glamourKings
New York City, New York, United States | INDIE
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New York based, glamourKings are a modern mix of NIN and Depeche Mode. Their unique blend of industrial rock and electronic euro-pop, dance together with ease in their recent album release, For Full Stimulation.
Tracks like, Addiction, One and Only, and A Bitch, prove their writing skills and ability to transcribe singable melody. The vocals seem properly mixed and performed - full of self and confidence, while accompanied by driving guitars and percussive beats, all the while, thrown into the mix of electronic chaos - and they pull it off with ease!
RATING: 4 of 5 stars - awakenmusic.blogspot.com
The GlamourKings have it all. There’s the soulful, Alt/Goth-Rock vocals; the highly programmed and hip electronic arrangements; melodies and harmonies that are memorable and a punk-pop sensibility that just won’t quit. - Wildy Haskell
"glamourKings are able to create one of the most memorable albums of the early part of 2011...I believe that their unique take on their music will bring listeners in by the boatful. "
- James McQuiston
"In the prolific CD Front Row Seat To The End Of The World, glamourKings prove they can rock and create dance worthy songs, at the same time, encouraging the listener to think outside the box. " - Melissa Kucirek
"The band definitely has a signature sound marked by synths, electric guitars with heavy distortion, and pounding drums (along with drum programming). Their catchy vocals sit right in the pocket of the mix. So whether it be the hard-hitting, high-powered, adrenaline-charged "pissed off dance rock" music, or the sobering messages designed to make you wake from your apathetic slumber, glamourKings will kick your ass one way or the other. And you'll be better for it, when they do. " - Carlito
"This group has got my attention because they have created a monster that is worthy of sincere recognition. " - Jimmy Rae
Glamour Kings
For Full Stimulation
Technology and indie music is a wonderful thing these days. Bands like Glamour Kings are taking full advantage of the current musical trends and the wide variety of listener’s worldwide ready to download their tracks to their iPods and MP3 players.
Get ready to crank up the volume and hang on For Full Stimulation. What sounds like a full band on this CD is actually two people, primarily Michael Urge (vocals, guitars, bass, synth programming) and John Biordi (live drums).
Electronica can go either way for me, there is no in between, in this case, there are enough rockin’ guitars, rhythmic pounding keyboards, and thumping grinding rhythm sections that make each track meaty and blood pumping fun.
The Glamour Kings hail from Long Island and are a product of their environment. Urge holds nothing back whilst sticking his middle finger up and then following that up by spitting in the face of the shallow minded society that surrounds him, and man do I ever love the attitude! The music is the benefactor and thus the listener is the recipient. You are now armed and ready to rock and take in all the lyrical cynicisms and harsh truths of our world.
How can you miss with tracks like “Walking Talking Infomercial.” If there ever was a mirror image of what we see on the idiot box every night, this is it. Perhaps the sequel will be “Reality Show Moron.” The best track for my money is “A Bitch,” self-explanatory of course but it just rocks with sweat and drive. “Want You More” is another grinder that shows how this duo can really put together some powerful music and great lyrics on a track while packing a punch. Think of Gary Numan singing “Cars” all jacked up on steroids and you have the short spot on description of the Glamour Kings.
Glamour Kings are not for the faint of heart of those yearning for a little 70s disco to remember when they were thinner and dancing the night away. This is music for the young and young at heart, those interested in hearing the bottom line truth backed by modern rock music with elements of some cool space age electronica. It is dark and drive-me-home kind of music, the kind that could easily take the place of coffee when you are about to fall asleep at the wheel. The Glamour Kings have both hands on the wheel and the petal to the metal on this release. By the way, while the cover is rather strange, I love it anyway.
© MuzikReviews.com
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck-March 10, 2008 - Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
New York's glamourKings is a pissed off dance rock duo bringing some hot new sounds to the table. These guys remind me of a blend between NIN's heavy hitting electronics and George Michael's sex driven pop. They give you a little bit of everything your looking for in a band. A little anger, a little rock, a little electronica and little pop, all without overdoing it. Check these guys out, it's definitely worth the time.
- NINJA zine
For Full Stimulation is throaty, energetic power pop that quickly cuts to the chase. Vocalist Michael Urge of this two-person band has a standout way of enunciating to engender a wringing effect.
On these fifteen tunes, the bass guitar and the synthesizer are prominently heard but do not overshadow Mr. Urge's raspy, haunting, yet lucid voice. Also clearly evident is a searing, although clement, drumbeat (the band says it seeks a "studio sound" in its work), reminiscent of a record like The Breeders' "Title Tk." Glamour Kings knows how to produce a disc.
Thematically characteristic of this CD is the lyric on track seven, "From The World," proclaiming the present of "falling in my frustration, falling in it with you, the more I feel, the worse it is." Throughout the CD, as it relates to slippery love, there is admission in the yearning, persistence in the beckoning, honesty in the outpouring. To allude to the illustration on the CD cover, there seems to have been an attempt to feed a would-be lover a string of pearls, but to no avail.
Further, the cut "Addiction," perhaps speaks most saliently to the zinging note of intimacy gone wrong: "Rejection is my addiction," Mr. Urge declares deadpan, then follows with "rejection is my obsession, it seems that everything I do is not good enough for me."
If an album is going to have so strict a single mood, and not vary so much within its subgenre, then it should have the attribute of inherent inexorable seduction. For Full Stimulation does not reach such a qualitative summit. If the moments of flash and glitter were accompanied by a lighter touch and a greater sense of awakening at times, it would perhaps be a more superior record. As it stands, For Full Stimulation is a good effort. Yet Michael Urge and his bandmate John Biordi clearly possess the talent to accomplish even more on future productions.
- Indie-Music.com
Discography
LP - For Full Stimulation - 2007
LP - Front Row Seat To The End Of The World - 2011
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Bio
Limitless branding potential for their catchy moniker aside, there’s nothing truly glamorous about glamourKings, the fiery tart-tongued power trio that’s generously making us a one-time offer: a Front Row Seat To The End of the World.
Fed up with our superficial, media fed and driven culture and the overall “ignorance is bliss” vibe of folks in their native Long Island, brothers Michael Urge (vocals, guitar, bass, synth) and John Biordi (drums), along with Jon Billian (live synth/guitars) forge a blistering fusion of electronic, dance and attitude heavy hard rock energy as an unbridled outlet for their aggression. With deeper focus and more thematically linked lyrical bluntness than they displayed on their well-received 2007 debut For Full Stimulation, they’ve cornered the indie market on a dynamic new sub-genre they unabashedly refer to as “pissed off dance rock.”
And their ironic name? Far from conceit, and more than just a pointed barb at a whiny suburban society, it’s a universal critique of a new culture lusting over reality television, diet fads, television degradation, cosmetic surgery, insecurity, chewed up-bubble gum music and celebrities. glamourKings is here to point out—over some of the funkiest, high energy rock grooves you’ve ever heard—the foibles of a world where the new “talent” is an individual hoping to be at the very most an internet celebrity icon while still remaining voiceless, plastered on YouTube, and having several zeros to flaunt on their profile views.
GlamourKings’ refreshing, no holds barred message has been catching on these past few years, as the trio has gigged regularly on slates with other electronic-driven bands at Lower East Side spots like R-Bar, The Annex and Delancey. Though their sound owes more to edgy rockers like Biordi’s influences Guns N’ Roses, Deftones, and Faith No More and Urge’s favorites God Lives Underwater and Nine Inch Nails, the band manages to fuse a sound that hits somewhere in between the electronic beats of MGMT and the raw anger of Rage Against The Machine. They’ve performed various times at larger venues in Long Island like The Crazy Donkey with 80s pop hitmakers Missing Persons and Berlin and, more recently, they’ve played with new wave-type bands with an electronic side, such as The Mystic Underground, Lowe and Dossier. GK was named one of Unsigned The Magazine’s Top 100 Bands of 2009 and was featured in the Top Bands section of Vents Magazine. Their song “Addiction” from For Full Stimulation was placed in several shows on the Discovery Network in the fall of 2009.
This breakthrough success wasn’t enough to stop glamourKings from really speaking their mind and thereby preparing us for come what may with a Front Row Seat To The End of the World. “A lot of our anger and jadedness came from our surroundings while growing up,” says Urge. “But slowly the music we were playing started do drift away from straightforward rock and into more electronic dance rock. Our debut For Full Stimulation was a first experiment with that sound, but lyrically, it was all over the place and was more about personal and emotional stuff. This one is more polished and honed and fully reflects our awareness of what’s going on now in the world. We’re not predicting imminent doom or anything, but we’re basically calling people out and trying to get them to be aware of reality instead of living their lives being distracted by the latest meaningless pop culture scandal”. Says Biordi, “It seems most ordinary people want to feel like a star, and will do whatever it takes to get their own front row seat - even if the big show is a train wreck.”
Band Members
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