NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Eleven
Seven Music) - With an impressive first week, legendary rock band
Motley Crue earned themselves an impressive top 5 debut, their highest since 1997's "Generation Swine" on the Billboard chart with "Saints of Los Angeles," their first new album featuring the original lineup in over a decade. The album, inspired by their NY Times best-selling book "
The Dirt" is an example of how forward thinking, integrated marketing and an acclaimed CD can support sales in a lagging music industry.
The single, "Saints of Los Angeles," which remains a top ten rock track was released simultaneously via the video game Rock Band (a Crue Fest partner) and to traditional retailers and sold over five times the number of downloads on Rock Band as it did on iTunes in its first week.
The band has also pioneered digital initiatives including online pre-sales (they were one of the first bands to sell tickets online); simulcasting their press conference on www.therockvine.com and offering fans exclusive content on their website, www.motley.com for years. Plans include continued digital initiatives and special ring tone availability.
"Saints of Los Angeles" features
Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars,
Tommy Lee and Vince Neil and is their ninth studio album in a 27 year career which has seen the most notorious band in rock & roll sell over 80 million albums worldwide so far.
The oft-imitated rockers were also very visible in the past week appearing on "The Late Show with David Letterman," on a classic episode of "Larry King Live" (Larry plays with the band), On The Record with Greta Van Susteren, and in a special tribute celebrating their career in the June 21st issue of Billboard magazine. In pure Motley form, the band arrived at David Letterman's show in a Presidential Procession as a troop of bikers led their 1960's Cadillac convertible complete with skull and cross-bones flags waving through the streets of New York City to celebrate the release of the new CD.
"With a full dose of hammering sleaze-rock, 'Saints' could be ripped straight off the 'Dr. Feelgood' prescription pad," - USA Today
Allen Kovac, CEO and Founder of Eleven Seven Music says, "With Buckcherry, Motley Crue and Sixx:A.M. we are seeing a seismic shift from hip-hop, pop and emo to rock. There is no one more worthy of leading its return than an iconic band like Motley Crue." Eleven Seven Music is one of North America's fastest growing labels.
Listeners were also offered a "sneak peek" through Clear Channel radio where they made the preview of the new CD on the websites of the national radio conglomerate's many stations, the second most popular in the history of the program. "We were thrilled to partner with Motley Crue to offer our listeners a chance to hear their new music on our sites before it was available anywhere else. The partnership will live on as Crue Fest winds its way across America and our stations tie in great local promotions to this online initiative," said Paul Miraldi, SVP Programming & Marketing, Clear Channel Online Music & Radio.
"The Crue is back... and they're grimier than ever." - Rolling Stone
"The trip down memory lane helps the Crue connect to their old sound: Much of 'Saints' [of Los Angeles] rocks with the same raucous fun as their Eighties albums, delivering glam guitars and arena-size choruses on cuts like the wickedly catchy 'Down at the Whisky.'" - Rolling Stone
"Saints of Los Angeles" is loosely based on the band's bestselling "The Dirt" which is a must-read rock and roll tome of which Ray Hogan, San Antonio Express-News said, "'The Dirt' might be the wildest rock 'n' roll story ever told. It's not only remarkable that the group's four members are alive to recount - and actually remember - their sordid history, but disturbingly appropriate that they do so unrelentingly... For a band that wore their vices like a badge of honor, there's still enough uncovered dirt to make this hard to put down." The CD takes these tales and puts them to classic Motley music. The book is also scheduled to become a much-anticipated movie but has been held up in the process.
Nikki Sixx recently told Reuters, "We're trying to get them (MTV Films and Paramount) out of the way to make this movie that should have been made a long time ago. They are not the right partner." "Isn't it a shame that the soundtrack and book are at the top the charts and even when a guy like David Fincher wants to make the film, they still can't figure out how to make it happen? There's been a revolving door of executives hired and fired. The fans want the film. Van Toffler should worry less about his manicures and facials and more about artists and directors. For the benefit of the creative community, MTV Films should be dismantled. All of the fans who keep asking for the film should email Sumner Redstone and let him know how to get this movie made while we have the soundtrack to the book all over the streets, airwaves and charts - it's just stupid," comments Sixx.
The CD is released on Motley Records/Eleven Seven Music, returning control to the band who also received the rights to all of their master recordings.
"The band's signature blues/punk/glam blend remains intact, but the act sounds hungrier than it has since 1989's 'Dr. Feelgood.'" - Billboard
The inaugural season of the Crue Fest tour began July 1st in West Palm Beach, FL, and features Motley Crue, Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx:A.M., and Trapt. Tickets, band profiles and exclusive content from all of the Crue Fest bands will consistently be uploaded at www.therockvine.com. In conjunction with the tour, Best Buy is exclusively selling a Crue Fest Compilation featuring all five tour headliners as well as The Exies, Marion Raven, Drowning Pool and Chosen Son. The set was almost sold out of its limited pressing before the tour even began.
For more information on Motley Crue please visit www.motley.com and www.myspace.com/motleycrue.
