Sugarbuzz Magazine

http://www.sugarbuzzmagazine.com/bands/prophetsofaddiction/poa.html

Prophets of Addiction - Babylon Boulevard 

By Geordie Pleathur(SugarBuzz Nation)
SugarBuzz Magazine

Hooray For Hollywood!
Our sleazy glam rock subculture's losing heroes left and right. Kim Cheyenne from Saigon Saloon, Gio Vitanza from the Coma-Tones, Alex Kirst from the Nymphs, all gone...One of the Ashtones, from France, was just killed by a stray hunter's bullet. Saddening.
...Live while you can. Charlie Sheen's being hammered all day long, in the bullshit media-monopolies, for being too honest about his Classic, All-American, Hollywood lifestyle, for his rock'n'roll appetites, and his Van Halen sensibilities! He likes to party, he likes girls. So what. Back in the Hollywood Roxx, Welcome To The Jungle eighties, the entire glam nation had tiger blood. It's called California.

If you wasted the nineties, and most of the 00's, wishing the original line-up of Faster Pussycat would reunite, and get back to the original, sleazy, old Joneses meets AC/DC sound, if you were kindof less enthusiastic about going out to see Taime Downe, dressed up like Marilyn Manson, 'trying to appeal to the Nine Inch Nails/Tim Burton/Hot Topic dark-wave scene, while you and I just wanna go back to the best Cathouse in town, the Prophets Of Addiction might be a balm for what ails ya. This is dark AND old-school sleazy.
Good to see Lesli Sanders is still around. He was probably the coolest cat outta all them bands, that still lingered, stubbornly, on the Sunset Strip, after the phoney "grunge"/"alternative"/"riot grrl"/"gangsta-rap"/"Lilith Fair" marketing-hoaxes supposedly killed off the corporate hair-bands, according to the big-media, all through the nineties. If you remember diggin' Queeney Blast Pop, City Girl's Boys, Willow Wisp, Wikked Gypsy, Foxy Roxx, Seaweed Eaters, Dawg Mafia, Alleycat Scratch, Heart Throb Mob, Revlon Red, Peppermint Creeps, Gutter Sluts, the Gutter Cats, Steve "Sex" Summers, Taime Downe, Astro-Vamps, and all that lot, these are probably your new gods. They may be alumni of the glam-metal, last-call, eighties, rock'n'roll high-school, but this debut album eclipses most of those old Pretty Boy Floyd-influenced Coconut Teaszers. I was expecting something along the lines of Sick Sixx Crush, but Prophets Of Addiction are way more musical than most of their former colleagues. Fantastic purveyors of nasty "sleaze-pop", 'the angry guttersnipe attitude of the Glamour Punks, but with more evolved musical sensibilities, along the lines of Candy, Spiders N Snakes, American Heartbreak, and Stars From Mars. The vocals are very reminiscent of Axl's low-voice, which I much prefer to all the high-pitched Jim Gillette metal-screechings. "Hang Me Up" is like Buck Cherry's "For The Movies" mixed with "It's So Easy". "Destination Nowhere" is not quite as catchy, as the Trash Brats, "Downtown Nowhere", but it will certainly appeal to fans of that poppy, style of guitar, perfected by Detroit's Ricky Rat, or Jetboy's Billy Rowe. "Babylon Boulevard's" my early fave, there are some lazy, lyrical cliche's present, that are maybe unworthy, of a band with the potential, to go so far beyond, the stock sleaze-metal formulas. The state they're in starts wearing rather thin, after a good half o' dozen tunes, redundantly summoning back all the tired, old barfly hags, and washed-up glamour ghouls, from Christmas past, like Miss Addiction, and Baby Glass, ya know what I'm sayin'? While nearly ALL of us were poorly imitating Tyla, back in the late eighties, some of Lesli's over-wrought, Tyla style, vocalizing starts grating, somewhat, after seven, or eight songs, but hopefully, they've sufficiently tipped their crumpled fedora to the righteous old diamond Dog, and can move forward, past the relentless Dogs D'Amour references, and continue to develop their own unique visions, henceforth. I'm sure they will. This is a creative, and emotive band of rockstar motherfuckers.

Lesli's got star power. I like the upbeat pop anthems, and the slithering gothic creepiness, that reminds me of several different Cali death-rock bands, including the Ultras, Christian Death, and Forty Five Grave. "Where R U Now" is almost flawlessly beautiful, in that glimmery, juvenile, "Too Fast For Love", meets Skid Row's "I Remember You", sorta way. At their best, they come on, like a more dangerous, and volatile version of Electric Angels, they definitely possess the full-blown, arena shakin' rockstar aspirations of Pretty Boy Floyd, a band that Lesli played bass in, at some point...in it's weakest moments, this CD will take you straight back to the taco buffet on Thursday nights, circa '92: Lizzy and Dizzy, Jizzy and Jazzy. Lesli's vocal range is somewhat limited, maybe not even quite as versatile, as say, Billy G. Bang, from Slum Lords, Kill City Dragons, and Shooting Gallery, but "I'm Still Alive" will immediately remind you of The Throbs own, heart-throb, Ronnie Sweetheart. Personally, I was sick of every second-string, sleaze-metal band, all singing in that nasally, Axl "It's So Easy"/Ohio Players/Cameo voice, about six months in, to the first year, of Alice In Chains, but it's used to pretty good effect here, there are some high-quality, catchy, bubblegum-metal HITS on this disc, and I totally have to champion these cats for pulling off a pretty whiz-bang, full-fledged, unremorsefully badass, and still catchy, rock'nroll debut album, especially, in this shamefully Disneyfied, Prozac-fed, neutered-age of cable-tv brainwashing; humorless, Doctor Drew finger-wagging; Justin Bieber product-brands; and gutless corporate conformity. Prophets Of Addiction still believe in standing up for falling down, and having a good time, all the time. They've made a big, old fashioned-sounding, sleaze-metal, silvery-pizza, that summons back the snarling ghosts of both, "Liven Like A @&* Suicide" and "Too Fast For Love". Is it a crime? Probably, under the fascistic police-state, Patriot Act. I say, "Hooray For Hollywood". Look, they're not the Dogs D'Amour, but they're probably in league with Buck Cherry and the Black Halos. If you dig any of the more contemporary sleaze bands, like, you know: Crash Diet, Vains Of Jenna, Crazy Lixx, or Murder Dolls, Lesli and his Prophets Of Addiction are sure to keep you plenty sleazed. I can't say enough good things about the melodic guitar playing, of Amit Leron and Rev X. Definitely worth seeking out, if you still wear anything shiny made by Lip Service...Or if you remember what individuality, liberty, rebellion, and FUN felt like. Epic. Gnarly.