Sábado 13 Ago 2005, 4h:03

Ya gotta wonder what's going on in the heads of people who form two bands with the same name.

Tigertailz is such a group.

Ignoring two singers they had prior to releasing albums, they've had two singers that have recorded albums. Steevi Jaimz was the singer for the first album, Young and Crazy.

He was dropped from the band, replaced by Kim Hooker. The band went on to record their successful sophomore effort "Bezerk", which happens to be one of my all-time fave hair metal albums.

Kim remained with the band after that, releasing 2 more studio albums and a live one in 1996.

Steevi, meanwhile, had released a solo album.

The band Tigertailz disappeared for a long while after that.

Suddenly they were back… as 2 separate entities.

Steevi released an album under the Tigertailz name with demo material from his days with them. He hooked up with Ace Finchum (who was in Tailz for the debut album and Bezerk), along with 2 no-names and formed a new Tigertailz line-up.

However, at the same time, founding Tigertailz members Pepsi Tate and Jay Finchum got back with their more popular singer Kim Hooker. This is 3 of the Bezerk-lineup members now, with 2 being founding members of the band. These 3, along with a new drummer formed a different version of Tigertailz.

The current situation:

1) Both bands are touring under the Tigertailz name.

2) Both bands are prepping new albums. The Kim Hooker lineup is recording "Bezerk 2.0", Steevi's version is recording an unnamed album. The Steevi lineup already released a song from it as a limited edition single.

Who should have the name? There's no lawsuits that I know of. Both claim to be the "real" band.

This is my journal, so here's my opinion.

The Kim Hooker line-up should get the name, for several reasons:

1) The lineup includes 2 of the founding band members, both of which were in the band longer than either Kim or Steevi.
2) It also better represents their most popular line-up, having 3 of the Bezerk-era members.
3) Steevi's stint in the band lasted less time than John Corabi was in Mötley Crüe even. No members of his band are original Tigertailz members. Hell, even the most popular song on the album he recorded was re-recorded with Kim on vocals for the single release!

Having said that,

1 - I can't wait for Bezerk 2.0.
2 - I'll listen to anything the Steevi line-up puts out, as I don't dislike his music, I just don't think he should be abusing the Tigertailz name.

Bezerk and Banzai!, 2 of the Kim Hooker-era albums, have just been remastered and re-released after being out of print for years. Both are definitely worth picking up.

More info on each band:

1 - Tigertailz (Kim on vocals) Official Site
2 - Tigertailz (Steevi on vocals) Official Site