The music industry as we once knew it was a cruel and fickle beast, often pushing mediocre (but pliable) artists while suppressing great (but more unpredictable) ones.
Which is to say that corruption was endemic, and robbed the average listener of a lot of great songs that could have become part of their life's soundtrack.
I aim to correct that with this new series, that will present you with some insanely great songs you may have been deprived of, served up in easily digestible portions.
This was an insanely great song from a band that never got their due, though I can't quite figure why.
Were Interview too Genesis for the New Wave crowd and too New Wave for the Genesis crowd? I can't say, but "Adventurers" captures the fleeting, fragile hope and glory of youth like few others.
I hope one day to hear a remastered version of it because as wonderful as it is based on these old vinyl rips, I bet it would be positively transcendent in a higher fidelity form.
The Alley Cats were one of hundreds of punk bands who got swept away when the hardcore tsunami hit the scene in 1980 and got punk banned from the clubs. This stormer captures the pure rush of early punk, all the weird angles and dark forms that pop punk would bury.
The song positively reeks of the night, drugs and illicit sex, thanks to Randy Stodola's killer riff and Dianne Chai's sultry vocal, a husband-and-wife team like the better-known X.
Polyrock were contenders for the "Next Talking Heads" crown, and even caught the attention of Philip Glass, who produced their two LPs. Not sure why they weren't bigger than they were -- at least on the New Wave scene -- but they'd have a powerful (if not foundational) influence on the early Stereolab.
If you think I'm exaggerating, listen to "Your Dragging Feet," which sounds exactly like at least half the tracks on Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements.
Sheffield's Comsat Angels seemed to have been cursed from birth, despite all the insanely great songs they blessed the world with. They had their influential fans - Robert Palmer and Mark Kermode among them - but also had some truly lousy luck.
And maybe some bad judgment - this song would have been a smash in 1983 had it not been stuck on the b-side of a solid if not unspectacular single. It certainly was a smash a year or so later when it was rewritten by The Commodores as "Nightshift."
The Comsats were also one of the many bands working the same vein that U2 would take to the bank, with no small amount of help from producer Steve Lillywhite.
These nice Jersey boys got lost in the parade of earnest rock bands that arose after the collapse of grunge. I had first heard this album while browsing the late, lamented Compact Disc World, and this particular song was the one that finally sent me home with it.
Fossil were managed by CBGB owner Hilly Krystal, but were probably a bit too 80s for the 90s, if not even too 70s. Which is why I love this album - it's got a bunch of real songs with real melodies, in contrast to metered whining. Those songs are then served up with some solid playing and Beach Boys/Queen-tier vocal harmonies on the choruses, which no one else was doing at the time.
Except the equally-overlooked Jellyfish, that is (we'll get to them later).
Zola Jesus is almost as overlooked as she is insanely talented. She had a bit of a vogue back when Hot Topic ruled the junior high schools, but has struggled at the margins ever since.
Which is a shame, because she's probably the only person who worships "The Spangle Maker" as much as myself. Probably more so, since she's used it as the template for so many great songs of her own.
This tune bridges the gap between "The Spangle Maker" and "Kashmir," playing up both the Wagnerian feel of the former (which gets overshadowed by Elizabeth's open-veined wailing), and the cinematic scope of the latter.
Until next time, give these a few spins and let their magic overcome you.
In the interim...
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