Michael Monroe – LIVE! – acoustic studio set

When will the world awaken to the greatness in its midst? Seriously. Most bands couldn't rock like this even plugged in if you gave them 1,000 years to figure out how to do it. Why is this? Because you can't figure out how to rock. Call it the 'x-factor, call it 'it'. Call it whatever …

Michael Monroe – ‘Sensory Overdrive’ album cover

Marquee memories

Starting in August 1986 I had the opportunity to spend several months working at London's Marquee Club at 90 Wardour St. in Soho. In the spring semester of 1986 I had taken a class called the Sociology of Rock n' Roll. I liked it. Especially the field work. So much so that I asked the …

The Thunders Conundrum…

….is an affliction that doesn’t seem to be suffered by many, but I’ve got it bad. It goes a little something like this. Given Johnny Thunders’ fame and reputed influence on so much of the music I love, I’m pretty much obliged to address his role at some point or another. But how exactly to …

Sami, the Vibrators, and Stiff Little Fingers

In 1984, shortly after Hanoi Rocks moved from Stockholm (where they’d already resettled from their hometown of Helsinki) to London, Sami Yaffa, Nasty Suicide, and Razzle recorded with Knox, singer/songwriter of the Vibrators, as Fallen Angels. Mike Monroe and Andy McCoy also guested on the record, credited as Cosmic Ted and the Psychedelic Kid. Knox, …

Sami Yaffa, New York Dolls: Then and Now

Most recently before rejoining Michael Monroe in his current band, bassist Sami Yaffa was standing in for the late Arthur "Killer" Kane in the reconstituted New York Dolls. The musical crossover could not be more fitting, much of the Dolls catalogue clearly having a direct influence on Hanoi Rocks and the song featured below lending its name to Sami' s …

Geekdom reborn: Rev. Monroe presiding

A long time ago, on a shoreline far far away there lived a boy who liked nothing more than rifling through his parents’ record collections, putting the headphones on, and disappearing to a place even further away. Particular favorites included: ‘Sgt. Pepper’s,’ ‘Apostrophe,’ ‘Cruisin’ With Ruben and the Jets,’ and ‘Out Of The Blue.’ The …

Interview: theART

theART: Steven (drums); Jak (gtr/vox); KJ (bass/vox); Azaria (vox/gtr).   Local dates: Mar. 18, 2009, 2:30 p: SXSW 2009 – IndieHouston @ Co-Lab Space, Austin. Mar. 20, 2009, 11 p: SXSW 2009 – Maggie Mae’s, Austin. Mar. 21, 2009, 12:45 p: SXSW 2009 – Aussie Acoustic – Whole Foods, Austin. Mar. 22, 2009, 8 p: …

The Festrunk Equation

  The Festrunk Equation An Analytical Tool for the Baselining of Dating Behaviors, Trends and Expectations Presented by: Bruce D. Cook Stephe B. Sprouse Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Festrunk brothers, Yortuk and Georg, for whom this Equation is named. Yortuk and Georg were pioneers in the field of …