Saturday Shuffle: Motorhead, Nirvana, Blind Guardian, Primus, Thorogood

It's kind of all over the rock world this week ...

Motorhead, “Ace of Spades.” From the album Ace of Spades (1980). How easy does it get? I really don’t think I need to say anything about this tune. Just push play and let Lemmy and Co. rip your face off.

Saturday Shuffle: Chili Peppers, TSO, Hardcore Superstar, Uncle Nuge, Girl

A huge hit, a dark signature moment and a couple of overlooked gems in this week's shuffle ...

Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Give it Away.” From the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991). I’d much rather the shuffle hit “Suck My Kiss” or “I Could Have Lied,” but this one will do, too. Sure, this album, “Under the Bridge” in particular, marked the beginning of the Chili Peppers’ descent into commercial mediocrity, but there are some great songs on it, too.

Review: Flotsam and Jetsam, "Ugly Noise"

After 1995′s Drift, Flotsam and Jetsam seemed to do just that — drift off the musical map — with a series of disappointing records and a couple of long hiatuses between records. Then came 2010′s The Cold. Though it didn’t grab metal headlines or vault the band back to popularity, it was most definitely a return to form and the best material they’d released in 15 years.

If the band’s latest release, Ugly Noise, doesn’t put them back on the radar, there are a lot of metal fans out there who need their ears cleaned out.

The album, which was released to fans who helped fund it in December and got an official release on Metal Blade Records last month, finds the band refocused and re-energized.

Saturday Shuffle: Anthrax, Misfits, Alice Cooper, Queen, Testament

Another shuffle, in which we encounter one of the darker moments of Alice Cooper's career ...

Anthrax, “Caught in a Mosh.” From the album Among the Living (1987). The best album of the Joey Belladonna era and one of the band’s truly classic songs. I’ve always thought it funny that one of the chorus lyrics is “which one of these words, don’t you understand?” when at the time, there were a whole lot of people who wouldn’t have known what a mosh was. Great, great song.

Interview: Tom Keifer of Cinderella

Tom Keifer has seen the view from some of the highest mountaintops in the music business and had to claw his way out of some of the deepest pits.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Keifer fronted hard rockers turned blues rockers Cinderella. The band had multi-platinum records and filled arenas with a spectacle of a show that included Keifer descending from the ceiling behind a white baby grand piano to perform their hit ballad “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone).”

Times changed, and in the 1990s, so did Keifer’s fortunes. First, there was a shift in the music scene as the grunge movement and a more grim outlook ushered out the good-timing hard rock that Cinderella was known for.

“I still want to get a shirt that says, ‘I survived the ’90s,’” Keifer jokes of the period.

Review: Skid Row, "United World Rebellion, Chapter One"

After a very uneven first album with new singer Johnny Solinger and a second album that was full of jokey novelty tunes, I didn’t hold out much hope for the future of Skid Row.

Until now.

United World Rebellion Chapter One, the first in a series of EPs that will make up their new album, is easily the best thing released under the Skid Row name since 1995′s Subhuman Race.

The band gets right down to business on the first track, “Kings of Demolition,” which sounds like it was ripped straight from the Slave to the Grind recording sessions.

Saturday Shuffle: Jamey Johnson, Guns 'n' Roses, Tesla, Nine Inch Nails, Soilwork

Quite a variety this week, from country to industrial to melodic death.

Jamey Johnson feat. Lee Ann Womack, “This Ain’t My First Rodeo.” From the album Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran (2012). One of the best current country songwriters Jamey Johnson singing songs of one of country’s most prolific songwriters. How could you go wrong? The songs on the album, including this one, are very faithful to the originals and usually pretty good.

Freebies: Century Media Records offers up a 40-song sampler

Century Media Records is offering a 40-song sampler for free download. Go here to get it.

Review: Gloryhammer, "Tales from the Kingdom of Fife"

Christopher Bowes may be on the verge of becoming a new musical hero of mine. First he gave us Scottish pirate metal, now Scottish epic fantasy metal, and it’s just as much fun.

If you’re familiar with Bowes’ other band, Alestorm, it will be no surprise that Gloryhammer’s music is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it’s no joke. Yes, Bowes and his cohorts dress as wizards, warriors and elves, and they skewer some of the tropes and conventions of the power metal genre with some laugh out loud moments. But when it comes to the music, it’s no laughing matter. This outfit is tight, and they play the style much better than some of the “serious” power metal bands out there.