METALACHI ROCKS CLASSIC METAL WITH A SLICE OF LIME 

Countless bands have rocked the Sunset Strip with cool covers of hard rock classics by metal icons like Metallica, Zeppelin and Ozzy. But no one has ever reinvented metal classics as badass and brilliantly hilarious as L.A. band Metalachi, the world’s first mariachi-metal cover band.

The Christmas lights on their sombreros and the KISS makeup and codpieces add a nice metal touch, but it’s the band’s mariachi-metal renditions of tunes like “Enter Sandman” and “Crazy Train” that steal the spotlight. And Metalachi’s velvet-smooth showmanship and loco sense of humor — they also cover Cheech & Chong tunes — make their shows more fun than downing a bottle of tequila and watching Spinal Tap again for the hundreth time. But what do you expect from a band with awesome aliases as metal as their music: frontman Vega De La Rockha, guitarist Ramon Holiday, violinist Maximillian “Dirty” Sanchez, guittaronist Poncho Rockefeller, trumpeter El Cucey and emcee Warren Russia.

Formed in 2011, the L.A. band is relatively new to the Hollywood scene but has already packed Sunset hot spots and nabbed famous fans like Billy Idol and artist Shepherd Fairey. Appropriately, Metalachi is headlining the Roxy on Cinco de Mayo. 

Bang your head to Metalachi’s insane cover of “Crazy Train,” below. See their tour schedule for more SoCal shows.

L.A.’S ROCKIN’ LANDMARKS: Bulldozers have been coming uncomfortably close to the huge white skeletal remains of the historic Hollywood rock club Tropicana in the past few weeks. The defunct legendary ’80s club infamously hosted female mud wrestling, championed the local metal scene before the Rolling Stone covers and is justifiably immortalized in Motley Crue’s classic track “Girls, Girls, Girls.” The band even posed at the club with some of the wrestlers for the 1987 album’s inside sleeve.

Fortunately, the current crop
of bulldozers rumbling next to the club’s former location
on Western near Fountain are flattening the adjacent empty lot. The old Tropicana haunt looks safe for now, but there’s no word on what’s in store for the future of the empty former heavy metal hot spot.  

Happy New Year from SunsetandClark! Have yourself a hard-rockin’ 2012! 

The new year is off to a rockin’ start with Van Halen announcing that their new album with David Lee Roth — rumored to be cryptically titled A Different Kind of Truth — is set to drop February 7, with a tour to follow. Dates for the iconic L.A. band’s full-scale world tour will be announced on VH’s website on January 10. 

Tickets will go on sale the same day. Aside from that, the band has released few details about this mammoth metal event!

SunsetandClark, however, may have stumbled upon a peak at the cover art
to the upcoming album. We spotted this rad, giant Van Halen sticker adhered to the skeletal remains of a public pay phone — yes, kids, we used to have them — that sits in front of the old Tower Records on Sunset. We, of course, snatched it and started running with the devil and added it to our rock and roll archives. The slick illustration shows a shiny metal locomotive heading full-steam ahead, bulldozing anything in its path. We think it emulates quite well the launch of a new chapter in Van Halen’s history.

No disrespet to the talented, affable Wolfgang Van Halen, who is handeling bass duties on the album and tour, but if his dad Eddie Van Halen and Diamond Dave can bury the hatchet, than maybe an on-stage and/or in-studio reunion with Michael Anthony and/or Sammy Hagar may not be that far out of the realm of reality. Either way, Van Halen is going to rock 2012!

Fab Four: Joe Walsh, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Timothy B. Schmit

EAGLES TO RELIVE EARLY YEARS ON 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

Legendary L.A. band the Eagles are planning a major 40th anniversary tour in 2012, guitarist-singer Joe Walsh tells Rolling Stone. The jaunt will include cool archival clips from the band’s early days rocking local clubs like the Troubadour and Whisky.

“Everybody’s seen our show, so we have to put together something new,” says Walsh, who also plans to release a solo album in February or March. “We’ve been archiving so much stuff from the band’s early days, concert footage and interviews and stuff. Those will be the visuals to go along with the songs. We’ll also revisit some old songs and some new stuff.” 

BIG B TURNS VIPER ROOM INTO A ROCKIN’ TRAILER PARK PARTY

West Coast hard rock hip-hopper Big B made a stop by the Viper Room on Nov. 4 and pretty much ripped the roof off the joint with a helluva hot and heavy set. The White Trash Renegade from Sin City rocked the room with skunk weed-fueled, whisky-soaked party anthems from his debut, 2004’s High Class White Trash, straight up to his latest hits compilation, 2011’s Music for Misfits, rockin’ the collection’s exclusive new track, “Girlfriend.”

Appropriately, the Upland, California-born rocker opened his Sunset Strip show with “Out Here in Cali,” and kicked off a tight set with a sonic sucker punch that never let up. The former OPM frontman’s solo rendition of ”Before I Leave This Place,” his 2010 collaboration with Everlast, proved that the tatted and bearded badass could effortlessly serve up the raw intensity of the moody track without anyone’s help. “White Trash Renegade,” “Criminal,” “White Trash Life,” “Hooligan” and “Rockstar” were also on the set list and kept a mosh pit sweaty and swingin’ throughout the show — always the mark of a successful gig.

Big B returns to Southern Cali in December to co-headline a few gigs with his occasional collaborators, Orange County stoners Kottonmouth Kings. Crease your Dickie’s, toss on a wife-beater, turn your trucker cap to the side and get your white trash ass down to the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills on Dec. 22 or the Grove of Anaheim on Dec. 23 to get whupped upside the head by the best thing to happen to the hard rock-hip-hop hybrid since Kid Rock.

GUNS N’ ROSES SHOT DOWN DISASTER WITH INTEGRITY, RECOUNTS DUFF MCKAGAN IN IT’S SO EASY 

SunsetandClark’s Awesome Book o’ the Month is, hands down, Duff McKagan’s memoir, It’s So Easy…and Other Lies, a rockin’ chronicle of Guns N’ Roses’ rise to infamy. Back in the mid-’80s when the band were, as McKagan writes, so broke that they had to share a bag of Cheetos for lunch, infamous rock Svengali Kim Fowley offered $50,000 for the rights to “Welcome to the Jungle,” which was creating a buzz at the L.A. band’s Sunset Strip shows. The killer track would later wind up as the second single off their career-defining 1987 debut, Appetite for Destruction. Despite their dire financial circumstances, Axl Rose and his band had the integrity to stand their ground and turn down Fowley because of his notorious mismanagement of the Runaways’ career in the Seventies.

Now that’s rock n’ roll!

METALLICA TO APPEAR AT 2012 L.A. ART SHOW SALUTE

We always knew that Metallica’s music is a work of art, and now comes proof courtesy of Los Angeles’ Exhibit A Gallery’s upcoming exhibit “Obey Your Master.” Opening Jan. 20, 2012, the rockin’ event will feature work by a variety of global visual artists presenting their interpretation of the iconic California band’s songs.

The metal gods themselves will be at the opening night reception, with local Met Club members in L.A. eligible to win entrance into this ridiculously cool event.

Exhibit A Gallery owner Richard Villa III teamed with Tony Alva to develop the exhibit, so expect the legendary skateboarder at the opening, too. “Obey Your Master” will run through March 23, 2012.