If the NEUROTIC OUTSIDERS escaped your grasp, it is time to fill the void

The Sex Pistols? Yeah, I liked them ... Guns N' Roses? "Appetite For Destruction" guys? Well, yes sir I liked that whole get-up, too ... The Cult? If you had any reasonable taste for purely excellent rock, of course, you would would like that. Oh, and I certainly did ... Duran Duran? Come on, everybody liked at least a little Duran Duran. You can say it, yes you did. I had "The Reflex" at times, myself. I can admit I could occasionally be "Hungry Like the Wolf", as well. Guilty as charged. If you can also agree with my choices and my optimistic assumptions of you, then join me on this supergroup shooting star blip of a journey. By the last word (and I honestly don't even care if it's before) my only goal is to have you physically reaching for track #1 on your most available listening device. LIKE AN INCREDIBLY FINE TUXEDO ... for sure, it looks and feels so slick and dialed in, and then all you wanna do is take off the jacket, loosen up and throw down like an improper rock-n-roll gangster ... I BRING YOU THE ABSOLUTE F?!KING NEUROTIC OUTSIDERS!

First, we have the band, and then we have the album. The only album. Starting with the band, let's take a simplistic route, and keep it truthful. We are furnished with the names of Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses), Matt Sorum (The Cult, Guns N' Roses) and John Taylor (Duran Duran) ... Neurotic Outsiders. No, as sexy and storytell-ish as it could be, Billy Idol was not originally in the band and neither was Steve Stevens. Label that as hogwash. They were definitely a few stone-cold killer musicians (and not the only ones) that took the stage with some/all of these guys in Las Vegas and/or Los Angeles months before/after this hard rock bastard of a 4-piece was given the formal LA birthing of Neurotic Outsiders. Back in those days, it's no surprise that a dirty, lovely and gossipy creation like this would camp out at Johnny Depp's Viper Room for weekly residence cock-rock annihilation. This is exactly what they did. In September and October of 1995, it was Viper Room x 7 (I believe?) ... shows that is. Then off to NYC, Philadelphia, Boston and back to eventually roll up and down the West Coast at the crack of early 1996. Why not add London in the summer? Gas up the Gulfstream. Sure thing! I don't want to fail to mention that they were apparently the perfect amount of crude imperfection and lockstep precision, in all the right and wrong places. This guy on lead vocals, no this guy, no both of these guys. Nobody gave a shit. It just operated. All of this musical joy, not witnessed by myself, YET!

Now, what sounds like the Guns N' Roses attitude, the precision of The Cult, spouts occasional naughty lyrics like those fantastical naughty bands do ... AND brings the additional "extra spicy" Les Paul to Marshall Amp aural fixation of live Social Distortion? Survey says ... THE ABSOLUTE F?!KING NEUROTIC OUTSIDERS! We now speak of the album, "Neurotic Outsiders". Although we would also be speaking for the band. Sorry Sir John Taylor, they replaced your Duran Duran flavor with the pure guitar reality of Social D. Don't take it personal, you're still kind of a bad man! Yes, you Brits, I know he's not really a sir. It just sounded British cool. I remember pontificating that they should have named the album "Neorutic Outsiders" only for the pure smarm and confusion of it all, but maybe I would have been demoted, however not fired, for the idea. Putting my selfish notions aside, the Neurotic Outsiders 12-song release plunged into global existence in September of 1996, and it was the foundation for the future's greatest rock-n-roll bands and records of all time. I kid you not!

Actually, I do kid you with my overly perfumed hyperbole. We're having fun, aren't we? Yank the exaggeration, and still, this album seriously KICKS ASS!!! You don't even have to be serious; it remains an ass-kicker. First off, the production is superbly suitable, spot-on and exceptional. You can hear it all, feel it all and raise your fist to it all! The lyrics in classics such as "Nasty Ho", "Jerk" and "Good News" may not technically be required Shakespeare for English class, but it's Hunter S. Thompson for damn sure on this side of the street. If you don't love "Jerk", then you don't love hard rock, heavy metal, punk or the pleasures of sexual relations. We also have the uninspiring story of "Angelina". Inspiring indeed. The kick in the teeth of "Always Wrong" and the Clash-love ripping version of "Janie Jones" delivers twice-over. As you can see, this is not a pretentious or exceedingly analytical review of this record (and band for that matter), because what is there to dissect? Both parties in the conversation are very forward and extremely direct. This isn't Genesis from 1972 or Yes from well, whenever. It's hopefully what you would inarguably expect from these characters, and I am performing my righteous duty by notifying you that it does deliver the goods, from A to B to C! Sometimes these musical supergroup scenarios don't ... and you, the receiver of anticipated delight, should know the ones that do. This may be the best true supergroup album of all time. I'm not really into supergroups. I haven't spent too much time thinking about minutia like that, but maybe if I did, I'd remain correct in my assumption. Crap, maybe it's that first Asia record. Seriously, did we all not enjoy Asia's "Asia"? Ok, that's all the immediate effort I'll put into this subject.

MEMO: It's fascinating that the "Neurotic Outsiders", officially produced by Jerry Harrison, has the identical blasting sound as my favorite one-off band recording of all time, "American Pearl" from American Pearl, released in 2000. Steve Jones co-produced "American Pearl". Lineage can be a good thing, and in this go-round, I am a 2x winner.

FOOTNOTE AFTER MEMO: September 7th, 1996 I finally saw Neurotic Outsiders at my club, The Bayou in Wash. DC. Apologies, but not actually my club, my employer's club. Whatever! Neurotic Outsiders were arrested at The Bayou for absolutely crushing skulls. Jesus, not literally ... but they could have been. My head hurt quite nicely.