Jetboy-The Glam Years

Deadline/MVD
2007



This set includes a DVD and CD so I'll guess I'll tackle the CD first. It contains 21 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 their 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 1990's and the band got heavier as they were trying to get back on a label and they thought playing more metal was the trend to follow. This disc 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 statis 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 their frustrations about being dropped by two major labels and their sadness about the situation with their original bass played. 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 complaing either. They were just sharing their story and it 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 and fan of the band and could certainly serve as a good introduction to those just starting to get into the band.

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