(Star Blue TV)

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LA filmmaker? Sleaze-rocker? Vamp visionary?

Roxy Saint is all this and more. In spite of her affected name, which would be better-suited to a Metal Sludge gossip-board ranter, Miss Saint has something to offer. She’s keen to tell you all about it… and show you what she’s got.

New Wave retro cool, LA glammo sleaze-rock, with Boss Super Over-Drive distortion pedal to the floor, Roxy Saint is a singer who sounds somewhat like Wendy James from Transvision Vamp having girl-sex with a jaded and bored Tanya Donnelly (Belly) or maybe just the sluttier sister of Melissa Auf der Maur. “Whatever. Yeah-Yeah Whatever.” Roxy sings and talks over her songs like she’s negotiating the per-hour fee to piss on you. I don’t know about this chick. Dirty, dirty, dirty. All squealing and sounding like a Beverly Hills rich bitch on a Halcyon and vodka bender… who hates her parents and likes hanging out at Dragonfly. Roxy whips up a ruckus all by her evil little self.

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This whole thing is part record, and part movie. In fact it’s so very Less Than Zero. The disc offers both songs and film between songs. She’s a weird chick, I’ll grant you: but there’s something terribly captivating here. Roxy parades around in all manner of outfits and talks to the camera, interviews weird LA characters, and some of the songs are out-and-out videos with a band, while others are just videos of Roxy. She has some collaboration with the Queens of the Stone Age guys, but they might as well be The Flintstones: this is about Roxy Saint. It’s cool, maybe cooler if you’re baked, I don’t know. Visually compelling, and filled with 3-chord songs so fuzzed out you keep checking your audio equipment to see if the equalizer is fucked-up. But then you start to feel like it’s a put-on. Maybe this is her Master’s Thesis in Artistic Expression in Post-Millennium Los Angeles. I honestly have no idea. Most of the time you just think, “I would pay to see this chick beat the shit out of Courtney Love!”

The songs are pretty cool though. There’s shades of the ‘90s “riot grrl” influence all over this, as much as she forges some new territory in the category of girls who want to be and fuck David Bowie. The standouts here are: “Rebel” is awesome, sounds like L7. “Firecracker” would be the radio single, if anyone is A&Ring this record. “Whatever”… this one is for the mixtapes: kinda like a dirty Jane Wiedlin. ”Dark Dust Seed”… catchy little number. “Ours” is pure LA Guns, and no one can tell me differently.

There is a cover of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” that doesn’t really captivate as much as it ought to. Hard to top the original, or even Sid Vicious’ version, it doesn’t feel as raw with Roxy singing it. Her originals are much more exciting and worth checking out. Throw it on and turn your living room into a sleazy LA rock bar.

I don’t know if it’s art… but I like it.

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