As much as I love wigger slam, glam might be my second favorite genre of metal. When I was 20 or so, I had a glam phase that lasted a few years and I got pretty into this stuff, and I still jam it on the regular.
The way I see, there are two kinds of glam: the harder-edged, less melodic stuff like, say Whitesnake, Bulletboys or Hurricane, and the super poppy, bubblegum style as popularized by Poison- basically the Archies with big hair. I definitely prefer the bubblegum side of things, although I'll put on some Badlands now and then for a change of pace. Anyhow, here are a few of my favorites- I'll skip the obvious stuff like Crue, Kix,. Some of you fossils know a lot of this stuff I'm sure, so please chime in with your favorites! Also, did you ever notice that Mark McGrath is wearing a Circle Jerks shirt at the beginning of? I love that song.
PBF then.and now. Which is worse? You be the judge. Pretty Boy Floyd Let's start with the best.
In my opinion PBF were the finest of all the glam bands, but they came just a bit too late to make it. They essentially took the Poison formula and, like Boyz II Men, smoothed it out on the pop tip and perfected the bubblegum glam style. In much the same way as the Japanese are the masters of taking some Western idea, hyper-stylizing it to the Nth degree, and spitting it back out, PBF were the absolute peak of huge hair, huge hooks, and awesome image.
And whatever you do, don't. It will make you cry and slit your wrists.
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40 year old men aren't supposed to shop in the girls' section of Hot Topic (although I have to admit, the chorus is pretty fucking awesome). On the other hand, Steve Summers' post-PBF band. Tuff To me, Tuff were the ultimate poor man's Crue (along with, but they weren't nearly as good).
They tried so, so hard to make it, but just couldn't ever break out of the pages of Metal Edge and into the big time. It's probably because they were extremely generic and the singer looked like Jamie Presley, but they had their moments. Although they were best known for their single 'I Hate Kissing You Goodbye,' I love 'All New Generation,' in which they tell the story of rock and roll's evolution from Elvis to the in-your-face antics of today's outrageous glam bands. It's hard to believe, but in spite of their outrageous appearance, Tuff were just a bunch of hard working boys from Arizona that wanted to play rock and roll like their heros.
Vixen Just so you guys know the ladies can fuckin' rock too!! In case you don't believe me, just put in a Vixen tape.
They were the perfect blend of leather and lace: hot as shit, but just a little bit vulnerable too. They'd break your heart in a second, but if you could get past that tough exterior, you just might fall in love!! To me, they were like the cleaned up version of. Lita was the white trash chick down the street that would blow you on the first date if you drove a Firebird. She was super hot in an 'open for business' kind of way, but not really that great looking and definitely not the kind of chick you'd want to bring home to mom and dad. Vixen, on the other hand, were edgy, but you could tell they were good girls underneath all that makeup and hair, and that they were only acting tough because they'd been hurt so many times- if you could just get through to them, they'd be true to you forever!
Here is 'The Edge of a Broken Heart,' written. Vinnie Vincent I worked at OfficeMax when I was 18 or something, and I met this guy who used to manage Vinnie Vincent. Needless to say, I asked him tons of retarded questions.
He was cool and took it all in stride even though I'm sure I was incredibly annoying. Anyway, Vinnie was second only to Michael Angelo in terms of balls out shredding and looking like a transvestite prostitute. Mark Slaughter's vocals were the perfect complement to Vinnie's fretboard masturbation, although he really came into his own in Slaughter- if the chorus to ' doesn't put a lump in your throat, you're dead to me!! What a heartbreaking tribute to a fallen cherub!!
Nitro Let's be perfectly clear: If you don't like Nitro, you're not my fucking friend. Obviously Nitro are completely ridiculous, but I 100% non-ironically love this band as Skullkrusher and Lucho Metales can attest to. They had the biggest hair, the highest screams, the fastest solos, and the sickest riffs. I can listen to 'OFR' a million times in a row. Also, the liner notes and lyrics are priceless, like the note that admonishes 'DRUGZ R 4 DUMBFUKKS, DON'T BE A DUMBFUKK.'
Everything about the band is totally absurd, but their songwriting is fucking awesome and the retarded lyrics just make me love them than much more. For bonus laughs, check out drummer Bobby Rock'sand.
If there is a bigger tool on the face of the earth, I haven't come across him- Bobby Rock makes Vinnie Paul seems positively dignified. Ugly Kid Joe As many of you will surely know, UKJ's name is a parody of Pretty Boy Floyd.
Now I know what you're thinking- UKJ aren't so much glam as just generic hard rock /lite metal. And you would be right, because as they say in my favorite song, 'Whiplash Liquor,' 'We ain't glam and we ain't thrash, just suburban white alcoholic trash.'
Required attire for listening to As Ugly As They Wanna Be I am also guessing that out of all the hated bands I have posted in this blog, Ugly Kid Joe is perhaps the most hated and least credible. But your opinions mean nothing to me. If you don't like Ugly Kid Joe, you are a fool and should throw yourself on a sword because you obviously do not like to fucking party. You clearly love misery.
Unlike you, I avoid misery, which is why I listen to Ugly Kid Joe, Scatterbrain, 311 and Sublime as much as possible. Sometimes you just want to chillax, so you jam something fun like 'America's Least Wanted' and it takes you back to the good old days of Stussy shirts, Baja jackets, and slap bass.
It is like a time machine that will instantly transport you back to the days when you spent your after school hours hanging out behind a 7-11 or a gas station smoking pot, listening to the black album, and trying to slouch your Starter jacket in the raddest possible way. It's hard to find anything wrong with Ugly Kid Joe (as long as you forget about when Whitfield Crane joined Life of Agony). I was in Belaga about 2 weeks ago (look it up on Google maps - it's in the middle of fucking nowhere in Malaysian Borneo) and one of the local guys in the tour office I was visiting put 'Everything About You' on the computer. And knew every word. I gave him all the MP3s off my PSP.
And you missed out Tigertailz. Big hair, lipstick, cheezy pop rock. And from Wales. They were pretty good when they went a bit 'heavier' and became Wazbones, too. The first single I ever bought was 'Love Bomb Baby' by them. And I still love their little logo - a cute ickle tiger sticking it's middle finger up.
Some that come to mind, but may not fit perferctly are: Kindgom Come. They were featured once on a metal TV show that aired on a national network.but i can't remember the name of it. Anyway it was the first time i saw a drummer twirl his sticks. Kiss in the 80's: Barely counts, i know. I liked their songs around this time though, particularly 'Crazy Nights'.
Celtic Frost: After reading how heavy and evil they were.imagine my surprise to get a dub copy of 'cold lake' and realize they were softer than Ratt's 'out of the cellar' 220 Volt: As I've stated before, 'heavy christmas' is one of my favorite tunes, it was featured in nearly every awful late 80s metal copmp i bought. Hanoi Rocks: Though I don't think i've heard them.if they're good enough for Fenriz to tattoo their name on himself.they must rock. I just came here to post about missing Tigertailz, but I see someone beat me to it. Hanoi Rocks, too. That is some top quality stuff.
I denied all this shit for years, because I was getting in to punk/hardcore/thrash just as 'Look What the Cat Dragged In' was dropped. Now I'm making up for lost time. I prefer the more 'bubblegum party glam' bands over the bands that were just making watered down Trad albums.
I still can't get into the power ballad, and those bands are notorious for that. I hated glam-metal then and still avoid it whenever possible. I wasn't more-metal-than-thou (I mean, I listened to Big Country.), I just didn't like that stuff.
That said, I was occasionally caught listening to the first and third Dokken records (oh the shame), but not the second or fourth ones. I have to assume if there are any others, I'm gonna hate those too. TNT's 'Tell No Tales' is a favorite: nice blend of leopard-print spandex, Aquanet, sugary power ballads and borderline technical thrash with ionospheric vocals. It's been on my iPod for a couple of years running.
Cliff - I'd not class Mind Funk as glam (though I don't think you were, to be honest.). Weren't they originally called 'Mind Fuck' but had to change the name for publicity and stuff? I saw them waaaaaay back supporting Slayer on the Decade of Aggression tour and they fucking sucked. And for whoever said Faster Pussycat - good call.
They were my second ever gig (a week after Alice Cooper) with Dangerous Toys and The Almighty opening for them. Oh, talking of Alice, he had Great White and (glam?) Britney Fox on the bill. I was never into Glam, but at some point in the mid-90's I used to get 'Rock N Roll is gonna set the night on fire' by PBF stuck in my head constantly, and finding that LP became an obsession. I bought it, listened to the song once, and that was it - never played it again. What about KING KOBRA or BLUE MURDER? They both featured old Rock dudes trying to cash in on Glam.
Saw Stephen Pearcy of RATT play a solo show a few years ago, and it ruled. Was such a good time - way more enjoyable than the real Metal shows I usually go to. When I was young I used to seek out these bands like I later did with death metal.I was into reading about all the 'c' league bands in metal sludge every time I went to the grocery store with my mom. Some of my favorites that never got credit were. Slik Toxik Dangerous Toys Kik Tracee Danger Danger Saigon Kick Britney Fox Every Mothers Nightmare My all time favorite butt rock album though is faster pussycat's wake me when it's over. I'll stand behind that album all day haha. The list goes on and on.
There was as many of those bands then as there are shitty metalcore bands now. The guy from Firehouse comes into the record store where I work alot and I just gotta laugh. MINDFUNK reminds me of Muthas Day Out which had a member of that beardo band RWAKE in it.
Poor man’s Van Halen BulletBoys at “Freakshow” at “Freakshow” at Record Label: Warner Bros. Catalogue Number: 7599-26168-2 UPC: 29 Label Code: LC 0932 Rights Society: GEMA/BIEM Germany Mastering SID Code: n/a Matrix/Runout Outer Ring: 759926168-2 RSA Matrix/Runout Inner Ring: 24 Mould SID Code: n/a Tracklist: 01. THC groove 3:45 03. Thrill that kills 3:12 04. Christopher 3:59 05.
Talk to your daughter 3:37 06. Freakshow 4:29 07. Goodgirl 3:28 08.
Do me raw 3:12 09. Ripping me 2:58 10. Say your prayers 3:17 11.
O me o my 3:02 12. Huge 3:05 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Mirrors: ✔.