The 80’s were long gone (sigh!) and the 90’s treated us with massive amounts of grunge and alternative, but as they say – you can’t kill r&r – and the beginning of the new millenium just proved it! Here’s a list to remind you the best releases of the year 2000 according to Leatherboyz, mixing obscure bands you might have missed together with classic rockers that needs no introduction!

Not the biggest fan of the so called ‘horror-punk’ but this collection of creepy tunes mixing psychobilly, punk and Alice Cooper is kinda funny and deserved a mention at least for being different. From the sick mind of Wednesday 13 who would later front Murderdolls here comes a 45-minute journey through B-horror movies, blood, screams and hallucinations. Great choice for Halloween..

Dirty, raw, mean rock & roll. The Peepshows are like a freight train ready to blast out of your speakers! Action rock made in Scandinavia, after Backyard Babies released Total 13 we had many bands playing that sort of old fashioned 70’s rock mixed with punk and metal and this cd is one of the best exemples of that style.

Oslo’s punksters all about white creepers black clothes and greasy hair. This one come after the rocktastic “Soaring with Eagles at Night..,” and no doubt all Hellacopters fans put it amongst the best releases of 2000. 34 minutes of sonic destruction.

I Still prefer the early days of the band, when they were singing about Juicy Lucy and alike stuff, anyway “Blessed Be” got some phenomenal songs like the goth rock anthem “Gothic Girl” and “Brandon Lee”. Jyrki deep voice drives you through a rollercoaster ride into a twisted world full of mysteries, evil atmospheres and dark melodies. Production is good too.

Led by Martie Peters of the crash-bang-boom Danish gang Sateria, Push released their 3rd full lenght cd and man, they rocked big time! Never judge a book by its cover, as the only bad thing about this cd is the strange coverart! However since the first notes of the title track we are singing and jumping to the big choruses and thick electric guitars. This bomb sounds like young White Lion on heat…

L.A.’s glitter pop rock mob phenomenal debut on Hollywood Records. 36 minutes of great songwriting, anthemic radio-friendly songs you just can’t help but sing along. Can’t find a filler on this debut, any song rocks and rolls borrowing from UK’s 70 glam and powerpop adding an updated sound to the whole shebang. Feelgood tunes with a touch of new millenium’s sense of emptiness, London meets L.A. and creates a masterpiece.

The Hangmen 1989 S/T debut was one of the best sleaze rock releases ever so it wasn’t going to be easy to have a worthy followup 11 years after. Having said that, the ten songs on offer here are first class junk rock overdose, with titles such as “Broke, Drunk and Stoned” and “Loners, Junkies & Liquor Stores” I guess you got the picture! Whisky and cigarettes unique vocals and I still hear the reek of a “Rotten Sunday”….

This one should be taught at rock’n’roll school! The killer cover art perfectly shows what The Bones are inspired from: tattooes, heartbreak cigarettes, booze, party and desperation. Kickin’ ass like a molotov cocktail of Elvis, Social Distortion, Backyard Babies and The Devil Dogs, these swedish dudes are the ultimate soundtrack for a drunken Saturday night. Listen to 50’s inspired r&r tunes like “I Met Elvis at the Nudybar” and tell me if you don’t feel like party, get drunk and smash things up!

Look what the new millenium dragged in…that’s Poison folks! Even though I consider the band without C.C. like chocolate without sugar, is always good to hear new songs from the venomous guys and Blues Saraceno might not be everybody’s fave axe man but he sure can play! Originally released as a bootleg this is the final version featuring bonus tracks and old unplugged tunes( where you can FINALLY enjoy mr. DeVille’s screamin’ guitar!) Best new songs of the lot are the potential hit single “Baby Gets Around a Bit” and the power ballad “Lay Your Body Down”. More akin to “Native Tongue” than early Poison but still an interesting release.

Led by the the prince of darkness and heartagram himself, Mr. Ville Valo, the band was ready to take Europe by storm with the release of their most succesfull single ever “Join Me in Death”. The frontman image with the aformentioned single and a handful of tracks telling tales of love and death, helped this album to chart in Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. The 69 Eyes had “Gothic Girl” while H.I.M. had “Poison Girl”, this mix of deadly rock and obscure pop smells of lipstick and incense and was labelled by the press as “Love Metal”. To this day still the best release of Euro gothic rock.  

The best thing about SR-71 is that they sound like a goodtime pop-punk band but their hearts are stuck in the 80’s. This Baltimora’s four piece has a songwriting akin to Marvelous 3 and American Hi-FI, this cd brings a smile to the face, I would listen to these songs during a coast-to-coast trip as they are fresh, coffeine-fueled and absolutely infectious. Not as silly as Bowling for Soup, not as light-punk as Sum 41, that’s a pity they’ve been marketed as an “alternative” act as they are soooo much more than that!

I admit I’m a sucker for Ted Poley’s voice, but since the 1998 release of the killer “Four the Hard Way” Paul Lane proved that he could fit the band perfectly, and with “Thereturn…” he delivers the goods once again with his hard-n-heavy vocal style soundin’ terrific even in the poppier moments. It looks like the guys really love the track “When She’s Good She’s Good (When She’s Bad She’s Better)” as this is the 3rd time appearing on an official release! Too bad this wasn’t released in 1989 as it has ‘hit single’ written all over it. “Dead Drunk and Wasted” is another tune that belongs to the golden days of MTV’s headbanger’s ball. Is this the best Danger Danger release ever? Quite not. Is this a cd full of great songs that needs to be an any DD’s fans collection? FK YES!

Just when everybody thought that the end of the 90’s killed the Crue dead, the kings of the Sunset Strip were back without Tommy Lee but with a refreshed bunch of songs that didn’t sound nothing like the 2 previous studio releases. Basically this is the album they should have released after the larger-than-life “Dr. Feelgood”, the tunes reminisce of Girls Girls Girls I’d say, the rhythm section with a clean Nikki Sixx and the great late Randy Castillo is flawless while Vince Neil vocals are fine. Mr. Mick Mars still is one of the the most under rated guitar players in rock/metal: Mick’s great, Mick’s perfect! “Dragstrip Superstar” and “Porno Star” are two songs I regret they didn’t play live at least on the final tour.

The Jersey boy and his fellow rockstars welcomed the new century with what was sadly going to be the band’s last great ‘classic rock’ album. I mean the following one “Bounce” wasn’t bad at all (“Joey” is one of my fave BJ tracks ever) but the quality and variety of the songs here made “Crush” nuthin’ but a collection of radio hits! From opening track and lead single “it’s My Life” to the final anthem “One Wild Night” the band creates candies for your ears such as “Say It Isn’t So”,“Just Older” and “Mystery Train”. On a final note “Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars” is one of the best songs of this millenium.

No doubt about it, Shameless 2nd release is the best glam album of 2000, and considering the guest stars on the cd  it wasn’t unexpected was it?  When you have Steve Summers (Pretty Boy Floyd ) and Stevie Rachelle (Tuff) on vocals, Tracii Guns and Keri Kelli on guitars; Eric Singer, Steve Riley (L.A. Guns) and Keith Alan of Big Bang Babies on drums, you just gotta press play and get ready for a glam-bam thank you ma’am! “Shock the World” and “Far Away” were old PBF demo favourites penned by Aeriel Stiles, what a joy is to finally hear those amazing sounding versions featuring Steve ‘Sex’ Summers in the best shape since the Leather Boyz days! The titletrack and “Steal the Girlz” are highlights of the record, both written by Alexx Michael, bass player and mastermind behind the Shameless project.

American Heartbreak were the most exciting band to come out of San Francisco since Vain. The term “glam punk” was quite abused during the late 90’s but I just think this band really embodies the spirit of New York Dolls and Rolling Stones, combining it with AC/DC style riffing and some punk thrown in for good measure. Guitarist Billy Rowe of Jetboy fame gave birth to a stylish project that would have deserved to be at least as big as Buckcherry. (Curiously Billy would join Josh Todd’s band 20 years later!) “Postcards From Hell oozes unadultered no-frills rock & roll from beginning to end. Not a weak song on offer, this stuff is raw, clichè, energetic and so damn catchy. I even witnessed the bands live show and these guys were pure dynamite on stage. Vinyl version has a bonus track in the form of New York Dolls’ “Trash”. Fun fact: bassist Mike Butler played for SF thrash metal band Exodus in 1992.

Butch Walker is a musical genius, period! Couple of years after the release of M3 most succesful work “Hey! Album” (mainly due to the smashing hit singles “Freak of the Week” and “Every Monday”), the ex-Southgang boys are back with the usual lethal dose of tongue-in-cheek anthems for the new generation! Songwriting is excellent and Elektra Records might have lacked in the marketing department but the quality of the production is huge. Don’t know if this is better than “Hey! Album” however “Little Head”, “Get Over” and “Radio Tokyo” are such memorable songs that perfectly  mix hard rock and powerpop. After this release Butch decided to go solo and started producing other artists as well, I still think this cd and the previous one were the peaks of his career as a performer.

Backyard Babies were prime movers of the new sleazy action rock wave from Scandinavia in the late 90’s, this Gothenburg four piece followed their footsteps adding more leather & eyeliner, and after the rough debut “It’s only Rock’N’Roll” the release of “Bad Sneakers..” let the band be Europe’s most promising new rock/metal act of 2000. Hardcore Superstar plays good time punky rock’n’roll adding that touch of glam metal that makes those songs echoing in your head for hours. ‘Turning 25 thinkin’ of suicide’ screams frontman Jocke Borg in the bands’s manifesto “Rock ‘N’ Roll Star”, most of the cd is composed of fast cuts like “Hello/Goodbye” and “Punk Rock Song”, but HCSS also know how to slow down the pace a tad and still sound rocktastic as in the mega singles “Liberation” (who had a video nominated for a Swedish Grammy Award) and the re-recorded “Someone Special”. That’s it, Sweden gave birth to a beautiful r’n’r creature once again!

---