Advert

Only a handful of bands survived the switch from eighties spandex and long hair to the rebellion of grunge led by Kurt Cobain. The likes of Motley Crüe and Poison are still in the news, not because of the quality of their music, but as a result of sex video scandals, reality TV shows, and a certain lead singer running into a set piece on the Tonys.

The bands left behind were quickly forgotten or never were quite that popular to begin with. They still manage to haunt local bars, go on reunion tours that get a mention on some obscure blog, and sell a handful of records on an indie label destined for bankruptcy because it's being run as a hobby.

As with all genres, when hair metal was commercially viable there were a multitude of copycats hoping to make it big on the success of others and legions of albums were dumped in the record stores only to be returned to their respective labels unsold. Whether deserving (Enuff Z'Nuff) or not (Trixter), each band had a taste of the spotlight, made a small fortune and then blew it on drugs and alcohol thinking it would last forever. It didn't.

Even heavy hitters like Judas Priest changed their music styling to jump on the hair metal craze with their album "Turbo" and Kiss kept up to date with the genre using more and more outrageous song titles like "Lick It Up," "Rise to It," and "Bang Bang You."

While "true metal" leaned towards themes of horror, violence and the occult, "pretty boy metal" shifted the emphasis to sexual innuendo as bands tried to outdo each other with words suggesting anything and everything about the female anatomy. The ability to party was put on the same level as the ability to play an instrument and eventually metal fans longing for the days of old Sabbath and Zepplin revolted when Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana took over.

Looking back, here are a few bands you may have briefly heard on "Z-Rock" or seen a video on "Headbanger's Ball" with host Rikki Rachman. Many of them are still around, working day jobs and playing at night—usually with websites that aren't updated and a MySpace page announcing yet another best of collection to earn money for the mortgage.

THE KILLER DWARFS. A great name gave them a cult following, but I would never have known this band existed if it weren't for the minor horror hit "The Gate." In the film, the next door neighbor is a typical outcast finding comfort in heavy metal and sports a sleeveless denim jacket with "The Killer Dwarfs" logo on the back. At the time, I thought it was a made-up band, much like the band in the storyline who was killed in a plane crash for provoking demons. It turns out these guys are real, still not sure about the demons ….

Every member in the band took on the last name of dwarf. The original members were Russ Dwarf on lead vocals, Bryce Dwarf on guitar, Ange Dwarf on bass, and Darrell Dwarf on drums. If that weren't offbeat enough, they were also Canadian (no disrespect meant to Rush).

After receiving favorable exposure on MTV in the spring of 1987 with videos for "Keep the Spirit Alive" and "Stand Tall," the Dwarfs signed with Epic Records and released Big Deal. The act toured with Iron Maiden showing off how big of a deal they were—temporarily. Two more albums followed and then Epic dropped the Dwarfs head first … which made them a little Grumpy. They never recovered their glory years, but did reunite in 2001 for a tour and a live album.

Not much has been heard since. If you visit their site you'll see their last news update was April 16, 2006 with directions to visit their MySpace page. There you'll notice their friends include Sebastian Bach of Skid Row, Iron Maiden and Jasmin St Claire. If you're not familiar with Jasmin, suffice to say she's no saint.

Their upcoming tour schedule looks something like this: "You can catch us live whenever we feel like showing up somewhere."



THE BULLET BOYS. I actually paid money to see this band. My best friend, Sam Hyde, was into them and we went to the Portland Memorial Coliseum to be greeted by spandex glam clones everywhere. Cinderella and Winger were included on the bill along with The Bullet Boys. Talk about a triple threat. Beautiful flowing hair filled the stage and, if I remember right, Kip Winger did one of his ballet steps disguised as cool rock move.

The Bullet Boys released their debut album in 1988. The cover featured a slow motion shot of a bullet going through an apple. It's hard to say what the band's name referred to, though the groupies might be able to comment.

Their MTV-rotated video "Smooth Up in Ya," which cannot be mistaken for anything other than doing the nasty, helped them gain recognition among fans and critics. Their style was hardly glam norm and they took chances with bluesy riffs and caterwauling. Lead singer Marq Torien, who was very pretty I must say, was compared to David Lee Roth, and ironically Ted Templemen, who produced the BB debut, also produced Van Halen at a time when good ol' Diamond Dave was on vocals.

They released three more albums—including their second effort called Freakshow, which reportedly did not refer to themselves—then they called it quits … Until 2000 when The Bullet Boys decided to give it one last "shot" (get it?) and reformed temporarily to record tracks for Greatest Hits: Burning Cats and Amputees. They may have been a little stoned when they came up with that title or there was a drunken argument followed by a compromise between "Burning Cats" and "Amputees."



TRIXTER. Remember these guys? They looked so non-threatening in their MTV-rotated videos that it is surprising they didn't get beat up regularly by their own groupies. Their VH1.com bio says they formed in 1983 but it took until 1989 to get their big break when they signed with MCA Records. A sign of bad things to come may have been that they toured with Stryper.

Trixter's self-titled debut album went Gold and three video singles increased their popularity including "Give It to Me Good," "One In A Million," and "Surrender." The cover art for their release was drawn by well known comic book artist Neal Adams—their music was more like a comic strip.

When the band tried to keep the momentum going with their second album Hear! they ran into 1992, the year that killed hair metal. Even with that difficulty it's hard to say if Trixter would have lasted long with metal fans. They just weren't that tough and they sounded like a Batman villain.


WILDSIDE. I just discovered these guys on Rhapsody.com and was curious as to why I had never heard of them. They sound like someone took the best of Crüe, G 'n' R, and Cinderella and mixed them into one. The vocals are high pitched and vicious like a throatier Vince Neil, which at times also sounds exactly like Axl Rose. Their lyrics have some cliché themes like the classic tribute to a hooker, but the music itself makes a variety of turns while still keeping the best part of any hair metal song—the anthem.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at finding info on Wildside (what? no Wikipedia page?) I came across a history on the band by HairBangersRadio. Their story breaks down to bad timing, more so than usual.

They worked diligently on the LA strip building up their identity as Young Gunns and eventually caught the attention of record executives with sold out shows at The Whisky A Go-Go and The Roxy. Due to the release of the movie "Young Guns" they were forced to change their name to "Wildside" and signed to Capitol Records.

The release date for their Under the Influence debut album was scheduled for 1992. You might already guess what happened—Nirvana. Grunge hit and hair metal was dead as far as the media and music fans were concerned. If Wildside had come out in '88 or even '91 we may remember them as the equivalent of a Skid Row or at least a Winger.

These guys were prepped for super stardom and missed it. Timing is everything even with so much talent.

If you want to hear the best hair metal you missed out on, they've collected their songs into two albums: The Essential Wildside Vol 1 and 2.


BRITNY FOX. I was always under the impression that Britny Fox was an all girl band, but I realized I was confusing them with Vixen.

Metal Edge Magazine's "Reader's Choice Awards" voted them best new band of 1988. Their self-titled debut sold more than a million copies. By their third album Bite Down Hard (see if you can get that image out of your head) they decided to part ways.

In between the debut and Bite Down Hard (there's that image again) there was the second album Boys in Heat. I only mention that because, well, the album was called "Boys in Heat." It seems to indicate that they were referring to themselves as bitches—which might explain their loud attire and band name. Actually, their band name came from lead singer Dizzy Dean Davison. He had a Welsh ancestor named Britny Fox, according to NoLifeTilMetal—no indication if that ancestor was male or female.

Popular tracks from Britny Fox include the social commentary "Girl School." The music video explores the disruption and frustration involved in an all female education. Available to view at YouTube, a user commented: "I understand this is a somewhat common problem for teachers in the 80s—heavy metal concerts breaking out in the middle of class."

Other social commentaries from their debut album include the tear jerker "Save the Weak" and the patriotic "In America." Both sound like they were written by Spinal Tap.

The sound of the band can be mostly compared to Cinderella, a band that preceded them, but the vocals would depart from the cliché raspy voice at times to sound more like KISS.


DANGEROUS TOYS. The band that actually has an album called Pissed!

Seeing as how they were dropped by their label after their second album (on their MySpace page they say they were the ones who decided to leave Columbia for an Indie label—uh-huh) and they were part of a summer 1991 tour with Judas Priest, Alice Cooper and Motorhead that flopped, it's a pretty good bet by 1994 that Dangerous Toys were indeed "pissed." This band was cursed by the evil clown that graced their album covers.

NoLifeTilMetal.com describes their 1989 debut like this: "Take the slither and slide of like L.A. bands like Guns n Roses and Faster Pussycat and mix it with a Texas, southern rock boogie, and you pretty much have an accurate description of this disc."

NoLifeTilMetal.com describes their last album like this: "Words cannot describe how much I think this album SUCKS!"

You might notice the subtle comparison from the description of the first release to the last. That last album was the oddly named R*tist 4*merly Known as Dangerous Toys.

Actually, Dangerous Toys did sell one more album called Vitamins & Crash Helmets Tour - Greatest Hits Live. And according to No Life 'Til Metal the band ripped it up pretty good on the stage.

Dangerous Toys' debut did go Gold, but another piece of bad luck is told on their Myspace page. In addition to the first album, they also performed a song called "Demon Bell" for the soundtrack of Wes Craven's "Shocker." "Shocker" failed to be Wes Craven's new Freddy franchise giving the band one more thing be pissed about.

The good news though is that "Shocker" is being remade. The bad news for DT is that Henry Rollins is up for the role of serial killer Horace Pinker and will probably murder anyone suggesting that a hair metal band be included on the soundtrack.


DIRTY LOOKS. Dirty Looks boasts their new album for 2009, The Worst of Dirty Looks, on their website DirtyLooksMusic.com. If you can't sell a good album, sell a bad one collecting your life's work. At least the band has a sense of humor about their past.

If we were to name one band out of the rest of the hair metal pack that sounds most like AC/DC it would be this band. If you've never heard of Dirty Looks it may because they never glammed it up as much as Cinderella, Poison or The Crüe . In their video "Go Away" they're dressed down in baseball caps and jeans with stock footage of explosions and destruction going on behind them (possibly a reference to a very bad relationship).

Cool From The Wire is their best known release from when they signed onto Atlantic Records. MTV airtime was repeatedly given to the video single "Oh Ruby."

Their second release, which I believe is superior to the first, is Turn of the Screw with the lyrical question "Turn of the screw! Who is screwing you?!" The cover art shows a serene middle class family from the fifties with a screw coming in at them from the ceiling. It's not quite clear if the family was being screwed or if there was a deeper, more meaningful reference to Henry James's novella of the same name. Much like the ending to the book it's all ambiguity.

The band is still busy. They released Gasoline in 2007 and Superdeluxe in 2008. Their MySpace page is filled with pitches for merchandise. You have to admire their tenacity.




ENUFF Z'NUFF. The metal band you weren't sure were hippies or glam—their debut album had a rather large peace sign on it. VH1.com, with an article from All Music Guide, describes the confusion as "Packaged in garish peace-glam attire by their record company, the group was wrongly lumped in with the disposable pop-metal bands of the late '80s (Poison, Warrant, etc.) rather than appreciated for the truly gifted power pop act that they were."

In other words, bad marketing.

The band title was inspired by the name of the bassist Chip Znuff. Otherwise you might think it absurd to misspell "Enough is Enough" (still seems to be kind of stupid despite the explanation).

Enuff Z'nuff received favorable responses from critics, but their attire seemed to get in the way of attracting a solid fan base. By the time they had recovered from being fashion victims, it was too late.

After being signed with Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, for their self-titled debut and sophomore effort Strength they were let go due to poor record sales. Arista Records came to the rescue so they could put out a third album with the scientifically impressive observation Animals with Human Intelligence. It could not find an audience and Arista said good bye and Enuff Z'nuff had enough (you knew that was coming).

Drug addiction and a lack of prospects had founding members Donnie Vie and Chip Znuff tasting rock 'n' roll defeat … But then Japan came calling. The band released its original 1985 demos as the next album—which was conveniently called 1985—and brought in sales both at home and in Japan (where musical tastes are questionable). Howard Stern even gave the guys a thumbs-up style quote to put in the liner notes. Enuff money, er, enough money came rolling in for Vie and Znuff to recover and record two new albums.

They continued to succeed in this manner until their eleventh album when Donnie Vie decided to split for a solo gig. Then just as he was going to return, guitarist Derek Frigo accidentally overdosed. It was a setback that carried some emotional weight.

Despite the loss of an original member, the band proceeded on and continues to tour. Upcoming dates can be found on EnuffZnuff.com. Their last release from 2008 is called "Dissonance" and their music continues to receive favorable criticism like this from RevelationZ : "Dissonance is a wonderful effort and hopefully only the first glimpse of a rejuvenated band, back and hungry for more."

Enuff Z'nuff may be one of the few lost hair metal band which rock fans keep rediscovering. You can laugh at their original outfits, but their musical chops can't be dismissed so lightly.




KIX. The main problem with Kix is that they've had to compete for name recognition with a kid's cereal for the last 28 years.

According to their VH1 Bio from All Music Guide, they started out calling themselves "Shooze," switched to the name the "Generators," and then finally decided on "Kix." It's apparent they were blindly choosing names out of a hat.

Kix signed with Atlantic Records in 1981 after gaining a reputation in Baltimore as a cover band. As usual, a self-titled debut was released and the hardworking musicians "hit every club up and down the East Coast," writes John Franck on the VH1 bio page. Their follow up effort Cool Kids resulted in a video single called "Body Talk" which was on par with Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical." Metal heads were treated to an aerobics class with shots of the band playing on stage. I'm guessing aerobics was not the kind of body talk the lyrics were referring to.

NoLifeTilMetal.com has this to say about Cool Kids: "The most memorable part of this album is the video as seen of Beavis and Butthead. I remember Beavis or Butthead watching the video for 'Cool Kids' and remarking, 'Uh, I'd hate to see the Un-cool kids.'"

The guys weren't exactly getting the tough rep required to please metal fans. That is until their fourth album Blow My Fuse gave them a hit—it was unfortunately a ballad, but at least a tough ballad. "Don't Close Your Eyes" sold records. Blow My Fuse went Gold and the band finally got some short-lived recognition among the likes of Ratt and Warrant. You might say Blow My Fuse blew open some doors and the guys toured with their heroes AC/DC causing confusion with audiences at times because, well, they sounded like AC/DC….All right, that's speculative that they caused confusion. It's possible they could have been confused for Dirty Looks, Britny Fox or Cinderella too.

While Blow My Fuse was the hit the band had longed for, it was bittersweet. Again from VH1.com: "Now severely indebted to Atlantic, the band faced a painful wake up call when they realized that they hadn't made a penny off Blow My Fuse."

Hot Wire, their fifth album came out in 1991 and if you've read this far you know what happened then.

After grunge hit, unlike many bands that tried to survive by incorporating it into their style, Kix stuck with their signature sound—which again sounded like AC/DC!

They released a live album in '93 with the inventive title of Kix – Live and then Show Business in 1995 which featured the song "Put My Money Where Your Mouth Is." That song has since gone on to be the focus of recurring drunken debates in blue collar bars everywhere as to whether it is innuendo or is meant to be taken literally.

Show Business, the album, killed the band. It didn't sell and everyone finally had had enough.




VIXEN. This all female band got its big break by starring as another band called Diaper Rash in the eighties sex comedy "Hard Bodies." I'm not sure that's important, but it's one of the few interesting news items about this band.

Often compared to a female version of Bon Jovi, the girls worked the LA/Hollywood Club scene—musically speaking that is—and signed with EMI in 1987, according to the All Music Guide on VH1.com.

Their first hit (not sure if there was a second) was "Edge of a Broken Heart" which was written and arranged by the guy with the fluffy mullet, Richard Marx. He added his touches to other songs on their debut album, but then abandoned the girls for his own career when it came to their second release Rev It Up (isn't that just like a man?).

Their debut went Gold as a result of "Edge of a Broken Heart" being rotated heavily on MTV. A Vixen Bio on Suite 101 says this allowed the girls to open up for acts like Ozzy and The Scorpions.

Vixen was intended to be competition for the more popular band The Bangles whose hit "Walk Like an Egyptian" is still remembered. It's hard to say if the average person could name one Vixen track. Their debut had generic rock titles seemingly related to getting knocked up: "I Want You To Rock Me," "One Night Alone," "Cryin'," "Desperate" and after nine months the song "Love Made Me."

The question with Vixen is could they be glam when they were women dressing up as women? The girls did not go the sleazy route with their act, their lyrics mostly spoke of "love" and not sexual innuendo like their male counterparts, and their stage costumes were rather tame if not ostentatious. The worst they could be accused of were some mild cheesecake shots for hard rock magazines. Big hair, long leather jackets, boots, and some zebra striped spandex—they may have looked ridiculous, but they were hardly sex objects.

The band suffered the usual 1992 shake up with grunge and didn't record another album until 1998 called Tangerine. Afterwards, they attempted a brief comeback with no luck and split up. Then lead guitarist Jan Kuehnemund decided to reform Vixen with all new members. They released a live recording from 2005's Sweden Rock Festival and new studio album called Live and Learn.

The current lineup can be seen at VixenRock.com. They look like moms who are out to embarrass their children. Their latest news says they're working on a new release for 2009.

No Comments have been Posted.

Please Login to Post a Comment.

---

Awesome!		100%	[1 Vote]
Very Good		0%	[No Votes]
Good		0%	[No Votes]
Average		0%	[No Votes]
Poor		0%	[No Votes]