It is Mötley Crüe week here on Moshpits and Movies where we are celebrating the release of the band’s brand new Netflix biopic The Dirt which was released this past Friday (March 22). We figured that we would cap off Mötley Crüe week by covering one of the band’s albums for the Album Of The Week post and we are giving you two albums for the price of one this week. On November 10, 1981, the band which was made up of Vince Neil (Vocals), Nikki Sixx (Bass), Mick Mars (Guitars), and Tommy Lee (Drums) would self release their debut album Too Fast For Love on their own label Leathür Records. Eventually when the band was signed to Elektra Records, the label would remix the album and re-release it in August of 1982. As far as the track lisiting and artwork is concerned, we are giving you the Leathür Records Edition of the album which features ten tracks as opposed to the nine track Elektra Records release. The original pressing of the album was limited to 900 copies to which the band quickly sold and the re-released version eventually went Platinum while also peaking at 77 on the Billboard Top 200 charts.
1. Live Wire– The fierce and ferocious opener kicks off the show with one of the most popular tracks that band performed throughout their careers. I think the track is about when your young you think you’re unstoppable just because what you think you bring to the table is fresh and new. 5/5
2. Public Enemy #1-an awesome track that takes a look at how amazing just being young, wild, and free is because you break all the rules and everyone wants you. The song was co-written with Nikki’s former London bandmate Lizzie Grey who is credited on the song. 5/5
3. Take Me To The Top– an amazing song that has a slight punk rock feel to it at times that is all about fighting those inner demons and temptations as you go to the top. 5/5
4. Merry-Go-Round– a slow and methodical track that apparently is about something that Nikki witnessed as a kid in Seattle when he saw a man refuse to come off a Merry Go Round and was taken away in a straitjacket. 5/5
5. Piece of Your Action– This is the last track on side A and one of two songs that Vince Neil co-wrote on the album that is the original version of Ten Seconds To Love (not really, but as far as lyrical meaning it is). 5/5
6. Starry Eyes-Another amazing song that is musically in the same style as Merry-Go-Round and it’s all about a girl who you are just memorized by because she can do things no other can. The song features one of my favorite builds up to a guitar solo the band has ever done. 5/5
7. Stick to Your Guns– a very Aerosmith like swagger to the track int he beginning before the band launches into overdrive Mötley Crüe style. The track is all about doing what you think is right for you and screw what everyone else says. 5/5
8. Come on and Dance-a cool, raw hard rock classic that is all about a stripper and what this stripper can do that just hooks all the guys in. You have to love the cowbell playing that Tommy Lee includes in this song. 5/5
9. Too Fast For Love-The second best track on the record that is already amazing to begin with and that punk infused rock is awesome in this track that is all about living that rock star life. 5/5
10. On With The Show– Another amazing song and what an amazing track to end an album with. The track is song is almost autobiographical at the time for the year as it chronicles the death of Frank Feranna Jr. and the birth of Nikki Sixx. This is the second song on the album that was co-written by Vince Neil. 5/5
My Final Thoughts– Besides Shout At The Devil, this may be the greatest Mötley Crüe record ever recorded due to the fact of how hungry the band was and how raw their sound was in this track. Shout featured a more polished sound that was provided thanks to Elektra and their resources. I love every single song on this record which is why I am going to give the album 5 stars out of five for a final grade. Welcome to the five star club!!!
We are continuing to celebrate Mötley Crüe week here on Moshpits and Movies thanks to the release of the Netflix biopic The Dirt which was released this past Friday (March 22ND). Mötley Crüe are one of those bands that was very influential as they were the leaders of the pack back in their time so it’s safe to say they influenced a lot of bands. Steel Panther is a band that pays tribute to the decadent days of the 80’s in a very exaggerated way, but that is the fun of it. While on tour in Indianapolis back in December of 2018, Steel Panther were on stage at the Old National Centre and they performed Shout At The Devil live and thanks to Fat Samurai on Youtube, we can watch it and it kicks ass. I am not 100% sure who is playing bass for the band in the video, but he’s doing his best impression of Nikki Sixx which I give him credit for. Satchel does an incredible job shredding on guitar while Michael Starr takes the vocals to a whole other level. Check out the live performance below:
While Jordan Peele’s new horror film US may dominate what is on people’s minds this weekend, there was one film that was undeniably on my radar. Back in 2001, the world’s most notorious and decadent group to ever come out of the 1980’s was none other than Mötley Crüe and the band dished on everything with their book The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band which was written by the band and Neil Strauss that helped spark a revolution in rock autobiographies that still dominates to this day. Then back when Mötley Crüe’s retirement tour announcement came in 2013, we found out that Jeff Tremaine (Jackass) was going to direct the film adaptation of the book called The Dirt. The film stars Douglas Booth (Noah) as Nikki Sixx, Colson Baker (Machine Gun Kelly) as Tommy Lee, Iwan Rheon (Game Of Thrones) as Mick Mars, and Daniel Webber (Thumper) as Vince Neil, the charismatic lead singer as the film follows the journey of their humble beginnings all the way through triumph, tragedy, and rebirth as we navigate through the hairspray filled, spandex covered Sunset Strip via Netflix. The film also stars Pete Davidson (Set It Up) as Tom Zutant, Christian Gehring (The Brink) as David Lee Roth, David Costabile (Breaking Bad) as Doc McGhee, Tony Cavalero (The Duff) as Ozzy Osbourne, Max Milner as Razzle, Rebekah Graf (The Amityville Murders) as Heather Locklear, Vince Mattis (Halloween) as Frank Feranna Jr., and many more.
Anyone that asks me how the film was is going to wonder how the film was in comparison to another film by the name of Bohemian Rhapsody, but that just isn’t fair in my book. They are two completely different bands with two completely different outcomes and Mötley Crüe certainly didn’t allow them to hold back in this one with any of the ugly details. I definitely thought that was the key to how great this film was because while it does look like the most extravagant life, it shows you that deep down not everything is what it seems to be after a while. While that film did an amazing job as far as casting was concerned, I think the casting crew did an amazing job with the guys they found for this film because I believed that I was watching Mötley Crüe right in front of my eyes. One of the guys who deserves a lot of credit is Colson Baker who plays the wild man Tommy Lee and with the amount of experience he had in acting as compared to the others, he nailed it in my book from the beginning all the way to his look during Dr. Feelgood and beyond. Obviously, you can’t fit everything that you read from a book into a film so a lot of stuff had to be cut out of the book like the fact that Nikki Sixx was dating Lita Ford during the Shout At The Devil days and they left out Tommy’s relationship with Pamela Anderson from the film.
There are a lot of scenes and moments in the film that will just leave quite the impact on you and one of those scenes were the moments Vince had when his late daughter Skylar was sick with stomach cancer. Those were some emotionally tough scenes to watch because it was so real and so many people in the world can relate to the struggle. Another one of those scenes was the death of Nicholas Dingley a.k.a. Razzle of Hanoi Rocks who grew to be a very good friend of the band and his death was a huge turning point for the band that would effect them for years to come as you’ll see and read about in the book. One of the things that was absolutely amazing was how they transformed the Sunset Strip and all of the clubs to look like it’s heyday. The set designers deserve an Oscar for the work they put into this film recreating that as well as recreating all the amazing stage setups that Mötley Crüe had from their original club days all the way through. The costume designers also deserve an Oscar for the amazing job they did as they pulled it off and made me believe I was back in the 1980’s. This film is a work of art that needs to be checked out by Mötley Crüe fans everywhere. I would definitely rank this film right up there with some of my favorite rock biopics ever and if you’ve never read the book, do yourself a favor and check it out. The acting is great, the cinematography was great, the editing was great, and the film just kicked ass. I am going to give The Dirt an A+ for a final grade because I also loved the Goodfellas style narrating that you get from each member.
The film that you all have been waiting for since the rumors some years ago and the announcement during their retirement tour press conference is going to drop on Netflix this month. That’s right, I am talking about the Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt which stars Machine Gun Kelly a.k.a. Colson Baker as Tommy Lee, Iwan Rheon as Mick Mars, Daniel Webber as Vince Neil, and Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx. To celebrate the film, the band returned to the studio to record four tracks together which includes a cover of Madonnas Like A Virgin and the track we chose for today’s Rock Single of the Week in The Dirt (Est. 1981) featuring Machine Gun Kelly. The track at first has a very Shout At The Devil feel with the intro, but when the band comes in, it’s very Saints Of Los Angeles sounding which is cool because it’s the natural evolution of the Crüe. If you wondering what it sounds like with Machine Gun Kelly, I have to say that his part is not overwhelming as it fits the track perfectly and it doesn’t overtake it. One of the other common questions asked is how is the band getting back in the studio without wanting to reunite and tour? Nikki answered that question in an interview with Classic Rock saying, “Yeah, I miss the guys, and I miss playing with them, and playing that music, but everyone’s fairly busy with their own thing. That’s a whole conversation that we haven’t even had at that point.” He however did not deny nor confirm the rumors, but simple said, “I don’t know if we ever will.” Check out the film on Netflix and check out the single below:
This past Sunday, we held MusicBowl 53 where we allowed you the fans to vote as Aerosmith (representing New England) took on Motley Crue (representing LA) to coincide with SuperBowl LIII. After collecting your votes on the blog and on Twitter, Aerosmith was the winner of the MusicBowl. As is tradition on the blog, we cover an album from the winning band for the album of the week post and for this week’s we chose Toys In The Attic by Aerosmith. The bad boys of Boston which was made up of Steven Tyler (Vocals/Keyboards/Harmonica), Joe Perry (Lead Guitar), Brad Whitford (Rhythm Guitar), Tom Hamilton (Bass), and Joey Kramer (Drums) released their third studio album on April 8, 1975 via Columbia Records and was produced by Jack Douglas. The album is the band’s most successful album in the United States selling over 8 million copies while peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts. Rolling Stone ranked Toys In The Attic 229 on their The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
1. Toys In The Attic– The title track kicks off the album in style to which Tyler recalls, “Joe was jamming a riff and I started yelling, ‘Toys, toys, toys…’ Organic, immediate, infectious…I just started singing and it fit like chocolate and peanut butter. Joe plays his ass off on that song.” 5/5
6. Sweet Emotion– One of my all time favorite Aerosmith song’s that I first heard when I watched the film Dazed And Confused. The song was written by Tom Hamilton who came up with the bass riff that was played alongside an bass marimba in the beginning. The track also featured a talk box and what Tyler describes, “On ‘Sweet Emotion’, we used these backward handclaps and four of us in the studio chanting, ‘Fuck you, Frank.’ If you play it backward, you can hear this.” 5/5
My Final Thoughts– This is definitely up there in the echelon of what is considered a classic Aerosmith record and it’s definitely top five for me, but to be honest I grew up a fan of 80’s Aerosmith. I have a new appreciation over the years for their 70’s material which is why I decided to visit it today. This album really put the band on the charts and it certainly paid off as even producer Jack Douglas saw that the band had matured while being on the road before recording this. My favorite track is Sweet Emotion, Walk This Way, the title track, and even Round And Round. Uncle Salty is my least favorite track on the album. I am giving the album 4.5 stars out of five for a final grade.
Last year, we skipped doing MusicBowl 52 because I couldn’t find a suitable band from Philadelphia to challenge a band from New England. Well that has all changed thanks to some tweets and some Instagram posts courtesy of Nikki Sixx. Nikki has proclaimed his allegiance to the Los Angeles Rams on several occasions and I have seen Steven Tyler of Aerosmith sing the national anthem while wearing a Patriots jersey. So, I figured the perfect matchup for this year’s MusicBowl was to have to be Motley Crue vs Aerosmith as it is the LA Rams vs the New England Patriots in SuperBowl LIII (53 for those who do not know Roman numerals). It makes the most sense since Aerosmith threw the first shot at Motley Crue in 1987 with Dude Looks Like A Lady, but it didn’t matter much when Motley Crue silenced their critics with 1989’s Dr. Feelgood which happened to be the band’s biggest selling and charted album of their careers with great songs like the title track, Kickstart My Heart, and Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away). One thing you do have to remember is that the original Toxic Twins were in Aerosmith who were making waves in the 1970’s when guys like Tommy Lee and Vince Neil were still in junior high. Both bands have had legendary careers and were the tops of their genre and have had some legendary comeback stories as well. The problem is that only one of them can win MusicBowl LIII much like only team will come up victorious tonight in Atlanta. I am going to run the poll in two areas with this one being one and the second run through Twitter where you will have until 8:30PM ET tonight to decide. Two legendary bands, but only one can win, vote and enjoy!!! Also below the voting poll is also some examples to help you decide.
For an album and a time that was super decadent, I feel that I have to set the tone before I can review this week’s album of the week. The year is 1985 and you’re lead singer has served whatever little time that he received for killing your band’s best friend in Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley. What is your band supposed to do at this point in time when all the proverbial sh** has hit the fan? Most bands would crumble without their star lead singer behind the helm and then there are bands that would simply move on and try to find another singer to take his place. That is what 1980’s hair metal legends Mötley Crüe did when lead singer Vince Neil was arrested and charged. Nikki Sixx (bassist) took control of the situation as he started to write new material for the band’s third album Theater Of Pain and then he almost had Ratt lead singer Stephen Pearcy take Vince’s spot. Luckily for the band, that didn’t need to happen as Vince was eventually released and the album was recorded despite the tensions between the rest of the band (guitarist Mick Mars, drummer Tommy Lee) and Vince. The album was pretty successful for the band as it peaked at number six on the Billboard Top 200 as it went well on it’s way to going four times platinum.
1. City Boy Blues– The first track on the record that kicks off the new, more glam oriented style for the band as Nikki wrote the song about being a country kid now injected into the city life. 4.5/5
6. Tonight (We Need A Lover)– interesting track that is all about the backstage festivities that went on during the decadent 80’s. 4/5