Their first gig was reputedly a backyard performance for some graduating Caltech students and was characterized by multiple costume changes and drum solos to flesh out their 15-minute set.
Jazz fusion guitarist John Goodsall of the progressive rock bands Atomic Rooster and Brand X was also briefly a member.
Triple X Records, founded in 1986 by Dean Naleway and Peter Heur, had developed a reputation for signing first wave hardcore bands like D.I.
Celebrity Skin joined a stable of other popular LA live acts, including Liquid Jesus, Inland Empires Funky Junkies, Pigmy Love Circus, the Ultras (formerly the Ultraviolets), on the Triple X label, and they would often perform with these bands.
(aka KORN), the Ultraviolets, Haunted Garage, Tender Fury, the Miracle Workers, Thelonious Monster, Steel Pole Bath Tub, and Babes In Toyland.
On December 4, 1991, Celebrity Skin played a show at the Shark Club in Hollywood with Pigmy Love Circus and the Saddletramps, ten days after the death of Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury.
These poor saps automatically all had to buy every record they saw s'long as the doods on the cover were rank lookin' longhairs with nose rings and they all bought the e.p.
only to feel infuriated, ashamed, and ripped-off by how un-macho Celebrity Skin was—and their Geza X-produced full-length on Triple X records confused the heartland's bleached denim-wearers even more.
These were the days when Jane's Addiction still elicited violent reactions from the farm towns, and Celebrity Skin's waggish and whimsical art-trash was just well beyond the Def Leppard and Bon Jovi weened, sheltered, programmed, milk-fed frames of reference.
The Celebrity's still unforgivable androgyny and bizarre sense of humor was even lost on many of my own stonewashed bros from way out, who just never fully appreciated that whole whacky, zany, west coast silly joke-rock vibe, a la the Dickies.
On October 6, 2007, all five members of Celebrity Skin reunited for the second annual LA Weekly Detour Music Festival in downtown Los Angeles and were enthusiastically received by the crowd; a number of videos of this performance (as well as a few from their heyday) are available on YouTube.
Their music also had elements of such first wave glam bands as Slade, David Bowie, T. Rex, and the New York Dolls; an early review by the LA Weekly stated that Celebrity Skin was "the only band in Hollywood to take seriously the music and styles of the original wave of glam rockers like Bowie Sparks, Gary Glitter, T. Rex, etc."
Another obvious musical antecedent was Redd Kross, one of the first L.A. bands to embrace the sound, themes, and images of 70s trash culture and combine them with the harder edge of punk rock.
A 1990 article in BAM described their sound as having "the quirkiness and strange time signatures of Sparks", "the multi-lead guitars of Lynyrd Skynyrd or Wishbone Ash", "the sheer punk rock energy/white noise of the Germs", and "a knack for hooks worthy of ABBA or KC and the Sunshine Band"; an article from BAM later in 1990 emphasized their "trademark Sparks-meet-Dickies-meet-Oingo Boingo sound".
At times, the band's songs transport you to a crowded beer hall in Düsseldorf, Germany, with packs of unruly Germans singing drunken anthems.
They also covered "Celluloid Heroes" by the Kinks, "Godstar" by Psychic TV, "Elo Kiddies" by Cheap Trick, and "To Sir With Love" by Lulu.
for their raucousness and entertainment value and mimicked the image and theatrics of 70s glam artists like Alice Cooper, Gary Glitter, Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie, and Slade.
Guns: 10/08/91 Toad's Palace, New Haven, Connecticut 10/09/91 CITI, Boston, Massachusetts 10/10/91 Derringers 10/12/91 Hammerjack's, Baltimore, Maryland 10/13/91 Shirley Acrews, Inwood, West Virginia 10/15/91 Bayou, Washington, D.C. 10/16/91 Character's, Greenville, South Carolina 10/17/91 Illusions, North Charleston, South Carolina 10/19/91 Cadillacs, Hickory, North Carolina 10/20/91 Masquerade, Atlanta, Georgia 10/21/91 Beacham Theatre, Orlando, Florida 10/23/91 Button South, Hallandale, Florida 10/25/91 Club Lavela, Panama City, Florida 10/26/91 TBA, New Orleans, Louisiana 10/31/91 Universal Amphitheater, Universal City, California 12/04/91 Shark Club show with Pigmy Love Circus, Saddletramps 12/13/91 Breakup announced in LA Weekly[18]