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I
picked this little find up at a recent Shameless gig as soon as I saw it
was a Perris Records compilation. Perris Records material is for a large
part glam orientated and the only chance I get most days of obtaining
anything by them is on trips to the States. Why don't more bands bring
over these compilations when they tour?
Anyway back to the actual CD disc. It's a 14 track Glam compilation
album of bands and also the first one in what I take is a series by
Perris Records. Shameless were selling it on their tour because they
feature on the 6th track on the compilation doing an interesting version
of 'Kids In America'. I've heard a couple of cover versions done of this
song by various genres of 'rock' bands and I have to say this one is one
of the better ones.
It's lively, fun, bouncy and brings to life the spirit of the original
song and reminds you just why we loved it so much. Yeh it was a tad
cheesy, but we loved it all the same and many a happy night has been
spent on the dance floor screaming along to the song whilst punching the
air. Don't deny it, we've seen you do it, a few pints down the line and
you forgot it wasn't seen to be cool to just have fun and enjoy yourself
with reckless abandonment! Lol.
So who else do we have on here then? Well we have 'Backseat Shake' by
those leather boyz with electric toyz, Pretty Boy Floyd. I can't
remember hearing this particular track before on any of their albums so
I suspect it could possibly be one of those tracks lost on the cutting
room floor. If you compare it to some of their early hits such as '48
hours' then it fares well. OK so it sounds a bit dated now, but hey
don't most of those songs we still insist the clubs play for us to dance
to?
Next up is a band someone recommended to me ages ago and I never
actually got around to doing anything about. Razamanaz - now here's a
band I really do like the sound of. Apparently when Britny Fox left the
scene their guitarist Michael Kelly Smith went on to form this band, and
what a great sound they have. 'Feel It' sounds like a cross between
Kiss, AC/DC with a smidgen of The Cult thrown in for good luck.
Apparently Perris will be releasing an album by this band some time in
2002 and this time I think I will check them out. I dig their groove
man!
Further down the track listing we find Nasty Idols hailing from Sweden.
I've always said Swedish bands know how to rock hard and 'Heroes for
Sale' backs this up once again. This track sounds akin to early Skin
Row, Shotgun Messiah and I'd even go as far as Alice Cooper in his
'Welcome to my Nightmare' mode. Tasty track, well produced track,
another band to check out a bit more me thinks.
Other highlights on the album include 'Pint of Blues' by Roxx (think
Poison meets Motley Crue), 'American Hair' by The Scream Clan (hot n'
heavy man!), and the amazing 'Problem' by newbies Sick Six Crush (Poison
take note - this is how you should be sounding now).
Like most compilations, especially glam ones, we have some corking
tracks on here as well as some dodgy ones. I'll leave you to decide
which ones fall into the later category as it's a case of each to their
own. The production on the songs is another thing that contrasts
dramatically.
There's some songs on here that I thought sounded OK, but because of the
production they sounded a bit rough around the edges. With a bit of spit
and polish I'm sure they would be 100 times better but in their rough
state I'm not convinced enough to go out and buy a whole album just yet.
In a nutshell this compilation album is stuffed full of fun lovin' big
hair bands with as much attitude as eyeliner. If you like your songs
cheesy and you like to party hard then you could do a lot worse than ask
Santa to stuff this compilation into your stocking tops.
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