Motley Crue/New Tattoo(2000)

The 90s were kinda brutal for Motley Crue…

QuickTime Line…..By Deke…

1992- Vince Neil (singer) gets canned! 

1994-Crue release what I would consider there second best album (after the debut) in the self titled Motley Crue or as I call it Motley Corabi  featuring John Corbai as the new singer.. Album and Tour Flop!

1997-Corabi gets the Boot. Sleazy Vince returns and the Crue release Generation Swine(Flop #2) which I consider a better record than most others but  doesn’t really do much sales wise!

1999-Tommy Lee splits and is replaced by Randy Castillo(RIP)….

So at the start of the New Millennium( 2000) Nikki Sixx dusts off his Dr Feelgood Leather Trouser’s for one more kick at Hair Metal  Throne Of Yesteryear to see if there’s another shot  at Success…

And Guess What Folks?! This one kinda fuses out but there are a few good ones here….

Now for me at the time I bought all this stuff the day of or the week of when new releases would come out….I would play the album non stop of course but over time some fall to the wayside and New Tattoo does.

Having not listened to this album since 2000 pretty much I’m gonna steamroll through some tracks and to be quite honest let’s see how my memory holds up….

 

Hell On High Heels- Pretty decent track. I thought it was a typical throwback Crue tune which would have fit nice and snuggly on Side 2 of 1987’s Girls/Girls/Girls album. These are the kind of tunes that Motley could excel at but by this time not too many were caring. Motley raised the Musical Bar High(and probably drank it dry) on the 94 Corabi album. There playing on that album is phenomenal to say the least as they went from Chucky Cheese Rock of Dr Feelgood into a Music Blender stuffed full of Pissed Off Feelings mixed with a slab dose of Dirty Grunge tunings and no one Fuckin cared! Except Myself/Robbo and Tbone!

Treat Me Like The Dog I Am- No dice Amigo….

New Tattoo-The Title Track and well …….Next

Dragship Superstar- Oh Boy a pattern is developing here…

1st Band On The Moon-Ah …Sixx reaches down into his Musical Bag of Trixx and nails off a Gem! This has those 80s Trimmings of a Kewl Chorus. Go figure as Sixx is the lone co writer on this song. Perhaps he should have taken a few more years and just wrote the album himself.

She Needs Rock n Roll- ?

Punched In The Teeth By Love- I wish Nikki would have had this title back in the Crue’s 80’s Heyday and used Punch In The Teeth By Love and written a Power Ballad for it and placed it once again on Side 2 of the Girl’s album and taken off that Your All I Need track. Yeah that one where it Sounds like Vince has taken his cue from Mr Stanley from KISS’s 1984 Album Animalize and sung in the Highest Vocal Registry possible. Hey don’t bash me I actually like Animalize but man Stanley sang so high-pitched on that album my cat went bonker’s……Since were keeping score here…I have no idea what this song is about but what a  Great Fackin Title!

Hollywood Ending-  For $1  Alex (Trebek) I’m thinking Ballad? Can’t recall….

Fake- I like this track. Sixx writes whats Fake around him. Fake People/Fake This/Fake That. Great Sludgey like tune, Dirty Crue  even Vince sounds Sleazy Good on this track, They should have called the album Fake/Fake/Fake. 

Porno Stars- No recollection of remembering this tune Judge Judy.

White Punks On Dope- This is an Iggy & The Stooges cover and I don’t even know how this tune goes…..

I’m sure there are some out there that Dig this album and for that I Salute You! Seriously I do…

For me …Man it’s on my iPod but I skip it all together. Maybe I’m being a tad harsh but cut me some slack man I littered Sixx’s and The Crues pockets full of dough through the 80s into the 90’s so if its  dud  I’m calling  ya out on it!

If anything the titles on this album are Cool! Sixx though was trying to keep the Crue afloat by  putting out product and touring. By the time  the tour rolled around Castillo got Cancer and had to give up his drum stool….I think Ladano reviewed this album so check out all the Nitty Gritty Details over at his site……

I even bought the new Crue album  Saints of Los Angeles.

See! Bands still can put out mediocre at best stuff and I will still stick around. I’m Kinda like the Dude who doesn’t  know when to leave the party after everyone has left and all you wanna do is sleep off your Late Night Drunkenness…

Party’s Over So Get The (Bleep) Out!

 

 

SONIC WAVES….Motley Crüe/Shout At The Devil

So Motley lays down the ground work with an absolute killer of a debut(Too Fast For Love) and now the big leagues call their name as record labels come sniffing around and smelling $$$$$! The Crue sign with Elektra Records and so it begins!

Myself? Well enough hype was written about the Crue I mean there starting to get mention in all the Rock Mags(Hit Parader,Circus,Kerrang,Creem) so it’s all there in the makings of the Crue going huge…and Yep,huge is where they went!

Iron Maiden with new lead throat Bruce Dickinson release the classic Number Of The Beast and you have Ozzy Osbourne with some people thinking he is the devil with his antics(biting bat heads off,pissing on the Alamo)calling his album Bark At The Moon, so yeah the Crue especially bassist/leader Nikki Sixx sees what’s selling so why not  jump aboard the Devils Ship and while you’re at it call your record Shout At The Devil and well let’s cash cow it while we can…..

Following trends which would become a pattern for this band.

Sept 1983 and the Crue having done the legwork like I said earlier on the hype machine(adds in the music magazines ) before SATD is released and when that day comes where all flocking like a bunch of seagulls down to all the record shops to buy it!

The cover is Black with a Pentagram and red lettering. Simple yet effective I’m brainwashed the Album Is a gatefold sleeve with big pics of the guys Sixx/Vince Neil/Tommy Lee and Mick Mars…lyrics and just good all around packaging and of course the Crue is bad ass right? So they tell us for all to see what they recorded the album on and let’s say it’s a hodgepodge of everything to make you ummmmm Feelgood?! Krell anyone?

Crue in Tbay is big news and here we go……

IN THE BEGINNING- Some eerie sounding synth with a spoken word intro sets the pace for this record….’in the beginning’ and wow man they’re preaching some kind of jibber jabber evil and don’t fuck with us cuz we’re the Crue and before Ya know it Stand Up and ….

SHOUT AT THE DEVIL- Wowzers Mars slams his guitar like quick little lightening bolts at the beginning of the song and the MVP from the first record Tommy Lee pounces the drums and here comes the chant SHOUT….SHOUT ….SHOUT…and Vince takes over and man listening back to these records this guy tossed away his own legacy in later years but whatever that’s Vince’s deal but back in 83 he was the deal kinda of. Yep so The Crue are off to the races and when they tell me to SHOUT……I shout and say how loud! Sixx is somewhere at the time counting his cash and snickering how he’s fooling all of us young punks! Guess what? At the time I’m good with that!

LOOKS THAT KILL- Crue borrows all of Kiss’ leftovers from the sets of Kiss’ Lick It Up Videos and you want desolate wasteland/Scantily dressed women and Mick Mars looking sketchy just like Simmoms did in the Lick It Up vids this is your one stop shop for all things Freaky Dekey! Ha….’Now listen up” sez Vince and the boys lead the charge and man its full assault of drums/guitars and bass and with good measure a “Hey” is thrown in to appease the concert goers at future Crue shows!

BASTARD-Ok so here we are by track 3 and were hanging with the Crue and we have gone from Shouting At The Devil to the chicks with the Looks That Kill and now we’re into a knife fight! Like holy shit i don’t know if I can keep up with this pace of hanging with Sixx and Crue! Seriously though this is one of the sleeper tracks on here …I mean I remember awhile back at work my buddy Dabrando walked by me and chirped ‘Out go the lights,in goes my knife,pull out his life consider the Bastard dead!” I howled ,it’s at moments like that when no one else is around at work  who knows what the hell were talking about but just the two of us! Hahahaha…..Bastard rocks with Tommy double bassing and  Sleazy Vince chasing the lyrics put forth by Sixx! They even throw in some Whoooooah Whoooooooooah Bastard!

GOD BLESS THE CHILDERN OF THE BEAST- Mars Bars puts done a little piece of acoustic and towards of it there’s someone saying and telling us to God Bless The Childern Of The Beast that segues into…..

HELTER SKELTER- Crue shows some real balls by covering the Beatles I mean they get away with it with a pretty decent version! Crue sleazeballs it to the nines and make it their own and hey let’s keep the Dark brooding theme going..and going and the cash registers ringing…ringing ..ringing….

RED HOT- Tommy starts off with his double bass drums going full steam ahead! The sonics of this album and this song is the problem I have with how Tom  Werman produced. I mean listen to the drum mix on Too Fast For Love it’s warm aND fuzzy but with always an inch away from kicking you in the ass with Tommys ferocity! This kinda disappeared on Shout At The Devil and man the drum mix on Theatre Of Pain is fuckin awful to my ears, maybe it’s just me? Who knows…but yeah Tommy leads the charge Mick rolls in and Sixx and Neil run and scream thru the night! Love the chorus….Red Hot…Red Hot….to the top we are Red Hot!….hahaha…Brent Jensen you are right! (I’m not telling you what he says..go and buy his great book No Sleep Til Sudbury)

TOO YOUNG TO FALL IN LOVE- Remember the vid..the Crues eating sushi and banging birds! Hahaha….this was the single and yep the Crue are tough guys kicking ass and don’t forget just earlier they were in a knife fight with Bastard! So don’t mess with them! Mars peels off a decent solo and this is a good song. Like many others Tommy drives the bus with his drums……

KNOCK EM DEAD KID- love this track.Sixx nails a winner with this tune with a real catchy verse and chorus! Drums/bass and guitar are top-notch on this tune in a 1983 kinda way!

TEN SECONDS TO LOVE-Sex by Sixx and he tries to be ACDC with the words but these are kinda dumb  and then I read in the magazines  back than how they had girls in the studio when they were recording this track! Yeah ok sure …but man the lyrics are fuckin funny…”touch my gun but don’t pull my trigger’ hahaha…but man goofball lyrics aside the verse and chorus are real catchy and man the melody sticks in your head like if someone crazy glued your brain to listening to Ten Seconds To Love on a continuous loop! This is just like a Sleazy Simmons Kiss tune! Just big OL dumb Arena Rock!(ha)

DANGER-Nikki Dixx with a synth and out comes Danger to end the album. Crue is telling us that we’re  Danger when the boys are in town! Hollywood mafia meet Motley Crüe! This I guess is the song to end the album on a serious note and hell why not! Sixx and his posse knows that even though there will be a car crash that wipes out a great band(Hanoi Rocks) Nikki knows young Deke will be getting on his 10 speed bike and hauling ass 2 years later to buy the Crues next album when it hits the shops and ……he’s right!

IN CONCLUSION – I think for the majority of Crue  fans out there they would say this is there best! Fair enough but for me I really like the debut And over time and to be honest SATD has been on iPod and to write this I spun it a few times and man the production is ok not great! But hey at the time  I was 16 and who am I to tell  how to produce records! Even now 32 years later who am to tell how to produce records? But I can say it cuz I spent the cash on said product. Make sense?  But Sixx and Crue deliver it at the time and build an empire that would go for about another 8 years until well…….