We always knew that there was some kind of “bad boy/girl” image that was associated with Tri Five Chevys, but we just had no idea how much, until some of our most hardcore rockers verified it for us. The rock world loves Shoeboxes as much as we do, and one contemporary rock band from Tennessee assigns to the ’55 Chevy an aura, an image that will stay with us for a long time.

Photo from Saliva.com

Formed in Memphis in 1996, Saliva released their self-titled debut album on August 26th of 1997, after competing in the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences’ Grammy Showcase competition. The band made it into the Showcase’s final round in New York City, and shortly after their debut album was released, selling over 10,000 copies in their area alone, while grabbing the attention of various record labels.

Saliva’s second album, Every Six Seconds, was soon released, and the band’s third album, Back Into Your System made number 19 on the Billboard 200 after its release on November 12th of 2002. Back Into Your System also launched one of Saliva’s most successful singles, “Always,” that reached number 51 on Billboard’s “Hot 100” and number 1 on the Modern Rock Chart.

Saliva’s music topped charts during the early part of the Millennium, but it also reinforced a rebellious image that, were it not for the antics of such “tough guy” bands as Saliva, Limp Bizkit and others, would have readily died-off during the late ’90s and early 2000s. Saliva and other new-Millennium rock bands were thus our biggest lifesavers, this in the midst of a boy band “storm” that didn’t look like it was going to go anywhere.

A Memphis band with anything but the sappy songwriting savvy of Taylor Swift in mind, Saliva’s angry anthem is a festival of everything sex and violence, and it does it with a flamed-up, ’55 Chevy in mind. It’s no wonder that the Bowtie classics of the 1955-57 vintage continue to carry an aura of cool, and as long as there is a headbanger who’s willing to scream about them, Tri Fives will always be part of someone’s rock ‘n roll fantasy!