Best Christmas Video - Ever!

Also the best Christmas song.

Wham! "Last Christmas."

Last Christmas - Wham - Georg Michael

No Matter the Season, Aerosmith Owns You

As many of you know, Aerosmith is my favorite band. Guitarist Joe Perry recently recorded his version of the Chuck Berry classic "Run Rudolph Run." Anywho, I came across a clip of Joe singing the song in his own studio "The Boneyard." Joe's studio is amazing! I guess being a famous multi-gazillionaire can buy you the best in recording equipment.

Watch the clip below.

Putting this post up made me want to listen to Aerosmith, so I pulled up Rocks on my iPod. I truly believe Rocks is the single best hard rock album ever recorded. Holy Glam masterpiece, no matter how many times I listen to "Nobody's Fault" I get goose bumps. Bloody wonderful is Joe Perry's guitar work - and the lyrics, oh my, the lyrics! Pure. Music. Genius.

And...just for the pure heck of it, here's "Sweet Emotion." Easily the band's best video.

Oh yeah, Aerosmith owns Hinder too. If you don't believe me...just ask my very hot male friends that run Metal Sucks.

Giving "Balls to the Wall" Another Shot

Today's post is just for my friend Christian. He's a regular here. He was with me at Rocklahoma and some of you met him. He knows more about Metal than anyone I've ever met. He also sent me a very thoughtful Christmas gift. In honor of that gift, I've decided to give Accept another shot. See, Christian, Christmas really does come early to good little Metal boys and girls!

Truth be told, I don't really like Accept. I despise the song "Balls to the Wall" and this baffles Christian. It might baffle you too, but I just don't get the song. Now, I'm not denying Accept's place in Metal history. I'm also not denying Udo Dirkschneider's ability when it comes to singing. And, no matter how much I dislike "Balls to the Wall," Accept will never suck as much as Hinder. Actually, I feel dirty even mentioning Hinder and Accept in the same sentence. Anyway, I've decided to give both Accept and "Balls to the Wall" a second chance. Perhaps Christian will then give George Michael a fair shake.

All this taken into account, I'll admit I'd like to see Accept live. I think seeing the band in action would make me appreciate the songs more. Perhaps a few more reunion shows (with the classic lineup), maybe a U.S. festival or two? Who knows? At any rate, here's "Balls to the Wall" live in Japan, sometime back in the day.

Ron Keel - The Bring Back Glam! Interview

Just weeks ago, Keel announced they were ready to reunite after decades of silence. Vocalist Ron Keel talks with Bring Back Glam! about that reunion, playing festivals and working with Gene Simmons. Transcription follows.

Bring Back Glam!: Tell me how the reunion got rolling.

Ron Keel: The band members always remained really good friends, unlike so many other bands of the same genre. We always stayed in touch. Every year, I’d get together with the guys and we’d talk about how cool it would be to do a reunion. Unlike most of our contemporaries, Keel hasn’t been playing regularly. Even though the band is named after my last name and I had every right and ability to form a new version and keep going, I didn’t feel it was right without the original guys. I always thought of Keel as a band in every sense of the word. There’s a real camaraderie and brotherhood in the true sense of the word with all the guys and I’m really glad I held out. So, we’ve always talked about it and the last couple of years, things have changed in the industry to make this possible. Festivals are a big thing. Most bands – even ones with platinum records – were playing small clubs for 200 or 300 people and now with the festivals the last couple of years you can get out there and do it right. You can get on the big stage, play in front of thousands with a big production and do it right. That was certainly a large part of making this happen. Having a great time behind us and with us is also a big factor. We were determined we wouldn’t do this unless we could do it right and the timing makes it a milestone: 25 years since the release of the Right to Rock album and 20 years since the band has played on stage together. This just seems like the right time to get out there, celebrate the music, great times, friendships and play for people that want to hear it.

BBG!: So, what really caused the Keel break-up?

RK: The truth is, after several albums and not getting over the hump – we had a lot of success, we toured the world, sold a lot of records, were on the covers of magazines - but we never achieved the level of success of bands like Motley Crue and RATT. After three records, people started pointing fingers and demanded “Why isn’t it happening for us?” Well, it’s a lot of things: it’s the record company, the choice of single, the difficulty of getting on a big tour. That’s what I attribute to the difficulty of getting over the hump. We had a short time with Bon Jovi. This was great, it was the last leg of the Slippery When Wet tour. Cinderella had 300-some dates, we had 20-some dates. We were scheduled to tour with Metallica when the bus accident happened and Cliff Burton died and that tour was cancelled. There were other factors that lead to us never being on a big tour for a long length of time. A lot of bands were not receptive to taking us on the road for them. Bon Jovi did. We opened for Van Halen at the Texas Jamm and also for Aerosmith at their big reunion show when Brad Whitford and Joe Perry rejoined the band in Massachusetts – big stadium show. You start to wonder what is going wrong and you second guess yourself and you begin to have differences. [Guitarist] Marc Ferrari left to form his own band Cold Sweat and Keel just wasn’t the same after that. Bryan left the band...it sort of feel apart. I could have plugged in new players and kept going but I just didn’t feel it was right. So, we never really “broke-up” more like one piece of the puzzle fell away and it was never the same again. I’m glad I pulled the plug at the time and didn’t beat a dead horse.

BBG!: Tell me why you think other bands didn’t want to take Keel on the road.

RK: I don’t want to toot our own horn or brag or anything. We had a tour booked with Motley Crue. You know, tickets printed, posters made, the whole deal. Well, anyway, Motley took us [on the] Girls, Girls, Girls tour. But in 1985, Nikki Sixx came to see us open for Queensryche in San Diego. The next day we were off the tour. Keel took great pride in a big stage show. We have guitar solos, choreographed moves. You could take away all the bells and whistles, give us two feet of stage room and we could still snuff a lot of those bands. You know, Gene Simmons was one of those. Gene was a big proponent of Keel, he produced two albums and was a big supporter, but he wouldn’t put us on before KISS. The Metallica tour would have been a great break. We were going to be the opening act the entire tour. The worst thing that could happen did – the bus crash, Cliff died, the tour was cancelled. All we can do is make good music, have fun and try to do the best we can. We just never had the opportunity to do a protracted arena tour. Probably in the whole history of Keel we only did 60 or 70 arena shows. We were the eternal opening act for bands like Krokus, Accept...bands that had a lot of push behind them but were playing smaller venues. Unless you can get out there every night and play arenas in front of 15 or 20 thousand people, not enough people will hear about you to buy your records, enabling us to achieve the level of success we wanted to achieve.

BBG!: Tell me about working with Gene Simmons

RK: Working with him as a producer was absolutely incredible. We got a record deal really fast. Everything happened really fast for Keel. I put the band together in March, we played our first gig in April to a sellout crowd in Los Angeles and by summertime we were in the studio recording our first album. Before the sessions were even done, the management called us back to showcase for the major labels because there was a lot of interest. By the end of those three days, we had a deal. The record company wanted to move quickly to get a record out in January. The label put a list of producers in front of me and it had all the hot cats on the list and one name stood out was Gene Simmons. I thought “That’s the guy! I want to meet Gene. “ The record label set up a meeting.  I met him at the Beverly Hills Hotel. We (Keel) didn’t even have anything good to play for Gene except the demo of the “The Right to Rock.” We’d just made that tape as a warm up in the studio – it didn’t even have a vocal track. I put the tape in Gene’s boom box and I just got in his face and started screaming the song. He’s looking at me and I’m singing to Gene right in his hotel room. All of a sudden he just leaned over, hit “stop” and said “I’m going to produce this record and we’re going to start next Tuesday.” We had to work around Gene’s touring schedule with KISS. We were thrust in the studio very quickly – Gene was with us for the first couple of years. He was a great help, both in and out of the studio. As a producer, Gene is very underrated. He knows all about songs: the chords, harmony, melody, arrangements... he was very instrumental in shaping our identity and our sound. Off stage, having his name associated with Keel certainly didn’t hurt. He had – and still has – a lot of power and muscle in the business. He fought hard for us. Gene did everything in his power to help us. All of a sudden, the floodgates were opening: the tour, the media, the fan response, the record was on MTV and radio and we were off on one hell of a ride

BBG!: Will Keel play any summer festivals?

RK: I hope. I think we’re tailor made for these festivals. I know for a fact that we can sell tickets. I did an appearance at Rocklahoma last year on a side stage. The response from the fans was overwhelming. There were people there from Japan, the U.K., Australia; they all brought their Keel records and memorabilia for me to sign. They wanted to meet me, shake my hand, take a photograph – it was overwhelming. I know Keel can sell tickets and entertain those people. You put us on a stage, we’ll put on a show and entertain those people and that’s what it’s all about. We want to play as many of the big festivals as possible. I’ve already seen the response. I went on the Rock Gone Wild message board and saw the fans asking for Keel. We didn’t encourage this. After I saw this, I thought “This is great!" I don’t know these people, but they are on the message boards, blogs and emails asking for Keel. This is special. Keel isn’t a band you’ve seen the last 20 years. This will be a special event every time Keel hits the stage. We’d like to do all the festivals. We’ve got our first reunion show January 31^st and after that, we’ll do some shows in select markets: Vegas, Phoenix, a couple New York shows, Columbus (Ohio), Nashville, Detroit...and I’m not sure where else. We’d like to go to Europe and Japan and we’d like to do it right. We’ll see what 2009 holds for us.

BBG!: What can fans expect to hear when Keel plays live?

RK: You’re absolutely going hear all the hits. We had five major hit songs: “The Right to Rock,” “Tears of Fire,” “Somebody’s Waiting,” “Rock n’ Roll Outlaw” and “Because the Night.” There’s no way you’ll leave a Keel show without hearing those songs. There are some that fans have demanded through the years that were not singles or hits. Especially "I Said the Wrong Thing to the Right Girl." We’re going to give it to them...something from each album. We have six records and there will be something from each record. At festivals, you’re on stage for 40 minutes and you don’t have time to do all the tunes. We’re going to do medleys – a verse, chorus, solo. It’s an entertaining way to include as much material as possible.

Photo credit: Keel official website.No copyright assumed.

The Worst Albums of 2008

Next weekend I'll post my picks for "the best of 2008."

The list below represents what I consider crap. No, it's not ten, but these are top of mind and what I just don't like despite the hype, Rolling Stone coverage...and your comments.

Metallica - Death Magnetic

   Nowhere near as good as Chinese Democracy. Deal with it.

Linkin Park - Live from SoHo

  I generally just hate this band and all their music.

White Lion - Return of the Pride

  Horrible songs and bad production.

Dokken - Lightning Strikes Again

 See above.

Def Leppard - Songs from the Sparkle Lounge

Hinder - Take It To the Limit

I couldn't pick a single "worst" album if I had to because both the Hinder and Def Leppard discs are just so equally bad. Actually, if someone was pointing a can of hairspray at my head and threatened to spray, I'd probably pick  Songs from the Sparkle Lounge as the absolute worst. I tried to like the album. I gave it a chance. I didn't give it a horrible review because I was sure the disc would grow on me. Hearing the new songs live only further proved how much I detest Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. When you get right down to it the album is just plain...sucky.  No, I didn't expect Def Leppard to recreate Pyromania...but I didn't expect to be wishing for a refund after I purchased the new album either. Woof! What a dog.

ClassxRadio - Listen!

My friend JT has a killer radio show called Hard Rock Nights. The show airs Saturday nights (tonight!) at 9-11 p.m. eastern. JT plays all sorts of songs we love...while reflecting his own unique taste in Glam and Metal.

Oh, and JT takes requests, so feel free to click the links and send him some song suggestions.

Last week, JT played songs from Bon Jovi, Lita Ford, Joe Satriani and Trixter [and no Hinder]. I don't know what he's got planned for tonight, but I bet it's good. Be sure to tune in and give him some Glam love.

Damone!

You wish you were as cool as Damone.

The band has sweet guitar riffs, heavy bass lines and a chick singer! Make that a chick singer with dark hair.

Damone formed a couple years ago around Boston. After some hard work they ended up on the Island label. I have to say I found Damone by a fluke. I was clicking through Myspace pages. Click, click, click until I come upon someone or something I don't know. The band had a song featured on Madden 2007 which helped make them sort of famous. (I looked that up by the way. I never play video games). They've had some songs on soundtracks too...and I imagine they are popular with the kiddies.

Anyway, I bought the album Out Here All Night, featuring the song "Outta My Way" which Damone wrote about Poison. Not every Damone song is overtly Glam. There's alternative and nu-metal here too. Some other tracks I dig on Out Here All Night are "You're the One" and "What We Came Here For."

The main thing is that the songs just don't suck. I can't be any more blunt than that. Quite frankly, I'm sick of music sounding the same. It's like with every new album I feel like I've heard it all before. Maybe that's just what happens after you've listened to so much music. At any rate, discovering Damone was an unlikely lifeline. I'll take Damone over a lot of bands any day - and yeah, that sure as hell includes the posers Hinder.

Here's "Out Here All Night"

Here's "What We Came Here For" (live)

Photo credit: Via Damone Myspace. No copyright assumed.