Old Is New . . .

As many of you know, hard rock & metal both are at the headwaters of my own musical style. This past summer, four of my favorite hard rock bands from the 1980's released new albums: Motley Crue; Def Leppard; Whitesnake; and Judas Priest. Having now rocked these CD's through the summer, I thought it'd be fun to kick 'em into the mix here at the Tone Farm, in the hopes that they might also re-charge your engines - as they did mine.

Starting things off is a double-wallop featuring none other than the Kings of 80's glam metal, the one and only Motley Crue. Penning the review for Saints of Los Angeles, his first for the Tone Farm, is my friend and life-long Crue fan James Reetz. Over the past nine or so years, James has introduced me to a number of very "interesting" bands - many of which are in the darker, more industrial vein of hard rock. Let me just say that there are some very cool things happening tone-wise in this somewhat "unchartered" territory of rock music. Seeing also that Mr. Reetz' writing skills may be under-utilized, I may tap him again later this fall for a review of the latest Clutch CD, which in my honest opinion, has some of the most amazingingly creative hard rock guitar work I've heard in years.

In honor of "Public Enemy #1" being the very first song I learned front-to-back on guitar (*sigh* - seems like yesterday), I thought I'd write a bit about the man behind those searing licks - lead guitarist Mick Mars. Say what you want about Mars - if anything, he has endured 20+ years of reckless, rock n' roll abandon very gracefully - and continues to forge his craft in a most convincing fashion. Tone-wise, I don't think I've heard a better live hard rock guitar sound than what he laid down on the Crue's "Carnival of Sins" concert DVD.

So break out the Aqua Net and Schlitz Malt Liquor 16 oz. pounders - - it's time to get CRAAAZZZEEEEE!! - - J.