Bands that have hit rock bottom

[Banthaholic]

Have you heard any of the songs from Chinese Democracy?! They are really really bad and almost sad to think that the songs were written and performed by a band that was pretty amazing back in the day. I was extremely disappointed with what I heard. Check it out for yourself:
http://www.mygnr.com/next/next.html

Have you heard There Was A Time, or as it's more commonly known as the anogram that it makes, which I'll leave it to you to figure out yourselves. This song rocks. I'm sure any searching on youtube would bring you to it.

If the rumored fall release date does happen for this album, it'll be in my cd player a few minutes after store opening.

[2-1B]

sadly I'd have to say KISS fits this bill nowadays, their ridiculous multi-year, never-ending "farewell tour" where they ended up firing 2 of the original members (the whole reason they came back in the first place was the "re-united" angle) and they can't even recall the DEAD simple formula that made them what they are, so as to release at least ONE good rocking album... they WERE great and their early stuff will never go out of style in my books, but they are a sad joke now

Sad to say I agree with you there. I love Kiss and like you will always cherish (some of) their work but enough is enough already. I didn't even get to see them live until the Reunion Tour of 1996/97 and it was genuinely fantastic, too bad they had to go bonkers in the years after that. I even enjoyed some of the Psycho Circus album and tour but after that it REALLY got goofy. Singer as The Cat and Thayer as The Spaceman was really too much to take. And I'm a big fan of Eric Singer, he's a sweetheart, I just didn't like the abuse of the makeup lineup. I was 14 when the "Revenge" CD with Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick came out and it struck me at that age and I still dig that album. Sure it's not on par with the first few albums but I still like it. And as horrible as the makeup lineup got to be in the 2000-present era, I have to say it would have been better to just do the Reunion Tour of 10 years ago and then get back with Singer and Kulick and play smaller shows to smaller crowds, a mix of the old school stuff played competently while mixing in some of their newer stuff. But there's not nearly as much money in that approach, I'm afraid. And you can't spell $immon$ without 2 dollar signs.

and that misrepresentation of what [Cinderella] actually were didn't help them at ALL, nor is it their fault-

Well, I was thinking specifically of the Night Songs cover where they have the TOTAL 80s hair look about them...not to mention Jon Bon Jovi's name on the CD, that couldn't help either.

[El Chuxter]

The way I see it, Def Leppard, Great White, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Tesla, Extreme, Scorpions, and (to a much lesser extent) GnFnR got unfairly saddled with the "hair band" label. I'm not saying all those bands are still at the top of their game today, but they were so much more than the genre they're associated with.

What's funny is to watch the guy from Warrant claiming now that he never wanted to do "Cherry Pie" and he wanted to rock hardcore all along and blah blah blah. What a load of rubbish. Douchebag frontman from a douchebag group, both deserving of their washed-up status.

Or to see CC Deville of Poison praising Nirvana. Moron! Nirvana and Pearl Jam are precisely the reason you're doing bar mitzvahs for beer money now.

Because if you were truly hair metal in the 80s, you're a washed-up turd-cuddler who hit rock bottom the minute your one hit dropped off the charts. Enjoy the county fair circuit.

[2-1B]

Chux mentioned the county fair circuit and this is a touchy subject for me because Alice Cooper plays a lot of county fairs and I have seen him there (and will again this summer ). Alice is one of my top 3 or top 5 of all time so it pains me to see him in that setting but you know what ? I kinda dig it. It costs next to nothing to see him play live and he STILL has it, I don't care what anybody says. He stills records good records and I enjoy much of what his new stuff has to offer. He puts together decent bands to play with him and he still gives it his all. A great catalogue to fall back on, of course, but he mixes in some new stuff and while I go nuts for it at the shows, of course 90% of the crowd is there just to hear his classic hits.

F**K THEM. I love the old school Alice Cooper Group as much as anyone but some of his stuff from the last 6 years as well as the 90s is very good IMO. Brutal Planet and Dragontown are a great tandem from 2000/2001 and The Eyes of AC and Dirty Diamonds are a pretty decent pair of late.

So I feel bad for The Coop that he is on that circuit of playing fairs in the summer and tiny clubs in the fall/winter but I get to see a great show for pennies on the dollar and I like that part of it.

And I have a crush on his daughter Calico, to boot.

[Rogue II]

The way I see it, Def Leppard, Great White, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Tesla, Extreme, Scorpions, and (to a much lesser extent) GnFnR got unfairly saddled with the "hair band" label. I'm not saying all those bands are still at the top of their game today, but they were so much more than the genre they're associated with.

I partially agree with that list...Motley Crue started out more metal, but they were out there with the big hair and wearing make-up with the rest of the glam rockers. From an interview I saw this weekend, Lars Ulrich said they used to make fun of the Crue. The Scorpions and Def Leppard were established rock bands before the hair bands came about, so I never put them in that category. I really never figured out how to categorize Bon Jovi...maybe one step or two below Van Halen (the Hagar years)? Some sort of light rock...not quite glam, but they had the big hair.

Which was lower for Van Halen, picking up Gary Cherone or going back with DLR?

[2-1B]

Uhhh, that's a no brainer, the answer being DLR being rehired by VH.

Gary Cherone might not have been the best fit for VH (obviously not with the tanking of the 3 album ) but I think he's a cool singer and above the whole "rock star" thing. You know what, maybe that's the first sign that he was a bad hire for the group. Which is actually a compliment to him.

I seriously like Gary Cherone and think he wrote some good songs with Extreme. I still enjoy them to this day.

[Rogue II]

It's nothing against Gary Cherone, he just didn't seem right to be in Van Halen. It's too bad Extreme will never get back together. VH-1 or MTV had that Reuniting the band show a while back. Nuno Bettencourt refused to come back.

I still have Pornograffitti and used to have 3 Sides to Every Story, not sure what happened to it.

[Banthaholic]

Which was lower for Van Halen, picking up Gary Cherone or going back with DLR?

You might have read that DLR (fresh off his talkshow success ) is hoping for another Van Halen reunion.

[LusiferSam]

The way I see it, Def Leppard, Great White, Cinderella, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Tesla, Extreme, Scorpions, and (to a much lesser extent) GnFnR got unfairly saddled with the "hair band" label. I'm not saying all those bands are still at the top of their game today, but they were so much more than the genre they're associated with.

I agree with you for the most part one this. The only band I'm really not familiar with is Cinderella (I know one song, Gypsy Road, and ruffly what they look like). But one there's one thing to remember, these bands did this stuff to themselves. They could have told their labels off (like I'm sure Soundgarden, Nirvana, or Pearl Jam would have done) and said we're not jumping on the band wagon because just because it's the popular to do right now.

Some thing else that strikes me as funny is I had no idea who Tesla was until two years ago. My local radio station started playing stuff off their In to the Now disk and I really dug it. I looked into them thinking they were a new band and was shocked to learn they were an old hair metal band. I haven't listen to every off that new album but what I've heard sounds pretty good so far. And no I'm not letting them off the hook for having been a hair metal band.

Or to see CC Deville of Poison praising Nirvana. Moron! Nirvana and Pearl Jam are precisely the reason you're doing bar mitzvahs for beer money now.

Comments like that always bring a big grin to my face.

[James Boba Fettfield]

From an interview I saw this weekend, Lars Ulrich said they used to make fun of the Crue.

How did he put it? "F*** Motley Crue!" Praise for Cliff Burton's sense to get them out of that music scene.