Throwback #1. Ragin' in the name of..

A couple of things... 

1. I missed the boat on Rage Against The Machine back in the 90's. I was busy...

2. "Killing in the Name" is 22 years old.

I am a huge fan of this band today. It all feels very fresh to me now. Killing in the Name is the perfect song on some level.

Is it because of its virtuosity? No, it's pretty basic. Because of its musical originality? No, jumping octaves is nothing new. Because of its political statement? Not really anything new there either.

The sum is greater than the parts. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea either.

As a metalhead, RATM didn't seem like a metal band to me, however, they pre-dated the New Metal scene, and spoke to a generation of kids bored out of their minds with Grunge. I kinda feel like they had more in common with Punk than Metal or Rap, and the proof is in the pudding. I don't believe you will ever see any RATM music playing over a Taco Commercial (see blog on Ramones http://nerdyrocksnob.blogspot.com/2015/04/blitzkrieg-bop-with-sour-cream.html ).

Time has treated the band kindly. They could be as relevant today if they wanted to, but they don't. That's pretty respectable. The music holds up also (for me anyway). I secretly want to be that kid with his middle finger in the air screaming "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me!" If I had a time machine, I wouldn't change anything.... But still, I should have invested in this band back then.

These guys lean to the left, and that's ok. I stay independent because that's where my heart and head is. I can separate art from politics. I like Billy Brag, and he is a straight up socialist, so there is plenty of room for a leftist band on my phone. I don't have to agree with any of it. God Bless America.

Their statements were rudimentary and repetitive, but not all lyrical art is Springsteen. 

So why now do I talk about them? It is a throwback time of year for me, that's why. I do this shit all the time. I find a band that was before my time and dig in. I've done it quite a bit. Problem is that now that I am a little older, the stuff I used to dig into now feels like golden oldies. Stones, Who, Credance, James Gang, Blue Cheer, Cream and the like is so played out and dated that it becomes a little stale to revisit with any regularity.

So naturally I'm rediscovering music I missed from the 90's and beyond these days. I stay relevant in today as well, but as a nostalgic kind of guy, I'll always have some roots in History.  

That's how I am, and I won't do what you tell me.

For anyone interested, Tim Commorford's new band, Future User, has a video that features the water boarding of John McEnroe. Can't make this shit up.

http://youtu.be/AycZ_9goeS4

Have a great weekend.

Nago

 

Who in the actual F*** is Jonny Solinger?

Ok kids, I am getting on a soapbox about this for a minute. 

The metal boards are all abuzz about Skid Row firing Jonny Solinger as their lead singer. Jonny who? 

They hired the guy from TNT to replace him. Who?

Ok, I know who TNT is (I am a metalhead afterall), and I guess the new guy will bring something...........

Rachel and Snake, give fans what they want. You know exactly what I am talking about. Take the money, tour the big venues, quit being clowns.

I challenge anyone to name one Skid Row song without Sebastian Bach. One step further, name one Sebastian Bach song without Skid Row.

All of them need their heads examined. There is Motley Crüe money sitting on the table waiting for them. They would create a buzz so loud that they might actually be relevant again. 

I saw Skid Row open for Aerosmith. They blew a young Nago away. It was right around the time 18 and Life hit the radio. They were better than the hair bands of the day, heavier than the hair bands of the day, and Rachel had a nose ring.

I saw Skid Row again on the Kiss farewell tour in 2000. It was probably Jonny Solinger singing. Who knows? More importantly, who cares?

There are so many egos in that camp that Axl Rose is like "dude, those guys are fucked up."

Next year is the 25th anniversary of Slave to the Grind. How about a reunion tour? One tour? Hire Doc McGee, Ross Halfin and get a kick ass tour bus. Even Kiss did that much for the fans. 

I could go on all night, but I'll just shake my head and move on with life.

 Nago

Blitzkrieg Bop with sour cream?

I am a Ramones fan. I've talked about it before, but tonight I have an extra special reason to talk about them. They are now selling tacos...

Blitzkrieg Bob in a Taco Bell commercial? That's right... This is a few years after the same song appeared in a Nissan commercial.

Normally, I have no issue with artists selling their music to make money. The Biz today is much different than previous years. Artists have to go to extreme measures to generate income.

However, I have 2 very obvious problems with the Ramones selling out to Taco Bell.

1. All of the original Ramones are dead.

2. Punk rock was supposed to stand for something.

The spirit of Punk pointed a middle finger at the establishment and created art for the misfits of society. To quote the Refused: "new art for the real people."

Radio was bogged down with dinosaur rock and disco. Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, albeit great music, was lost on a generation of kids trying to make sense of the world handed down to them. The ass end of the Baby Boom was tired of the formulas laid out for them by the previous generation. 

Punk was pure. 

People site bands like Iggy and the Stooges, MC5 and New York Dolls as the spark that ignited the scene, but the Ramones are the Black Sabbath of Punk and the godfathers of the movement. The band that inspired other New York bands like Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Blondie, as well as across the pond with Sex Pistols, The Clash and Generation X.

Ramones lived punk until the day they all died. Joey, Jonny, Dee Dee, and Tommy changed everything and burned themselves into the underground of American culture. 

Dee Dee Ramone was a main songwriter for a while. His contributions to punk rock puts him at a status above other influential Punkers. He was crazy, he was a drug addict, he even tried his hand at Hip Hop, but the thing he did best was counting off 1,2,3,4, and writing some of the most iconic, simple and catchiest songs ever put to vinyl.

I will always think of the original Ramones as a perfect storm. 4 awkward guys that decided to take over the world, and actually believed that they could. They were odd, not well trained, but magical and very musical in their own way. DIY never got much better.

So now they sell Tacos? How in the fuck did that happen? They are all dead, so they don't need the money, and that means some greed is in play. To see that makes me ill. The only thing I can even imagine being worse would be Lennon's "Working Class Hero" in a Walmart commercial.

The Clash sold out London Calling a long time ago, yeah I know. That bothered me too. Again, it's only because the spirit of what it all stood for is diminished by shit like this. What did it all mean? 

That's the way of things when greed gets involved. Someone is cashing in. Shame on them. I don't eat Taco Bell, so I can't even boycott.

Sheena is A Punk Rocker, the KKK Took My Baby Away, and Carbona not Glue are probably my favorite Ramones songs, but everything pre 1986 is golden to me. Whenever Ramones comes up randomly on a playlist or the radio, I get sucked in and everything else gets tuned out.

The Taco Bell commercial did not have that effect on me.

Gabba Gabba Hey

Nago

Diamond is the rough

I have been putting off writing this blog for a few years. The time is right, because Dave made it so.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, David Lee Roth publicly announced that he would like to see Michael Anthony back in Van Halen. Good form Dave. 

I have to be honest, I never thought Dave would ever be a voice of reason. DRL, to me, always seemed like the kind of person that stayed up late working on his skit speeches, funny quips and feminine stage gear.

DRL got on my nerves. He was the only person who got the joke usually. 

I remember a poster in Circus Magazine with Dave wearing plastic rings as bracelets. The ones that fit on a cone that kids play with. 

Yeah... I found the pic...

So why have I put off writing this blog? I am a Sammy era fan of Van Halen. There, I said it.

5150 was brilliant from start to finish, and "Dreams" still gives me chills.

OU812, was less good, but the song "Mine All Mine" meant a lot to me on a spiritual level. Lyrically, it's a great moment.

And when I was 16, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was a beast. It yielded the unforgettable and amazing moment "Right Now".

So I like well crafted songs? Is that so bad? I don't think so.

I don't have any issue with Early VH, but I do think there is a ton of filler on all but 2 of the LP's. 1984 was the most complete of the catalog, but no one can take away the impact that Van Halen 1 had. My personal favorite is Fair Warning.

But, I wasn't around for the party. I came later. The DRL Rock God had already fizzled by the time I cared. David was a joke. By 1988, when I was 13, he was a parody of himself. I was into thrash. David Lee Roth, to me, was some douchbag in assless chaps and thin album production.

It feels good to get that out there, and I don't care what the haters think... They gonna hate anyway!

Sammy and Eddie made some magical moments. It transcended VH beyond their forged ground that was doing quite well at the time via the likes of Poison. Winger, and whatever other Chest Hair Band that worshipped early VH. 

A few more points to make:

- Sammy Hagar is batshit crazy

- Eddie Van Halen is Batshit crazy

- Alex is Eddie's puppet, which is batshit crazy.

- Wolfie is in an impossible situation.       Secretly I root for him to make his own stamp on entertainment.

- Michael Anthony seems pretty cool.

That is all.

Runnin with the Nago.

Bon Jovi's barber listened to The Pixies

I am sick to death of hearing about how Nirvana killed Hair Metal. Artists, journalists and fans have it mostly wrong. I was there. I witnessed it on the ground level. Hell, I welcomed it! Here what really happened from where I stood:

Prequel: let's dispel the myth that Hair Metal went out in the 80's. It was alive and breathing well into 1992. Slaughter never released an LP in the 80's. Skid Row's Slave to the Grind debuted at #1 in June of 1991, and a new breed of Hair was on the rise with bands like Steelheart, Trixter and Ugly Kid Joe. Scorpions had a massive hit in 1991 with Winds of Change, and Queensriech  blew up the radio with their Empire LP.

Granted, Grunge was embraced by MTV, and for a minute it was cool to be depressed and flanneled, but before anyone realized that it was its own thing, the grunge bands had air play on Headbangers Ball. To me, Soundgarden had more in common with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin than Neil Young (who somehow became the godfather of Grunge).

If Grunge took the piss out of chest hair Metal (that means you Kip Winger) then Metal deserved it. Life is not some big sex party, and for me, it was getting hard to see any of the last wave of hair as cool. Thrash was the answer for me.

It started with Van Halen, and ended with Danger Danger. I failed to see even a remote connection between the two. Seriously, by the end it was all Acoustic driven, and bands like Tesla forgot how to plug in and ride the lightning (that's a quote stolen from Dee Snyder, I wish I came up with it).

There is just so much more to the story.

Here's how I saw it implode in 5 acts:

1. The big brother band: Metallica.

Once Metallica slowed down and made music palatable to mainstream, hair metal didn't stand a chance. 

The leaders of the thrash movement had substance, melody and drive. Pepper in a little production and walla! Everyone bought the Black Album. 16 Million units sold in the US, 30 million Globally. 

The Black Album outsold Nevermind in the US by 5 million copies. 

2. The snotty little brother Band: Guns and Roses:

Guns were a throwback to a looser, cooler and more rebellious class of metal.  One part Hanoi, one part Aerosmith, they capitalized on being the alternative to the God awful Danger Danger bands of the era. 1987 was a pinnacle year for the death of Hair, Appetite for Destruction was released.

The songs were great. The band was dangerous, and that mattered a great deal to an era that spawned bands like Steelheart. Substance and rebellion were not new concepts, and Hair Metal had more in common with Air Supply than Black Sabbath toward the end.

Guns popularity reached a fever pitch and propelled them to legends in the face of the grunge movement. They fell just as fast, but being the last true LA band, and probably the best LA band period, Guns made good by showing the world a road map between Hair and Grunge. 

#3: The Fucking Hostile Southern Cousin band: Pantera.

What do you get when you cross thrash with hardcore and zz top? One of the most loved, most copied, and baddest fucking bands to ever call themselves Metal.

Capitalizing on a sound rumbling up from the Thrash movement, Dimebag and Co. ruled an underground that was less pretentious and more likely to punch you in the face. They absolutely got it. Groove and "Fuck you" mixed with straight up rebellion. It was exactly what the disenfranchised youth that hated grunge needed. Not everyone believed that Billy Corgan was deep, Pantera fans knew he was just some pussy. They ruled the underground throughout all of the 90's, and gave a middle finger to every trend that popped up during their heyday.

4. Firehouse and the last wave of hair.

These bands were so awful. Cartoon theme songs and wedding dances. Barry Manilo heard Nelson and was like: "those guys are soft."

Any band gaining popularity toward the end of Hair Metal deserved the fall from grace they got. Shame on you all. If you want to lose a youth culture, focus your genre around shit ballads and take your medicine.....

5. Bon Jovi got a Haircut.

As Grunge started to blow up, the old metal guard started distancing themselves away from the term "Metal." Steven Pearcy, Nikki Sixx, Jack Russell, Bon Jovi and many other dudes were all saying shit like "we're not really a Metal band, we are Hard Rock," but no one really meant it, except for in the case of Bom Jovi.

By 1992, JBJ was leading the charge in running the hell away from Metal, but since '86, his camp operated a level above the rest of them anyway. In a way, a lot of the pussification of Metal is due to him, yet he was the only one to transcend it. Way to go Jon. 

JBJ absolutely started his career as a vocalist in a metal band. 7800 degrees F. was pretty Dokken, and to think that Bon Jovi wasn't a part of the whole scene is silly. They have done an excellent job of NEVER EVER acknowledging it. 

Once Jon cut his hair, the masses followed him. The barber shops filled up and AquaNet lost huge dividends. "Keep the Faith" looks like a Pearl Jam album and sounds nothing like "New Jersey." Jovi's band went from Wuss Metal to Wuss Alternative overnight. The record companies took notice and pressured their metal acts to do the same.

I need to do an entire Bon Jovi blog.

There was an underground of bands that made good during the worst of it. Faith No More, Dream Theater, Primus, Sepultura, White Zombie, Marylin Manson and several others found a niche and capitalized on a dying trend of lipstick, while at the same time helping to draw lines that lead to the overflow of sub-genres we see today.

MTV's embracing of Grunge was important, don't get me wrong, but if it killed Hair bands, it was just the last nail. Hair was on its way out way before Kim Deal was a big deal and the grunge movement didn't even make it half as long as Hair did. 

I guess Beavis and Buthead deserve a little credit also...

Standing down.

Nago

Losing brothers (and twisted sisters)

It was just announced that AJ Pero from Twisted Sister passed away at the age of 55.

Didn't see that one coming. 

Ok, I may not be a huge AJ fanboy or anything, but who doesn't know the iconic drum intro to "Were not Gonna Take It?"

In my Domicile days, Louie (drums, skins and Bloody Knickles) would occasionally roll into that particular pattern just to crack us all up.

Here's something you didn't know. Nago loves Twisted Sister. Stay Hungry is epic. Absolutely fucking Epic from start to finish. I was blaring that LP playing Final Fanasty in my basement when Nirvana was mainstream.

Twisted Sister is more than one LP and a couple of missteps though. Under the Blade and You Can't Stop Rock and Roll are under rated as balls out albums. They were metal when metal was raw (pre-thrash). TS's releases stood along side of other pre-thrash metal LP's from contemporaries like Raven and Riot, and and propelled them into the band that eventually earned platinum status with the follow-up listed above, surpassing their peers ten fold.

Twisted Sister got it. They had gimmick and songs, belted out by one of the best gravel throated vocalists to ever fly the flag for the Metal genre. Dee was a vocal beast, and I'd argue that with anyone who would say something to the negative.

AJ was ugly back then. Man that dude was, but he owned it. 

Most recently, AJ became a member of Adrenalin Mob, a super group started by drummer extraordinaire (and ego maniac) Mike Portnoy. To fill his shoes say a lot for AJ's ability, even though Mike downplayed his own technical ability in the band.

Twisted's rise and fall has been well documented, and their rebirth is pretty cool. It's great to see them occasionally doing their thing. I could live without Christmas LP's, but they're making money, so who am I to judge. That's a difficult thing to do in the Music biz, especially a Metal band with a 40 year history. I am sure their timekeeper will be sorely missed by their camp.

RIP AJ. Godspeed. 

Nago

Vulcan Immigration Reform

Remember at the end of the Lord of the Rings when all of the elves and Bilbo left middle-earth in the boat never to return? I'm totally thinking that they went to Vulcan.

That's right. I'm saying it right here and now. Vulcans are really elves. I mean, come on, there are too many similarities to be ignored. They have magic, they are logical and they have pointy ears.

Saying that the elves immigrated to Vulcan at some point is perfectly logical to me. What confuses me are the Elves at the North Pole.

I have a theory on them as well.

Bilbo left with the elves, there is no question of that. We also know that elves can breed with humans. It's safe to say they can breed with Hobbits also.

Bilbo impreganted an elf. That must be what happened. The species that resulted from this elf / hobbit hybred didn't fit in on Vulcan, and were banished into slavery to Santa Clause, who is also Vulcan, but insane (the jolly old elf). 

They now exclusively assist with the making of toys to give to children on the winter solstice, and the bad ones are sent to the mines to gather coal. Both of which are illogical for pure bred Vulcan Elves, but perfect for Hobbit hybrids, or as they are referred to on Vulcan "little elves".

Need more proof? Spock singing the Bilbo Baggins song in the car commercial. Point, set, match.

As far as the Keebler Elves, well, they don't really exist. Those cookies are made in a factory. Don't be dumb.

One last thing: Spock isn't dead. His essence is in McCoys head and his childhood body is on Genesis. Everybody knows that.

RIP Leonard.

Nago