My First Album - Def Leppard - Pyromania

In the early 80’s, as well as most of the 70’s, I was a sheltered child.

I discovered rock n’ roll through a neighborhood buddy whipping out his older sister’s Kiss collection and being stunned by the images of spacemen and demons, and the sounds that subsequently rattled around my brain. They were so savage! So aggressive! So filled with testosterone that my five or six year old self could hardly contain himself.

As soon as my Mom caught wind that I was listening to the devil’s music, well . . . that was enough of that! I was already enrolled in a strict Christian school that abhorred music and dancing, and really, I believe the characters from Footloose were based on my upbringing.

Fast forward to 1983-ish, and I’m around 11 or 12 years old and I’ve made friends with an older school chum who reveled in the music of the Beatles, The Police, Devo and who turned me on to Mtv. That was really the last day of any semblance of innocence that I had. There was Michael Jackson dancing with zombies, Prince struttin’ his stuff and singing about a little red Corvette, Van Halen figuring that it was just better to jump. Wow! What was this new, colorful, exotic and sometimes erotic channel filled with music?!? And then my world collapsed into light . . . and I saw for the very first time . . . a hooded figure speaking some gibberish before the explosive concussion of drums rattled my little television set on its stand. Def Leppard. “Rock of Ages”.

I had to have that album! So . . . I scraped up enough money to send a friend on what I considered a suicide mission. A girl from up the street mentioned that she was going to the record store, so I gave here my hard salvaged cash, probably about $10 . . . enough for the cassette tape and some left over for risking life and limb to get me my contraband. I paced up and down the hallway, every third circuit I’d peek out the window to see if the friends’ family car was back in the driveway. Pure torture, but I knew . . . I knew that the glorious sounds of this wee British band were soon to be mine . . . ALL MINE!!!

And once said friend arrived with said cassette tape, I didn’t simply tear the shrink-wrap off of the case. I basked in the glow of the damn thing and gingerly peeled the cellophane from the cases exterior. I relished every second of that moment . . . my first album that I purchased with my own hard, er . . . well, I didn’t really earn the cash so much as I found coins littered here and there around my house. I pulled the cassette from the case, removed the J-card to review the liner notes, and insert the cassette into a portable tape player that my Mom used for recording lectures.

I can’t remember the details of the next eight hours, but suffice it to say, I listened to a lot of Def Leppard. Loved “Foolin’”, “Rock of Ages”, “Rock Rock (‘til You Drop)” and “Too Late For Love”, songs that would soon be staples of my pre-teen day to day . . . always hated “Photograph” (song just bugged me then as much as it does now). And, though now, I can’t listen to that Pyromania without wanting to retch, it was important on so many levels. It introduced me to Def Leppard, which if you started with the band during the Adrenalize or Hysteria era’s, I pity you. Pyromania led to High and Dry, and then that led to other like music such as Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot . . . you know, all the music that’s reviled today. But then that led to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Dio, Motorhead, Queensryche, and more . . . which then led to the Big 4 (kinda freaky to think it was only 2 years from Def Leppard to Big 4), then the underground, then back above ground, and ultimately to The Ripple Effect and Ripple Music.

Youthful rebellion led me to follow the rock n’ roll path and one that I constantly find fascinating today. This musical journey of discovery isn’t simply moving forward. It’s kinda’ like time traveling a little, stumbling on a cool piece of music history from my childhood or before, and no matter when I discover it or from what year it came, it’s always fresh and new!

The lone regret I have is that I don’t have the original copy of Pyromania that I fretted over so much on that one day so long, long ago . . . coz’ man, that would be cool to see again. Kinda’ like seeing an old friend again.

-          --Pope JTE

Ape Hangers – Ultrasounds

This album keeps finding its way in my player, and it has pretty much from the time that I originally tripped over it on one of our legendary Rasputin’s runs. I remember picking it up solely because I had a thing about bands that referred to primates in their name or album title. To this day, I own every release from the Arctic Monkeys, The Monkees, Sprung Monkey, The Naked Apes, Ape Cave, and simply, The Apes, regardless of how good or bad the music may actually be. It was truly a sickness and thanks to a healthy dose of therapy, I’m a lot better now. I do still own all of these albums, but I’m no longer actively seeking them out for some bizarre pleasure. Amidst this haze of primate purchasing, I discovered the first Ape Hangers album, Ultrasounds, and instantly fell in love. The music was all killer, no filler, and on more than one occasion, I’ve had Racer beboppin’ around the office singing along with the Ape Hangers. The true sickness for this album comes from the pure addictiveness of the music.


Ultrasounds is an album made of good, old fashioned rock n’ roll songs fused with a punk rock energy and attitude. At times, the Ape Hangers have a rockabilly sensibility, maybe even with a touch of surf punk, but then the music opens up and hammers away at your groove organs, keeping you tapping your toes and humming the melodies throughout the day. Where the band lacks musical dynamics and technical thrills, they more than make up for in straight up raw power and fun. Think The Smithereens with a shot glass full of venom. The production on this disc perfectly highlights the bands abilities, never sounding too polished, which works to the benefit of the rougher quality of the songs.

“This is My Life” jumps out of the gates like a revved up funny car. High octane, upbeat, and full of “Go Baby!” energy, this song is the absolute perfect album opener. The guitars rattle away with a palm muted fury, the bass steady rumbles in the background, the drums fire away like the pistons on the aforementioned funny car, and then on top of all of this, the vocals work in great harmony. A little gruff, full of snotty rebellion, but just enough melody, the vocals convey the lyrical message with crystal clarity. At a hair under three minutes, this is the perfect kind of song to grab the listener’s attention and get them fired up for the rest of the album. It’s a song with immediacy to it and damn it! It’s just fucking fun!

“You Don’t Know What It Takes” is one of the more memorable songs on the disc and that’s attributable to the knock out melody. Hearing this melody is like stepping in a wad of chewing gum. No matter how hard you try to rid yourself of it, it’s sticking with you and you’re carrying it around with you all day long. Even when you’re sitting at your desk, you still know that on the bottom of your shoe is a faded fluorescent mass of the gooiest substance known to man. The good thing is that “You Don’t Know What It Takes” isn’t nearly as annoying and actually a rather pleasant tune to have rattling around in your brain. Note the arrangement on this song as they shift from the palm muted riff into little bursts of sustained and distorted notes. It’s a nice touch that gives the song a bit of elegance and keeps it from being a pedestrian rock song. The vocal work, again, is strong . . . balancing between rough n’ tumble rocker and sensitive singer. Excellent track!

My absolute favorite track on this disc happens to be “I’m Gonna’ Miss You Someday.” This tune has more of a rockabilly, country vibe to it. Imagine if you will, Johnny Cash singing for The Smithereens. That deep, whiskey weathered voice crooning along to the jangling guitar melodies is the kind of nuance that gets me every time. Once the songs cruises into the chorus, the vocals open up and become even more expressive. They’re a little on the abrasive side, a little gruff, but full of warm richness. The guitar work is excellent, too, as they utilize some great effects to the distorted six string beasts. Listen in as it sounds like the guitars are being toggled through the different pickup’s. I’ve probably heard this effect a million times in my music listening history, but never have I heard it done so cleanly and so often. The Ape Hangers also include an acoustic version of the song on the back end of the album. This version is completely slowed down and comes across as a Californian country ballad. It’s amazing how removing all of the distortion from the song can have such a drastic effect on the overall mood of the song. The acoustic version is so much more plaintive and depressed. I love it!

The punk-y “Red Hot Rocket” is a mover of a tune, psychedelically tripped out with effects, but high powered and bouncy. Ape Hangers do a great job of playing with dynamics in sound by pulling the guitars out of the mix to let the song rest on the groove of the bass and rhythms, and once the guitars come back in, they come in with a punch that grabs your attention and has you rocking out even harder than before. “I Don’t Want To Live Today” is a song centered on the want of love, the pain of loneliness, the torture of crawling out of bed to face the world that has to be happier than the one you’re living in. Man, great conveyance of emotion in those lyrics and vocals, and it’s all set to an upbeat number that should actually have you bouncing all over the place. The contrast of despair ridden subject matter versus the happy go lucky sound of the music is awesome!

Man, I could (and have) listen to Ultrasounds all day long! It’s just a damn good rock album with elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and surf punk mixed in. It’s high energy, upbeat, yet with a lyrical sensitivity to it that makes it more than one dimensional. I’d be willing to bet that if this album were getting the promotion that it deserved, a little bit more airplay, found itself in the social conscious that Ultrasounds would be one of those albums that masses would simply freak out to . . . and Ape Hangers would then be a household name. The album is just too strong to be ignored, and I guess that’s why Racer and I do what we do . . . but it is a crying shame that an album so damn good could be cast aside so easily, or so often. If you find yourself wandering through the bargain bins and you happen upon a copy of Ultrasounds, make sure you throw it in your basket. If you don’t comb the bargain bins, then good luck. You might be able to find some stuff on Amazon or Yahoo, but the band seems to be defunct. Also, you may find an Ape Hangers on MySpace that plays surf rock . . . that is not the same band as far as I can tell. Happy hunting! - Pope JTE

www.last.fm/music/Ape+Hangers

http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/videos/ape-hangers/536985-479312-1