Tesla

Listen for free or download any Tesla track for just 12 cents per song!

Tesla was a Sacramento band that started off as a band named "City Kidd". During the recording of their first album, Tesla re-named themselves after the great 19th century inventor Nikola Tesla, who not only was the man who invented the induction coil which is widely used in radio technology, but also the same guy who claimed to have made lighting bolts and been in communication with aliens. These days the name "Tesla" is probably associated more often with a nearly defunct electric car company than a heavy metal band from the 1980's.

Coming to their own in an era of big hair and leather pants, Telsa set themselves apart as "normal" in that their hair wasn't "big" (just long), they did not wear makeup (at least not on stage), and their pants were leather (denim, baby). In the early days, Tesla toured with bands such as Poison, David Lee Roth, Alice Cooper, and Def Leppard. Their 1986 debut release, Mechanical Resonance, is one of our favorite metal albums, and their 1989 follow up, The Great Radio Controversy, is also at the top of our list. Interestingly enough, Tesla considers Psychotic Supper, which was released in 1991, to be their best work to date. We may not agree with that, but it is still a great album.

Although their was a brief hiatus for members in the mid to late 1990's, by 2000, a reunion tour was in the works. New material soon followed as well as mega rock tours (Shiprocked, Rock Never Stops, etc.). At the time of this writing, the Tesla Discography was as follows:

Listen for free or download any Tesla track for just 12 cents per song!