Jerusalem Slim ~ Jerusalem Slim (aka debut) (album review) ... Steve Stevens does Page's Outrider!

Style: heavy metal, hard rock
Label: n/a
Year: 1990
Home: New York City

Members: Steve Stevens ~ guitars
Michael Monroe ~ vocals/saxophone/keyboards
Sami Yaffa ~ bass/b. vocals
Greg Ellis ~ drums

When former Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe began working on a follow-up to his second solo album he suddenly found himself wring alongside ex-Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, who was also working on some solo stuff & looking for a singer & would eventually work with Vince Neil, thus was accidentally born JS. Along for the ride was new drummer Greg Ellis & Monroe's solo band bassist & former Hanoi Rocks bandmates Sami Yaffa. It sounds great on paper but the result met mixed reviews. But, I believe, the reason for that is because many reviewers have seen this as a group. It's really not outside of the name. They've also tried to see this as a Monroe album. That's also a false view. Picture this more as Steven's attempt to make his Outrider, the solo album by guitarist Jimmy Page. See this as Stevens & friends & suddenly it doesn't become great but it pulls itself up a little bit. It's still has lots of failures: Monroe is a swaggering hard rock Ramones-inspired/glam vocalist, but now singing against a heavily layered metal background he doesn't found any real vocal personality as the Ramones sound is wiped clean & a cliched wannabe New York swagger in its place; the lyrics are about as throwaway rock cliché as one can get; Yaffa & Ellis might be good individual players but just don't have the click that Yaffa had with the late Razzle of Hanoi Rocks, that was a team to be reckoned with; & this is obviously Steven's project as his writing style dominates the music. Though, I have to be honest that Monroe's voice was always the one thing that kept me from enjoying Hanoi Rocks more, so I'm already not a fan & will understand if some think I'm too harsh against him. On the other hand I have actually at in a rehearsal with Yaffa & he's great. As for Stevens playing, I believe he's an incredibly under-rated but now lost in the shuffle guitarist, & the first time I heard him I was interested. But, here he clutters the songs with so many layers that one is trying to figure out where he's going, what he's doing, let alone get into the songs. They hit you with flash but without a groove. Page did the same on Outrider, but also kept things often sounding simple with layers accentuating not making mush. Actually, there are moments were the riffs are more Page than not. But, that album was saved from its excesses by its slower moments & bluesy foundation, but this has none of that. Stevens is dropping guitars in & out to show off, losing his distinctive sound & its often chaotic & when not just sad because you so want to enjoy him. Though, I've always found that when he shines its not in the solos but in the little twists & turns for a bar or two that he adds to the arrangements spicing them up, but they're cluttered over here. His distinctive style glimmers instead of shouts here. In some ways I'm reminded of the first Joe Perry Project album where the non-inhibitions of a label or too much band influence let him go in every direction. This is where having a band is good - it reigns in the excess. But, this is not Monroe's style so he's lost in the shuffle. It's really a shame because JC looks good on paper, but none of the songs really gel here either in showing off a group personality or showing off strong individual personalities reaching through. There's songs that feel memorable, but on second listen there's too much clutter. For Stevens & Monroe fans certainly this will be in one's collections, but they've both done better & its not the album I'd recommend to check them out by. The group dissolved when Stevens joined Vince Neil's new solo band while Monroe & Yaffa moved into the more interesting Demolition 23, both publicly disowning the posthumous release of Jerusalem Slim. It's not that bad. JS, though, was already crumbling with arguments over the bands music direction & the exit to Vince Neil just fast forwarded the outcome, let alone added kindling to the difficulties due to the fact that it was Neil who was responsible for the death of Razzle, while Yaffa was the first to leave Rocks with the band soon collapsing in ruins. Obviously, JS started with a spark but it was only kindling & not enough to sustain the project. Includes two demo tracks, but are unnecessary bonuses & on the whole too similar for anyone but a hardcore fan of any of the participants to care.

New York Dolls ~ Cause I Sez So (album review) ... Highly recommended, cause I sez so!

Style: hard rock, punk rock
Label: Rhino
Year: 2009
Home: New York City, New York

Members: David Johansen ~ vocals
Sylvain Sylvain, Steve Conte ~ guitar/b. vocals
Brian Delaney ~ drums
Sami Yaff ~ bass

Let's be honest. Okay, maybe its the iconic frontman & one of the guitarists from the NYD, but this is not the NYD. If it is ... they're having a mid-life personality crisis. The original NYC were noisy cross-dressing punks & druggies. Good luck finding that here. Former Hanoi Rocks bassist Sami Yaffa once told me that frontman David Johansen doesn't want to over-rehearse the group so they always retain some roughness, but this doesn't hide the fact the music is just too much put together, carefully composed & far less chaotic than the NYD ever were. The title track & about two other tracks are actually pretty good in terms of the old NYD style of crashing punk guitars. But, then things steer to a country rock/folk mode with "Better Than" & listeners are promptly given the memo that this quasi-reunion is not staying in one place musically ... nor any of the places you've come to expect from the NYD. The reunion NYD are laying out a new set of expectations for you to follow, that's the key. The 70's are gone & it's too late to cry, so deal with it & move on is the message. There's no way we can go back. NYD are now presenting us, in their move forward, with a cornucopia that goes from Spanish/western tinged music ("Temptation To Exist") to electric folk rock (i.e. "Lonely So Long") to blues ("Ridiculous") to a reggae re-interpretation of "Trash", to an ambitious array of musical paths including the experimental acoustic soundscape "Making Rain" that ironically reminds me of something Hanoi Rocks were trying to reach for on their final album. Johansen not wanting to be tied down as a composer is admirable ... but they really should change their name as this is not the NYD. It's not an embarrassing reunion in the least & quite interesting, let alone far more diverse than the NYD were ever able to be before, but it sounds more like Johansen & company are paying tribute to the bands & the musical styles they enjoy rather than trying to uncover anything in their own past. Though, with the loss of the unstable Johnny Thunders maybe there is no true way to uncover their own past & maybe they feel it's not even worth it to try to do anything but casually nod. If one considers Johansen's 80's alter ego of Buster Poindexter ... certainly Johansen has shown himself more than just a punk screamer & there's no reason he would want to return now ... if not just a plain old master of musical disguise. In terms of creativity the troupe can't be faulted, in terms of recreating the NYD for a new generation not even close. The nail is over here ... why are you over there? Okay, that's not really right. There is going to be a new generation that will enjoy this, certainly, but to dig back in time will be a shock & old fans are probably not sticking around long for this reunion. This is the music of a diversified NYC, not a CBGB NYC gutter ballet. Of note, Todd Rundgren produced their 1973 debut & returns to help their return. At least they got that right.

Hanoi Rocks ~ Two Steps From The Move (album review) ... Two steps from glam!

Style: glam, hard rock, Finnish
Label: Epic
Year: 1984
Home: Finland (disbanded)

Members: Michael Monroe ~ vocals/saxophone
Nasty Suicide, Andy McCoy ~ guitar/b. vocals
Razzle ~ drums/b. vocals
Sam Yaffa ~ bass/b. vocals

Guest: Bob Ezrin ~ keyboards/percussion/b. vocals

I got to meeting former HR/New York Dolls/Joan Jett bassist Sami Yaffa earlier this year when I filmed a couple private living room rehearsals he did with New Yorker songwriter/guitarist Uncle Bob NYC & Television drummer Billy Ficca just before going back on tour with former HR bandmate Michael Monroe. Yaffa kept turning to me cracking jokes as I seemed to be the only one in the room relaxed enough to be receptive. I'll confess that until that time I'd never paid much attention to HR. Only until I knew I was going to film the rehearsal did I listen to anything by them & research their legacy. In a way it was good because I wasn't drooling on him for an autograph, which I didn't get though I still have the video footage, albeit there's probably no better way to suddenly being introduced to someone's music then by meeting them. Discovering guitarist Al Pitrelli came the same way when he was waiting for me in a bar having chatted on e-mail. Yaffa & Pitrelli are such lowkey modest guys & very friendly that its hard to not want to then check out their music. Drummer Ficca is probably the most unassuming drummer I've ever met & I've since gone back for a listen of Television too. The funny thing is that by not hearing their music, whether Television or HR, I've also missed their legacies & seeing their influence. These are influences not to be ignored. Television was the first & probably most artistic CBGB's band while HR influenced all the 80's bands I love & going back to them I suddenly see how imitative of HR they are visually & musically. I still call Motley Crue a favorite band but I suddenly see how luck has as much to do with musical success & popularity as anything. By the time HR got to Two Steps From The Move, planned to be their breakthrough album but became their anti-climactic final before everything fell apart in a history you can read on wikipedia, HR had actually gone through more musical changes than one might expect for a relatively short career, from Ramones-esque rock to straight 70's glam that included recruiting as producers Mott The Hoople's Dale Buffin Griffin & Overend Watts. Never being much of a glam fan beyond Bowie & Bolan I wasn't able to really dig HR on first listen. I'm also a confessed non-fan of the Ramones & the punk scene. HR turns in a good updated glam sound, no doubt, but it just isn't my thing. But, Two Steps From The Move brings it all together & smooths out some of the rough spots & when it's said that this was going to be their breakthrough album it's hard not to believe. I've finally found an HR I can listen to repeatedly ... & I'd pretty much not bothered looking anymore having been bored by some comprehensive greatest hits collections. On one hand it feels less imitative than the previous albums, though that also has something to do with famed producer Bob Ezrin of Lou Reed, Alice Cooper & countless others coming into the picture as producer, musician & co-songwriter. While some bands hate producers, with some good reasons over the history of music, a good producer builds up & focuses a band & gives them a distinct personality & is a near member of the band by honor & necessity. Ezrin has a reputation for home runs & doesn't disappoint here. Though, by the time Ezrin gets to HR they were already on the path to success & major international fame having already become the template for the L.A. hair metal glam rock scene. The scene already knew about them but this album was going to put them on the map for everyone everywhere, much in the same way that Desmond Child was called in by Alice Cooper to create Trash after a decade off the charts in a drunken stupor. If only drummer Razzle hadn't died in a car crash leading to bassist Sami Yaffa resigning ... to be followed by the band soon calling it a day & going their separate ways & giving up the crown they were destined to wear. Of course, I would have liked to have asked Yaffa about these days, but I was cool & kept my comments only to the new music. He's probably dwelled in the past too much. The kings of the scene vanished overnight & the imitators Motley Crue, Poison & later Guns N Roses took over. The debt to HR has never really been repaid or recognized by many in the music scene. Thankfully frontman Michael Monroe's current comeback, even if he does now look like an old woman with too much eyeshadow, is turning out some great music loved by fans, peers & critics. If you want to know the buzz on HR & like me are not a glam fan I'd recommend avoiding the greatest hits compilations & go straight for Two Steps From The Move. Perhaps, even, I should have started here & not ended here as there's no place to go but backwards now or live albums or discovering the solo work of the guys. But, this is such a great album it's all I need to feel like I'm fully enjoying HR. This album still has the fun pop glam sound, as recorded previously, both lyrically & musically (for example "Don't You Ever Leave Me", "Boiler (Me Boiler N' Me)"), as singing songs of teaching high school is certainly pop (i.e. "High School") & Michael Monroe's playing the saxophone certainly recalls Bowie, while there's definitely a T-Rex influence (i.e. "I Can't Get It", "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"), which makes one want to go back & check out the oft ignored Marc Bolan who went head to head with Bowie in terms of popularity much like it was the Stones vs the Beatles. There's also a bit of an 80's new wave or synthesizer touch putting a contemporary spanner into the nostalgia with some great twin guitar work (i.e. "Underwater World", "Futurama") that is surely courtesy of Ezrin since he had his ear to the ground. The weakest track also opens the album, a cover of Creedance Clearwater Revival's "Up Around The Bend". It's catchy but not as creative as what follows. It's the old cheap trick of throwing on a cover to get listeners & showing how creative you can sound when really the cover is the least creative & most restrictive musically. Compare it to the single "Don't You Ever Leave Me" & cheap the trick is becomes obvious. "Cutting corners" that ends the album could also very well have been a single & certainly "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" if things had been carried that far for the band. The later is also the title of a Green Day song, no relation. Also noticeable on this album is that Michael Monroe isn't trying to slur out his words like he's in the Ramones nor sounding quite as sleazy as previous releases. He reigns in the vocals for what is actually a better & less forced performance. While I might have met just the lowly bass player the rhythm section of HR deserves mention. HR turn in some great melodic songs but the rhythm section often holds it together if not driving the song while the guitars are just along for the ride. Yaffa & Razzle also refrain from cluttering up the low end. After hearing this one can only wonder why a drummer would want to fill up the air with double bass drumming. Actually, there's no clutter on any level, much in the same way that Quiet Riot was uncluttered or Randy Rhoads era Ozzy. Check out Yaffa on "High School" for some great little bass fill-ins or "Underwater World" where Yaffa & Razzle keep it all together, or Razzle on "Million Miles Away" for some fun cowbell. Cowbell is cool. If anything really hurts the album it's some weak lyrics & topics that sound like they were from the Archies playbook. Sugar coated fun. Even when Alice Cooper sang "School's Out" or "I'm 18" it had more guts lyrically. But, the weak lyrics keep it all fun. It's not as in your face as the later L.A. stuff nor aiming for anything but fun music. No social criticism here. One can only imagine what it would have been like if HR had taken the rock crown they were aiming for. L.A. would be far different & maybe Americans would take more interest in the international music scene. Without hesitance, if you haven't already, fill in your musical scrapbook with HR as it's only two steps...

Hanoi Rocks ~ Decadent Dangerous Delicious (hits comp) (album review) ... Glam rock nightmare!

Style: glam rock, hard rock
Label: Castle
Year: 2000
Home: Finland (disbanded)

Members: Michael Monroe ~ vocals/saxophone/harmonica/piano
Nasty Suicide, Andy McCoy ~ guitars/b. vocals
Sami Yaffa ~ bass/b. vocals
Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley ~ drums/b. vocals
Gyp Casino ~ drums

Additional: Morgan Fisher ~ keyboards
Katrina Leskanich, Miriam Stockley ~ b. vocals\\

At one point Finland's most famous or infamous export was a band called HR ... though Nightwish, HIM & Lordi have put up a serious fight for the title since. HR was thought to be by many the next greatest band in the hard rock world. But, after only a couple albums the sudden death of drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley in a car wreck was a devastating bomb from which the band would never recover, leaving their potential crown to be inherited by Motley Crue. It's ironic that Crue frontman Vince Neil was at the wheel of the car. Even with replacement drummer Terry Chimes from The Clash, a definite inspiration in early HR songs & thus a good fit, frontman Michael Monroe quit in 1985 & the band immediately broke-up with barely a whimper. In 2002 Monroe & guitarist Andy McCoy reformed HR & toured until 2008 when Monroe went solo again with HR bassist Sami Yaffa behind him on stage. Critics, both at the time of their height & since, have often said that HR blended glam & heavy metal better than any band on the scene, particularly the Crue. That's debatable ... particularly considering Motley Crue would have a larger recording budget for their eventual quintessential album Dr. Feelgood, something HR never truly got to make, while HR is truly a glam band while Crue is more hard rock with a glam image. HR certainly has more raw punk energy a la the Clash & Ramones than Motley Crue ever had underneath the make-up, spandex & power ballads. But, for those that say HR isn't a musical inspiration it's hard to deny that they didn't give sleazy glam back to the world. Calling on the New York Dolls & David Bowie in both sleazy songs, roughness & image HR were the first 80's band to keep the glam look alive & have been credited as the initial inspiration of the first generation of L.A. glam/hair metal bands such as Crue, Poison, Ratt, Guns N' Roses & countless others. Today, younger fans would probably credit Motley Crue as the source, if they thought about it at all. They might have been the biggest but they didn't create their image in a vacuum. Those who regard history take a step back to HR & give credit where it's truly due. But, for all this legacy, listening to HR without the background it's almost surprising how HR has become so big & was so big. They are certainly a band where one had to be there at the time to truly understand their impact. The music has far from the commercial polish nor the big guitar sound that became the norm of the 80's. In some ways they're very out of place in the 80's being clear students of the New York Dolls, from the raw music, the cocky androgynous look & even Monroe's quirky unpolished singing. Actually, Monroe might be the weakest link in the band for those only hearing from a musical standpoint. He has bravado that Vince Neil never had but Neil has the better voice for the high notes. But, the New York Dolls or Ramones were not led by great singers either. The New York Dolls also inspired Twisted Sister but while both HR & Sister adopted the look Sister took a heavy metal approach to the music instead of glam rock. HR went for fun while Sister went for scary. Many have even called HR the only authentic band as they made the glam metal image their own while most everyone else was just an imitator based on how much commercial success they could find by adopting the image. In many ways HR sound too much like an imitation of the Dolls. Which also means that those who don't like the Dolls or glam outside of Bowie will probably not get into HR. For those people, HR probably won't climb out of the heap with individuality like their reputation suggests they do. HR is so much a student of the past that they even brought in Overend Watts from father glam-rockers Mott The Hoople to produce their fourth album Back To The Mystery City. Considering all hard rock going on in the word at the time HR sounds out of place & one can wonder what would have happened if they hadn't split. Would they have moved music back to a past & away from where it ended up going before everything came crumbling with grunge? One can only wonder. This two CD collection is probably the best of all HR compilations pulling in tracks from all their pre-reunion albums. There's only a few alternative versions (i.e. "Malibu Beach Nightmare", "I Want You", "Malibu Beach", "Kill City Kills") & thus is stuffed full of tracks fans will already know. Anyone who wants an introduction to HR is going to get nearly everything here that they may want & more. Though, a single CD set will be better for those that aren't glam fans & just want a taste. It's a long listen for one who doesn't get into the music as the band's musical variety will appear minimal. But, it should be mentioned that this is 'nearly everything'. Strangely, there's no inclusion of anything from the album Two Steps From The Move, the final album with Razzle, that is supposedly the album that could have been their climactic career defining moment. It even featured production & writing by Bob Ezrin with Mott The Hoople's Ian Hunter brought into compose. The album also features their biggest hit in the Creedence Clearwater Revival cover "Up Around The Bend", but this is missing in this 2 CD collection that poses as a greatest hits collection. But, in terms of representing the other albums this collection is very fair with nearly an equal number of tracks from from 1981 to 1983 with all the early hits. HR may not be your musical cup of tea but they are worth finding out about to fill in a bit of the musical puzzle you may not have realized had been missing. Motley Crue might have written the book, but this is the true dirt.

Uncle Bob NYC ~ From 14th ... 10011 (album review) ... The wind, the rain, you & me!

Style: pop rock, folk rock
Label: Rockspeak
Year: 2012
Home: New York City

Members: Bob Strano ~ vocals/guitar
Billy Ficca ~ drums

Guests: Clem Burke ~ drums
Sami Yaffa ~ bass
Gary Lucas ~ guitar

From the singer-songwriter-guitarist who has found some buzz in England with his modest "Pictures Of Kate", a tribute to chanteuse Kate Moss, comes this album of homespun stories recalling the similar rock singer-songwriter mindset of Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, Paul Weller, the Kinks' Ray Davies & even the New York Dolls. But, UBNYC is obviously no small town rocker crying just the blues, but a Big Apple boy who might occasionally be seen on stage strumming an acoustic guitar but underneath it has a youthful CBGB's era punk feeling in his soul & a bit of Beatnik bohemianism in the pop culture themed poetry. In his earlier EP with his group the 3tles, featuring guitarist Sam Andrew of Big Brother & The Holding Company & drummer Billy Ficca from Television, UBNYC paved a somewhat sparse sound of acoustic balladeer against a top notch rhythm section. From 14th ... 10011 brings things to a new exciting rock'n'roll level. The acoustic guitar remains but now is a backdrop to classic rock-esqe streaming guitar lines & electric rhythms reminiscent of the guitar team of Steve Hunter & Dick Wagner of Lou Reed & Alice Cooper fame ... though in this case its UBNYC taking both parts. On the whole, the album largely moves in between two feelings that might be best said to be, on one hand, the post-Stooges Iggy Pop, even in his vocal style at times (i.e. the single "She Don't Know Me", "Twenty Four Eight 24/8"), to the poetic ramblings against intricate upbeat backgrounds of Elvis Costello & The Attractions (i.e. "The Wind, The Rain, You & Me"). There's even a bit of Rolling Stones & some heavily distorted guitar lines that will probably please Sonic Youth fans. Then there's "Joe's Tune", written for UBNYC's father, that comes out of nowhere with an unexpectantly gritty early Springsteen bar band sound. Joining UBNYC in this new release is drummer Billy Ficca, whose been playing with UBNYC since the 90's, though Blondie drummer Clem Burke steps in for a song, so does bassist Sami Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks & the reunited New York Dolls & Gary Lucas from Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. From 14th ... 10011 is a classic rock feast in both sound & members. Though, UBNYC's work with the 3tles has already given away his classic influences as the name comes from a bootleg that nicknamed the remaining Beatles 'the Threetles' during the recording of their Anthology series. For those that know UBNYC only in context with the 3tles this long-awaited solo release is a welcome surprise & you'll do a double take seeing how wide UBNYC's range is that he's got tucked up his sleeve deceptively hidden behind the simple "Pictures Of Kate". Vocally UBNYC has a deep voice that recalls the bar bands of John Caffery or rough Springsteen. This was more obvious on his earlier release but now against the wall of electric guitar rhythms with the acoustic tucked away into the mix UBNYC has turned from the path of an East Village singer-songwriter into exciting rocker territory. Let alone, he now shows off his guitar prowess far more than ever & its an addictive listen that won't disappoint.