Alice, Sweet Alice

I'm a freak. I don't mean that to say that I'm a hippie, stoner, Punk Rocker or some other fad. See, I'm always that one step off. As an example, I've been thinking about how much I loved Alice Cooper. Not so strange? Here's the thing, I kinda sorta hated the 1970's Alice Cooper ( a couple of songs were worthwhile, but otherwise, useless to me) and I definitely hate the sober, resting on his laurels Alice of the 1990's onwards. The Alice Cooper I love is the blackout drunk from the early to mid 1980's. Yup, the totally disowned records: Flush the Fashion, Special Forces, and Zipper Catches Skin. I still listen to those records, but when I mention how much I like Alice Cooper, people think I mean stuff like Only Women Bleed, and School's Out, both of which are absolute drek to me, and were part of the reason I hated music in the 1970's.
So, I mention song I like, such as "Who Do You Think We Are" and "Grim Facts" and "I like Girls", and people have no idea. I think that the reason why I like them, and the reason why Vincent Furnier was so self destructive while making them are two sides of the same coin: this is the point where the wheels had come off- where the pieces were worn out and couldn't be made to work. See, that's right where a shock rocker becomes truly shocking. He wasn't playing at being a monster, he was doing everything he could to stop the monster he was becoming, even if it killed him. The music was furious and thrashing, like the band, even was trying to escape from Rocknroll. That's where it gets interesting to me, because that's an honest tension, and something I can understand- the point at which you cannot continue with where you've been going, but you don't yet understand where you should go next. So, you do fake new wave songs dressed half in drag, and half like Rambo. That clicks with me.I can relate to that. See, that's what I mean by saying that I'm a freak- I've always been on that edge where the past has to be dropped, but I can't see the future, just yet. I've grown comfortable with that feeling. I don't think Alice ever did, and so, believe it or not, I feel sorry for the man Vincent Furnier has become.

Red Fang

So, yes, I like hard rock. I wouldn't exactly call myself a punk or a metal head, though. I just like really loud rocknroll. I think that fits Red Fang, as well. They've been called Stoner Metal, Doom indie, Sludge punk, and (my favorite) Beer Metal. But, really, they just play really loud Rock. They've got an active sense of humour, and a bullet belt of "Hell Yeah!" riffs, to pair up with their love of facial hair and beer. You'll probably think of bands like Black Sabbath, and Queens of the Stone Age, but I'm hearing everything from AC/DC to ZZ Top. They're just damn fine, very loud rock music. With Pabst. And foot long beards. and sleazoid guitars that appear to be welded pieces of other intruments, fished out from the Puget sound. Oh, and Tecate. Maybe some Schaefer.
Look, I was thinking earlier about how hard it is getting to trust anyone or anything, when everybody seems to want to sell you on something. Everybody from your favorite politician to that girl who smiled at you at the gas station, that you thought might be flirting, but then, you realized was smiling that same way to every guy who came in. Rock bands, especially want to sell you on some concept, or some marketing ploy, so's you'll buy an extra T shirt at the merch table. I'm not trying to sell you on anything, here. I make a pretty good salary, enough that I can afford to buy somewhere around 100 CDs a year, and download a bunch more stuff. Between that and the free stuff, I bet I hear about 365 new releases per year. I know most folks can't keep up with that. Most folks I know maybe download 20 songs in a month, if that. They might buy 6 CDs in a year. So, if you went out and bought everything I suggested, you'd be pretty poor, pretty quick.
All that having said, if you do buy just 1 CD per month, go stream some Red Fang, and decide for yourself if you want to buy it. I'm seriously happy I bought the new one Murder the Mountains. I wasn't the biggest fan of their first record, but it had some moments. This one is an instant classic to me. I'm getting the same joy from this that I did when I heard Rated R by QOTSA: a band that I sorta liked suddenly was awesome. So, yes, I think Red Fang are awesome.