RATT

Black Friday: Reading between the lines

Friday, June 19th, 2009 | musiX | 3 Comments

Historically in metal, a band’s image is as (if not more) important as the music itself. From the band’s name, to its garb, right down to the logo. Alice Cooper and KISS were better-known for what they looked like than the music they made (more true with the latter). When metal ruled in the late ’70s and the ’80s, it was all about image … until it regressed to absurdity before finally getting smothered by the always-fashionable flannel shirt.

The Me Decade is when the metal logo was truly birthed—a single, defining brand that could be easily seen and recognized on records, posters and, most importantly, T-shirts. Bands like Motörhead and Judas Priest went with classically ornate logos, while the aforementioned KISS chose a simple, very memorable signature lighting-bolt “SS” (turned into backwards “ZZ” when the band toured Germany). It carried over into the ’80s when it was all about the logo—Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, RATT, Anthrax, Dio, Def Leppard, AC/DC—all of which could be found scrawled on notebooks and in bathroom stalls, or crudely written or carved on school desktops … or so I’ve heard.

The tradition carries on today. In metal if you don’t have a tough/menacing logo, you might as well be playing Showtunes. Especially in black metal. In fact, in the world of black metal a band’s logo might be the first, and sometimes only, identifying element. It doesn’t even have to be legible for chrissakes, as bands are seemingly trying to one-up each other in keeping their names a mystery to the world.

So. For this Black Friday, I’ve scoured the bottomless pit of the Interwebs to find the most unruly, tangled, illegible band logos possible. It is your duty to try to decipher them. I’ll post one new logo per day (not including Saturday and Sunday) through Thursday, June 25. Shoot your answers to me at mark@thedaysoflore.com. The person who guesses the most band names correctly out of five will win a classic metal album of my choosing. Yes, this means all five people who both listen to metal and read TDoL have a chance to win a disc. It will, of course, be an incredible metal masterpiece.

Deadline is midnight (PDT), Thursday, June 25, and the winner will be announced next Black Friday. It will take a keen eye. It might also help in some cases to be fluent in Finnish.

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 1: This band comes from—you guessed it—Finland. They enjoy long walks in the snow, and their lyrics are as unintelligible as their logo.

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Black Friday: Ratt ‘n’ roll hoochie koo

Friday, May 8th, 2009 | musiX | No Comments

My cousin used to record videos from MTV on to audio cassettes with a boombox. I guess at the time it was the new version of recording songs off the radio (and avoided that annoying deejay yapping over the first 20 seconds of the song). I remember listening to one of those tapes on a family trip to Disneyland in my aunt’s two-tone brown GMC van.

Among the Wham! and DeBarge and Tears For Fears was RATT’s “Round and Round.” The song made me stop what I was doing (which was probably daydreaming about Heather Thomas) and hit the rewind button … over … and over again. Oh you laugh, but for a pimply young lad of 12 who had been listening to Starship and Falco, this was some serious shit. Which led me to that fateful purchase Out of the Cellar, my gateway drug to metal. It’s a great, classic pop-metal album if you’re into that sort of thing … even if you’re not into that sort of thing.

[Warning: This is where things get confessional and awkward between us.] I celebrate RATT’s entire catalog. The very first review I wrote was of their Reach For the Sky album for my high school newspaper. I saw RATT play live with some singer named Jizzy Pearl. I saw original vocalist Stephen Pearcy perform solo to about 11 people … and wrote about it. I ended up with an autographed photo of Mr. Pearcy and myself. I have a RATT sticker on my bike. I still have a faded RATT shirt that I received for my birthday in 7th grade. What does this all mean? It means I have an incredibly good sense of humor … or that I am incredibly lame.

RATT has been kicking around off and on for the past few years—behind refrigerators, underneath rubble … at casinos and state fairs—with various lineups. The band is gearing up to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Out of the Cellar by doing what seems to be a growing trend among metal bands—performing the album in its entirety. Kind of sad and pathetic, but kind of cool at the same time. RATT will throw down at this year’s Rocklahoma festival—a veritable who’s who of (semi?)washed-up metal bands including Anthrax, Twisted Sister and Great White. That said, I will not be there. I outgrew all of that at least three years ago.

“The Morning After” - RATT

Video for “Round and Round” feat. Uncle Miltie

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Black Friday? Meet Black Elk

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

Today’s the day. The sheep awaken at 4 in the morning so that they can invade shopping malls across the nation to fulfill their cheap, consumeristic desires. Me? I thought it was only fitting to wake up at 7:09 a.m. on this Black Friday so that I could bring you the new weekly feature here at The Days of Lore called … “Black Friday.”

However, this new Friday tradition should not be confused with shopping, or historical disasters. TDoL’s Black Friday will examine the unholy underworld of metal. Why? Because I grew up in a town called Red Bluff listening to Helmet and Pantera and Slayer and Metallica and Iron Maiden and RATT. Ahem.

Some weeks Black Friday will be a sociological examination of metal, where I get my dainty hands dirty in a genre with a longstanding tradition of grown men wearing makeup and teasing their hair, drugs, sexism and satanism, or any other kind of “ism” you can think of. Metal can be goofy (see Manowar), frightening (e.g. Gorgoroth). And in most cases metal fans are, well, fanatic. Even if metal’s not your thing, it’ll at least be interesting.

Sometimes I will even point out bands that are actually good. Like this week …

What better way to kick off Black Friday than with Portland’s own Black Elk. The four-piece just released its second full-length Always a Six, Never a Nine, a record that harkens back to the sludgy, smart noise of early Amphetamine Reptile (Melvins, Chokebore, Helmet). Basically it’s metal without being too metally (look it up!)—loads of skull-slicing riffage, tempered with just enough weirdness and a vocalist who doesn’t sound like Cookie Monster’s cuz.

Black Elk was featured in a recent Willamette Week article on a metal club at a local high school—yes, we encourage headbanging in school. The band has a couple of dates lined up, including Jan. 10 at Someday Lounge. There are two benefit shows scheduled for Dec. 6 and 7 to help with medical expenses for guitarist Erik Trammell, who was hit while riding his bike to work in late September in our bike-friendly city. On that note … listen to these ditties, and get out there and pump your hard-earned dough back into the economy. It’s Black Friday!

[The Black Friday feature will appear every Friday in addition to the usual TDoL goodies.]

“She Pulled Machete” - Black Elk (Always a Six, Never a Nine)

“Elk Takes Night” - Black Elk (self-titled)

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Attack of the clones

Friday, October 3rd, 2008 | pdX | 8 Comments

I recently moved to Portland (the hipper, sexier Oregon version, not Maine), where I made an interesting observation—I look like every other dude in this city. Beard, glasses, western shirt, New Balance sneakers … check, check, check and check. I guess the only difference is that they have eyeballs and lips, unlike me (see above).

Actually, I’m convinced that every person in this town is blind … you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t wear glasses … fashionable ones at that. Yes, I’ve finally made it! Portland reminds me a little of its hip California sister-city San Francisco, where a man in his 40s can still dress like he did when he was 17. So, I can finally dust of that old RATT T-shirt that clings to dear life by a few faded threads and still feel good about myself.

Oh, and I feel good about myself … so good, in fact, that I am putting the shirt on right now (and nothing else … hmm, doesn’t seem to cover up as much as it used to), and getting sweaty to this dirty li’l ditty: “U Got It” from RATT’s 1983 debut EP.

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