Search - Tsol :: Change Today

The start of a new TSOL era

Aaron Oechsli | Redding, CA USA | 09/24/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is TSOL's third full length album, but the first with this lineup. This album bring forward a new singer, Joe Wood (Jack's brother-in-law) and new drummer. They left a lot of the early punk sound behind and became more of a modern Doors like band. On this LP they were still getting some of the kinks out, so its not perfect.Between this and the follow-up "Revenge", you have a pretty nice set of songs. After Revenge, they became more involved in the LA Rock scene than the Punk Rock scene. With that came a change in sound and lyrical content, which influenced and paved the way for other hair/glam band -- Poison, Great White, et al -- but left a lot of their original fan base behind.This CD contains some rare stuff. There is "Suppose they give war" from the first Flipside compilation and some out takes from the recording session. The song "Road of Gold", which would later surface on "Hit and Run", is more primitive here, but still quite good.If you saw TSOL on the warp tour or have the LP "Dance with me", this is NOT the same band. That band is the original lineup reformed (minus Todd Barnes, RIP.) They are both good bands, just different.Of interest older fans may be the whereabouts of Joe Wood. He is currently an artist in Long Beach. He also occasionally plays with his band Joe Wood and the Lonely Ones. Their CD "The Lonely Ones" is a very good blues-rock number, with some catchy tracks. Check out his website: http://www.joewoodmusicandart.com/"

Opened my eyes to music beyond 3-chord punk...

J. Perrine | El Cajon, CA United States | 04/19/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I had become a one-dimensional punk monster in the early eighties...Then along came Change Today? As much as I loved the classic TSOL...The new singer/sound sucked me in. The bass-lines haunt me even today...I have the vinyl version still in it's plastic. No one can touch it. I bought the bonus track CD last year. All the originals sound great digitized. I'm not such a big fan of the bonus tracks though. They seem to have been pasted on, and don't really follow the flow of the original album. Cool if you're into collecting rarities I guess.

Buy this disc!"

Great Stuff

Eric DiBella | Newport Beach, California USA | 10/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this album in the 1980s, and it rarely left my turntable. Joe Wood has a great voice (kind of a cross between Morrison and Idol with a little more bluesy feel - matter of fact, while setting up in a small club in Fullerton, Joe played a solo version of The End and that was a treat). Ron Emory has always had a unique guitar sound, and that continues here. Mitch Dean hits the skins with emotion, and Mike Roche plays killer bass lines.



The album has some dark tunes and mixes in some politics about conforming and impact of war (American Zone). In Time is reminiscent of the older TSOL because Ron sings it, and it is faster than the other songs. He does at least one song on each album. The add on tunes are add ons - they are cool to have, but like another reviewer said they did not really fit with the album. Who's complaining? I did hear these add on songs live in LA and OC clubs in the early to mid 1980s, and I liked them much better live. They had this other live song that would have been interesting to hear recorded about the homeless in LA - it was a reggae song. Pretty cool.



I had the early TSOL albums, and I loved them - still do. There are a lot of people out there who complain that this is not the old TSOL, or called it the new TSOL. Either way, who cares. Music is music. I pretty much purchased all the cds of each lineup of TSOL (some of the later stuff got a little too glam though). I guess I was not the only one who was into this band because some guy was painting the house I was renting a room in, and he ended up stealing all my TSOL cds. Those were the only ones he took (and I have a bunch of classic punk stuff), so I thought that was a nice compliment to the band. I wish I could have caught him though. I ended up repurchasing most of the their cds anyway (as well as the stuff the reformed band put out - Disappear and Divided We Stand) because my music collection would be severely lacking without TSOL.



Thanks to the reviewer who told us where to find stuff on Joe Wood. His cd is blues/rock and it is great."