Tripped over a padded envelope in my hall when I came home the other day. It was the new NASTY IDOLS CD. :-)

 

I love getting REAL CD’s, there’s still something special about holding an actual, physical product in your hand – especially nowadays when labels are saving $$ and keep sending you links to digital albums that you can’t even download to your own PC and listen to in your phone or car – but ONLY on their special online players. It sucks. I want to choose WHERE and WHEN I want to listen to new music. Anyway – Nasty Idols. Old aquaintance to say the least. :)

I’ve followed this band for 25 years. 
The first time I saw them was August 15, 1987 in a park here in Malmo. They headlined a music festival, and they were still unsigned. After that show, I did everything to get hold of a demo cassette or anything at all with this band, cause their live performance totally blew me away!

Back then, there was no internet (can you even REMEMBER that there ever WAS a time with no internet??). I had to go to the LIBRARY and ask a librarian to help me go through newspaper archives to get any info about Nasty Idols. 
The first lead was to journalist Maria Francke who had reviewed one of their demos. I wrote to her – and she sent me that Nasty Idols demo-cassette as a gift. I was super happy about that.

(One of the very first songs by the unsigned Nasty Idols – they had a different guitarist back then, they upgraded the band with Peter Espinoza later)

Inside that cassette, there was an address and a phone number to “Andy Capone” that the singer called himself – who later became Andy Pierce. :) Well – this is all a very long story but I remember their days before they were signed. They did everything themselves, this band was a marketing-machine!

Bassist Dick Qwarfort was a graphic designer and would make professional looking logos, covers, press-kits…. When they released their single “Don’t Walk From Love“, it was also out of their own pockets from beginning to end, and they would personally go to the record stores in town and ask them to sell it. I remember seeing it at Åhléns in the center of Malmö for instance, right on the counter where you had to go to pay for your purchases. I’m sure that helped them quite a bit on their way.

I used to call the local radio station MCB requesting their songs or asking them to bring in Nasty Idols to be interviewed live on the air and shit like that. I was still in high school, and it’s funny when I think about it, because Nasty Idols’ career and mine took off around the same time, basically – in 1988. 

I got my first job writing for Kvällsposten, they got their first record deal. We’ve walked on parallel paths ever since.

To make a very long story short – here we are, 25 years later. :-) And listening to the new album makes me remember once again WHY I’ve liked this band for so long. They kick ass – plain and simple.

They have a unique talent to write catchy songs that stick like glue already after the first listen. Andy’s vocals adds to the badboy attitude that they’re selling and they have basically always delivered the goods. Maybe I wasn’t a big fan of the “Vicious“-album but even that was a great album, just wasn’t my cup of tea at the time. Looking back you see things in a different perspective though.

The new album “Kalifornia” is rougher and tougher than it’s been in a while. Bands always say that, but it’s very clear from the very first riffs. Andy’s voice is different, he’s chosen to sing in a different style than usual, but I still can’t quite figure out what I think he sounds like now. Definitely cool but not the “usual Nasty”.

[My name was on the very first Nasty Idols CD “Gigolos on Parole” – and here it is again. Nice when bands don’t forget the people who have supported them for years, very much appreciated. :)]

Slightly darker, heavier, raunchier. But still American style sleaze. If you’re into that, you’ll love it. My favorite up to date was “Boys town“, their last album. 

But I have a feeling that this will be a new favorite to add to the collection. :-) I’ll probably be sitting here till my hair goes gray, headbanging to Nasty Idols. Some bands just never go out of style!