Category: Sleaze/Glam

Five Cool Ones – Five New Albums Released this week (January 20, 2023)

Now we’re rolling, the month is careening into high gear with a bevy of fine morsels to savor.

The fine folks at Big Stir records are out with “Anchors Away,” a nautical video that features Maple Mars from their highly excellent 2022 release, Someone’s Got To Listen.

And, speaking of Rock is the New Roll favorites, Easy Eye Sound, their latest entry, The Velveteers, have a snarling new video out with “Choking.”

And, if all of that is not enough, retro popster Nick Waterhouse throws down his 60’s crooner vibes on “Hide and Seek.”

Of course, it’s all foreplay in anticipation of the main event and the five choice nuggets released this week.

Maneskin – Rush

With the slow burn rush of singles that were dribbled out to the masses, Maneskin, depending on your point of view, is either a guilty pleasure, or the next big thing.

Combining the eclectic glam mix of Queen, Abba, The Struts, Sweet, and the Village People, the vibe us all fun all of the time. Perfectly framed for the festival circuit, whether your jam is “Gossip,” a song that features Tom Morello, or “Supermodel” the entirety of this record is an E-Ticket Disney ride of the highest order.

Don’t sleep on “Mammamia,” a song released earlier in the year, but equally bombastic. There is not a cut on this record that is not a glam-stomper.

The Baboon Show – God Bless You All

This Swedish rock and roll band that features the dynamic lead singer Cecilia Bostrom is not so quietly establishing themselves as one of the best live acts on the planet. The opening track of their latest L.P., “Made Up My Mind” is definitely a case in point.

Ten records, in The Baboon Show is still a rock and roll show on a platter. Cecilia’s vocals are a somewhat an acquired taste, picture Axl Rose, Meatloaf, and Cherie Curie in your minds ear, but once the familiarity settles in, the uniqueness becomes an asset.

The opener, “Made Up My Mind” is a propulsive rocker and” Have a Party With Me” mixes things up a bit with guitar player and main songwriter Hakan Sorle jumping in on the vocals.

Not for the faint of heart, but if you are looking for one hell of a party record you wouldn’t be too wrong turning up the dials on The Baboon Show.

Black Star Riders – Wrong Side of Paradise

With Wrong Side of Paradise former Thin Lizzy ax player Ricky Warwick leads his Black Star Riders through another master class in rock and roll on this, their fifth proper record.

Throwing down an anthemic blend of ferocious guitars and thundering drums, most notably on the Thin Lizzy pitch perfect vibes of “Better Than Saturday Night,” and the 60’s garage rock splendor of “Pay Dirt,” there is nary a miss-step here, unless, of course you choose to throw shade on the questionable choice to include “Crazy Horses,” an Osmond Brothers cover, in the set.

The Black Star Riders with their singular mission to preserve all that is good in rock and roll have definitely scored another winner here.

Butch Walker – Butch Walker as … Glenn

Adopting the persona of piano man Glenn, singer, songwriter, producer Butch Walker adopts the role of a piano player regulated to applying his trade in dive bars playing for half-listening drunk patrons. A sequel of sorts to Billy Joel’s character on “Piano Man.”

That’s not to say that these are simply a set of snoozer tunes, every song presented here is pretty stellar. “Roll Away (Like a Stone)” could have been a Boz Scaggs “Lido” B side, “Tell Me I’m Pretty (Bethamphetamine Pt 2)” rolls out like a Springsteen rager, while “State Line Fireworks” has the pastiche of the great Jim Steinman and Meatloaf.

Overall, Butch Walker as … Glenn is a semi-easy listening gem that will have a definite appeal to those ears of a certain age.

The Bad Ends – The Power and the Glory

It would be reaching a bit to call this band a supergroup given the only legitimate universally known member of the band is R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry with the rest of the band filled out by stellar talent from the Athens, Ga music scene present and past.

With a solid mix of college rock, back in the day, evoking tunes and pathos driven tender ballads, this record definitely was made for these times as the band grapples with loss, change, and decay offering up an antidote to doom scrolling and negative vibes.

Five Cool Ones: Five (More) Reasons Rock Is Not Dead – Best of 2021

Rock and Roll is alive and most definitely alive and well heading into 2022. Here are five bands that your ears should wrap themselves around heading into the new year.

Kim Melville – Mr. My Man

Throwing herself fully into the ring after delivering choice covers of Larkin Poe and Led Zeppelin tunes, Paris-based chanteuse Kim Melville will be transforming herself from an under-the-radar artist to center stage in no time.

Dust Coda – Limbo Man

These Londoners deliver the swagger of The Struts and the riffage of Greta Van Fleet on a bed of ’80s sunset strip glam. Crank this one while driving.

Chris Catalyst – King Of Everything

If Pop-Rock is an actual genre, “King Of Everything” from the Eureka Machines frontman Chris Catalyst would be among the best of the lot. Festival ready call and response chorus, jangle pop guitar splendor, this Cheap Trick inspired cut has it all.

Sheepdogs – No Simple Thing

If you long for the days of Three Dog Night, Dr. Hook, and Fanny, to get your ’70s mojo going, jump on the Sheepdogs bandwagon post-haste.

Sweet Crisis – Ain’t Got Soul

Straight out of Cambridge, this epic starts out as a bond theme and quickly morphs into some sort of slinky Led Zeppelin by way of The Cult anthem that would make Rival Sons blush.

The Darkness – Motorheart

A perfect fit for one of those early Queen records, Justin Hawkins and The Darkness has his band kicking it on all cylinders. This one is like going to see Rush opening up for Queen at the Cow Palace back in the day.

Album of the Day: Foxy Shazam – Burn

When Foxy Shazam came out with The Church of Rock and Roll in 2012 it was almost as if our Rock and Roll Dreams had been answered. Bringing over-the-topness back to Rock and Roll and pushing the envelope to the extreme with the bombast of “Holy Touch” and the otherworldly wail of the title track, throwing down Glam, Pomp, and a whole lot of audacity, it looked for one flicker of a moment that the devil spawn of Freddie Mercury had finally been born, and the race with the devil was headed to the Sunset Strip circa 1987. Until that is, Eric Nally and the band crashed and burned in ways that would have made The New York Dolls blush.

That’s why their latest record Burn is such a treat to the ears. The high camp is still front and center, albeit turned down to levels normal humans can endure, and from the lead-off title track it is clear that this rebooted version of the band that channels Mick Jagger, James Brown, and Justin Hawkins from The Darkness is pressing forward with fairly straightforward Pop anthems with a swashbuckling style that is more Three Musketeers than Pirates of the Caribbean. And that is a very good thing.

The Song “Dreamer” is early Queen by way of Supertramp, “In My Mind” has a bit of Bruno Mars Mojo to it, “Doomed” somehow rhymes china and vagina without and it actually works, and the auto-tuned close “Into The Wild” does take a wide left turn but ends up to be trippy instead of entirely offense to the years.

In short, from what these band of renegades delivered with this album, they might be one record away from creating their opus.

Video of the Day: Mary Ann Cotton – Get It On

Named after a serial killer from the mid-1800s whose weapon of choice was poison, the band Mary Ann Cotton stops such sort of ’70s Alice Cooper tribute band territory all the way down to the endorsement directly from Alice himself along with high praise from the original Alice Cooper band member Dick Wagner who discovered them. With true talent to back up the gimmick, this Danish-American band should be on your Rock and Roll radar.

Album of the Day: Dangereens – Tough Luck

Wham glam thank you, ma’am. If you close your eyes while listening to this glam-tastic new release from Montreal’s premier foot-stomping retro band, Dangereens, you might think you have been dropped into a time warp taking you back to 1975.

The influences and touchpoints are pretty straightforward, but that does not make them any less delicious. Marc Bolan, The Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy, Hanoi Rocks, pretty much every Rock and Roll band you hold dear to your ears makes an appearance here. Heck, there even is a steady fragrance of epic-era Kinks on this set of odes to coolness.

Chuck Berry Riffs and T Rex Glam share the stage with older than their years’ songwriting chops, New York Dolls swagger, and blouse wearing torsos. This one has Rock and Roll record of the year written all over it.

 

Album of the Day: Tremendous – Relentless

Tremendous – Relentless (4 out of 5)

One of the best Glam Rock debut records to come out in quite some time, at least since the Struts’ Everybody Wants when Luke Spiller first hit our ear-waves, and this one is destined to be a keeper. The album pulls no punches in introducing you to the band opening-up with a three-song salvo of their previously released singles, Wondermints all of them with “Don’t Leave Our “Love (Open For Closing),” “Like Dreamers Do,” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Satellite” all having you at hello.

Sort of combining the more bombastic sound of The Strokes with the coolest elements of ’70s Suzi Quattro Glam, every song is well crafted, hooks-aplenty, and with a surprise around every turn song after song. The real beauty of this Glamtastic record is that it combines the gritty Pop-Glam sounds of contemporary bands in the mode of The Killers while all the while keeping their cosmic boots firmly entrenched on the Mott the Hoople, T Rex, and David Bowie Party train.

This is not your grandfather’s Bay City Rollers Glam. We have already got this one on our the shortlist for Rock and Roll album of the year.