Corey Gorey from those wonderful Brides sent this, suggesting I “pay it little mind”, being a Glam/Bowie rock joke, meant intentionally, which has managed to infect enough people for there to be sufficient demands made upon them to produce gigs shortly.

I’m not surprised. Although Corey says it’s Ziggyesque/T Rexy, and Kiss, I think you can also say it’s done with the same mixture of double-edged irony but musical worth as The Dictators. How can you forget Handsome Dick Manitoba? Well, you missed nothing, basically, although in Punk days they seemed a reasonable enough laugh. Visually, these chaps look more Kiss than anything but even more like Hello, one of the most neglected glam greats. (Remember ‘Tell Him,’ and ‘New York Groove’?)

From the glam metal perspective it has just the right manky guitar sound, where the riffs are light but quick, and versatile guitarist Monochromeo can also offer ‘sensual vocal stylings’. The bass seems almost obese, and truculent, and you’re only into ‘Suck Up Into My Mind’ (three songs in) when you can see why people want to experience it live, because they’re perfectly ridiculous. Cheap and cheerful, ‘Brothers And Sisters’ is like a rock greeting card, and ‘Blaster Blaster’ lets the façade slip a little with some outré pop sensitivity. 

I suppose I was looking forward most to ‘Oh When The Droids Came Marching In The New Machine’ which does indeed reward you well, tickling relentlessly, but there’s also the lovely guitar in the slow ballad ‘Crashing Through’, which asks the all-important question, “and what’s the point of being alive, when you have a interstellar overdrive?” ‘Protostar’ is extra-jaunty but the hand jiving gets irritating fast, and ‘Rock and Roll Raygun’ features possibly the worst, and ugliest, chorus ever recorded. And that’s not easy! 

It ends horribly well with ‘Keep Your Eyes on The Skies’ and ‘Subatomic’ isn’t a bad chunky pop brat. If you have the chance to see them live I’d say you’d have to be a complete twat not to bowl along. Don’t forget to get drunk. It will help ease the pain.

ROCK AND ROLL STAR DESTROYER
HALE BOP X-R7
SUCK UP INTO MY MIND
BLASTER BLASTER
BROTHERS AND SISTERS
OH WHEN THE DROIDS COME MARCHING IN
CRASHING THROUGH
PROTOSTAR
ROCK AND ROLL RAYGUN
MISSION CONTROL
FUTURE BABY
SUBATOMIC
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE SKIES

Try: http://www.herecomethebrides.com or buy it here:
http://www.middlepillar.com/catalog/browse.pl/artist/BRICKBATS:_ROCK_AND_ROLL_STAR_DESTROYER/ 

10/10/02