Twisted Sister Push Release Date

The release date for the 25th-anniversary reissue of TWISTED SISTER's "Stay Hungry" album has been pushed back one week to June 30 from the previously announced June 23. The set will feature loads of bonus material, including one brand new track, "30", that the band recently recorded.

The package includes:

* "Stay Hungry" remastered
* Ten never-before-heard songs originally demoed for "Stay Hungry"
* Five early demos of songs from "Stay Hungry"
* One brand new song
* One rare radio spot using "SMF" as the music bed

"Stay Hungry" bonus tracks:

* "Death From Above"
* "Prime Motivator"
* "Were Not Gonna Take It"
* "Death Run"
* "This One's For You"
* "SMF"
* "We're Coming On"
* "Call My Name"
* "Burn In Hell"
* "Pay The Price"
* "What's Love Without You"
* "Our Voice Will Be Heard"
* "You've Got To Fight"
* "The Price"
* "Stay Hungry"
* "30"

Twisted Sister will play many festivals this summer, including Rocklahoma.

[Via Blabbermouth]

Festival Alert: Margarita Rocks!

Promoters are going Glam-crazy in the U.S. this summer! 

The one day fest is called Margarita Rocks and is slated for May 2 in Laredo, Texas. That's right - this one day event is coming up fast!

Trixter, L.A. Guns (Phil's Version), Jani Lane, Firehouse, Great White, Dokken, Skid Row and Ratt will perform.

Best news of all? The event is for charity! That's right: a $40 pre-sale ticket gets you all day Glam and benefits the Laredo Firefighters Association. Who doesn't want to help out firefighters?!

Oh yeah, also planned is a margarita tasting competition. As a random aside, my new favorite drink is a blackberry margarita on the rocks. At any rate, you can click here for more information and to order tickets.

If I lived down in Texas, I'd definitely attend this event. If you go, order a blackberry margarita and think of me while you flash the devil horns to our favorite tunes.

[Thanks to dedicated BBG! reader Eddy Garcia for the tip!]

Vince Neil Attends American Idol Taping; Adam Lambert Shines; Hug a Tree

It’s hard to believe but Carrie Underwood’s version of “Home Sweet Home” has outsold the original. Yep. Carrie has moved more units of the American Idol farewell song than our Motley Crue boys.

Amazing.

"Home Sweet Home" is on Theatre of Pain and has been available for purchase for more than two decades. Carrie’s version has been out on iTunes a couple months. Don’t shoot the messenger, kids. This news come via Blabbermouth, who snatched it from the New York Post ...who lifted it from Nielsen Soundscan. Whew! According to Nielsen, Carrie’s version has sold 211,000 digital copies to 181,000 of the original. (Digital being the key to all of this).

Mock American Idol all you want. Vince Neil was live in the audience last night. He was smiling and it looked like he was having a great time. I was excited when I saw him and his wife! I wish there was more time in the broadcast – I feel like Ryan Seacrest could have interviewed Vince.

I can’t help but wonder – with the power of American Idol – could any remade Motley tune that is featured on the show be a massive hit? I think so. A Motley Crue themed night would be great! I might be the only person in America excited – but I’d be so happy; I’d roll around on the floor a little bit, flashing the devil horns. The cheesier the better, baby!

As per usual, Adam Lambert was great. No, he didn’t sing a rock song this week. The theme was disco and he took a fast song and made it a ballad. I know, he’s genius. My beloved Adam sang "If I Can't Have You." It just proved once again that he can sing anything. I’m holding out hope for that Glam power ballad. When that happens - you’ll hear me screech.

Oh, and since we’re talking about Adam Lambert – watch the little promo Fox made him record for earth day. That’s right, it’s earth day, so go hug a tree, recycle and carpool.

Is Dynasty...Disco?

It’s disco night on American Idol! Naturally, my mind immediately went to Kiss and the album Dynasty. The big hit from Dynasty is "I Was Made for Lovin' You" - and it sure sounds disco to me! After all, the album did come out in 1979 - and the 70s were all about the platform shoes and leisure suits.

Now, I'll be honest, "I Was Made for Lovin' You" is one of my favorite Kiss songs - but I like disco. I can see how some members of the Kiss Army might be turned off by Dynasty. It's true many of the album's other tracks never get performed live...and none are nearly as strong as "I Was Made for Lovin' You."

Ok, I'll come clean...*takes deep breath.* Dynasty is my favorite Kiss album after Lick It Up. Yep. 'Tis true. I like my Kiss Glammy, with a side of cheese.

You know, I'm sure Kiss took a lot of criticism for experimenting with disco, but I've got to give them credit: at least back in the day the band was willing to take risks to gain new fans. After all, new fans = more money. Gene Simmons does love money.

A very big part of me hopes Adam Lambert sings "I Was Made for Lovin' You" tonight on American Idol, but the song probably isn't technically challenging enough for a singing competition (and some spoiler site says he's singing Blondie). Oh well. A Glam girl can dream.

Holy Cow! by Billy Sheehan: The Bring Back Glam! Album Review

There’s really no denying that Billy Sheehan is one of the best musicians alive today. In fact, he may be the best electric bassist of all time. Though his career, Billy had played with a variety of bands, including Mr. Big, Talas and David Lee Roth. Now, Billy is back with a solo record which also happens to feature Billy Gibbons, Paul Gilbert and Ray Luzier.

Holy Cow! (Mascot) mixes instrumental pieces with more traditional rock songs. All told, Holy Cow! stands to be one of the best releases of 2009, for both quality of writing and complexity of guitar work.

I recently interviewed Billy for Noisecreep and we discussed both Holy Cow! and the upcoming Mr. Big reunion. Of the new album title, Billy says “I was surprised it wasn’t already an album title. I Googled it and I thought ‘Man, you mean this is ripe for the plucking?’ I love the phrase, use it a lot and I like the idea that it is related to a sacred cow and the idea something that is untouchable. The rest of the world, we look at a cow as something not very sacred at all, so there’s a kind of dichotomy there. Other factor – I called a friend of mine up and I said ‘You’ll never guess who I got to play on my record.’ He said ‘Who’ and I replied ‘Billy Gibbons’ and he went ‘Holy Cow!’ So that settled it and that’s how I named the record.”

The track listing for Holy Cow!:

01. In A Week Or Two (I'll Give It Back To You)
02. Dynamic Exhilarator
03. A Lit'l Bit'l Do It To 'Ya Ev'ry Time
04. A Bloodless Casualty
05. Make It To Another Day (I Keep Rolling On My Way)
06. Another Broken Promise
07. Just Another Humanoid
08. Turning Point
09. Two People Can Keep A Secret (If One Of Them Is Dead)
10. Theme From An Imaginary Science Fiction
11. Cell Towers
12. Swimming Underwater

All told, my favorite two songs on Holy Cow! are “In A Week Or Two (I'll Give It Back To You)” and “A Lit'l Bit'l Do It To 'Ya Ev'ry Time.” The latter features Billy Gibbons and sounds just like ZZ Top. Sheehan’s voice is great on this album. To be honest, I did a double-take at the liner notes just to confirm it was Sheehan doing the singing duties. On Holy Cow!, his voice sounds more focused and strong than in past efforts. This mixes well with the heavy guitar work.

There’s no doubt: if you like bass, guitars, Billy Sheehan, Mr. Big and ZZ Top, you need to buy Holy Cow!. Sure, there are instrumentals here that you might not always spin for a head banging Saturday night...but they might do while nursing a hangover on Sunday morning.

You can buy Holy Cow! now on iTunes.

It's Sunday! It's Slipknot! It's Sulfur!

Slipknot has a new video for "Sulfur." The tune happens to just be my favorite from the 2008 album All Hope is Gone. I bloody cannot wait to see this band live next month at Rock on the Range. I know the crowd will be rowdy - and I'll be ready.

Blame it on the Critics!

I think about the comments on this website and others – and it seems that the majority people are not what I call “cross-over” listeners. That is, listeners tend to really like one genre of music and not much else. Sure, there are exceptions. I listen to quite a bit of different styles of music and I know that’s the case for many of you that read this site. Still, there are people that are “Metal or die!” or even “Opera or nothing.”

Sometimes critics – especially the famous ones that get paid a lot of write for Rolling Stone – help fuel that music divide. Sure, we all have our preferences and favorites, but sometimes I’m even turned off by a band or genre because of what a critic wrote. If a band is immediately compared to another act I despise, that pretty much does it for me. I suppose that’s a shame, really.

I mention all this out of my Eminem posting from a few days back. I wrote that I didn’t like the song (I did, in fact, call it “crap”) but perhaps that was misconstrued. See, I don’t like modern rap – but late 80s and 90s rap is another story. There was a time in which I was a big rap/R&B fan – because about a decade ago, I felt like those sorts of songs didn’t all sound cookie cutter. Today, I have a problem with rap for many reasons, usually because I can’t understand the words and the lyrics are just not smart.

To its credit, Rolling Stone does review a diverse mix of genres – but it’s still usually by acts that are 1) really famous or 2) really hip.

Back in the 80s, Glam was mocked, mocked and mocked some more. I’ve never quite understood that, except that maybe critics couldn’t get past androgyny and staring at men in makeup, shredding a guitar. So while Rolling Stone and their contemporaries back in 1987 were reviewing Motley Crue, they were also praising Bruce Springsteen and U2. Maybe if it wasn’t even intentional, those critics sort of created a rift in the music scene: a “line-in-the-sand” if you will that separated the Glam Metallers from the so-called "smarter" rockers.

Perhaps we should all just be a little more open minded with our music selections?