Sleeze Beez: The Band That Had One Good Song

The other night was thinking about forgotten bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s as I was listening to one of my Spotify Daily Mixes.  The one playlist, in particular, was mainly glam/sleaze rock and a song came on that I hadn’t heard in ages.  That song was “Stranger Than Paradise” by Sleeze Beez.  I totally remember when these guys hit the scene with this song.  It got a lot of play on MTV (Hard 30, Hard 60, and Headbangers Ball) and honestly, it was a great song.  I thought the band name was pretty stupid with their purposely misspelled words and all but even worse was the album title: Screwed, Blued, and Tattooed.

Sleeze Beez was out on the road as the support act for Skid Row’s first headlining tour for their debut album so there was a lot of buzz (no pun intended) about this tour and Sleeze Beez seemed to be something to check it out.  If only we had listening stations at Record Bar or my now good friend Chris Poteat to talk me out of buying this shit platter.

The album opens with the “meh” “Rock in the Western World” and the “ok” “House is on Fire.”Ok, let’s just cut to the chase here.  The rest of this album was just chockfull of songs trying way too hard to be “sleeze.”  “Screwed, Blued, & Tattooed”, “Damned if We Do, Damned if We Don’t,” “When the Brains Go to the Balls,” and “Girls Girls Nasty Nasty.”  Even looking at these titles you can just imagine how fucking horrible these songs.  They even attempted an anthem with the song “Heroes Die Young” which was about a cliché as you can possibly imagine.

So then how is it that in an album that is an ocean of mediocrity, there is one song that I consider to be one of the best fucking songs of the era?  If anything I think it’s a positive thing to prove that even a band with some of the worst written songs can pull it all together and write one truly fantastic song.  Why couldn’t the rest of the album be this good?  We they trying to hard to be naughty boys?  Were they trying to be cool, or where they just out of fuel after writing this one.  I guess we’ll never know but for me, this song is one of the best.

About The Author

Don

I have been running this blog since 2009. AKA as the Great Southern Brainfart, Southeast of Heaven is my baby now and forever. I’ve had my ups and downs with bands over the years but they are all great experiences and memories. My Swedish friend Charlie said once, “Don is known for being one of the meanest bastards in American rock journalism.” It’s nice to be loved.

I also once took a shit in Anthrax’s dressing room toilet and didn’t flush.

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