#1!
HOLLYWOOD BRATS - S/T AKA "Grown Up Wrong" (1973)
While the New York Dolls were getting beer bottles tossed at 'em in the Bowery, across the pond in Blighty, an eerily similar quintet of He-Venuses in Faux-Furs were suffering through much the same abuse. As frontman (and transplanted Canuck) Andrew Matheson explains: "We simply couldn't stomach what was happening in music at the time. It was all denim and drum solos. Where was the excitement, the danger, the outrageous clothes, the aggression, the glamor that made rock 'n' roll the erotic narcotic we craved?" To answer his question, he and fellow nogoodniks Brady (guitars), Wayne Manor (bass), Lou Sparks (drums) and keyboardist Casino Steel (more about him later) donned frilly lace and lipstick and set about getting their lamé-covered asses kicked. They shuffled their platform heels in earnest in 1972 as The Queen, but a certain band with a recent hit single objected to that particular moniker as you can well imagine. Thus, they decided to be mere Brats instead.
They garnered the attention of none other than the Loon Keith Moon who got 'em a chance to sign on the dotted line. The resulting recording, originally called "Grown Up Wrong," for one reason or another was only released in Scandinavia at the time (chances are good that they were seen as a tax write-off by the very Good Fellas who ran their record company). 'Tis a shame as their brazen brand of sleazery holds up every bit as well as the Dolls' debut LP. Truth be told, upon first hearing this opus, I gasped in amazement that two bands who were unlikely to be aware of the other managed to sound so uncannily alike. It's all here-- the malformed Keef cops, the buzzing amplifiers, the pouty vox and the Spector Girl Group aspirations. Speaking of which, they cover the Shirelles' "And Then He Kissed Me"-- without changing the gender (something Paul Stanley didn't have the "balls" to do).
Casino Steel would make another grab at the brass ring. Forming a songwriting partnership with Matt Dangerfield after the Brats' dissolution, they would soon become Pop-Punk stalwarts The Boys, who received some modest chart action during the Punk Years (remember "Brickfield Nights?" What a catchy fuckin' song that was!). They also recorded an inferior version of "Sick on You," a Brats number that y'all can check out here in its original incarnation-- wreckless proto-punk at its best!
Look in the comments, slut.
