Van Halen Podcast

September 30, 2011 89 Comments

This month’s Classic Albums Column focuses on Van Halen’s second album Van Halen II. You can listen to the free 84-minute podcast celebrating the album here. (The podcast can be streamed or downloaded).

Filed Under: Van Halen Tagged With: Van Halen II

Roth_Leaps_83

THANK GOD !!!!

I didnt listen to the entire podcast yet, but I’ve very happy that VHND is remembering to post articles about Van Halen and not Chickenfoot
pushtoshove

Who is this guy D lorenzo…..Looked him up and listened to his songs….sounds like happy rock mixed with slayer and bad lyric writing……what a dope
David Alexander Toluca Lake

Dan Lorenzo – “I would have been fine if Van Halen never existed.”
(Any rock guitarist who can’t appreciate the tectonic shift Eddie created in rock guitar is beyond clueless. I went and listened to Dan Lorenzo’s music, and his guitar playing is even less impressive than his music IQ.)

Jon Leon – “Along with GNR Appetite for Destruction the most important LA sunset strip rocker metal album ever recorded” (WTF? Better than Van Halen??)
mcstravi

At first I was in shock!
A VH Podcast..really?

Then I realized it was nothing to do with the “rumored” new album.
Ed is God

Cool podcast, but they all said what I had already known. There would be no Pantera, Lamb of God, etc. without them. Bands who I also enjoy, and the influence is so obvious. I’ve said it before in these posts, and I will say it again…. funny how people denied a Van Halen influence back in the day, now everybody is coming out of the woodwork. I always knew they were full of shit, because I could hear it in their music. I truly believe rock music would’ve died without them. I’m not talking about the shitty hair bands either… they had the look down, without any musical substance. I’m talking about thrash, grunge, death metal, and so on. You can thank the mighty Van Halen for keeping rock and metal alive all these years……
pauleeroth

the headline got me excited for a second…
Ed is God

@ David Alexander. Yeah I went and checked out this Dan Lorenzo character too…. never heard of him. His “music” blows. Sounds like he could have benefited from some EVH in his life. We’re all alone on this frozen planet, or some bullshit….horrible! C’mon Dave, gimme a break! You suck!!!!
Carnal Knowledge

Ed is God: There might not be a Van Halen without Cream and Montrose (yes folks, Ed was a HUGE fan of Montrose), and Deep Purple……..

Cool podcast.Thanks VHND for the post by Mars Attacks. At least the media outlets are trying to keep Halen alive…..Seems the band, themselves, couldn’t care less.
Mike De Lara

My heart skipped a beat when I saw “VAN HALEN PODCAST”… I`ll wait, I`ll wait! And @ David Alexander and Ed is God: AMEN BROTHERS. Long Live The Mighty Van Halen =\//-/=
Puka Dog

@David Alexander
“I went and listened to Dan Lorenzo’s music, and his guitar playing is even less impressive than his music IQ.”

I listened too. Agree with you.
3hater

Nice little podcast, wish it was about the new album…
mel

If and when a new album is released from VH then I’m sure that it will be almost 100% VH here with little or no room for anything else but until then most of the action even remotely connected to them is coming from former members with their own band who have new material and are promoting it. As it says at the top of the page – THE ULTIMATE SOURCE FOR VAN HALEN, DAVID LEE ROTH, SAMMY HAGAR & CHICKENFOOT NEWS
freddiegirl

Ed is God-That’s right.. No one ever seems to give EVH and VH the credit they deserve for influencing speed/thrash etc. Just listen to “Loss of Control”, it’s all there.

Nice podcast! VH2 is so underrated; I’ve never understood how it’s so many VH fans’ least fav Roth-era album…
Ed is God

@Carnal Knowledge. Yes I agree, but Ed has never denied it, that is the difference. They used to play a lot of those songs in the clubs before being signed. Only reason I mentioned it is because some of these guys have dissed Ed in the past, and now they kiss his ass…..
freddiegirl

Ed is God-I always hated that if become somehow ‘cool’ in the early 90s to diss EVH. Such a crock of BS!
Wilkster5150

@freddiegirl- You are so spot on. VHII is one of the best sophomore albums ever made by any band. And I always appreciate the love you give to “Loss Of Control”, my third all time favorite song! And I read a lot of fans slagging this tune all the time. They just dont get it.
Expanded Consciousness

So cool! Thanks for posting!
Carnal Knowledge

freddiegirl: I would venture to guess that rating Roth-era albums is an “in the moment” thing. My rankings of those 6 albums change on a dime, almost weekly, and have for a long long time!
jeff adams

Wilkster5150, I’m w/ ya on “Loss Of Control” – That song just flat out gets after it, and “Fools” was up there as one of my favorites, although “In A Symple Ryme” never gets old.
VH2 reminds me of summertime, hang’in out @ the beach, KILLER album. DOA, Your No Good, Light up the Sky, Outta Love, absolutely beautiful.
Halen High

Mike De Lara says:
“My heart skipped a beat when I saw “VAN HALEN PODCAST”

Same here!

@ Wilkster5150 and freddiegirl – love the video for ‘Loss of Control’ – so underground.
Wilkster5150

@jeff adams
Ditto on all of that. In fact, WACF in its entirety never gets old with me. Listened to the whole cd 3 times today driving to an from work actually.
“Loss Of Control” probably has my favorite playing from Al. Both incredible technique AND power from him on that track.
Halen High

@ jeff adams – remember the teen cult movie ‘Over the Edge’ with a very young Matt Dillon? It came out in the late 70s and YRGM was on the soundtrack. The song D.O.A. always reminds me of the kids in that film.

My favourite track on VH2 is Light Up The Sky, followed by Dance The Night Away.
SPANKED

Great album and IMO, Roth’s best singing came out on VHII.
jeff adams

Halen High, never saw that movie, but “You Really Me” was the song that stood out the most the first time I heard VAN HALEN. I didn’t know it was a Kinks tune. I thought it was owned by VH, well I guess they did end up owning it. I’ll try to check out that movie.
Wilkster5150

@Halen High
I remember that movie. Havent seen it in years but I remember liking it as a kid!
whispergirl

Oh good, something good to listen to over the weekend.
jaaphalen

@Jeff adams and Halen High-Love VH2 favorite song “Somebody Get Me a Doctor”. I heard it on the VH2 tour(of course). But to hear it again in 07 was epic. VH doesn’t need to make another album-just hit the streets.
MICAL VEE

I have been in Van Halen camp since 1978,all six of their albums are…..CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Waiting on no.# 7!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P1d8BVvY-I&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active 5150

I always seperate CVH albums into two categories…in category 1 is VHI, WACF, and FW. In category 2, I have VHII, DD, and 1984. That’s another reason I love VH. Their music can be diverse from one album to the next.
Ed Dee

Don’t forget that riff on “Outta Love Again”. A moment of silence for Ed’s awesomeness…. please.
Puka Dog

“Loss of Control” is on my top 10 cvh list. The beginning gives me goose bumps. Check out the isolated guitar track on youtube.
rsully

love Light Up The Sky’s quiet section before the mini drum solo…would easily follow that music over a cliff…solo 2 in Outta Love Again is absolutely gut wrenching and DOA is total bada%%…great album…I can still play Spanish Fly for people today who know nothing of VH and it stops them in their tracks…love that…greatness.
freddiegirl

CK-Mine change as well but WACF always seems to be number 1!

Halen High and Wilkster5150-That video is brutal!

5150-My fav track of off VH2 is hands down, DOA followed by Women in Love and Outta Love.
Angus

Listened to the podcast, I thought it was basically just playing the songs out of sequence…
jeff adams

Although it is impossible to pick a favorite song off VH2, Outta Love is the song I go to most on that album.
Halen High

@ Ed Dee – great riff!

@ jeff adams – you must see that movie! It’s a really accurate picture of teenage life in the late 70s. Well, for some of us.

@ Wilkster5150 – yeah, loved the party scene as YRGM cranks up!
Wow

Wow, I didn’t know it was possible to make Van Halen as boring as this podcast does.
Jay Krieger

I have to admit that I was too young/dumb to know any better until well after I graduated (my concert years were the OU812 and beyond) to know any CVH. It took a great friend, Jim Wolanin, to show me the way. VanHalen II was our party album for years. And then Fair Warning… Van Halen 1 will always be the standard, but man, when you’re feelin down, that album has brought me back from a bad time in my life and I say “Thank You Van Halen”.
http://midnightphil.com MidnightPhil

Dan Lorenzo:

“I don’t like guys in overalls. I’m not a fan of guitarists smiling onstage. Diamond Dave? Too Hollywood for me.”

Glad to hear that the music is your first priority, Mr. Guitarist. =P
RobCT

I love VHII! It’s a great record all the way through! “Light Up the Sky” “Out of Love” “Women in Love” are my favs. “Loss of Control” off of WACF…awesome song! End of story!

As for people not giving props to EVH, that will happen until someone 1)Tells the truth about their influences
2)Decides it’s “cool”. Unfortunately many musicians are afraid of what their peers would say if they cited a certain musician as a influence, especially if said influence played a different style of music. I can remember when grunge came around, solos were “bad” and if you knew how to play you were looked down upon! It happened to me in my local band and I remember reading about John Petrucci and EVH getting ragged on because they play solos and know their instument.

I never made any bones about it, my playing is VERY EVH influenced and I am proud of it! A band I was in had a singer who wanted to do all grunge because it was the flavor of the month/year/ decade(?). He told me I played too good and we could’nt play rock songs anymore. That didn’t last! And as for the musicians who slagged EVH and Petrucci in the press…they are not around anymore!
strikethatpoorboydown

1-light up the Sky
2-Outta love Again
3-Somebody get me a Doctor

Compared to VH GnR is CRAP!!!If there was no VH there would be no GnR, VH paved the road for EVERY band out of LA for the eighties in its entirety! Dan Lorenzo(who the fuck is this guy anyway) doesn’t have the right to walk a mile behind KING EDWARD!!!

Peace, OUT!!!!
1218

Just about had a mini-stroke when I saw the headline of Van Halen and Podcast, til I saw the words Classic Rock Albums. Wow, Van Halen II. What a killer second album. With the excepton of one dud, (Women in Love…) Van Halen II is an underated gem. VH at it’s poppiest sounding with Dance the Night Away(with kudos to the movie Mission to Mars for using that tune in a cool scene), to rocking their ass off to Outta Love Again. I worked at a small town radio station in the early 90′s playing top 40 bull shit, and the station had a .45 record of DTNA with OLA on the flipside, and when I started out working overnights, I’d play OLA instead. Somebody Get Me a Doctor and Bottoms Up! just flow so good together and are a great precursor to DOA, one of my favorite VH tunes. Spanish Fly is a great solo while Light Up the Sky and the aforementioned WIL are great tunes, featuring some great Michael Anthony background vocals, but not as good as the rest of the albums songs. As for Beautiful Girls, great song and album closer. Overall I give VHII a nine on a ten scale.
rsh

Dan Lorenzo=Dumbass

VH 2 ,next to Fair Warning, is one of their most underrated albums. It’s got it all. Eddies tone, Mikey’s background vocals, and Al’s log thumping drums. Just the intro to Women In Love makes this album a classic. Good Stuff.
John M.

Dan Lorenzo: 99.999% of the people in your home town dont know you exist and are fine with it, get over yourself.
He doesnt like guitarists who smile? LOL!!! VH was heavier than most music I grew up with and once I saw that ear to ear grin of a guitarist that wasn’t trying to look tough, and was in the moment, enjoying himself while completely blowing peoples minds, how can you not respect that!
That made me a fan of heavier music from that point forward, enjoying yourself is key, and boy they made it fun to rock!
Cant wait for more!
jeff adams

John M. exactly, VH was too much fun, thats why 20,000 people were smiling along w/ the band.

Halen High, I’ll look for it. Sounds like how I grew up, w/ VH as the sound track.
shaned

I agree with a lot of comments about VH 2,it is very underrated, Light Up the Sky is one of their best songs ever, and DOA is so fuckin heavy,Your No Good is an awesome cover, in fact all VH covers are great, they are the only band that can make a cover sound better than the original! As a VH die hard, I can never pin point my fave album from the DLR era, they are all my fave, can’t wait for some new news, and VH news desk has to stop with the Chickenfoot shit, who fuckin cares, start a Chickenfoot news desk, I could care less, VH News only pleas!!
Roth_Leaps_83

Ummm — who is this Dan Lorenzo DOUCHE-BUCKET and why is he allowed to comment on a legendary VH album when he doesnt know shit about nothing ???

He seems like an 80′s dweeb who was into Flock of Seagulls and Depeche Mode and was forced at gunpoint to write a quick blurb on Van Halen. Can he please die soon ???
strikethatpoorboydown

@midnight phil

lol fuckin’eh
Original VH Fan

You know what’s funny, I’d never heard of that Lorenzo guy until just now, I wanna hear more Ed, and I certainly don’t wanna hear more D-Lo

Thanks to VHND for posting the link, I can tell you what album I’ll be listening to for the rest of the day!

Now GIVE ME my new VH album baby!
(said with the concert DLR voice)
Carnal Knowledge

freddiegirl: Fair Warning and WACF definitely get the most first place votes……if I have to vote. I’d rather abstain.