According to The Onion last year, the members of Twisted Sister are now willing to take it.

But we'll pretend just for today that they still are in their full in-your-face rocking glory from 1984. Because today, 25 years later, Twisted Sister's multi-platinum "Stay Hungry" album is being re-released as a two-disc set.

If you were a rock & roll teenager of the '80s, you loved Twisted Sister videos. They were mini movies, featuring Mark Metcalf, the guy who played Niedermayer in "Animal House," parodying his character. "We're Not Gonna Take It" pissed off every parent in the suburbs when a guitar-playing teen riffed his Niedermayer-ish father through the upstairs window after sitting through a minute long spitting-and-screming lecture, before morphing into Dee Snider and taking over the house.

You remember -- "Is that a Twisted Sister pin? ON YOUR UNIFORM??"

Niedermayer was back in the sequel video ...

Michael Jackson died at age 50 on Thursday.

As if you hadn't heard.

You heard it through the TV, the radio, through Facebook status updates, through Twitter, through text messages, through newspaper web sites, through message boards -- basically through anything where words can be conveyed. It ranks among the most shocking celebrity deaths in the past 50 years, right alongside Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy Jr., John Lennon, and Princess Diana. All of those people were known worldwide, extremely popular, and fairly young when they died. JFK Jr., Lennon, and Princess Diana died from tragic events (plane crash, murder, car crash), while Presley and Monroe died due to drug addictions.

Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest. The cause is being determined by an autopsy today.

While that takes place, I'll use this space to rank my Top 10 Michael Jackson songs. This isn't where I debate greatness, influence, ...

There's no better place for music in Cleveland than the Barking Spider Tavern near Case Western Reserve University.

There really isn't. And it doesn't matter who is playing. I've heard rock and roll there. I've heard country. I've heard jazz. I've heard Irish music. I've heard a guy who can spin marbles in a big metal pan and make it sound like music. Located between Bellflower and Juniper just off Ford, it's a little brick and wood building that has a bit of a log-cabin feel. Large doors on either end of the squarish building can be opened on perfect summer (or spring) nights like Wednesday night, allowing anyone to sit on a picnic table outside and listen to some fine music while having a beer or other beverage.

And when you have performers like Oliver Buck and the New Madrids -- who played on the Euclid Library ...

Things I learned when I kicked off my summer concert series Monday night at the Beachland Ballroom's sold-out Hold Steady show ...

1) My iPhone doesn't really work as a concert camera. The iPhone's great and all, but as a camera in darker places it might as well be a flying car, better in concept than reality. The beauty of the iPhone is that I can download a Facebook application and instantly upload pictures from the show to my page. But what good is that if you upload crummy pictures? I could send instant messages, tweets, update Facebook, vomit when getting Indians updates, and even look up Hold Steady lyrics on the Internet thanks to my iPhone. But I couldn't get a quality picture.

2) It's a lot tougher to work security at a Metro Station concert attended by hundreds of teenage girls than it is a black-metal concert attended by ...

These music supergroups have a way of sneaking up on a guy.

First it was Tinted Windows. This sugary power-pop band employs Adam Schlessinger of Fountains of Wayne (one of my all-time favorite bands) on bass; guitarist James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins on lead guitar; drummer Bun E. Carlos from underrated Cheap Trick; and former Hanson lead singer -- yes, that's Hanson -- Taylor Hanson.

Tinted Windows put out some fine ear candy in April and are currently touring the United States. Sadly, they won't be in Cleveland anytime soon. (Neither will Fountains of Wayne -- grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!)

Now there comes word of Chickenfoot. It's not the newest gimmick food from KFC. Instead it's another supergroup with some names familiar to anyone who has ever listened to a rock-and-roll record: Sammy Hagar as lead singer, Michael Anthony (from Van Halen) on bass, Joe Satriani on lead guitar, ...

What were you doing 25 years ago today?

If you were a rock fan, you might very well have been heading to your local record store for the biggest album of the year -- Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." Yes, 25 years ago today The Boss released what most still regard as his biggest album. It spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billbord charts and hit the top spot in seven other countries. It didn't leave the Billboard 200 until almost three years had passed. More than 25 million copies have been sold in the 25 years since.

"Dancing in the Dark" became the biggest smash, hitting No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Six other songs made Billboard's Top 10. The video for "Dancing in the Dark" made Courteney Cox a star. She later went on to success in the sitcom, "Friends." Annie ...