Sin City Sinners has been in exile in Las Vegas for the last few years playing shows and often having 80's stars as special guests. George Lynch, Donnie Vie, Phil Lewis, Jeff LaBar, Kip
Winger and more obscure "where are they now" guests like Rob Affuso (Skid Row), Frankie Muriel (King of the Hill) and Jimmy Crespo (Aerosmith) have joined the band on stage.
The thing is similar to
Steel Panther/Metal Shop's trek at Key Club in L.A. Therefore "Exile on Freemont Street" was expected to be a full blown 80's Hard Rock record like
Steel Panther "Feel the Steel" - especially since Brent Muscat from the original
Faster Pussycat plays guitar and drummer Rob Cournoyer played with Raging Slab 10 years ago. However, that expectation proved wrong. "Exile on Fremont Street" is a modern rock record dominated by singer Todd Kerns, since he is singer, guitarist and has written all songs. Some of the songs are re-recordings from Kerns solo album "Go Time" and others are songs from his former band "Age of Electric"-
It is a bit disappointing that the band didn't put together some material as a band. I was lucky to experience Kerns and Muscat, when
Faster Pussycat toured the UK in 2007. The band was tight and while focus was on Muscat and Eric Stacy because they were original members it was obvious Todd Kearns was a rising star with his guitar playing and strong backing vocals. Brent Muscat and Kerns has only written one song together, which was written at the aforementioned tour. The song
Big Time Superstar is much in same vein as the other songs on the album, so I doubt it was written for
Faster Pussycat.
After that
Faster Pussycat UK trek I checked out Todd via his myspace and became familiar with a song like
It is not You it is Me also featured on this album. Album highlight is
Arianna Incomplete - a great modern rock song in the Butch Walker vein.
"Exile on Freemont Street" is a not a bad album - it is unexpected from this cast, but that doesn't move focus from "Exile on Freemont Street" being a good modern rock album. During the albums running time of 40 minutes it is only the closer - a cover of
Viva Las Vegas - that bores you. The album has a strong production - again Todd Kerns is credited as main producer.
Todd Kerns is just announced as new bassist for Slash's touring band and since he is such a key player in
Sin City Sinners I am a bit worried about the future of the band.
Listen before purchase. If you're not stuck in the 80's you certainly get a kick out of this album. The album is characterized by solid songwriting, great players and a contemporary sound.
Written by
Michael Thursday, April 8, 2010
Show all reviews by MichaelRatingsMichael: 6.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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