In this offering, we are very pleased to get up close and personal with Lisa Mann, vocalist in the Portland, Oregon based band Splintered Throne.
The first record I ever bought with my own money was…
KISS- Dynasty. I was a huge KISS fan growing up, I remember dressing as Gene Simmons on Halloween and spitting fake blood all over the school gymnasium, eliciting great disgust from the teachers. When Dynasty came out I saved up my lunch money to buy it at a small record store in Charleston, WV. I carried it in its brown paper sleeve to the local convenience store, and handily slipped in the latest copy of 16 Magazine, for which I had NOT saved my lunch money. I still remember exactly what that that record smelled like when I opened it.
The record that made me want to make music was…
All of them. My parents had a huge record collection, my mom had more singers like Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand, while my dad had hippie rock and blues-based proto metal like Steppenwolf, Cream, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin. All the music in the house, including what was on the radio, instilled in me the knowledge that I would be a musician when I grew up.
The record I’ve played more than any other is…
In my past it’s probably a tossup between Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind or Dio’s Holy Diver. Both great albums to sing and play bass along with! But sadly I don’t currently have a record player to enjoy my vinyl collection with.
The record that always make me feel good is…
Level 42’s double live album, A Physical Presence. Super high-energy, fun and funky, with high-speed live versions of their more chill studio tracks. I love the happy, though dated, keyboard sounds, and of course the face melting bass of Mark King.
The record I turn to when I’m feeling down is…
Old KISS always lifts my spirits, like Dressed to Kill. Most of those songs are little pop rock nuggets, under three minutes long, then there’s “She” sticking out like an acid-rock sore thumb. It was produced on a shoestring budget, but somehow that adds to its charm. And I love the embossed Casablanca cover, it’s a tactile experience.
The record with my favorite cover art is…
Iron Maiden’s Somewhere in Time. Derek Riggs created this fabulous easter-egg laden album cover that you could just stare at for hours. I heard it took him three months of intense work to do it. A real masterpiece!
The strangest LP I own is…
As a young teen I went to see a triple bill of Exciter, Exodus, and some upcoming band called Megadeth. I brought an Exciter album to the show and wanted Beehler and crew to sign it. However, they weren’t at the merch table when I approached, Exodus was there instead, being loud and rowdy. The bass player Rob McKillup saw my little pipsqueak ass holding the album and said something like “fuck it, it’s an Exodus album now!” and defaced it, altering the Exciter logo to say “Exodus kills,” Paul Baloff wrote Exodus again and a huge pentacle and signed it with a swirling flourish, and the rest of the band signed it. Gary Holt must have been very drunk by the looks of his scrawl. It’s a one of a kind album for sure, which came into being as the result of a chance encounter at a merch table in a dive in Portland, Oregon. It’s my most treasured album.
The rarest LP I own is…
Probably KISS- Fried Alive. A bootleg from 1976, mostly recorded in Long Beach in 1974. It’s colored vinyl in a plain white cover, with a cheap wrap-around sleeve printed in black on blue paper. The performances are actually pretty raw and greasy, showing the band’s heavier early roots.
The last LP I bought was…
Even though I don’t have a record player set up right now, I still occasionally buy vinyl to add to my collection. Recently I purchased a copy of Unto Others’ album Mana, which still bears the logo of their previous name, Idle Hands. They’re a goth metal band from here in Portland, OR, and I’m very happy for their success. They’ll be on tour with Behemoth and Arch Enemy in Europe later this year. I had to get that album to secure a little piece of history, as I think they deserve to break big.
Splintered Throne’s latest album, The Greater Good of Man, will be released on August 19, 2022. Two singles, “Morning Star Rising,” and “The Reaper Is Calling” are streaming now at this location.
Links
https://splinteredthrone.com/
https://splinteredthrone.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/splintered.throne
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