Show 309 – Rough N’ Ready

Show Notes

• Like Queensryche, Ratt, & L.A. Guns, another 80s Metal band splits into 2 bands with the same name
• Hear the members of that band speak out
• Both bands did a version of the same song this year–you will decide which is better
• A Triple-Shot of Metal or Hard Rock cover songs more famous than the originals
• New Fozzy, Resurrection Kings, Mammoth WVH, Circus of Rock, Rough Cutt, Kingdom Collapse
• Hits & Deep Cuts from Great White, Motorhead, Quiet Riot, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Skid Row, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Georgia Satellites, Autograph, Jackyl, and more

Playlist

Own the hits and deep cuts you hear on Hard, Heavy & Hair! Click the iTunes/Apple Music or Amazon Digital Music icons to the left of each song.

Pretty Boy Floyd – Do Ya Wanna Rock

Skid Row – Makin’ a Mess

Georgia Satellites – Battleship Chains

Lee Aaron – Whatcha Do to My Body

Rough Cutt – Black Rose

Autograph – Turn Up the Radio

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock N Roll

Quiet Riot – Cum on Feel the Noize

Mötley Crüe – Smokin’ in the Boys Room

Ozzy Osbourne – 21st Century Schizoid Man

Mr. Big – Wild World

Ram Jam – Black Betty

Jackyl – When Will It Rain

Motörhead – Ace of Spades

Great White – All Over Now

Beds by Audionautix.

Transcript of the Show

[INTRO]

I gotta ask, do ya, do ya, do ya wanna rock tonight?

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Pretty Boy Floyd – Do Ya Wanna Rock
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My name is Pariah Burke, and I’m your hard talking, heavy drinking, hairball of a horny hedonist host.

Thank you for joining me.

Kicking us off on Hard, Heavy & Hair 309 was Pretty Boy Floyd and “Do Ya Wanna Rock.”

Coming up on this week’s show is some pretty cool stuff. June 19th in the U.S. is National Cover Band Day, the day we honor bands playing covers and tributes to other bands. In celebration of that, this week’s Triple-Shot is three Metal or Hard Rock cover versions more famous than their originals.

There’s also a new Female Fronted with Metal Queen Lee Aaron.

There’s plenty of other new music from supergroup Resurrection Kings, Mammoth WVH, Fozzy, and more.

And, I’m sorry to say, this week another classic Sunset Strip Metal band has followed Ratt, Asia, Great White, and L.A. Guns into become two competing bands with the same name. I’ll tell you who it is, the ballsy shot-across-the-bow the newer iteration fired to announce itself, and then you’ll hear from some of the people involved. That’s coming up at the end of this hour.

But let’s not think too hard just now about former bandmates feuding when Skid Row can teleport us back to 1989. Crank it up! This is “Makin’ a Mess.”

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Skid Row – Makin’ a Mess
Circus of Rock – Desperate Cry [ft. Johnny Gioeli] —————————————-

New music there. Starting off as a solo record for Finnish drummer Mirka Rantanen, the project grew into Circus of Rock featuring members of Tyketto, Nightwish, Pink Cream 69, Amaranthe, and others. The singer you just heard in the debut single “Desperate Cry” was Johnny Gioeli of Hardline and Axel Rudi Pell’s band.

This next band reminds us that the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show is always here to give you a momentary respite if you feel tied down with battleship chains, 50-foot long, with a 2-ton anchor.

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Georgia Satellites – Battleship Chains
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[Shudder] I’m shakin’ here. That was the Georgia Satellites singing about my absolute worst nightmare of not being able to kiss or lick anybody but one woman. [Shudder]

I need a minute to compose myself and line up a couple of Tinder dates for after the show. Stick around and enjoy these words from our sponsors while I do that.

[Female Fronted]

I’m feeling a little less freaked out, but seriously… the idea of monogamy just… man, I’m rattled. Maybe this song by Lee Aaron for Female Fronted will help. This is “Watcha Do to My Body” from ’89’s Bodyrock record.

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Lee Aaron – Whatcha Do to My Body
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It seems like every time you turn around there’s suddenly two different bands with the same name releasing music. Usually by actual band members who believe they have a legitimate claim to a name.

We’ve seen it with Queensryche, Ratt, the band Boston, and, most recently, L.A. Guns.

This week, the drama of the latest two-named-the-same kicked off when, without any warning or pre-release promotion, three members of the classic Rough Cutt Metal band released a new album along with a press release saying they were Rough Cutt, the three most important men in Rough Cutt, and strongly implying that the other Rough Cutt, which includes two classic lineup members and has been around since Fall 2019, were lying and misrepresenting themselves.

Literally wiithin minutes of DDR Music Group, formerly Demon Doll Records, announcing the immediate availability of the album and its two simultaneously dropped singles, I reached out for comment from both versions of the band. My message directly to Paul Shortino went unreturned. Chris Hager and Dave Alford, the apparent torchbearers of the Rough Cutt name since they reformed the band in 2019, immediately agreed to an interview.

This is my conversation with them, recorded the day after the the publication of the Rough Cutt 3 record, its strongly worded press release, and two singles, one of which is based off the same music, lyrics, and apparently even the same stems, as the song Hager and Alford’s band put out in March.

You’ll hear three voices. Mine, of course. Then Chris Hager, Rough Cutt guitarist, the soft-spoken owner of the gravelly voice. The voice with the Southern accent is Rockin’ Dave Alford, drummer and co-founder of Rough Cutt. You’ll hear them talk about “those guys,” by which they mean Paul Shortino, founding vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Amir Derakh, and bassist Matt Thorr, aka Matt Thorne. Hager, Thorne, and Derakh, while not technically founding members of Rough Cutt, all joined the band shortly after its founding. All five are the classic Rough Cutt lineup that played together on Rough Cutt’s two prior studio albums and the 1996 live record that included three studio tracks that appear also on the new Rough Cutt 3 album.

[BEGIN – Interview Excerpt – Rough Cutt’s Dave Alford & Chris Hager 2021-06-09 ]

Pariah Burke:
For people who don’t know, this week the DDR music group, which is formerly Demon Doll Records, released–seemingly out of nowhere with no pre-marketing, no press release other than the minute the album dropped–a new record by Rough Cutt and two singles simultaneously, one of which is the exact same song you guys just put out.

Chris Hager:
Funny, huh?

Dave Alford:
Except it ain’t. It’s not the exact same song. Our song has different lyrics and melodies. We just kept the chorus.

Chris Hager:
Yeah. That, that happened.

Dave Alford:
And it was out of nowhere, like you said

Chris Hager:
Do you have a question in particular about that or.…?

Pariah Burke:
Well, I wanted to talk about that, about “Black Rose.” Your you’re single is “Black Rose”. Their single is “Bed of Black Roses”. The same line—“bed of black roses”–is in both songs’ choruses, so…

Chris Hager:
Who wrote it?

Pariah Burke:
Who wrote it?

Chris Hager:
Well, I wrote, yeah, I wrote the music to that song. Matt [Thorne] wrote the chorus, lyrics, and [part of the] melodies. And the version that they did, he also wrote the verse–part of the verse melody and the lyrics. Now our version, which we released obviously before they did—

Dave Alford:
Three months ago.

Chris Hager:
Steven, our singer, changed the verse lyrics. I don’t know if you’ve listened to both of them, but you’ll hear a marked difference in the verse, vocals, melodies, and phrasing. So… yeah. The thing about that it is, I went and I listened to the samples of all their stuff [via BandCamp], and you know, they didn’t even bother to redo it.

Dave Alford:
That’s me playing a drum machine.

Chris Hager:
Yeah, that was all done over here. [Hager indicated the studio he and Alford were broadcasting from.] Those are my guitars, and they added some stuff to it. They embellished it, but, and they did that on a couple of other songs as well that we had written collectively before we had we’d broken up. And we, you know, that really took, it was like…wow!

Dave Alford:
Yeah, it was a slap in the face, but, you know, look, we have no ill feelings towards those guys. I will say we dropped our single months before they did this. And we were going out and playing and we have a record coming out.

Chris Hager:
Well, you know, the thing is, is, is, you know, I’m going to say this: It’s a cheap shot. And the thing is, is they had, they had every, you know… We made every effort to make Rough Cutt work with the original members and they just weren’t having it.

Chris Hager:
You know, it’s like one person didn’t want to go out and play shows.…

Dave Alford:
And then the other person wouldn’t go, unless that person went.

Chris Hager:
Yeah. And then the Rough Riot thing came along and then that didn’t work out. And so, you know, we, put a lot into making that work, especially me, man. I mean, I worked my ass off on that and it just didn’t happen. And so Dave and I, you know, we don’t want to sit around and that’s why I went and called Steven and said, ‘Hey, Steven, do you want to come over and write some songs?’ And then I said, ‘Hey, Dave, come on over and listen to these.’ And you know, of course Dave knew Steven from before as well. And, and so that’s how we got started
And what they did is really weird because it’s more of a compilation.

Dave Alford:
Over half of the music that’s on that record is old stuff. That’s me playing drums, him playing guitar [Alford indicated Hager]. It’s stuff that we did with Brad, Aaron, and all kinds of stuff

Pariah Burke:
There’s no mention of either of you in the marketing material for that album.

Chris Hager:
Not only that, they screwed us over on the, on the royalties.

Dave Alford:
They cut us out, and we didn’t cut them out.

Chris Hager:
In fact, when I registered “Black Rose,” I was very generous to Matt [Thorne]. And, so that’s what tells us that it’s out of spite. They think that we should have asked them or told them that we were going to do this—

Dave Alford:
Remember, Pariah, them guys didn’t want anything to do with it.

Chris Hager:
I couldn’t get Matt to return my calls—

Dave Alford:
Or I either. I would text them. I would talk to them. Even Amir told me, he says, ‘well, that’s really, you started that band, Dave, and I I’ve got Julian K.’ And all of this other kind of stuff.

Chris Hager:
They basically weren’t interested until our single came out [“Black Rose” in March 2021].

Dave Alford:
Once we dropped the single, then all of a sudden—boom!

Chris Hager:
I don’t care, you know? I’ll say it. I’ll say it straight out. I think it’s a cheap shot and, you know, they’re perfectly… I can’t stop them from doing it, but also it’s going to be.… We’ll see when it comes to the trademark and all that, you know, that could turn into a legal thing.

Dave Alford:
But it’s not going to stop us. The music that we’re creating right now, our fans are just dying to hear it. Once they heard “Black Rose” and saw the video? It’s on now, it’s totally on. And we got some real talent in the new lineup.

Chris Hager:
Fans? They can take their pick, you know, but, you know, it’s like, a lot of people will say, well, ‘without Paul Shortino it can’t be Rough Cutt’. Well we say, ‘bullshit.’

Dave Alford:
Right.
Because I haven’t gotten any negative feedback about our singer, much less talking about Paul. I mean, the really—

Chris Hager:
It was really amazing. We expected more pushback from fans and, and it never really came.

Dave Alford:
We have totally kept our integrity. Totally. Throughout this whole process. We have done everything the right way. We won’t–like we said earlier–we won’t just release something for spite.

Chris Hager:
To me, it sounds like the thing was mixed through a fricking tablecloth.

Dave Alford:
[Laughing:] I know. I hate to say that, but it is true. I’ve listened to our “Black Rose,” and I put on the old “Black Rose” that I’m playing the drum machine on, and it’s about this big [he holds two fingers roughly 1 inch apart] compared to our “Black Rose,”[he holds the fingers of the other hand approximately 4 inches apart], you know?

Chris Hager:
We’re giving you some good poop here, man. [All three laugh.]

Pariah Burke:
Yeah.
Well, to your point of not hearing any complaints from the fans, like we talked about, I was at the debut of your current lineup show your, your first live performance as a band, the five of you with three new members. And everybody in the audience was rocking the hell out. You know, they loved your show. And these are people that have been Rough Cutt fans for years, at least half of them. I mean, some of them–Chris, you and I went out with a couple of people before the show [Hager nods]–and I was watching them loving Steven’s [St. James] vocals, you know, and Darren [Housholder, second guitar] and Jeff [Buehner, bassist] playing in the band.

Chris Hager:
I mean, frankly, we expected more pushback and it never materialized.

Dave Alford:
And I think the reason why is, like I said, our integrity is intact. Let the music speak for itself. And that’s what we’re doing. The new stuff that’s coming out on our record. There’s only two other tracks that those guys [referring to Shortino, Thorne, and Derakh] were even around when we started writing them. And one of the songs, Chris wrote a hundred percent of the music, and I came up with a little melody and then the hook in it, but we’ve decided to just get rid of all of that and write all new lyrics and melodies to the song that he wrote [gesturing to Hager]. Okay. And the rest will be all new stuff.

Chris Hager:
It’s unfortunate, but.… Yeah, that’s right. We’re not going to go back and rerelease a bunch of crap that’s been laying around for 20 years.

Dave Alford:
I cant believe they did that, to be honest, you know?

Chris Hager:
The thing that, that thing that, you know, again, and then I think I’ll probably let this go, is that, for them to release “Black Rose” like that is like that is—

Dave Alford:
It’s completely unprofessional.

Chris Hager:
–well, it’s like couldn’t you have just written something else? And then you could still put it if you wanna put it on your record, but to release it.… It says something about them.

Dave Alford:
It really does.

Chris Hager:
But, what are you going to do? You know? It happens. It happens.

Pariah Burke:
I don’t know the guys personally that we’re talking about, but it certainly seemed to me like it was a direct shot across your bow.

Dave Alford:
And it was.

Chris Hager:
Yeah. Yeah.

Dave Alford:
Next! [all laugh] [END – Interview Excerpt – Rough Cutt’s Dave Alford & Chris Hager 2021-06-09 ]

There’s more to that interview, including when we can hear new music from that lineup of Rough Cutt. If you’d like to watch the full 40-minute interview, visit PariahRocks.com . Scroll just a little down the home page and you’ll see the list of recent interviews. Rough Cutt’s is there. You can also read a portion of the transcript of the interview over at SleazeRoxx.

I did try several other times to reach Paul Shortino for comment, especially after I started digging into the interesting timings around two separate applications for registration of the “Rough Cutt” trademark. but a mutual friend strongly implied that Shortino wouldn’t talk to me because I interviewed the other guys and gave them a forum to air their side of the dispute. I find that to be quite unfortunate, because, as a former journalist, I believe all sides of a dispute should be presented equally.

Maybe Paul and his partners will change their minds.

In the meantime, DDR Music Group was kind enough to send me the full new record by Paul Shortino’s version of Rough Cutt. Because I had to go to air the same day, I haven’t had time to listen to the entire album yet. What I thought I would do, though, is play both versions of “Black Rose” slash “Bed of Black Roses” so you can compare them for yourself, which is apparently what all parties want done anyway.

You’ll hear both versions, back to back right after this.

You’re about to hear two versions of almost the same song, both by bands calling themselves Rough Cutt. One version was released in March by the Chris Hager, Dave Alford, Steven St. James, Jeff Buehner, and Darren Housholder Rough Cutt lineup. The other was released just a few days ago by Paul Shortino, Matt Thorne, and Amir Derakh, also calling themselves Rough Cutt.

The order in which I’m playing them was determined the fairest way I know how–by literally flipping a coin. After they both play I’ll identify which version of Rough Cutt you heard in each.

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Rough Cutt (Shortino, Thorne, Derakh) – Bed Of Black Roses
Rough Cutt – Black Rose
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You just heard two very similar songs, both released recently by two different lineups calling themselves Rough Cutt. Both tracks were the same high-quality, uncompressed WAV audio format, exactly as provided by, in one case, the record label issuing the song, and in the other, directly from the song’s producer. Which one did you like better? Was it the first one or the second one? Or did you like them both? Let me ask you: is the world begin enough for both of those bands? I think so. I think they both have talent and make good music, but someone is going to have change the name of the band; they can’t both be recording and touring as Rough Cutt.

What’s your opinion? I really want to know. Tell me your thoughts on Facebook on the Hard, Heavy & Hair page, or Twitter, Instagram, or MeWe at-PariahRocks. You can also join in the discussion on SleazeRoxx’s Facebook page under the posts about my Rough Cutt interview and investigation.

So, which version of Rough Cutt did each of those two versions of “Bed of Black Roses” slash “Black Rose”? Again, the order was chosen by coin toss. The first one I played was the newer one released by the newly formed Shortino, Thorne, and Derakh Rough Cutt. The second song you heard was “Black Rose” as released in March 2021 by the Rough Cutt featuring Hager and Alford with new members Jeff Buehner on bass, Darren Housholder on second guitar, and vocals by Steven St. James.

Which one is better? You decide.

Whatever you decide, turn up the radio, you need the music, I’m givin’ some more, with Autograph, “Turn Up the Radio.”

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Autograph – Turn Up the Radio (Album Version)
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Stick around! That Triple-Shot of Metal and Hard Rock covers more famous than the originals is next!

[Triple-Shot]

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Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock N Roll
Quiet Riot – Cum on Feel the Noize
Mötley Crüe – Smokin’ in the Boys Room
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As I mentioned at the top of the show, June 19th, 2021 in the U.S. is National Cover Band Appreciation Day. In recognition of that, this week’s Triple-Shot was all cover songs that are more famous than their originals. Yes, even “I Love Rock N’ Roll” is not a Joan Jett original. It was originally written and recorded in 1975 by the Arrows, but Joan Jett and Blackhearts are the ones who made it famous with gender-swapped protagonist and lust interest back in 1981. Not long after, Quiet Riot made Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize” a Heavy Metal anthem. Two years after that, Motley Crue made Brownsville Station’s “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” their own.

[transcription error]

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Fozzy – Sane
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[transcription error]

[transcription error]

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Ozzy Osbourne – 21st Century Schizoid Man
Mr. Big – Wild World
Ram Jam – Black Betty
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[transcription error]

[transcription error]

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Jackyl – When Will It Rain
Resurrection Kings – World’s on Fire
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[transcription error]

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Mammoth WVH – Don’t Back Down
Motörhead – Ace of Spades
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Ready for your third and final Cover Song of the Week clue?

Let’s talk about the Cover Song of the Week itself. It was originally written at the height of the Vietnam Conflict–for you younger listeners, that’s what the Vietnam War was called by politicians–but it’s proven timeless in the intervening 50-something years. Unfortunately, lyrics like, “War, children / It’s jut a shot away / It’s just a shot away” and “Rape, murder / it’s just a shot away / it’s just a shot away” convey a pain and fear that was not exclusive to the Vietnam War.

What song is that? I’m sure you know. It’s just a shot away. Just a kiss away. In the Cover Song of the Week segment, next.

[COW]

Did you guess the Cover Song of the Week song, the artist performing the cover, and the original artist?

In 1969 the Cover Song of the Week original was the first track on the album Let It Bleed, but it was never released as a single. Despite that, the song ranks among the greatest Rock N’ Roll songs of all time, and is an early example of Hard Rock. The song title is also the title of the documentary made about that year’s tour by the original artist, a tour that included the tragic death of a concertgoer at the Altamont Free Concert, December 6th, 1969 in Northern California, something the Rolling Stones didn’t know about until later.

Signing background on the Rolling Stone’s original “Gimme Shelter” was gospel singer Merry Clayton, who would go on to record her own cover version the following year. But it’s not Merry Clayton’s version that’s the Cover Song of the Week. Instead, it’s a new version by the one-man project called Pain by Swede Peter Tagtgren, the vocalist and guitarist of Hypocrisy.

This is Pain’s new cover of “Gimme Shelter” followed by the original Rolling Stones’ masterpiece.

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Pain – Gimme Shelter
Rolling Stones, The – Gimme Shelter
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“Gimme Shelter” is the Hard, Heavy & Hair Cover Song of the Week. That was the original version by the Rolling Stones following the cover by the one-man musical project known as Pain.

This is new from Kingdom Collapse. It’s “Unbreakable.”

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Kingdom Collapse – Unbreakable
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If you missed any part of this show, you can stream it again on-demand 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, from PariahRocks.com, that’s P-A-R-I-A-H-R-O-C-K-S-dot com. That’s the Hard, Heavy & Hair Show’s official website, which also includes the very latest up to the minute Hard Rock and Metal news and reviews, and concert and tour announcements.

If you like Hard, Heavy & Hair and want to support us for less than the cost of a beer a week, consider becoming a Hard, Heavy & Hair Hero at Patreon.com slash PariahRocks. Heroes get early access, exclusive content, and free stuff, show merch, even band swag and CDs.

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You can also call and leave a message to be played on the air at 503-395-7257. Leave request, a dedication, a confession, a proclamation of love for the show, or of your lust for yours truly, a dirty joke, or anything else you think we might put on the air. Give the Hard, Heavy & Hair Studio line a call 25 hours a day, 8 days a week. Add a +1 before it if you’re outside North America. 503-395-7257

My name is Pariah Burke, I’m your hard talking, heavy drinking, hairball of a horny host and producer. Thank you for joining me for this week’s show. I also want to thank my guests Chris Hager and Rockin’ Dave Alford of Rough Cutt. Remember: you can watch that full interview on PariahRocks.com or YouTube.com slash PariahRocks. While your’e there, subscribe to be notified of my next rock star interviews.

I’ll see you back here next week on this station for another all new Hard, Heavy & Hair Show. There’s nothing left. The show is “All Over Now,” right Great White?

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Great White – All Over Now

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