The Hollywood Stars were formed in 1973 by record producer Kim Fowley as a way of recreating the New York Dolls’ glam rock energy, only on America’s West Coast. It was a remit the band fulfilled maybe too well, internal frictions and record company shenanigans causing an untimely demise, releasing just one album and a handful of singles during their original incarnations (1973-78). There was a danger that The Hollywood Stars might become a footnote in the annuls of rock history (albeit a very important one), but then came a triumphant reformation in 2018, along with “lost” albums finally issued and brand new material. Album number five, Hey! L.A.!, continues the good work of 2024’s Starstruck (reviewed here), and rather than being an exercise in nostalgia, this homage to their hometown renders them a contemporary force.
That The Hollywood Stars are very much of the present becomes immediately obvious via opening gambit ‘Hey! L.A.!’. Operating with the same kind of frenetic energy that characterised their early work, there’s no time to waste on fancy introductions or meandering preambles, there’s just a nifty drum roll and then the band appear like a tightly wound ball of intensity. Spiky, angular and jittery, ‘Hey! L.A.!’ radiates effervescence, it seeps from the grooves and is highly contagious; if this track (and, indeed, the whole album) doesn’t make you stop what you’re doing and strut your stuff, then I suggest you check for a pulse. It’s powered by the same kind of proto-punk vitriol that fuelled early MC5 and The Stooges, and suggests that The Hollywood Stars could swing with either of them. It’s the musical equivalent to a daylight robbery; the band hit the listener with six verses and a chorus (and toss a guitar solo in for good measure)…and all within 160 seconds, before disappearing as quickly as they arrived. Whilst many bands of their vintage are popping buttons and loosening their belts, The Hollywood Stars sound lean and hungry and have bones poking through the flesh.
Hey! L.A.! works because the band aren’t pretending they’re still eighteen years old (although they’re certainly playing like it on tracks such as ‘The Bottom’) and many of the lyrics have a whimsical nature, ‘So Long And So Far Away’ and ‘27’ are grasping at memories safely ensconced behind a wall of years, yet there are also songs such as ‘This Moment’ which place the band firmly in the present; it’s the fine line that the band walk between the past and the future that renders The Hollywood Stars a current force. It means that the band still have their roots intact and they come to the fore on the Bowie-esque ‘I’m Not Broken’, whilst ‘When I Find You’ exists in that sweet spot somewhere betwixt Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Rolling Stones. But make no mistake; this is undoubtedly a Hollywood Stars album and ‘King Of The Night Time World’ couldn’t be anyone but the Stars. After years of listening to Kiss’ rendition of this song (it was originally written by Fowley and Hollywood Stars founder Mark Anthony, and later adapted by Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin for the Destroyer album), it feels as if ‘King’ has returned to its spiritual home, the band putting their own stamp on proceedings, effortlessly trumping Kiss’ version.
Hey! L.A.! is not only call from The Hollywood Stars to their native Los Angeles, but a shout to the whole world.
- Hey! L.A.! is released via Rum Bar Records on 7th August 2026.
- Official Website
Track List:
- Hey L.A.!
- So Long And So Far Away
- I’m Not Broken
- The Bottom
- This Moment
- Will The Lights Go On Again?
- 27
- Bright Lights
- When I Find You
- King Of The Night Time World
