VAIN “No Respect”
Released: July 1989 By: Michael Pate of Electric Black Horse
A lot has been written and said about this Klassik release, but I believe that I'll be giving this record the "be all, end all" treatment at this time. How you say? I say there is none more qualified than I!! The release of this album has a direct correlation to where I've landed musically today. I was weaned on this album. Truly. The story unfolds like this……. In 1989 I was an awkward 15 year old trying to figure out how to be cool, talk to girls and play guitar. 1989 was a watershed year for sleazy, cool rock and roll for sure! It saw new and/or debut releases from L. A. Guns, Dangerous Toys, Princess Pang, The Sea Hags, Skid Row, Pretty Boy Floyd, Enuff Znuff, Faster Pussycat, Bang Tango, Junkyard…it seemed like in 1989 everybody was gunning for it! What all these bands had in common was that they were just somehow……dirtier than say Poison, Warrant and Bon Jovi, you know? Not so poppy. They were grittier and ballsier. They were SLEAZY! Yeah! That funky mix of dirty AND sexy. With street cred to boot. Kinda like "Too Fast for Love" era Motley Crue, early KISS and Aerosmith. You know what I'm talking about. So much to hear and I was a hungry, young listener. However, there was one record that stood out like a slipped nipple shot. That record was "No Respect" by San Francisco's own VAIN. I had first heard of Vain through my old friend Rob. We used to be frequent shoppers at the coolest record store on Long Island at the time, Slipped Disc Records in Valley Stream, NY. Rob came to school one day claiming he'd heard "the coolest shit ever!". He whipped out a "sampler cassette" of a band called "VAIN". I remember my other friends and I thinking right away, "whatever Rob, this shit probably sucks, look at the guy crawling on the floor, looking at the camera! GAAAAY!" Look, we were 15, we didn't know shit! Rob insisted that it rocked hard and would blow our minds. So that weekend, we gathered around the T.V. for Headbangers Ball where every show they would usually bust off some new bands that we would judge mercilessly! I remember going to take a leak and Rob screaming, "VAIN IS ON! VAIN IS ON! HOLY SHIT!". As I walked into the room, I began to say "calm down dude, I'll bet they su….". I was mesmerized immediately. Rob dimed the volume on the TV and we sat there in awe as "Beat the Bullet" blew us the fuck away. First of all, these guys had THE LONGEST HAIR I'D EVER SEEN ON DUDES. At 15, this was extremely important. Second, they were hanging out in front of XXX joints with hot chicks! They were dressed all in all leather and dark colors. They wore a little makeup but not even to look pretty, they looked like they'd been up for 3 days, hanging out and partying. Holy shit, they looked cool. Fuck those nerds in Warrant and Poison, VAIN looked BADASS! Then came the MUSIC! Holy shitballs! Funky 70's wah-wah intro to a tour de force of SEXY GUITARS. This band had attitude out the wazoo. The music sounded just like they looked: like they were going to steal all your girlfriends and then fight you afterwards. I was HOOKED. The VERY next day I ran my ass to Slipped Disc and got "No Respect" on vinyl! Yes! Vinyl!!! It may have been the last piece of vinyl I ever purchased. Seriously, because I remember buying the CD very shortly afterward. I played this album night and day. After listening to "Beat the Bullet" probably 1,000 times I felt different, I walked with a swagger if you will. I started dressing more 70's sexy. My hair got long and trashy. I was a changed kid. I had attitude and the 15-18 year old chicks knew it. I walked down the street with lyrics like "New York, LA, Frisco..boy they got somethin', boy they got somethin'…I've been around this world…what's it got for me, what's it got for me" and "I see your poker faces…I'M A BAD MOTHERFUCKER TONIGHT!" ringing in my ears. I had achieved….THE ATTITUDE.