Depending on things like our mood, exhaustion level, and the weather, Vince and I may or may not go see Adler’s Appetite tonight. (I’m a GN’R dork, but I didn’t exactly buy tickets in advance, y’know?) And while it might be interesting to see Mr. Adler live in the flesh up really, really close, I have little doubt that the gig itself will be ridiculous. As I understand it, Adler’s Appetite are basically a GN’R cover band, which I guess doesn’t make them that different from Axl’s Guns N’ Roses or Slash’s solo band, only those bands have the Voice of Guns N’ Roses and the Sound of Guns N’ Roses, and Adler’s Appetite has The Dude People Barely Missed When Matt Sorum Took His Place.

I’m not saying I don’t much prefer Adler’s drumming to Sorum’s — I do. I’m just saying, y’know. He may not be the strongest marketing draw.

Apparently Adler’s Appetite kid themselves by playing originals, too, ’cause they’ve released a snippet of a new single, “Alive.” You get the single as a free download when you buy a copy of Adler’s upcoming, guaranteed to be full of shit autobiography, which comes out in October. I really don’t believe that will attract a ton of extra buyers, though. I also don’t believe that this is an original song; I could have sworn I heard Beautiful Creatures, or maybe it was Brides of Destruction, or possibly one of the new L.A. Guns, yeah, maybe the new old L.A. Guns, or I guess it could have been Vains of Jenna… ANYWAY, I could have SWORN I’d heard another modern cock rock band play this song already. Could have SWORN it.

-AR

We now rejoin Allyson B. Crawford (Bring Back Glam!) and Anso DF (MetalSucks) and their riveting analysis of Glam Metal’s Ten Best Must-Have Records.

Get caught up on yesterday’s action here.

***

7. TRASH - Alice Cooper

July 25, 1989 // Epic Records // p: Desmond Child

The hits: “Poison” “Bed of Nails” “House of Fire” “Only My Heart Talkin’”

The heart: “Hell Is Living Without You” “Spark In The Dark” “I’m Your Gun”

Anso: So by 1989′s Trash, Coop had been in a booze stupor for like seven straight albums. The good news was that his successful comeback tour inspired some check-writing at Epic Records. But that support came with strict control, or at least that’s what the presence of Bon Jovi/Kiss/Aerosmith/Ratt hit-maker Desmond Child implies. So Allyson, what’s your stance on Desmond Child?

Allyson: I got to interview Alice Cooper once. One of the highlights of my life, I swear. The man rules. He was all about sobriety when we spoke and I think that’s awesome. Now, Desmond Child. Oh my. I’ve written about him before on Bring Back Glam!. I suppose he is — no, he is a genius, but damn. Aerosmith is my favorite band of all time and Child sort of took away their grit. So that hurt. But for some people he really, really helped and that’s Alice Cooper. Alice needed a hit for a new generation and Trash came along at the right time, didn’t it? Oh and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to meet and interview Desmond Child, so there you go.

Anso: Hey, same here! His stuff is mega-cheesy, but so are delicious Cheetos. Plus, Detonator rules, so it’s easy to forgive misfires like “I Was Made For Lovin’ You.” Oh and of course I warmed to him after VH1 aired that hilarious footage of his collaboration with (and antagonism of) Vince Neil. You saw that right? “Hello-o! Successs!”

Allyson: Yeah, I’ve seen that. Oh, I’ve seen it.

Anso: Okay, Trash was buffed up by a full whack of celebrity guests: Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi, Kip Winger, Guy Mann-Dude, Steve Lukather, and 80% of Aerosmith. I suppose they helped pull chicks and young people to this old man record. Did these guys make Trash more attractive to you in any way?

Allyson: Because I’m a chick? Well, here’s the thing about me. I’ll agree there are some hot guys in rock, but that doesn’t mean much to me when it comes to music I like. If the song rocks, awesome. If not, okay. I like tons of music that is mocked — often right here on MetalSucks, ha! — and I always “go my own way if you will.” Trash is awesome to me because I love the songs. “Only My Heart Talkin’” is a great love song, a completely different type of power ballad. But, back to guests. I usually don’t care about guest stars on albums. I buy records because I want to hear the real band — not a slew of guests, you know?

Anso: Yeah. I’m not an Alice Cooper scholar, but I’ll wager that Trash is his sexiest record. It’s a bit uncomfortable to hear a 41-year old Coop describe passionate banging.

Allyson: As you know, my dear Anso, sexy is in the eyes of the beholder.

Anso: Hey, let’s talk about Trash‘s super-hit, “Poison.” Can you think of any single in history with such a memorably quirky riff? It’s awesome on its own and I love how they set it against different chords in the intro.

Allyson: So I’ve talked to Alice guitarist Keri Kelli a few times. Once I said I was frustrated trying to learn bass and guitar parts for some Alice songs. And Keri said something like, “Look, if you want to learn ‘Poison’ it’s just going to take awhile.” This frustrated me because I have little patience. I think I got off the phone with Keri, looked at the guitar and then sat down with a bag of chips or something. Anyway, yes, “Poison” is freaking epic. One of the best songs of the ’80s. Then again, Alice is a master. I love when the band performs “Poison” live. The crowd always goes batshit crazy.

Anso: What else makes you love this record?

Allyson: Hmm. It’s the sum of its parts I guess. I think all the songs fit well together, there’s not really a dud and the album helped push Alice to the top again. The cover photo is iconic. It was in magazines first and then Alice chose it as his cover — so I remember seeing the image of Alice everywhere as a kid. I had this instant connection to the record I suppose.

Click to read more…

So Rocklahoma, the once cock-rockalicious festival, may be a wash this year, but it seems that there’s already a new fest to grab ahold of the Aquanet and let us relive our youth gone wile: Rock N America, which take place from July 23 to July 25 in – get this – Oklahoma. Huh.

The line-up basically plays like a who’s who of who shoulda been playing Rocklahoma this year: Scorpions, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Warrant, Dokken, Great White, Enuff Z’Nuff, Bullet Boys, Faster Pussycat, and the Tracii Guns/Jizzy Pearl version of L.A. Guns are all the bill. More bands will be announced soon; in my imagination that will include whatever is passing for Skid Row these days, Vince Neil, Adler’s Appetite, Beautiful Creatures and/or Bang Tango, and the other version of L.A. Guns. But who knows.

It is worth noting that the fest will take place at the Zoo Amphitheatre, which a) has a smaller capacity than the giant open fields of Rocklahoma and b) isn’t just a cool name from some venue, but, rather, is called the “Zoo Amphitheatre” because it’s actually at the fucking zoo. So unless it’s always been Chip Z’Nuff’s dream to play for a crowd of zebras, this isn’t going to be quite the event that Rocklahoma was for these bands.

Still, you should visit the Rock N America website, even if you’re not really interested in attending the show, because, well, it’s like the shittiest website of 1994 and is consequently pretty hilarious.

-AR

[via Bring Back Glam]

Former Adler’s Appetite lead vocalist Sheldon Tarsha has inked a deal with Blastzone Entertainment for the retail release of his debut CD, Prophecies.

As lead singer of Adler’s Appetite, Sheldon Tarsha’s vocals were enjoyed by literally dozens of people. Tarsha is thrilled to no longer be held back by having one kinda-sorta-used-to-be famous member in the band, and to now be able to reach a more discerning audience that does not require such a gimmick. Mr. Tarsha* firmly believes that he can be the first cool person in history to bear the name “Sheldon.” Or “Tarsha.”

As the label for such acts as Legs Diamond, Bastardz from Brazil, and Confederacy of Horsepower, Blastzone specializes in bringing the music of bands no one has ever actually heard of before to nobody you’ve ever actually met. They are proud to add the first ever act to their roster who may have actually once played with somone about whom people kinda-sorta-but-not-really care.

For more information, click here.

-AR

*If you can identify Tarsha or any of the other dudes who aren’t Steven Adler in the above photo, you care too much. Also, if you can identify Steven Adler in the above photo, you care too much.