The Obscure 80's Hair Band Thread

[jaguarr]

Okay, today's obscure band is one of my favorites from this era. They were "discovered", produced and heavily pimped by KISS bassist Gene Simmons. They hailed from Portland, Oregon and went by the name of Black N' Blue.. These guys wrote a lot of lyrics that were just raunchy as hell (no real surprise since they were Simmons' pet project and he's well known for being a raunchy kinda guy), but there was some serious talent and great songwriting behind their music. Jaime St. James had one of the best and most underrated hard rock voices I've ever heard. They had one big hit with "Miss Mystery" and it's supporting video, but it was a very light song compared to much of what they recorded. St. Jaimes went on to replace Jamey Lane in Warrant and Tommy Thayer went on to join KISS as one of their guitarists. No clue what happened to the other guys.

Favorite songs: "Shake The Snake" and "Twelve O'Clock High"

jag

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Ah yes, it was them:


Well there' women in the city that make me feel ****ty
And there's some that make me pack a wad
But the ones that are fine, oh will never be mine
They won't even give me the time of day

I ain't got no money, i ain't got no home
I gotta find me a bim to live with tonight

Sport'n a woody, when you're walkin' by
Sport'n a woody, when you're ***ties fly
Sport'n a woody, rippin' my fly
Sport'n a woody, till the day i die yeah

Well my woody gets big when you're takin' a swig
And your drink's makin you loosen up
Starts a-talkin' to me, well look down and you'll see
What the hell i been talkin' about

isn't that special?

 

[PLAS]

Ah yes, it was them:


Well there' women in the city that make me feel ****ty
And there's some that make me pack a wad
But the ones that are fine, oh will never be mine
They won't even give me the time of day

I ain't got no money, i ain't got no home
I gotta find me a bim to live with tonight

Sport'n a woody, when you're walkin' by
Sport'n a woody, when you're ***ties fly
Sport'n a woody, rippin' my fly
Sport'n a woody, till the day i die yeah

Well my woody gets big when you're takin' a swig
And your drink's makin you loosen up
Starts a-talkin' to me, well look down and you'll see
What the hell i been talkin' about

isn't that special?

of course, they also gave us such masterpieces as "That Dog" (about a dog that bit the guy), "Take Drunk (I'm Home)" (about being pissed out drunk), "Outlaw" (about being, well, an outlaw) and "Here Comes Trouble" (which according to the problematic dude themed song, he would "make you see double"), yet the guitar player was amazing

and for the record, I always thought and to this day think that Enuff Z'Nuff had extremely great songwritting chops, they just happened to come out on the wrongest time, had they come out five years later, they would have been a much more succesful band

anyone remembers Junkyard?

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

I only remember seeing a Junkyard flyer and thinking "Dude, try as you might, you'll never be Axl Rose"...if I'm remembering correctly.

 

[jaguarr]

the post White Snake "super group"

Actually, you're getting two different bands confused. The album above is for another obscure hair band, Girlschool out of London. Their main claim to fame was that they were all girls. They were pretty big in Europe for a time and were label mates with Motorhead and Mercyful Fate. Their singer's best known for damn near being electrocuted to death on stage by her microphone. LOL!

The band you were confusing them with, probably because of the title of that Girlschool album was Blue Murder, which was John Sykes' post Whitesnake "super group" featuring Tony Franklin on Bass and Carmine Appiece on drums. I thought they were incredibly overrated and didn't live up to their hype.

jag

 

[PLAS]

I only remember seeing a Junkyard flyer and thinking "Dude, try as you might, you'll never be Axl Rose"...if I'm remembering correctly.

their "Hollywood" song "borrowed" from GNR a little bit too much

 

[jaguarr]

Junkyard. I remember those guys. LOL!

jag

 

[maxwell's demon]

Actually, you're getting two different bands confused. The album above is for another obscure hair band, Girlschool out of London. Their main claim to fame was that they were all girls. They were pretty big in Europe for a time and were label mates with Motorhead and Mercyful Fate. Their singer's best known for damn near being electrocuted to death on stage by her microphone. LOL!

The band you were confusing them with, probably because of the title of that Girlschool album was Blue Murder, which was John Sykes' post Whitesnake "super group" featuring Tony Franklin on Bass and Carmine Appiece on drums. I thought they were incredibly overrated and didn't live up to their hype.

jag

i THOUGHT they looked wrong in that pic. but i mostly burned away those parts of my brain in an aquanet accident in late '89, so....

 

[PLAS]

maaaaaan!!!!, this thread has gotten me to look for some of that music from back then

I've found most everything here in youtube, so if anyone's curious, check it out, you might find something you like

 

[maxwell's demon]

Truthfully, i think i veered away from hair metal a year too soon to be overtaken by the stuff. most of my friends listened to it but by 1987 i had an older rother whose Welsh friends lent him both 'Substance' records (N.O. and J.D.).
In addition to those were 5 or 6 mix tapes with Echo and the Bunnyman an all the other UK crap on it. I stole those tapes from my brother while he was playing basketball and never looked back.

 

[Truthteller]

The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary, Love Removal Machine, etc. - excellent band.

 

[jaguarr]

The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary, Love Removal Machine, etc. - excellent band.

Excellent band but definitely not obscure, man.

jag

 

[Truthteller]

maaaaaan!!!!, this thread has gotten me to look for some of that music from back then

I've found most everything here in youtube, so if anyone's curious, check it out, you might find something you like

You ain't kiddin'!

Check this out; Ultra rare Joe Perry Project from about 1980

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BJtfNYOp_BA

 

[PLAS]

Truthfully, i think i veered away from hair metal a year too soon to be overtaken by the stuff. most of my friends listened to it but by 1987 i had an older rother whose Welsh friends lent him both 'Substance' records (N.O. and J.D.).
In addition to those were 5 or 6 mix tapes with Echo and the Bunnyman an all the other UK crap on it. I stole those tapes from my brother while he was playing basketball and never looked back.

I had albums by the cure, the smiths, the minutemen and joy division too, I'd get my hard rock fix every weekday from 2 to 3 with Hard 30 (later Hard 60), my heavier dose on saturday nights with Headbangers Ball and my back then called guilty pleasures on sunday nights with Post Modern MTV, which later became 120 Minutes, and later on Alternative Nation

but with PMM I learned my first steps in joy division, sonic youth, the melvins, stone roses, happy mondays and many others

back then, you either liked metal, hard rock or that which was called "weird pop", you couldn't like them all... that's why some of us had to hide our REM albums back in the 80's

 

[jaguarr]

maaaaaan!!!!, this thread has gotten me to look for some of that music from back then

I've found most everything here in youtube, so if anyone's curious, check it out, you might find something you like

It's amazing how much of this stuff is still out there on the 'net in various forms and in the "used" bin at your local record store. I still have all of my cassette tapes from this era as well. There are some definite treasures tucked away in there that I'll pull up for this thread as time goes on. I've been listening to Marchello and Black N' Blue non-stop the last few days, which is part of what prompted me to make this thread. Kind of fun to revisit some of this music. Some of it really stands the test of time (and some of it definitely does not! LOL!).

jag

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Truthfully, i think i veered away from hair metal a year too soon to be overtaken by the stuff. most of my friends listened to it but by 1987 i had an older rother whose Welsh friends lent him both 'Substance' records (N.O. and J.D.).
In addition to those were 5 or 6 mix tapes with Echo and the Bunnyman an all the other UK crap on it. I stole those tapes from my brother while he was playing basketball and never looked back.

I liked 60's/70's stuff (Beatles, Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, old Yes, Bowie)
New Wavy stuff (DEVO, Talking Heads, B-52's, The Fixx, Bowie),
True-Punk grimy stuff like fIREHOSE, X or Bad Brains
some artsy fusiony stuff like Dixie Dregs, all incarnations of King Crimson or Weather Report
AND Hair Metal :snooty:

 

[jaguarr]

back then, you either liked metal, hard rock or that which was called "weird pop", you couldn't like them all... that's why some of us had to hide our REM albums back in the 80's

I had this problem as well. I had a ton of Talking Heads, Cars, Tubes, REM, Bad Brains, Weather Report, Misfits, Dead Kennedy's and other bands that I had to squirrel away from all my headbanger friends because they'd never understand wanting to listen to any of that stuff.

jag

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

I think if you and your friends all liked to have sleepovers where you'd listen religiously to Dr. Demento it helped with the genre boundary-snobbery, 'cause you'd hear Tom Lehrer, Frank Zappa, Cheech and Chong, Weird Al pop parodies, insane stuff like "Hey Punks, Get Off The Grass" or I'm on a Mexican Radio, straight folk, straight punk, tons of styles and you'd like 'em all 'cause you were staying up late, listening to Dr. Demento and it wasn't a school night.
or something

 

[Pussy Galore]

Who is Frank Zappa? I keep hearing that name

 

[Truthteller]

Dweezle and Moon Unit's father!

 

[maxwell's demon]

I think if you and your friends all liked to have sleepovers where you'd listen religiously to Dr. Demento it helped with the genre boundary-snobbery, 'cause you'd hear Tom Lehrer, Frank Zappa, Cheech and Chong, Weird Al pop parodies, insane stuff like "Hey Punks, Get Off The Grass" or I'm on a Mexican Radio, straight folk, straight punk, tons of styles and you'd like 'em all 'cause you were staying up late, listening to Dr. Demento and it wasn't a school night.
or something

i liked when he played that song about the worms.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Who is Frank Zappa? I keep hearing that name

 

[jaguarr]

Dweezle and Moon Unit's father!

What? No love for Ahmet, Truthteller? What's up with that!? Talk about a family that's squandered their musical talent, by the way. Ahmet and Dweezil are both pretty accomplished musicians but damn if they haven't done a damn thing with their talent.

jag

 

[Truthteller]

... and Ahmet.

 

[redmarvel]

Brighton Rock is a Canadian Band from the 80's