Secret Assassin - Jake E. Lee

“The first concert I ever saw was Assassin in early 1985, at Straita Head Sound in La Mesa,” says Deep Shag Records exec Michael Reed, who ended up running the band’s fan club. “They were balls-out rockers in the same vein as Ratt, Rough Cutt, and Jake E. Lee.”

In its heyday, Assassin opened for headliners such as Poison, Alcatrazz, Grim Reaper, and Precious Metal. Today, former Assassin drummer Dave “Bundy” Imondi plays in Van Halen tribute band OU812 with Assassin bassist John Osmon.

Over recent contacts with former Assassin members, Reed discovered that there were tapes of an unreleased album recorded in 1984. The uncovered collection is slated to be released by Deep Shag on October 6.

“We even came up with five live tracks secretly recorded at Straita Head Sound,” says Reed. “Back in 1984, the band’s manager, Charlie Bryant, discovered an Assassin concert was being taped in the recording studio behind the stage…without their permission. Charlie grabbed the 24-track reel off the machine. I have no idea if other bands were secretly recorded. We just got lucky enough to grab ours and keep it.”

The earliest Assassin recording, however, remains elusive. “According to the guys from the band, the earliest song they taped was called ‘What’s That,’ which was played almost exclusively on KGB, most likely on Pat Martin’s Metal Shop [show] or by Jim McInnes on his Homegrown program. Nobody has a copy of the song. It’s the only studio-recorded song Assassin ever did that I don’t have for the reissue.”

By Jay Allen Sanford

Concert review: Kid Rock struts his redneck shtick

In a rollicking, profanity-laced show at the State Fair grandstand, a big crowd lapped up the loud nastiness with gusto.

By JON BREAM, Star Tribune

Kid Rock set the record Saturday night for the most f-bombs dropped at the State Fair grandstand. Sorry, I quit counting at 20, including his arriving onstage flipping the bird on both hands (and let’s not mention the s-bombs).

That kind of performance at the fair might offend some of you gentle readers. But there were probably no complaints from the sellout crowd of 13,262. Kid Rock was rowdy, crude and proudly lowbrow but highly entertaining for 95 hellacious minutes.

Part unashamed trailer-park hero, part sleazy tent-revival evangelist and part unrepentant rock 'n’ roll party animal, Kid Rock, 38, was all redneck populist music god. The Detroit native pledged allegiance to American and Confederate flags, toasted whiskey and beer, saluted weed and Willie Nelson, honored U.S. troops and flew his freak flag for that intersection where he resides exclusively — where Outlaw Country Road turns into Classic-Rock Avenue and where R&B Lane morphs into Hip-Hop Circle.

Kid Rock is the world’s most unabashed music fan onstage. On Saturday, he set a record for name-checking more artists in his song lyrics than any previous grandstand headliner. He acknowledged opening act Lynyrd Skynyrd in three songs, same with George Jones and gave shout outs to Willie, Waylon, Merle, Kiss, ZZ Top, among others and performed songs (or snippets thereof) by Sly Stone, the Rolling Stones, the Georgia Satellites, Ted Nugent, ZZ Top and Waylon Jennings. He rocked and rapped, crooned country and folk ballads, sang a little gospel and R&B and played guitar, piano, drums and turntables. And he strutted like Mick Jagger, did flying leaps like David Lee Roth and carried on like the American bad ass (his description) that he is.

To be sure, rap is less a part of the quotient as in the past, and Kid Rock does occasionally get serious now, as evidenced by “Amen,” a ballad with a beat about the important things in life, and “Only God Knows Why,” told from soldiers’ points of view.

Whether Kid Rock was serious or just partying in overdrive, the crowd — the drinkingest, beer-spillingest, smokingest grandstand-goers in recent memory — loved it, from “Rock n Roll Jesus” to “All Summer Long” (the anthem of 2008) to “You Never Met a Mother(f-bomb) Quite Like Me.”

The fitting opening act of this Rock and Rebels Tour was Lynyrd Skynyrd, one of rock’s first great populist regional bands. With only one original member (guitarist Gary Rossington) remaining from its 1970s heyday, Skynyrd is as much a brand name as a band name. Lead singer Johnny Van Zant, brother of the late original singer Ronnie Van Zant and Skynyrd singer since 1987, sounded hopelessly parched, and he couldn’t reach any of his high notes. The band had more bottom sound and more guitar muscle than in the past, but the hits — “Call Me the Breeze,” “Simple Man” (a ballad with big guitars) and, of course, “Free Bird” — were a perfect blast of Southern-rock warmth on a cool Northern Saturday night.