GLAM!

Boredom at work can result in many activities, most of which involve the internet in some way - by far the easiest to fall into and undoubtedly the least rewarding is to randomly click your way through the profiles of strangers' 'friends' on Myspace.

On this occasion however I uncovered a whole cross atlantic 'glam metal' (not 'hair metal', that term was invented by a journalist who wrote for The Face in 2001. No wait, according to Wikipedia it was in fact invented by MTV in the 90s. Whatever.) scene, that seems to have its dual centres in Hollywood and Stockholm, pretty weird. I also have reports from the ground that the same thing is happening in LA. I want to go.

This guy sums it up pretty well, as does his friend Marky de Sade. It would be too easy to put the boot in and slag them off but being intrepid and open-minded I listened to some of their stuff and, oh shit, I even liked some of it. Especially these - Starlet Suicide - Try to Break Me. They kind of sound like The Sounds mixed with The Runaways but with some metal style twiddly bits (not The Killers), but words are as nothing to the sound. These ones have actually captured the most authentic glam metal sound I've heard so far, which they should be both proud and ashamed of. Problem with most of these bands is that they want to do a GnR and mix sleazy hard rock with punk so most of them end up sounding like Green Day (yuck). Think these guys have kind've nailed it (Twisted Sister?) but their sound is so bad it's hard to tell

I think there is actually a small scene in the UK (well, 2 bands anyway) one of whom I saw in Camden about 2 years ago, but I can't remember their name. Something about prostitutes.

Here's Metal Rules Top 50 Glam Metal bands of all time. Now they've put Love/Hate at no. 37. I personally believe it was a bit of a master piece, listen - Love /Hate - She's an Angel (for the 'mommy took the strings off your bass / so you don't hang yourself' line alone). I also preferred Slave to the Grind by Skid Row, not that that will mean much to anybody.

Buy Love/Hate - Blackout in the Red Room

Buy Skid Row - Slave to the Grind

Buy Starlet Suicide stuff