Hollywood Stars- Sound City CD.  The Hollywood Stars are one of those unlucky, seemingly cursed bands around whom an amazing cult status has grown over the years. Formed in 1973 by manic rock hustler and dealmaker Kim Fowley as a pre-Runaways side project, the band was meant to be the West Coast’s answer to the New York Dolls.  Fowley stole the name from a local minor league baseball team and originally offered it to singer Shaun Cassidy and his backing band, who turned it down. Undaunted, he then recruited a handful of young heartthrob musicians to be in the Hollywood Stars, including his $5-a-day chauffeur Mark Anthony as guitarist and co-songwriter. The band looked more like a tanned Arrows than the New York Dolls and sounded like a power pop the Sweet. The locals loved them. Although Fowley managed to get the Stars signed to Columbia Records and hyped them to the heavens and beyond, the first line-up of the band broke up after less than a year, just after a triumphant gig at the Whisky A Go Go with Iggy Pop and John Lennon in the audience. They did record a rough mix of their debut album, 'Shine Like a Radio', in 1974 for Columbia before being abruptly dropped by the label. Fowley blamed problems with the producer, engineers, and label executives. The band reformed with a slightly different second line-up, which now featured Mark Anthony as singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist, and recorded their second album, 'Sound City' in 1976. That project was also shelved until now when it's finally being released after all these years. The sound quality is excellent due to it being recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. The heavy, glittery songs co-written by Anthony and Fowley are by far the best of the ten tracks, including an early versions of 'Escape' written by the Hollywood Stars and later covered by Alice Cooper.