Well, to answer your second question first, Frontiers is a label who took the name of one of my favorite indie-rock labels as a kid (home to paisley underground icons Three O'Clock and the most underrated alt country band on the planet E.I.E.I.O.), added an "s" and start signing over-the-hill metal bands. Turns out there's such a "melodic rock" following throughout the rest of the world that a label like Frontiers has been doing bang-up business and signing more and more big-name bands.
Their recent roster reads like a Who's Who of '70s classic rock and '80s pop metal: Journey, Styx, Boston, Toto, Survivor, Whitesnake, and literally hundreds more.
Now you can add Starz to that venerable list of legends as the band has inked a deal with the label and plan on releasing a new studio album this summer.
Starz, best known for their late '70s ballad "Cherry Baby" - a song that pigeon-holed them as a soft-rock band - were managed by Kiss's manager, Bill Aucoin, and signed to Capitol Records. Biggest manager in the world (at the time), best rock label in America (to this day)... should have been a slam-dunk, right? Wrong.
Despite the golden pipes of maniacal lyricist ("she reached over and she squeezed on my rocks/I lost it all in the popcorn box") and natural-born front man Michael Lee Smith, guitar hero shoulda-been Richie Ranno, and the best damn drummer you've never heard of Joe X. Dube, the band took four mighty runs at the windmill and came up empty.
By '78 they'd disbanded, but their albums remained influential to hard rockers, ranging from Bon Jovi to Motley Crue and the Wildhearts, who have gone out of their way to sing the praises of Starz in the press over the years.
The band recently reunited and are in the midst of select European dates, with an eye on more extensive touring once the album hits the streets. In the meantime, there are five handsome rocker dudes and four stellar Capitol albums just dying to lick your earholes.