Cries from the Quiet World: War Babies "War Babies (Japan, Sony Records Japan, SRCS-5873)"

sábado, 23 de noviembre de 2024

War Babies "War Babies (Japan, Sony Records Japan, SRCS-5873)"

War Babies was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1988, fronted by former TKO vocalist Brad Sinsel. Although associated with hard rock, the band's sound incorporated some elements of grunge music. They only released one album, in 1992, the self-titled War Babies.

After the break-up of TKO, vocalist Brad Sinsel and guitarist Rick Pierce (ex-TKO, Q5, Ze Whiz Kidz) teamed up for a project called Suicide Squad, aided by Seattle drummer, Richard Stuverud who had played with punk rock band, The Fastbacks, and was working with the power metal band Fifth Angel. Suicide Squad released the one-off album, Live it While You Can, (1988), an EP engineered by Jack Endino, on the Music For Nations label in Europe.

After Suicide Squad, Sinsel spent time in Los Angeles but was eventually contacted by Stuverud to check out his new band, War Babies with guitarist, Tommy 'Gunn' McMullin. Stuverud and McMullin persuaded Sinsel to join War Babies and the band began to gig around the Seattle area, playing with popular local bands such as Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and others. In 1990, at the time of Andrew Wood's death and the end of Mother Love Bone, Jeff Ament joined War Babies for a brief period before he left to join Stone Gossard's new band, Pearl Jam.

War Babies, featuring the line-up of Brad Sinsel (vocals), Tommy "Gunn" McMullin (guitars), Guy Lacey (guitars), Shawn Trotter (bass), and Richard Stuverud (drums) scored a contract with Columbia Records in 1991. They recorded their debut album, War Babies (1992) at A&M Studios in Hollywood, CA with noted producer, Thom Panunzio and engineer, Bill Kennedy. Their first single and MTV video, "Hang Me Up", was co-written by McMullin and Paul Stanley of Kiss. Two other singles were released, "Blue Tomorrow" (a song dedicated to Andrew Wood, who was a friend of Sinsel and McMullin's), and the power ballad, "Cry Yourself to Sleep", co-written by Sinsel and Stanley. The song "In The Wind" can be heard in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer but was not included on the official soundtrack.

By 1993, the War Babies' sound was deemed too glam metal, and the band broke up. They played their last show on June 6, 1992, as part of the "Rock the Environment" benefit with headliners Queensrÿche, Heart, The Walkabouts, Metal Church, Bananafish, and Rumors of the Big Wave, among others.

War Babies was re-issued by German label UlfTone Music in 2003 and French company Bad Reputation in 2007; both contain radio edits of "Hang Me Up" and "Cry Yourself to Sleep" and an alternate 'guitar version' of the latter as bonus tracks.

War Babies is the only album by the band War Babies, who disbanded in 1993. The album was released by Columbia Records in 1991 and re-issued by German label UlfTone Music in 2003 and French company Bad Reputation in 2007.

The album produced three singles, "Hang Me Up" (co-written by Tommy McMullin and Paul Stanley), "Cry Yourself to Sleep" (co-written by Brad Sinsel and Stanley), and "Blue Tomorrow" (a song dedicated to Andrew Wood from Mother Love Bone, who overdosed two years earlier). In addition, the song "In the Wind" is featured in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sinsel later commented about his writing session with Stanley, calling him, "one of the biggest egomaniacs I have ever come across in my career. He was rude and disrespectful and at some point, I'm playing (TKO's) "Kill the Pain" while we're warming up. So, he says, "I'm going to start playing some stuff and you just tell me if you hear anything". What came out of it was just "Kill the Pain" backwards. At some point he goes, "how about in this part we do blah, blah, blah" and it was off of Love Gun. By now I've had enough of his remarks and I just looked at him and said, "look, it's not like I'm like Tommy [McMullin]" and he says, "what do you mean?" and I said, "it's not like I own a KISS doll, or something."

Track listing