Toilet Boys “S/T” (2001)

Although this is being billed as the boys debut LP I’m fairly certain that ‘Come and Get It’ was released under that same banner a couple ears ago. Indeed the track listing is very similar, including such already well-loved tunes as ‘Another Day In The Life’ and ‘Party Starts Now’. What we also get here though is some very high production values- the whole thing is so polished you can probably see yourself in it.The Toilet Boys aren’t so much a part of the down-n-dirty sleaze revival headed by The Backyard Babies/Buckcherry et al, but, even more unfashionable, real old bubblegum Glam. Think hairspray,spandex, pyro and song titles like ‘Saturday Night’, which also make up most of the lyrics and cover little deeper than drinkin’, rockin’ and fucking. The over-production, keyboard sparkles, love of 80’ssleaze, short-but-sweet songs and cheekily flirtaous lyrics all remind me of Rachel Stamps debut album.The Toilet Boys however are even less afraid to wear their taste defying influences on their rhinestonedsleeves, and where Stamp tone things down and manage to capture the teeny-metaller market, Miss Guy and co. inject touches of Poison, KISS and guitar solos. And all without a trace of irony in the 21stcentury – full marks.
/Alison.

Torpedohead “Let’s Go Fo A Ride” (2010)

5 brand new songs produced by Siggi Bemm (KREATOR, LACUNA COIL…) by Germany’s most promising band TORPEDOHEAD. We already enjoyed their first EP “Lovesick Avenue” (2009) a lot here at Veglam so it’s more than nice to see that the band didn’t waste their time and decided to come back and offer us some of the finest punky hard rock’n’roll.
TORPEDOHEAD is clearly heading towards a WILDHEARTS direction on these songs, especially on “Cadillac Beach” (and its catchy RAMONES chorus) and “Brave New World” (that also reminds me a bit of BACKYARD BABIES.) They also kept their love for American rock (“Black Rain”, a killer hit song!) and glammy punk’n’roll (“Moonshine Highway”) intact and put an end to this EP with “Paintrain”, a brilliant melancholic song in a pure D.A.D. vein! TORPEDOHEAD can write good melodies using great rock’n’roll guitar riffs and that’s all we need, don’t we?
I’m telling you, this is the best German band since The REVOLVERS!/Laurent C.

http://www.myspace.com/torpedoheadrocks