More Lists, More Opinions

Usually when I talk about a list someone else has written about Glam, it's out of anger. This time I've found a list that's actually decent - and worth sharing!

My friend Carlos Ramirez made a list of the "Ten Great Hair Metal Power Ballads"  for IGN Entertainment.

Cinderella - "(Don't Know What You Got) 'Til It's Gone"
Def Leppard - "Love Bites"
Dokken - "Alone Again"
Europe - "Carrie"
Leatherwolf - "Hideaway"
Motley Crue - "Home Sweet Home"
Poison - "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
Stryper - "Honestly"
Warrant - "I Saw Red"
Whitesnake - "Is This Love"

You can read Carlos' commentary here.

I love a lot of songs on this list, but I would definitely take out the Leatherwolf and replace it with Danger Danger's "Don't Walk Away" and also I'd ditch Stryper for Guns n' Roses "Patience." Other than that, I'd say the list is spot-on. I know most will disagree with the Warrant choice, but I do believe "I Saw Red" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" represent Jani Lane's best writing.

What do you think? 

Black Tide This Weekend!

It's finally concert season, and I have a big weekend ahead of me because I'll be at Rock on the Range. The two-day festival takes place in Columbus, Ohio and features modern Metal bands (Papa Roach, Kid Rock, Stone Temple Pilots, Finger Eleven...you get the idea). There's a lot of stuff on the bill I don't care about seeing, but one band in particular has my attention: Black Tide. A heavy Metal band of mere children, Black Tide formed around 2004 in Miami, Florida.

These guys are a mix of Iron Maiden, Metallica and a touch of Motley Crue. In short, they rule. Their debut album Light From Above kills. Hell, even a hipster magazine like Rolling Stone ran a whole page article on them - I think that's good for Metal. Perhaps not in the sense that Black Tide are a chosen band and therefore accepted - more so that Metal is really making a strong return in popularity.

So, on Sunday I'll be perched at the barrier ready to rock with some teenagers. Well, at least the ones on the stage.

Here's the track listing for Light From Above:

Shockwave
Shout
Warriors Of Time
Give Me A Chance
Let Me
Show Me The Way
Enterprise
Live Fast Die Young
Hit The Lights
Black Abyss
Light From Above
Again

Listen to the album's title track:

If you'd like to know more about Black Tide, visit their website.

Guilty Pleasures?

Why the hell does every "journalist" refer to hair metal (remember: we say Glam) as a guilty pleasure? Guilty pleasure my ass. Here's a quote from a recent Seattle Times article (written by Olga Pierce) on the resurgence of "hair metal":

"'When people realized hair metal was a commodity that would sell, they brought in hair-metal producers, started marketing it, and it got kind of sanitized,' said Steve Peake, author of the 'Guide to '80s Music' on About.com.

Peake, 35, who grew up in North Carolina, remembers the days when it was OK to sport a mullet and your favorite band's T-shirt. He confessed to having a hair-metal song — or two — in his iPod.

'There are certain things in my iPod that make me feel like I have to keep the volume down and the windows closed — hair metal is one of those things,' Peake said. 'It just feels like something you're supposed to be ashamed of.'"

I've got a few words for Steve Peake. If you're lucky enough to be considered an expert on anything, be it Glam, cooking, gardening, painting - you don't run that expertise down in an interview. Yes, the Seattle Times is a big newspaper with an impressive circulation and excellent writers. I don't get why Peake used the opportunity to run down the genre.

I know a thing or seven about journalism. I know that it's easier to run down a subject than report positive news. I also know that people are damn well sick and tired of reading/hearing/watching negative stories all the time. There is some serious news at our doorstep these days, people. Thousands upon thousands dead in China and Burma because of natural disasters. Gas is at a record high, meaning you have to work more hours a day just to afford to get to your job in the first place and the United States is poised to elect a new leader of the free world - and no one seems to care. For this, Seattle Times, I thank you for sparing your column inches on Glam but I kindly deplore your use of negativity at the expense of a beloved genre of music.

What the hell does Guilty Pleasure even mean? Something forbidden?  What is forbidden these days - certainly not music, unless you count theft. I don't consider soap operas, reality television, or romance novels guilty pleasures, either. Too much work goes into making those forms of entertainment. Is chocolate a guilty pleasure? I certainly enjoy chocolate. Sometimes I do feel guilty for eating too much chocolate at one sitting, but the general idea of me enjoying the treat doesn't make me feel bad. I think this means "guilty pleasure" is a worthless phrase and certainly has nothing to do with Glam.

Whatever. I love it, and it's my life. I guess I'll never be quoted in the Seattle Times.

By the way, the entire Seattle Times article is available here.

24 Karat Gold

Do you have any of the semi-rare Mastersound reissue discs produced by Sony around a decade ago? Aerosmith was on Columbia records in the 1970s. Toys in the Attic was originally released in 1975 and years later, Sony put out a reissue as part of the Gold Mastersound series.

What is the Gold Mastersound series? Literally, it's a reissue of high quality sound, pressed onto a 24 karat gold disc. Here's what the packaging says:

"Introducing Mastersound Album Classics from Columbia and Epic Records. Commemorating The Tenth Anniversary of the Compact Disc. Each Mastersound Recording incorporates Sony's Revolutionary 20-Bit "Super Bit Mapping" Process which reproduces music with Unprecedented Clarity and Accuracy. In addition to SBM, each Mastersound Disc features a Pure 24-Karat gold Reflexive Surface."

These discs look as cool as you'd imagine. I mean, you get a sense of holding something valuable, but maybe that's because only the best albums ever recorded were selected for a special gold press.

Some albums besides Toys in the Attic released on 24K gold are:  Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd), Bat Out of Hell (Meatloaf), Blonde on Blonde (Bob Dylan), Pearl (Janis Joplin), Boston (Boston) and tons more. The master recordings were used to create the highest quality sound possible. The 24 karat gold press was a way for Sony/Columbia/Epic to celebrate a decade of the compact disc. The MP3 is way older than a decade already. I don't remember a commemoration celebration for that music milestone...

I am not a sound engineer but I am betting that at least one of my daily readers has earned a paycheck or three by twiddling the knobs in a recording studio. Perhaps that reader can explain to me the beauty of Super Bit Mapping (SBM). Sony owns a trademark on that phrase and this is the technology used to make the gold press discs. I'd love to know the science behind sound mapping.

Back to my gold pressing of Toys in the Attic.  First off, this is one of my favorite albums, so I am bias but I really do believe my gold version sounds primo. The bass on the gold reissue is so much more prominent than the original release. Yes, I know it's probably not fair to compare vinyl to compact disc, but I don't care. We're talking about Aerosmith here, and I want my listening experience as rich as possible.

** Do you own any gold Mastersound discs? 

My favorite song on Toys in the Attic is "No More No More." Here's my beloved Aerosmith performing the song live at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Trust me when I say you need to watch this clip.

I Got New Records!

Holy crap, I own an Odin record. That’s right, I said record, as in vinyl. I’ve been trading emails with a Bring Back Glam! reader for quite awhile now and he thought of me first when it was time to clean the closets and make way for baby. So, this dear soul presented a list of Glam – some of it rare – for me to peruse.

So, a few bucks later and I’ve got a stash of records in great condition. It’s sort of ironic that I now own Don't Take No for an Answer and I’ll be seeing Odin at Rocklahoma in just two months.

There’s no way the band could have known their fate…and I can’t honestly say many people expected to see them pop up at a Glam fest after all these years.

If you don’t remember, Odin is a really heavily featured band in The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. You might recall singer Randy O wore assless chaps. Odin were a big band on the Sunset Strip, and Randy thought they'd be huge. I do feel for them…they watched as everyone around them got signed to a major label…while they played every night at Gazarris. By the way, the newest (or modern?)  incarnation of the band is known as DC4.

I got some other records, too. I now own Roxx Gang Things You’ve Never Done Before and Nitro O.F.R. I also selected the vinyl version of Poison’s Look What the Cat Dragged In and Open Up and Say…Ah!!! Naturally, the latter features the original, banned, cover. Also now part of my vinyl collection is Kix’s self-titled debut as well as Blow My Fuse. Yes!

As many of you know, I am getting into vinyl collecting. This splurge also helped me round out my Motley Crue collection with additions of Dr. Feelgood, Theatre of Pain and Girls, Girls, Girls.

I wish I had more money. My friend had so many records on his list, it was overwhelming to even read. Someday I will have all the best Glam records…oh yes, I will. Until then, I'll enjoy my newest acquisitions and listen in anticipation of concert season. While the chances of me ever seeing Nitro live are slim, I’ll still listen to O.F.R. just in case Jim Gillette jumps onstage with Lita Ford at Rocklahoma.

It’s fun to dream.

Motley Crue Push Release Date, Add Track

Here's the press release I just received from the Motley Crue camp:

"Inspired by the energy and experience of their performance with their Crüe Fest cohorts Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx:A.M. and Trapt at the press conference to announce their upcoming summer tour, Mötley Crüe extended the production for their upcoming CD, returning to the studio this week to record one more track for their first studio album in over a decade, Saints of Los Angeles. The album, which has a new release date of June 24th, follows the story of the band’s NY Times best-selling memoir The Dirt, a no-holds-barred tell-all that features every gritty detail of the group’s exploits as one of the world’s biggest rock bands.

Says Sixx, 'Before our performance at the press conference, we were firing on all cylinders at sound check just jamming out, and that’s when the new idea came. We quickly laid it down and went to the studio to record it, and liked it so much we pushed back the release one week so that we could get it onto the album – it now has 13 tracks. It’s the ultimate song to end the record with and begin the new chapter of our career.'"

I suppose I can deal with another week of waiting. Sigh.

Order a Bring Back Glam! Shirt

A lot of you expressed interest in the possibility of a Bring Back Glam! shirt. I designed one yesterday and now you can place your order.

To the left is the women's version. The male version is a black shirt, with white writing and a pink heart outline. Yes, real men wear pink! The male version is a traditional T-shirt cut, and the ladies option is a baby-doll style.

The shirts are $18 each and that includes all applicable taxes and domestic U.S. shipping. If you live outside the continental U.S. shipping is ten bucks more.

If you want a shirt, send an email to allyson@bringbackglam.com. You'll need to specify quantity, style and the size remembering that ladies baby-doll style shirts run exceptionally small. I'll take payment via PayPal to allysonbcrawford@yahoo.com.

Feel free to email me with any and all questions. Also: it will take a couple weeks to receive your shirt - each one is made by hand right here in America! Hooray!

**I'll make this a permanent link near the Message Board for easy access and reference.