Chris Laney has quite a list of qualifications as a producer and as a songwriter. He’s also a solo artist and in April he released his second album, “Only Come Out at Night”.

He gets help from a number of guests on the album, among them some well-known names like Bruce Kulick (Kiss), Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy, Mötörhead), Conny Bloom (Hanoi Rocks, Electric Boys), Ian Haugland (Europe) and Zinny Zan (Shotgun Messiah, Zan Clan), which also gives us a hint to what kind of music it’s about. And of course it’s about hard rock, more precisely the eighties’ hard rock.

It becomes Chris’ own special version of the eighties where he, between sticky rock choruses, glammy choirs and guitar solos, weaves in some metallic darkness and agressive energy. All in all an even and strong album, where Chris shows his strength as a songwriter.

I saw him live at Stockholm Rockout the 1st of May, which was one of the best performances on the festival. Obviously more people agreed with me as he will come back for Stockholm Rockout Festival part 2 on the 10th-11th of September.

You can find Chris Laney on his site, on Facebook and on Myspace. His albums are available on Spotify. Here are two tracks from “Only Come Out at Night”.

Only Come Out at Night
Rockstar

The other day I visited the Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. The great statues were there, like they’ve been for the last thousand years, hiding their secrets, revealing nothing. But suddenly, as we were exploring the area, a strong sound, low and dull, startled us, and it seemed to emerge from the ground beneath the old statues. Was this finally a clue to the mysteries of the Easter Island?

The sound gained in strength, echoing across the hills, and we crouched in awe but with the curiosity lurching beneath. The sound shaped itself into a voice, and the voice said: “Let there be rock!”

Maybe a little boring message after all this time, since the statues are made of that, rock. But there were a few people among us that interpreted the words in their own way: the members of Badmouth. Chris LeMon grabbed hos big axe for a Bass, Mike Hill and Randy Joy armed their guitars, in a frenzy Vinnie Sharpe started hitting the rocks with his drum sticks and Tom Pearson let out a wild cry that boomed within our heads for hours afterwards: “Yeah, we will rock the world!!!”

Today Badmouth are missionairies for rock music and are eagerly delivering their message wherever they go. They are right now finishing their second full length album, an album that is rumoured to penetrate the toughest anti-rock walls mankind has seen so far.

If you’d like to remain sane, continue to live in peace and feel it’s uncomfortable to be in an area where the ground will shake for two days, then you should definitely avoid Stockholm between the 30th of April and the 1st of May.

Why? Because Stockholm Rock Out, a new big rock festival will take place in Stockholm, containing some of the best rock that’s ever been squeezed out of a Marshall stack. Badmouth, Slaughter, Kix, Keel, Great White, Steelheart, Bullet Boys and many other bands plus fans from all over the world will gather and join in Badmouths mission. The high priest of the event is Chris LeMon from Badmouth.

Well, let’s start ahead with a couple of tracks from Badmouth’s last album:

Pedal to the Metal
Cocaine Girl

Listen more to Badmouth on their Myspace page and follow the band on their site.

Happy easter! (well at least within a day or two)