An Album You Should Know
Broken Homes — Self-titled debut — 1986
There are typically five ingredients for any musician or band to rise above the fray, regardless of genre: guitar, bass, drums, vocals, and talent.
Broken Homes had all five, tenfold.
I realize you’ve probably never heard of them.
But you should.
Los Angeles in the mid-80s was awash with hair metal bands. And every day cars and busses loaded with every half-wit to the right side of California getting dropped off on Sunset Blvd. to be a rock star… or any celebrity.
However, on the outskirts of the Aqua Net, Heavy Metal blight on Sunset Blvd were bands like X, Jason and the Scorchers, Lone Justice, The Unforgiven, and Broken Homes hammering out a different kind of sound.
These bands all had a sound rooted in more traditional rock and roll, rockabilly, country, and punk — some called it cowpunk, some called it roots rock, there are many things to call it. I call it rock, and it was more natural and honest than what was happening within the specter on the Sunset strip.
Unfortunately, that vortex of the Aqua Net set grew into a bona fide tornado that would run roughshod over the world for a few years — really until the Grunge revolt of the early 90s. In any…
