When Kunk threw that little exclusive (haha) hair metal party back a few months ago even we weren’t aware how ahead we are of our (backwards spinning) time. The Galvatrons are a band from Australia. We’ve covered their remix success with the debut single When We Were Kids (post1 and post2). Now, they released their debut LP in the beginning of this month. Entitled Lazer Graffiti this record is one of the most funny and cheering-up album of the year so far and thus perfect for summer. The Galvatrons build their concept-like album around oldschool video games, childhood memories of movies like Karate Kid and Transformers (the orginial one!) and of course lot of cheesy glam-space stuff from the 80s. Besides the themes and image, the music is hair metal. Seriously. You can hear Kiss, Bon Jovi, some Guns n Roses, the glam of Queen and the atmosphere of rollerskate discos…jesus! The sound is so shamelessy and cheerfully steals everything cool from the style and era that it’s hard to resist laughing. It’s like if they wanted to stage a play with the well-know characters of Freddie Mercury, Axl Rose, Bon Jovi, etcetc. And this is not a bad thing! I have to emphasize this. This is pure fun. Simulacrum and hyperreality just got some pop musical meaning. It’s not even like a copy of hair metal but a pop recreation of something that was already pop. Those guitars, the solos and the keys – holy fuck! I mean look at this video of the next single, Cassandra! WTF?! This is totally hilarious. Amazingly good spirited stuff. When I first heard When We Were Kids I thought they are another (though cool) electro-pop band. Now, they re-recorded the same song and it hairmetalized the whole thing. Now I know it would be boring for a sophomore album but for one, it’s important to come to terms with your influences (and The Galvatrons seemed to have built an awesome universe from them) and two, I have faith that they can make another step and a really good next effort and become one of the most interesting bands of Aussie-land. Meanwhile buy the album, listen to it and immerse into a soundtrack to your Transformers (again, the original animation) or Top Gun fantasies of 2k9.

The Galvatrons – She’s in Love [mediafire] // [ysi]