In the Name of Glam...

I'll be the first to admit I do some really quirky things in the name of Glam. I'm sure some find these "quirks" endearing while others can't be bothered with my insanity.

A list of my biggest (and most recent) Glam quirks:

01. I had my toenails painted Poison green. It's hard to tell by the adjacent photo, but please believe, the green is definitely of the Poison variety. I'm pretty sure even the nail salon owners were impressed (amused?) by my color choice. Shock of shocks, the bottle of polish was completely full as if I was the first person to ever want Poison green toes...

02. Speaking of Poison green...I forced my husband to paint our newly renovated basement this color. Ok, so I cut the color with a tamer lime and used the Poison green as an accent, but still: I have a Poison green bar. In my basement. So Glam.

03. I spent 45 minutes the other day looking at vanity plates for my car. Glam was taken (damnit!) but I'm pretty sure I can come up with a suitable variation for my little car. It's the time of year when I have to renew a tag *and* get a new license, so I might as well get a vanity plate while I'm enjoying conversation with the pleasant people at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

04. My husband just built me a writer's office. When it came time to paint, he asked what I wanted and I said "Bring Back Glam!" pink. Guess what? That's the exact color I've got. Like Poison, I believe in sticking with your brand and boy am I dedicated to pink.

05. I wear rhinestone skull earrings to work. This tends to (still) confuse quite a lot of people. From far away it appears I'm wearing boring old earrings. A closer look reveals an angry skull and crossbones. The earrings say "Yeah, buddy in cubicle 4356, I'm looking at you and I don't mess around." On days when subtly alludes me I wear giant hoop skull earrings and some sort of rhinestone top.

06. I quote random Glam lyrics in normal work conversation. This humors me to no end. Naturally no one usually understands the joke, but that's alright. I am a fan of cheap entertainment and I'm easily amused. "No boss, the other team didn't get that report done and we're not gonna take it!" I giggle to myself and all is right with the world.

07. I try to play songs way out of my league on my bass because damnit, I'm a Glam musician! The practice sessions usually end with me completely frustrated and then returning to the homework assigned by my bass teacher. Is it so wrong that I want to play a little Megadeth at the end of a long day? The really quirky part is that I have a tendency to pick the hardest songs of a band's catalog to learn. I get frustrated, my husband gets frustrated, chaos ensues and I never learn the damn song. The next morning, I wake up and think "Today I'll play 'Primal Scream' on the first try."

08. Quirky is my middle name when it comes to sweets. You see, I am a junk food lover. Pass, I'm an addict. I'll admit it. My name is Allyson and I am addicted to junk food. Often, when I'm standing in front of the long freezers at the grocery, I stare blankly at the ice cream cartons and think "these flavors should have Glammer names." Like Quiet Nut Riot Sundae or Lynam Licorice or Stairway to Rocky Road Heaven. You get the idea.

09. I make up false words and phrases in the name of Glam. I did it above with "Glammer." Or at least I think I did. As in, which of these bands is Glammer? Or, "Glam gracious" or "Glam goodness."

10. At random times of the day I'll think "I wonder what David Coverdale is doing right now."

Yeah. I'm certifiable. Please tell me you also do quirky things in the name of Glam.  

Listen While You Work?

You've heard of whistling while your work...but what about listening?

While I was slowly dying, er...sitting, in my cubicle at work yesterday it dawned on me that I could hear several different radio stations at one time.  The administrative assistant assigned to my corner of the floor was listening to country on a local station and the woman across the way was listening to a CD through her computer. The noise wasn't loud. In fact, I find it sort of normalizing. I don't trust office spaces that are quiet. I truly believe there must be at least a little noise as proof work is actually happening.

Looking back on my career path, I can safely say that listening to music was allowed at every job I've ever held. Of course, I didn't ask about the music policy upfront, I've always just pulled out my headphones and listened. 

I've noticed a pattern when I'm listening to my iPod at work: I tend to pick one album in the morning and just listen on repeat all day. I can't explain this, except that at this point the music really is just background noise because I'm concentrating on work and the stuff I write at my day job is about as far away from Glam as you can get.

My work listening goes in moods, too. Toward the end of my time at the TV station, I was listening to the Heroin Diaries soundtrack for about five hours each day. I love the Heroin Diaries and think it's one of the best albums of this decade...but man, it can be a downer if you're already depressed!

Here lately I've been listening to Avenged Sevenfold's Waking the Fallen a lot at work for the aggressive tempo and kick ass guitar work. Saints of Los Angeles is now at the top of the rotation to help me shut out corporate life.

Here's a funny aside: one of my coworkers who is quite high-up the food chain came to me for some help writing a communication. I had in my earbuds and iPod and the coworker leaned over to see what I was listening to, which happened to be "Dr. Feelgood." His remark "Don't you think you're a little young for Motley Crue?" I cackled a little and said "You have no idea." He looked confused. I digress.

Anyway, I think music really does motivate at work. I can understand if an employer has a headphones only policy, as too many different types of music blaring can create office confusion. Still, giving employees a little music during their day can surely boost morale.

Hell, even Milton Waddams is allowed two hours of music in the morning while collating at Initech. 

Do you listen to music while you work?

Speaking of Milton Waddams, here's my favorite scene from Office Space.

Saints of Los Angeles: The Bring Back Glam! Album Review

Motley Crue are back with their first album featuring all the original members in over a decade. Saints of Los Angeles (Motley/Eleven Seven Records)  features 13 tracks loosely aligned to the 2001 band autobiography The Dirt and tells the story of Motley's rise (and fall) in the L.A. Glam scene. Track list:

L.A.M.F.
Face Down in the Dirt
What's It Gonna Take
Down at the Whisky
Saints of Los Angeles
Muther Fucker of the Year
The Animal in Me
Welcome to the Machine
Just Another Psycho
Chicks = Trouble
This Ain't a Love Song
White Trash Circus
Goin' Out Swingin'

Saints of Los Angeles (henceforth SOLA) is a mixed bag, but overall the hits outweigh the misses.

The album opens with "L.A.M.F.," a spoken word dialogue courtesy Vince Neil in the same vein as "In the Beginning" from Shout at the Devil. Here the introduction is less than effective and actually falls in the annoying category. Deleting this track would probably make the album stronger.

The first half of the album is fairly strong, chronicling the band's struggle to rise from gutter trash to multi millionaires.  "Face Down in the Dirt" is  decent and "Saints of Los Angeles" is fabulous.  Quite frankly, "Saints of Los Angeles" is in an entirely different league when compared to the rest of the songs the new album. There's something sonically different about this track. The sound is so rich, so strong and so Motley. The guitar work coupled with superior lyrics make "Saints of Los Angeles" one of the best songs in Motley's deep catalog.

"What's It Gonna Take" and  "Down at the Whisky" are fairly weak compared to some of the other songs on SOLA. Next to "Saints of Los Angeles" my favorite new track is "Muther Fucker of the Year." I can't quite explain why I love this song so much, but it probably has something to do with the repetitive chorus or Vince's nasally whine. Whatever the case, I listened to this song about 17 times on repeat. It's true, I can't get enough! I also really dig "Welcome to the Machine,"  "Just Another Psycho" and "This Ain't a Love Song."

While SOLA has some damn strong tracks, there are plenty of stinkers. "Chicks = Trouble" is pretty bad. In fact, it's my least favorite track on SOLA. I listened to the album from start to finish three times before making any real judgements, but after that time I found myself skipping "Chicks = Trouble." The lyrics make me cringe and the actual music is pretty bad too. Also a downer is "White Trash Circus." The lyrics are not as heinous as "Chicks = Trouble" but the track lacks anything special. If there's nothing special about the song, there's no reason to listen.

There's no true ballad here and I think that's a wise move. "The Animal in Me" has a slower tempo and thus provides a natural thematic break between songs.

Is SOLA Motley Crue's best effort? No, but it does have a certain sound quality that is reminiscent of the Dr. Feelgood era. Some of the lyrics on SOLA are just a little strained and that comes out pretty clear. The difference is that this time, Nikki Sixx and company are looking back on history instead of writing in the moment. History and memories change our perception. Struggling financially at the time is pretty tough but can seem a little romantic after a certain level of success is achieved. I suspect Nikki looked back on his early Sunset Strip days with a hazy fondness and wrote what came to his mind which of course is sex, drugs and rock n' roll.

The downlow? Buy this album. Even with a couple bad tracks, it's a strong effort from a classic Glam band.

The Cost of Free Downloads

Downloading (or file sharing or whatever) is a hot topic among music fans these days. I know a lot of people that use Torrents to grab tracks and even whole albums, but I am just really against illegal downloads.

I won't lie: the thought of downloading leaked tracks for free and before an official release is downright intoxicating. I didn't illegally download Motley Crue's Saints of Los Angeles even though it's been on the Internet for about a month. I think there is something truly special about waiting until the day of a big release, going to the store, buying the physical album and then letting the music blast all the way home. I know many of you can attest to my honesty here: a lot of you have sent me download links or asked my opinion of the album and my response was always "wait until the day of the release." I'll review Motley Crue's new one right here tomorrow, after listening to my advance copy (and yeah, I pre-ordered a copy too, so Motley got my money).

I know kids like to download because 1) it's free and 2) it's quick. The problem is, Torrents and the like are basically stealing. No, you're not throwing a brick through a big glass window at the bank and robbing the safe, but you're still hurting the artist and everyone else who worked on producing an album.

There is no way in HELL that I would work without getting paid, so how can I rob someone else of their salary? Yes, bands like Motley Crue, Aerosmith, Guns n' Roses, Metallica, The Rolling Stones...are filthy rich, but that doesn't make file sharing acceptable. Producers, sound engineers, publicists, managers, writers, gear techs - not to mention distributors and and your local music store - all get a piece of the pie when a band records an album. When sales fall off - sometimes due to downloads or a million other reasons - everyone involved suffers. Problem is, that lost revenue comes right back to you and me. Promoters set ticket prices for tours, but with the sky high cost of just about everything, bands need a surefire way to guarantee money. It's a vicious cycle because kids think they'll download an album, then spend their money on the concert. The only problem is, if not enough people buy an album, it's kind of hard to generate hype and that can hurt shows, too.

The music industry is fatally flawed, there's no doubt about that. I'm also not judging people for downloading songs without payment, but I felt it was important for you to know my stance on the issue. I've always been "choosy" when it comes to purchasing albums. When I was in high school, I bought nearly all my own CDs, so I couldn't go to the mall and pick up five or ten discs at a time. My rule was one CD a week, so I made sure I really wanted the album before I plunked down my 15 bucks. Now, I have more money but I'm still the same way: I think about my music purchases and I buy used if I can meaning I can get more in one trip. I can't say what position I'd take on downloading if I was 16 again. Like I said, the thought of immediate, free music is very intoxicating.

What is your opinion on the matter?

Band Tattoos

Heather and I went to a local water park yesterday. She got too much sun and my eyes are still running from chlorine but it was all worthwhile. During one of the many trips around the lazy river we talked about tattoos. This is a normal conversation and we both want a tattoo...except we're afraid of the lifetime commitment. Or at least that's my problem.

I actually want two tattoos - (and right now, my mom is reading this and freaking out. Hi mom!) - one on my wrist and another somewhere else, but not on the small of my back and not one of my ankles. I don't want a tribal symbol or a rose or a heart or a unicorn. Nope, I want band logos specifically Motley Crue and Avenged Sevenfold.

I want the A7X deathbat on my wrist and some sort of Motley tattoo somewhere that makes sense. It all depends on the design. Anyway, as I was floating around the lazy river I got to thinking about band tattoos and wondered how many of my regular readers are branded  by Glam?

I think tattoos of a band name or logo is about as diehard as you can get. It's one thing to travel around the world to see a band perform ...but when you give a piece of your body to someone else's craft, that's adoration.

A lot of people had band tattoos on the Motley Cruise. Some of the body art was small and others had giant pieces that probably cost thousands and looked awfully  painful.

I know some people say "why would you tattoo someone else's band on your body?" but I say why not if that music has brought you a lifetime of happiness. The real quest is to design a completely original tattoo encompassing the band name or logo. Then you've got your creative side plus the music you love, all in one piece of art. As you can tell, I'm not close to making that commitment just yet. We'll say I'm stuck in the "dreaming" phase.

Do you have any band tattoos?

Motley Crue on Larry King Live

Last night, Motley Crue appeared on CNN's Larry King Live. Surprisingly, the appearance turned into 18 minutes of quality television. I say surprisingly because I find Motley and Larry King an odd fit, but they've done the dance before and this time around the interview was even better.

I was hoping for an entire hour dedicated to Motley, but we take what we can get when it comes to Glam. As expected, Larry asked about CrueFest and the band's history. The show was edited nicely, with a Motley billboard and banner and featured video clips going in and out of breaks.

Larry also asked Tommy about getting back together with Pam (again!) but he dodged the question.  

There were not many fan questions (via email, phone or video), but someone did ask about The Dirt movie. The stock answer: it will be released soon. Just yesterday, Motley Crue announced they were looking for new partners because Paramount wasn't getting the job done.

The biggest revelation was that Vince classified Motley Crue as a "pop" act to which Mick Mars immediately corrected him, saying "We're a rock band." I must admit, that answered floored me. This stunned me because Motley doesn't want anything to do with Glam, but I guess pop is O.K.

For me, the best part of the show was actually a CNN error. Lewis Black was on after Motley Crue and one of the video questions for Lewis was inserted in the Motley segment. So, the CNN viewer asks if gay marriage should be allowed all over the country. Nikki immediately says "That was a good question. It should be!" Good for you Nikki. I agree.

The entire Motley Crue interview is below, divided into three pieces.

Vince Neil Book Deal

My friend Scott over at Slushpile.net just sent me an email about Vince Neil. Apparently Vince just signed a book deal.   

Here's what Slushpile reports, via Publishers Marketplace:

Motley Crue frontman and lead singer Vince Neil's LEWD, CRUED, AND HEAVILY TATTOOED, telling the unfiltered story from the band's most controversial member, including the real reason for their initial breakup, the impact of his daughter's death, and changing band dynamics, in addition to all the insane stories of rock'n'roll excess, to Ben Greenberg at Grand Central, in a major deal, at auction, by Kirby Kim and David Vigliano at Vigliano Associates (World).

Slushpile also says the deal is worth at least $500,000.  

No word when the book will hit store shelves. Remember, Motley Crue will appear tonight on Larry King Live  (CNN).