Saturday 6 June 2009

Smashed Gladys - Social Intercourse

Based in New York (but originating in Toronto) and so immediately differentiating themselves from the slew of west coast 'glam' bands, Smashed Gladys released a low-key debut before grabbing the major deal that resulted in Social Intercourse.

Their other key difference (or should that be 'USP'?) was female vocalist Sally Cato - whose take on being a frontwoman in an otherwise all-male band in a largely male industry was to simply be one of the boys.

Her gravelly vocals gave Smashed Gladys an edge, and lyrically you'd be forgiven that this was a band driven solely on testosterone (bookending the album you have the not-difficult-to-decipher opener 'Lick It into Shape', while closer 'Sermonette' talks of being in a band 'to get laid').

Musically Smashed Gladys had a certain amount of bar-room cool, and this easily qualifies as one of the better US releases of the late 80s. On last listen - admittedly a couple of years ago - it hadn't stood the test of time too well (the production in particular ties it to the period), but if you haven't heard this band check out the tunes over on MySpace.



http://www.myspace.com/smashedgladys1984

3 comments:

JadeB said...

Wow! I haven't heard about this band in years. I'll check out their MySpace page.

Michael said...

I checked this band out recently. Very promising, but you're right about the production - it dates it pretty severely. Even when it wasn't appropriate, I noticed a lot of bands used (or were assigned) Ric Browde back then, I guess because of his success with Poison.

DGW said...

Good to see you Michael! Browde even went on to produce a Dogs D'Amour album (Straight) which was actually their best for a while but was ruined by his suggestion/insistence that they re-record 'Heroine'. It wasn't a patch on the original, although it was outdone for pointlessness by the Wildhearts cover a few years later.