Fri, July 22, Faster Pussycat

Critics have long taken a biased stance against hair metal. Their contempt is understandable. Most of the hair-metal bands of the 1980s were aggressively lowbrow, with songs that appealed to the dumbest strain of rock fan. But Faster Pussycat was cut from a different cloth. Although this Los Angeles group never achieved the overexposure of their cohorts, tracks like 1989’s “House of Pain” (which describes a father-son relationship in peril) reveal a coy side. Maybe they learned something from touring with Motörhead in ’87. All these years later, the reunited Faster Pussycat is still in decent demand. 9426 Greenback Lane in Orangevale, www.fasterpussycat.com.