Our top 10 Roxx Gang songs list looks at the work of a glam metal band who were formed in Florida in 1982. They released their debut album Things You’ve Never Done Before in 1988. Although this album was successful, they disbanded in 1991 after disagreements with their record company. A year later, founding member Kevin Steele reformed the band with a completely different line-up. They finally released a second album in 1995 titled The Voodoo You Love in 1995. From this point on, they became a consistent recording outfit producing a few more albums during the latter half of the 1990s. However, this reunion was ultimately rather short lived, as they finally disbanded in the year 2000 and have remained defunct ever since.
Roxx Gang are a largely forgotten band whose timing ultimately was not right. After their reformation, they progressed on from the glam metal style which was outdated by then and in the end, became a more blues-based rock band. However, they produced some good material and here at ClassicRockHistory.com, we are going to give readers who may be unfamiliar with them a list of their ten best songs.
# 10 – Too Big For My Britches
Opening up our top ten Roxx Gang songs list is this track that was taken from their demo album Love Em And Leave Em released in 1987. This album is a good indicator of what Roxx Gang would go on to be. It has all the best traits of good time hair metal and as a whole, has a powerful sound to it even though it is only demoed material.
# 9 – Meanwhile Back At The Ranch
This next track entitled ” Meanwhile Back At The Ranch,” is taken from the band’s second album The Voodoo You Love released in 1995. After their comeback, Roxx Gang was back in business and this is a song that proves it. Although it still has the hair metal style, it also has a heavier sound to it which is helped by the more powerful production.
# 8 – Take It Off
Here is another great track from Love Em and Leave Em. This is a song that has a pure classic eighties glam metal vibe. It has a big sound to it and all of the instruments are very well played. This track easily competes with a lot of the other bands in the scene who were far more successful. It really is a shame that Roxx Gang were around at the wrong time as they could have been one the greats of the genre.
# 7 – I’m On Fire
Up next is a track from the band’s album Old, New Borrowed and Blue, released in 1998. Here the band has moved on with their sound; it is now more in the vein of hard rock than glam metal. It has a great guitar riff and arguably sounds better than a lot of their earlier material. They certainly pull it off well. It is an album where they were clearly attempting to move with the times but ultimately, they did not gain any greater success with it. And no, this is not the same as the Bruce Springsteen song.
# 6 – Tiger Lilly
Here we have a track taken from the band’s album Mojo Gurus, released in 1998. The band are again experimenting with their sound here, with it almost sounding like the work of a British indie group such as Primal Scream. It is good to hear the band trying a different direction and attempting to be relevant in the then-current musical climate.
# 5 – Live Fast Die Young
Landing in the number five spot on our Roxx Gang songs list we present the song “Live Fast Die Young.” The song was released on the band’s debut album Things You’ve Never Done Before. The album was released in 1988. Despite having glam metal overtones, the sound of this song has more of a traditional heavy metal vibe to it. The song is slightly anthemic although it moves at a slow plodding pace. “Live Fast Die Young.” deliverers an impressive guitar solo echoing the work of heavy metal bands like Dio.
# 4 – Too Cool For School
And here we have the opening track from the demo album. A song that lyrically gets across a less than positive opinion of school, it sees Kevin Steele doing a vocal performance that is quite reminiscent of Bon Scott. It is very anthemic and has a lot of rock n roll attitude to it, sounding rather similar to bands like Dokken.
# 3 – Strawberry Wine
At number three we have another song from Mojo Circus. This is yet another track that shows the album’s experimentation with its strong blues influence. The sound of this song certainly is not glam metal and arguably is not really even metal. It is more pure bluesy rock and the kind of thing that generally gets taken more seriously by the musician community.
# 2 – You Really Got A Hold On Me
Just off the top spot on our Top 10 Roxx Gang Songs list, we have a song from one of the band’s later albums that was released in 2000 titled Drinkin Tnt and Smokin Dynamite. This is another dynamic track that continued to fuel the mature direction that the band had been taking with their previous couple of albums. It is another blues-rock based track that veers into a more alternative direction. It has a smoking bass line and is dark in nature almost being quite reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails.
# 1 – Mojo Guru
At the top of our Roxx Gang songs list we have the title track of the band’s album Mojo Guru which was released in 1998. The Mojo Gurus was also the name of an “alter ego band” that Roxx Gang created in 2004 that celebrated the blues-rock style found on the. Mojo Gurus album. Although Roxx Gang are no longer together under that name, the members still continue to play as the Mojo Gurus to this day, having produced a series of albums and sharing the stage in the past with the likes of Johnny Winter and David Allan Coe. In this sense, you could kind of say that this was their unofficial debut, as they were clearly thinking of moving on to different things musically.
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