ADAM BOMB - "NEW YORK TIMES" (MAUSOLEUM)

 

There is probably a reason why glam rock isn't all the rage these days. I never quite understood the musical appeal of poser bands such as Motley Crue, Ratt and Poison, though, granted, their video clips could be most entertaining provided you had the sound turned off. Glam rock seemed to be for chicks. Glam rockers seemed to be put on earth to make the kind of music that made chicks wanted to be boned by them. Especially their drummers seemed to be keen on contracting every possible venereal disease in not much of a particular order. Sometimes there was a little nugget of something good in a glam rock track (the main riff in Motley Crue's "Looks that Kill", for example, a track which had an accompanying video featuring a most delectable female that I spent weeks practically half in love with), and I suppose these nuggets somehow caused these bands to make multi-million-dollar record deals and sell out stadium shows, and caused their drummers to score Heather Locklears and Pamela Andersons. There is a lot of injustice in the world, is all I want to say. Or maybe I wasn't comfortable enough with my own sexuality to become a glam rocker myself, who will say?

But glam rock seemed pretty much confined to the late eighties, with a few death spasms in the early nineties. The girlie make-up disappeared, the big hairdos succumbed to common taste (either that, or retreating hairlines), the queer clothes became once again the domain of nightclub travestites and actual women.

Unfortunately, Adam Bomb considered the demise of glam rock not a welcome one. In 1990 he recorded an album with a load of reputable musicians (Steve Stevens and Mick Taylor among them) and a famous producer (Jack Douglas). It never saw the light of day. Not until last year, that is, when Adam considered it prudent to release the album on his own record label. And this year saw a deal with Mausoleum Records to have it released in Europe as well. Someone must have had one of his more non-lucid moments.

Glam rock is dead. "New York Times" is glam rock. There was a very good reason for glam rock to be dead, which was that is was crap to begin with (and that we were all jealous of them glamrockers getting all the chicks despite they themselves looking like them, of course). Ergo, there is a good reason why you shouldn't buy "New York Times" - and it's not just because my girlfriend doesn't look like Heather Locklear.

RK

 

Written November 2002

 

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