Rough Edge: Jetboy CD Reviews

JETBOY

"The Glam Years" (Deadline/MVD; 2007)

Reviewed by Metal Mark

This set includes a DVD and a CD so I'll guess I'll tackle the CD first.

"The Glam Years" CD contains twenty-one tracks recorded between 1984 and 2006. The first ten tracks were far and away the best material here because they have a definite Hanoi Rocks influence. All of the tracks were fairly simple yet it's the raw energy of the earlier material that seems to suit them far better than the later material.

The songs from 1987-1989 have much more of a safer, almost more processed sound. They are decent enough but far from being special. After that, we get into the early 1990s and the band got heavier as they were trying to get back on a label and thought that playing more metal was the trend to follow.

This CD, as a whole, is of decent sound quality and it's a fairly good retrospective of the band's different styles over the years.

Next up is the DVD which includes a live show from 1986, a band history type film and a photo gallery.

The live show was done at the Whiskey in the summer of 1986 and the sound and picture quality are a little fuzzy, but good enough. The band's sound at this point still had some of that rough quality that I certainly liked. The music is very basic and the lyrics are nothing to get excited about, but it's fairly pure, fun hard rock that's played with a fair amount of attitude. It's a shame they didn't push this sound further once they got signed.

The band documentary tells the story of the band from their formation in 1983 up to their current comeback status in 2007. The story is told through interviews with the current line-up of the band. They are honest and candid as they tell their tale of how they rose from playing in San Francisco to eventually getting signed. They also share their frustrations about being dropped by two major labels and their sadness about the situation with their original bass player. This documentary is better than others of the same variety that I have seen just due to the fact that there was no rock star attitudes and not a lot of complaining either. They were just sharing their story and it came across as being very genuine which really worked.

Jetboy are a bit of a casualty of the time because they never really made it into the big time and part of that was who they signed with and part of it was just that the scene was a crowded battlefield at the time and not everyone came out a winner. Still this is a great package with a pile of material that will please any fan of Jetboy and could certainly serve as a good introduction to those just starting to get into the band.

For more information, check out http://www.myspace.com/jetboyrocks.

Rating Guide:

A classic. This record will kick your ass.

Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.

So-so. You've heard better.

Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.

Self explanatory. Just the sight of the cover makes you wanna hurl.

Back to CD Reviews Home

Back to RoughEdge.com Home