LA Guns
Written and recorded over the course of 2022, "Black Diamonds" sees Tracii Guns, Phil Lewis, and company continuing on the same successful and inspiring sonic journey that they've been taking on their most recent albums, "Checkered Past", "The Devil You Know", and "The Missing Peace". The band doesn't shy away from flexing their hard rock influences as they always have, but also incorporates more introspective acoustic tracks reflective of their classic rock influences from the '70s. This makes for a potent and highly listenable cocktail of an album in "Black Diamonds". Since their self-titled debut in 1988 to their widely praised recent suite of "comeback" albums, L.A. GUNS, led by Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis, have always delivered solid rock ‘n roll to their fans. Since core members Tracii and Phil reunited under the banner of L.A. Guns in 2017, a rekindling of the band's creative energy has been continuing unabated over the course of, now, four studio albums. "Black Diamonds" shows no signs of this renaissance slowing down...
L.A. Guns never looked like the pretty poster boys that so many of their peers did, but more the band that you would be terrified to bump into in an alley as they would likely be carrying switchblades and ready for a fight. But despite having many songs to back up that image, the band could also write powerful ballads (see the smash hit, “The Ballad Of Jayne” for Exhibit A of this argument) that showed there were some serious songwriting chops in the band.
The story of how we got from the band’s powerful early years to a fourth new studio album in the relatively short time that Guns and Lewis have reunited has already been well documented, so no need to rehash it. What’s important to know and understand is that the driving force of all those classic L.A. Guns songs was Tracii and Phil. Feeling inspired and excited like they did when they first started out, but with many years of wisdom and experience under their belts, and most importantly, a renewed and stronger creative and personal relationship, Guns, Lewis, and L.A. Guns as a whole are at a creative peak.
.
He spent much of his first year in the USA as a long haul truck driver, criss-crossing the country countless times in an 18-wheeler and spending the downtime in his sleeper berth practicing guitar. Eventually he settled in San Diego CA and set about recording his debut instrumental album "Caffeine Racer" which was released in July 2004. A band was formed and live shows commenced.
Caffeine Racer got the attention of legendary vocalist Graham Bonnet, most notable for working with the best guitarists in rock (Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai) and they set about recording the Taz Taylor Band album "Welcome To America" which was released on the UK label Escape Music in Aug 2006.
International tours followed in 2007 and 2008, taking the band to UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary and Czech Republic.
In 2009 the band recruited another ex-MSG vocalist, Keith Slack for the "Straight Up" album, also on Escape Music, and also featuring a guest appearance from Deep Purple's Don Airey on keyboards.
2010 saw the band returning to Taz's instrumental roots with the release of "Big Dumb Rock" and the band played a string of dates to promote BDR opening for MSG (5 times), Uli Jon Roth (6 times), UFO (twice), Gary Hoey (5 times), Pat Travers (3 times), Dokken, Skid Row, Great White, Molly Hatchet, LA Guns (3 times), Lynch Mob, Wishbone Ash, Tony McAlpine (4 times), Alan Holdsworth, Ace Frehley, John 5 (4 times) and Eric Johnson.
In 2014 TTB released "Deja Voodoo", an all instrumental offering of eight songs and the band took to the road playing shows all across the UK as well as in California.
June 2017 saw the release of “Pressure And Time”. This album featured the vocal talents of Chandler Mogel and also the return of Taz’ acoustic guitar playing which featured prominently on 3 of the songs on this album, most notably on a complete re-working of “Highway Song” originally recorded by Blackfoot.
This album was released on Escape Music in Europe and on Rubicon Music in Japan. The Japanese version included a live bonus track, Explorations… recorded on the band’s 2014 tour in the U.K.
2019 saw the release of “Hats, Tats And Guitars”…Taz’ favorite Instrumental release!
2022 heralded a new beginning for TTB. Now managed by Giles Lavery Management and signed to new label Global Rock Records, TTB released “Nocturnal” an album of Melodic Hard Rock featuring a handful of world class guest vocalists including Graham Bonnet, Mark Boals and Doogie White amongst others and showcasing the continuing evolution of Taz’ guitar playing!