Free online radio at AOL Radio offers over 350 Internet radio stations with song skipping and includes music, news, sports and talk.

Cheetah Chrome

Cheetah Chrome's Genre:

Hard Rock, Punk, Punk/New Wave

Biography

Though he didn't manage to become rich and famous in the process, Cheetah Chrome was one of the first guitar heroes of American punk rock who helped give underground music a sorely needed kick in the ass in the mid-'70s as part of the vital Cleveland, OH, scene, while also helping launch the punk explosion at GBGB.

Born Gene O'Connor in Cleveland, OH, Cheetah Chrome got his first guitar as a Christmas present after having his head turned around by seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, but he found his first major inspiration as a guitarist when he heard the song "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf. In the early '70s, Chrome had become a major fan of the Stooges, the MC5, and Alice Cooper, and began playing in Cleveland-based cover bands with drummer John Madansky, who later took the stage name Johnny Blitz. Through a classified ad, Chrome and Blitz met Cleveland underground rock visionary Peter Laughner and soon joined his fabled pre-punk band Rocket From the Tombs. Creative squabbles broke up Rocket From the Tombs before they could make much of a dent outside of Cleveland; Laughner and Crocus Behemoth (aka David Thomas) went on to form Pere Ubu, and Chrome, Blitz, and singer Steve Bator -- better-known as Stiv Bators, and very briefly a member of a late RFTT lineup -- formed a hard rock band called Frankenstein. Frankenstein only lasted a few months, but when word about the nascent New York punk rock scene spearheaded by the Ramones filtered back to Cleveland, Chrome, Bators, and Blitz joined forces with guitarist William Wilden (aka Jimmy Zero) and bassist Jeff Halmagy (aka Jeff Magnum) and formed the Dead Boys. The band's intense live show, sparked by Chrome's powerful guitar work, made them a sensation after their New York debut at CBGB. The band was signed to Sire Records in 1977, releasing the classic album Young, Loud and Snotty that year. However, while the band was the talk of the punk scene, they were unable to break through to wider recognition, and a disappointing second album coupled with in-fighting and spiraling drug and alcohol problems led to the Dead Boys' breakup in 1980, though the band would briefly reunite in the mid-'80s.

While Stiv Bators managed a fairly successful career after the Dead Boys, Cheetah Chrome kept a much lower profile, occasionally recording in collaboration with Angry Samoans founder Jeff Dahl and performing for a spell with the group the Ghetto Dogs. Chrome also played with a short-lived group called Shotgun Rationale with Sonny Vincent of the Testors and Bob Stinson of the Replacements; Chrome also contributed guitar work to Vincent's album Pure Filth. In the mid-'90s, Chrome relocated to Nashville and began putting together a band; after recording a 1996 solo album that went unreleased due to record company problems (it was produced by Genya Ravan, who was also behind the board for Young, Loud and Snotty), Chrome began touring periodically. A 1999 live show in Detroit resulted in his first full-length solo release, Alive in Detroit, on which Chrome jokingly mentions a recurring rumor about his death that led to an obituary being published in a New York newspaper. Chrome continues to write new material and in 2001 was blocking out plans for a new solo album; he was also immortalized in song by Tommy Womack, whose 1998 album Positively Na Na featured the song "Whatever Happened to Cheetah Chrome?" ("the man with the orange Dead Boys dome?"). ~ Mark Deming

AOL Radio Stations Cheetah Chrome is Featured on (1)

Cheetah Chrome

This station plays the best music from and music from related artists like Glen Buxton, Johnny Thunders, Mick Mars, Wayne Kramer, Ron Asheton, Mick Ronson, Radio Birdman, Mick Jones, Ace Frehley, Angelic Upstarts and more.

All Stations

Cheetah Chrome's Selected Discography (1)

Alive in Detroit

200012 Songs

All Albums

Artists Related to Cheetah Chrome (50)

	Glen Buxton	A founding member of the Alice Cooper band, guitarist Glen Buxton was the writer of several of hard rock/heavy metal's most instantly identifiable guitar riffs.
	Johnny Thunders	Following in the footsteps of his idol Keith Richards, Johnny Thunders (born John Anthony Genzale, Jr.
	Mick Mars	"There is no other choice. It has to be him. Who is this short, long-haired, Cousin It waiting to plug in?" This is how former Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee described his first meeting with Mick Mars, guitarist for the seminal '80s glam rock band Mötley Crüe.
	Wayne Kramer	A member of the legendary MC5, guitarist and proto-punk icon Wayne Kramer returned to prominence during the 1990s as a solo performer.
	Ron Asheton	As a founding member of the legendary Stooges, guitarist Ron Asheton forever changed the face of rock & roll, his raw, primordial riffs presaging the rise of punk by a decade.
	Mick Ronson	Guitarist, arranger, songwriter, producer, and perennial sideman Mick Ronson made his mark during glam rock's early-'70s heyday but worked consistently with frequent collaborators David Bowie and Ian Hunter until his death in 1993.
	Radio Birdman	Although the best-known band of the early Australian punk scene of the late '70s was the Saints, the first band to wave the punk rock flag in the land down under was Radio Birdman.
	Mick Jones	Best known as one of the leader's of one of the greatest punk rock bands of all time, the Clash, singer/guitarist/songwriter Mick Jones was one of the more musically adventurous musicians of the genre, especially evident in his post-Clash outfit, the alt-dance outfit Big Audio Dynamite.
	Ace Frehley	Along with Eddie Van Halen, Kiss' Ace Frehley inspired numerous up-and-coming rockers to pick up the guitar in the 1970s -- and come the '90s, was listed by just about every contemporary rock guitarist (Soundgarden's Kim Thayil, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, Pantera's Dimebag Darrell, etc.
	Angelic Upstarts	Formed in South Shields, England in 1977, the Angelic Upstarts was one of the period's most politically charged and thought-provoking groups; though technically a skinhead band, their records attacked the racism and fascism so prevalent throughout the skinhead community, and while also technically a punk unit, their music quickly evolved beyond the movement's limited scope.
	Mad for the Racket	Ex-MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer formed a supergroup of sorts when he established Mad for the Racket. Merely a project for strict rock&roll enjoyment, Kramer and Brian James (Lords to the New Church, Damned) experimented with their own musical stylings and allowed fellow counterparts such as Stewart Copeland (the Police), Duff McKagen (Guns N' Roses), and Clem Burke (Blondie) to tinker around as well.
	Attak
	The Clash	The Sex Pistols may have been the first British punk rock band, but the Clash were the definitive British punk rockers.
	The Plasmatics	At a time (the late '70s and early '80s) and a place (the New York punk scene) where shocking the audience was often the order of the day, few bands had a greater gift for cultivating outrage than the Plasmatics.
	Lennon	Lennon Murphy is a headbanging hottie who received a rash of publicity before releasing her debut, 5:30 Saturday Morning (named such because of when she finished writing the tunes).
	Fred "Sonic" Smith	Fred "Sonic" Smith was one of the key architects of the Detroit High Energy rock sound as guitarist and co-founder of the legendary MC5, and while his work after the band's breakup was sporadic, what has survived is strong enough to confirm his reputation as one of the great unsung heroes of Midwest rock & roll.
	Fight	When lead singer and heavy metal legend Rob Halford left Judas Priest in the early '90s (following two decades of service in the veteran band), he quickly rebounded with a ferocious new metal band called Fight, which he co-founded with Priest drummer Scott Travis.
	Electric Eel Shock	Electric Eel Shock is a Japanese rock trio that powerfully combines classic rock, metal, and punk influences with a gritty garage rock delivery.
	Joachim Deutschland	German rock singer Joachim Deutschland (born Christof Johannes Joachim Faber) was born in 1980 to a German father and an American mother, both of whom are successful jazz musicians.
	Billy Idol	Along with Duran Duran, Billy Idol was one the first pop/rock artists to achieve massive success in the early '80s due to a then brand-new U.
	Sam James Velde
	Gluecifer	Scandinavian cock rock combo Gluecifer was formed in Oslo, Norway, in 1994 by frontman Biff Malibu, guitarists Captain Poon and Sinduru Khan, bassist Jon Average, and drummer Glueros Hellfire.
	The Ghost Shirt Society
	Huns
	Chargers Street Gang	A manic five-piece punk onslaught from Cleveland, OH, whose music merges the gritty drive of early Midwestern punk icons such as the Dead Boys and the Pagans with the over-the top showmanship of the MC5 and the visionary noise of Pere Ubu, the Chargers Street Gang first formed as the Chargers.
	Sonny Vincent	Native New Yorker and lifelong rocker Sonny Vincent is a testament to the spirit of music. Living illegally at age 13 in a girls' dormitory, playing guitar and singing by age 14, and in and out of reform schools not soon after, Vincent rocked harder before he was 18 than most people do in a lifetime.
	Angst	This art-punk band is comprised of Joe Pope (vocals/bass), Jon E. Risk (vocals/guitar) and Michael Hursey (drums).
	Social Distortion	The enduring L.A. punk band Social Distortion has overcome numerous personnel shifts, the demise of the Los Angeles hardcore scene that spawned them, and the heroin addiction of singer/guitarist/bandleader Mike Ness to achieve a measure mainstream acceptance for their rootsy, hard-hitting punk without compromise.
	Sex Pistols	The Sex Pistols may have only been together for two years in the late '70s, but they changed the face of popular music.
	Outcasts	At one time the premier punk band in Northern Ireland, the Outcasts’ line-up revolved around the three Cowan brothers; Greg (bass/vocals), Martin (guitar) and Colin (d.
	The Pagans	Of all the bands that burst out of Cleveland in the mid- to late-'70s punk explosion, one of the most unjustly ignored was the Pagans.
	The Screamers	The Screamers are the Great Lost Band of the first wave of L.A. punk rock. They were among the first bands to emerge on the West Coast scene and were wildly popular in Los Angeles for several years, able to sell out two- or three-day stands at some of the city's most prestigious rock clubs.
	Wall	Formed in Sunderland, England, in early 1978, they settled on their first permanent line-up: Andzy, (bass, vocals), Lowery (vocals), Rab Fae Beith (drums) and Nick Ward (guitar, ex-Urban Gorillas).
	Expelled	The Expelled were an Oi!-flavored punk band formed in 1981 in West Yorkshire, England; a demo tape got them signed to the Riot City label, for whom they recorded two singles.
	Instant Agony
	Tom Robinson	Although his career had pretty much flamed out by the start of the '80s, there were few punk-era major-label performers as intensely controversial as Tom Robinson.
	Los Chumps
	Anti-Establishment
	The State
	Crime	Proclaiming themselves as "San Francisco's first and only rock & roll band," Crime was a forerunner in America's do-it-yourself punk history, releasing their first single in late 1976.
	Demob	Demob is one of punk rock's most outspoken groups. Formed shortly after the breakup of the Sex Pistols in 1978, the Gloucester, England-based quartet roared with a similar punk-minded intensity.
	The Adicts	The Adicts are a British punk rock quartet founded in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, in the late '70s by lead singer Monkey (Keith Warren), guitarist Pete Davidson, bassist Mel Ellis, and drummer Kid Dee (Michael Davison).
	The Subhumans	Maverick Canadian punk rockers the Subhumans (not to be confused with the British Subhumans) formed around the initial core of vocalist Brian Goble (aka Wimpy Roy), guitarist Mike Graham, drummer Ken Montgomery (aka Dimwit), and bass player Gerry Hannah (aka Gerry Useless) in the western city of Vancouver, playing their first show on July 1, 1978, the same year they released their first single, "Death to the Sickoids.
	Pop Rivets
	Testors	While the Stooges, Blondie, and Talking Heads are revered for their punk rock antics and unchangeably praised for being a part of a major rock revolution in the late '70s, there's one band that's been consistently overlooked.
	Vipers	Manchester, England's Vipers were founded in October of 2006 by vocalist/guitar Nathan, bassist Scott, fuzz bassist Joey(that's right, two bass players), and drummer Kyle, with the shared goal of defying ready-made genre boxes with their spontaneous and explosive brand of garage rock.
	Das Oath	The half New York/half Netherlands hardcore punk group, Das Oath, got its start in 2000. Comprised of Mark McCoy on vocals, Marcel Wiebenga on drums, Nate Wilson on bass, and Jeroen Vrijhoef, Das Oath had released many vinyl singles and compilation tracks on various labels.
	Teachers Pet	Along with better known bands such as Devo, Rocket from the Crypt, and Pere Ubu, the obscure Teacher's Pet were members of Akron, OH's oft-overlooked, but creatively visionary, punk rock and new wave scene of the mid-'70s.
	Pagans
	Bantam Rooster	Hailing from Michigan's capital city of Lansing, Bantam Rooster's two piece guitar and drum approach pays tribute to the minimal aesthetics of 60's garage rock recorded on duct taped equipment.