Meister's Monsters of Rock Cruise 2014 #5-AC/DC Beer Can Guy......and his band The Milestones

Here we are at #5 of my weekly Monsters of Rock Cruise 2014 blog series after a couple of great weeks covering some new music with Jake E. Lee's Red Dragon Cartel and Ron Keel's Metal Cowboy.  Let's keep the new music going for another week with something that I can pretty much guarantee that you're unfamiliar with, but I highly recommend you check out.

You never know who you'll meet aboard The Monsters of Rock Cruise and last year I happened to meet a guy with an empty beer can.  Strange as that statement might seem, it's 100% true!  During the all day, every day drunken fog that I'd fallen under while wandering the ship between concert shows I paused in the lobby area of the vessel to chat with friends, Cliff Koehler (who repeatedly mentions that his name never appears in my blogs, so there you go sir!) & his wife, made at my totally awesome Keel experience the day prior to boarding the ship (THE MEISTER'S RIGHT TO ROCK WITH KEEL).  While we were chatting another fellow stopped by and showed us his beer can!  It was an empty AC/DC brand beer can...cool enough
in itself to a beer and rock lover such as The Meister, but there was more to it than that.  Tommi Manninen told us he was part of a group that shares possession of the can ("ONE" AC/DC BEER CAN TRAVELS THE WORLD) and takes it to various locations around the world.  I met the can personally and had my photo taken with it (no that's not a choke collar as some wise-ass friend had suggested....just my cruise key/pass lanyard flipped the other way to fully display the awesomeness of the Helix t-shirt....lol!)  Tommi and I became friends and through our Facebook communications after the cruise I learned that he played in a band called The Milestones in his homeland of Finland.  I checked out a couple of links on you-tube and was actually suitably impressed ("Queen to Me" & "So Alive Today")  Tommi was kind enough to forward me a 3 song promo CD that The Milestones had issued in their native country and it often slides it's way into a playlist of mine......all 3 songs are excellent, but "Trouble Walking" is an amazing cut.  I was disheartened that I had been unable to meet up with him and visit Finland when I was "right next door" in Sweden at the Sweden Rock festival in June of 2013, but that excursion brought about it's own difficulties upon The Meister and my time there was altogether too short (A CANADIAN DECIBEL GEEK IN SWEDEN).  Tommi Manninen and his band have put in a bid to play Sweden Rock Festival in 2014......can it be that my first time seeing The Milestones live will be at Sweden Rock 2014?

Throughout the year approaching this 2014 voyage, Tommi and I have kept in touch and now here we are preparing for 2014's MOR (Monsters of Rock) cruise and The Miletstones are set to release an album, Higher Mountain, Closer Sun (Samples and Pre-order link) in the same year.  The album leads off with the awesome "Trouble Walking" flowing into the first single and video released "Shalalalovers".

Next up is a cover song of "Drivin' Wheel" originally recorded by Foghat.  That's right I said Foghat, probably the only way that you've ever heard of them is through watching That 70's Show or playing the song "Slow Ride" on Guitar Hero.  If Tommi hadn't told me it was a Foghat tune I never would have known and he even tells me that the reason they chose to cover it is a little MOR related, but I'll have to wait until I see him to receive that full story.  "Oh My Soul" sits in the fourth position and features a classic 70's influence throughout, but that could actually describe all of The Milestones music.  Slowing down the pace is "Grateful" flowing into "Sweet Sounds" and through
to the rockin' boogie of "It's All Right".  "You" and "Looking Back For Yesterday" maintain the albums pace and 70's influenced feel bringing us to "Damn" which appeared on the 3 song promo CD and therefore was familiar to me.  "Damn" is the shortest cut on the record, features a grinding riff and some great guitar work as does the rest of the album.  "Fool Me" draws the record to a close very nicely but leaving you with an empty, missing your best friend kinda feeling until you hit play and your foot begins to involuntarily tap again.  The album is set to be released on February 28, 2014.

While they may not be the "classic" fit to the 80's themed MOR sound, The Milestones certainly rock and I'm glad to hear their music.  If it wasn't for MORC and an empty AC/DC beer can I may never have had the pleasure of hearing The Milestones!

THE MILESTONES on FACEBOOK     LISTEN TO SAMPLES & PRE-ORDER

Cheers,
The Meister ("LIKE" The Meister on Facebook)