Cleavage 15 Gets Ya 20 Review
Cleavage
15 Gets Ya 20
FNA Records
2026
FNA Records’ most recent releases, “15 Gets Ya 20” and “XOXO,” are legitimate reissues of the Jersey Glam/Sleaze band Cleavage. The band was an offshoot of Hollywood Tease, which was the first Hard Rock band to be signed to the famed Rap label Sugar Hill Records. I’m not exactly sure what happened with the label, but it was going through some kind of transition or something along those lines, so leader/vocalist Larry Ganci started a side cover band with a group of guys he was producing. The band started getting popular pretty damn quickly and before long, they were writing their own material. From there, the whole thing just took on a life of its own.
To my understanding, Cleavage never landed a legitimate record deal, but since Larry produced and recorded the band in his own studio, they could record and release their own albums. That was one of the cool things about that era. If you had the songs, the equipment, the ambition and enough friends willing to help, you could make something happen without waiting for some suit in an office to tell you that you were good enough.
Like a lot of bands in the early ’90s, Cleavage eventually signed with a management firm and started generating a good bit of interest. Then the musical landscape changed almost overnight. Seattle came roaring in, the record industry suddenly decided that everything it had been selling six months earlier was yesterday’s news, and bands like Cleavage were left standing in the wreckage. Unfortunately, the band eventually called it a day, but all wasn’t lost. They had recorded a good bit of material, and thankfully that music didn’t disappear forever. Their story continues to live on, no matter how brief or small that chapter may have been.
Today we’re digging into “15 Gets Ya 20,” a 14-track release. I’m not sure how many of these tracks appeared on the first or second demo, as there’s really no mention of it. A lot of the tracks were the same, and I’m sure there are differences between the versions somewhere, but for the sake of not talking out of my ass, we’ll take it at face value.
This much I can tell you, though: those original demo releases are selling for some insane prices on the internet. With good reason, too. Cleavage was a legitimate band to be reckoned with.
The band had a great sound, and the recording and production quality are top-notch. This isn’t your typical Glam/Sleaze from that era either. It’s not exactly the stickiest of the sweet, nor is it loaded with ballads. There are at least two here, but that’s about it. And we’re not talking about total heartbreak and backseat love affairs either. These are more legitimate, life-oriented vibes.
Maybe that’s what happened with the band. Maybe the record execs were sitting around waiting for the next Poison or Crüe single that would turn into a giant pile of cash. To me, that was one of the biggest problems with the whole damn era. Every label and every executive seemed to be looking for that one magic ingredient they could slap on a band, throw on MTV, and hopefully turn into the next big thing. If you didn’t fit neatly into whatever box they were trying to sell that week, you were pretty much screwed. And that’s a damned shame.
The Poisons and Crües of the world absolutely had their place, and I love a lot of that stuff myself, but there was plenty of room for bands like Cleavage. There were dozens, probably hundreds, of bands out there playing clubs, making demos, pressing small runs of records and cassettes, loading their own gear into vans and chasing that same damn dream. Some made it. Most didn’t. Then the whole musical world changed, and an awful lot of those bands simply vanished. Thankfully, a lot of the recordings survived – thanks to labels like FNA we still get to hear them!
Sonically, Cleavage reminds me a lot of Kelly Nickels’ old band Sweet Pain, who released one album through Combat in 1985 and then disappeared. The band’s sound and approach also remind me of a grittier version of Wrathchild U.K. And while that might be a hard comparison for some people to hear, if you’ve listened to them as much as I have, you’ll hear it. There’s also a D’molls vibe here and there. Cleavage isn’t quite as sticky and sweet as D’molls were, but that flavor is definitely in the mix.
This is the kind of stuff that takes me right back to those late ’80s/early ’90s days when every record store seemed to have another cassette or CD from some band you’d never heard of, and you’d buy it because the cover looked cool as hell and hope like hell the music matched it. Sometimes you struck gold. Sometimes you spent ten bucks learning a valuable lesson. That was part of the fun.
Cleavage was loaded with talent. They had a great knack for writing catchy tunes, they knew their way around a hook, and the musicianship and technical ability are top tier. There’s no shortage of guitar riffage or lead breaks here, and that’s one of the most important factors in music like this. If your guitarist can’t rip off some insane solo work, you’re not going to get very far. Back then, you wanted those guitars to scream. You wanted the riffs, the hooks, the big choruses and the solos that made you grab your air guitar whether you wanted to admit it or not.
The lyrical content is typical for the era - sleazy, fun and carefree, and that’s the calling card of this kind of music. I’ll never tire of it, EVER. There’s something to be said about good times, hot girls, loud guitars and living life in the red. Maybe that’s not fashionable anymore, but it still matters to me. This is music from a time when being in a Rock band was still supposed to be fun.
That’s what I like about digging up releases like this. You get a little piece of a musical era that was swallowed up before a lot of these bands ever got their shot. Cleavage had the songs, the sound, the players and the attitude. They just happened to be standing in the wrong place when the musical train changed tracks.
This disc, along with “XOXO,” which we’ll talk about later, is once again readily available from FNA Records. They have fan packs, bundles, autographed editions and all sorts of other goodies available.
If you’re one of those old Glam/Sleaze guys who still gets a little nostalgic when you hear a screaming guitar, a big hook and a chorus that sounds like it belongs blasting out of the tape deck of a car with the windows down, you already know what to do. Pick ’em both up. You’ll be glad you did.
Standouts – “15 Gets Ya 20”, “It’s Not Goodbye Forever”, “Shake It For The Boyz” and “Blood And Wine”.