The Hollywood Stars - Starstruck (2024) [Hi-Res]

"Starstruck is the best power pop album you'll hear in years!" - Ruta 66

"Starstruck will be along shortly, but meanwhile here's 'Taxi Driver'. After some glam sleight of hand, it scoots into '70s power pop territory, with vocals and guitars vying to out-hook each other and verses falling into the chorus, Where the hell do these guys get off sounding so youthful and exuberant?" - Shindig!

"Seventies rockers sounding fantastic in 2024." - Paul Blowfish

"New album Starstruck marks the band as a vital force, and one that could teach the young pretenders a thing or two. With the album split (almost) evenly between old and new compositions, Starstruck perfectly walks the line between past and present. Subsequently, this is an album that speaks of what rock n’ roll was but, more importantly, signposts what it could be." - Midlands Rocks

"Rather than a mere nostalgia trip, the record also served as a relaunch, as the Stars follow up with a brand new record. Each member brings in material old and new, from Phares’ pre-Stars hard rocker “Bad, Bad Man” (co-written with late Stars founder Mark Anthony), Kim Fowley-era power ballad “Shortage of Love,” and frisky bopper “Taxi Driver” (from his post-Stars band Hero), to Rummans’ garage rocking Sloths tune “Haunted” and Jourard’s Motels glam pop single “Total Control.” But the new cuts are just as good – check out the musclebound “Sleeping Giant,” the deliriously catchy “Can’t Do It Right,” or the blazing “Am I Right or Wrong?” Regardless of origin, these songs are proof that, nearly fifty years after their supposed heyday, the Hollywood Stars still have plenty left in the tank." - Michael Toland, Big Takeover

"The band are from LA and have actually been around since the 70's - I thought they had a classic feel to the music and not it makes sense. I mused that there was a touch of Rolling Stones there and even New York Dolls, so it's quite nostalgic really. The songs are mostly melodic and are pretty catchy." - Issue Punk Zine

The current lineup of The Hollywood Stars features musicians who have played with The Motels, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Rick James, The Flamin’ Groovies, and others.

It would seem like every nook and cranny in rock ‘n’ roll history has been explored ad infinitum by this point. Countless books and magazine articles have been written, painstakingly excavating the lives and careers of everyone from Chuck Berry to Aerosmith, Wanda Jackson to Taylor Swift. But what if there was a band with deep roots whose story had barely been broached? A band with direct ties to Little Richard, the Kinks, the Mamas & the Papas, the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Iggy Pop, the Runaways, the Flamin’ Groovies, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Steppenwolf, and Blue Cheer, among others? Such a band does exist. They are The Hollywood Stars.

Glam Rock was in full swing by the ’70s, as Rock blended to wilder lifestyles and on-stage/off-stage displays of glitter and dress. The New York Dolls helped to further this arrival with make-up and music to match that decadence. The period was somewhat short-lived but some of the bands and artists that made that scene (Bowie, T-Rex [Marc Bolan], Sweet, Roxy Music, even Slade) are fondly remembered of this point in time. We still play those records!

Another of the bands from that period were The Hollywood Stars. Plagued by a series of unfortunate occurrences, The Hollywood Stars would be short-lived in their endeavors but would leave behind a single eponymously-titled LP. They had two of their songs recorded by KISS and by Alice Cooper. The new Millennia would see a reformation with a release of their first album (unreleased by Columbia Records), and a 1976 demo album – Sound City. The lineup of the band responsible for the new Starstruck album is vocalist Scott Phares and drummer Terry Rae (founding members in 1973), bassist Michael Rummans (joined in 1976), and guitarists Jeff Jourard and George Keller (recruited in 2023).

June 14th 2024, The Hollywood Stars will release their new album, to be called Starstruck.



Tracklist:
1.01 - The Hollywood Stars - Can't Do It Right (2:56)
1.02 - The Hollywood Stars - Taxi Driver (2:55)
1.03 - The Hollywood Stars - Bad, Bad Man (2:24)
1.04 - The Hollywood Stars - I Had a Girlfriend, Now She's Gone (2:10)
1.05 - The Hollywood Stars - This Merry-Go-Round (3:29)
1.06 - The Hollywood Stars - Total Control (Cover) (3:53)
1.07 - The Hollywood Stars - Save Me (3:31)
1.08 - The Hollywood Stars - Sleeping Giant (3:09)
1.09 - The Hollywood Stars - Haunted (2:40)
1.10 - The Hollywood Stars - Am I Right or Wrong? (2:32)
1.11 - The Hollywood Stars - Walking With an Angel (3:38)
1.12 - The Hollywood Stars - Revenge (3:07)
1.13 - The Hollywood Stars - Shortage of Love (5:37)
1.14 - The Hollywood Stars - Can't Do It Right (Extended) (3:32)
1.15 - The Hollywood Stars - Revenge (Extended) (3:45)