TOO FAST FOR LOVE reviewed by Blaster of Reality

     Nikki Sixx once famously said he wanted to have a band that was a combination of the Sex Pistols, David Bowie and Black Sabbath. Nearly 33 years after their debut, Too Fast for Love, we are still waiting for that band to materialize. Motley Crue, with its purposely (and unintentionally comic) misspelled name is as quintessentially Californian as Hollywood, the Beach Boys and Van Halen and equally as cheeseball. Instead of achieving the admixture set forth by the former Frank Ferrana, the band displays a propensity for the shock of Alice Cooper, the glam of Kiss, the androgyny of the New York Dolls, the studs and leather of the Plasmatics, the simultaneous tenderness/toughness of Joan Jett, a dose of Crackerjack-box Satanic imagery and the accessible tunefulness of Cheap Trick fueled by an appetite for sleaze, unbridled rawness suffused with electricity and a desire to "make it." All of this contrived with the intention of being the heaviest and most outrageous band possible but suffering from lack of context and general obliviousness. They did not really create anything new, but instead synthesized this amalgam of influences into what was passably a new breed of heavy metal.  In short, they were Reagan-era "punk rock" for people who never heard of either the Anti-Nowhere League or the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, except maybe for Def Leppard and Iron Maiden, and who thought Slayer and Dio were too extreme for their comfort zones.

          

     Too Fast for Love killed disco and sidelined prog-rock in the beginning of the '80's the same way Nirvana's Nevermind would kill hair metal in the beginning of the '90's. Both albums utilize a lethal cocktail of Punk, Metal, amateurishness, and lack of production (Too Fast for Love ironically being less polished than Nevermind) to create a new template for popular youth rock in their respective decades (well maybe if you switched Too Fast... with Shout at the Devil and Nevermind with Bleach, but you get the general gist...) In their '80's heyday, Motley Crue were feared by elementary school kids, loved by tweens and teens, and despised by parents and teachers across the United States. Most "true" metalheads and punks however, considered them an anomalous corruption of the genre, little more than Duran Duran with strange-shaped guitars.

     Songs on Too Fast for Love can be categorized into "classic Motley", "predictable but not particularly memorable", "pop/Cheap Trick-inspired", and "tough ballad" with overlap between all 4 categories. Opener track "Live Wire" starts with an incessant riff that falls under "classic Motley", more Glam/Thrash than the Speed Metal many make it out to be, mainly due to the middle slow-down and the corny cowbell, both of which save it from both Speed Metal status and being taken too seriously. Next song "Come On and Dance" has a cool main riff and comes off as a classic Motley jam colliding with a Cheap Trick jam--of which the latter, "Public Enemy Number One" is definitely more Cheap Trick-inspired. Everything from the catchy lead to the consistent melody pervading all the vocal parts elevate it into almost power pop status.

     Fourth number, "Merry Go-Round", is the first ballad on Too Fast for Love but even then that really isn't an accurate description. Instead of clean guitars with shitty keyboards or something else associated with the '80's, there is muted guitar picking with that same gnarly guitar tone never again replicated on any Motley Crue release with an overall aesthetic that Suzi Quatro might find pleasing. "Take Me to the Top" is next. It is classic Motley but unfortunately only sounds better in comparison to weaker jams on here such as "Piece of Your Action" and the title track. Both are okay, but are too unabashedly cock rock for my liking. “Too Fast for Love” should be a classic Motley Crue track but just isn't, in my opinion. "Starry Eyes" is to me, another standout track to me both because of its poppy Cheap Trick sensibilities as well as an almost '60's garage feel to it. It also has some amusing gong work in the first few seconds as well as some hysterical lead work in last few seconds before the (inevitable for it's time and genre) fade-out...

     The album ends with "On With the Show", a song that is equal parts heartfelt, clumsy, clunky and sleazy. It has a classic (almost) doo-wop chord progression with what the Motley dudes must have thought was the perfect marriage of tenderness and heaviness with fake autobiographical lyrics: a classic Motley Crue closing ballad (a style of ending albums replicated on both Shout at the Devil and Dr. Feelgood.)

     There are different versions of this record with different running orders and bonus material. The almost impossible to find first pressing on Leathur is obviously the most desirable but at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. The ultimate legacy of Too Fast for Love? It kick-started a whole new sub-genre of hard rock (call it what you may: Hair Metal, Cock Rock, Pop Metal, whatever) and set its tone for almost a decade. It seems that bands that came after Motley took the worst elements of the worst songs on  Too Fast for Love and amplified them to nauseating effect while ignoring the essential garage-iness of this release. To some it is a template, to some a much-needed escape from reality, but if one is to attempt to be objective, it is a Glam/Punk-influenced Proto-Hair Metal release with appropriated and weak Satanic imagery, and an uber-raw guitar tone and songwriting prowess straight out of the L.A garage that spawned it. It probably transcended any expectations, influence-wise, or commercially, that the band might have had for it, paving the way for the paradoxically more focused and polished but looser  follow-up, Shout at the Devil, which really put them on the map, and into the homes and consciousness of the public in the era of malls, New Wave, MTV, Tipper Gore, yuppies, feathery haired and earringged teenagers, and suicides allegedly influenced by heavy metal records.

Trees and Ghosts (2010)

Just back from clarity's clashing wood on woodgrain scream,

but see the fingers shimmer in the branches

flicker linger even now

strings flock and shimmer too deep and out

who knows what we are inside of

like violin bows raked slowly along the inside of my eggs

and then that earthquake of violet storming banishment

fingers lightly drawn across the Ouija board – ghosts fly in knock the lit lamp over into darkness

and we lie down

the living and the dead

feeling the golden glossed wooden floor against our palms at once

the floor November at once the floor May.

Vanish dreamed mucous down my linger lingeresss

Just back from Winter bright and swaying

into night afterhours dangerous

spring breaking up with sudden ground asserting itself in green

and staining our knees our eyes with blood brown recklessness

rising into June's hazy sex appeal appealing into

three trees cracking and falling into sudden storms

disappeared into night

two trips sweating and running with spiders slapping our faces

from those same trees the trees saying everything

we wore fine sweat all summer like elegances sweeping down our hands lacy silky – what are those things ---

and one same moon clanging back and forth

flesh full and falling

But see the ghost of the bathhouse on Edgewater beach

looming high like a weaver as I walked

avoiding its sunwhite howling

my green umbrella makes me feel not like the Stranger

but like a stranger to my fellows and more at home with ghosts

I called them spontaneously

I know it's reckless to call ghosts but the pressure was on and I had to call something,

There is only one thing taboo to ceremonial magicians, not blood on glass or babies' hair, but--calling on  ghosts is repellent to them --- not because ghosts are powerful enough to be dangerous,

but because they're dirty – they're tricky, they have nothing to offer, manipulative sacks of needy aunts, pervert uncles and sly genies

but I call them because they are nature,

in nature weaved into nature like this air that I lean on,

 this wood that lives in houses,

like the hairs on caterpillars that make us love them,

even though we know they aren't mammals

but there is a way in which they are mammals anyway.

But see Two trees twisted like brothers like lovers and even trees know about it

-      they stand so still and watch so closely with eyes that are infinite pores – they know about love. married people need to watch trees

-      because married people could grow like two small branches apart that want to fuse together or at least twist up, but who instead grow ice that covers and becomes glass impermeable

-      – married people become dangerous to each other when there is too much to be done to work together

-      – they become two  feelers covered in suffocating plastic this is you and that is me and I did this but you did that

-      oh the ache of another pulling the plastic back and loving

-      the wooden fibers inside, stroking them - it's too dangerous for married people – taboo – the competition moved in between them – we can't even dance here – even dancing is taboo. At least there is the neti pot in one nostril and out the other and all sound becomes  the steady mouthbreathing like a child alone in a pool looking under the lip into the painted wall it draws your attention to the gloss that breathes in and out the third eye.

Pigeons have silver necks and coo coo coo – they lived in my roof growing up, my folks let the redneck wolf next door shoot at them sometimes because

they shit too much up there white shit hanging from the roof like icing,

but pigeons might be doves for all I know about the fauna of Ohio

-      what about all the human shit in New Jersey now – don't they send it to Ohio – import? Protectionism – there's enough shit in Ohio.

-      Let the deer wolves pigeons be and go and shit for once –

-       the pigeons and the sea gulls meet in the

-      parking lot that is a big part of the park at Edgewater park – the

-      gulls could leave to other seas,

-      the pigeons could leave for other cities – but they live here

-      with us and the oaks and those other trees

-      whatever flora in Ohio up outside of the water –

-       some people call pigeons and seagulls flying rats,

-      they have that  in common but I think it's too dismissive –

-      I wouldn't have a rat for a pet but so many people I know would –

-      it's probably more natural for people to live with rats anyway like cats and dogs than ferrets or snakes, rats go with people, too.

PAULINE LOMBARDO, NOISE ARTIST

I’m honored to share the thoughts of my wonderful friend, Pauline Lombardo. Pauline and Rebecca Potter have been performing as Cunting Daughters for nearly four years, manipulating subtle layers of sound with melancholy artifacts, including antique dolls and sex tools. They are featured in the film City/Ruins. Pauline also performs solo, expressing a wide range of energetic noises with contact mics, tape decks and whatever else she can get her hands on. An excellent nature photographer, Pauline also performs in the quality bands Perestroika and The Utter Darkness after a Dying Flame.

ARH: What are you working on now? Please describe current projects you’re most excited about. Are they collaborations or solo work?

PL: My most recent project was a collaboration with a great friend of mine titled Exaltation Heat, I think you may be familiar with it. Yes, it is a collab with the talented Amanda Howland. I am incredibly happy with how that cassette release turned out. The entire process flowed so easily all the way down to the cover art and packaging. Working with someone close to you can be very rewarding. I thank you, Amanda, for that. I have been in a bit of a lull lately. I find it much easier to be musically creative in the darker months of the year, I have noticed this cycle over the last few years. Summer does not inspire me. It's nearing the end of the bright distracting phase of the year so I'm sure Cunting Daughters will find it safe to crawl back out into the darkness very soon & start performing again. We also have several unfinished recordings that we intend to complete in the next few months. I'm sure there will be some solo performances as well. 

ARH:  I know what you mean about the darker months. Yes, that tape is one of my all time favorite projects, as well! I love working with you.

When and how did you get into performing? Feel free to discuss any influences and early experiences.

PL: I am very new to performing. I had been to several A/V/B [Audio Visual Baptism – a monthly series that ran for a few years, a few years ago] shows and was inspired by what was going on. One of the themed shows was "All Female", and I was encouraged by my dearest friend Stephen Petrus to get on the bill. That was Cunting Daughters’ very first performance. CD is comprised of Rebecca Potter and myself. We found it to be a great outlet for things dwelling inside of us both, a way to express our interests and complexities. We were received well, so it further encouraged us. We mostly draw from the unsettling and darker things around us, but have no exclusive theme or inspiration. Many of these themes are also inspirational in my solo work. 

ARH: Since you’ve started performing, have you noticed repeating cycles in terms of style and energy of experimental music? How would you describe the current zeitgeist? 

PL: I don't know that I have enough of a timeline to see any cycles, or I have simply not been observant enough. I do see that things have slowed and the group of local musicians that I know seems to have thinned a bit. Shows don't seem to be as well attended as they were just a couple years ago. I don't know if this is due to the closing of Bela Dubby, though it feels like that may be a factor. It also seems to me that locally things have had a slight separation. It is not an intentional separation, and I think we are just as supportive of each other, but it makes for smaller crowd support. Though, I must say, we tend to have more social gatherings that are not exclusive to music these days, and I appreciate that. 

ARH: What qualities excite you in performances of others? What takes you by surprise and keeps your interest in experimental music? 

PL: I find many different things in different types of performers interesting. I am definitely excited when I see a piece of gear that is handmade! When something looks like it was taken from the trash and is recycled into an instrument it piques my interest. The fact that pretty much "anything goes" in experimental music holds my interest as well. You never know what to expect with a performer you've never seen before, and sometimes even with one you've seen 50 times. It never seems to get boring or routine, at least to me. 

ARH: How does language factor in your creative process? Does your inspiration often begin with words or sounds – how do these interact?

PL: Much of the time I find myself starting with sounds, or ideas. It places a thought or feeling or topic in mind, and I can begin to create from there. Much of my solo work and with CD has no discernible vocals, except maybe some samples. This doesn't mean that there are no vocals, sometimes things need to be said to be expressed, though most of the time they are lost to the ears through distortion or layering and flowing with other sounds. That is intentional on my part for various reasons, mostly it is due to the personal nature of the expression. If I can gather up the cojones there with be some actual lyrics on a couple of the new CD tracks. 

ARH: Do you feel performing is a mystical act and/or ritual? If so, how does that work – how do you use ritual awareness in your work? If not, how would you describe the performing process in terms of mental, physical and emotional transformation?

PL: I have intentionally performed in a ritualistic manner, it can be powerful. I find that when I perform solo, I internalize more, focusing on specific events or emotions, oftentimes with an intent. Not to say that doesn't happen when performing with others, but the focus is stronger and more easily directed when I am alone. I do not feel there always needs to be an intent, other than (hopefully) making others feel what you are trying to express. I definitely notice a difference in my psyche (usually) during and (always) after a performance. I never walk away feeling worse than before a set, never. Ah, the catharsis of music. 

ARH: What’s next?

PL: I fully intend to continue on the same path I am on. There's currently no need for any drastic changes. 

STEPHEN PETRUS OF MURDEROUS VISION, LIVE BAIT RECORDING FOUNDATION AND CITY/RUINS

It's my great pleasure to share this interview with my dear friend Stephen Petrus. Stephen has been performing the world renowned industrial noise project Murderous Vision for nearly twenty years. He runs the prolific Live Bait Recording Foundation and produced, along with Aaron Vilk, the film City/Ruins, about industrial music in northeast Ohio. Stephen is currently involved in many projects including The Utter Darkness After a Dying Flame, Perestroika and Vengeance Space Quartet.  
http://www.livebaitrecording.blogspot.com

http://murderousvision1.bandcamp.com

ARH: What are you working on now? Please describe current projects you’re most excited about. Are they collaborations or solo work?

SP: It seems that as of late, I have been doing mainly post production stuff on already finished work. I haven't been doing a lot of creating new material for a couple reasons. Mainly, the backlog of stuff that i need cleared up before proceeding. I most recently have digitally transferred my earliest recordings that i did on a 4-Track tape machine many years ago. It netted a few hours of material. Most of which is being given away for free on the Murderous Vision bandcamp site. I also have recently finishing the mixing for a new Murderous Vision album that was recorded earlier this year. I have a couple collaboration gigs/recording sessions coming up in the next month. The first of these is with Vengeance Space Quartet and with Steve Lull and Jason Rodriguez.

ARH: When and how did you get into performing? Feel free to discuss any influences and early experiences.

SP: My first gig was in June of 1996, at a place called The Pieta, here in Cleveland. I was working with two other people under the name Otaku Majime (we also comprised Murderous Vision at the same time). We were making material and jamming for quite some time before the gig opportunity arose. We hung out there almost every weekend. It was my first exposure to experimental electronic music being performed live, and it completely blew my mind. It made me want to try my hand at something other than recording in solitude, which is all we did at the time. We asked Shawn Sandor for a gig and he penciled us in!

ARH: Since you’ve started performing, have you noticed repeating cycles in terms of style and energy of experimental music? How would you describe the current zeitgeist?

SP: It may have seemed cycles were repeating, but it was more that i got off the train for a bit. I don't think there was ever a void in activity of this nature here in Cleveland. For awhile I lost contact with what was going on here, and only gigged out of town. Currently, i think there is a higher level of diversity in styles of experimentalists. Back then it was pretty much harsh noise and industrial together on one bill. Nowadays, it seems you can have free jazz, drone, industrial, noise, psyche rock or spoken word, not only on the same bill, but in the same band! It is an interesting climate.

ARH: What qualities excite you in performances of others? What takes you by surprise and keeps your interest in experimental music?

SP: I am most interested when I can close my eyes and feel the sonic bath. I like to use the performance of others to slip out of body and float. What you are feeling is just as important as what you are hearing and seeing. What surprises me is the infinite number of combinations of people in our local scene that pop up. Different styles that mesh together in new and unexpected ways.

ARH: How does language factor in your creative process? Does your inspiration often begin with words or sounds – how do these interact?

SP: I guess to some extent it factors in. Murderous Vision, specifically, usually doesn't have much to say vocally, when it does I struggle to choose my words wisely. On the occasion that I think a dialog approach is warranted, I spend days making sure it is expressing what the music is asking it to express. Lyric writing is a really long and strenuous process for me. I get it wrong more often than right. Live, 90% of my vocals are more or less caveman on cough syrup grunts.

ARH: Do you feel performing is a mystical act and/or ritual? If so, how does that work – how do you use ritual awareness in your work? If not, how would you describe the performing process in terms of mental, physical and emotional transformation?

SP: It should always be mystical. Just as in listening, I should always feel out of body. If everything is going right, I am completely unaware of anything else in the room. For sure a cleansing ritual is always present, from my own approach, of course. To channel the moment from my body, to my equipment, to the speakers and then back into my body again. When the circle feels complete, I turn off my mixer.

ARH: That's a wonderful and clear description. What do you think the future holds for you as an individual artist and experimental music generally? What is the relationship between local and global experimental music now?

SP: The best I could hope for is more of the same for myself, personally. Each year sees growth in my comfort with what I am doing. I am content to go with that and only wish for more in the future. Experimental music i think will continue to be what it has been for many years. A place for those who don't wish partake of art that that is easy to find or digest. This is underground music. I wish it to always stay that way, and i suspect it always will. Despite the occasional flavor of the month publication grabbing on and trying to push it to the next level. It always falls right back where it belongs in the end...

ARH: What's been on your mind these days?

SP: There really hasn't been a lot of noteworthy things on my mind these days. I have been thinking how great it will be the next time I can crack a beer or twelve with my buddy Amanda!

ARH: Me too!