Saturday Shuffle: Bon Jovi, Queen, Aerosmith, King's X, Shooter Jennings

A couple of classic favorites trapped in the middle of this shuffle ...

Bon Jovi, “Wild in the Streets.” From the album Slippery When Wet (1986). OK, I knew we had to get into some marginally embarrassing music at some point, and here we go. I actually do enjoy some Bon Jovi. This track, though, is about as cheesy as 1980s rock comes with lots of glitz, heavy keyboards and that radio rock sound that is most definitely of its era. Not the best song from this record.

Review: Skid Row, "United World Rebellion, Chapter One"

After a very uneven first album with new singer Johnny Solinger and a second album that was full of jokey novelty tunes, I didn’t hold out much hope for the future of Skid Row.

Until now.

United World Rebellion Chapter One, the first in a series of EPs that will make up their new album, is easily the best thing released under the Skid Row name since 1995′s Subhuman Race.

The band gets right down to business on the first track, “Kings of Demolition,” which sounds like it was ripped straight from the Slave to the Grind recording sessions.

Review: Sebastian Bach, "Kicking and Screaming"

If there’s one act from that morass of hairy hard-rock bands from the late 1980s that I’d love to hear some new music from, it’s Skid Row.

Often you hear people try to separate bands from the “hair band” stigma by saying they got a bad rap. With Skid Row, that might be at least partially true. After being discovered by Jon Bon Jovi, the band released its self-titled debut in 1989. Though it was a great commercial success, producing their two biggest hits in the ballads “I Remember You” and “18 and Life,” it wasn’t entirely what the band was about. We found that out in 1991, when they released the follow-up Slave to the Grind, a much heavier and nastier record than their debut. The songs ranged from the down-and-dirty hard rock of the lead single “Monkey Business” to the near-thrash of the title track to darker and much more interesting ballads “Quicksand Jesus” and “In a Darkened Room.”