Cobra Verde: Nightlife

Glam-rock has a strange legacy in America. Primarily a British phenomenon, albeit one with strong American ties and influences, glam has in this decade been enthusiastically picked up and altered in Britain by such vital torchbearers as Suede and Pulp. Aside from the school of '80s metal that co-opted the name and look of glam without borrowing the sound or the subversive attitude, its influence only surfaces occasionally, and usually in the hands of those who don't know what to do with it. One exception is Cleveland's Cobra Verde, best known for its brief but memorable stint as Robert Pollard's backing band in a short-lived incarnation of Guided By Voices. Director Todd Haynes assembled an all-star group of musicians to record the soundtrack to his glam chronicle Velvet Goldmine, but he could have saved money by simply hiring Cobra Verde. The band not only does an excellent job aping its forebears, but makes explicit the connection between British glam and American trash-rock Haynes suggested in his film. Incorporating at various times the thrashing guitars of the Stooges, the (then) avant-garde instrumentation of early Roxy Music, and a bridge lifted from Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes," the band has chosen a rich set of influences from which to borrow. Early on, Nightlife does right by those influences—the punchy combination of "One Step Away From Myself" and "Conflict" sets the right tone—but Cobra Verde exhausts its ideas shortly thereafter. Lead singer and songwriter John Petkovic doesn't help. Not only does he fail to establish a persona for himself outside of his ability to channel other singers, but his terrible lyrics ("He's the conquistador, I'm the tourist inside her heart") work against his frequently involving music. Much of glam's power comes from its ability to conjure images of potentially wretched excess—physical, emotional, sentimental, dramatic, supernatural, whichever—but this incarnation, however initially exciting, ultimately just comes off as wretched.