Nite Songs

  "You're a Jezeballerina lookin' for a band to play!"  - Smashed Gladys  - 17 Goin' On Crazy I've mentioned in a few other GDR columns how sometimes the best music from the sleaze rock era came from bands who deliberately played it as ridiculously OTT as possible. Similar to Cats In Boots , New York natives Smashed Gladys are another example of this and Social Intercourse  is one of the most gleefully dumb but enjoyable examples of bonehead sleaze-rock from the '80s. And trust me, the competition in that area was pretty fierce. The group were formed out of the same primordial soup mid-'80s Big Apple scene that spawned fellow GDR alumni Uncle Sam , Circus of Power and the Throbs (indeed, original Smashed Gladys guitarist Roger Ericson would leave the band shortly before this album to join the latter). The group were fronted by Sally Cato who had a truly ferocious screech of a voice which made you wonder if she was the long lost daughter of Noddy Hold...

August always seems to be a bit of a quiet time for releases and to be honest, it has been a bit quieter than usual at the Singles Bar this month. However, we've done a bit of rooting around to find a few potential gems we might've missed in the last few months as well as a handful of new releases plus a couple of mini-albums for you so if you'd be so kind as to head out on to the roof terrace and soak up the sun a bit, we'll get our selection over to you straight away. Well, we started with a Wildhearts  single last month and we do so again this month with the excellent Sort Your Fucking Shit Out  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗) another promising salvo from the upcoming 21st Century Love Songs  album. Poppier than last month's Remember These Days , it still packs enough unexpected twists and turns to what initially appears to be a straightforward slice of pop-punk but builds up to a furious crescendo. Great stuff. We've already encountered Norwegian pop-punks The Cocktail Slipper...