Rocklahoma, the three FIVE day hair metal festival in Pryor, Oklahoma, kicks off its second annual event tomorrow. Hard to believe it’s been a year since last year’s massively successful event, but it has, and this year’s lineup is even more extensive than the last.

Pretty much every hair band ever — both those still on the touring circuit and a bunch of recent reunions — are playing. This year’s headliners are Queensryche, Warrant, Triumph, Bret Michaels and Ratt. Even bands that were peripheral but related to the ’80s hair scene have joined in the party, such as Extreme, Living Colour, Jackyl and Armored Saint. There are also two sidestages with a smattering of lower-level national and regional bands, though the Rocklahoma website makes this info hard to find.

Apparrently 100,000 people attended last year’s event; this seems crazy to me, but I guess it speaks to this music’s longevity. New MetalSucks columnist Michael S. Robinson plans to write a piece about this topic later in the week.

Any of our readers going to Rocklahoma? I know at least one person who is SUPER psyched!

-VN

[Welcome to our new column Hair Metal Happy Hour, which will be manned by the fine writer Michael S. Robinson. Things have been admittedly less hairy around here lately, but we hope to rectify that situation with this semi-regular column. Huh huh, he said "rectum-fry." - Ed.]

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost twenty years since glorious hair metal ruled the charts and MTV. Once the crispy, crunchity sounds of the Pacific northwest took over, many of our cock-rocking heroes from the 80s faded into oblivion, while others continued to record sporadically, enjoying varying degrees of success, or lack thereof.

Now it’s 2008, almost 20 years to the day since Stryper released In God We Trust, and we find ourselves in the midst of unarguably the greatest year for hair metal releases since the 1980s. I’m not sure what any of us have done to bring about this incredible turn of good fortune, but it’s worth pausing to analyze, and give thanks for the bounty of hair metal we have been given, and are about to receive, in 2008.

Click to read more…

It’s a slow news week.

But the reunited funk-metallers Extreme have two new songs available for you to listen to on their MySpace page. The clips come off Saudades De Rock, their first album in 13 years, which hits stores August 12th.

The songs sound pretty good, actually. I immediately notice the lush vocal harmonies, which have always been a crucial part of Extreme’s sound, are intact. Nuno’s scorching solo in “Star” should convince any naysayers that the guy’s still got it. The only thing that strikes me as missing is the thunderous, stomping, slamming drums of Paul Geary, who has been replaced by Kevin Figueiredo since trading in his sticks for a pen and briefcase as the manager of… Godsmack. Sigh. Not to say that Figeiredo can’t play, but Extreme’s virgin-tight rhythm section was always one of the best things about them; and that is missing here.

Nevertheless, you should check out the new tracks on Extreme’s MySpace Page. They’re pretty good. Then listen to “Play With Me” – brings you back!

-VN

Extreme and King’s X released details yesterday about a U.S. summer tour that had been rumored for weeks called “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp,” so named for a bizarre scheme to incorporate wanna-be musician wankers with too much money as the opening acts with other famous musicians. But never mind that — this is an awesome lineup; in addition to King’s X being one of my favorite bands of all time and never having seen Extreme, the two bands have both been known for bringing a funky element to their metal and should compliment each other quite well.

The Fantasy Camp consists of “campers” jamming and writing with “counselors” during the day and performing as the opening act later that night. Lame? Absolutely. But where there is money there’s a way. As long as it keeps my ticket price down.

Camp packages start at $1,999 (!!!!) and go up to $9,999 (!!!!!!!!!!), the latter of which “allows campers to live on the road like a rock star for five full days.” Lame, lame, lame, lame. Out-of-work musicians desperately in need of money “Counselors” include the following:

Gilby Clarke (GUNS N’ ROSES)
Elliot Easton (THE CARS)
Earl Slick (DAVID BOWIE, JOHN LENNON)
Dave Ellefson (MEGADETH)
Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE)
Mark Slaughter (SLAUGHTER)
Chris Slade (AC/DC)
Mark Hudson (Grammy Award-winning writer/producer, AEROSMITH)
Kip Winger (WINGER)

Tour dates after the jump.

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Does Extreme / Satellite Party / Drama Gods axe-slinger Nuno Bettencourt look like gun-toting Tombraider Angelina Jolie? ‘Cause we sure think so. Super-sized lips and all.

-VN

An anonymous source close to the negotiations has reported to MetalSucks that the following bands have been locked in for the 2008 incarnation of Rocklahoma, the 4-day ’80s rock festival in Pryor, Oklahoma:

• Extreme
• Cinderella
• Tesla
• Black N’ Blue
• Kix
• Bang Tango
• Enuff Z ’nuff (w/ Donnie Vie)
• Faster Pussycat
• Zebra
• Pretty Boy Floyd

The same source revealed to us Friday that Motley Crue would headline the festival’s Sunday night. None of the above bands have been officially announced yet; the press conference will be held on Tuesday, March 4th. For a list of officially confirmed bands, check out this article.

-VN

2008 is going to be, like, the best year for band reunions ever. First Carcass, then At the Gates, and now Extreme have all announced plans to get back together next year (And yes, we realize it’s weird to get excited about Extreme, Carcass, and At the Gates all in one breath – that’s the kind of metalhead we are around here. Deal.).

Frankly, we can’t understand why the fuck it took so long for Extreme to finally patch things up – they’ve been dancing around it forever, and with Nuno Bettencourt’s stint in Perry Ferrell’s best forgotten Satellite Party project out the way, the band has finally been out of excuses for months now. Like Led Zeppelin, Alice in Chains, and Velvet Revolver (not technically a reunion, but sort of), it took a benefit gig – in this case, a tribute concert for the late Brad Delp – for these dudes to finally realize they can make more money together than apart. But whatever, all that matters is that Vince and I have another cheesy reunion gig to get all teary eyed for in ’08 (I honestly have no idea what Kip’s feelings are on Extreme – but if I had to guess, I’d say they’re not warm and fuzzy).

The big difference, of course, is that Extreme – authors of “More than Words,” the prettiest song ever recorded about trying to get your woman to get all freaky deaky for you – have announced plans for a new studio album right away. And while that may be a major misstep – do these guys have it in them to make a new album worth listening to after all this time? – we’ll choose not to let our excitement about the reunion be tempered with any conflicting emotions… for now. Thus, to celebrate, enjoy the band’s video for “Rest in Peace.” If Nuno’s guitar solo doesn’t get you all hot and bothered, you need to call a doctor, as you may be legally dead.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/G-HQisG2Lv8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

-AR