Steve Grimm's place in Milwaukee music history remains secure for having fronted one of the city's most prominent bands to make it to a major label. It's been a while since Bad Boy was a happening entity, but Grimm remains vital-if inextricably linked to a time when hard rock correlated to long hair and tight pants-on his third strictly solo CD.
The best of this eight-song disc shows how the moderately heavy sound Grimm has maintained for more than three decades has fed into trends that still resonate for many. In retrospect it's no surprise that Bad Boy and power-poppy Cheap Trick were so tight. Equally evident is how the hair-spray metal bands that ruled the pre-grunge '80s may owe some debt to Bad Boy's rowdy ilk. Grimm sounds like he's having a blast in his role as an elder rocker-not living so far in the past as to be a relic, but not forgetting the fans who made him what he's become. Good for all parties concerned.
