Gloryholes Want A Divorce CD

The Gloryholes: Doug White (vocals); Shelly Corwin, Chris Kenan (guitar, background vocals); Melanie Belanger (bass, background vocals); Eric Fenner (drums).
Recorded February 2002. Includes cover art by Peter Bagge.
The Gloryholes: Melanie Belanger (bass guitar); Eric Fenner (drums); Doug White , Shelly Corwin, Chris Kenan.
Personnel: Doug White (vocals); Shelly Corwin, Chris Kenan (guitar, background vocals); Eric Fenner (drums); Melanie Belanger (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Jack Endino.
Recording information: Private Radio (02/2002).
Mix two parts New Bomb Turks-style punk blamalama and one part neo-Makers garage raunch and you start getting an idea of what to expect from the sophomore release by the Gloryholes. Doug White's high-attitude vocals represent above-average larynx abuse, and Shelly Corwin and Chris Kenan's speedy but solid guitar work gives him just the backdrop he needs (and the backing vox from Corwin, Kenan, and bassist Melanie Belanger lends this a nice "Shadow Morton-gone-to-hell" quality). Unfortunately, for the most part the performances are more memorable than the songs, though "Swish" certainly adds a new wrinkle to sexual preference issues and the Hives might find that "Immune" sounds a bit familiar (though they probably got the riff from somewhere else, too). But in a world where everyone is trying to do that garage rock thang, give the Gloryholes credit for doing it harder than most, and with an admirably tough undercurrent to boot. Points added for nice cover artwork from Peter Bagge. ~ Mark Deming