MetalSucks

Earlier this week Earache Records was the subject of an extremely long-winded rant about the state of the metal industry. Now it’s Roadrunner’s turn.

First we get a press release announcing that Roadrunner has signed heavy rock band Hail the Villain. MS reader “Shit Sandwich” alerted us that the label also recently signed indie rockers The Jakes. Then comes the latest fracas involving Rob Zombie suddenly pushing back the release of Hellbilly Deluxe 2 saying “everything was turning into a chaotic mess” which was actually code for “I’m jumping ship to Roadrunner.” Methods of Mayhem… let’s not even go there. And the label is touting Ratt’s new record as one of its flagship releases for early 2010. I mean, I LOVES me some Ratt, but seriously?

All this following the dismissal of long-tenured A&R man Mike Gitter a few months back. Gitter brought Killswitch Engage, Opeth, Megadeth and many others onto the Roadrunner roster.

What the?!?

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After refusing to battle hour-plus lines in our quest to eat the best of NYC’s dumplings, today I ended up comfortably toasted with Zena Metal and Relapse Bob listening to Ratt’s greatest hits collection, Ratt & Roll 8191. It was the perfect afternoon activity for a rainy Fall day that capped another week of late CMJ Music Marathon nights full of booze, music, and a festival-best performance by Boston shredders Revocation.

A greatest hits collection doesn’t necessarily convey the original artistic intentions and context of a band’s songs as thoroughly as listening to a full album does, but it does provide an interesting look into a band’s career arc. By the late ’80s Ratt had shifted towards the cheesier metal constructs and lighter pop-metal of then-popular bands like Warrant and Poison, and listening to their greatest hits collection underscores that transformation. The fact is, everything after 1986’s Dancing Undercover is doused in heapings of weak sauce, even the moderate hit “Way Cool Jr/” (which Zena Metal pointed out I liked for purely sentimental reasons… the song does kinda blow). But out of all of Ratt’s later material we all agreed that one song matched the edge and swagger of their earlier stuff — “Nobody Rides for Free,” a track that only appeared on the 1991 soundtrack for Point Break.

Stephen Pearcy looks absolutely ridiculous in this video, the first step of his descent into his current status of looking worn-the-fuck-out. Someone needs to add this man to Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians.

-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:

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A few years ago Slayer performed Reign in Blood in its entirety, a year later Metallica did Master of Puppets, and now Exodus are gonna do Bonded by Blood, Judas Priest are doing British Steel, Motley Crue are doing Dr. Feelgood, Ratt are doing Out of the Cellar, Aerosmith are doing Toys in the Attic, Melvins are doing Houdini, etc. What does the MetalSucks Haterade Mafia think; is this trend lame, or is it cool?

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When I saw the news yesterday that Ratt are going to be performing Out of the Cellar in its entirety at their Rocklahoma headlining set this year, I got a minor stiffy. Out of the Cellar is a fucking fantastic album, an indisputable fact I haven’t thought about in quite some time. I won’t be attending Rocklahoma this year — or likely ever — but this year’s lineup seems to be heavier than in years past, with Anthrax (!) headlining Thursday night atop Saxon, Overkill and Metal Church, and Ratt headlining Friday night. If this festival were in New Jersey instead of Oklahoma I might consider going… although parts of smelly New Jersey are equally as scary as Oklahoma.

Here’s Ratt performing “Back For More,” probably my favoritest track from Out of the Cellar, in Japan back in 1991. Watch DeMartini RIP around the 3-minute mark. What’s up with Pearcy’s shirt? Also, needs more crowd shots: shots of screaming throngs of Japanese fans are endlessly entertaining.

-VN

I haven’t watched any of Sam Kinison’s old stand-up in years, so I have no idea how his work holds up – but when I was a younger, I thought he was just about the funniest human being that had ever lived, and when he died, I was really, really upset about it.

I heard recently that HBO is making a TV movie about Kinison’s life – which is why I was thinking about him again – and I suddenly remembered Kinison’s video for his cover of “Wild Thing.”

Today the video seems vastly inferior to Brian Posehn’s “Metal by Numbers,” because a) that song is actually about metal, b) that song isn’t a cover, and c) that song doesn’t have Tommy Lee in its video. But at the time, this clip was the shit – I mean, in addition to the aforementioned Lee, it also features Slash, Billy Idol, Richie Sambora, members of Aerosmith and Ratt, and Jessica Hahn’s tits.

-AR

First Maynard, now this.

Look: I fucking love Vegas. I was there for New Year’s once and I think I had pretty much the best fucking night of my life.

But part of what’s so fun about that town is how friggin’ ridiculous everything is; it can’t be taken seriously at all, and if you try to take it seriously, you’ll probably just give yourself an aneurysm. As a place to go spend a couple of days drunk and act like a total dip shit, I think Las Vegas is just swell – but I think if I had to live in there, I’d kill myself.

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Last month I told you about the excellent new film, The Wrestler. The full trailer has been released now and features the scene in which the characters played by Mickey Rourke and Marissa Tomei bemoan the loss of hair metal to grunge. At the screening I attended, this scene got a HUGE laugh – pretty odd, considering if anyone in the crowd was a Ratt fan, they didn’t look it.

Anyways, check out the trailer below. Mickey Rourke is thanked in the liner notes of Chinese Democracy and apparently talked Axl Rose into letting the filmmakers use the song “Sweet Child O’ Mine” for free, so I reckon this little moment of Cobain bashing holds a special place in Rourke’s heart.

The Wrestler opens December 17. See it, if it’s not too artsy for you.

-AR

I saw a pretty fantastic new movie last night called The Wrestler. It was directed by Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) and stars Mickey Rourke as an over the hill, down on his luck pro-wrestler looking to make amends with his estranged daughter (Marilyn Manson fucker Evan Rachel Wood) and kindle a romance with an over the hill, down on her luck stripper (Marisa Tomei).

ANWAY, the reason I mention it is this: there’s a great scene where Rourke and Tomei are in a bar, and Ratt’s “Round and Round” comes on the jukebox. This inspires a conversation about the two characters’ mutual love of 80’s hair metal and leads to Rourke uttering the line of dialog which serves as this article’s headline – a line of dialog which I found insanely funny and which, to my pleasant surprise, a few thousand other people did, too.

So with all due respect to “that pussy Cobain,” here Ratt performing “Round and Round” in 1984, when they were at the height of their powers. If this don’t start your week right, nuthin’ will.

The Wrestler will be in theaters in the U.S. on December 19. I highly recommend it.

-AR

Behind the scenes at the MetalSucks Mansion yesterday:

Vince Neilstein [via email]: Wanna cover this? I think it’s pretty big news.

Michael S. Robinson [MetalSucks' Hair Metal Happy Hour columnist]: Old news; this has been circulating for a while. I think the bigger news will be where John Corabi ends up – it won’t be Velvet Revolver, but it should be! Anyway, no one gives a shit about Ratt, not even Ratt, so I’m not sure MS readers would care. Cavazo is useless anyway – what has the guy done worthwhile since Metal Health? Even then, that record was great, but he wasn’t. Anyway, let me know if you want me to put something together, but I just don’t see people caring.

And there you have it. This is how news is made, folks.

Southern hard rock / metallers The Showdown have a new record out August 19th called Backbreaker, and it’s heavier than anything they’ve done so far — not that their prior material wasn’t heavy or was bad by any means (in fact, Temptation Come My Way ranked among my favorite albums of ‘07), but the new stuff just hammers. It’s punishingly heavy, but artfully so; other than singer David Bunton’s pectoral-highlighting wardrobe choice, this isn’t a band that seems to feel the need to remind you of its masculinity at every turn. This is just really fucking good heavy music — this time around the band is channeling more Slayer and Metallica than Ratt and Motley Crue, but the results are no less catchy nor do they come across as trend-following. The Showdown have the songwriting maturity of a much, much older band.

Listen to the three new songs on their MySpace page.

-VN

I was a big fan of The Showdown’s late-2006 release Temptation Come My Way, a southern-infused steamroller of an ’80s metal-influenced hard rock record. Judging by the band’s new song “Achilles The Backbreaker” — from their new record Back Breaker, to be released August 19th on Solid State — the band hasn’t dropped their ’80s influence at all, but has moved on from Ratt and Crue-infused riffage to Metallica and Exodus pummeling. No kidding. But this isn’t close to yet another entry in the current re-Thrash trend. Heavier riffs, double-bass pummeling, more screaming vocals. It still sounds distinctly modern and distinctly Showdown. It’s the same band (minus one member), just heavier… Which is a fucking awesome thing if you ask me.

Listen to the new track on The Showdown’s MySpace page. I am officially excited about this record.

-VN

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

Really, the Internet doesn’t get much better than this.

Make sure you stick with it (or at least fast-forward) to the 2:15 mark, where you’ll be treated to some special “theatrics” for the bridge and subsequent guitar solo.

Think you’ve got better air guitar chops than this dude? Then enter the contest, dude.

-VN