Style: glam grease lightening
Line-Up: Dale Martindale (lead vocals); Sean Kelly (guitar, vocals); Craig McConnell (bass, keyboards, vocals); Chris Lamont (drums, percussion)
Contact: 1005-3266 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4N 3P6 (416) 698-2080, FAX (416) 698-5836.

On Mania!, 69 Duster has a roaring punk edge and touch of glam – and an ability to laugh at this rock ‘n’ roll circus, evident by the album’s splashy cover art. There, Dale Martindale, the former singer of Images In Vogue (one of Canada’s best-selling pop acts of the ’80s) appears wearing white shades, white silky kerchief and white furry boa. He used to dye his hair black and cake on the eye liner, and his achy-pop voice once mirrored Robert Smith’s, but now he’s not mirroring anyone. Named after a cheesy muscle car, 69 Duster just rips out of the parking lot like its namesake, exhaust fumes wafting and tires burning, chrome hub caps sparkling. That’s Mania!’s mix of punk and glam. “Dead” is all that and more. While most of the album tracks rock with intensity (“Start To Crawl”, “TV 101″), “If I Looked At The World” adds some New Wave keyboards to its fuel injection system. The one true stand-out cut is “Candy Girl”, which starts off cool and dark, followed briefly by luscious harmonies and an obscenely breathy sung “candy girl”, before the song explodes, then, of course, subsides again. Produced by band members Craig McConnell and Sean Kelly, and engineered and mixed by Tim Branton and McConnell, Mania! was recorded, mixed and mastered at Greenpail Productions.

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