Music of the Day: The Hollywood Stars - Still Around

While they never earned more than a tiny cult following outside their home state of California, the Hollywood Stars became heroes to glam and power pop fans with their tight, hooky, guitar-driven music, which emerged at a time when prog rock and singer/songwriters were dominating the rock scene. The sole album they released during their heyday, 1977's Hollywood Stars, was an overcooked disappointment with too much polish and not enough punch. But a pair of post-breakup collections of unreleased material, Shine Like a Radio: The Lost 1974 Album and Sound City, captured the band's sound with fewer frills and revealed them to be a tough but tuneful rock band with a confident guitar attack, strong melodic hooks, and expert harmonies that didn't blunt their swagger. Their style and approach wouldn't have been out of place in the West Coast new wave pop boom that swept the city just two years after their album came and went.