Tuff - The History Of Tuff 
Label: RLS Records
Rating: 

Tracks:
1. American Hair Band (Radio Edit)
2. Not Telling The Truth
3. Don't Complain
4. American Man
5. I Won't Give Up
6. So Many Seasons
7. Who The Hell Am I?
8. Another Man's Gun
9. A Place Where Love Can't Go
10. People They Change
11. Good Guys Wear Black
12. Sinner Street
13. Summertime Goodbye
14. American Hair Band (Slang Edit)

You know, I'm up on my hair metal, but Tuff is a band I always purposely avoided. Image is a powerful thing, I suppose, and when their debut album's jacket featured the band looking all glam and colorful, well I was more than willing to judge a book by it's cover. Recently, I had reviewed the new Cult tribute album that the lead singer of Tuff happened to appear in, and it turned out his contribution was one of the strongest... That, as well as the hype I noticed for their new single "American Hair Band," got me interested enough to ask for a promo copy of the new "History Of Tuff" CD.

Though self-released through their own record label (cool title: Record Labels Suck Records), the presentation is pretty good. The album's concept is more than subtly borrowed from Kid Rock's American Bad Ass album, from singer Stevie Rachelle's cover pose to the collection of older, obscure tracks (from both Tuff albums and Stevie's solo work). 

The CD kicks off with, naturally, a parody of Kid Rock's song "American Bad Ass" called "American Hair Band." How you take to the song probably depends on your sense of humor; it's funny and attention grabbing but the Weird Al-ish quality makes a weird first impression. It's a cute novelty song with the lyrics paying tribute to tons of Tuff's 80's hair-band peers. The music still uses Metallica's "Sad But True" riff, although now featuring samples from icons such as Twisted Sister, Faster Pussycat, Poison, and Guns N' Roses. However, with most novelties, the effect soon wears off after a few listens, as I quickly found myself putting in the CD and skipping directly to track 2. 

Next is "Not Telling The Truth," which I'd consider the actual start of the disc. After hearing the sillyness of "American Hair Band," I was caught off guard by the musicianship of this track. The mid-tempo charmer is catchy, damn it all. As soon as I heard it, I liked it, and started worrying about how I was singing along to a song from Tuff! The next couple tracks are instantly likeable too, happening to feature production from Gilby Clarke. 

There is a section in the middle of the disc that I find pretty dull, two really slow and unremarkable songs right in a row that throw off the pace of the disc. Following those is "Another Man's Gun" off 1994's "Regurgitation"CD, which sounds like it would have been a glam hit in 1987. After "Gun," the production takes a very bad dive, as tracks 9 and 10 sound like a murky bootleg. It's a shame too, as they both had potential, especially #10, called "People They Change." It's too bad they chose not to re-record a quality sounding version for this disc. The sound clarity returns for the rest of the disc, happily, and I might mention that "Sinner Street" is a great Motley Crue / Kiss sounding rocker. The disc closes with the unedited version of "American Hair Band," which is a bit of overkill as only two or three words were taken out of the original that started off the disc.  

I still feel a little ashamed for saying I like this album. Before I would have questioned if my taste in music sucked, now I just tell myself I've become more open-minded. Musically, Tuff's nickname of "Poison Lite" is pretty accurate in describing their sound. They are a band that would have been bigger if they weren't too late coming into the glam/sleaze scene, as several of these songs are really catchy and well written.
 

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