Casablanca Records, in the '70s, was a juggernaut of gimmicky concept bands fueled with mountains of shimmery coke. At the head of the roster was KISS, then you had Parliament (black KISS), The Village People (gay KISS) and then the unsung heroes, Angel. Angel were kind of marketed as "good" KISS. Where KISS were demons and aliens and anamorphic man cat things, Angel were supposed to be like...well, angels. Feathered hair and tube steak in white satin angels, but angels nonetheless. The best stylists, producers, graphic artists and handlers were added to the Casablanca payroll to ensure the band's meteoric rise to stardom, but it just never really came to be. The band did land a bit part in the film Foxes with Jodie Foster, Cherie Currie, and Scott Baio. They also made a few albums of varying quality. Here I present their debut and, in my humble opinion, it's fucking awesome. Trust me, this will either totally give you diamond cutting wood, or make you want to puke.
17 comments:
Oh Punky...
What? How dare you compare parliament to Kiss!
Punky Meadows? Pouting for YOU?
you lucky bastards... it seems the link is dead now, i'm getting redbar.
He's even more fluid than Jeff Beck!
-jabladav
Aviary and Leafhound
I've never actually heard them... but I always thought it was so awesome how their logo was the same upside-down. If it gives me wood AND makes me puke... dare I dream?
What? How dare you not compare Parliament to KISS sooner?
Evil is always more interesting than Good. The smart business plan is to go with the demons, aliens, and killer robots.
Gay, but in that happy way. Remember the logo read ANGEL upside down also? Now we need Starz Coliseum Rock.
Noooo!!!! Not Punky Meadows!!!!!
Holy shit!
I saw these guys at the Tower in Philly in '78. We were big Hawkwind fans and they were opening, QS&C tour, Robert Calvert dressed like a psychedelic Arab with a purple satin khaffiya chanting "Hashish hashin". But I digress. Angel fans booed them mercilessly. Idiots.
Angel came on in I swear to god exactly the same pods that Spinal Tap had in their movie!
My friend actually liked them and bought the album. I remember one drunken crank-fueled night we decided to wake the neighborhood at 6am by placing the speakers in his window and cranking the intro to "The Tower" to eleven.
Ah, good times...
--Peter
ps - I remember some running insult in Creem Magazine about the "Punky Meadows Lip Farm".
This record is fantastic. And as life-long Kiss fan, I found your writeup absolutely hilarious.
No wood here, but I found them a semi-interesting lot. Too pop for the Yes heads, too prog for the Starz crowd. Some decent musicianship, lacking only one thing--an audience for this stuff.
Props to Peter for seeing the mighty Hawkind on the Quark tour! Long live Nik Turner!
Without knowing what they look like, I am going to assume they all have cocaine astronaut costumes like Rush on the back of
'2112'
Thye bubbling atari synth at the beginning of the album makes you feel like you just did a whippet. Nice touch.
Rulez!
I really wanted to mock the legend Punky Meadows, but after a few minutes of the opener, I had to admit.... this is pretty gnarly.
not to be confused with Australia's "The Angels" whom also rock.
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