a Stiletto Ghetto Listening Session

Year : 2011 to present
Genre : Rock with an Experimental Pop curiosity
Label : Digital Nations
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <

This review starts out with an informative data snippet originating from the band's official biography.

"Stiletto Ghetto founded in San Francisco by Louis Raphael (drums, producer and co-writer) in 2011 employs a rotating cast of backing musicians and vocalists to complete live and studio lineups. Influenced by everything from Aretha Franklin to Guns N’ Roses, the group painstakingly crafts songs with a refreshing vibe while combining their collective inspiration into a distilled, potent rock potion.

Capable of playing everything from drums and percussion to horns and keys, they handle everything including writing and producing Stiletto Ghetto’s music, ensuring the final product is truly their own. By 2011, Stiletto Ghetto caught the ear of guitar legend Steve Vai and landed on his Digital Nations label, releasing Tendernob Hillbillies the same year. Featuring 6 prime cuts of Stiletto Ghetto’s unmistakable 80s-influenced funky rock, word quickly spread throughout Northern California, earning them a spot on the main stage alongside Linda Perry and Sandra Bernhard during the 2011 San Francisco Pride Parade in front of 100,000 attendees."

Quotation ends. Read on to know more about my personal impressions based on the songs that are available on Stiletto Ghetto's SoundCloud.

Stiletto Ghetto's premiere gravitational pull is reliant on two major contributive factors, none of which you could substitute with anything else: the group combines crafty, massively hook-driven songwriting with punchy female lead singing that truly reigns in the uppermost echelons, and could only be compared to the most powerful lady throats of all times. As far as mere sonic punching power is concerned, Anne Wilson comes to mind, and one could hardly offer a more avid-, YET serious compliment/comparison.

While the ensemble modestly considers itself "classic rock" on paper, they certainly can be fruitfully wrong in their modesty, since, as indicated in the genre description, the band steadily cultivates the supreme heritage of fellow San Fransisco based ultragroup Faith No More by exhibiting a similarly experimental tendency, and I dare say that from time to time the female lead singing herein registers as a splendid female variant of FNM vocalist Mike Patton - check out the Stiletto Ghetto song called "Upside Down" -my personal favorite of the band so far - as an example of this tremendous Faith No More effect. The whole track reeks top tier elbow pumping disco power, toppled by remarkably soulful and hefty - and all the while female to the core - chick singing that pulls you through emotions you just assumed to be existent, and it is nice to be immersed in them thoroughly for a change.

Stiletto Ghetto is fervent at covering their personal favorites. Metallica, Aerosmith (with Run DMC, yo!) and other rock/metal notabilities get their shares of coverages, and the results are interesting enough, considering that the originals are performed by males. The band's genuine material-pool already has a depth formidable enough to warrant a place to form your impressions on with a solid footing, - antipun 2.0 intended - and, provided that the group proves to be consistent at delivering this rigorous quality through the combination of classic rock and pimp-power melodic disco - a very elegant and thrilling combination - then the formation certainly will produce a debut LP which you can't evade while planning to propagate your meticulously researched serious face. The band certainly brings something special when they decide to collide the classic rock vibes with the consensus peak moments of historic/melodic disco intricacies, but do not assume child play here - assume those timelessly badass/restless songs, like "She's a Maniac", or "Right Combination" from the Scarface soundtrack. The sad (?) facts are, that those songs are ballsier than most recent black metal albums are. A proper music lover with a taste worth calling one would not at all mind being stabbed by such a stiletto. It would be a decent start, and you finally would start to feel a thing.

Check out the band's work at their official SoundCloud - > here.

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