pic via

I love Michael Monroe. I think I’ve made that pretty clear. If you want to see Psychotic Frenzy: The Band, you really need to catch his show. I did… twice.

First up was the Bowery Ballroom in NYC. I’d never been there before, and my first thoughts upon entering were, “Oh God, he’s gonna die.” It’s not a huge venue, but Mr. Monroe is a fucking monkey. I’d seen him with Hanoi Rocks, and he jumps, climbs, leaps, kicks, flies, swings, hangs upside down, and basically bounces off everything, and in this space, I really was kind of nervous.

Bu nothing too terrible happened. I mean, he fell off the stage and head-butted a guy… It was kind of priceless seeing his face go from total panic to acceptance to thud. It was even more priceless seeing his wife look like she was about to have a heart attack from off-stage. But Michael Monroe is nothing if not the consummate showman, and he kept on going, head bleeding and all.

Click to read more…

pic via

Speaking about glam metal, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott claimed that Hanoi Rocks were the only band that “pulled it off.” And while Def Leppard is now lumped with glam bands like Poison, and are currently touring with Motley Crue, that doesn’t make his assertion any less true. Hanoi Rocks were originals. That angry, shithead punk mixed with the New York Dolls/Bowie glam sound that Guns N’ Roses did so well would not exist without Hanoi Rocks. “Paradise City” is actually a mix of different Hanoi Rocks riffs, and Andy McCoy, guitarist and co-founder of Hanoi, has claimed it’s just a slowed down version of “Lost in the City.” Their influence ranges far and wide, from Manic Street Preachers to Alice in Chains, and Michael Monroe was one of the original two founding members of the band. He and McCoy were the guitarist/lead singer duo that would’ve outshone even Jagger/Richards… had they got the chance.

In 2007 Hanoi Rocks released Street Poetry, but only two years later, McCoy and Monroe announced that they’d taken the band as far as they could. After playing farewell shows in Finland and Japan, Hanoi Rocks disbanded for good in 2009. It’s a shame that they’re known more for the fact that their drummer, Razzle, infamously died in the car accident where Vince Neil drove headfirst into another vehicle while inebriated, than they are for their music.

But while the band may be no more, Michael Monroe is certainly not done yet. Backed by a stellar group of musicians including Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), Steve Conte (ex-New York Dolls), Dregen (Backyard Babies), and Karl Rockfist (ex-Steel Prophet and touring drummer for Danzig) ,he’s released Sensory Overdrive under his own name just this year. Michael was nice enough to take a few minutes to talk about what he’s been up to these days. In fact, he was so nice he called me before I was supposed to call him.

Click to read more…

My iTunes decided to define Michael Monroe’s Sensory Overdrive as indie rock, which is just wrong. Indie rock makes me think of like… wait, I don’t even know anymore. Pavement? The Postal Service? Do those count? My college roommate would listen to all that stuff so any knowledge I have is very much secondhand. Anyway, after a twelve-year hiatus, Hanoi Rocks put out one of their best releases with Street Poetry in 2007 and a year or so after that proclaimed they were done for good. Mr. Monroe and co. quite irked me with that news before I realized this is a band we’re talking about. “For good,” rarely means forever so I still have hope. But, eh I’m also still hoping for a Guns n’ Roses reunion with Axl Rose, so take that as you may. I’m either highly optimistic or stupidly naïve.

Click to read more…

Long-time readers of MetalSucks are fully aware of my lifelong obsession with Mötley Crüe. Okay, it was more like a two-year love affair, at least until I discovered Terry Glaze-fronted Pantera, Metallica, and the English Dogs.

I have ruined any chances of running for public office by openly displaying my dress-up capabilities as both Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx on this wonderful publication. I have reviewed the band’s concerts here, as well as their books (and books, and books).

My pathetic one-sided man crush was shattered on December 8, 1984, when lead singer Vince Neil vehicularly manslaughtered 24-year-old Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley, while driving his Pantera to a liquor store in Redondo Beach, California, to pick up some booze. Interestingly enough, that was the same exact moment the band’s music began to completely suck. Hard.

That brings us to modern day Mötley Crüe and their upcoming co-headlining summer tour with metal stalwarts Poison **hack** and glam rock pioneers the New York Dolls. According to Blabbermouth, Crüe bassist and de facto leader Nikki Sixx claims that the band’s fans “demanded” that they take Poison out on the road. MetalSucks co-head honcho Axl Rosenberg, of course, is much wiser than Sixx gives him credit.

Click to read more…

THE FUCKING BALLS ON VINCE NEIL.

Let’s review the man’s past, shall we?

• In 1984, he was in a drunk driving accident that killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle and severely injured two other people, leaving at least one of them with permanent brain damage. Neil was unharmed. He did thirty days in prison, 200 hours of community service, and paid a couple of million dollars in restitution — in other words, a relative slap on the wrist for the super-rich mega-star that he was at the time.
• In June of 2010, he was arrested in Las Vegas and charged with DUI… again.
• A week later, he was back onstage, joking around about his love of alcohol.
• In December of 2010, he gave a video interview where he was not only clearly inebriated, but he was seen getting behind the wheel of his car with multiple passengers while drunk.
• Last month, he was sentenced to fifteen days in prison for his the June DUI — – in other words, a relative slap on the wrist for the super-rich former mega-star that he is.

So what does Neil think of his punishment? He tells the Las Vegas Sun:

Click to read more…

I was gearing up to do another Album of the Day, but it gets trying having to express just how much some album is making me figuratively shit myself. Saying I love it over and over like a broken record (har har) isn’t all that much fun to write, let alone read, so I was going to let The Wildhearts’ The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed fall by the wayside. I just got a little lazy.

But Wildhearts front man Ginger has been anything but these past few months. From joining The Michael Monroe Band to supporting Motorhead on tour to recording a new solo album, he’s quite the manic musician. So instead of waffling for now and then eventually raving about some of his past work, I decided to see what the future holds for Devin Townsend’s British BFF. (Seriously, follow them both on Twitter. It kind of makes you go, “Awww.”) I shot him an email with a few questions and he, on top of business as usual, responded back in less than an hour.

He warned me to keep it interesting. Well, I tried.

Click to read more…

Banner Designed by Cysquatch

Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

There weren’t any real hot button topics this week, so we decided to just play a fun game that used to keep Vince and Axl occupied for many a lunch period when they were kids:

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

Click to read more…

Banner Designed by Cysquatch

Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

Since it’s hair metal week here at MetalSucks, it seemed only appropriate to consider a glamtastic question. So we asked our writers:

WHICH HAIR METAL BAND FROM THE ’80s BEST STANDS THE TEST OF TIME IN 2010?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

Click to read more…

One day mankind will go extinct and the remains of our civilization will later be picked over by aliens. Though they can speedily assemble collections of most homo erectus artifacts for their alien museums, their super-brains will struggle to grasp and group the arts of Earth, y’know, for their encyclopedias and stuff. So it’s in the interest of preserving and defining Glam Metal across the cosmos that we at MetalSucks have counted down the Ten Best Must-Have Glam Metal Albums. We even tapped in to the genius of Bring Back Glam‘s Allyson B. Crawford to give it that “definitive text” feel. (Read part one, part two, part three)

Thanks to Allyson and our Anso DF, Glam Metal will live on in other worlds long after our planet has become a barren hellscape. That’s comforting. Here’s the number one Best Must-Have Glam Metal Album! So, come now children of the beast, be strong and …

Click to read more…

Read Leyla’s list of The Top Ten Worst Hair Metal Band Names here.

All right, this was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be and for a while I considered just doing a part two of bad names. But, like hair metal itself, there are always some gems floating amidst the crap, and with a little borrowing from other overlapping genres, ten candidates were found for the best of hair band names. So you’re safe for now, Trixter, Tora, Tora, Kix, and Stryper…

Click to read more…

In 1984 Vince Neil went driving while drunk and subsequently killed or maimed three people, only one of whom had actually been stupid enough to get in the car with him. Then, last week, he was arrested in Vegas for drunk driving, demonstrating that the fateful night twenty-six years ago really had a long-lasting impact on him and the way he looks at life.

And how does Vince feel about his DUI? By all appearances, really, really guilty: Last Thursday, three days after the arrest, he asked a crowd in Vegas, “Who’s been drinking tequila tonight? Who’s gonna drink some tequila tonight?” And we know this happened ’cause TMZ has video of the incident.

Click to read more…

So according to Radar Online, Vince Neil was arrested this morning in Las Vegas.  ”What as the charge?” you ask? Did he get busted with drugs? Smack a porn start? Did the LVPD finally come to their senses and arrest him for crimes against good taste?

Nope. He was arrested for… suspicion of DUI.

Vince Neil. The man who, in 1984, killed Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle and seriously injured two passengers in another car because he was driving drunk. The man who has been charged with vehicular manslaughter. This guy. Was driving drunk.

WHAT A FUCKING ASSHOLE.

I don’t know why I’m surprised. Neil obviously doesn’t give a fuck about anyone but himself. And Motley Crue practically made a joke out of his previous exploits when they named their box set Music To Crash Your Car To.

Classy.

Seriously, what a dick. Can we all agree right now that if Neil is convicted, his feet and hands should be cut off so he can never drive again? I mean, you could do something less severe like just revoke his license forever, but I think it’s important that this fuckhead really get the message this time, don’t you?

-AR

That’s right, folks, new autobiographies are headed to your nearest bookstore and online retailers from former Guns ‘n Roses drummer/VH1 house boy, Steven Adler and Megadeth mastermind/Metallica thorn, Dave Mustaine.

Adler, renowned not only for being the original drummer for Guns N’ Roses, but also for getting shit-canned by the band for being too much of a druggie, releases his allegedly self-penned account on June 22, entitled My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N’ Roses.

I’m looking forward to Adler’s tale of his fall from rock ‘n roll grace, as I considered his druggen misadventures to be the lone highlight from Andy McCoy’s otherwise dreadful Hanoi Rocks tell-all, Sheriff McCoy.

Meanwhile, Dave Mustaine’s autobiography (co-written by Joe Layden of the New York Times), titled, no surprise, Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir, hits the bookshelves on April 13. Dave had originally planned on calling the book, Hello Me… Meet the Real Me, the classic opening line from his 1992 track, “Sweating Bullets.” Word has it that the book may also be titled Wake Up Dead.

Click to read more…

Vince brought the shits back with him from Egypt and in the past twenty-four hours I’ve been hit with a cold so bad that I’m probably gonna go to sleep right around the time I hit “publish” for this post. So before I pass out, here’s a run-down of what we did while Vince was playing Camel jockey:

• We spoke to Mutiny Within’s AJ Jacobs and producer/mixer Kevin Antreassian.
• As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa discussed fate versus free will on L O S T.
• We premiered “The Last Horse” by Tiger Flowers.
• We checked out new releases by Xasthur and Borknagar and read a book by Andy McCoy, too!
• Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy is recording with Avenged Sevenfold; black is white, up is down, cats love dogs.
• The new Bullet For My Valentine song makes a lot of people angry, either ’cause you had to tweet about it just to hear it or simply because it exists.
• One thing MS Suckalos seem to agree upon: Jake E. Lee was not Ozzy’s best guitar player.

Okay, NyQuil time. See ya Monday!!!

-AR

I really wanted to like this book. I really did.

As an old school Hanoi Rocks fan, I assumed this would be an eye-opening tell-all by the man behind the band that spawned sleaze rock which was later ripped off by Guns N’ Roses and lesser lights such as L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat. Instead, it’s just a big ol’ mess of discombobulated anecdotes that do not enlighten the uninitiated, enthrall those already on board the Hanoi train, nor excite undiscerning lovers of rock ‘n roll.

Click to read more…

Hanoi Rocks have called it quits. The news comes a shock to millions thousands hundreds dozens of fans, not least of all me, because I didn’t even know that they were still together.

“Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy feel that they’ve taken the band as far as it can go” the band tells us via a statement that was obviously meant to be released in 1984 but was stuck behind a publicist’s couch and is consequently just seeing the light of day now.

ANYWAY, R.I.P. Hanoi Rocks. Here’s the band’s video for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” to help you mourn. Unless you’re like me and you thought the band had already broken up.

-AR

No booze at a Motley fucking Crue show? Jesus fucking Christ. That must be like having sex with a condom made of nails.

Click to read more…