Tag: Stacey Blades
1 Stacey Blades Announces New Partnerships
Since leaving L.A. Guns last December, guitarist Stacey Blades has been busy, partnering with music and tech companies, creating his own online community, and working on new music.
Stacey’s ten years with L.A. Guns cemented him as a must-watch guitar player, and his final record with the band, HOLLYWOOD FOREVER, earned him critical acclaim for his exceptional fretwork. To that end, he was asked to work with Soundtrack Loops, a producer of loops, samples and synth patches for TV and film production. Jason Donnelly, co-founder of the company, says, “”We’re tracking guitar riffs and solos in different keys, tempos, and genres. Stacey is extremely versatile. We just finished the first set and we’re psyched to announce them later this month.”
Stacey has also partnered with a great new app for the guitar community, SixString. The app allows users to upload and showcase images, audio, video, and gig info while the community can applaud and comment on the posts. ”SixString is happy to be partnering with Stacey Blades to promote his new ventures via the app. As one of our first pro partners, along with Zakk Wylde, Pete Thorn and Gary Hoey, Stacey is interacting with fans of his guitar prowess and sharing content you won’t see on other fan pages.” Grab the app for free and become a fan of Stacey at: www.sixstring.com.
In addition to becoming a go-to studio guitarist – he has reunited with legendary producer Andy Johns to record with a singer from New Orleans – and looking for some great new recording and live opportunities, Stacey will be playing live with Jaime St. James (Black ‘N Blue), Juan Croucier (RATT) and Pete Holmes (Black ‘N Blue) as The Hard Rock All Stars. “I’m looking forward to working with old friends and new, and now that I’m available to do that, I invite people to be in touch!” said Stacey.
In order to connect personally with the amazing fans that have supported him for some many years, Stacey has redesigned and relaunched his online profiles, and is inviting people to connect with him online to get all the news, and stay in touch. His main website is www.staceyblades.com and the interactive Facebook fan page is facebook.com/staceybladesmusic.com.
ABOUT STACEY BLADES:
Stacey has been a rocking since childhood, but got his professional start with Roxx Gang in 1992. In eight years with the band, he recorded four albums, three videos, and one greatest hits album. He joined L.A. Guns in 2003, and for a decade, Stacey enmeshed himself in the band, becoming a greater addition with every album and every tour. From the amazing TALES FROM THE STRIP to 2012’s critically-acclaimed HOLLYWOOD FOREVER, Stacey showcased his well-honed brand of guitar playing and songwriting. With L.A. Guns, Stacey has shared the bill with Alice Cooper, the Scorpions, Dokken, Skid Row, and more. He’s been around the world, and on the bill of many prestigious music festivals including M3 (of which a live DVD of the show was released in January 2013.) In April of 2009, Stacey wrote and published a very revealing and often-humorous autobiography, “Snake Eyes–Confessions of a Replacement Rock Star.”The book received high marks from fans all over the world. In 2010, Stacey also released his first ever solo instrumental album, “Symphonic Slam.” It is a remarkable collection of rocked-out classical numbers by Strauss, Bach, Handel, Beethoven and more.
3 L.A. Guns – Hollywood Forever (2012)
It is a good thing that I don’t review CD’s after one listen. After I listened to L.A. Guns new CD, Hollywood Forever the first time, I didn’t like it very much. Maybe I expected this album to be another Cocked & Loaded, or maybe I was just too tired when I listened to it. Needless to say, my opinion has done a complete 180 since then, I can’t get this CD out of player. Hollywood Forever may not be Cocked & Loaded, but it is clearly their best album L.A. Guns have released since Hollywood Vampires.
L.A. Guns has managed to recapture their former sound and this is due mainly to the killer guitar work of Stacey Blades. . Hollywood Forever oozes that awesome 80’s sleazy sound, and that is due mainly to Stacey’s playing on this album.
L.A. Guns most powerful instrument has always been the voice of Phil Lewis. Phil proves that he still has one of the best voices in the business on Hollywood Forever.
The album starts off with the ripping title track “Hollywood Forever”. This is the way to start out a rock album. This heavy rocker could go down as one of L.A. Guns best yet.
The best songs on the album are ‘Hollywood Forever”, “You Better Not Love Me”, “Sweet Mystery” and “I Won’t Play”, but there are several more that will grow on you with every listen. “Eel Pie” is one of those tracks that I keep finding myself replaying. “Vine Street Shimmy” is another song that I keep gravitating too. I hope this one finds its way into L.A. Guns live set some time soon. This is a fun and upbeat rocker that L.A. Guns fans are going to love.
I thought the inclusion of the cover song Arana Negra was pretty clever, even though it is in Spanish. I understand the lyrics “Hola coma estas”, but my Spanish is pretty weak after that. It is a catchy song, even if I don’t know all of the words that Phil Lewis is singing.
Overall, this is a very strong effort from L.A. Guns, and one that every fan should pick up. I love this album, and I think you will too!
You can purchase Hollywood Forever from Amazon.com at this link. Don’t miss this!
Rating: 
Out of 10
Track Listing:
01. Hollywood Forever
02. You Better Not Love Me
03. Eel Pie
04. Sweet Mystery
05. Burn
06. Vine St. Shimmy
07. Dirty Black Night
08. Underneath The Sun
09. Queenie
10. Crazy Tango
11. Venus Bomb
12. I Won’t Play
13. Requiem (Hollywood Forever)
14. Arana Negra (Black Spider)
L.A. Guns are:
Phil Lewis – vocals
Stacey Blades – guitar
Scotty Griffin – bass
Steve Riley – drums
Additional Musicians:
Kelly Nickels – bass and backing vocals
0 M3 Day 1 Review – L.A. Guns
I have probably seen the Phil Lewis version of L.A. Guns more than any other band over the last four years. L.A. Guns is on the short list of bands (with Jetboy and Kix) that have played in every M3 Rock Festival. While their lineup has changed over the last couple of years, the one constant in L.A. Guns performance is that they always sound great. L.A. Guns set on Friday night was a short one. It was only 30 minutes long or so. It was not nearly enough tunes for my taste, but the band sounded great, and they blasted out a cool set list which featured the songs, “Slap In the Face”, “Sex Action”, “Never Enough”, “My Koo Ka Choo”, “Wheels of Fire”, “Electric Gypsy”, and “The Ballad of Jayne”.
Scotty Griffin who rejoined the band earlier this year rounded out the L.A. Guns lineup which featured Phil Lewis on vocals, Steve Riley on Drums, and Stacey Blades on Guitar.
I am sure many will argue, L.A. Guns isn’t L.A. Guns without Tracii, and quite frankly it is an old argument that Stacey Blades puts to rest every time I see L.A. Guns play live. He does a great job on lead guitar, and the band sounds great live. That is all that matters to my ears.
The only thing I would have changed about this set was its length, and maybe the fishnet shirt that Phill Lewis performed in. That shirt isn’t really working for you anymore Phil! Just Sayin!
Check out the L.A. Guns Photo Gallery at this link.
1 L.A. Guns M3 2011 Photo Gallery
These are just a few of the photo we took of L.A. Guns at M3. Enjoy!!
4 L.A. Guns at the Blue Note, Cincinnati, Ohio 1/24/08
L.A. Guns brought their 20th Anniversary Tour to The Blue Note in Cincinnati, Ohio last Thursday Night. A couple of bands Session 9, and A Nervous Wreck opened the show, and got the crowd revved for Phil Lewis and company. This night started to look as if it was going to be the third live music debacle of 2008. The band Z02 were supposed to open for L.A. Guns, but
cancelled the day before the show. I was looking forward to seeing this band play live for weeks, so their cancellation came as a disappointment. This was the only thing disppapointing on Thursday Night.
L.A. Guns, featuring Phil Lewis on vocals, Stacey Blades on guitar, Scott Griffin on bass, and Steve Riley on drums, hit the stage at around 11 P.M. and played for a little over an hour. The set contained most of the band’s hits including: Sex Action, Over the Edge, One More Reason, Never Enough, Kiss My Love Goodbye, The Ballad of Jayne, Rip and Tear, Hellraiser’s Ball, and Gypsy Soul.
It was an extremely tight set, and the band seemed to be in top form all night. This is the second time I have seen L.A. Guns over the last few months (you can read about the first show here), but it was definitely the best out of the two shows I have seen.
Phil Lewis still sounds as good as he did 20 years ago. Stacey Blades is an outstanding guitar player. As a whole, L.A Guns still rocks and does it well! The Phil Lewis led L.A. Guns continues to prove that their is only one band that deserves to use the L.A. Guns name. The best one played in Cincinnati Thursday night. The 150 – 200 people that were there for the show, saw a very good night of rock. The turn out for this show was exceptional for a bitter cold Thursday night.
Special thanks to J.T. from Class X Radio for the ticket for this show, and to Paul at TransFusion Productions for bringing L.A. Guns back to the Queen City.
The following videos were below were taken at the show! Enjoy!
Hard Rock Hideout 