According to an online article in Ultimate Classic Rock, Mickey Thomas is working on a new Starship CD with Jeff Pilson(Dokken, Dio, Foreigner). It's going to be called Loveless Fascination. I know people might go "on no, not another Starship release", but I have a feeling that this will be different from previous Starship releases. After all, Jefferson's Tree Of Liberty from Jefferson Starship did not sound like previous JS works. From I what I heard, it sounded more folky.
Paul Kantner has taken previous incarnations of JS into the "folky" territory. With Jefferson Airplane, there are some "folky" moments on Volunteers and into the post-Balin albums, he does some "folky" work on the "solo" albums after JA and he does do acoustic versions of songs both with Wooden Ships (Kantner's "suing the crap out of anything with Jefferson in front of it that involves Mickey Thomas" era band) and with the current incarnation of JS.
I guess Thomas is running out of material for his county fair tour circuit...
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
no, I pretty much did that in the '80s - Knee Deep In The Caca pretty much killed any interest in this incarnation of what's left of the band.Originally Posted by JIF
Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that
which was right after the huge "WTF" that was Nuclear Furniture
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
At least “Furniture” had a few good tracks on it (mostly Kantner”s). “Hoopla” was a terrible album for the most part and the following album even worse.
Steve Sly
Aren't we getting our Jefferson Starships mixed up with our Stairships?
I never heard any of them, except for the singles, which were mostly not too impressive. The best thing about No Way Out, was the ridiculous video, with Mickey confessing his infidelities to Father Guido Sarducci. The song itself was nothing special, not even Craig Chaquico's guitar playing could save it.
I thought Layin' It On The Line was a marginally better song, but there again, it really wasn't up to par, even with the singles from Winds Of Change (which I still think is a great album for that sort of AOR kind of thing).
Well yes that is true, but that first Starship album was basically the “Nuclear Furniture” lineup without Paul Kantner so it was a continuation for the most part. They just no longer had the captain steering the ship.Aren't we getting our Jefferson Starships mixed up with our Stairships?
Steve Sly
Agreed “Winds Of Change” was a strong album and I still love every track on “Freedom At Point Zero”. “Modern Times” was a decent effort too. “Nuclear Furniture” is where the wheels really started falling off, but the train did not totally leave the tracks until “Hoopla”. I actually saw Jefferson Starship on the “Nuclear Furniture” tour and then Starship on the “Hoopla” tour a year or so later. Even though the lineups were similar, they were two very different shows. I remember one of the highlights of the “Furniture” show was the encore of “Stairway To Cleveland” and it’s chorus of “Fuck You We Do What We Want” (great song if you have never heard it). By the time the Starship show came along, the attitude was gone and they were “Building The City With Rock n Roll”, one of the worst songs ever written.
Steve Sly
Yeah, both those songs are really, really mediocre, even for AOR. Whereas I can listen to the pre-NF singles and enjoy them for the pop confections they are (especially if Slick and Thomas sing harmony, which is glorious, in my book).
I actually had "No Protection" for a while, and marginally liked it while I had it, and only realized how terrible it was until after I lost the cassette and really didn't care to replace it. It's as if the record company was giving the band all its chief songwriters' third-tier songs, with the possible exception of "It's Not Over Till It's Over." (I mean, really, I know it was a hit, but "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was a fricking C-Am-F-G thing, for God's sake.)
Starship, Mickey Thomas, no thanks. Jefferson Starship I might perk up. Slick Aguilar is waiting for a liver transplant, first on the list now.
Actually, it was the Nuclear Furniture lineup minus Kantner and David Freiberg. I remember at the time, when I saw the We Built This City video, I wondered where David had gone off to. I knew Kantner had quit, that was like front page news at the time, but I was surprised to not see David (who, I was reminded about 25 years later, was still in the band when they did the Layin' It On The Line video).
According to Wikipedia, he apparently quit because as the sessions for ...Hoopla got under way, their producer Peter Wolf insisted on playing the keyboards, including a lot of synth bass lines. I guess David felt since the producer was playing keyboards and most of the bass parts too, there really wasn't much point in him hanging around, so that's when he jumped ship (pun intended).
I still love Kantner's appraisal of that song, as he stated on Behind The Music, "fuck you, no you didn't", and flips the bird at the camera, as if to drive home the point of why he left the band.
The really sad thing about We Built This City is the lyrics were co-written by Bernie Taupin, who we all know from those great Elton John albums from the 70's. Around the time him and Martin Page wrote that song (or wrote most of it anyway, I believe I remember there's something like four names, including Peter Wolf, in the byline), they also wrote another song, These Dreams, which was of course a big hit for Heart (and a much better song, to boot).
I think the problem with Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now isn't the chord progression (looks a fine chord progression to me, I've written a few songs with that harmonic progression), but rather the wedding reception arrangement, the tacky lyrics, and the even tackier production. Narada Michael Walden might have the "Midas touch" as a producer at the time, but I really like him best as a drummer working for other people (ie McLaughlin, Beck, etc).
The one song I remember from No Protection that I actually like is Set The Night To Music, and even then I prefer the Roberta Flack/Maxi Priest recording.
It's just amazing to me that a band that can go from writing all their own songs on Winds Of Change could go to do having just one song written solely by the band members on either ....Hoopla and No Protection. And I won't even talk about Love Amongst The Cannibals, the last Starship album. I remember nothing from that album, though I recall Craig Chaquico claiming they had a big top 40 hit off of it (this being when asked in one interview if he knew whether Love Amongst The Cannibals sold better or worse than the roughly contemporaneous Jefferson Airplane reunion album).
there were actually three Starship albums-the last one everyone completely has amnesia about, much like after one gets hit with a truck. I will agree, Nuclear Furniture had a few good tracks, but compared to what they had been doing, it was still a huge "wtf"...
and if Kantner had not laid into them with his lawyers, Thomas would still be calling it Jefferson Starship.
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
the problem of Slick/Thomas vs Slick/Balin is Slick could easily blow Thomas out of the water with her vocals, where Balin was more of a match to hers. Thomas has the wimpiest damn vocals in rock.
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
I just heard the first single, It's Not The Same As Love, on Soundcloud. In an UCR article, Mickey Thomas describes the new music as "organic, with a real edge to it". He also says that it has a real '70s feel. He also states that the harder-edged vibe is due to the presence of Jeff Pilson.
For the interested. This actually rocks harder than crap like We Built This City.
I beg to differ, nothing rocks harder than the Legion of Rock Stars treatment of We Built This City, seriously, I prefer it to anything involving Mickey Thomas
Won't argue with that. Sounds like eighties pop metal more than AOR.
Just as an aside, have you ever looked at their/his website... every mention of Mickey Thomas is accompanied by either the modifier "legendary" or "incomparable". It's a hoot
If legends were for sale, Mickey Thomas would be at the dollar discount store....every mention of Mickey Thomas is accompanied by either the modifier "legendary" or "incomparable". It's a hoot
Wow, is that Mickey even singing on that single? And that's coming from someone who has seen Starship live 2 or 3 times recently.
Probably due to the involvement of Jeff Pilson.
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