Circus of Power - Still Alive (Metal Blade, 1989)
Current Gemm price: $7.51-$26.82
By: Pepsi Sheen
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CIRCUS OF POWER'S first album unequivocally established them as the indomitable heirs of a long-lost line of stout-hearted, outlawed kings. They, alone, carried the torch for swampy motor rock, paving the way for eight million bands beloved by the Sleaze Nation. I don't mean to always bag on all the lil' baby Bon Scotts and fire breathing lesbians of the 'Pussy Era. I've got absolutely nothing against cycle sluts in Motorhead t-shirts, believe me... darlin', what was your Mom's name again? ...Or even, their favorite random sand-lot Kenickies, combin' their hair some more, down at Thunder Road, but let's face it, the Danny Zuco "biker" badboys of today got nothin' on the Real Wild Ones, 'sides a bunch of cut-rate King Diamond lyrics, some over-used AC/DC riffs, and dumbass, fake, southern accents. Where were all these unbreakable combs, back when our intrepid Floridian exiles rolled righteous into the hearts of NYC, and cut down all the trees and killed all the bears, when the South really had risen again, to proudly preside over the shotgun marriage of C.C.R.'s cajun boogie to the get-down biker stomp of vintage Steppenwolf or the Godz? When Tommy Lee only had that Mighty Mouse tat, and that dude from RATT was just DRAWING on himself with black sharpies, CIRCUS OF POWER laid down the mightiest, most righteous grooves since Morrison's blues-period later recordings heard on "Morrison Hotel" and "L.A. Woman", fuel injected, with the unheard of since, infernal slabbage of  Keef Riff-hard at his most possessed! These raggedy, blue collar, howlin' wolves from the alphabet streets, brought the genuine-action blues-power, and a spooky, southern, crossroads-authority, to the perennial Motorhead and AC/DC mix, back when Aerosmith and Kiss were still the en vogue, "influences" of the day. Back when THESE metal-dragons first crawled from the sea, their only real peers were like, The Cult, Zodiac Mindwarp, The Four Horsemen, Guns 'N' Roses, and um, well...Balaam & The Angel? Warrior Soul? The Wild? C'mon. CIRCUS OF POWER wrote the book, man. We built "Weird City*" on "Call Of The Wild" and "Hey, Little Junkie Girl", can you dig it?
   
The live EP is my sentimental fave though, as it accurately conveys some of the raunchy Maker's-soaked voodoo mayhem of their live shows, I traveled all over the country to see these guys in those years, they were my Grateful Dead, I guess. The Rick Derringer/Johnny Winter cover, "Still Alive & Well" was a perfect showcase for Mitchell's barbeque-pit baritoned, shamanic croon; and Ricky Beck Mahler and Gary Sunshine's guitars complimented one another in those days, shades of Mick Taylor era Stones: "Did you ever look to see who is left around? / everyone I thought was cool is six feet underground.../They tried to get me lots of times/and now they're coming after you/but I got out, and I'm here to say, Baby, you can get out, too...." directly addressed a recurring problem of mine, a decade before Demolition 23's "Scum Lives On" cracked open the same existentialist can of worms, and I was always pleased they chose to include "Still Alive",  as opposed to say, the Led Zeppelin song "How Many More Times" that was another live favorite of theirs in those days. "Motor" laid down the hard rock gospel, trailing the very fumes that all the confederate flag wavin' gas huffers of today are still so gratuitously dazed, glazed, and bewildered by. "Letters Home" sounds just like some Jones era Stones song Allen Klein wishes he had to pimp, "Nights go by like a cigarette/just one big drag, burnin' slow and long/Oh babe, I ain't that strong...Well, I sent letters home to Mama, budge-choo knooow/Mama never sent 'em back!"  Circus Of Power, live, in their prime, with Ryan Maher on cans and Zowie from Leeway on bass; before the last-legs line-up changes, and heartbreaking in-fighting, could kick out the deep-fried honky tonk jams as authoritatively as Steve Earle or Jason & The Scorchers, and they continued to wade ever deeper into the croc-infested goo goo muck with "White Trash Queen" when Corey Parkes' predecessors, Venus Penis Crusher and Honey One Percenter  (Cycle Sluts From Hell), tempted the hearts and minds of heroes and villains from the Lismar Lounge to Katmandu. "White Trash Queen" is followed by "Heart Attack" and a scorching rendition of "Turn Up The Jams", one of my favorite Circus Of Power shit-kickers. I know I gotta stop givin' away all my million dollar advice for free, but if you take some dumbass "love it or leave it"-grit, commercial country dork-maybe that one dweeb who duets with Uncle Cracker on all that sub-Jimmy Buffet drool, if you get some jr. league Toby Keith to cover "Turn Up The Jams" and include a dubbed-in rowdy singalong bridge, ala Garth Brooks, he could have a top ten new-country hit, with that song, a week from now.
     
In my humble estimation, the visionary inspiration of C.O.P.'s records descends chronologically, their Ricky Beck Mahler/Alex Mitchell co-authored landmark debut, being their finest hour; followed by this kickass live E.P., recorded in front of a bunch of notoriously psychotic Detroit yayhoos, then, their follow-up full-length, "Vices" and so on. Alot of old Circus fans agree that Circus Of Power commited their version of Flash Metal Suicide when they started indulging Jerry Cantrell's early forays into proto-stoner grungadelia with their fourth album. I was one of those people until Sleaze made me reassess  "Magic & Madness", a few years back, when I was reckoning with my own "black haired woman and a son"; and time had, indeed, been kind to it, as it's home to their soul-stirring classic, "Circles" , and a buncha kozmic blooze rockers, and even boasts an appearance by our old hero, Ian Astbury; but I remember bein' less than "pleezed 'n' sleezed" TM with it when it first came out, it took a decade for me to get into it. In retrospect, even that Alice In Chains-influenced CIRCUS OF POWER album absolutely shames every band o' would-be mojo-wizards I've heard since. That's why the Freak Society continues to hope Alex, Ricky, Gary, Ryan... Mark, Victor, Zowie, whoever, can figure out some way to overcome any "creative differences" for the sake of saving sleaze rock from itself- again. CIRCUS OF POWER already showed you how it's done, but, uh, apparently, not everyone was paying attention.
 
I kinda doubt the EP ever saw CD release but I'm not much of an authority on such matters, the "Still Alive" record's definitely worth seekin' out, no matter what you have ta pay.
 
Because "Five Was Not Enough":
Circus of Power fansite
Sleazegrinder's 2002 interview with Alex Mitchell
 
(-Pepsi Sheen knows some of the things, baby, that'll keep a good man down...)

*Weird City wuz Sleazegrinder and Pepsi's seminal (it turns out) old TV show, circa '92-94. A mad, drunken disaster, the master tapes of which were last seen rotting in Sleaze's mamma's basement.

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