Review Summary: KISS meets Mötley Crüe, only better. Well worth the download.
Some bands never even stand a chance. Whether it is because of the prevalent musical climate at the time of their explosion onto the scene, an oversaturated genre market or just the failure to offer anything new or enticing, some acts seem doomed from the start, and it is a small wonder they become mere footnotes in the history of a certain musical decade, scene or genre.
Tigertailz were one such band. Doubly hampered by the fact that they weren't from the Sunset Strip (home of their style of choice, glam rock) and that their biggest hit came about in 1990 (smack in the middle of Nirvana's first two releases, and right at the beginning of the most defining musical wave of the last two decades), the Welsh hair-rockers unsurprisingly amounted to little more than a one-hit wonder, disappearing into obscurity right after their one smash hit,
Love Bomb Baby. Which is why it is so gratifying to discover that they have managed to mantain an understated, yet honest career, consistently putting out albums and now, after the untimely passing of bassist Pepsi Tate, even offering a couple of them for official download, in a bid to at least make their sound heard. And, at least in what concerns 1992's unreleased
Wazbones, that attempt definitely works.
Now, completists looking to read up on
Wazbones may be driven to a bit of confusion, as there seem to be two releases of this album with different tracklists. The one most sources cite differs quite significantly from the one being offered in the group's website, but since this is the official version - and the one that's been released alongside 2007's
Thrill Pistol as a special double edition - it will be the one being subject to review in this article.
This version of
Wazbones consists of ten tracks which run the gamut of usual glam-rock influences, from typically rocking tracks like
Dirty Needles or
Show Me to mandatory power-ballad
I Believe, the sugar-coated heavy metal of
Make Me Bleed or
TYFHO and even a slightly medieval-sounding ballad in
The Final Solution. All these genres are performed competently, if unspectacularly, and the result is a perfectly solid, if by no means revolutionary, hard rock album.
Wazbones saw Tigertailz suffer their first major formation overhaul, with guitarist Jay Pepper and drummer Ace Finchum being ousted and replaced with Cy Danaher and Andy Skinner, respectively. Rounding up the formation are founding member Pepsi Tate and howler Kim Hooker, himself a replacement for original frontman Steevi James back in 1989. These four musicians all play it relatively straight, but it's Danaher and Hooker that truly shine, the first with some genuinely impressive solo work and fast rocking riffs and the second through his uncanny ability to replicate the vocal registers of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley
and Vince Neil, as well as roll them all into one.
In fact, "KISS versus Mötley Crüe" would not at all be a bad description for Tigertailz's sound on
Wazbones. Where on
Berserk they sounded closer to Sixx's troupe, here most of the moments sound like a vastly superior version of early-80s KISS (think
Music From: The Elder, except much better). The bloated concepts, angular riffs, stomping rhythms and even some of the lyrics all nod towards Simmons' delusions of grandeur (with
Make Me Bleed in particular sounding like a lost KISS B-side), but unlike KISS, this group tones their ambitions down with abundant doses of straight-up glam rock, as exemplified by the irresistible
One Beat Of Your Heart or the dumb-as-a-post, but still immensely fun,
Show Me. These, together with other strong tracks like
I Believe or the Crüesian
Dirty Needles, help make up for the album's more significant flaws, like the dreadful attempt at rapping on
Love Junkie, which works about as well as every other attempt of the genre ever made by a glam rock band.
Still, the final result of
Wazbones is clearly positive. These songs are far from spectacular, and they certainly do not reinvent the wheel, but for the most part they are undeniably solid, without too many gross miscalculations and with enough appealing, fun choruses to hold the listener over the couple of rougher patches. If you don't like glam-rock, this won't be the album to change your mind, as it is derivative and as cliché as they come. But if you are a fan of the genre, there is more than enough here to keep you entertained and justify the free download. Not mandatory, but certainly worthwhile.
Recommended Tracks
Dirty Needles
I Believe
One Beat Of Your Heart
Download it officially and for FREE here: www.tigertailz.co.uk/media
