Michael's Record Collection

This week, it's just me, as I go over my favorite records from the calendar year that just ended. My best of 2022 episode features several categories of albums, my top tracks, and a good-sized list of honorable mentions. Feel free to let me know what albums I might have missed, as the year isn't long enough to get to everything! Reminder: You can support independent podcasting by becoming a Michae...

Nevena Dordevic is a talented pianist and vocalist from Serbia who now lives in Boston. She's teamed up with Lithuanian-born Swedish vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Michael Palace to record her self-titled debut album, Nevena, on Frontiers Music, which dropped on Dec. 9. It's an outstanding melodic rock album with lots of pop sensibility and hooks for days. It's one of my favorite discoveries o...

Solo artist Rob Moratti has just released his fifth studio album and it's a wonderul melodic rock album that calls back to the great 1980s albums by bands like Journey, Toto, and Survivor, but without sounding as if it was recorded in that era. Rob was briefly Michael Sadler's replacement in Saga for the band's 2009 album, The Human Condition. I spoke to Rob about his musical background, how he go...

This week, I've enlisted the help of fellow music lovers Dave Zalatoris (from the Beer in Front Podcast) and Jon Lamoreaux (from The Hustle Podcast) to discuss our favorite morning wakeup songs. We each brought five songs to the table that get us going one way or another in the morning, whether that's a fast-paced track that gets the blood pumping or a beautifully arranged song that awakens us spi...

The sad news of Christine McVie's passing hit me like a punch to the gut on Nov. 30, and I felt like it was important to talk about her place in the iconic band Fleetwood Mac. Although it seems like Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham grab all the headlines, Christine was the connective tissue, playing well off both and happy to serve both the band and the music without needing all of the attentio...

New York progressive rockers IZZ just released their 20th anniversary remastered edition of their 2002 classic I Move, with 70+ minutes of bonus material on a second disc, but the sonic improvement on the new remaster of the proper album alone is worth buying this excellent modern masterpiece again. John talked a little about the remastering and where the new material came from, the band's origins...

Vocalist/bassist Mark Boals has worked with just about everyone. He's played and/or sung with Savoy Brown, Ted Nugent, Yngwie Malmsteen, just to name a few. His project Ring of Fire began in the year 2000 and quickly put out three studio albums from 2001-2004. Ring of Fire is back with a standout album, Gravity, which dropped Nov. 11. With Italian guitar virtuoso Aldo Lonobile stepping into Tony M...

Guitarist Jimi Bell has had a busy 2022. A member of two top-notch rock bands, House of Lords and Autograph, plenty of his new music is hitting the streets. House of Lords' new release, Saints and Sinners, dropped Sept. 16, and Autograph's new album, Beyond, will become available on Nov. 18. Both records are on Frontiers Music. Jimi was gracious enough to talk to me about both of these fine, new a...

Legendary rock drummer Carmine Appice returns to discuss the remastered re-release of the original Vanilla Fudge lineup's Led Zeppelin covers. The album, released in 2007 as Out Through the In Door, has gotten cleaned up, a new name (Vanilla Zeppelin), and a new track order and has recently been released. I spoke with Carmine about covering Zeppelin and then the conversation meandered to many othe...

Every now and then I discover a band that's got a few albums out but I'd never heard of them and their music quickly captures my heart. That's what happened with Dead City Ruins and their new album, Shockwave. The band is heavily influenced by 1990s hard rock and grunge, but the band has a knack for writing catchy and sometimes anthemic songs with great hooks and the musicianship is top notch. Gui...

The legendary God of Hellfire himself, Arthur Brown, is still going strong at age 80. Arthur is releasing a new album Oct. 21 called Monster's Ball. Just in time for spooky season, Brown's latest album mixes humor and terror and features a host of fantastic guest musicians. He was kind enough to spend some time with me to talk about the new release, how he came to choose some of the songs, his wor...

British vocalist Steve Overland is best known for his work with rock outfit FM, but he's teamed up with Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos on a new melodic hard rock band called Kings of Mercia. The band, which includes Matheos' Fates Warning bassist Joey Vera and legendary drummer Simon Phillips, has just released its self-titled debut album on Metal Blade Records. It's an outstanding blend of w...

I'm very excited to bring you my interview with Welsh singer Chez Kane, who is part of the band Kane'd with her two older sisters. Chez is about to drop her second solo album, Powerzone, a follow-up to her 2021 self-titled debut. Once again, Crazy Lixx vocalist/guitarist Danny Rexon heads up the project, writing, playing on and producing the songs. Chez talked about the process a bit, her musical...

Singer-songwriter Dean Friedman isn't a one-hit wonder. His best-known song in the U.S., "Ariel" charted back in 1977, but he's had follow-ups do well in various other countries. Dean was gracious enough to join me this week to talk about his self-titled debut album, which came out 45 years ago, his musical background, some of the books he's authored, and his latest album, American Lullaby, which...

Ström is a new band out of Sweden that wear their classic 70s hard rock influences on their sleeve. The band is set to release its self-titled debut album on Sept. 23 and Zdravko Zizmond (vocals) and Johan Siljedahl (guitars) were kind enough to tell me about the record, which was necessary because unlike many rock bands in Scandinavia, Ström lyrics and vocals are not in English. Ström sings in Sw...

If you grew up in the 1970s in the midwest, you were practically issued your KISS Army uniform. We were weaned on KISS albums like Alive!, Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over, Double Platinum, and, of course, Love Gun. That album turned 45 years old this calendar year, so I thought it was a good time to discuss it. Joining me to do just that, and to tell me how they started their excellent podcast, is T...

I've been wanting to talk about Pink Floyd for quite some time. One of my favorite bands of all time, Pink Floyd had an incredible run of albums in the 1970s that were the whole package...music, lyrics, production value...it all worked. As 2022 is the 45-year anniversary of the album Animals, which is one of my favorites, I though that would be a good place to start. I enlisted the help of my frie...

The talented John Mitchell joins me in this episode to discuss his latest album under the Lonely Robot moniker, A Model Life, which drops Aug. 26. This new record is Mitchell at his most vulnerable and introspective and it's brilliant. He also discussed the upcoming Arena album, the rise and fall of The Urbane, starting Kino, joining It Bites, how he became a member of Frost*, and much more. John...

It's been a little over a year and a half since I had California-based multi-instrumentalist Robert Berry on the show to discuss the Third Impression album he released under the name 3.2 as part of the trilogy of his work with Keith Emerson. Robert is back with a new power trio, alongside Saga guitarist Ian Crichton and Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler in SiX BY SiX. This new band rocks its guitar-bas...

I've been wanting to talk about Iron Maiden for some time, and outside of the band itself, who better to do that with than the host of the excellent Uncle Steve's Iron Maiden Zone podcast? Steve joined me to give me his Iron Maiden origin story and to tell me a little about his show. We then dove into a discussion of Maiden's iconic classic The Number of the Beast, which turned 40 years old this y...

This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Vanden Plas guitarist Stephan Lill. The German progressive metal masters have a new live CD, LP, and video release coming out Aug. 12 called Live & Immortal, which captured a full concert performance on the band's Chronicles of the Immortals tour. Stephan discussed why the band seldom tours, takes a long time between albums (especially live albums), ho...

Former October Project vocalist Mary Fahl has had a solo career as unique as her voice. She's got a new album out called Can't Get It Out of My Head, which is made up of her early favorite classic songs that became part of her musical DNA. Mary was kind enough to talk about the making of the album, how she reimagined the songs to put her own spin on them, how she ended up doing a song for an Anne...

Keyboardist Ryo Okumoto (Spock's Beard, ProgJect) joins me to discuss his upcoming solo album, The Myth of the Mostrophus, which drops July 29. It's his first solo release in 20 years and it's amazing. He enlisted the help of his Spock's Beard and ProgJect bandmates on an album that is cohesive, progressive (in all the right ways), and fun. Ryo also talked to me about his background, how he ended...

What does a podcaster do when he starts to get actual email questions that he's been asking for but forgets to answer those on his shows? Well, in my case, I wait a couple more weeks, get a few more questions, and go ahead and do a whole show about them. Thanks to everyone who has been sending in questions via email ( michaelsrecordcollection@gmail.com ) or to me on Twitter (@MikesRecords). This s...

For this episode I welcome back to the show Brian Colburn, an Americana artist from New Jersey and the co-host of the popular Playlist Wars podcast. Brian and I have a shared love of the Precious Time album by Pat Benatar. With the 1981 album serving as our favorite Benatar record, we took the opportunity to spin it a few times and go through it track by track.  To learn more about Playlist Wars, ...