AlphaMale

Has anyone checked out the 6-part series written by Benny Rhynedance? It's up on the band's Wildside Facebook page. Started months ago and released monthly, this is a nice very in depth story of the how the band was born and all through the recording of Under The Influence. And of course, the fall of Wildside. I will copy and paste here. It's a long story so I will post each part separately. Enjoy the read!! Part 1 The History of WildSide... Part 1 WILDSIDE·THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2016 “Welcome to L.A. - You’re Fucked.” Hey all, this is Benny Rhynedance here. As a founding member of WildSide, and official band historian, I get lots of requests as to how WildSide started as a band, how we got a record deal, and questions about what it was like to be a part of the Sunset Strip Hollwood Hair Metal Scene at its peak, back in the 80’s. Well, here’s Part 1 of 5 - A peek inside WildSide’s role in Hollywood hard rock hair metal history... The origins of WildSide start way back in 1982 in Seattle, Washington. Singer Drew Hannah and I went to high school together in a little town just outside of Seattle, called Issaquah. I had grown up there my whole childhood, but Drew was a teenage Seattle area transplant from Studio City, CA. He was playing some guitar and singing in a local rock cover band called Crossfire, and they played here and there. I thought they were good, and I really wanted in on it, but there was no room for me. I knew I could get Drew to go with me if we could get the right thing going. He and I had jammed a few times at his house, and aside from being waterskiing, Iron Maiden loving, girl chasing, fishing buddies, we had mutual musical tastes as well. The two of us were in the same AC/DC, Maiden, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Halen, Motley Crue mindset, and suited to be in a band together. After high school graduation in ‘83 at Issaquah , and a year of college at a military academy, I decided to leave college to become a rockstar. <gulp!> I came back to Seattle, found Drew and we started a top 40 cover band called NuProphet. We played high school dances, and opened up for various bands in Seattle bars, as underage teens. Not exactly rock stardom. It was cool, and our first taste at what being in front of a crowd and playing onstage was like. We wanted to be like Van Halen, Ratt, Motley Crue, etc. Problem was, we were playing Flock of Seagulls, and Kajagoogoo. It wasn’t working. We looked like metal but were playing new wave and pop music. We worked very hard, rehearsed a lot, honed our craft for 2 years, got a booking agency, and played a decent amount of shows. In all actuality, we had aquired a fair bit of seasoning for such a young band of teen dudes. By 1986, many years before grunge had its day, we knew we weren’t going to get anywhere just playing cover gigs in Seattle. We had lofty ambitions and had outgrown the city. We figured out that we needed to be where the bands were getting signed if we wanted a shot at a real music career. Los Angeles was in the midst of a metal explosion, where it was all happening, the metal mecca, and we wanted to be a part of it. We replaced a member or two, became more hard rock, wrote some original songs, and changed the band name to ROGUE. (which people ALWAYS mispronounced as Rouge! Nooo! lol) We decided to pack up our Datsun’s and high tail it to Hollywood in May of 1986. Showing up in L.A. was a total shock. We were broke, and suddenly without any safety net. Welcome to adulthood the hard way! All five of us guys in ROGUE stayed in a one bedroom apartment in Northridge, out in the middle of the San Fernando Valley. The summer of 1986 was sweltering hot, and we spent almost every day at Zuma Beach, north of Malibu, boogie boarding, tanning, chasing Valley girls, and planning our rock assault on the world. (lol) The competition between bands for record company interest in L.A. was fierce, and that itself is an understatement. Bands were all over the place trying to do the same thing we were trying to do. It was crazy. We’d never seen anything like it. The Sunset Strip from N. Clark St. at The Whisky, past The Roxy and The Rainbow, to N. Doheny Dr. at Gil Turner’s, just past Gazzarri’s, was standing room only every single night. Scantily clad girls were everywhere and hair-sprayed rocker dudes were in full force. These were the famous, most nightly foot traffic’d three blocks on W. Sunset Blvd. Poison, Warrant, Guns-N-Roses, L.A. Guns and many more were all out on the strip many nights, and you would end up walking past these guys a few times a night on Sunset as you passed out your band flyers promoting your own upcoming shows. Anything and everything happened during those nights on the Strip. It was whatever your imagination thinks it was, times ten. We spent a lot of time inside The Rainbow bumming pizza off people, and the occasional free beer. It was WILD, to say the least! Our band ROGUE had assimilated into Hollywood fairly well, and was gaining a little ground on the Hollywood scene. We endured the famous Hollywood clubs Pay-To-Play promoter rip-off, and built a small local following in the process. Drew and I both knew it wasn’t going to last though. Lost in Hollywood hair metal obscurity, ROGUE broke up with two of the guys leaving in late 1987, followed by the third in early ‘88. Setback. That left just Drew and I - and then there were two. Now what? Not backing down, the two of us forged ahead and decided to start a new band and add another guitarist to the mix. I met Brent Woods one of the first days after we arrived in L.A., meeting at a mutual Reseda rehearsal place in the valley. Brent was a friend of ours, someone we saw a few times a week, and in a competing band. Brent and I used to shop on Melrose Ave. for stage clothes. He was the only guy I knew in 1987 that had a cell phone! (It was HUGE and it cost like $10/min to use it! lol) He drove a brand new black Celica Supra. Impressive. He was totally cool. We asked Brent if he would be interested in jamming with us. He was down, but he was also in like 3 bands at the time. We started jamming a bit with a new drummer, a great bassist named Kevin Hillary (went on to Quiet Riot - RIP Kevin/Kenny), myself and Brent on guitar, and Drew, of course, on lead vocals. We all hit it off immediately, and wrote some exciting new riffs as a unit. It felt like a great start, like it was something serious. There was some definite magic happening between us all and a renewed hope that maybe there was still a chance. We called ourselves THE BOYZ for about 5 minutes, until we found out that George Lynch had a band called that in the late 70’s. Then it was YOUNGBLOOD. Naw, that wouldn’t work either. We decided on YOUNG GUNNS (before the movie was ever out) and started the process of becoming a pro band striving for a recording contract... Differing Opinion Disclaimer : “The History of WildSide written here is MY point of view on how things happened for my band. Others in the band may have seen it differently and experienced different things, and I can respect their interpretations of our history. This however, is how I saw it, and what I experienced. Rock on.” - Benny Rhynedance

Moonshine sounds okay. The other two aren't that good. I would check out the rest though because of Moonshine. Kind of reminds me of Jeff Pilson's War & Peace band.

LINK REMOVED -Dan Released today, June 3, "Relentless" is the amazing debut CD by some kind of super-group FOUR BY FATE consisting of former Frehley's Comet men Tod Howarth & John Regan, ex- Skid Row drummer Rob Affuso, and guitarist Patrick James Gasperini (Pound). Four By Fate might just have created the best melodic hard rock debuts of the year... but the short history of the band up until this point has been noteworthy, to say the least. The initial band line-up featured Howarth & Regan alongside guitarist Sean Kelly (Crash Kelly, Helix) and drummer Stet Howland (drummer for W.A.S.P.), but, following a car accident the tub thumper was replaced by Twisted Sister's AJ Pero. With Gasperini taking the place of Kelly on guitar, the line-up seemed settled... until the untimely death of AJ Pero to the dismay of hard rock community worldwide. The six songs featured on 'Relentless' that Pero played on are actually believed to be his last recorded works. Affuso stepped up to the drum stool and, finally, after much heartache, Four By Fate's debut album was primed for release. Prior to joining Frehley's Comet, John Regan toured with John Waite in 1986 - it's how he would meet his future band mate as it happens: Howarth playing keyboards for Cheap Trick on a joint tour. So the fact that the opening track on the album is a spirited reworking of a Waite song shouldn't be that much of a surprise: just how vibrant Four By Fate make 'These Times Are Hard For Lovers', and make it the band's own in the process, is, in fact, the most surprising thing here. What will startle, however, is the variety spread across the album. When I listen songs such as 'Levee Breach' or 'On My Own', I hear the Eighties, but also the deep hard rock of classic bands of late Seventies with all its charm. Alternatively, within 'Moonshine', I sometimes hear pre-poodle Whitesnake, but with more grit, gusto, and heaviness and less prominent blues, while 'I Give' lands has a Paul Stanley-like melody lines that frequent the tracklisting giving the latter a definite 'Carnival of Souls' feel. When you have a track titled 'Back In The 80's', you can't be wrong. This band - and this song - has all the Eighties mojo, rocks with a melodic groove and feel-good vibe. But ultimately, what you hear is definite righteous and rowdy hard rock. In that vein, Four By Fate covers 'Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo', you know, that one off hit by Rick Derringer. It's got all the same groove, melody, and latent blues of the original, yet sounds harder and grittier like it was rolled through churning cement mixer with the cement still in it. The qualities you want in a (melodic) hard rock record - searing lead guitar breaks and gorgeous hooks - are all present here, it's just that Four By Fate, whose members have, unquestionably, been around the block more than a few times, aren't playing by the rules or confining themselves to subgenre cliché. That said, the album's final track, 'Amber Waves', both in its full band and acoustic version, is melodic rock manna from heaven that will have AOR fans weeping into their perm solution. Four By Fate's "Relentless" may well have seemingly come from nowhere, but it is surely going places. As say the opening track, these times might be hard for lovers, but not for Rock music fans when albums as thrilling as this are being released. Super, Highly Recommended. 01 - These Times Are Hard for Lovers 02 - Moonshine 03 - Hangin' On 04 - Levee Breach 05 - It's over Now 06 - Follow Me 07 - On My Own 08 - I Give 09 - Don't Know 10 - Back In The 80's 10 - Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo 12 - Amber Waves 13 - Amber Waves (acoustic) Tod Howarth - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards John Regan - Bass, Vocals Patrick James - Guitar, Vocals Rob Affuso - Drums and Percussion AJ Pero - Drums and Percussion BUY IT ! www.theomegaorder.com/FOUR-BY-FATE-Relentless_3?sc=13&category=503170

1. Heart N Soul 2. How Many Lies 3. Clock Strikes 4. Hair Of The Dog 5. So Far Away

some more Easy Mickey:

Metal from MERCURY RISING: https://youtu.be/ltbQJaOjSjg

You don't know what you're missing! Kickass band!!

Yeah.... I'd have to agree. Killer tune!

Excellent!!

Yeah, but the poll doesn't ask who are the best, but who are your favourite. Which is why I picked you, because we're best friends. Or at least I thought we were. But it does indeed actually ask who the best are. And thanks for picking me. When we meet and fight I will unleash 15,867 punches onto you. I had planned to belt you with 15,868 punches, but I will remember you picked me in this poll and reward you for it accordingly. Narp. The thread title might say "Best," but the poll itself asks who are your favourites, and then Russ reiterated that in the first post. Sorry. I know you probably got excited for a second, thinking you were right for once. Thread title > Initial post. Oh, look at that. I'm right again. For the every singleth time ever. Except when talking about that terrible ISSA disc.

You know what would be awesome? If all record stores online or not tell Jon Bon Dickhead that at their record shop, "This disc is not for sale". LOL

I'd hit it!

If Jon and Richie were on good terms, wouldn't he be in the band?

Me too.

Garbage.

http://heavyharmonies.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=34312&hl=%2Band+%2Bthe+%2Brest

Died doing what he loved. That's the way to go. Hopefully, we are all that lucky. I will probably be masturbating when I die, since that's doing what I love!

We must protect this house!! We Will!!!