I hate reality shows, but this is a GREAT idea.

Especially if Tiffany gets naked again. Man, that Playboy "comeback" shoot was fannn-freakin-tastic.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

I really want to see a Tiffany and Debbie Gibson smackdown myself.

I would root for Tiffany, of course, but it would still be fun to watch.

I read somewhere that Gene Simmons is supposed to have his own reality show where he's out to create the next heavy metal/rock band. I'd watch that just to watch him.

First off, Gene Simmons would have to create a real heavy metal/rock band in the first place, somthing which he has never done

And I thought the singer for Loverboy died? And will this bring back the Flock of Seagulls haircut? tune in....lol

It was the bassist for Loverboy who checked out -- he was washed overboard while sailing... don't remember if the body was ever recovered.

"She used to call him Loverboy, but now she just calls him chum."

Loverboy's "Everybody's Working for the Weekend" always cracks me up. You'd think by the title and that line in the chorus that it would be a song about getting through the 9-to-5 grind so you can party all weekend. Instead it's just a mishmash of various cliches that don't seem to have anything to do with each other:

Everyone's watching to see what you will do Everyone's looking at you Everyone's wondering, will you come out tonight Everyone's trying to get it right, get it right Everybody's working for the weekend Everybody wants a little romance Everybody's goin' off the deep end Everybody needs a second chance You want a piece of my heart You better start from start You wanna be in the show Come on baby lets go Everyone's looking to see if it was you Everyone wants you to come through Everyone's hoping it'll all work out Everyone's waiting they're holding out

What a mess. But it sounded good at the time and was a fun song.

I saw them live a few years back with a friend. They actually sounded pretty good, but we both laughed at how "normal" they all looked. If you saw any of them walking down the street it wouldn't cross your mind that they were anything special (and, yes, washed-up rock stars are special in their way).

the INXS one sounds interesting.

This is the third time I've gotten burned by the so-call "preview" on this stupid moronblog. If it's going to merge lines, that's fine, but that's how the preview should show it.

Now on to more important matters:

brak wrote:

First off, Gene Simmons would have to create a real heavy metal/rock band in the first place, somthing which he has never done

First Star Wars bashing and now KISS bashing? You people make me sick.

IIRC, Tommy Tutone ("867-5309") and the Knack ("My Sharona" and a couple other songs) are on the same show, which is absolutely terrible for both bands. First, either one of these bands would probably win any episode where they weren't facing off against each other--both of their best singles are waaay better than anything by any of the other contestants. Secondly, they cater to the same audience segement (e.g., those who like power pop, good music, etc.), meaning that they'll split the vote and it will be possible for someone like Vanilla Ice or Wang Chung to win the contest.

KISS sucks. Go ahead and say it. It's the right thing to do.

The really funny part of this show is the bands will be covering modern songs as well. The sad part is Loverboy is apparently going to cover an Enrique Iglesias song.

And, sad to say, I saw a picture someplace of the Flock of Seagulls guy. He is now bald.

Loverboy will have their work cut out for them the first week, as they'll be competing against the Romantics. If the Romantics stay to their guitar rock roots (e.g., playing songs like "What I Like about You") instead of playing one of their 80s songs with synths, they have a great chance of winning. They are an awesome live band.

Forget the hair metal & spandex acts. I want to see a public humiliation reality show for wimpy introspective 1980's college radio assholes -- REM, the Pixies, Replacements, et al.

I'm Such a Reality TV Whore It Makes Me Sick

Me too!

The Knack would destroy Tommy Tutone. "Jenny" was basically a novelty song. Yeah, it's fun and catchy, but would anyone buy a compilation album for it? I wouldn't.

Now, My Sharona... that is inarguably a classic.

KISS was obviously a metal band, although more of the hair-and-glitter metal bands that would follow (uhhh, Poison) than the darker metal bands like Black Sabbath.

Still... a great band.

Okay, now that we're arguing about KISS vs. Black Sabbath, this fucking blog has actually hit seventh-grade-dweeb ROCK FUCKING BOTTOM.

I may have to retire again.

...before anyone argues about whether AC/DC is heavy metal (they're not).

dweeb - Wow haven't heard that in a dog's age!

PS - Honorable 80's mention: 10,000 Maniacs.

Ace - I had a dream about you last night...we were going to go meet for a beer to talk about blogging, etc. I showed up at the bar, and you were there. I walked up and started screaming like a cheap Wes Craven movie actress. Why? Because you were a ugly midget woman wearing a Dolly Parton wig.

What does that mean?

Honorable 80's mention: Van Halen

Honorable 80's mention: Dolly Parton

As she used to say in her show:

Honey, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap!

KISS was pop metal, if such a thing exists. They seemed like a band put together to support a circus act stage show with some manufactured songs. "Rock and Roll All Night," which is just the same thing repeated over and over, is the only song of theirs anyone remembers.

I'd put AC/DC in the "hard rock" category, and Sabbath in "metal." But those lines are blurry.

Honorable 80's mention: Pat Bentar

See, brak, you idiot, Ace says you're wrong. And this is his blog, so his word goes.

I also agree with Ace (hey, it is his blog here) that the 867-5309 song isn't that great. To me it's just one of about a million similarly bland songs from that era. I'm honestly surprised to find that there's a person out there that thinks it's something special.

About the only joy I ever got from that song is seeing a member of that band interviewed on MTV when it was a hit. "Does anyone have that number?" he was asked. He smirked and said, "Some people used to have that number." It's amusing to think so many morons actually tried to call Jenny that people had to change their phone numbers.

Hey Bob, take off the face paint. KISS Army is dead

Have you seen this site?
http://danstheman.com/Jenny.htm

A guy actually tried to dial as many 867-5309's as possible...

I would like to see the Go Gos in a Rainbow Reality show.

Dishonorable 80s 'heavy metal' mention: Jethro Tull.

Honorable 80's mention: Blondie

A Flock of Seagulls, Fuckin Awesome! I just hope it's the entire original band, not the more recent version.

Oh how I miss the 80's...Ronald Reagan, New Coke, parachute pants, and masturbating to my sister's Joan Jett and Pat Benatar posters.

Honorable 80's mention: ZZ TOP

Don't sell Tommy Tutone short. If listening to the Knack causes images of Dancin' Janet Reno to appear - the mental trauma alone will lead them to victory.

Besides, it's a love song about a chick whose number was written in a bathroom stall. That's victory, right there.

Honorable 80's mention: Huey Lewis and the News

I DEMAND that Ace ban Iowahawk on account of his gob-smackingly vile dismissal of the Replacements, Pixies, and 80s REM.

And Ace, 867-5309 has a great hook and crunchy guitars. That's more than most everything else on the radio from that era. Not my favorite song, but better than anything most of their competition on this new reality show has ever done.

Oh how I miss the 80's...Ronald Reagan, New Coke, parachute pants, and masturbating to my sister's Joan Jett and Pat Benatar posters.

I have the same memories, except your sister was present at the time.

Tell her to call me. She's what we used to call, way back in the 80's, "a real fucking filthy whore."

Jenny is okay. But look, it's basically a novelty song.

It's Walking on Sunshine with a male vocal.

I'm not going to ban Iowahawk. I f'n' hate REM. Pixies and Replacements are okay, but anyone can slam REM here anytime they like.

First couple of albums were okay. Then they started getting, oh, what's the right word?, faggy.

Honorable 80's mention: WHAM

You cannot love the 80's and not love these immortal and now-forgotten hits:

Safety Dance by Men Without Hats. Someone should have to do prison time for this crime against nature.

One Night In Bangkok by Murray Head. The only rock song ever written about chess.

Radioactive by The Firm. The Firm was supposed to be the next big supergroup in the mold of Pink Floyd. Remember them? Me neither. But it was a cool song.

Any or all of these washed-up clowns would be excellent prospects for the current crop of reality shows.

I have three sisters Ace...and let's be honest, they are all "real fucking filthy whores".

Don't I know it, Lee. Don't I know it.

I have One Night On Bangkok on a CD somewhere, back from when Napster was around. Forgot to grab Radioactive, the "supergroup" made up of a guy from Bad Company and some other third-tier band.

Safety Dance? Novelty song. Please.

Honorable 80's mention: Tom Petty

Honorable 80's mention: The Cars

Honorable 80's mention: MEN AT WORK

OK, why are you throwing out all these band names?

Yeah, come on. I'm all for traffic, but we all remember these names. At least bundle them up into a single post or something, or name an obscure one, like Slyy Foxx.

MJ's Billie Jean was a gem. I liked Thriller too, but I think only because the video kicked ass. Come on, coreographed zombies? That and the voiceover by Vincent Price made Thriller classic.

I've always suspected 72 was a spambot.

Ace, REM was a great band until Out of Time, which came at the end of 80s and was well past their college radio days. And saying "Jenny" was good in the same way "Walking on Sunshine" was good seems a reason to love the song, not dismiss it.

I think some folks are missing the point of this show by mentioning acts like Blondie and Tom Petty, who had long careers (in Blondie's case, relatively) and tons of hits, album sales, and well-regarded reputations. This is a show about people with one to three hits and insubstantial careers.

"Novelty song?" Ace, your snide dismissal of this 80's chunk of shite passes all understanding. That song was the epitome of 80's suckitude. I suppose you'll also dismiss such other paragons of crap like The Tom Tom Club, Bow Wow Wow, and John Parr ("Man In Motion" from St. Elmo's Fire for you cultural retards). Or hell, we can always go with the obvious crumminess of Ratt or Scandal ("The Warrior").

Face it, Ace: the 1980's were a musical embarrassment from beginning to end. The only good thing that happened musically was that Stevie Ray Vaughan kicked the junk long enough to do some great music before he died in that accident.

Just trying to bring back the dead from obscurity and balance out all those really shitty 80's bands ya'll mentioned with some good ones. I'm actually out of names, and just in time for the ACE is whining again about his bandwidth.

Honorable 80's mention: Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel

I didn't think much of Jenny (867-5309) for years and years, but then happened across a punk-pop cover of it by, I don't know, Blink 182 or 311 or one of those groups who pretty much all sound alike, which totally reopened my ears to its merits as a song and gave me a new appreciation for the original. Great mix of melody, chord changes, and verse/bridge/chorus interplay. I don't know if he's still there, but when I was in high school in the late 80s I took guitar lessons at Skip's Music in Sacramento, and Tommy Tutone himself taught songwriting lessons at that shop. I laughed about that at the time, because if he knew so much about songwriting he probably would have been able to come up with another hit, but I now realize he did a pretty good job with the one.

(As a straight guy, it pains me to admit this, but I heard Abba's Dancing Queen covered by country songwriter Robbie Fulks on Fresh Air, with just acoustic guitar accompaniment (it also embarrasses me to admit that I occasionally listen to Fresh Air), and gained a new appreciation for that song too.)

As for Kiss, forget Rock and Roll All Night. It's all about Calling Dr. Love, baby.

And as for REM, screw those guys. Faggy doesn't even begin to cover it; I have the same visceral hatred for them and desire to give them all swirlies and stuff them in lockers that I have for Moby. They offend me.

"Face it, Ace: the 1980's were a musical embarrassment from beginning to end."

Really. I'll always associate the 80's with Adam Ant, Boy George and Billy Idol. I think MTV had a lot to do with it -- sucking, that is.

Got drafted into an 80s cover band a couple of years ago.

Never felt so lost in my life. What the hell was I listening to during the Reagan administration?

Really. I'll always associate the 80's with Adam Ant, Boy George and Billy Idol. I think MTV had a lot to do with it -- sucking, that is.

MTV has a lot to do with it CONTINUING to suck, too. At least in the 80s you could find a few remnants of actual musicians before the video age starved them out. I remember most of the bands mentioned here from the 70s.

Pop music today is complete crap, which really explains why American Idol CDs sell as well as they do and why so many people are turning to country (yikes).

Later,
bbeck