Although Bang Tango was often lumped in with the whole 80's glam metal movement (perhaps due to their pretty-boy looks and the fact that they hailed from Los Angeles), the hard-rockin' quintet was one a few L.A. glam groups to incorporate funk into its sound - around the same time as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More made it acceptable to do so. Their line up consisted of Joe Leste' (Vocals), Kyle Stevens (Guitar), Mark Knight (Guitar), Kyle Kyle (Bass), and Tigg Ketler (Drums), and piqued the interest of Mechanic/MCA shortly after the quintet issued their first in-concert recordings, Live Injection, in 1987. Their major-label debut, Psyco Cafe, was issued in 1989, and despite MTV's Headbangers Ball program giving some air time to their single "Someone Like You", the album failed to break the band into the big time.
The group cintinued to issue albums during the early part of the 90's - 1991 Dancin' On Coals, 1992s Ain't No Jive...Live! and 1994's Love After Death. But, with the emergence of grunge, bands like Bang Tango became passe with most of the metal community. The band broke up shortly thereafter, with bassist, Kyle joining former Faster Pussycat front man Tamie Down's industrial project, the Newlydeads. In 1998 Kyle and Leste' resurrected the Bang Tango name for the 1998 release Live (on Cleopatra label). A best-of compliation, Greatest Tricks, saw the light of day in 1999, as did Untied and Live the same year. In 2000, Leste' formed a more modern-sounding alt-metal outfit, Beautiful Creatures, issuing a self-titled debut the same year on Warner Bros., and toured as part of Ozzfest.
Bang Tango has produced two studio albums this decade, the 2004 Ready To Go and the 2006 From The Hip. Current line-up is Joe Leste' (Vocals), Alex Grossi (Guitar), Anthony Focx (Guitar), Lance Eric (Bass) and Timmy Russell (Drums).
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