ‘Final Day’ needs an extension. Tiger will meet Rocco Mediate in 18 holes play-off tomorrow.

Believe me, I’m a Tiger fan. But judging from how he played today, I myself had a doubt whether he could force the play-off. Trailing by 1 stroke going to final hole, Tiger hooked his tee-shot to fairway bunker on the left. From there, he was forced to lay up. But what a bad shot he made. He hit his second shot to the rough about 100 yards from hole. And any golf fan, know how the rough look like in US Open. And also, it’s not only because of the rough, but also because of the pin location which was on the edge of the green. There was very few room to work with.

And this was the start of (another) greatness. I texted my 2 friends who watched the live telecast just like me. One of them is with Maya (who is happen to be my boss as well :):

Me: “Tiger will lose. It’s hard to get up and down for birdie on that rough”

Maya: “Tiger will do it”

Me: “No, I don’t think he will. He’s human after all”

Maya: “No, he’s Tiger. Not a human” (rightly so)

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