#chip znuff

Chip Znuff & Steven Adler!! :3

Enuff Z'Nuff: Seven (1997)

In recognition of Pride Month 2024 and all my friends in the LGBTQIA+ community, it's time to showcase some colored vinyl in a rainbow sequence, and today we're reminded that it's not easy being green ...

By 1997, Enuff Z'Nuff's career (if you could even call it a "career," by then) was pretty much over everywhere but Japan, where a small but loyal fan base still cared enough to buy new products from the peace-sign-toting hair metal also-rans.

Back home in the U.S., those of us who still appreciated the group's underrated songwriting, beyond their bland self-titled debut from '89, had to chase down import copies of those Japanese CDs, and 1997's Seven is especially relevant to this discussion.

Its songs had originally been released in '94, and solely in Japan, as Brothers, under the moniker Chip & Donnie, since the core duo of Donnie Vie (vocals, guitars) and Chip Z'Nuff (bass) were the last men standing from the original band.

To recap, after '93's poor-selling Animals with Human Intelligence, drummer Vikki Fox had split to join Vince Neil's solo band, while guitar wiz Derek Frigo began the downward spiral into heroin addiction that would kill him in 2004.

This explains why so many Brothers/Seven songs (e.g. "Still Have Tonight," "It's No Good," "Clown On the Town," and "We Don't Have to Be Friends") rely on acoustic guitars and mellow balladry underneath Vie's familiar nasal vocals.

They also showcase the duo's massive debt to The Beatles like never before (and that's saying something), via obvious Sgt. Pepper's disciples like "5 Smiles Away," the gorgeous "You And I," and the psychedelic rollercoaster of "Wheels." (*)

"Weeeeeeeee!"

So fans of Enuff Z'Nuff's harder rocking brand of electrified power pop will have to settle for the anthemic "On My Way Back Home," the chugging "New Kind of Motion," "So Sad to See You," and "Down Hill," which Vie has said features Frigo's final recordings with the band.

Amazingly, by the time Seven finally received its ex-Japan release, three other Enuff Z'Nuff LPs -- '94's 1985, '95's Tweaked, and '96's Peach Fuzz -- had come and gone; each one featuring a different cast of musicians.

But that chaos subsided when Donnie and Chip solidified their band's line-up with lead guitarist Johnny Monaco and drummer Ricky Parent, and I think that was crucial in making '99's Paraphernalia in the strongest Enuf Z'Nuff album in years.

* Select pressings of Seven -- but not this one -- also boast a cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy."

Not a single soul:

Enuff Z’Nuff / Estrella – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club 16/05/2015

Regular readers will be cognizant of Team PM’s affection for the DRC – an intimate little club above a tiny country bar deep in the heart of Northern Ireland’s ‘Bible Belt’ which has attracted some pretty big names and, in the process, provided us with some of our favourite (and, on occasion, more adventuresome) evenings of the past few years.  On this occasion, the reason for venturing up the…