Really, Beat Angels’ music was a celebration of the lost, both real and metaphorical. Inspired by his own life and writers like David Goodis and Harry Crews, chief songwriter and frontman Brian Smith penned odes to the overlooked, the beaten and the busted—beautiful losers, strippers, addicts, drunks, with no shortage of self-mockery. A send-up of macho posturing and real sadness hummed beneath three-minute punk bubblegum bursts—literate, loser-poet lines riding power chords, singsong choruses, and sugar harmonies.
The Phoenix-based band featured three from Gentlemen Afterdark—drummer Jon Norwood, four-stringer Kevin Pate, and Smith—alongside ex–Motorcycle Boy guitar hero Michael Brooks. That quartet scored a Columbia demo deal in late ’93 before setting foot onstage—their early 8-track demos that good. Columbia brass pegged the band too pop, save from super-supportive A&R man Benji Gordon (who signed Soul Asylum).
Glass Heroes punk traditionalist E. Keith Jackson arrived in early ’94, his relentless down-stroking guitar locking the songs in.
In the early ’90s, “pop” was a dirty word. Grunge’s overt machismo had kicked the Sunset Strip’s jocks-in-eyeliner chart hogs to the trash heap, and the spindly Beat Angels—40s of King Cobra and Faces power shags—were a direct reaction. They loathed both grunge and the Strip. Their particular sing-along din spilled over with sexual tension and insane live shows, finger pistols aimed at T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, Badfinger, the Beatles and Buzzcocks.
Some got it. Album Network called them one of the best live bands on earth. Guitar slinger Gilby Clarke (Guns N’ Roses, Candy, Nancy Sinatra) did too, producing the band’s two albums—’96’s Unhappy Hour and ’97’s Red Badge of Discourage—and saying guitarists Michael Brooks and Jackson “are like having Johnny Ramone and George Harrison in the same band, with one of the best frontmen in rock ’n’ roll.”
The quintet won over just about any crowd—from nerdy power-pop festivals to supporting Weezer to opening for Alice Cooper and the Scorpions. Hell, they once backed Tiny Tim for a show. SXSW? Standing room only, lines out the door, nobody leaving.
BA’s two albums drew glowing press, especially in Sweden and Finland, where “Keep It Up,” “Too Much Jazz” and “Grow Up” earned steady radio and club play. Sweden’s Sound Affects wrote, “Beat Angels’ songs are pure hits, each and every one.” Fan letters floated in from Japan, too.
Countless heartbreaks dwarfed the one or two lucky breaks. Pate’s derailing addictions forced him out—Tommy Caradonna (Lita Ford, Alice Cooper) in for the second album—before Pate sobered his way back. Gifted drummer Norwood died young after the debut and one tour, Frankie Hanyak stepping in after him.
A third album, helmed by Gilby Clarke and recorded between ’99 and ’02—The Gutter Snobs—finally surfaced on limited-edition vinyl via Drastic Plastic in 2023.
– Liner notes by Brian Jabas Smith
