One More Reason

It's nice and overcast here in Ohio and the thunder is rolling, and that means nap potential is at a premium. I slept in longer than normal today, but I've been flat exhausted and I never catch much rest during the week.

I have big plans to clean my house today and Eric will continue to work on our (never-ending!) basement renovation. The renovation is getting close...the paint is on the walls, but the carpet needs ordered. Speaking of paint, I selected some bold colors, as the theme of the basement is a glam nightclub. Accent walls are Poison green, with the other walls a lighter shade of lime. The bathroom is deep purple (get it?) with the green accents, and the bar is also Poison green. We have big support beams and those are black. When I picked the colors at the store, Eric balked but it looks awesome. I know you probably don't believe me. Trust me, it works.

I have a lot coming up this week, including more interviews. One from the lead singer of Hericane Alice and another from a band manager and rock journalist who has some crazy stories!

I've decided it is now my personal mission to land an interview with Paul Black of L.A. Guns. As most of you know, there are two versions of the band, and Black fronts the version with Tracii Guns on guitar. This version also played Rocklahoma.

I'll admit I like both versions of the band, but I think Tracii = L.A. Guns. Plus, I might be a little in love with Paul Black. I was too busy covering Rocklahoma for this website and the Hairball John Radio Show to even catch a few seconds of L.A. Guns during Rocklahoma. My husband watched the entire set and he loved them. He's been to their Myspace a few times, looking for tour dates near Ohio. Sadly, there are none. So now, I want to talk to Paul Black. I want to ask him what it's like, constantly being compared to Phil Lewis. It's not like Tracii found Paul along the side of the road. Nope, Paul recorded demos for the band and helped them land a deal with Vertigo Records. Today, I will begin working on that interview quest. For some reason, I'm terrified of contacting anyone in the L.A. Guns camp. Probably because things have been so nasty between the two bands for so long. Wish me luck, dear readers. I don't want to end up on some glam blacklist.

Watch this video: L.A. Guns with Gilby Clarke performing "You Can't Always Get What You Want"

www.myspace.com/losangelesguns

Untamed Spirit

Back in the late 1980s, Blue Tiger made a name for themselves touring the eastern seaboard. They opened for national acts and were offered recording contracts. Then the bottom fell out of the music industry, and Blue Tiger disbanded. Almost two decades later, the power of the Internet has helped Blue Tiger land a record deal. Bring Back Glam! recently spoke with Blue Tiger guitarist Vince Ciampi about the band's new CD Untamed Spirit and the glam hey-day of the 1980s. Transcription follows.

Bring Back Glam! Blue Tiger has a new album named Untamed Spirit due any second.

Vince Ciampi: Any day now!

BBG: Why a new Blue Tiger album now?

Vince: This is what happened. From 1987 to 1991, Blue Tiger backed up Warrant, Kix and Extreme (before they toured with Aerosmith). We headlined every club in New England from Boston, Massachusetts to New York to Rhode Island, Connecticut, everywhere. We were pretty big. Pretty popular. Great White was trying to get us a record deal through Capitol Records. It was a very bad deal. They wanted to own all our songs! We should have turned them down in a very abrupt manner, but we were coy about and we thanked Great White for all their help. Atlantic Records almost immediately jumped on our bandwagon…but we were recording so much and playing with Warrant and stuff that we never followed through. Then 1991, and we all know what happened in ’91 with the death of Metal as we know it, so it was the death of Blue Tiger too. That was the beginning. Then fast forward to November of last year. Someone decides they want to build a tribute website to Blue Tiger (a Myspace tribute). Then they invite all of us. Next thing you know, we were putting up music. I had thousands of pictures from live shows to put up. Then people started getting interested in us. Next thing, I know friends of ours, MASS, were re-issuing their album New Birth on Retrospect Records. The owner of Retrospect went to the MASS website and he saw Blue Tiger there. He visited the website, and liked the music. Sam McKinney of Retrospect contacted us and asked how many songs we had recorded and ready to go. We had 14. So, Retrospect Records offered us a worldwide record deal to distribute our new CD.

BBG: Why do you think there’s a burgeoning interest in 80s glam rock these days?

Vince: That’s easy. Let’s face it, the 90s were depressing. When you haven’t had any party rock in a long time…people want fun. People of our generation…anyone between the ages of 35 and 50 miss what they had. They had a good time. The younger generation like listening to this music, and enjoying it. They like people having a good time.

BBG: Who are some of your influences?

Vince: The Babys big time. I saw them when I was a little kid and I knew I wanted to be a musician. One of my biggest influences, for real, is like Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow and Alice Cooper for his stage show. All of us come from different influences. If you would ask Sean ( Ciasiera, bassist) his influences are Iron Maiden and stuff like that. If you ask Arthur (Dauwer, vocalist) his influences are punk rock. Pat (Moynihan, original bassist) was more into “glam glam.”

BBG: You are working on new music now. What’s the sound like?

Vince: It’s all based on the past. The 80s sound. Even the record company even said we’re glamish, but we have an individual sound. It’s something that seems like it could be toward today’s music. It’s not really a throwback. It’s just Blue Tiger.

BBG: Are you planning a little tour to support your album?

Vince: Actually, we’ve been invited to tour Italy, Germany, England, Las Vegas…tours except New England. No one offers us to tour our hometown! A tour is secondary to finishing another CD…we want to go back in the studio and finish that first. We also have an animated video where a Hanna Barbera artist and a few other Internet celebrity artists are actually working on a full animation that is supposed to be something like a cross between Cool World and Scooby-Doo and that would be a video for our first song “Stop Playing Games.” It’s supposed to be done soon. We’re going to submit to VH1...and see if they play it on any of their We Are the 80s shows. We’ll see what happens. If the album gets out there, it gets out there. If all those beautiful Metal friends and fans appreciate it and like it…that’s even better.

Listen to Blue Tiger at www.myspace.com/bluetiger1

Rock Me!

It's finally Friday, glam fans. This has been a very long week for a myriad of reasons. So many bad things have happened...from funerals to nasty comments on this website, that I decided what I - what WE - needed was a video of a phenomenal live performance by an awesome glam band.

So far this week, I've been accused of not being a music fan and not knowing anything about glam. That's fine, everyone is entitled to an opinion. Still I beg to differ, and will point to the 40 plus hours each week I spend writing about new (and old) glam bands.

While I was at the Rocklahoma music festival, I was exceptionally lucky to meet the members of Great White. Even more exciting than our meeting was their electric performance on stage. Jack Russell's voice still amazes me, even after all these years.

Late last night I was clicking around YouTube. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I came across a clip of Great White performing live back in 1988. It's an extended version of "Rock Me" and Russell's voice is just as clean as a recording. Watch for yourself. Let me know what you think.

Videos from the Cellar

I recently pre-ordered the new RATT DVD, Ratt - Videos From the Cellar: The Atlantic Years. My package arrived Tuesday and I watched the DVD last night while fighting a massive migraine.

The DVD is pretty good, but didn't meet my (overtly) high expectations. Still, watching Warren DeMartini shred his guitar made me smile - and as sick as I was - this was definitely a major accomplishment.

I guess I was expecting some *new* footage, but what I found was interviews from 1985. I like these old interviews, but I was hoping for a little juxtaposition from the old RATT to the new incarnation of the band.

The DVD includes all the video hits: "Round and Round," "Lay It Down" and "Wanted Man."

The package then shifts into Detonator mode, showing clips from a mini-RATT movie interspersed with videos to support singles. I'm not sure why "I Want a Woman" is included in this segment because that song is from Reach for the Sky (as is "Way Cool, Jr." and these songs are back to back on the DVD package. I would lump "Way Cool, Jr." in with the video hits portion of the release).

Some of the classic interviews are endearing, some are painful. There are times when it is evident that Robbin Crosby is clearly high as a kite. At one point, Robbin says "Well, Warren plays all the lead guitars...I mainly do the heavy, rhythm riffs." His eyes look so sad, it was pretty clear that his feeling of failure urged his addiction.

I really got a kick of seeing Juan Croucier's eye make-up. Good night, the man speaks with intelligence but his make-up makes him look like a television anchor!

There is also a section of so-called unreleased videos on the new DVD package. "Dance" is included as an unreleased video, but I've watched this on VH1 Metal Mania, so I'm not sure what the band means by "never before seen." Maybe the RATT gang mean never before on DVD...but I know the sticker on the shrink wrap said never released.

Another clip in this section of the DVD is "Slip of the Lip." A very cool video, this one was actually new for me. From the Dancing Undercover days, this video features a spy reporter! She takes photos of the band...and then is seduced by Stephen Pearcy.He then ruins all her spy shots. Classic!

If you're a die-hard RATT fan, spend the ten bucks and buy this new DVD. It's nice to have an entire video collection at hand, and the price makes the collection affordable to just about everyone.

Farewell Scarlet Rose

It's the end of the line for one California-based glam band. Scarlet Rose will play their final show Friday, August 10th at the Whisky a Go-Go.

I've had Scarlet Rose in my Myspace friends list for quite some time. A few weeks ago, I noticed the band sending bulletins, announcing their final show. I wondered the reason the break-up, but decided (for once!) to mind my own business.

As luck would have it, Scarlet Rose guitarist Roxy Vayn sent me a message, complimenting this website and asking for publicity help. Since I always support local music, I obliged. Of course I asked why the band is splitting. After all, Scarlet Rose has been together for five years...with a decent level of success, including more than 32,000 Myspace friends. Roxy Vayn also played gigs with Tattooed Millionaires.

Here's what Roxy had to say about the break-up:

"Well, put it this way: We've been together for 5 years, and that's a long time commitment not only for a band, but for any kind of partnership. Even though we seem to be at our peak, musically and in our following, it's time for everyone to explore other opportunities, see what's out there. There are tons of musicians out there, maybe we have just yet to stumble upon the group that really makes the big change. If there's gonna be any chance of us bringing true, real rock n' roll to the masses, it's gotta be now or never. I hate that we can't go too specific, it's nothing legal...we're all just ready to move on. Simple as that. We're all still best friends and we support each other in whatever happens after Scarlet Rose. And who knows, maybe we'll all find ourselves together again...time will tell. It's been such a great run, and we can't wait to end it with a bang on August 10th."

The journalist in me still thinks there's more to this story than meets the eye, but I won't press.

If you live around Los Angeles, support Scarlet Rose and help them celebrate five years of Bringing Back Glam!

Visit their Myspace at www.myspace.com/scarletrose

Photo credit: Somatic Studios

Misunderstood Lyrics

Did you know there's a website dedicated to misunderstood lyrics?

Apparently, misunderstood lyrics are en vogue now as there are currently two shows on network television that deal with average people singing famous songs.

Last night, the glam rock husband and I were driving along, listening to Dirty Penny. Eric kept saying "What word was that?" "What is he saying?" I got annoyed and switched discs for Faster Pussycat (for the record, I think the lyrics on Dirty Penny's Take it Sleezy are very easy to discern). When I popped in the self-titled Faster Pussycat release, I immediately clicked to "Bathroom Wall." Eric likes this song, too so there were no issues. Then, I clicked over to "Babylon," and I thought his head would explode.

I'll admit Taime shifts his voice more than normal during "Babylon," but the lyrics really are smart. Here's the first verse:

"Lvin' in L.A. is so much fun/
Boy you is ugly and your girlfriend weighs a ton/
We was sittin' in our car in a traffic jam/
And some tourist started screamin', 'Hey, ain't you that guy in Wham?'/

Classic.

As Eric complained about not understanding "A single word Taime is saying" I started thinking about all those misunderstood lyrics and wondered if I've been wrong during concert sing-a-longs.

At www.kissthisguy.com - I have no idea why anyone would name a lyrics-database website this...that's like me naming this website www.cornonthecob.com or something equally as dumb - there's a list of artists and their most misunderstood songs. The following are quotes from the Kiss This Guy website.

For Motley Crue, there's "Smokin' In the Boys Room"

The real lyrics are:
Teacher don't you fill me
Up with you your rules.
Everybody knows that smoking
Ain't allowed in school.

But I misheard them as:
Teacher don't you kill me
Up with your rule.
Everybody knows that
Smoking in the lounge is cool.

For Def Leppard, there are several entries and most are related to "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

Here are some of the entries:

The real lyrics are:
Pour some sugar on me...

But I misheard them as:
Go son, shoot your own knee...

and

The real lyrics are:
Pour Some sugar on me, oh in the name of love

But I misheard them as:
Come on join the army, when you need guns bad

or even

The real lyrics are:
You got the peaches, I got the cream
Sweet to taste, saccharine

But I misheard them as:
You got the pizzas, I got the cheese
Sweet potatoes, is that for me?

Seriously, did someone think Def Leppard were singing about sweet potatoes and shooting his own knee?

It was inevitable.

During my research, I found lyrics to a song I'd been singing wrong for more than a decade: Warrant's "Heaven."

Again, from the Kiss This Guy website:

The real lyrics are:
See the factory that I worked, silhouetted in the back.

But I misheard them as:
I see the factory that I worked. I seen you welding in the back.

"Silhouetted in the back?" I always thought it was "Seen you standing in the back." I actually like my version better. Not because I think I'm a better songwriter than Jani Lane, but because I'm more comfortable with my version. It just feels right.

Do you have any favorite misunderstood lyrics?

Too Good to be True

Things are looking good for Swedish boys Vains of Jenna. Bring Back Glam! recently spoke with the band's lead singer Lizzy DeVine. During the chat, Lizzy talks about the current tour with Poison and RATT, the fun of being broke, and recording a follow-up to Lit Up/Let Down. Transcription follows.

Bring Back Glam!: Before we get into your music and tour, I want to talk about your new endorsement deal with Vestal watches. How did the company find you?

Lizzy DeVine: Well, they saw the band and liked what they saw. They contacted us. It’s pretty cool. Pretty much everything we’ve gotten: the label, endorsements, came from people seeing us live. It seems like people like us live, and that’s how we get what we get, that’s how I want it to be. I want us to be a great live band.

BBG: So, are you the only one in the campaign, or will the other band members be featured in future ads?

Lizzy: No, I’m the only one.

BBG: Where can fans see your ads?

Lizzy: They’re going to be in Revolver and those music magazines. It’s going to be awesome publicity for the band, because it’s so hard to get mainstream magazines to write about us, especially when you don’t play the music that’s popular. This is a good way to sneak into those magazines and get people’s attention.

BBG: Vains of Jenna is currently on tour with RATT and Poison. What is that like for you?

Lizzy: It’s like a dream come true. When I was like 14 or 15, I was such a huge RATT and Poison fan. I’ve never even seen them. Seeing them for the first time while on tour with them is the coolest thing ever! They’re all cool guys. You never know what to expect, and it’s good for a younger band like us to be out with two more experienced bands, that have been around for over 20 years.

BBG: What’s it like backstage after the show?

Lizzy: It’s actually pretty calm. This is so organized and professional, and that’s the way I like it because I don’t party too much. Everything’s taken care of. It’s like being on vacation: you arrive at noon, sit around and do whatever. You eat for free, you drink for free, and then you play a show in front of a bunch of people. After we’re done, we go backstage and watch the other bands play. It’s not as crazy people think, but I’m loving it.

BBG: Does each member of Vains of Jenna have his own tour bus?

Lizzy: No, we don’t have a tour bus at all. We have a minivan and a trailer. We have seven people and all our gear. It’s like, we’re totally broke. A tour bus would be great, but I don’t want to get a bus until I really deserve it. I want to struggle. It’s the struggling part that’s so fun, and all the challenges that come with that. If we had a tour bus…I would feel so stupid. Like “Who the fuck do I think I am?” We’re not to that point yet, and when we get there, it’s going to be deserved. Right now, I’m more than happy to do things this way.

BBG: You say you’re broke. Does this mean the band isn’t seeing any financial results from the tour?

Lizzy: We make some money. We get paid every night and we sell merchandise. We have people working for us. We have two roadies and a tour manager, and they’ve got to get paid first. Gas costs money, and hotel rooms cost money. At the end of the day we eat and we sleep and we play music. We don’t get any extra money. I’m not doing this to become rich. As long as I survive and have fun, that’s all that matters. Some day in the future, there might be some extra money roll in. We’ll find out. So far, so good.

BBG: Have you noticed a spike in sales of Lit Up/Let Down since you started this summer tour?

Lizzy: I don’t know. I need to check into that. I bet it’s selling more now than it used to do. I just want a new album out there. With this first one – I’m super proud of it – but we recorded it all on our own, and it was just supposed to be demos. Our label (Filthy Note) liked the songs and the recording so much, they wanted to put that out, so of course we did. The songs were written in the first few months that we were a band, so I can’t wait to show the world what we’ve got going right now. It’s a little different, but a lot better.

BBG: So, you’re actively working on new material?

Lizzy: Yeah, it’s constant. It’s what we do. We don’t have much of a life. We tour and play music and write music. The new songs are going to be …rock n’ roll…but heavier. Maybe more melodic. Just better songs, like it’s been two years since we started the band, so we grow as musicians. We have more experience and everyone changes. It’s going to be interesting to see how people react to the new stuff.

BBG: You’re going on the fall Viva La Bands tour and you’ve got a new song featured on the Viva La Bands II compilation. Tell me about “Enemy in Me.”

Lizzy: We’ve been writing that song over a year. We started it last summer, then put it on the shelf because we toured so much, then we heard about the compilation and we decided we wanted to record the song. It’s more modern sounding without being a sell-out. It’s heavier, and it’s got more melody. It’s a pissed off song. It’s Vains of Jenna, but a million times better. I think a lot more people will like what we do. Of course, there will be a lot of people who don’t like it at all. It’s still kick ass rock n’ roll, but a lot better. Hopefully people will be impressed when it comes out.

BBG: Are you hoping to stay on Bam Margera’s Filthy Note label?

Lizzy: It all depends. We want our next CD to sound as good as it can be. Our contract runs out in October, because we were only signed for one year. If we get a new label that wants to put in a lot of money, and Filthy Note can’t top it, we’re free to go. We’re open to suggestions. It would be awesome to stay on Bam’s label. The whole plan from the beginning with his label was to launch the band and then have someone else pick us up after our contract runs out. I just want the best sounding album out there. I don’t care who I work with, as long as people are like Bam. Someone that believes in the band and what we do, and just not out to make a profit. I’d rather to go to a label that loves the band but pays us less money, than a label that gives us a lot of money, but then doesn’t really give a shit.

BBG: Are you surprised how quickly you landed your record deal?

Lizzy: I really am. I’ll be honest. I don’t have expectations for anything, and then I can’t be disappointed. Like, I had a dream. It was to come to this country (America) and get a record deal, but I didn’t think too much about it. We flew over and in like two months, we got a record deal. Then I thought “Fuck! That was too easy! Now I need a new dream.” The craziest thing I could think of that seemed impossible was playing big shows at amphitheatres and stuff. Now, I’m on tour and doing that. Now, I need new goals and dreams because I get surprised every day. I’m a strong believer in what our album is called: Lit Up/Let Down. When something good happens, something bad will happen someday. I’m still waiting for the bad part to come. So far, everything that’s happened has been too good to be true.