Review: GENE DANTE & THE FUTURE STARLETS 'We Are All Whores'

A Boston band with a history of glam rock excellence behind it, Gene Dante and the Future Starlets have released a new single, which stands on its own and is an example of changes to the music market.

As a friend who performed in theater with Dante some years ago, 'We Are All Whores' is much the man. Dante's sense of humor and commentary on society is a slashing attack from the opening chorus: "We are all whores behind closed doors, we get off when we're talked about..."

In your face production (with Dante's vocals front and center) and power chords make for a Bowie-esque ride. "If love is the drug, we're the disease..." The hooks, the sound, every damn bit of this song makes 'We Are All Whores' commercially viable, but for once it does not sound contrived, compressed and auto-tuned to death.

Hard to say this anymore about music, but for once the combination of lyric, music and production worked. Up next for the band is an IndieGoGo campaign in order to produce a video. Live shows are unlikely till April, as Dante has been cast as the lead in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, at the Umbrella Community Arts Center in Concord, Mass. (For more information, visit http://www.emersonumbrella.org/theater/current-season/bloody-bloody/)

Check out the band, live from the Radio Bar, Somerville, MA...

With two albums in their past, a runner-up finish in WBCN's Rock n' Rumble and a Best Male Vocalist Award (the latter two in 2009), Dante told me the band's shift is now to producing a single every other month. Whether a matter of time and logistics is not known, but this led me to wonder about the shift in the aforementioned market. Has it come 'round again?

Singles, the 45 (remember those?) used to drive the pop music market. It seems dated to talk about the rise of album rock in the Sixties, because you would like to think the aim of bands was to make uniformly good recordings. Even more so, to think of the 12" and extended singles, which gave rise to club DJ and production wizardry (or an ability to twist knobs and ask, "what's this thing do?").

Now the prevalence of file sharing, iTunes and Pandora make "the song" a matter of importance again. Does the single drive the market once more?

Whether or not, the ability for musicians to get their work out, without the need for a major label proves a big change. While numbers may not be as big in terms of sales, for some just getting the work out is the achievement.

--Tory Gates is a veteran radio personality, currently a reporter with Tango Traffic. He is the author of "Parasite Girls" a fiction novel available on Amazon.com and Smashwords.

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