BANG CAMARO: The Year's Best New Band

Equipment: Elliptical (on a setting of 5, which is one too many)
Time: 31 minutes
Calories: 601


The New Year is still young, but 2009’s best new band has already been found. I nominate BANG CAMARO , a band out of Boston with an obvious love for 80s hard rock and a unique way of delivering it. To replicate the multi-tracked vocals of bands like Def Leppard, Bang Camaro uses a “Dude Chorus” of as many as 20 dudes to sing the harmonies. They rock and the lyrics are hilarious. Some of it is tongue in cheek, but it’s delivered with obvious love for the cluelessness of the bands of the Hair Metal Age. It’s a little in the spirit of Spinal Tape with a little of the flair of The Darkness. I love the utter pointlessness of the song “Push, Push Lady Lightning,” A true classic.

Alright, here’s today:

Smashing Pumpkins “Zero”
Never been a big Pumpkins fan—although they provided the soundtrack for an exceedingly fun summer day on a South Carolina lake 15-or-so years ago. But, the guitar riff in Zero is powerful enough to make up for the annoyance of the vocalist. Perfect for doing sit-ups, which is how I started (and finished) today.

Warren Zevon
“I Was In The House When The House Burned Down”
I’ve loved Warren Zevon from “Werewolves” and recently read the excellent “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” bio/oral history. Did you know he once roomed with the Paul Getty who got his ear cut off by kidnappers (a crime Getty may have been in on)? Drug buddies, apparently. Anyway, this song captures Warren at his darkly comic best.

Cinderella “Gypsy Road”
As much as I was repelled by Cinderella’s poodle hair back in the day, I’ve always loved the singer’s voice, and it’s at the height of its powers here. A great song from a band that might have been taken more seriously a few years earlier (without all the hairspray).

The Donnas “Girl Talk”
In my eyes, The Donnas can do no wrong.

Kid Rock “Black Rob”
Ever had the chance to really rub it in somebody’s face that you’re more successful than them? Well, this is three minutes of that directed to, pretty much, the whole world. File under megalomania, but I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way.

Danzig “Track 8”
The song has an actual name, but I don’t know what it is since this came off a borrowed, home-pressed CD. Glenn Danzig scares me a little bit, and all the songs sound pretty much like this one. But, he is a good accompaniment to working out.. It’s obviously working for him. The guy’s ripped.

Foo Fighters “Summer’s End”
Dave Grohl at his sentimental best. Something Seals & Crofts could have written, but with much better drums.

Iggy Pop “Lust For Life”
This song is played pretty much every day as bumper music for “The Jim Rome Show,” something I know from listening to Jim almost every day. When it comes on the iPod, I keep expecting Rome to come back from a commercial—or for a Carnival Cruise ad to be running.

Rush “Circumstances”
There is so much going on in about every Rush song that it really keeps your brain occupied and off the fact of how much I’m huffing and puffing to reach my 700-calorie goal today.

Iggy Pop “Kill City”
All of Iggy’s albums seem to have two or three great tunes and a bunch that just aren’t as good. I’d like to expand my Iggy range with more like this, but , at this point, I’m basically picking at random. Great song and a wonderful chorus “Give it up, turn the boy loose.”