I’m not gonna front like I was a big Bang Tango fan in the band’s late ’80s / early ’90s heyday — I could maybe hum you a few bars of “Someone Like You” (pre-Adele) at best, but I was really too young — although I’ve enjoyed their music enough since then to loosely follow whatever Joe LeSte is doing, and I absolutely LOVED the debut Beautiful Creatures album. I have no idea how many times Bang Tango have broken up and gotten back together or who played in the band each time, but  whenever something new comes out that says “Bang Tango” on it I’m always interested in a listen.

BT’s new album Pistol Whipped In The Bible Belt came out in September of last year, and now they’ve released a music video for “I Like It,” posted below. The video isn’t nearly half as entertaining as the video of drunken Joe LeSte babbling to an audience, but the song itself is catchy and memorable and LeSte sounds really good (and, in the beginning, very zezy and un-LeSte-like). Watch it below, then get freaky with us in the comments section.

-VN

When Metal Sludge reminded us of its glory days last month with a new list of the Top 10 Drunkest Living Rock Stars of All Time I was surprised to see Bang Tango / Beautiful Creatures frontman Joe LeSte place #9. I mean it wouldn’t surprise me if he was a drunk, but could he really out-do Chris Holmes’ famous pool interview, ranked at #10?

Then I saw this footage, linked in the article:

Note his band members roll their eyes after being addressed as “fuckheads” following a minute of Joe’s drunken ranting. Followed by more ranting, more eye-rolling and a lame cover. With a missed intro cue. This video is sad in so many ways!

And then this:

Click to read more…

Kevin Dubrow is dead, and I think that most of us assumed he would take Quiet Riot (the seventh most-often-miscategorized-as-a-hair-metal-band of all time) with him to the grave. Those of us who did make that assumption, however, forgot that desperate times call for desperate measures, and an empty belly holds no room for dignity.

So Quiet Riot are re-forming.

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]

It’s the kind of thing that happens mostly in dreams and Mark Wahlberg movies, but a random fan actually got to fill-in on vocals with one his favorite bands this past weekend. When Bang Tango (and Beautiful Creatures) frontman Joe LeSte was taken ill prior to their November 25th performance in Chicago, a man by the name of TJ did a respectable job taking LeSte’s place for an abbreviated 5 song set. Bang Tango aren’t quite Judas Priest and Joe LeSte ain’t exactly Rob Halford, but this story is still pretty fucking cool. That guy will remember this night forever.

Here’s some fan-filmed footage of TJ performing “Someone Like You” with Bang Tango.

What’s the current status of Beautiful Creatures, anyway? Which third-rate guitarist is currently filling the slot vacated by second-rate GN’R axeman DJ Ashba? Inquiring metal bloggers would like to know.

-VN

Our friend Allyson at Bring Back Glam has been reporting from Rocklahoma all week. She’s obviously a big fan of the event, given that a) she runs a site all about glam and b) she wrote the text for the Rocklahoma coffee table book that came out last year.

But she’s been making (perfectly valid) complaints about this year’s fest for the past ten months, taking issue in particular with this year’s line-up. And as it turns out, she was totally correct: attendance at this summer’s edition of the event was apparently abysmal.

Check out this photo Allyson took of the crowd. This was at dusk; if it was Ozzfest, everyone who skipped the second stage would be starting to pile in right about this time. No such luck for Great White, even though there was absolutely no chance of being burned alive at the outdoor venue:

Click to read more…

This is gonna be a long, Lefsetzian rant that is only peripherally related to metal. Don’t read it if that’s gonna bother you.

MTV’s The State came out on DVD yesterday – the complete series. For those of you too young to remember, The State was a sketch comedy series that launched all the guys (and girl) who went on to make Wet Hot American Summer, Stella, Reno 911, and a whole bunch of shit I’m forgetting.

(The troupe’s members have also written and/or acted in some terrible movies, I’m sure because it paid well, but if it funds their own work, then whatever.)

So last night after we shuttered the MetalSucks Mansion Grand Study of Doom & Horror (where we do all our “work”) for the evening, I went out (To fucking Best Buy – because there is now no place else in the city to purchase DVDs) and bought The State, came home, “got right” as Ron Saint Germain would say, and sat down to watch a show I haven’t seen in sixteen years.

Holy shit, that makes me feel old.

Click to read more…

Directly from the horse’s mouth comes the news that “guitarist n’ songwriter [emphasis added to point out mental retardation] Dj Ashba… officially replaces current NIN guitarist Robin Finck” in Guns N’ Roses. “Once Dj’s name was in the hat, the hat disappeared!!” benevolent dictator Axl Rose exclaims, doing his best impersonation of my Uncle Morty.

Showing that Rose at least has a sense of humor, the statement concludes: “Now, one step closer to the abyss, Ashba joins a band who’s all time roster is nearly as long as it’s [sic] founder Axl Rose’s rap sheet!” Oh, Axl, you scamp.

Click to read more…

Bang Tango frontman Joe Leste underwent quite a transformation from his heyday in the late ’80s to his turn-of-the-century “GN’R for the new milleunium” project Beautiful Creatures.

Leste may never have made as pretty a girl as Bret Michaels, but he did his damndest to try in the “Breaking Up A Heart Of Stone” video:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/5fvMXZvaJ2Y" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Contrast that with the tough-guy / biker image of recent years in the Beautiful Creatures video for “Step Back”:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Dz87MVN3szc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

We hear rumors of a Bang Tango appearance at Rocklahoma 2008. Say it ain’t so, Joe! We’re still waiting for that next BC tour.

-VN

A band — US 66 — whose members consist of Tracii Guns (L.A. Guns) on guitar, Joe LeSte (Bang Tango, Beautiful Creatures) on vocals, Steven Adler (Adler’s Appetite, ex-Guns N’ Roses) on drums, Chip Z’Nuff (Enuff Z’nuff) on bass, and Michael Thomas (Faster Pussycat) on guitar ought to be able to perform a somewhat decent version of the Guns N’ Roses classic “Welcome to the Jungle,” right? Wrong.

What probably started as a fun, drunken idea (“Hey duuuudez! Let’s play Welcome to the Jungle” tonight! It’ll be awesome!”) ended as a trainwreck at last summer’s Rocklahoma festival. What with Tracii Guns proclaiming “We started Guns N’ Roses together” after introducing Steven Adler — which, while technically the truth he had NOTHING to do with “Welcome to the Jungle” — then the band members guessing when to come in after the intro, flubbing notes, and some of the sloppiest guitar playing I’ve ever heard, the result is downright embarrassing. Have a looksie.

-VN

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/EGwO-1V-fF8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]