Attention Deficit Delirium

An archetypal '80s hard rock/metal record cover. And a great album, too.

Many look back at the early to mid-Eighties as a time of musical excitement, flair and innovation. Others cringe at various fashion blunders, goofy album artwork and an increasingly corporate music industry mentality. But this much is certain: For all of its good and bad points, the first half of the Eighties was a great time to be a hard rock fan, as the following songs attest. One obviously has to forgive the cheesy nature of many of these promo clips. Music video was really in its infancy back in the day, particularly when compared to the subsequent videos with bigger budgets and sophisticated effects that have proliferated over the course of the last 25 years. But these performers and these songs are still ripe with energy and a freshness that cannot be duplicated today.




ALDO NOVA “Fantasy” — Want to know where Bon Jovi found inspiration? Check out this tune and the album it’s from. They were recorded at his cousin Tony’s studio, where the future star reportedly swept floors as a young adult, before his big break. Oh yeah, Aldo Nova played on the first Bon Jovi album, released almost three years later. Coincidence? Methinks not. Listen to 1985’s “Lay Your Love On Me” for further proof.





AUTOGRAPH “Turn Up The Radio” — One of the first post-1984 Van Halen knock-offs to bring that sparkly synth sound to hard rock, this Southern California band served up some fun tunes on their debut Sign In Please (where this song is from) and its follow-up, That’s The Stuff. This straightforward anthem is catchy as all get out.





BLACK ‘N BLUE “Hold On To 18″ — Originally hailing from Portland, Oregon, this L.A.-based band unleashed a monster debut with their self-titled album, and this song was one of its high points. Under producer Bruce Fairburn and then after Gene Simmons, their subsequent three albums were more pop in flavor, even though they would later try to recapture their earlier sound. But the first time was the charm. In 2002, guitarist Tommy Thayer replaced Ace Frehley in KISS; B ‘N B toured with them back in 1985.





COBRA “Blood On Your Money” — Before inheriting the frontman position in Survivor and ascending to bigger fame, Jimi Jamison fronted this heavier band, whose lone album First Strike offered some raw hard rock nuggets. It’s too bad these guys did not get to do another album, especially after such a promising debut.





HELIX “Heavy Metal Love” – This Canadian quintet was raucous, raunchy and fun, tempering metallic muscle with a sense of humor. They were all about having a good time, but snarling lead singer Brian Vollmer also possessed powerful pipes that gave Helix’s music an edge that most of their like-minded American peers lacked.










KICK AXE “On The Road To Rock” — One of the best hard rock bands ever to come out of Canada, this energetic quintet was fired up by loud guitars, driving rhythms, four-part backing vocal harmonies and the manic energy of frontman George Criston. Produced by Quiet Riot guru Spencer Proffer, their kickass debut Vices gained some attention in the U.S., and the band opened up the second leg of Judas Priest’s Defenders Of The Faith tour in North America.





KING KOBRA “Hunger” — This is the second time a band with a cobra reference makes the list and the second in a row to feature a song penned by members of Kick Axe. While King Kobra is known to the masses for the poppy theme to the movie Iron Eagle, their debut Ready To Strike was chock full of heavy rock majesty with a couple of killer ballads. The contrast of raven-haired drum veteran Carmine Appice with his bleach blond bandmates was pretty amusing and worked well for press photos.





STONE FURY “Break Down The Walls” — Before vocalist Lenny Wolfe made his name siphoning Led Zeppelin’s sound through the million-selling Kingdom Come, he fronted this underrated ensemble, which was armed with good riffs and melodies. Stone Fury released two albums, and their moody debut Burns Like A Star featured many memorable moments, including this one.





URIAH HEEP “That’s The Way That It Is” — After breaking up for a couple of years, Seventies rockers Uriah Heep reunited in 1982 with a new line-up that included their best vocalist, former Trapeze frontman Peter Goalby. The first of three albums with Goalby, Abominog blended classic hard rock with modern production, and this tune (written by Paul Bliss) is one of the best anthems that they ever recorded.





Y&T “Mean Streak” — Before they became known to the masses with their overly slick pop single “Summertime Girls” (which irritated long-time fans), this Bay Area band rocked up a storm, with “Mean Streak” being one of their true metal moments. Dave Meniketti had a great rock ‘n’ roll voice, and still does, as proven here. I dare you to deny it.

Who: Simone Simons, frontwoman for Epica.
What: The Top 5 MP3s in her iPod right now.
Where: Holland.
Latest Album: Design Your Universe.



Simone Simons of Epica, in an attic, somewhere...

1. Muse “Undisclosed Desires” — I love Muse and the way they make me feel when I listen to them.

2. The Gathering “Strange Machines” — I recently had to sing this song at a Dutch event called Christmas Metal Symphony. I had the song on repeat for hours!

3. Lady Gaga “Speechless” — It’s such an emotional song where she opens up about her father. It’s a true love song.

4. Opeth “Closure” — I love Opeth. They are one of the few metal bands I still listen to after all these years. From 3:27 on, I cut the song to use it as a ringtone. I think it’s a masterpiece!

5. Nightwish “Walking in the Air” — Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved the movie The Snowman. When I started listening to Nightwish, I heard this song, and it was nostalgic.


Live versions of Simone’s picks: Muse, The Gathering, Lady Gaga, Opeth and Nightwish.



Over the airwaves Alice Cooper publicly reminds Meat Loaf about what type of restaurant he should open.
(Photo courtesy of United Stations.)

Shock rocker Alice Cooper has been in the business of provoking people for over 40 years, mostly onstage with his outrageous attire and make-up and gory set pieces. But he’s full of surprises. Outside of his passion for golf, the most surprising revelation about his career is that he owns a family-friendly restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona called Alice Cooperstown. It’s a hit with the locals and tourists and has been going strong since 1998.

Taking time out from his busy schedule juggling his roles as rocker, radio host, philanthropist, golfer and family man, Cooper spoke to ADD about life in the restaurant business. You can find more of his thoughts on his food exploits in my “Eat, Drink & Rock and Roll” feature for Grammy.com.


So Cooperstown has a fun atmosphere?
Oh yeah. I designed the restaurant to be rock ‘n roll and sports because I realized that those are the two things that everybody can agree on. Those are the two things that you can’t go wrong on. So you’ll have a bass from The Who and a bat from Al Kaline. You’ll have Johnny Miller golf clubs and a drumhead from the Rolling Stones. Most of our clientele is either going to be going to a Phoenix Suns game or a Diamondback game because we’re right there [by both stadiums]. You have to walk right by our restaurant. So I said barbecue. Everybody loves barbecue. I said let’s get big fans just to blow the smell of barbecue out there. If I had a choice between going to the stadium and having a hotdog for eight dollars or going into Cooperstown and feeding my family for fifteen, I think I might do that. One time [celebrity chef] Anthony Bourdain came in, and he wanted to try the two-foot hot dogs. We have a two-foot hot dog called The Big Unit, named after one of my co-owners, Randy Johnson the baseball player, who they call The Big Unit because he’s about six-foot-eight. So we couldn’t resist calling the hot dog The Big Unit, and anytime anybody orders it, sirens go off.

You will order my Zappa Zukes and like them!
(Photo credit: Piggy D.)

It sounds like the Rock and Jock Hall of Fame.
It really is. The thing I found out about restaurants is you don’t ever try to serve something that you can’t do. Don’t try to serve fancy food. Our food is totally based on comfort food — tuna noodle casserole, meat loaf and mashed potatoes, things your mom used to fix you.

A sneak peek at the Cooperstown menu.
(Image courtesy of Cooperstown.)

You are many things — rocker, golfer, radio host. Why a restaurateur?
My manager Shep Gordon is a foodie. He used to manage Roger Verge and Wolfgang Puck, and he made these guys into international stars. He looked around and said, “How come everybody is treating you guys like you’re the help? You guys should be rock stars.” So he organized them. The reason why these guys are now getting $100,000 every time they go out is because Shep put them in that situation. So he’s the foodie. Somebody came to us and said, “What do you think about a sports restaurant downtown?” And I said, “If you say Alice’s Restaurant, I’ll hit you with a five iron.” They said, “No, Cooperstown.” I thought that was actually clever. I said as long as it’s a place that’s family oriented where you don’t have to worry about a wet T-shirt contest — you can bring your kids, and they can have their birthday parties there — and I don’t want everything deep-fried. I want the food to be something people like and will come back for.


I imagine that young Alice would have looked into the future at older Alice and said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
It’s unbelievable. And the funny thing is that I told the people that worked there, “For the first month, I think it’d be great if you wore my eye makeup because it will just be a cool gimmick.” So they did, and after a month I said, “You don’t have to wear it anymore.” Then people started complaining. They really like the makeup. So for 12 years now everybody wears the makeup. I let them do their own versions of the makeup. When a pretty girl comes over to take their order with my makeup on, people from out of town really love that. It gives it that extra little bit of signature. Kids love it [Cooperstown] because there are 35 televisions. And if it’s not a sports station on, it’s MTV or music videos, so you’re getting your dose of really loud rock music and sports at the same time.






Alice knows where you can feed your Frankenstein.
(Photo credit: Piggy D.)

There are other rockers who have embarked on food ventures. Geoff Tate and Maynard Keenan make wine. Sammy Hagar has his tequila and Michael Anthony and Joe Perry have hot sauces. Why do you think rock stars who have been in the business for 30 or 40 years are delving into these kinds of undertakings?
We obviously understand that our name is worth something. I think all of us have our favorite places to eat. One of the things that I liked about this was that the [Cooperstown] building is 100 years old. It’s brick and kind of looks like the Chicago Cubs stadium. I didn’t want to lose all the old brick and everything, so we kept that. It has a really warm feeling. When you walk in you feel like it’s really homey. I want it to feel like it’s been here for a long time. I don’t want it to look like a new restaurant. That was part of the trick, to make people feel like they get there and feel like they belong. And then the fact that I’m there [once in awhile].

Didn’t you have Cooperstown restaurants in Denver and Cleveland in the past?
As far as the one in Denver, after 9/11 the whole strip of restaurants just went down. People just wouldn’t go out. We had one in Cleveland, but we farmed it out to T.G.I. Friday’s. It was our menu but not really, so when it closed down I wasn’t unhappy. I like having the one open that’s the mothership. If I go down there and the barbecue sauce is not what I want it to be, I can go, “Hey, this needs more vinegar.” Or, “Why did we change sauces?” I can go directly to the source and ask whose idea was it to change sauces because what we had before was really good.

When I get older, this is gonna be killer Goth waitress make-up!
(Photo courtesy of AliceCooper.com.)

Have you tried everything on the Cooperstown menu?
Pretty much. They keep putting different things on there. I go out on tour for six months out of the year, so I’m not home for six months. I’ll come [back] in, and they’ll have two or three new sandwiches. We try to name them after celebrities in sports or rock ‘n roll. I say always give them something where they taste it and think it’s great. The funny thing was watching my mom in the kitchen teaching these guys how to make tuna noodle casserole. “Okay, here’s the noodles. You open up Campbell’s mushroom soup. Here’s the tuna.” They’re trying to add something in, and she goes, “No no no, it’s very simple. You’ve got to keep it simple.” The thing that makes tuna noodle casserole great is to keep it simple. Don’t add things to it. In the end, people will come in there and order ten of them and take them home and put them in the freezer because every once in a while they’ll have a craving for tuna noodle casserole.

A look inside Cooperstown, which opened in 1998.
(Photo courtesy of Cooperstown.)

Are there any other restaurants run by famous rockers that you’ve been to?
I went to Bill Wyman’s restaurant [Sticky Fingers] in London. We did a couple of functions there, and it was very American actually. Wings, ribs and cheeseburgers — very Americanized. And it was good. I’ve been to Cabo Wabo. In fact, we did a live album there. I’ll tell you the funniest story about this. My restaurant had been open for five or six years and was very successful. Meat Loaf comes to me and says he wants to open a restaurant. I say, “What a great idea. Nobody’s ever done a meatloaf restaurant. Chinese meatloaf, Italian meatloaf, Spanish meatloaf and all these different meatloafs with a certain kind of flare. That’s a great idea, man.” He goes, “I was thinking about a chicken place.” That stunned me for a second. I said, “Your name is Meat Loaf.” “Yeah.” “You open a meatloaf place.” He said, “That’s why I come to you because you have such good ideas.” So I kept saying, “What’s your name?” He goes, “Meat Loaf.” I said, “Right. What kind of restaurant?” “Meatloaf.” Every time on my radio show I do that. Every time I play a Meat Loaf song, I go, “Meat Loaf, what’s your name? What kind of a restaurant are you going to open?”

Has he opened it up?
No. That one was such a no-brainer. It’s a great idea still. Nobody’s done an exclusive meatloaf restaurant. I think your job now is to get in touch with Meat Loaf and get him to start his restaurant and get in on the bottom floor.

Part of the facade of Cooperstown.
(Photo courtesy of Cooperstown.)

So what did you think of Cabo Wabo?
Cabo Wabo is great because it was exactly what I expected — pretty good Mexican food. When you’re down in Mexico, you hire the locals because they know how to make it.

After all these years, what do you think your fans would be surprised to learn about you?
Luckily for them that I don’t cook, but I do have good taste for what I want to see on the menu. The one thing about me is that I want a restaurant where everybody can go in at any time and not be embarrassed to take their kids in. And kids want a great cheeseburger. Give them a great cheeseburger, and they’ll come back every time. The one thing that I flat out stole is that we do sliders. I grew up on White Castle hamburgers, and I tried to get as close as I could to them. I said, “Cook these little hamburgers and cheeseburgers in onions with a pickle on them in a soft bun.” It’s something that I grew up with that you can’t just eat one. When we sell them, you have to buy six of them.





Who: Stephan Groth, mastermind/frontman for Apoptygma Berzerk.
What: The Top 5 MP3s in his iPod right now.
Where: Norway.
Latest Album: Rocket Science.



Stephan Groth in NYC last September. (Photo © 2010 by Bryan Reesman.)

1. Julian Casablancas “11th Dimension” — I like The Strokes a lot. I was shocked when I first heard Julian’s solo album. Its so electronic, I’m sure many Strokes fans are having a hard time listening to it. I love it, one of my favorite albums of 2009.

2. Editors “Papillon” — I can’t get enough of In This Light. I have been listening to it all year, and I’m still not bored with it. “Papillon” is a very strong track; even the cheesy trance remixes of this song are great.

3. Serena Maneesh “Ayisha Abyss” — In my opinion, one of the most interesting Norwegian bands ever. This is [from] their first release on legendary 4AD records.

4. Dúné “Final Party of the 21st century” — I discovered Dúné in early 2009 when we played some festivals with them in Germany. I saw their name on the poster. It said that they were from Denmark, and since I am myself from Denmark this made me curious. I was blown away, really good stuff, check them out!

5. Woven Hand Consider the Birds — Simply just amazing. “oil on panel“ and “sparrow falls“ are my favorite songs on this record. I listen to this album over and over again, it moves me in a very special way every time.


Read ADD’s interview with Stephan Groth.