Motor City Resurrection

Album Review

The amount of bands circa the early 21st century that worship equally at the altars of proto-punkers (the Stooges), '70s glam (New York Dolls), and '80s glam (Hanoi Rocks) is staggering. But this wasn't all that common in the early to mid-'90s, around the same time that the 69 Eyes issued their sophomore full-length, 1994's Motor City Resurrection. The riffs are loud and the lyrics sure are stupid, but the glam-biker band wouldn't have it any other way. Tracks such as "Mrs. Sleazy" (which is prefaced by a DJ slobbering all over himself how great the 69 Eyes are) and "Hot Butterfly" sound like they were written solely to provide strippers with a new soundtrack to strut their stuff to. Additionally, the group offers to spell out its influences loud and proud with covers of Kiss' "Deuce" and the Stooges' obscurity "Gimme Some Skin." And with the 2007 reissue of the album on the Cleopatra label, the track listing is expanded to 22 tracks, including additional covers — including the Stooges' "T.V. Eye," Alice Cooper's "Is It My Body," the MC5's "Call Me Animal," the Misfits' "Return of the Fly," the Dictators' "Science Gone Too Far," and the New York Dolls' "Vietnamese Baby." Certainly not groundbreaking, but if you're still upset that Mötley Crüe went commercial after Shout at the Devil, the 69 Eyes may provide some sleazy relief.