Obscure 80s, US rock...

Further to a suggestion in the Hi-Fi Forum, I thought I'd start a thread here for anyone to suggest little know gems from the period mentioned in the thread title.

I'll kick off with:

Shark Island - 'Law Of The Order' (1989)

Full of well performed hard rock tracks with the obligatory killer ballads. Also notable for a fine cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain'.

Britny Fox - 'Britny Fox' (1988)

Harder edged glam rock, a la Cinderella. With strong UK influences from Slade (going so far as to cover 'Gudbye T'Jane') and the scorching lead tracks 'Girlschool' and 'Long Way To Love' it's a bit of a dumb-ass, party time classic.

Jetboy - 'Feel The Shake' (1989)

America's answer to Hanoi Rocks? Punky glam rock with an attitude. This album features minor classics 'Make Some Noise' and 'Bloodstone'.

Pretty Boy Floyd - 'Leather Boyz With Electric Toys' (1989)

What is there to say really... possibly the ultimate pointless, hedonistic bastard love-child of Poison/Kiss/Motley Crue, but they rocked! 'Only The Young' and 'The Last Kiss' standout.

Vinnie Vincent Invasion - 'Vinnie Vincent Invasion' (1986)

Ex-Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent finally let loose to record what it essentially his ego on vinyl. That said, amongst the hysterically over the top guitarwork (which Vincent swears was not speeded up or studio manipulated) there are some cracking songs to be found here. The likes of 'Shoot U Full Of Love', 'Do You Wanna Make Love' and 'Baby-O' are among the best glam/sleaze rock tracks ever written.

Roxx Gang - 'Things You've Never Done Before' (1988)

Dirty edged, sleaze rockers - combining grit with glam on tracks like 'Scratch My Back' and 'Too Cool For School'. Originality may not have been a strong point but the playing and sonics of this record are spot on.

Dangerous Toys - 'Dangerous Toys' (1989)

Like AC/DC on speed mixed with a dash of Skid Row, tracks such as 'Scared' and 'Teas'n Pleas'n' certainly have huge energy. Also features the rather worryingly titled 'Sport'n A Woody'.

Dirty Blonde - 'Dirty Blonde' (1988)

A mini-album featuring just five tracks, one of which is the must-have 80s glam rock classic 'Ladies In Mercedes'.

Roughhouse - 'Roughhouse' (1988)

More AC/DC inspired, dirty glam rock in the Motley Crue vein. Some good tracks on here, such as 'Midnight Madness' and 'Tonite'. Tipped for big things at the time but it never happened. The album was hard to get hold of then, almost impossible now.

Feel free to add your own suggestions

 

"Sister Christian" - Night Ranger. Only know this 'cos of the Boogie Nights inclusion, but your basic soft rock cheese - with nice drum dynamics

What are Triumph like?

 

IIRC they were (are?) a Canadian kind of "epic metal" band

On the theme how about RIOT (two albums I remember - Riot and Narita) , or the Jim Carroll Band or Saga (synth rock)

 

Very Canadian

Sort of a harder, more aggressive and basic version of Rush.

 

Bit like Dumpys rusty nuts and bolts then

 

Whoa
Boxhil Boxhill 'ere i come
aint happy till i reached a ton
Cuppa splosh and a greasy dog
ONLY TIME I'M 'APPY IS WHEN I'M RIDIN' ME 'OG

 

These fellas:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B3ubyxdjbjold

 

And, in case you're unable to find them through the cloud of hairspray, let's not forget:

Guiffria; House of Lords; Bang Tango; Tangier; Dirty White Boy; Salty Dog; Vain; Danger Danger; Babylon A.D.; Stryper(!); Slaughter(there's a Vinnie Vincent connection); Steel Heart; Spread Eagle; Beggars and Thieves.......god, there must be loads I could list but I don't have access to my brothers record collection at the moment.

My own suggestion for obscure 80's US rock would be The Big F.

 

Roxx Gang? Spread Eagle?? Bang Tango??? Bang bleeding Tango???? I shan't (can't?) comment on the music but one can only imagine what the hair on this lot was like. Please feel free to post links to any funny pics.

 

Cheers for the suggestions so far Juboy and co!

Quite like the sound of Britny Fox from the description, and a hard rock version of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" sounds fun.

Haven't got very much in the way of 80s US rock in my collection ATM (obscure or otherwise), a situation to remedied as from now.

Have got some Cinderella, Motley Crue and Georgia Satellites albums, but they're pretty non obscure, so I'll just get back to lurking and reading more ideas as and when this thread gets further updates.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot them. 'No Respect' came out just at the end of 1989 so they count. Excellent debut album. I saw them supporting Skid Row in Bristol and they killed The Row

Another good suggestion - a little bit trippy and gothic compared to most bands of the time. Weren't they ex-Berlin?

 

Forgot to ask previously: what's "epic metal"?

I take it epic must have something to do with the length of songs? Going on what I've heard from a typical Rush album which are generally like concept albums, and the above comparison made between them (Rush) and Triumph (who stuff I've never heard)?

 

Them's the fellas.

If you're interested, drop me a pm, as I have loads of this stuff in boxes of records that I've not got round to listing on ebay yet.

Came up with a few more of the glammier ones overnight:

Icon; Prophet; Surgin; Lillian Axe; Keel; Saraya....

www.melodicrock.com

.....and on the uglier, and slightly heavier side of obscure 80's US rock:

Metal Church - I was playing an album of theirs last night that I've not heard in ages, 'Blessing In Disguise'. If you like Metallica and don't mind a bit more melody in the vocals, this could be for you.

 

He he he - Metal Church - got one of their tracks on "Stars on thrash" and it's pretty good

Henry - that Rush album certainly goes on a bit - quite cool though. I might have to check out Triumph

 

And, lest we forget, for those of a religious bent, the mighty Stryper

 

To hell...with...the...devil
I remember it well.

 

Kingdom Come did pretty big hair back in 1989. I seem to remember that they got absolutely slaughtered by the rock mag critics of the time. I've got one album called; In your face.
Not too bad a listen every 5 years or so.
The centre picture of the CD booklet shows them taking a bow at a large US looking sports stadium, the faces of the crowd are out of focus though, so hard to tell if they are shouting and hurling obsenities or genuinely applauding, Probably the highlight of their careers.