THUNDERTRAIN: Teenage Suicide

Thundertrain

Teenage Suicide

© 2002 Thundertrain Music Publishers BMI (634479668425)

Boston high energy rock'n'roll sensation from 1974. Complete debut album plus rare singles & bonus tracks.

tracks

1 Hot For Teacher!
2 Let 'er Rip
3 Modern Girls
4 Cheater
5 Love the Way
6 Hell Tonite
7 Frustration
8 Forever and Ever
9 I Gotta Rock
10 Radio Spot
11 Cindy Is a Sleeper
12 Im So Excited
13 I Gotta Rock
14 Interview
15 I'm So Excited

notes

NOTICE: If you are looking for Thundertrain on CD we highly recommend that you get their album "Hell Tonite!"(from 1979). Available right now here at cdBaby. Just click over there on the LEFT where it says "Try This".

You have a choice: Sit around waiting for the new Guns n’Roses album until you qualify for Medicare, or bang your head now to this raw parent of Appetite For Destruction, cut by Boston’s Thundertrain in 1976 for the local Jelly label. I bought the original LP in ‘77 and remember how weird and refreshing Teenage Suicide sounded in the thick of punk: the heavy glam of Aerosmith and Mott The Hoople with the garage-production values of the first Clash album. Pump up the bass to compensate for the tin-shed fidelity of the
studio tracks. Crank up the live “I Gotta Rock” from September ‘76, to hear how Thundertrain were the G n’ R of their town and day.
- David Fricke, ROLLING STONE - July 2003

Think Van Halen had heard Thundertrain's "Hot For Teacher" when they wrote their own song of the same name? I think so. Think Twisted Sister heard their Live At The Rat cuts when they penned their own glam anthems for Under The Blade? I'd wager on it...
Guitarist Steven Silva turns out to be a real find, tossing off Thunders-y riffs and Johnny Winter-influenced licks with ease and style. Check out his Winter tone on "I Gotta Rock".
- Frank Meyer, KNAC.COM

If you are from Boston, as I am, and were following indie rock 'n punk in the mid 70's, you had this album in your collection. Extremely rare but now out with 6 bonus trax, Thundertrain balanced hanging w/ the Boston punk scene but they were hard rockers with a glammy slant. Like the bastard child of early Aerosmith and New York Dolls. "Crunch. That's what happens when you mix two parts Slade with one part Rolling Stones and feature the future frontman for the final incarnation of The Joe Perry Project...
-AMG

Fast and shakin’ is the only way to pin point the erection of the Thundertrain direction. Mach Bell’s disco-destroying rock- against everything voice shouting out over slide guitarist Steven Silva’s leads are metal immensity of hall melting proportions...It was all too fast for love - all the time...
- Vom Doom, FLESH Magazine


THUNDERTRAIN - TEENAGE SUICIDE includes:
15 remastered tracks.
Thundertrain’s 1976 hit single “Hot For Teacher! b/w Love The Way”
Bonus tracks include:
Thundertrain’s 1975 debut single “I’m So Excited b/w Cindy is a Sleeper”
The forgotten radio interview: Mach and Oedipus on WAAF.
Mach’s 1977 WBCN radio ad for a show at Lowell’s Commodore Ballroom..
“I Gotta Rock” from the “Live At The Rat” (1977) compilation album.
+++
THUNDERTRAIN MUSIC VIDEOS ARE NOW PLAYING ON YOUTUBE.
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Set the way-back machine for August 1974--Boston, Mass. That rumble you hear coming up from the basement of Jack's Drum Shop on Boylston Street isn't a derailing subway train. You, my friend, are hearing the birthing roar of Thundertrain! Five kids from the suburbs of Boss-town who, for the next five years, glory stomped their way up and down New England and beyond. Thundertrain became the heroes of every biker bar, high school cafeteria, and hip downtown club in Red Sox Country, grinding out a high-energy blitzkrieg of rebel rock, strutting their stuff at that dangerous corner where glam-meets- metal-meets-rock-&-roll-meets-punk. From 1974 through 1979, you saw Thundertrain in 16 MAGAZINE, TIME, BOSTON GROUPIE NEWS, PLAYBOY, BOMP, VARIETY, ROCK SCENE and every DIY zine ever published.

Thundertrain performed nightly at clubs like Max's Kansas City, Hurrahs, the Club, Frolics,the Electric Elephant, Gildersleeves, the Rexicana Ballroom, the Cleveland Agora, CBGBs and of course their homebase The Rat in Kenmore Square, Boston. Thundertrain welded together the raunch of Keith Richards, the sweat of James Brown, the lunacy of the Dolls and the crazy boogie of Johnny Winter. They bolted everything they heard onto their own gonzo teenbeat chassis. Thundertrain was the souped up locomotive that all the kids in New England lined up to ride in the 70's.
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Thundertrain was never forgotten. In the wake of the band's break up, the Joe Perry Project scooped up lead singer Mach Bell, Van Halen nabbed guitarist Steven Silva's catchy song title ("Hot For Teacher!"), and bootleggers continue to press Thundertrain discs to this day. Bloomington, Indiana's Gulcher Records, purveyors of classic underground rock since 1976 (The Gizmos, Panics, Afrika Korps, Dancing Cigarettes, MX-80 Sound), has carefully remastered all of Thundertrain's landmark recordings from the restored original tapes.
+++
Hungry for more? HELL TONITE! the ultimate 1979 LIVE THUNDERTRAIN concert is finally available on CD.
HELL TONITE! Now you can finally hear THUNDERTRAIN at their prime.
Experience the wildest, weirdest party rumble of them all. 13 hellraising cuts by Boston's Thundertrain. HELL TONITE! has been supressed since 1979. At long last it is now available. Get HELL TONITE! (Click over there on the LEFT where it says "Try This".)

reviews

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  • author: ==jas==

    As an original ThunderTrooper, it's great to hear the band on CD. Thundertrain was an amazing live show, and this CD effectively captures the experience. Check out the live "Hell Tonight" CD for another blazing dose of this off the rails band.

  • Lethal quintet....
    author: Holly Daisyn-Dassun

    Sept. 2004- TEENAGE SUICIDE- For the two or three of you who don't remember this lethal quintet, Mssrs.Bell, Silva, Provost (TWO of 'em) and Edwards were the link between good hard rock (with a twist of glam tossed in) and garage/punk at a time when rock and roll was going through much needed changes.     The '70's started off ok, lots of heavy bands playing lots of flashy stuff but things got a little silly after a while. 20 minute songs,10 minute solos, ... Thankfully there was Bowie/ Bolan/pre-perv Gary Glitter, Sweet, Stooges, the Dolls, and Slade to keep things fun and unpredictable, but it didn't last, and soon we were back in the soup again; Rick Wakeman, Jackson Browse, and solo LPs by Bill Wyman and Ron Wood! Thankfully, the CBGB's scene was happening, as was the London scene, not to mention our very own Boston scene, and before long, it was back to basics for rock and roll, and here's where Thundertrain come in.     Here was a band with an outrageous lead singer and front man who moved like the proverbial 'tiger on vaseline' and sang/shouted like Slade's Noddy Holder; Mach Bell. On guitar, playing guitar hero, Steven Silva, playing as fast and furious (and as nimble fingered as) Johnny Winter in his prime. Swooping in and then out with his killer riffs, short, sweet, to the point. The Provost Brothers, Ric and Cool Gene keep the rhythm solid ,tight, powerful,(Gene doing some nice Thin Lizzy dual lead stuff with Steven once in a while, too) all the while driven by the secret weapon of the band, Bobby Edwards (Bobby!) on drums, keeping the beat strong ,with serious monster flash to top it all off.     They were the bridge between the best of early '70's rock AND the return of straight ahead stripped down rock, with feet in both camps. 30 years later, Thundertrain came back to town to play for us for one special week, with TWO recordings on Gulcher Records for our approval! The first, Teenage Suicide, was the first-time-on-CD 2003 release of their original Jelly Records album (recorded 1976),featuring the infamous "Hot For Teacher" and "I Gotta Rock", plus extras including the song Tyler/Perry only WISH they wrote, "Cindy Is A Sleeper", live stuff, PLUS interviews, an ad for a gig back in the day, and a cool booklet with interviews, pix,history, etc.

  • “Harley Davidson del Rock’n’Roll” Buy it or Die!
    author: SLAM! PARTY ROCK ZINE

    THUNDERTRAIN "Teenage Suicide" Gulcher Records - 2002, by Gaetano Fezza - Ho volutamente atteso la seconda ristampa italiana in vinile per parlarvi di questo album che non esito a definire fondamentale, di recente la Rave Up Records ha passato la palla alla Rockin’Bones per la stampa del disco in tiratura limitata a 500 copie ed io, per gentile concessione di “Cowboy” Mach Bell (leggete l’intervista nell’apposita sezione) ho tra le mani l’ottima ristampa in CD incisa dai master originali, con un suono migliore, 6 bonus tracks ed un libretto molto curato. I tempi sono quindi maturi e la leggendaria “Harley Davidson del Rock’n’Roll” può finalmente avere qualche chances in più di farsi conoscere come merita. Attivi a Boston dal 1974, i Thundertrain contribuirono ad agitare la nascente scena locale che aveva come fulcro e trampolino di lancio il Rat Club, insieme a bands come DMZ, Real Kids, Reddy Teddy etc..., poco importava che non fossero Garage o Punk come volevano i canoni estetico/musicali del periodo, con il loro sound esplosivo riuscirono ad infuocare letteralmente le platee ed entrare anche nelle grazie dei punk che apprezzarono la loro attitudine provocatoria, gli atteggiamenti trasgressivi, animaleschi e magnetici del frontman, l’impatto dell’eccellente solista e maestro di bottleneck guitar Steven Silva e della compatta e potente sezione ritmica. Ventisette anni dopo la sua uscita “Teenage Suicide” riconferma l’impressione che mi fece ascoltando la prima ristampa su Hablabel Records nel 1989: brani che non risentono assolutamente dell’usura del tempo, freschi ed attuali, tanto che è inevitabile chiedersi perché una band di questo calibro non sia riuscita a salire alla ribalta quando solo una decade più tardi le stesse sonorità ed attitudine hanno reso miliardarie bands come i Guns’n’Roses ed i tamarrissimi (ed amatissimi of course) Twisted Sister (Dee, l’hai ascoltato bene il Cowboy eh!!) ? Precursori dei tempi, non c’è dubbio, il perfetto prototipo della Street Rock band, anche se etichettarli è cosa quantomeno limitante visto che spaziano con naturalezza dal classico Hard Rock riffing non distante dai contemporanei Aerosmith e Kiss al R’n’B degli Stones con inflessioni derivate da Glam Bands con i controcazzi come Slade e Silverhead, ed il lavoro di Silva funge da autentico trade-mark: qualità, buon gusto e quella cazzo di slide che mi piace da morire, chiaramente ispirata da mostri sacri come Johnny Winter. Basterebbe l’opener “Hot for Teacher!” impreziosita dal piano di Willie “Loco” Alexander a giustificare ampiamente l’acquisto del CD, una bomba Rock’n’Roll come solo i grandi sanno concepire, Van Halen “prese in prestito” titolo e contenuto del testo per un suo famoso hit (guarda caso dopo aver ricevuto un disco dei TT prima di un tour che avrebbero dovuto effettuare insieme, il furbo!!), in “Let’Er Rip” e “Forever & Ever” il lavoro alla slide di Steven Silva è sconquassante e mi fa letteralmente impazzire. “I Gotta Rock” è stata il mio primo amore e come tale mi procura ancora una certa eccitazione, è un Rock Blues malato ed adrenalinico che, nella versione del Live at the Rat (inclusa nel CD così come la studio version) riesce a dare un’idea del “calor bianco” sviluppato dalla band on stage, ascoltate il Cowboy e poi ditemi se non è il frontman che ogni Rock’n’Roll band vorrebbe avere! Ad impreziosire ulteriormente il dischetto, oltre ad un promo radiofonico ed un’intervista a Mach Bell, i due brani del primo singolo autoprodotto, le puttanesche “I’m So Excited” e “Cindy is a Sleeper”, apparentemente al crocevia tra Silverhead e primi Aerosmith ma quando Steven Silva si fa sentire il trade mark è inconfondibile, fuoriclasse ziocan! Potrei citare anche gli altri (ottimi) brani ma a questo punto direi che chi ha orecchie per intendere ha inteso. Buy it or Die!!

  • author: Solomon Spector

    This CD was 10 years ahead of it`s time! Had they come along in 1986, those wimps Bonjovi would be nowhere today! Thundertrain puts all their high energy to quote Jim Dandy Mangrum into this classic hard rock/glam rock/heavy metal classic! As a lifelong fan of the band I am glad this CD was re-issued! It deserves praise and recognition. Back then I always chose Thundertrain over Boston`s other hard rock band Aerosmith. Still do. I haven`t bought an Aerosmith CD since Joe Perry left the band. And this CD shows why he tapped Mach`s great vocal talents for his Joe Perry Project. Too bad he couldn`t have tapped him for Aerosmith. They have become an annoying Dinosaur band. Catering to the MTV generation. I blast this CD at home, at work and in the SUV! I can`t remember the last time I listened to an Aerosmith record on purpose. Not counting when they`re on the radio. Even then it has to be "old" Aerosmith. If you love rock and roll, you`ll love this CD!

  • RAW PARENT OF APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION
    author: ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE

    ROLLING STONE,ISSUE 927,JULY 24, 2003 - OUT THERE With David Fricke - THUNDERTRAIN,Teenage Suicide,Gulcher-You have a choice: Sit around waiting for the new Guns n’Roses album until you qualify for Medicare, or bang your head now to this raw parent of Appetite For Destruction, cut by Boston’s Thundertrain in 1976 for the local Jelly label. I bought the original LP in ‘77 and remember how weird and refreshing it sounded in the thick of punk: the heavy glam of Aerosmith and Mott The Hoople with the garage-production values of the first Clash album. Pump up the bass to compensate for the tin-shed fidelity of the studio tracks. Crank up the live “I Gotta Rock” from September ‘76, to hear how Thundertrain were the G n’ R of their town and day.

  • ALL THAT PLEASES THE ANGELS OF ROCK IN THE HIGHER NETHER REALMS
    author: FLESH MAGAZINE

    By Vom Doom- The stunning Teenage Suicide album... released during the spit spatter heyday of punk rawk in the old century 1977. It’s a monster mashed slab o’ Chuck Berry riffs and Slade guitar styles betwixt all that pleases the angels of rock in the higher nether realms: it oozes vocal thunder while the world snoozes on & under. Harnessing the sexy energy of pre-proto-punk-protagonists like the artful MC5, Alice, New York Dolls, pre-hero age Kiss and heck even Grand Funk - Thundertrain were born in ‘74 coined from the hyper-inflected line outta Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf; I Was Struck By Lightning/Heavy Metal Thunder. The band was highly influential in establishing the Boston club scene, most notably The Rat. They played routinely with NY based bands like the Dead Boys and the Ramones in the late 70’s and they went on to change the way people thought about rock music for years to come... Fast and shakin’ is the only way to pin point the erection of the Thundertrain direction. Mach Bell’s disco-destroying rock- against everything voice shouting out over slide guitarist Steven Silva’s leads are metal immensity of hall melting proportions: a champion coupling of infighting and rough housing, meshing most mightily on compositions sporting such sexual innuendo splifters as Modern Girls (they don’t need boys to help them get it on) and I’m So Excited which Silva wrote about a peeping tom. It was all too fast for love - all the time... Bell says the only time T-Train ever stopped to spend a few days in the studio was for the aforementioned pre-MTV Van Halen crushing original Hot For Teacher/Love The Way 45. The experience marked the beginning of TEENAGE SUICIDE...After some cowbell and vocal overdubs it was ready to be archived in the Obscurity of Whatever-the -Hell-It-Is Hall of Infamy. Now it has been reissued by Gulcher Records.

  • Like the bastard child of early Aerosmith and New York Dolls.
    author: All Music Guide

    If you are from Boston, as I am, and were following indie rock 'n punk in the mid 70's, you had this album in your collection. Extremely rare but now out with 6 bonus trax, Thundertrain balanced hanging w/ the Boston punk scene but they were hard rockers with a glammy slant. Like the bastard child of early Aerosmith and New York Dolls. "Crunch. That's what happens when you mix two parts Slade with one part Rolling Stones and feature the future frontman for the final incarnation of The Joe Perry Project... Teenage Suicide can't show you Mach Bell's enormous stage presence, and that was a big part of their appeal - we can only hope videos from the time have survived. It also doesn't have the polish a major label might have afforded them, but it does capture the energy and creative spark of a major Boston personality who would go on to work with a member of Aerosmith, and his bandmates who were a formidable and powerful bunch on stage"-AMG.

  • Puro y genuino rock and roll tcado con un par de huevos.
    author: El Diario de Peter Punk

    THUNDERTRAIN "Teenage Suicide" Gulcher Records 2002. en los años setenta, antes de que el punk irrumpiera en Inglaterra, estos compañeros de viaje de Dictators o Runaways, le daban al rock and roll cañero y eran muy conocidos en la escena underground tanto de su ciudad como de Nueva York. En este álbum, ahora reeditado e incialmente publicado en 1977, nos encontramos con 13 temas, grabados entre los años 75 y 76, más una entrevista y un tema en directo. En total, cerca de unahora, de rock potente en títulos clásicos como "I'm So Excited", "Hot For Teacher!", "Modern Girls", "I Gotta Rock", "Forever & Ever" o "Love The Way". Puro y genuino rock and roll tcado con un par de huevos...... Loosely translated: In the 70's, before the English punk rock invasion, these guys are like a trip from the Dictator's or Runaways and were known very well in the underground R&R scene of Boston and New York. In this album, now re-edited and first published in 77, we hear 13 songs performed between 75 and 76, an interview and a topic directly(?). In all, from yesteryear, powerful R&R w/ such classics as I'm So Excited, Hot For Teacher etc. Pure and genuine R&R given up with a pair of balls!

  • A BLASTING SONIC STEW
    author: NEMS NEWSLETTER

    MACH BELL's current band, LAST MAN STANDING, has a new CD that we'll have to get back to.  But for the moment...  Gulcher Records has reissued the Thundertrain album, "Teenage Suicide" (CD, Gulcher 411, 2002), with added tracks, a radio spot, and an interview that you ought to hear.  Mach Bell sang with serious swagger (still does), and the music is wilder than I remembered--a LOT wilder.  It's 1970s metal/hard-rock aimed at an emerging punk audience--a blasting sonic stew.  Great booklet, too. I read in the Globe, as I recall, that the new proprietors of the BOSTON MUSIC AWARDS are thinking about the possibility of awards for people who work behind the scenes.  They'd do well to consider the folks who created the Thundertrain CD booklet.  It's well illustrated, attractively designed, and loaded with terrific information.  Fans would want the disc anyway, but the booklet's a real added incentive. (Alan Lewis)

  • PROTOTYPE PUNK METAL...HONED TO PERFECTION
    author: METRONOME MAGAZINE

    By Bill Copeland ,METRONOME Mar. 2003 , Thundertrain Teenage Suicide Gulcher Records      I listen to many CDs by local artists each year, and some of them are a real treat to listen to. A re-release of 1977’s Teenage Suicide by Boston’s punk rock band Thundertrain is one of those local releases that grab my attention with the talent and vision of the artists who recorded it.      Fronted by local legend Mach Bell, Thundertrain made a name for itself during the decade of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. While local bands like Boston and The Cars were getting signed to major labels, Thundertrain played out all over the greater Boston area, bringing their prototype punk metal sound and glam-rock stage antics to music fans hearing it and seeing it for the first time.      Thundertrain had their sound honed to perfection at least two years before the Sex Pistols caught the attention of the American media and at least ten years before speed metal started selling like hotcakes. This five piece band that also featured Steven Silva on lead guitar, Gene Provost on rhythm guitar, Gene’s brother Ric on bass, and Bobby Edwards on drums released “Teenage Suicide” at a time when the album title would bring withering criticism for its frank recognition of a growing social problem.      Their song “Hot For Teacher” was recorded almost ten years before Van Halen would release a song with the same title and a similar subject matter. “Hot For Teacher” opens “Teenage Suicide” with Thundertrain’s fast paced interpretation of rock and roll idioms. Other songs called “Let ’Er Rip” and “Modern Girls” have the kind of attitude mirrored with crunchy guitar attack that was found in bands like The Ramones and The New York Dolls. Bell’s vocal approach is similar to what Alice Cooper was doing at the time, but he remains very distinct. This lead singer has a vocal style I really admire, and I can understand why Joe Perry later tapped him to front the Joe Perry Project. Bell goes from a menacing whisper to a throaty growl within one bar of music. Listening to him sing makes it easy to picture him stalking the stage while Silva pays out some blistering lead guitar solos.      “Cheater” offers the best example of what Thundertrain could do within the basic format of punk rock. Bell complains about someone with ugly morals while Silva reflects Bell’s vocal rantings with an aggressive guitar attack. Fortunately for Bell and Silva, the rhythm section can keep pace and provide a solid thumping back drop for the two front men to work out the dynamic tension they develop in each song. Bell even becomes dramatic on “Hell Tonite,” singing with only the drums comping him at one point.      Aside from being a sonically enhanced version of Thunder train’s 1977 “Teenage Suicide” album, the CD also contains six bonus tracks. This includes two versions of their single “I’m So Excited” and another single called “Cindy Is A Sleeper.” The compelling dual guitar work from Silva and Cool Gene Provost on “Cindy Is A Sleeper” makes the song come to life. Bell’s cool vocal delivery rides over it with plenty of charisma.      Liner notes were written by Bell himself, and he gives a lot of interesting history in a pleasant writing style. The front man was honest about a developing personality clash between himself and Silva. This release package should be of great interest to anybody who grew up listening to local bands in 1970s’ Boston as well as younger music fans who’d like to get a flavor filled slice of yesteryear.      Interestingly enough, a late 1970s interview with Oedipus at WAAF appears as track 14 and shows Bell well versed in marketing techniques. He talks about how far and wide Thundertrain has performed and how well one of their songs is charting in Great Britain.

  • LEAN, MEAN, RAW AND DRENCHED WITH TESTOSTERONE
    author: Ken Kaiser

    lq lD` title:: Teenage Suicide In 1977, when punk was the new "cool" and "hip" music, some people called Thundertrain a punk band. Maybe that's because they were cool and hip or maybe because they were as high energy as any punk band. Either way, they weren't punk. They could tune, as well as play, their instruments. They could write mainstream songs that were original and yet instantly memorable. And Thundertrain played fast, but not THAT fast. The same boredom and frustration with pop radio that created punk also created Thundertrain. Among the rockers they claim as influences are the Stones, the Yardbirds, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, James Brown, Rick Derringer, Kiss, Steppenwolf, Slade, the Who, the New York Dolls, the MC5, as well as the work of B movie mogul Roger Corman. If you enjoy any of the aforementioned groups / peeps then there is a good chance you will enjoy Thundertrain. If don't enjoy any of the aforementioned, then there is a good chance that you are dead. See a doctor. Thundertrain's 1976 LP, Teenage Suicide, has just been re-released by Gulcher Records. This new CD contains all the tracks from that album plus half a dozen others, including a few live cuts and an interview from 1977. As usual, Gulcher has put together a first rate package. The sound is ballsy and clear. There are lotsa pictures and history, including separate interviews with every member of the band. Don't let the title of the album, or the front cover photograph of a girl with her wrists slashed, throw you - this is a party record. Keep a firm grip on your number two pencil as the CD gets off to a flying, kick-ass start with the band's most notorious single, Hot for Teacher. Roaring guitars and a pounding rhythm section are joined by the piano virtuosity of no other than Willie "Loco" Alexander, on loan from the Boom Boom band. Hot for Teacher is lean, mean, raw and drenched with testosterone. The concept of this song was certainly worthy of theft by Van Halen. For the remainder of the disk there is no piano, there are no strings, no organ, or any other instrument that would need to be overdubbed. The tracks that weren't recorded live in concert were recorded live in the studio. The intensity of a performance comes through on every cut. Lead singer, Mach Bell doesn't so much sing as scream, shout and howl. That singing style is a perfect fit for the playing and songwriting style of the band, especially principle songwriter Steven Silva. The second track, Let 'Er Rip, features Silva on slide guitar and is almost as fast and frenetic as the first. As a matter of fact, there are no slow songs on this CD. No power ballads. And no love songs. The next two songs, Modern Girls and Cheater are about the opposite sex, unless you are a woman, in which case they are about the same sex. The concept of a "modern" girl was quite alluring to most guys. We had all gone out with "old fashioned" girls and gotten nowhere. Maybe what we needed to find was a "modern" girl. Well, Steven Silva found some modern girls and perhaps bit off more than he could chew. Two in a row penned by rhythm guitarist Gene Provost follow, Love the Way and Hell Tonite. Gene and his bass playing bother Ric combine with drummer Bobby Edwards to create what Mach Bell called a "meat and potatoes" rhythm section. That is exactly what you want from a rhythm section. These three lay down a platform from which Mach and Steven can blast off. They are more like steel and concrete than meat and potatoes. These guys are solid. Lyrically, as well as musically, the songs still manage to seem fresh more than 25 years after they were conceived. That's because the songs are not really about anything except rocking. What more do you want from lyrics then: "I love the way that you love me. I need the way you need me" and "C'mon alright - we're gonna raise some hell tonite"? I, for one, don't need to hear some sappy story that sounds like it was taken out of a sensitivity trainer's journal. I don't need to know about the mixed feelings some jerk has at the end of a crappy relationship. If Thundertrain were still together and still half as good looking as they were 20 plus years ago, I'm sure they'd be contenders for a major label contract right now and possible superstardom. Mach Bell is still rocking with his new band, Last Man Standing, but finally had to relent and get a real job. I found it surprising that he couldn't live off of the royalties he made from the Patio Mexican TV Dinner Co. He did some great product placement for them on I Gotta Rock. In a parallel universe, a universe not too unlike our own, Thundertrain is the most popular band in the world. Thundertrain played at the Superbowl half-time show. Thundertrain does commercials for Pepsi, Hertz, and the new Thundertrain 4 - in - 1 Gril - O -Matic. (George Foreman doesn't sell any grills in this universe - he is too busy being the President.) Mach Bell drinks milk and Steven Silva uses American Express. Ric and Gene Provost and Bobby Edwards endorse, what else, meat and potatoes. This is a good universe and one that seemed almost inevitable as Thundertrain's star was climbing in the ladder half of the '70's. If you were lucky enough to see Thundertrain in person before they broke up in 1980 then you got a glimpse of that universe. Buy the CD and imagine what music was like when Rock and Punk came together and said, "Don't give me no Barry Manilow"! ---Ken Kaiser February 01, 2003

  • THIS IS A REAL SCORE.
    author: Frank Meyer

    KNAC.COM LA CA Thundertrain Teenage Suicide By Frank Meyer, Contributing Editor Thursday, February 13, 2003 @ 2:38 PM (Gulcher) In the early to mid '70s there was a glam hard rock band called Thundertrain that featured a singer named Mach Bell, who later went on to front the Joe Perry Project as "Cowboy" Mach Bell and now sings in Last man Standing. The band opened up for all the cool New York bands from the era and cut a handful of singles and one album before calling it quits. The fine folks at Gulcher records have released said album, Teenage Suicide, on CD for the first time and have included a handful of unreleased live cuts as bonus tracks. Fans of '70s era NYC glam rock will love this as it harkens back to the days of the New York Dolls, The Dictators, The Brats and DMZ. Much more hard rock than punk though, these guys don't ride the Ramones/Dead Boys bandwagon that was so popular in those days, but opt for a more KISS/Aerosmith kinda sound, bluesy and groovin' to the max. Think Van Halen had heard Thundertrain's "Hot For Teacher" when they wrote their own song of the same name? I think so. Think Twisted Sister heard their Live At The Rat cuts when they penned their own glam anthems for Under The Blade? I'd wager on it. Guitarist Steven Silva turns out to be a real find, tossing off Thunders-y riffs and Johnny Winter-influenced licks with ease and style (check out his Winter tone on "I Gotta Rock"). While Bell is no Steven Tyler in the vocal department, he does have a certain sleazy charm and certainly sells the songs with balls and aplomb. His voice leaves much to be desired in the melody department but he's got tons of attitude and swagger and we all know how far that goes in the rock n' roll game. Just ask Slade and Silverhead, two bands whom Thundertrain obviously owe a great debt to. Song highlights include the aforementioned "Hot For Teacher" (featuring Willie Loco Alexander on piano), the slide guitars boogie of "Let 'Er Rip," and the power pop of "Modern Girls." Meanwhile, "Frustration" rocks pretty hard and "Cindy Is A Sleeper" is a sexy, sultry piece of white trash noise, Bean Town style. The album includes a bonus radio interview between Bell and a young Oedipus, a 24-page booklet packed with rare photos and interviews and a hilarious radio ad by Bell. For fans of this genre, this is a real score.

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