On the Shelf 102: Michael Monroe
Oct. 14th, 2013 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23My teenage years coincided with the high tide of glam metal. I could probably talk about this here at great length (and have), but I will give you the usual takeaways: For the most part, I wasn't a fan. There were a lot of terrible nth-generation bands that by 1990 were closer in style to Billie Ray Cyrus or Michael Bolton than Too Fast For Love or Van Halen II. I, of course, peferred the modern rock of the day- Pixies, Jesus and Mary Chain, New Order, etc, which isn't to say I was always perfect (Madchester).
In any case, not all 'glam bands' were terrible either. Some like the London Quireboys and Black Crowes took queues from the Faces and the Stones, while some bands were just good hard rock bands trying to sell albums. (As an aside, I always considered Tom Keifer a notch ahead of the crowd based on the bluesy Heartbreak Station. His 2013 solo album has got quite a bit of airplay, though sadly, it isn't very good- too slow and trying too hard to be authentic.)
In any case, during those years which I spent much time with metal fans (and by that I mean true metal and the glam stars of the day both), and one of my favorite bands became the by-then defunct Hanoi Rocks.
I still see interviews which Michael Monroe claims the band wasn't glam, but they undoubtedly were. They just drew heavier from the New York Dolls, Alice Cooper Band, Mott the Hoople and T Rex than most. Their failed shot at the big time- the big budget Two Steps from the Move is like a blueprint for Guns N Roses.
So I played those albums to death. The band reunited in 2001, stayed together for nearly a decade, made three studio albums, and no one could blame them after years of seeing bands they pre-dated like the Poisons, Warrants and Wingers of the world make truckloads of money.
The thing is the reunion albums picked up where the band left off. While it's seemingly hard to match the excitement of youth when you are in your late 40s, the band put together songs that might not have been the classics, but were deserving of the band's title. While McCoy and Monroe did call it a day with Hanoi Rocks Mk 2, Monroe has used that momentum into his solo career. 2011's Sensory Overdrive was Classic Rock magazine's album of the year.
So it continues with Horns and Halos. Nothing that would probably sway anyone over who didn't like Hanoi in the first place, but some pretty solid sleaze and blues rock that still manages to be a bit better than his competition.
In any case, not all 'glam bands' were terrible either. Some like the London Quireboys and Black Crowes took queues from the Faces and the Stones, while some bands were just good hard rock bands trying to sell albums. (As an aside, I always considered Tom Keifer a notch ahead of the crowd based on the bluesy Heartbreak Station. His 2013 solo album has got quite a bit of airplay, though sadly, it isn't very good- too slow and trying too hard to be authentic.)
In any case, during those years which I spent much time with metal fans (and by that I mean true metal and the glam stars of the day both), and one of my favorite bands became the by-then defunct Hanoi Rocks.
I still see interviews which Michael Monroe claims the band wasn't glam, but they undoubtedly were. They just drew heavier from the New York Dolls, Alice Cooper Band, Mott the Hoople and T Rex than most. Their failed shot at the big time- the big budget Two Steps from the Move is like a blueprint for Guns N Roses.
So I played those albums to death. The band reunited in 2001, stayed together for nearly a decade, made three studio albums, and no one could blame them after years of seeing bands they pre-dated like the Poisons, Warrants and Wingers of the world make truckloads of money.
The thing is the reunion albums picked up where the band left off. While it's seemingly hard to match the excitement of youth when you are in your late 40s, the band put together songs that might not have been the classics, but were deserving of the band's title. While McCoy and Monroe did call it a day with Hanoi Rocks Mk 2, Monroe has used that momentum into his solo career. 2011's Sensory Overdrive was Classic Rock magazine's album of the year.
So it continues with Horns and Halos. Nothing that would probably sway anyone over who didn't like Hanoi in the first place, but some pretty solid sleaze and blues rock that still manages to be a bit better than his competition.
