Ever hear of a band called Cosmosquad? No, neither had I, until the band contacted me and offered me a pre-release copy of their new album The Morbid Tango, out next week.
Turns out they've been on the go for 20 years, and their individual CVs are pretty impressive.
If you enjoy the likes of Liquid Tension Experiment, then this album is worth checking out:
https://momentstransition.wordpress....id-tango-2017/
Interesting...someone mentioned LTE here a few weeks back and I was intrigued enough to dig out my copy of their second album.
To be honest I only really liked the opening track Acid Rain. May dig out the first album, if I can find it...
I only clicked on it because I thought it was going to be something more interesting...
Great band... Love all their discs...
Enjoy the moment... It's the only way to fly!
I used to go see Cosmosquad a few times a year at the Baked Potato in LA in the early 00s. They were always a good time. On a good night Jeff Kollman was an unstoppable fusion madman, showing off his chops, goofing around, just putting it all out there on every tune. They had two bassists, depending on schedules. When they had Barry Sparks on bass, they were truly amazing. Sparks pushed the whole thing to a higher level. Sadly I don't think he plays with them any more.
One night they started drinking Jägermeister shots during the second set and things sort of went downhill from there. They played a lot of ACDC covers that I think they didn't know. People from the audience were getting up to the mic and singing the tunes. But still it was a lot of fun and they were such good musicians that at least it didn't suck, which it should have.
Anyway nice that they are still playing and I'll have to check this one out.
Hi Arturs, I think what you saw that night when they played that AC/DC cover (usually 'Highway to Hell' if Mark Renk was in the house; Mark having done the 2002 Crumb Bros. album with Jeff and Shane) might have been the Jeff Kollman Band, not Cosmosquad (it's only billed as Cosmosquad when Shane is on drums). JKB live is a lot more loose as far as the set list and spontaneous jams are concerned, especially the second set at the Baked Potato. This is also reflected on the Jeff Kollman - 'Guitar Screams Live' solo album, recorded at the BP, which contains JK solo material, Cosmosquad songs, and covers by Mogg/Way, ZZ Top and Tom Waits.
And, yes, you are right about Barry - he was awesome (having been Shane's rhythm twin in Yngwie's band, MSG, Vinnie Moore and Uli Jon Roth; btw, Shane and Barry are once again playing together in Japan with B'z) but he ended up bowing out about 10 years ago. He lives out of town in AZ and had a really busy schedule balancing Dokken, Nugent and god knows what else at the time. I think he also wasn't really into the prog thing as much anymore. Who knows maybe there'll be a reunion w/ Barry for the 25th anniversary of Cosmosquad.
yeah, huge fan of Jeff Kollman here... but I'd rather put Cosmos on top of Aristocrats. Acid Test is as good as Tango if not better...
'Acid Test' has a bit of a Tool vibe in places, especially the first two songs. My fave off AT is 'Hindenberg', probably one of the best things Jeff has ever written. Not particularly prog just a great dynamic rockin' tune with some great melodic lines.Originally Posted by sergio
Been years since I heard anything from these guys. Would have loved to have caught them live. Only have a few of their albums and lost track of them. Good to know they are still at it.
You're probably not missing too much then - there are only 4 studios albums, the most recent ones being 'Acid Test' (2007) and 'The Morbid Tango' (2017). They have always played live though despite the big gap between these 2 most recent albums. Of course, everyone has been involved with a bunch of other releases in the meantime - Kollman and Chown from C'squad also have another instrumental band, the Bombastic Meatbats, with Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That stuff is a bit more mid 70's Jeff Beck fusion oriented, with a stronger emphasis on funk. They have 2 studio albums and a 2-disc live set out. Great records!
soooo....what's the word on Artifact? any ideas if that's still happening. it's past release date. I hope it's still on because I thought it would be a good one.
i.ain't.dead.irock
I don't know what the hold up is on that one - I was looking forward to the album myself. But, this isn't the first album from that camp that was announced and never released. There is also the 'Vision of Sound: The King Crimson Story' tribute that was recorded several years ago and is still on the shelf, except for 'Elephant Talk', which was leaked a while back. The line-up is almost identical to Artifact, except the tribute has Marco Mendoza instead of JS Soto on lead vocals.
https://soundcloud.com/dmitry-ilugdin/elephant-talk
Line-up:
Dmitry Ilugdin - keyboards
Eugene Sharikov - bass
Special guests:
Marco Mendoza - vocal (El Trio, Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy)
Jeff Kollman - guitar (Cosmosquad, Asia FJP, Bombastic Meatbats)
Gary Meek - sax (Dave Weckl Band, Airto Moreira, Jeff Lorber)
Joel Taylor - drums (Allan Holdsworth, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola)
Last edited by CosmoNaut; 04-11-2017 at 09:30 PM.
Awesome! Thanks.
Wouldn't mind grabbing those either.
Looks like I'm missing the last two Cosmosquad albums as well.
Check out Jeff's YT channel for more live Bats https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarscreams/videos. If you look further on YT, https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...+meatbats+live, there are multi-cam filmed full shows from when they played the Iridium in NYC and Musicians Institute in Hollywood. And I love this Drum Channel footage!
Last edited by CosmoNaut; 04-16-2017 at 12:41 AM.
I've got all the Cosmosquad discs (except the live one), plus all the Meatbats as well. If anyone wants to check them out, pm me.
Just got an older copy of Modern Drummer from Oldies.com, feat. Chad Smith. Funny guy!
Cosmosquad is turning out to be one of my top 5 artists. Love that shee!
Edit: Don't have this, either. And I won't, for $35! https://www.oldies.com/product-view/97144R.html
I probably have them all, so why get the best of.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
Yeah, I didn't look at it closely enough to see if it had tracks that weren't on the other 4 discs. You never know...
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