Track Of The Day: Tired Wings

They’re inspired by the late, lamented band The Four Horsemen. They’re out to put the grit and great back into New York rock ‘n’ roll. First step to world domination for Tired Wings? Providing today’s Track Of The Day…

Being influenced by, say, Motley Crue or AC/DC is pretty easy. Who isn’t? I’m wearing shorts and fingerless gloves as we speak. But when you stumble onto a band that wears their obscure-but-awesome inspirations on their sleeve…well, that’s like meeting a long lost cousin and actually sorta liking him/her. So it was when I happened upon NYC’s own Tired Wings, who clearly dig the Four Horsemen as much as I do. If you do not remember the Four Horsemen, here are the vital facts:

* There were actually five of them.

* They were formed by Haggis, a self-proclaimed “Mercenary bastard”. He was in The Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp.

* Frank Starr was their frontman. He was the last of the rock ‘n’ roll bad-asses. And when I say last, I mean last. RIP, Frank.

* They wrote the greatest single lyric in all of rock: “The book of rock ‘n’ roll? Muthaf**ker, I wrote it.”

* They had a song called Tired Wings.

I suppose there’s more to know. Dig around, if you can. They were one of rock’s great lost bands. Anyway, Tired Wings liked ‘em enough to name their band after them.

“I remember everyone was raving about the new Kiss record that came out that year,” begins Charles E Canedo, Tired Wings’ frontman. “I think it was in 1992. MTV was going to debut the first video for the Kiss single Unholy off the Revenge album. All my buddies gathered around to watch Headbangers Ball just to see this. The video that kicked off that program was the song Tired Wings by The Four Horsemen. I was floored by the grittiness and honest approach of that song. The very next day I went out and got their first album, Nobody Said It was Easy. I never looked back ever since.”

The Tired Wings sound is gritty, raw, and straight-ahead, a rarity in New York City these days.

“The reason why I started Tired Wings was because I am frustrated with the whole lack of good hard rock bands here in New York f**kin’ City,” says Canedo.

“Everything is an axiom all of a sudden. Everybody either wants to sound like everyone else, or they’re just following trends. I figure, let me do something that goes back to the basics of rock and roll, which is throwing down some nasty melodic guitar riffs with a ear-friendly vibe. I’m not reinventing anything with Tired Wings, I just want to celebrate the fact that I am alive and surviving, and while I’m doing that let me let my hair down and play some rock and roll.”

Indeed. Last year, Tired Wings released their first five-song EP. Ever since, they’ve been gigging around NYC and building up a loyal audience. A new EP is due to hit the streets early next year. It’s a long way to the top – or even the middle, these days – but Canedo is decidedly optimistic.

“The future is bright and I would love to put the New York City sound out there,” he says. “To quote a great NYC band, Circus of Power, and their song Call Of The Wild: ‘Calling all the children of the rising sun’. Let’s all come together, put our issues aside, grab some whiskey, and all salute to the fact that we are alive. Let’s pat ourselves on the back, and celebrate with some nasty and gritty music, baby.”

Who can argue with that? Here’s ‘Mountain Song’ from Tired Wings’ first EP.

http://rapidshare.com/files/302585238/Tired_Wings_-__mountain_song.mp3

 If you dig it, you know what to do.

http://www.myspace.com/tiredwingsband

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