Spiders & Snakes
London Daze (Deadline)
by Scott Hefflon
Sometimes L.A. scares the shit out of me… Sometimes it seems so fast and competitive, like, “That was so five minutes a go” and shit, not to mention ya get the impression the pretty faces are simply smiling cannibals who like to play with their food before ruthlessly slicing it bloody and devouring the flesh before a faux-unimpressed crowd of vampires. And other times, ya hear that there’s a glam rock resurgence going strong and you wonder how the hell both can occur simultaneously without riots in the streets…
So here’s London Daze, the fifth release by Spiders & Snakes, formed by Lizzie Grey, a name glam geeks’ll recognize as a former member of London (with Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx and Mott the Hoople’s Nigel Benjamin). And it seems Grey’s been keeping busy over the years, even if only L.A. wackos and mail-order stuck-in-a-rutters were in on the joke.
Spiders & Snakes are glam, in case I’ve avoided driving that point right on fuckin’ home. Party rock, if you wanna think of it that way. And while I just reviewed Michael Monroe’s latest quite favorably, I really can’t defend this too heartily. Sure, three of the 13 tracks are “bonus” tracks from the very first London demo from ’80, and there’s a alternate version of Grey’s “Public Enemy #1” (recorded by the Crüe on Too Fast for Love), but I’m kinda grasping at straws here… Point is, if yer into glam, this is no worse than anything else of the still-kickin’/clinging breed. While I personally have a soft-spot for the harder kinda post-glam rock (SubPop and Scooch Pooch teaming up on some projects), and some of it kinda bleeds into Deadline territory (hit’n’miss tributes and comps and reishes galore), I really have no need for more straight glam in my collection.
So there it is… Like glam? Check this out.
(13428 Maxella Ave. #251 Marina Del Rey, CA 90292)