A couple of weeks ago a friend suggested I check out a “sleaze rock” band called Crystal Pistol. Sleaze rock? Now honestly, I have heard the term before but I had no idea it had become it’s own genre! A quick google search even shows a damn Wiki entry. BTW, it’s moments like these that make me feel completely unqualified to be doing a blog. None the less.
Sleaze rock or Sleaze glam is a sub-genre of glam metal. It first started to emerge in the mid 1980s, and took off fully in 1987. Bands in the genre primarily take influences from punk, blues and hard rock.
The genre is sometimes called sleaze metal also, and continues on today, especially in Scandinavia, though it still has some popularity in other parts of Europe and the United States.
Characteristics
Sleaze rock bands are noted for having a raw, less produced sound, than many of the bands who are part of the glam metal genre. In some respects it is similar to the aesthetics of the pub rock movement, with emphasis on high energy live shows. The lyrics are often raunchier and more tongue in cheek than many other of their glam metal contemporaries. These bands were seen as the reaction to the supposedly overproduced bands whose image had become soft and poppy.
Okay…first, pub rock? BUT! I know glam metal. I’m a glutton and all of this intrigues me
enough to check out Crystal Pistol….why not? Loan me the god damned cd.
If Crystal Pistol are the embodiment of the sleaze rock sound (raw, less produced, guitar driven gnarled vox) then I have been diggin’ sleaze rock for quite sometime. There is a collection of bands I have been offering up to my friends as proof that the glam/hair metal scene is on it’s way back. So, here are some “sleaze metal” bands for your sampling pleasure…..it just might turn out that you too have been listening to this genre on the fringes without realizing you were slumming it:
Crystal Pistol – Teenage Parasite
Crystal Pistol – Rockstar
Crystal Pistol – Live Fast
Nashville Pussy – Fried Chicken and Coffee (highly recommended)
Nashville Pussy – Atlanta’s Still Burning (highly recommended)
Crank County Daredevils – Kings of Sleaze
Crank County Daredevils – Livin’ in the Red
Artimus Pyledriver – Swamp Devil
Artimus Pyledriver – Dixie Fight Song
There you go. A quick sampling of sleaze. If you wanna look further into any of these guys or buy some cds, here are the links to their web sites: Crystal Pistol, Nashville Pussy (I LOVE THESE GUYS), Crank County Daredevils and Artimus Pyledriver
btw: I am open to any band suggestions in this genre you folks my have
8 Responses to “Sleaze Rock?”
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So are the Drive-By Truckers too “clean and articulate” for this genre? I don’t think so, but maybe they don’t carry it to quite the level of the bands in your list.
And the historical forefathers of this kind of music has to be Black Oak Arkansas–”we’re gonna get HOT…AND…NAS-TEE.” They might not have made it into the classic rock canon, but we really listened to them in the 70s.
Brad
On
I couldnt agree more with Black Oak Arkansas comparison except they arent nearly as talented lyrically as Black Oak.
On
The same thing happened to me, man. I heard the term when I was reading in wikipedia about guns n roses, in fact it says that maybe the most popular sleaze rock album is appetite for destruction, you should check their pirate album Make My Day! it´s pure sleaze rock… it has a raw version of paradise city, rolling stones, elvis and AC DC covers (made sleaze rocks) and live performances, its pretty cool. Wikipedia also gives some names like shotgun messiah, faster pussycat (i downloaded a couple of their songs, but I think they´re pure glam). Well, that´s all, I´ll hear the songs you gave, thanks for that.
by the way, sorry for the use of the language, I´m argentinian….
On
Guns N\’ Roses is my favorite band and I also discovered Sleaze Metal with them by reading Wikipedia, sadly, none of these bands intrigue me
On
I mean the ones above I’m not into. I still am into Sleaze because I’ve listened to almost every Guns N’ Roses song besides some of the Chinese Democracy album songs and if any other Sleaze bands are like them then I’ll be sure to love em >:)
On
If you dig sleaze rock like Guns n Roses…the number 1 sleaze band in the world today is JACKVIPER
Check em out at
http://www.jackviper.com or http://www.myspace.com/jackviper05 or search for them on wikipedia
On
Maybe you you will like some of this bands
On
…you could mention Crashdïet, Hardcore Superstars and Gemini 5 also! They crash all down! ;7
KEEP ON SLEAZIN’