Revisited Tesla's "Mechanical Resonance

[Bryant]

I was browsing another forum and saw it mentioned in a thread of "Essential Albums." It made me realize that I haven't played it in probably a year. I put it on and pretty much got my head blown off. With me being so old..... well not as old as JW (just poking at ya' bro !!) I thought that there may be some here that haven't heard this release. While it was quite popular with the MTV watching casual fan, I don't know if it translated as well to many of us weirdo elitist metal fans except for the ones that were there around it's release. I hold it up to releases like "Operation Mindcrime"" and such. There is not a track on the disc that even thinks about being mediocre.
I am curious what others here think of this release ?


Tnayrb

 

[Savage Pumpkin]

+1 I love that album! I bought that at Sears on cassette the year it came out. I remember how raw it sounded. Kind of reminded me of Ratt meets Aerosmith. Great stuff!

 

[Metaldrumz]

Great album. Back in High School I was in a band and we would cover Little Suzy, and Rock Me To the Top.

I'm not a big fan of the later stuff but I absolutely love this one!

 

[Bryant]

+1 I love that album! I bought that at Sears on cassette the year it came out. I remember how raw it sounded. Kind of reminded me of Ratt meets Aerosmith. Great stuff!

Hmmm.... thanks for the +1 buddy. It was sort of "in your face" hard rock in many places, and Jeff Keith is a bluesy style vocalist which gave it a bit of an organic feel. It was "raw" I suppose in those respects, but the musical arrangements and production were of that you would expect from a seasoned band at their peak, not infancy. Songs like "Changes" and "Before My Eyes" with that eerie feel it has to it are classic. They released other good stuff, but never matched MR by any shape or form in my ears.

Bryant

 

[Bryant]

Great album. Back in High School I was in a band and we would cover Little Suzy, and Rock Me To the Top.

I'm not a big fan of the later stuff but I absolutely love this one!

I would like to have heard "Rock me to the Top." I don't think I have ever heard it covered by a band. Awesome song !!

Bryant

 

[Savage Pumpkin]

hey Bryant a band that I got back into is Ratt. Loved them in the 80's and even more now. Not comparing them and Tesla but was curious on how you feel about them. I like Tesla better but ratt is good too.

 

[VenomGA]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this album. I remember first hearing the song "Modern Day Cowboy" one night on 96 Rock (Atlanta rock station) and couldn;t wait for the DJ to tell me who this band was. The day this album was released I purchased it at Camelot Records in Athens (I was attending UGA). This album was so organic and different than the albums being released by the hairbands of the day. I never understood why Tesla was always lumped in with the Poison's, Cinderella's, Bon Jovi's, Def Leppard's, etc....Tesla was an honest rock band with tremendous talent....If they had only NEVER released the 2 songs "Love Song" and the cover "Signs"

 

[General Zod]

Top 5 of all-time time fosho.

 

[Bryant]

I saw Ratt and Bon Joji once and Ratt and Poison twice live in Columbus and once in Albany Ga. Although I like Bon Jovi now, I didn't like them at the time, nor do I nor did I like Poison back then on disc (fun live). All three times it was to see Ratt. Warren Dimartini was/is a monster guitar player, Juan Crocier (however you spell it) was a great showman as was Robbin and Blotz had one of the better drum solos I have ever heard, although his drum work on the actual albums was fairly pedestrian. Stephen Pearcy was rather average sounding live, but they had good music. Not all "hair" bands were bad by any stretch of the imagination. Even with as small of a catalog as he had, Vito Bratta (formerly of White Lion) remains one of my fave guitarists of all time.


Bryant

 

[MysticX9]

I was reading this thread and I needed a song to fill time on Rock 105.5 so I put in "Modern Day Cowboy." Excellent. Wish we could play stuff like that all the time...

 

[edgeofthorns]

Tesla still puts on a killer live show today! This band has truly stood the test of time, when most of the bands from the same era don't have a pot to piss in.

~Brian~

 

[BenMech]

Mechanical Resonance is what I'd call the "perfect summer album"


Sounds like it was recorded in suburbia on a summer's weekend in a garage while lawns are being mowed and someone's throwing frisbees or a football and cars are getting washed, and dogs are running around.

 

[drmetal8]

Love Tesla and this is one of the great 'guitar' albums of all time.
Probably still my favorite album by them. My faves are the ones that don't get played too often like 'Rock Me To The Top' and 'Cover Queen'.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Great release by a great band. Probably my favorite as well.
I saw this band live before I even knew who they were. They opened for David Lee Roth on the Eat Em' & Smile tour. Saw that in Rockford, IL. This was right around the release date for the album, or just before it. I remember it taking a while before I was able to buy it. Ahhh the good ol' days!

Farting dust,
I remain,

J-Dubya:Smokedev:

 

[J. Golden]

Great album but I have not pulled it off the shelf in years.
Always have been a solid band as for recorded albums. But that live stuff I saw on VH1 last year was terrible. The vocals were worse than Vince (Cartmen) Neil.

 

[TwizstedJesus]

Essential! I remember walking in the Wintergreen Gorge at Midnight...pitch black...with my buddies best friends girl and Tesla on the boombox and...ummm...needless to say...my buddies best friend never became my friend after that night for some strange reason. I remember We're No Good Together playing in the back of the pickup truck on our way home...and that song stuck with me...I never hung out with her again.
But, back to the topic at hand...Tesla was golden for the 1st 3 discs, and discs 4 & 5 we're not awful either. All in all a classic band

 

[TribunalRecords]

GREAT ALBUM i love it. it only sounds good turned up loud! the tones on that record are sick!

 

[The_Metal_Messiah]

While I absolutely LOVE this album, I still prefer Psychotic Supper over ANY other album of theirs.

 

[Taliwakker]

Prefer TGRC...but MR is still golden.

 

[Rick Pierpont]

I used to cover Modern Day Cowboy in a band I was in during highschool. I think it was either '86 or '87. I was more to thrash in those days, so I didn't appreciate this band as much as I should've then. However, this was one of my favorite songs for us to play.

Then I had the opportunity to see them on ShipRocked this past November and met Jeff Keith and his wife. They sounded great! Both Jeff and Vera were ultra-cool so that me enjoy them even more. Both my wife and I were blown away by them, live and personal. We got on a Tesla kick when we first got back from the cruise. Mainly Mechanical Resonance and Replugged. We definitely would like to see them again.