L.A.’s Zolar X were space rockers, but not in the angel dust-and-feedback way we normally consider bands who operate under that label; they went to extraordinary lengths to convince audiences that they were actually from outer space. And they certainly made a good case for it with their stage appearance – white makeup, unpronounceable names, Spock haircuts, and antennae (which they wore 24-7, by the way – and preoccupation with interplanetary love, test tube babies, and gravity-free rock and roll in their lyrics. Musically, they melded the gleaming glam of Sweet with the power pop of Cheap Trick and the speedfreak garage whomp of the Dead Boys – all of which added up to a great big who cares for Hollywood audiences circa ’72-’81, which consistently shifted its interest to the exact opposite of what Zolar X was selling (disco, pop metal, hardcore punk, singer-songwriter dreck). The fact that the band’s line-up changed repeatedly during this period didn’t help matters, nor did the flakiness of frontman Zory Zenith, whose personality “quirks” blew the band’s chance to sign with KISS manager Bill Aucoin (and, as the CD liner notes aptly put it, we got Angel instead).

But as anyone involved with rock and roll will tell you, complete and utter failure rarely spells the end for a band with a great gimmick, even one that faced as much indifference as Zolar X, and Alternative Tentacles seems to have provided the band with its second act with this compilation of songs culled from sessions between 1976 and 1980. Suffice it to say that anyone with even a passing interest in glampop, both past (T. Rex, Dolls) and present (Scissor Sisters, Darkness), should get pulled into Zolar X’s orbit whole-heartedly; Zory Zenith’s voice shimmers and slides on a dancefloor built from the purest helium, guitarist Ygarr Yggarist fires off fat, hooky, sonic sex rays, and the songs work perfectly as straight-faced rockers and total goofs, so don’t feel bad about giggling over “I Pulled My Helmet Off (I’m Going To Love Her)" or for transforming your living room into the bridge of the Starship Crotch Rocket for the epic, 16-minute “Plutonian Elf Story.” It’s pretty much everything you’ve loved about glam rock (Big, Dumb, Loud, Insanely Catchy), mixed with all the space-themed porno detritus and fragments of Saturday morning cartoons floating around in your head and whipped into a thick, frosty, psycho-cosmic McFlurry for your earhole. Yummy, to be sure.

Oh, and if you’re regretting the fact that you were born 25 years too late to catch Zolar X live, fret not, space ace – the success of this CD has prompted the band (minus Zory, who’s currently serving a seven-year sentence for assault -- !) to strap on the antennae once again and hit the road to zolarize a whole new generation of hu-mans. For info on the imminent invasion, check out http://www.geocities.com/zolarx1.