NEW YORK (Easgle Rock Ent./ www.twistedsister.com) - 2004 is shaping up as one of the most exciting years ever for the hard rock band Twisted Sister. Eagle Rock Entertainment will release the 'Still Hungry' CD - a rerecorded and expanded version of the classic 1984 album 'Stay Hungry' - on October 5, 2004. 'Still Hungry' adds seven new tracks to the original 'Stay Hungry.'
The rerecorded 'Stay Hungry' tracks are "Stay Hungry," "We're Not Gonna Take It," "Burn in Hell," "Horror-Teria: A) Captain Howdy B) Street Justice," "I Wanna Rock," "The Price," "Don't Let Me Down," "The Beast" and "S.M.F." The biggest singles of Twisted Sister's career, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock," were fist-pumping smashes and important, ground-breaking music videos in the early days of MTV.
The seven bonus tracks are "Never Say Never," "Blastin' Fast & Loud," "Come Back," "Plastic Money," "You Know I Cry," "Rock N Roll Saviors" and "Heroes Are Hard to Find." These songs appear at the end of 'Still Hungry.' Four of them - "Come Back," "Plastic Money," "You Know I Cry" and "Rock N Roll Saviors" - were newly recorded in 2004. The recording of "Never Say Never" and "Blastin' Fast & Loud" was completed in 2001 using the original drum tracks Pero laid down in 1984. "Heroes Are Hard to Find" was recorded in 1998.
With 'Still Hungry,' vocalist Dee Snider, lead guitarist Jay Jay French, lead guitarist Eddie Ojeda, bass guitarist Mark "The Animal" Mendoza and drummer A.J. Pero are adding an important new chapter to the Twisted Sister history book. The quintet's relentlessly rocking anthems and legendary live performances are essential components of hard rock's legacy.
'Still Hungry' - which was produced by Mendoza, a longtime producer/engineer in addition to his bass guitar duties with Twisted Sister - finally gives the New York-based band a chance to make 'Stay Hungry' the way it was first envisioned. 'Stay Hungry' has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, but it doesn't sound the way Twisted Sister wanted it to sound.
" 'Still Hungry' is 'Stay Hungry - The Way It Ought to Be.' It has an ultra-heavy sound, which is the way we wanted 'Stay Hungry' in the first place. But at that time rock records had a thin, very midrange kind of sound and so 'Stay Hungry' was recorded very lightly. We battled Atlantic Records and producer Tom Werman about it, but we lost," French says.
"These rerecordings are faithful to the original arrangements but they sound much heavier. There are an additional seven tracks included -- obscure songs from our club days but never officially recorded then. On two of these songs, 'Never Say Never' and 'Blastin' Fast & Loud,' we used the original drum tracks that A.J. recorded. These songs were meant to be included on 'Stay Hungry' but were never finished. 'Heroes Are Hard to Find' was on the soundtrack of Dee's movie 'Strangeland.'"
Six of the seven bonus tracks previously appeared, mostly in raw form, on archival Twisted Sister albums. Demos of "Come Back" and "Rock N Roll Saviors" were included on the 1999 Spitfire Records collection 'Club Daze Volume I: The Studio Sessions.' The completed 2001 studio recordings of "Never Say Never" and "Blastin' Fast & Loud" (with Pero's original 1984 drum tracks) kick off 2001's Spitfire release 'Club Daze Volume II: Live in the Bars' which also features vintage live versions of "You Know I Cry," "Plastic Money" and "ComeBack" (one of just a few songs to appear on both 'Club Daze' volumes).
"Even the cover art is now the way we wanted it. It shows us as five starving musicians in street clothes in a tenement sitting at a table to represent where we came from, and the ghostly looking image of us in our stage clothes behind that shot represents what we imagined we could achieve," says French.
'Still Hungry' finally gives Twisted Sister and its legions of fans worldwide the chance to experience uncompromised versions of these important songs. 'Still Hungry' makes a great thing even better.
