IF, IN 1989, you'd wanted to bet your house on a band becomin' BIG,then The Throbs would have been the obvious choice. Rising up from the gutters of lower Manhattan, these four musicians came together to prise rock'n'roll from the cold dead clutches of corporate strangulation. That they didn't entirely succeed is not the point; that they (nearly) died trying, very much is... Drawing inspiration from The Stones, The Dolls and The Underground (Rolling, New York and Velvet, respectively), The Throbs specialised in spiking old-fashioned rock'n'roll with liberal helpings of psychedelia; their hair piled high, their paisley shirts slashed to the waist, and wearing enough mascara to paint the town black, they were the perfect (drinking) partners for a city short on sleep. Once under the wing of studio veteran Bob Ezrin (Kiss, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd), they set about cutting their one and only album in what sounds like a hash-filled Turkish harem, with sitars & baglamas giving exotic support to the deeply rock'n' roll guitars. What's more, critics - on both sides of the Atlantic - were quick to heap praise on the results, hailing The Throbs as the 'new Guns N'Roses'; however, the band's untempered enjoyment of the rock star lifestyle would ultimately lead to friction with their label (Geffen) and a premature demise.