Stepmothers

  • Stepmothers
  • Stepmothers EP (Posh Boy) 1981 
  • You Were Never My Age (Posh Boy) 1981 

Given their energy and general demeanor, Southern California’s Stepmothers might have been mistaken for a hardcore band except that musicianship and melody were the quartet’s watchwords. Led by ace guitarist and producer Jay Lansford and singer Steve Jones, who sounds like an American Billy Idol, the five-song EP has good tunes and some hot guitar solos mixed in with energetic speedrock.

You Were Never My Age reprises three of those tracks and adds five more Jones and/or Lansford compositions, as well as “To Sir with Love” and Kim Fowley’s “All the Kids on the Street,” all performed with abundant talent and steamy excitement. “If I Were You,” with a Jeff Beck-like riff and catchy, shoutalong chorus, is a fine example of what the Stepmothers were about.

Ex-Simpletone Lansford subsequently worked in the studio with CH3 and Agent Orange.

[Ira Robbins]