4. Rediscovering Alice Cooper (the band, not the golfer) Although Alice’s solo output is dicey at best, the seven albums released by the original Alice Cooper band hold up surprisingly well over 30 years later (yes, even “Pretties For You” and “Easy Action”). Dug ‘em all out after a friend requested burns and never put ‘em back on the shelf. What’s lost in the shuffle due to a live show which scared the beejeezus out of parents back in the 70’s is the fact these guys could write and play, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce’s contributions in particular passing quietly under the radar.
Big chords buttress pleasant little sing-alongs about infants swallowing bottles of aspirin, tooth decay, and necrophilia, all delivered with aplomb and a proto metal/punk edge. You’d be hard pressed to name a three-album run from any band like “Love It To Death,” “Killer,” and “Billion Dollar Babies,” all of which provided the soundtrack to high school in the Motor City. One of a handful of bands (Stooges, MC5, New York Dolls, Kiss) people around here still genuflect at the mention of. Fave forgotten ode to mental illness: the low-slung “Ballad Of Dwight Fry.”
5. The return of The Cramps Welcomed back to the rousing sound of one hand clapping, The Cramps returned in 2003 with their meds adjusted, looking like a George Romero wet dream. Nothing much has changed except for Poison Ivy honing her chops to the point where a second guitarist is no longer necessary. Apparently Lux Interior still enjoys exposing his, uh, lower abdominal region on stage and while “Fiends Of Dope Island” is basically the same album they’ve been releasing over and over again since about 1990, I say it’s a good album, dammit!
6. “The Collector’s Guide To Heavy Metal: The Seventies” – Martin Popoff Popoff is not a well man, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. This companion volume to 1997’s “Collector’s Guide To Heavy Metal,” which contained 3,700 reviews, most of them mini works of art, contains nearly 2,000 more, focusing on the glorious decade of the 70’s. By including bands such as the Buzzcocks and Boomtown Rats, it’s obvious Popoff paints with a broad stroke, but the guy’s some sort of freak of nature (again, meant most respectfully) in the way words, ideas, and phrases just flow out of him in a never-ending litany.
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