Let me tell you a special story about a rock and roll band that I enjoy very much. I am talking about the Electric Angels. Odds are fairly good that you don't know the Electric Angels, but if you have been in my car at any time during the past year you have probably had them forced on you. LCG has told me on more than one occasion that he does not grasp my deep love for the Electric Angels. But they are one of the greatest rock bands that you have never heard. (Unless, of course, you have recently been in my car.)
As legend goes, they were a band from Los Angeles that didn't fit in so they moved to New York. I call it legend, not because the Electric Angels are particularly legendary, even though they should be, but because I read this in 1990, I don't remember where I read it, and I don't even know if it is true. So it is now just a legend. Oh, hold the phone. I just did an Internet search for the Electric Angels and came up with a site devoted to them.
Hee-hee! The site contained a scan of a page from Hit Parader magazine, July 1990, stating that they did indeed move to New York from Los Angeles. So if you consider Hit Parader a credible source, go ahead. If you prefer to consider the story of the Electric Angels legend, as I do, then do that. (It's so cute. They tried to be real New Yorkers by naming Side One, the Lower East Side. Side Two, logically, is the Upper West Side.) And they all have dyed black hair. They're like the L.A. Guns, only good, which is probably why they left Los Angeles.
The Electric Angels album is practically a concept record. It all flows together to tell one big story. Well, one big generalized story. I think. It gives me the same problem as Bat Out Of Hell. I'm pretty sure these songs all tie together, but I'm not positive. So really, it is less of a concept record and more of a theme record. The theme? Struggling! Are you burned constantly by cruel, heartless women? The Electric Angels know about that. Do you know an unusually large number of junkies? So do the Electric Angels! Hate your job? Drink too much? Live in a bad neighborhood? Spend a lot of time at the pawnshop? The Electric Angels understand. (By the way, if you do spend a lot of time at the pawnshop look for the Electric Angels CD. It's a treat.)
Know how much of a treat? Tony Visconti produced it. What do you mean, who's Tony Visconti? You know Tony Visconti! He is one of the greatest producers to ever work with David Bowie. He produced Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold The World, Young Americans, Low, and Heroes. So you can see the man has credentials. Some people ask me, "If his credentials are so great, why doesn't he still work with people like Bowie? Who are the Electric Angels?" Don't pick on the Electric Angels! They're my favorite! And, by the way, the Electric Angels came out during the Tin Machine era, so it's not like working with Bowie would have been all that great at the time anyway.
And the songwriting of Ryan Roxie is just wonderful. Not Freddie Mercury or Bruce Springsteen brilliant songs for the ages wonderful, more like, knows how to write a solid yet ultimately disposable rock and roll song wonderful. Ryan Roxie understands rock and roll. He writes big chords and itchy riffs, and knows how to make the acoustic guitar rock. (Although I admit that no one can make acoustic guitar rock harder than David Bowie. Who used to work with Bowie? Tony Visconti. So it may not have been Ryan Roxie's doing...it still rocks though.) And the Electric Angels use all of my favorite rock and roll punctuation. Well, my favorite rock and roll punctuation, any category, is the umlaut. But as far as musical punctuation goes I like pick slides and tambourine, and the Electric Angels record is just crawling with both.
Of course, there is a token, "Hey audience! Here's the chance to hold your lighters in the air!" song, True Love and Other Fairy Tales. Tony Visconti contributed a nice little clichéd string arrangement on the song, which is better than any other song you want to throw in the "power ballad" category, ever. It isn't even a "power ballad" at all! Would Firehouse, Warrant, or Steelheart include the line, "Jack loved Jill/Now she's on the pill" in one of their "hold up the lighter" songs? No! I didn't think so! They're not clever! They don't rule! But the Electric Angels sure do! In fact, True Love And Other Fairy Tales is less of a power ballad and more of a slow song.
They have so much strut and so much sass and I just love them so much! Go find the album, and do it now! You need to hear such hit lines such as, "I never really loved you, I just drank too much." Who says that? No one! No one has as much strut as the Electric Angels do. So please go find yourself a copy. They all have dyed black hair, so you know it has to be good.
Super disgruntled side note: I have Ryan Roxie's autograph, and I didn't realize it until a few weeks after I got it. Last July, I went to see Slash's Snakepit. While waiting to get my Slash autograph (the first of the cleavage autograph series) I opted to be not rude and got the autographs (on paper) of the other members of the band. A few weeks later, I happened to look up Slash's band to see who else was in it, and one of the names listed was Ryan Roxie and I tweaked. He has done a lot of sideman-type stuff since leaving the Electric Angels, and he was with Slash, and I met him and didn't even know! What? Why didn't I look that up before the show? I could have gotten my fabulous Electric Angels cassette case signed and I would have been the happiest Electric Angels fan ever! That's okay, eventually another has-been from the eighties will need a talented sideman, and Ryan Roxie will come back to town and sign my cassette. No problem.