Search - Extra Fancy :: Sinnerman

The Most Important Album of 1996.....

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 10/03/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...And within 8 weeks of having their album released, the clueless bums at Atlantic records dropped Extra Fancy from their roster. This was right after Atlantic had begun a much ballyhooed "gay marketing division" and had signed the Pet Shop Boys and a few other gay friendly acts. They had also made news by signing Extra Fancy from Los Angeles, featuring aggressively gay HIV positive frontman Brian Grillo and his three hard rocking straight band mates. Extra Fancy had more in common with Pearl Jam and Judas Priest than Pet Shop Boys or Village People. In "Sinnerman," they created a document that confronted life and love in the age of AIDS ("Seven Years Ago" could have been another "Under The Bridge" is radio had only gotten hold of it), closeted love affairs and gay bashing, and it booted major butt. They even take a traditional blues classic (the title cut) and rock the tar off it.



The confusion of having near universal praise only to get the door slammed almost immediately broke the band up soon after their dismissal from Atlantic. Mark my words, around 2010 there will be a lot of gay men who will say that, as confused gay teens in mid nineties, Extra Fancy was the band that gave them an identity and turned their lives around. "Sinnerman" offers red-hot listening on what will eventually be seen as the most influential one album band of the 90's. Get "Sinnerman" (and if you can find it, their "No Mercy" EP) now before you're forced to search for it like those early Velvet Underground records."