Hair Metal - S&D

OMG! Apparently Tigertailz are still alive and well and releasing shit!

no one ever talked about the merits of tigertailz. they were always a sad joke.

I was into a lot of that stuff as a young kid...most of it was best appreciated in a state of naive imbecility and perpetual youthful horniness. 99% does not stand up today, although love/hate still get regularly played round my gaff, as does, very occasionally, skid row's second album.

skid row must be on the cusp of being retro/irony cool these days.

i never really stopped liking them. 'slave to the grind' is a classic of the genre if you ask me.

quireboys, poison, dogs d'amour are all bad

the London Quireboys, you mean?

yes

i should have seen sebastian bach play last thursday but forgot about it. wonder if his pipes are still in fine form

he was never a great live singer. all that charging about like a hairy giraffe left him a bit out of breath.

yeah live footage i've seen has him huffing and puffing a little bit

did anyone have the Vain album? I was enthralled by the (relatively...) strident guitars and the stange yelping vocals for a while back in the mid 90s. but when vetting albums prior to a house move this year, I didn't get past track 1 before consigning it to the charity shop box.

this isn't exactly a new topic, but

most of these bands were pretty bad; some transcended badness. Poison is easily the best of all. Tesla, if they count, had some pretty high points, and were rarely very bad. Motley Crue had a great groove and a great look, but their good songs are way too few and far between. Skid Row had a big voice and big production to match, but there was no there there (and yeah, they're horrible out of the studio). Cinderella (who probably didn't cross the pond that well?) and Bon Jovi (if they count) had a few good songs. (hey, if you count 3/4-of-Poison's roots, maybe NJ/PA was the second star of the pop metal universe?) candy-coated White Lion (with guitar genius in residence) and (especially) Warrant were not always completely terrible. LA Guns never did anything especially compelling, but their disposable glam-blues was charming enough and relatively consistent, and they looked really good. did their Brit singer get them any attention over there? i saw more pictures of than heard songs by the dogs d'amour (relative non-entities in America), and remember being pretty disappointed when i heard the songs.

it was a singles genre, really, and some day maybe someone will make a great collection from the era.

Now Wogan, I *know* you know about the search function...

S&D: Glam Metal/Hair Metal

poison - always, always terrible.
tesla - had their occasional moments. at their best when singing about physics.
motley crue - better cautionary rock tale than band. some semi-decent songs (primal scream, kickstart my heart, shout at the devil), but a terrible singer.
skid row - a catchy, pop metally start, then a susprisingly durable second album that was pretty consistently great from start to finish.
cinderella - never heard. popular with the glam rock ladies.
bon jovi - I do have a sneaking respect for some of the new jersey era stuff. it's large, irresistible, anthemic arena fodder, but it's also as cheesy, cynical and self-aggrandising as hell. they're just an abomination now though.
white lion - always dreadful. I seem to remember freak of nature weren't so bad though.
warrant - always dreadful.
LA guns - I called myself a fan, had a t-shirt, went to their gigs (yes, they had a cult following in the UK, partially because of the singer, partially because of the GNER connection), had all their albums, but could never remember a single bloody song. that must say something.
dogs d'amour - the t-shirts were everywhere, but the music was not. they always seemed more like a bad faces tribute band (a good faces tribute band would have been bad enough) with a vaguely metal image than anything to do with metal.

every single hair metal band that ever lived had at least one great song per album.

and it usually had the word rock in the title. or a variation thereof.

when i saw the crue early this year 'primal scream' was far and away the highlight.

otherwise, i always liked their earlier stuff - 'live wire' and 'piece of the action' in particular

ned, i did use the search fucntion and that thread never showed up.

Weird, I just typed in 'hair metal' and got a slew of threads!

i must have written "hari metal" or something dumb cos i got about three threads which was surprising. Sorry dude.

Ratt
Helix
Kick Axe

That's early 80s stuff though. The first Motley Crue record is a classic. Beats the pants off everything they did after.

I saw someone wearing a Stryper shirt the other day. Not sure if it was supposed to be ironic. I sure hope it was.