Motley Crue: Live 1982
I was at a friend’s house this weekend when he put on a DVD of some stuff he had recorded from a TV channel called
Palladia. Now, I’ve got low-end cable, so of course I’d never heard of the channel. What it is, is “a 1080i high definition music television network that shows music-related content from its owner, MTV Networks.” In layman’s terms, we watched a couple of cool-ass concerts.
The channel broadcasts a lot of the stuff that MTV and VH1 used to, but they also have what looks like a fair amount of original and live performance content, such as a Lily Allen concert playing this week. Palladia appears to be available mostly via satellite TV providers, but after some searching, I found that iTunes makes some of the station’s programming available for streaming or purchase.
How does this all relate to what we’re doing here today? One of the concerts we watched was a Motley Crue show from last year. During the show we were talking about all the
serious shit Motley Crue has done during their nearly 30-year career; from Vince Neil’s car crash that killed Razzle from Hanoi Rocks to filming anti-drug commercials while wasted off their asses. These guys were the epitome of out-of-control rock ‘n’ rollers. Presumably they’ve cleaned up a bit, but they can still bring a sleazy rock show complete with strippers and a crowd of breast-baring women. Musically the band sounded as good as they ever have, with Vince Neil’s voice still standing up to the hair metal falsettos of the Crue’s first album.
I went back and forth on whether to post an old or new Motley Crue show. In the end I went with the former because I’ve had this on my drive forever. It was recorded Nov. 19, 1982, at Perkin’s Palace in Los Angeles and originally broadcast on the
"mighty MET." Take Me to the Top.mp3 Looks That Kill.mp3 Public Enemy #1.mp3 Red Hot.mp3 Starry Eyes.mp3 Piece of Your Action.mp3 Shout at the Devil.mp3 Merry-Go-Round.mp3 Running Wild in the Night.mp3 Hotter than Hell.mp3 Live Wire.mp3 Labels: glam, hair metal, live music
Perfect 80's Metal
I finally saw The Wrestler last weekend. If you’ve seen it and if you paid attention, you probably noticed there’s a decent soundtrack’s worth of 80's metal in movie: Quiet Riot (The Ram’s theme song), as well as Ratt, Accept, and a couple of others. Where I’m going with this post, though, is one song in particular: The Scorpions’ “Animal Magnetism.” For the life of me I can’t remember the scene where it played, but I was impressed as hell Darren Aronofsky (or whoever) decided to use this particular song.
The Scorpions had a brief period, before they lapsed in Spinal Tap-like self-parody, when they were one of the best metal bands around. Between 1979 and 1982, they released
Lovedrive,
Animal Magnetism, and
Blackout, three classics of the genre. Without a doubt, 1980’s
Animal Magnetism is my favorite Scorps album and arguably, one of my favorite all-time metal albums.
“Make It Real,” the opening track, may have been the first Scorpions song I ever heard. It was on a live Castle Donnington album that I got when I was in high school, so would have been the song that put me onto the band. The last song on side one, “Lady Starlight,” has the kind of classic guitar solo that was once a trademark of the Schenker brothers. Just past the halfway point of the song, everything comes to a stop except Rudolf Schenker’s electric guitar. It’s cheese power ballad, but damnit, I love it! And I loved it when Michael Schenker did it with UFO.
The two songs that really make the album for me, though, are “The Zoo” and the album’s title track. Both are near perfect metal songs, with heavy riffs and Rudolf Schenker back for the hard and dark version of the earlier power ballad solo.
It was “The Zoo” that made me want to see 42nd Street in New York before I’d ever been there. Picture my disappointment when I arrived 10 years later and found it Disney-fied. And it was “Animal Magnetism” that I shared with the first girl who broke my heart. Here’s to hoping she’s living in a singlewide trailer and is miserable. Ha!
Here are my two favorites from the album. No hard feelings.
The Zoo.mp3 Animal Magnetism.mp3 Labels: hair metal, metal
Never Enough
I have no idea what got me thinking the other night about Los Angeles “sleaze metal” band the L.A. Guns. Whatever it was, next thing you know I’m pulling out 20-year-old CDs and getting all misty-eyed and nostalgic.
The first time I saw L.A. Guns play live was in 1988 at a place called – if memory serves – the D’Anza Theater, in Riverside, Calif. It was literally a converted theater, with maybe 200-300 max capacity. I don’t think the place was even full. I know by the time the lights came up at the end it seemed like there were maybe 50 people left. I remember seeing the guys from the band at the Carl’s Jr. across the street earlier that day. Nothing like a cheeseburger before you go onstage.
During the course of the next decade, I saw the Guns two or three more times – once opening for AC/DC. The last time was in 2001, at a place called the 19th Hole, a dive bar in Houston that, despite its name, was at least two miles from the nearest golf course. The Guns were on a triumphant “reunion” tour and played a killer set of all their old hits. After, while the crowd milled around waiting for Faster Pussycat to take the stage, the members of L.A. Guns sat at a table signing autographs. As a longtime fan, I had to queue up. I went through the line, each band member scribbling his name on my 8x10 B&W glossy pic. At the end of the table was Tracii Guns himself. While he signed his name, I told him I’d been a fan for a long time and that I’d seen L.A. Guns play back in 1988.
He just kind of looked at me. “That’s a long time,” was the only thing he said.
Tracii Guns is so fuckin’ rock ‘n’ roll.
Sex Action.mp3 ~ from
L.A. GunsRip and Tear.mp3 ~ from
Cocked & LoadedI Wanna Be Your Man.mp3 ~ from
Cocked & LoadedOver the Edge.mp3 ~ from
Hollywood VampiresKilling Machine.mp3 ~ from
Vicious CircleMan in the Moon.mp3 ~ from
Man in the MoonCrazy Bitch (Buckcherry cover).mp3 ~ from the "Crazy Bitch" single
My Michelle (Guns ‘n’ Roses cover).mp3 ~ from
Rock BottomRock Bottom (UFO Cover).mp3 ~ from
Rock BottomSteam Rock Fever (Scorpions cover).mp3 ~ from
Rock BottomRevolution.mp3 ~ from
Here Come the Brides, Brides of Destruction [London LeGrand, Tracii Guns, John Corabi, Nikki Sixx, and Scot Coogan]
Labels: covers, glam, hair metal
Enjoying the Time I Waste
You guys miss 80s hair bands?
Sometimes I do. Like when I’m at home on a Friday, drinking beer all alone, with no plans to do anything else. It’s nights like tonight that some glam metal can really set the mood in Apt. 104.
I was looking around the MySpaces earlier and came across a band called Drugdealer Cheerleader. You know I’m always a sucker for a band with a cool name, so I dug a little deeper. One of the first things I saw was this two-and-a-half-year-old quote from some ‘zine called “Classic Rock Magazine”: “Pyrotechnic riff dealers from London who sound like some gasoline-swilling super group made up of a couple of Backyard Babies, half of UFO, and Angus Young's penis.”
I don’t really know what Angus Young’s penis sounds like, but I can attest to the fact that Drugdealer Cheerleader cop a couple of riffs from classic ACDC. But there’s also more than a little bit of early Motley Crue, early Poison, Skid Row, and a lot of other Sunset Blvd. bands from that era.
What’s cool is that Drugdealer Cheerleader doesn’t come from L.A. They’re actually from London, where there seems to be some kind of hair metal renaissance going on. Front man Hilda and drummer Ringo (yes,
Ringo - and first names only for the gentlemen of DDCL) met while they were at university together. They played together in a couple of bands that ended up going nowhere and were busy “selling their souls” in a cover band when they met guitarist Jay. DDCL have gone through several bass players and are currently working with a rotation of Laney and Bertie.
Drugdealer Cheerleader has defined their sound by playing the music they loved. “We wanted to take the influence from music that we’d always liked,” Ringo said. “Give it our own sound, a sound of today rather than a retro thing.”
If you’re in any sort of mood for classic 80s-era sorta rock, you’ll dig these guys. Check ‘em out on
MySpace, and their latest release,
Enjoy The Time You Waste, along with a couple of older EPs, is available at
eMusic.
Britain’s Great.mp3 Ms. LaPish.mp3Labels: glam, hair metal, rock
Saints of CNN
Mötley Crüe’s new album,
Saints of Los Angeles hit stores today. It’s the first album with all of the original members since 1997’s
Generation Swine.
As part of the media blitz accompanying the release, the Crüe showed up last week on CNN’s Larry King Live. I’m here to tell you that was some riveting television. Larry came out swinging with questions like, “How did the tattooing start?” He would continue the hard-edged journalism well into the interview, later asking the band, “Are your tunes hummable?”
Interwoven through the interview were clips of Larry rocking out with the boys in the band, proving he’s just one of the guys. Hey Larry, lets get some blow and some Crüe sluts and meet back at your place!
I have actually heard most of the album and I like it. It harkens back to the Crüe’s glory days as sleazebag Sunset Blvd. rockers. The album more or less follows – or is loosely based on – the band’s 2001 memoir The Dirt. “A tale of dirty needles, damaged minds, music industry battles and a whole lotta sex,” as Nikki Sixx put it.
Mötley Crüe is kicking off Crüe Fest July 1 in West Palm Beach, Fla. For information on tour dates, you need to get yourself over to
Motley.com.
Saints of Los Angeles (Gang Vocal).mp3 And here, from YouTube, is what has got to be one of Larry King’s greatest moments. Particularly, check out Part 3, where Mick Mars is giving Larry guitar lessons. Classic stuff.
Larry King interview
Part 1 Larry King interview
Part 2 Larry King interview
Part 3 Larry King interview
Part 4Labels: glam, hair metal, metal, new stuff, rock
Music for the lowlifes, the sad, and the forgotten
I was having some trouble finding something I felt like posting tonight: I’ve picked up a couple of new albums recently, but they’re things that have been out for a while and have been repeatedly blogged (i.e. Foxboro Hot Tubs). There are basically two solutions when I run up against this sort of poster’s block. I can either root around my hard drive for a live recording or I can root around my apartment for some sort of obscure music.
I chose to pursue option “b,” which may or may not sit well with all of you. I dug around and came up with a 1988 release from a band called The Dogs D’Amour. The Dogs came out of England with a glam look and a Stones-type blues rock sound. Their lyrics, written by band founder and vocalist Tyla, relied on romantic themes and poetic-type lyrics. Tyla was also a fan of author and renowned drunkard Charles Bukowski. “If Charles Bukowski is the prose and poetry of the whores and junkies and lonely hearts, this is their song and music,” wrote Martin Mathis on his
Dogs D’Amour tribute page. “Lyrics that romanticize the lowlife, the blue, sad and forgotten.”
In the Dynamite Jet Saloon, was the band’s second official release, and was recorded by what is considered The Dogs’ classic line up: Tyla, guitarist Jo “Dog” Almeida, drummer Bam Bam, and bassist Steve James. This would be the album that more or less brought large-scale attention to the Dogs, although the follow up,
A Graveyard of Empty Bottles, would be their best selling.
This line-up lasted two years and three more albums before the band imploded onstage in Los Angeles. Tyla, who had recently split with his wife, slashed his chest with a broken glass bottle and brought an end to the band.
Since that finale, the various members have drifted through various bands, briefly reuniting in 2000 and recording a couple of albums. Tyla has recently toured under the name Tyla and the Dogs D'Amour.
These two songs are the second and third singles, respectively, from
In the Dynamite Jet Saloon.
I Don’t Want You to Go.mp3 How Come It Never Rains.mp3 For more information or for the Dogs’ full story, check out either Tyla’s
MySpace or
Tyla and the Dogs D’Amour.com.
Labels: glam, hair metal, rock
Ratt 'n' Roll
What do you good people think about some hair metal tonight? It’s been months since I posted any; probably since my record player / computer connections went tits up.
I recently found this Ratt EP that was originally issued in 1983. Reportedly it is out-of-print, but thanks to modern science, nothing is too hard to stumble across. That’s the same logic that states that, somewhere on the Internet, a nude picture exists of each one of us.
Moving on.
The
Ratt EP was released independently on Time Coast Records in August 1983. Up until that time, Ratt had been bouncing around the Southern California area, playing bars and clubs, gaining and losing members, and waiting for their break. The EP began to draw attention to the band from outside of So Cal. It contained the song that would help them break, “You Think You're Tough," along with a cover of “Walkin' the Dog.” Ratt's version of the Rufus Thomas hit was a nod to Aerosmith, who had included the song on
their first album. The EP was a success, selling more than a million copies.
On Amazon, “Jessica” wrote a classic review of this album:
I sing the praises of this underrated EP all the time. Ratt's first record is a clumsy masterpiece of treble squall. The rare 1982 Time Coast, NOT the Atlantic remastered sanitized version, is the one truly acceptable version. It is the sound that mapped the Sunset Strip epicenter before it exploded into a moneymaking machine. “Sweet Cheater”, the opening track, is a starved, hectic dirge, barely three minutes long. One of the classic side one, track ones de metal.
Muddy production never sounded so good, and Stephen Pearcy – who is no one’s favorite frontman – for the first and last time in his life, sounds awesome. Dig the neighing guitar duel that closes “U Got It”, and the original version of “Back For More”, with Warren’s 12-string break. Can you even get this record on CD? I have the vinyl (enshrined) and the lamer Atlantic version cassette (half melted and sandy), but I fantasize that some hair head will re-release the Time Coast label version on CD, complete with the original super sexy black and white photo of the young men of Ratt on the back cover.
Awesome stuff.
Sweet Cheater.mp3 Back For More.mp3Walkin’ the Dog.mp3Labels: hair metal
How does this all relate to what we’re doing here today? One of the concerts we watched was a Motley Crue show from last year. During the show we were talking about all the serious shit Motley Crue has done during their nearly 30-year career; from Vince Neil’s car crash that killed Razzle from Hanoi Rocks to filming anti-drug commercials while wasted off their asses. These guys were the epitome of out-of-control rock ‘n’ rollers. Presumably they’ve cleaned up a bit, but they can still bring a sleazy rock show complete with strippers and a crowd of breast-baring women. Musically the band sounded as good as they ever have, with Vince Neil’s voice still standing up to the hair metal falsettos of the Crue’s first album. 
