Welcome to the first (and hopefully not last) edition of Let There Be Rock, Rick Allen, drum roll please. 

I guess those six months spent picketing and sending hate mail to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame finally paid off.  The powers that be are finally inducting Black Sabbath; but don’t put away those poison pens yet brothers and sisters.  We can’t let them forget about one of the unsung heroes of punk and metal, Motorhead.  I’m always skeptical when I see someone wearing a Motorhead shirt; there should be some sort of rock patrol that polices t-shirt violations, “Name me five Motorhead songs other than “Ace Of Spades” and “Overkill.” If you fail I will be forced to confiscate your shirt and place you on report!”  Nothing makes me angrier than spotting someone at a club with a Motorhead tee and realizing after about three minutes of chatting with them that their wealth of Motorhead knowledge stems from a single greatest hits compilation they got from their record club introductory shipment.  

Not to worry ye lacking in Motorhead history, Mr. Kilmister and his band are giving everyone a chance to get up to speed with a new DVD, Stage Fright.  Captured by 23 cameras on a sold out stop during their 30^th anniversary tour, this double dvd set clocks in with nearly four hours of Lemmy love. You might expect after 30 years Stage Fright to be a leisurely stroll through the oldies but Motorhead isn’t your average 30-year-old band (does Lemmy even have blood at this point?).  Never ones to chase trends, Motorhead still crank out studio records every couple of years and shows no signs of mellowing.  Check out 2004’s Inferno, easily their best studio effort in a decade, you can find 3 of the tracks from that release on Stage Fright.  Not to mention a hair parting renditions of Motorhead classics along with band commentary, a road crew documentary and other goodies guaranteed to get you up to speed on all things Motorhead.  While you are at it, snag a few of the newly reissued classic releases, each with a bonus disc of live or b-side cuts.  Don’t let the Rock Patrol catch you unawares; you may be forced to serve time at a Jimmy Buffet concert.  

Everything old is new again Dept.  A few years back Sweden’s The Hellacopters got a short ride on the stateside buzz train and it never seemed to pay off.  The Hellacopters netted some deserved publicity but it never blew up to the level of other acts along the likes of The Hives, The Strokes, The Vines or about a dozen other acts with “The” leading off their moniker.  Unfortunately, most bands don’t get a return trip on the hype train and it’s a damned shame because if a new act released Rock And Roll Is Dead people would be swinging all over it.  Rock And Roll Is Dead finds The Hellacopters channeling the rock swagger of 1971 (“Everything’s On T.V.”) and rawk attitude of the MC5 (“Nothing Terribly New”).  A godly number of bands would try their best to screw up these tunes by distorting guitars and speeding tempos up but The Hellacopters resist that temptation and come up with a disc that would fit right in with The Stooges or Alice Cooper’s classic Killer.  Rock and roll isn’t dead, you just have to do a little digging from time to time. 

Why does my liver hurt? Dept.   Living above a bar, I encounter quite a few binge drinkers.  Most binge drinkers love music, heavy accent on looovvve after about the fifth drink.  I’ve seen 'em fight, cry and dry hump, sometimes all three within a 12-minute period depending on what pops up over the speakers.  Veteran drinkers, on the other hand, are all about carrying that buzz over an entire record, “Let it roll, man…” my favorite bar fly grooves as he shoves a fiver in the jukebox and picks a few album sides.  From time to time Let There Be Rock will serve up an album, artist or track for all you that alter your thinking to 4/4 time.  Feel free to set down your cold one and drop us an email telling us about your favorite drinking album as we here at LTBR are always looking for an excuse for a drink or four. 

This month’s liver rocker is an unsung classic by The Four Horsemen.  Nobody Said It Was Easy, a Rick Rubin produced effort, was released in 1991 and pretty much ignored due to a lackluster title track single and the explosion of the grunge era.  Save for the run of the mill opening track, Nobody Said It Was Easy featured a near perfect mixture of Bon Scott era AC/DC and southern boogie rock.  Nowhere near as retarded as chainsaw-wielding idiots Jackyl, The Four Horsemen mixed straight ahead beer and a shot rock with “Can’t Stop Rockin’” and “75 Again” with whiskey filled blues numbers like “Tired Wings” and “I Need A Thrill.”  Over the years worth of Friday and Saturday nights spent spinning Nobody Said It Was Easy, my cohorts and I have spent enough on alcohol to fund a classroom of college educations (“Sorry little Johnny, but when your Daddy was young he drank both his and your college funds…).  This sucker is out of print, so keep your eyes peeled on the used and budget bins as the catch is worth the chase.  Just wait until you get home to do your grooving, I won’t be responsible for any DUI’s.