The lost gems of the 80s/early 90s (for corplhicks)

Most of the bands posted, I wouldn't consider "lost gems." They may not have been huge, but bands like Dangerous Toys, Kik Tracee, Junkyard, and so on were relatively popular.

This is what I consider a lost gem.







Such an amazing band. Their only studio album was this one, which I pulled from a $2 used bin way back in the 90s. That last track, "Untitled," is one of my all-time favorite songs.

Lot's of good stuff posted here. What I was going for was more stuff by bands that either a) never got got major label deals or b) if they did, the stuff got shelved without release when the genre was fading away.

But it doesn't matter. A lot of bands have been listed that, even though they may have had a release on MCA or Geffen or whoever, they still weren't given a real shot, since some of those labels would not promote any of this stuff after its release.

Dangerous Toys, though, I feel made it as much as you could without being one of the big boys. Both "Teas'n Pleas'n" and "Scared" spent a good amount of time on Dial MTV countdowns and such. That album did get a pretty good push. Their second even got a relatively good push, considering. I saw ads for that plastered in every music mag at the time.

If we are talking bands with major label records that still never made it huge, my all time favorite is Pretty Boy Floyd. I spent from 1990 to 2000something searching for an album as infectios as Leather Boyz, and I've never come close to finding one. That one is perfection to me.

But definitely, Child's Play, Shotgun Messiah, et al., were good bands that any fan of the genre should check out.

Here is one of my favourite glam songs:


How about some Electric Boys? Pretty famous I guess, but I wanted to post the song because it's great  

Man. I'm also going to need to throw Big Bang Babies into the mix here. I don't know if they ever got any sort of label release, but Perris put out a collection from their two albums, and it is great bubble gum glam. Not the weird, almost pop punk "bubble gum glam" of today, but just fun PBF-ish stuff.

Big Bang Babies' Kerri Kelli went on to be in PBF in the 90s, and was in a million other related bands. He played on Alice Cooper's Along Came A Spider album as well.

Here is another great album that got a re-release in recent years:

Lari wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I could add a ton of bands to this list:

Electric Angels
Childs Play
The Throbs
Spread Eagle
Smashed Gladys

...to name a few.

Name dropping bands doesn't help quite as much as you'd think. How about impressions? Or a song you particularly like?

I'm interested in this thread.

I can't speak for what draws Toho to these bands, but I can give you my impressions.

Electric Angels is essential and were sorely overlooked. They fall inline with like, Badlands maybe, some of the non-glam bands but still part of the whole deal. It's just, like, rock n' roll. "Head Above Water" is a particular fave of mine.

Child's Play same as above. They weren't glammed out, but just good ol' rock n' roll.

I'm not too into The Throbs or Smashed Gladys.

Spread Eagle sounded like a heavier version of Skid Row, to me. They were heavier than most of their peers. Not glam at all. Excellent band.

Ok..these 2 bands are not metal but have an edge and are both bands I love and wish would have gone somewhere...

I love TPOH and I'm An Adult Now is the song that got me into them.

How could I forget Kings Of The Sun???? They had a major label deal but got almost no push at all.

And for a true "lost gem" there's The Soho Roses (Ramones meets Hanoi Rocks):

And then there was Soul Kitchen.



Asphalt Ballet anyone?

I forgot all about soho roses...cool band.
Here is one that should have went somewhere in America especially...
220 Volt

Love this thread, I've only heard of close to two handfulls of them.  A lot of bands I'm learning of.   

I know a post was made about Love/Hate at the begining of the month, and they had several albums, and were a hit on MTV with Black out, and a few others, but, O hell maybe they aren't quite a lost gem then    But I don't think they went as far as they could have.  Bad timing, or band trouble.  Maybe a bit of both.  Won't post the vid since most of us know them.

Tyketto
Wildside
Vain

I see toho beat me to Kings of the Sun but he neglected to post their most well known song....


Beyond that, how'zabout some Princess Pang...


...or Circus Of Power?


...or Cycle Sluts From Hell?

Little Caesar



D.A.D



GlJ



I don't remember if Tyketto was mentioned yet?

So much great stuff in this thread that it depresses me that more of these bands didn't break big.  Also the thread needs more Baton Rouge and Every Mother's Nightmare love.  Those two actually did get promoted pretty well (metalshop play and lots of ads) but it was probably a little late in the game for them to catch on.  Also a lot of my friends didn't take too well to the southern rock tinges in EMN.  To me that made them great.

Here are three others I think qualify....

Two-Bit Thief - Another Sad Story (on Combat records no less)


Outlaw Blood - s/t (on the doomed Atco Records)


9.0 - Too Far Gone (whole album is great but I've always loved this ballad)

Good call on Circus of Power, FF!

Howz about a little Brass Kitten

Banshee

Two-Bit Thief were an interesting, almost atypical band. I enoyed their CD.

Soho Roses definitely needs love. I feel they had a hard time finding an audience because their stuff is more powerpoppy almost, that the glam crowd may have overlooked it. And their image is way too glam for your average powerpop dude to even consider looking at.

Rock Candy also ruled. I've been wanting that album, but it seems a littke hard to come by.

I'm familiar with the majority of bands listed here, but I am quite pleased to now know about Kidd Blue. I'm listening on Spotify right now, and it's great. Looks like an FnA release. Good stuff.

Another good one is Noize Toys...these dudes put out their album in like 1995, I think. "Fallin in Lust...Again", but they are awesome, straight 80s glam. Hard as hell to find the CD though.