By Martin Popoff
Breaking his neck for rock 'n' roll was never the intention of Poison's thumper of fat strings Bobby Dall. But that's what he did, his neon brothas responding by breaking the back end of their '01 summer shed tour, convening back at the war room (24 elevator stops into hard rock magma, deep and deeper below Hollyweird's Rainbow Room) and coming up with the glam party of '02 - Poison with Cinderella, Winger and Faster Pussycat, the details of which can be glommed and gleaned at www.poisonweb.com.
But this time, all gripes can be cast aside, because there is a full, no-scraps, bonafide, shiny new Poison album to accompany the shimmy and the shake. Hollyweird features 13 tracks, including last year's Rock Star single as a bonus and The Who's Squeeze Box as a silly hunk of burning love.
"You know, if anything it's a combination of going backwards and forward," begins Bobby on a vague rock star note. "I think this record goes back to more like the first or second record. It's a little heavier, more down and dirty, straight-ahead, hard rock 'n' roll. And at the same time, your songs and your sound, they always evolve; that's just a natural process. It's really not anything we set out purposely to do. It's just where our heads are at at the moment. We never set out to pick a particular sound or form. We just go into a room, lock the door, beat the shit out of each other and come out with a rock 'n' roll record (laughs). And actually, there's not a ballad on the record. First time for us (laughs)."
POISON - Ring Around The Rosebowls Page 2