Jan Omdahl's career-spanning book on A-Ha, The Swing of Things that was originally written in Norwegian and only sold in Norway and offered in English on A-Ha.com for a short time, is at last available again in English and is shipping by the end of the week (Aug. 27, 2010) world-wide. The pre-order is available for $52.50 from A-Ha's merch people and is the only place you can currently get the English version. For those that speak Norwegian, you can get the Norwegian version for about 449 Norwegian Kr. ($72 U.S.) from Haugenbok.no

Jan Omdahl's instant hit was quickly gobbled up by excited fans when originally released back in October of 2004 and included a special CD of rare A-Ha tracks and featured cover art by Mags. That version often goes for a pretty penny on eBay when you can find it. Or you can get this 1st edition, signed, ultra-rare English version here on a private listing. The A-Ha.com English version was called The Swing Of Things: Twenty Years With a-ha and included some minor changes in the wording and some different photos.

Click past the break for more details and a sneak peek.

Continue reading "A-Ha - The Swing of Things 1985-2010 (English Softcover)" »

I couldn't think of a better thing to post for our 200th post than something on Stryper.

Thanks to our Finnish YouTube friend, FinnStrype, we have 3 volumes of Stryper guitar solos.

I defy any band, anywhere in the timeline of history to produce a better catalog of guitar solos. It hasn't been done yet, and with as fast as we are killing the earth I doubt it ever will.

Stryper's Michael Sweet (lead vocals, guitar), and Oz Fox (guitar, vocals) are really an irreplaceable dynamic duo, producing some of the best guitar work for one of the most influential Christian bands of all time. In their short 25 year career, Stryper have produced no less than 70 original songs most of them containing an amazing bit of guitar work on the part of Oz and Mike and as a collective with Tim and Robert are quite listenable.

With Stryper's new album of covers fast approaching, The Covering will add to Stryper's repertoire another dozen cover songs with more amazing guitar work. FinnStrype is going to need to update his compilations with at least one more volume.

Continue reading "Stryper - Guitar Solos" »

A quarter-century later and A-Ha comes full circle. "Acknowledging the bell [they] can't unring."

With the single appreciating good success across the globe, now the video for "Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)" is released with animation from the ground-breaking second version of "Take On Me." Sketching back from the past with clips from other earlier videos including the sequel to "Take On Me," "The Sun Always Shines on TV" we see Mags, Paul and Morten transforming into the next phase of their lives.

Continue reading "A-Ha - Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah) - Video" »

You still have time to get your pre-order in for Brandon Flowers' debut solo album, Flamingo, before it is released early next month.

Brandon & Co. are offering up some special packaging to eager audiophiles and those with a little cash to roll the dice on. It's not much of a gamble, because from what we've heard so far, Flamingo is a sure-thing.

The least expensive U.S. pre-order package is available for $24.99 and includes a Deluxe version of Flamingo and pretty sweet 10" picture disc 33.3 LP of "Crossfire." The "super deluxe bundle" tops out at $124.99 before s&h and includes the full length, deluxe edition Flamingo LP, "Crossfire" 10" Picture Disc, a hand signed Limited Edition Las Vegas Lithograph (but they don't say whose hand signed it Sweet! The store now says it's signed by 'Brandon.' Hopefully it's not a staffer by the same name. Ha!), a Brandon Flowers Diamond t-shirt, and an instant gratification MP3 download of the lead single, "Crossfire" which most of you should already have. A lighter full selection is (also) available for folks in the other areas of our fine globe.

You can grab your own bag of goodies at the BFWS

Click past the break to see the full Flamingo track list and for the official "Crossfire" video which includes special guest appearances from a certain bunch of ninjas and none-other-than Charlize Theron.

Continue reading "Brandon Flowers - Flamingo - Pre-Order (update: signed by 'Brandon')" »

Wake up the nation is paul weller, formally of the mod/punk band The Jam, tenth studio album.

Continue reading "Paul Weller - Wake Up The Nation" »