Rock N Roll Gutter

This week in The Gutter we're taking a ride through the life and career of Donnie Iris. A guy who knew his way around a damn good rock 'n' roll song. Born Dominic Ierace in western Pennsylvania, Donnie started singing at weddings when he was just five years old. From those early days on the local music scene to national success with The Jaggerz, he was already making his mark. A sti...

On this episode of The Rock N Roll Gutter we dig into the story of Raging Slab—their music, their attitude, and a band that never seemed particularly interested in playing by anybody else’s rules. Somewhere between Southern rock, blues, boogie, and straight-up hard rock, Raging Slab carved out a sound from heavy riffs and swampy grooves. They had the riffs, the swagger, the groove, and just enough...

By special request, The Gutter is heading back to late-’80s Los Angeles, where the hair was big, the guitars were loud, and the Sunset Strip was crawling with bands looking for their shot at rock ’n’ roll glory. Enter Wildside — a band with the attitude, the hooks, and enough sleaze to make themselves right at home on the Sunset Strip . Originally known as Young Gunns, Wildside landed a deal with...

This week, The Gutter is giving you a double shot of late-’80s hard rock featuring Radio Active Cats and Cats In Boots. Radio Active Cats brought together hard rock, Chuck Berry riffs, power-pop hooks, and plenty of swagger, creating a unique sound that should have found a home alongside the louder, dirtier bands crawling out of the clubs at the time. Then there’s Cats In Boots — a band created wh...

This week in The Gutter, we’re heading back to late-’80s Los Angeles to dig into Candy, a band that had all the right ingredients for the Sunset Strip but somehow never got the attention they deserved. Fronted by Kyle Vincent and featuring a young Gilby Clarke on guitar, Candy mashed together punk attitude, glam swagger, power pop chords, and enough melody to make the whole thing incredibly catchy...

To celebrate our 50th episode , The Rock N Roll Gutter Podcast crawls into the seedy world of Hanoi Rocks , the Finnish rock ’n’ roll wrecking crew that took punk attitude, glam swagger, bluesy sleaze, and a healthy disregard for personal safety and smashed it all together. At the center of the chaos were Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy , two wildly different personalities who somehow managed to cre...

This week in The Gutter, we dive headfirst into the life and career of the legendary Hanoi Rocks frontman; Michael Monroe. From the streets of Helsinki to the stages of the world, Monroe carved out a career that was never about playing it safe. He was punk before punk was fashionable, glam before glam got polished, and a rock star before the word “rock star” became a marketing strategy. We trace t...

Today in The Gutter we kickoff Season Five by celebrating two unsung heroes of sleaze rock whose influence is still being felt today. When people talk about Hanoi Rocks, the spotlight usually falls on Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy. But this week, we're turning that spotlight toward two musicians who helped build the band's legendary sound from the ground up: Nasty Suicide and Sami Yaffa....

  This week in The Gutter, we close out Season 4 with the one and only Izzy Stradlin.   Izzy helped birth one of the most dangerous bands in rock — then walked away from stadiums, platinum records, and the whole circus at the peak of the madness, because he'd rather ride his motorcycle in peace than chase another gold record.  We dig into the guy who never needed the spotlight to prove he bel...

This week in The Gutter, we head back to the dark side of Hollywood to spotlight one of the most notorious bands of the Sunset Strip era: The Joneses. The Joneses mixed punk attitude, Stones swagger, and dangerous living into a sound that helped create the blueprint for Hollywood gutter rock. Loud, sleazy, and unapologetically raw, they were one of the most influential bands to emerge from the L.A...

This week in The Gutter, we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the record many musicians consider Aerosmith's finest hour. From the swagger of "Back in the Saddle" and the filthy groove of "Last Child" to the crushing heaviness of "Nobody's Fault," Rocks captured the Boston bad boys at the absolute peak of their powers. Released in 1976, Aerosmith&a...

This week in the gutter, we’re diving headfirst into the gloriously underrated world of late-’80s Sunset Strip rock with Shark Island and The Scream. Two bands. Endless talent. Horrible timing. During the dying days of the Strip, Shark Island unleashed Richard Black’s legendary, hypnotic stage swagger—the literal DNA a certain Axl Rose may have “borrowed”—alongside the razor-sharp riffs of Spencer...

This week in the Gutter, we’re chasing the beautiful wreckage left behind when one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most unpredictable gunslingers refused to call it a day. At the center of it all: Andy McCoy—songwriter, guitarist, and full-time agent of chaos—stepping out of Hanoi Rocks’ shadow and straight into two short-lived, hard-living projects that burned fast and flamed out. First up, we dive into The C...

Long before Guns N' Roses took over the world, a gang out of Helsinki had already perfected the art of volume, chaos, and beautifully bad decisions. This week, we’re diving headfirst into the swagger and wreckage of Smack—the band that built a filthy little bridge between Finnish grit and L.A. glam. Smack became the ultimate musician’s band—worshipped by the future legends, ignored by the cha...

  This week in the Gutter, we dive headfirst into a technicolor blur of sequins, swagger, and electric riffs with modern Glam rocker Gyasi (Pronounced Jah-See). In this episode, we explore how the Nashville-based artist revives the theatrical spirit of Bowie and T. Rex while carving a sound and vision that’s entirely his own. He’s not living in their shadow. He’s kicking the door in, platform boot...

This week in The Gutter, we get a little emotional over Love/Hate. While the Sunset Strip was choking on Aqua Net and major-label promises, Love/Hate came in wired, wild-eyed… and just a little weird. Fronted by the feral charisma of Jizzy Pearl, they had the hooks. They had the riffs. They had the attitude. What they didn’t have was timing. Their debut, Blackout in the Red Room , felt sharp, dang...

This week in The Gutter, we crank up Sweden’s sleaziest soul survivors: Diamond Dogs. Born in the early ’90s with riffs in their teeth and a full-blown addiction to the ragged glory of the Stones and ’70s glam, these guys built it the hard way — sweat-soaked clubs, piano-pounding swagger, and sticky hooks. We dig into the glam-streaked roots, the bar-band hustle, and the unkillable groove that kep...

This week in The Gutter, we’re dragging Company of Wolves back into the light — a New York band that had the songs, the swagger, the connections… and the worst timing imaginable. Right place. Right attitude. Wrong time. Company of Wolves fused East Coast grit with radio-ready hooks, big choruses, and killer riffs. Their 1990 self-titled album is slick enough for radio, rough enough for the streets...

This week in The Gutter , we take on The Zeros —  the glam-leaning power pop outsiders whose album 4, 3, 2, 1   deserved to be more than a cult-status footnote. Big choruses, neon hooks, and street-level swagger. And yeah — these are the same guys who wrote the long-running Howard Stern Show theme song… and still got ignored. We’re breaking down the records, the bad timing, the purple hair, and Sa...

This week in The Gutter, we dive into the chaotic mythology of Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction — one of the most unhinged, testosterone-fueled bands to ever crawl out of late-’80s Britain. Spawned by former music journalist turned rock ‘n’ roll menace Mark “Zodiac Mindwarp” Manning, this wasn’t just a band — it was a rotating cast of misfit heathens. Built on boogie riffs, cartoonish brava...

This week in The Gutter, we’re doubling down with two bands who shared a name — Johnny Crash and Johnny Law. First up: Johnny Crash, straight outta late-’80s Los Angeles, where Sunset Strip dreams were colliding head-on with reality. Sleazy riffs, street-level swagger, and a band that looked like the next big thing right as the whole scene was about to implode. Then we head to Austin, Texas, where...

This week in The Gutter , we’re digging into one of the strangest footnotes in late-’80s/early-’90s hard rock history: Stuttering John’s band. Yeah, that Stuttering John — the wise-cracking, mic-swinging chaos magnet from The Howard Stern Show who somehow wound up fronting a legit rock outfit with real chops, real swagger, and two albums that deserved a hell of a lot more than punchlines. We’re te...

This week in The Gutter, we’re digging into one of the sleaziest, most soulful cult bands to ever stagger out of the Lower East Side: The Throbs. These lipstick-smeared street poets were fusing a darker, grittier glam-sleaze sound full of dangerous bluesy swagger. We’ll dive into the making of their criminally overlooked debut, The Language of Thieves and Vagabonds , and the cast of characters—fam...

  This week in The Gutter, it’s the Kings of Stomp and Glitter — Slade!! —These four hooligans from the English Midlands slapped on platform boots, mirror-ball hats, and built a sound that could level a pub. Before they were blaring out of every jukebox and football stadium in the U.K., these Black Country lads were just four scrappy kids hammering it out in sweaty pubs. We’ll trace their rise fro...

From smoky East Coast clubs to MTV superstardom, Cinderella clawed their way up with busted knuckles, big hair, and a frontman who sang like his heart was on fire. We’ll dig into their rise from the Philly bar scene, the Bon Jovi connection that changed everything, and the blues-soaked albums that proved glam could have teeth. These guys weren’t sipping champagne on Sunset Boulevard — Tom Keifer a...