Tag: Donnie Vie
1 Donnie Vie – Wrapped Around My Middle Finger (2011)
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear — if you are a fan of the harder side of Hard Rock Hideout, you are not going to have any interest in Donnie Vie’s solo effort, Wrapped Around My Middle Finger. That having been said, if you like the softer side of rock once in a while, then this is an album you will fall in love with. Even without his band mates from Enuff Z’Nuff, Donnie Vie has put out some spectacular, haunting, beautiful music.
As he has done for years in Enuff Z’Nuff, Donnie Vie writes sweet, smooth melodies overlaid with beautiful lyrics. On Wrapped Around My Middle Finger Vie tends to lean toward the ballads and moderate tempo songs, but they are so expertly crafted that it is a joy to hear them. While there may not be any cranking guitars or drum solos, there is still impressive, beautiful, melodic music.
Starting with the opening notes of the title track, “Wrapped Around My Middle Finger” sucks you in to hear more. The amazing “Lisa” and hook catchy “Now Ya Know” lead the way in anchoring the album as a solid record. After a few spins, every listener will find themselves singing along to “Now Ya Know.” “I Won’t Let You Down” is another love song done right. The changes and expert guitar playing mixed in with Vie’s raspy vocals create a fantastic song that is one of the best the album has to offer.
Vie continues to inspire. Even after more than 20 years of song writing, he is still able to craft fresh lyrics blended with perfect harmonies and melodies that never tire. Wrapped Around My Middle Finger is just another example of the great artist Donnie Vie is. If you are a fan of Enuff Z’Nuff’s softer side, exceptional lyrics, or superb soft melodies that are easy to sing along with, then you are going to love Wrapped Around My Middle Finger.
Rating: 
Out of 10
Track Listing:
- Wrapped Around My Middle Finger
- Wunderland
- Lisa
- Daddy’s Girl
- Now Ya Know
- No Escape
- Lil Wonder
- Flames Of Love
- Rattle On
- I Won’t Let You Down
- Lollipop
Donnie Vie Band Is:
Donnie Vie – Vocals, Guitars
Jimmy Maguire – Guitars
Patrick Pulver – Bass
Randi Scott – Drums
6 Enuff Z’nuff at the M3 Rock Festival
I ended up missing the two cover bands to start off the M3 Rock Festival Friday Night. The band that started it all for me in 2012 was Enuff Z’nuff. It is hard to believe that with the M3 having its fourth annual music festival that Enuff Z’nuff hasn’t been part of this event yet. The band was the first major act to take the stage last Friday Night at M3, and I thought they did a great job. Enuff Z’nuff featured Donnie Vie on Vocals, Chip Z’nuff on Bass, Randi Scott on Drums, and Tory Stoffregen on Guitar. To start off the show, Enuff Z’nuff performed their song “Heaven and Hell” from their 1991 album Strength. I thought Donnie’s vocals were a little rough at first, but he got better as Enuff Z’nuff’s show progressed. The rest of the set was rounded out by Enuff Z’nuff favorites “Fly High Michelle”, “New Thing” and an extremely cool cover of the Beatles “Come Together”, as well as some of the band’s lesser known songs “Kitty”, “Baby Loves You”, “We’re All Alright”, “High”, and “There Goes My Heart”, This is the first time I have seen Enuff Z’nuff live, and I thought they were very good. I would have loved to have heard some more songs off of their latest album Dissonance. They did play “High” and that was pretty cool. I hope the band will be invited back for another M3 appearance (maybe they will play “Little Indian Angel” next time around). I truly enjoyed their performance, and thought this was a pretty good way to start off the 2012 M3 Rock Festival.
A fan filmed video for “New Thing” can be seen below!
0 Enuff Z’nuff – Dissonance (2010)
Ever since I first heard Enuff Z’nuff was giving away copies of their latest album Dissonance at Rocklahoma in 2008, I have been trying to get my hands on a copy. While I never tracked down one of the original versions, I was glad to find that the 2010 version released by Rock Candy Records in the UK has a few songs that were not on the original CD.
I have been a fan of Enuff Z’nuff for a long time, and when I found out that former Ozzy Osbourne & Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee was handing the guitar duties on Dissonance, I knew I had to find a copy.
The title track “Dissonance” starts off the album in fine fashion. This is a heavier Enuff Z’nuff tune that has a 70’s hard rock vibe in the vein of KISS & Alice Cooper. It is a cool tune to start the album with.
I thought “Fine Line” was just an ok tune, but there moments when Jake E. Lee flashes his skills on guitar that makes me change my mind. I wish he would break loose more often on Dissonance.
It disappoints me to know that very few radio stations will play a cool song like “Rollaway”. This song has a cool, almost Beatle-esque vibe to it. “High” is one of the heavier numbers on Dissonance. The chorus on “High” reminds me a lot of the Beatles “Day Tripper”. It is much different lyrically, but has a similar style.
Enuff Z’nuff is from Blue Island, Il, just south of the Windy City. Their tune “Chicago” is a pretty cool ode to the city they love.
One of my absolute favorites on Dissonance is the song “Code Red”, which is only available on the Rock Candy records version of the CD. This song sounds like a blend of Enuff Z’nuff and Motley Crue. It super catchy, and if they did a radio edit, this song could easily be a hit single for E’nuff Z’nuff.
The cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry” is kind of cool, but does not surpass the original version of tune. The Enuff Z’nuff version is heavier, and Jake E. Lee shreds on this song towards the end. Very Cool!
If I have any complaints about Dissonance, it is the editing job that the folks at Rock Candy did. The song titles were completely jumbled up from what was listed on the back of the CD. Aside from that, I have found Dissonance is a very enjoyable CD from Enuff Z’nuff.
It never ceases to amaze me how great the song writing duo of Donnie Vie and Chip Z’nuff is. The songs on Dissonance are well written, and get in your head. The music on this CD is great. Jake E. Lee shows some flashes of brilliance, but mostly plays within the context of the songs. In my opinion, Dissonance is a must own disc for all Enuff Z’nuff fans and is a CD that should be checked out by everyone else.
Oddly enough this CD was released in Japan, and the UK, and still has not had an official U.S. Release. Hopefully, a smart U.S. label will pick this up, and distribute it. Until then, you can purchase the digital downloads of Dissonance at Amazon and iTunes, and the CD’s through the Rock Candy Records store on Ebay.
You can hear the songs “Lazy Dazy” and “Dissonance” on myspace. Check ’em out!
Rating: 
Out of 10
Track Listing:
1. Dissonance
2. Fine Line
3. Lazy Dazy
4. Rollaway
5. High
6. Altered States
7. Playground
8. Sometimes
9. Joni Lynn
10. Chicago
11. Code Red
12. When Doves Cry
13. Run For Your Life
Enuff Z’nuff is:
Donnie Vie – Vocals, Guitar, Piano
Chip Z’nuff – Vocals, Bass, Guitar, B3
Jake E. Lee – Lead Guitar
Vinnie Castaldo – Drums
0 Liberty N’ Justice – Chasing A Cure EP With Vic Rivera (2011)
What does Paul Shortino, Ron Keel, and Eddie Ojeda have in common? They are all from successful bands from the 80’s, and they have performed together on the new Liberty N’ Justice EP, Chasing a Cure!
The lineup on this EP is a hard rock fan’s dream. Paul Shortino, Ron Keel, Eddie Ojeda, Philip Bardowell,Tony Palacias, Terry Ilous, Jeff Paris, Richard Kendrick,Donnie Vie, JK Northrup, Benny Mardones, John Pine and Bill Leverty have joined forces to create five new songs with a purpose.
With the Chasing A Cure EP, Liberty N’ Justice is trying to create awareness of epilepsy and raise money for research to find a cure. The disease hits very close to home for Liberty N’ Justice founder, Justin Murr. Justin’s oldest daughter, Trinity Paige Murr, was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 7. For the past five years she has battled through daily medication, hospital stays, cluster seizures, induced comas, three weeks in the ICU — and finally brain surgery.
Chasing a Cure is available through the Liberty N’ Justice website. 100% of the proceeds are being donated to the Epilepsy Foundation in Trinity’s name.
This EP is only available to those who donate through the Liberty N’ Justice website. It is not on sale in stores or online anywhere else.
So how is the music? It is easily the best melodic rock I have heard in 2011. I have been a fan of Paul Shortino and Ron Keel for a long time, and have been anxiously awaiting the release of the new King Kobra CD that Paul is singing on. Shortino and Keel’s voice blend together nicely for one rockin’ tune with “Say Uncle”.
“Paige’s Song” with Philip Bardowell and Tony Palacios reminds me a lot of a Mr. Big tune. It is a slower number, but the music is very good. Bardowell’s vocals are terrific, and Tony Palacios guitar licks truly enhance this song.
I always enjoy hearing new stuff from Donnie Vie. In my opinion, Enuff Z’nuff’s music is amongst the most under rated tunes in the late 80’s and 90’s. If you are an Enuff Z’nuff fan you need the song “Throwing Stones”. It does not disappoint!
Terry Ilous is one of those singers that could sing the phone book and sound good. Needless to say, his vocals here are terrific. Of course he has a little help from Jeff Paris (who has written more hit rock tunes than you can imagine), and Richard Kendrick from the Steve Blaze fronted Near Life Experience.
Remember Benny Mardones from the song “Into the Night“? I always though Mardones has a voice that was similar to ex-Journey front man Steve Perry. Ironically, the song “Chasing A Cure” sounds as if it could have been a left over Journey track.
The bottom line, if you are melodic rock fan, or of the musicians involved in this project, you are going to enjoy Chasing a Cure. When you donate money for this EP, you can feel good about your money going to a good cause, and get some great tunes in return! You can get Chasing a Cure, from the Liberty N’ Justice website at this location!
Rating: Out of 10
Track listing:
- Say Uncle (Paul Shortino of Rough Cutt/Quiet Riot/King Kobra, Ron Keel of Keel, and Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister)
- Throwing Stones (Donnie Vie of Enuff Z’ Nuff and JK Northrup)
- Paige’s Song (Philip Bardowell of MAGDALEN/Unruly Child/The Beach Boys and Tony Palacios of Guardian)
- Playing God (Terry Ilous of XYZ, Jeff Paris and Richard Kendrick of Near Life Experience)
- Chasing A Cure (Benny Mardones, John Pine and Bill Leverty of Firehouse)
10 An Update from Enuff Znuff’s Donnie Vie
I’ll start by saying my name is Donnie Vie,you most likely would remeber me as the red haired lipstick big mouthed,drugged up pretty boy,that sings like the beatles,from the “new thing” or “fly high michelle” mtv videos back in 1989-90.I am and have been the singer songwriter producer for the band Enuff Znuff for the last 20 years.we are a power pop band that revolves around melodies and catchy hooks.Much to the likes of (dare I say The beatles)aerosmith,led zepplin,rolling stones,squeeze,elvis costello..Since 1985 when myself along with Chip Znuff(whom i also named,hahaha)put the band together with various different members,Gino Martino,Bo Pallacard(1st version) then Derek Frigo(r.i.p)Vikki Foxx(R.I.H{rot in hell haha}) then Ricky parent(R.I.p) and John Monaco(O.p.p)and now Randy Scott and Tori, though the new record “Dissonance” features Vinnie Castaldo on drums and Jake E Lee on lead guitar.
The band has released 13 studio albums,two greatest hits,two live records and A home video.as a solo artist I have released one studio album, a home dvd that comes with a 6 song cd,a reunion album from a concert where after not playing together for 15 years, Derek frigo, Vikki Foxx and myself played a short set at the cat club and taped and filmed it.Then I released an accoustic performance of the second ezn album”strength” titled “Extra strength” and a ton of demos and other accoustically performed versions of a lot of the favorite
Ezn and DV songs at my website”DonnieVie.com. Most of these critically aclaimed albums and songs unfortunately flew under the radar and got lost in the shuffle with the decline of the 80s metal hairband era. Though I do agree that most of those bands were musically retarded,and had nothing to offer musical history except for damn good time, Enuff znuff was nothing like those bands,except for,and if i do say so myself,the best looking of the glam bands.We had the worst possible luck when it came to guidance and business from our first manager,(who was a rich coked up frustrated musician,that got carried away with controlling and manipulating, financially and creatively,the band ,and basically offered us ability to survive and get off the streets,along with fancy limos,guitars,recording facilities,and all the drugs we could consume for our souls.)to being used as a pawn in a political label power battle between presidents of Atlantic records and its sister label Atco records.Atco was a big 70s label that took a 10 year hiedouse, to be
reopened in the late 80s by Derek Shullman (discovered Bon Jovi) and a super team that he hand picked of all the best in the biz. He signed The Rembrandts (theme from friends tv show), new ACDC (thunderstruck) a few big black artists, and a couple of other really good bands that fell off the face of the earth as a result of this occurance.
To be brief, Enuff Znuff was being geared up to be the Beatles of the 90s,came out of the box with back to back #1 Mtv hits, The “hot band of Rolling stone magazine”, a favorite of radio shock jock Howard Stern and David Letterman, and pretty much found our selves hailed by all of the great bands we grew up loving like
Kiss, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Paul McCartney, Heart etc…you name it ,they loved us. Hell we had the look of the world, great musicianship, catchy melodic power pop hooks,and lead vocals and harmonies that were compared to John Lennon and Paul McCartney.It all started out like a dream,but turned quickly into a nightmare. We were out touring and selling out everywhere for a while, not to mention heavily induldging in the whole sex DRUGS and rocknroll lifestyle. We were on the cover of all the magazines I was the pinup centerfold singer,we did every Tv show around,went on every radio station in US, Japan, UK etc…and walked in front of the line and given the Vip treatment at all the cool clubs, til with a blink of an eye fell off the charts as quick as we came on. The actual true story (that hasnt been told in print till this day) is,the owner of Atlantic/Atco was grooming our president at Atco to take over running atlantic itself(that was run by a president that saturated the music business with any and every hair metal band that had any following at all,with no concern for talent or good songs,it was just churn em out,make some more money or write em off at tax time) So when this became obvious,he promised the same radio aor guy that would toot up the program directors to get us and other bands air play,the presidency of Atco( which was conveniently merging with east west records at the time) to put our president out of business. Which he did and became,and later admitted to my face drunk and coked up at a party. He said,”I loved you guys and it was
nothing personal, but you guys going huge would have made the difference, and that wasn’t going to be allowed. “NOTHING PERSONAL”that’s a fucking laugh, cause it sure personally affected me and my bands lives and careers. In fact it affected music period. Once we wizened up and dumped the makeup and spandex, we really would have probably been the biggest thing in the world, over Guns and Roses, and
Nirvana. When the band was firing on all cylinders nothing could touch us and no one( regardless of musical preference) could resist us.
We could open for any one from metallica to John cougar mellencamp(in fact we did), hit the stage to skeptical faces and left it with the place going nuts. Well to make a long story short,we filed a bankruptcy to get out of our 8 record 13 million dollar deal with Time Warner (we showed them huh?) then had a brief run with Clive Davis at Arista who loved my voice and my songwriting, unfortunately couldn’t do anything with the rest of the band or the heavier side of us which was the rest of the band,so we were given a release from our deal after a little ego chess game with our then manager Herbie Herbert (Journey ,Mr. Big)and Clive only with our lives as the pieces. I was still young, naive,and trusted that everyone was willing to give what I was giving, which was my life, blood sweat and mostly tears. No one it turned out was willing to give shit,it was all about what they could get out of it.That has never been a factor for me when it came to making the music and the message it would put out. To the point of, here I am in my early 40s, broke, divorced, second guessing my abilities and debating if this is even the path I still wish to travel. On the bright side, I have just now finally found out what love is and what life is truly all about.So back to the facts.After flushing Time Warner and then Clive Davis (the single most influential record exec in the history of music), It was a big step down into the world of Indie labels and finally not really dealing with labels anymore at all. This world is a much more depressing, slower paced and less glorious place than that of the majors and everyone kissing your ass and giving you what ever you want, just to be affiliated. The whole process much more resembles work and cost money ya don’t have and promises nothing more than keeping a little hope alive.
Unless you are me, and the next block of inspiration overcomes you and brings with it the next chapter of songs that are still better and have grown since the last batch or record. And that is where I am now. Just got back into Enuff Znuff after a 8 year break( to regenerate the love for it and to repair all the damage done mentally and physically from all the years of basically killing myself for the cause). Just to find the whole mess exactly in the state I left it in,only older,and the name more ground into the carpet with the remaining members deciding to try to squeeze every last drop of life out of the name and reputation by continuing on performing mediocre vibeless shows opening for anything for whatever minute amounts of money offered (like block parties and local fairs just like Spinal Tap. The problem being , I forgot how there is still no one with a clue or potential taking charge,or running the business side of things, the dying music industry has become more dead and impossible to find a way into. Basically its hopeless and you have to appreciate the things that you’ve done and the places youve been, the people youve met and the lives that youve touched with what you created out of thin air. Hell I was an abused child with no family, money or support, and made it to number one on MTV despite all the odds, distractions, and bad luck that came our way. Anyways, til this whole shithouse goes up in flames, and deservingly so,,,,,I’ll still be making great music, in fact Ive already started the ball rolling on a new solo record for next year, if anyone is interested, you can check it all out at DonnieVie.com. No big budgets, or fancy bells and whistles,,,,just great songs, and killer pipes!!!! You can check out the complete Enuff Znuff discography at EnuffZnuff.com
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