Joe Jackson – Night and Day (1982)
Christmas 1982. 
In an effort to curve my hard rock/metal listening ways, my Mom bought 2 albums for me on Christmas. She was never too keen on metal and wanted to try and sway me to listen to something else. As I am unwrapping gifts, I got to the records, both of them wrapped together. I knew they were albums before I unwrapped them but had no idea as to which ones they were. On top was Regatta de Blanc by The Police. Behind it was Joe Jackson’s Night and Day. To say I was disappointed would have been the understatement of the century. It was like the kid in Christmas Story not getting his BB gun. I was hoping to get something like a KISS, Black Sabbath or Judas Priest album (wishful thinking, I know).
So I basically said, “Oh. Cool. Thanks.” and went on to play with my Stomper trucks or something. haha. Shortly thereafter, though, I did put the records on to at least give them a shot. I was already familiar with the Police so that was nothing new and I did fall in love with that album by them.
But the Joe Jackson was something completely different. I listened to it a lot and still do. It’s a pretty interesting album in many ways. One, the only guitar used on the album was a bass. No 6-string whatsoever anywhere. The album is very well-written and performed. Joe has a way of lyrical phrasing that really works with his music. The album has sort of a NYC punk feel to it without sounding punk at all. It’s hard to explain. I love this album and always will. I never delved into his other works although I am familiar with some of his other “hits” thanks to Anthrax or the radio.
The album seems to be sort of a concept album about life in New York City in the early 80s and touches on the gay culture a bit. It’s a fine record overall and anytime I listen to it, it’s front to back, nothing skipped.
So, thanks Mom. While you didn’t get me out of hard rock/metal, you did open my ears a little bit to some other stuff.
Sweet Pain – S/T (1985)
I remember it like it was yesterday (it was 1986). I went over to a former friend from high school’s house and he said, “Dude, check this out.” It was Sweet Pain’s self-titled debut record and he put it on. Before hearing it and just looking at the album cover I was in hysterics. Were these guys for real? Let me state right now that I was never a fan of the glam/sleaze rock and metal minus a few rare exceptions. The album started and we were rolling. It was awful. So awful that we spun it all the time. Made fun of it every chance we got. Kelly Nickels of LA Guns/Faster Pussycat was in this band.
Looking at the back of the album I saw that they were on Combat Records. COMBAT? Really? How in the hell did that happen? What the hell were these spandex chumps with teased up hair doing on this awesome metal label? Whatever. They were the running joke with me and some of my teenage metal pals for years.
Oddly enough I found this on vinyl some years ago and had to have, purely for nostalgia’s sake. For as many times as we listened to it, I could still recite almost the whole damned thing to this day when I hear it. A few years back a friend of mine made a CD of the vinyl for me and I still get reminded of that feeling of hanging out when we were just stupid teenagers. They were great times.
About 6 or 7 years ago through the advent of Myspace, I met a dude online named Scarlet Rowe who was in a band from New York City called Joker Five Speed. I dug his band a lot and got to hang out with him a little when they played a show in Portsmouth, VA. They kicked ass even though there were only about 20 people there. About a year or so ago I was browsing some of his photos and saw a promo photo of Sweet Pain with him in the picture. Looking at my vinyl I saw that he wasn’t on it and started asking him some questions about his involvement with the band. He wrote and played on it but was not credited nor in the final photo. Pity. Seems like it was a torrid split from the band. Scarlet’s still rocking though and is a king amongst men. 100% good dude.
If you liked the NYC and Hollywood glam stuff, you’ll likely dig this a lot. As I said, it was never my thing but it does bring me a great amount of joy when I hear them now.
Sweet Pain w/Scarlet.
Crows – The Dying Race
Here’s another band that I’m sure most people haven’t heard of. They only did this one album and it was one of the first Century Media Records releases in 1991. I happened upon this when I was in Los Angeles in 1997. I had my own small time online CD and t-shirt business (Acacia Music) which was mainly supplied by Century Media and Metal Blade Records. I went out there on a buying trip to meet and talk to my sales reps. It was pretty cool that both companies offered me a position out there and I was certainly considering taking one of them and moving out there from Virginia. Unfortunately family issues arose and I needed to stay put for a while. But that’s neither here nor there.
While perusing the Century Media warehouse and filling up a shopping cart full of CDs, I saw Crows’ The Dying Race sitting on a shelf all by itself. I had never heard of them and confirmed with my rep that it was for sale and not just something someone left there. When he was tallying up my stash, the Crows CD didn’t show up in his inventory so he just gave it to me. I didn’t get a chance to hear until after I got back from California, but man am I glad I picked it up. This is some good stuff. Their main lyrical theme seems to heavly lean on American Indian culture and the poor treatment of them.
Members of this band were also in Scanner, Angel Dust, Mekong Delta and Sodom. Musically it’s sort of a NWOBHM style with great vocal melodies. This has been long out of print and I wanted to share it. Enjoy!
Here’s on of their slower tunes:
Satan – Court In The Act
I’m not quite sure how I ended up hearing this album. It was either through Kelz or Daniel. It doesn’t 
matter, I owe one of them a great debt of gratitude for this one. Satan were a NWOBHM outfit featuring Brian Ross on vocals (for this LP) who also spent time with Blitzkrieg. Steve Ramsey ended up in Blind Fury, Pariah (UK) and Skyclad.
I don’t know what more to say about this album other than it absolutely rules and is definitely one of the best albums from that genre. It’s one that I have been listening to since about 1986 and still can never grow tired of it. Ross’ smooth vocal delivery and all of the backing music work perfectly together. I’ve recommended this album to many people and those who have heard it always seem to fall in love with it. If you’re into the the NWOBHM sound and like stuff like Blitzkrieg, Persian Risk and Tokyo Blade, you need to hear this album. You shall not be disappointed, trust me. Would I ever steer you wrong? No. Never.
It was a huge disappointment when I bought their follow-up albums Suspended Sentence and Into the Future. The replacement singer was just awful and the music took a turn for the worse as well.
Enjoy!
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