RIP EMF's Derry Brownson

[www.nme.com]

"The news of Brownson’s passing comes as the band revealed recently that they were wrapping up work on a new 14-song album earlier this summer."

Well, I'm sorry to hear of his passing, but I despise "Unbelievable" and have gone out of my way to avoid hearing anything else they have ever done.

The TP review of the band is slightly less condemning than I remember, but it confirms that I don't need to hear anything else. And I actually could have sworn that an earlier version of that entry said something along the lines of "the name stands for Ecstasy Motherfuckers, but there's very little ecstasy to be had from these motherfuckers." Bring that review back!!!

Wow ... strange to see that group's name pop up, since I haven't given them a thought in ages. I never did hate "Unbelievable," but it never sparked me to investigate anything further by the band ... even though I could have picked up a copy for next to nothing, any time I liked, for next to nothing. I used to see multiple copies of Schubert Dip in the used CD bin, all through the Nineties, in any secondhand music store I would visit. I don't remember ever reading any review of the album, to get a clue as to whether it's any good ... but of course, any album that shows up in the used bins in such quantities has probably reviewed itself.

Oh well ... rest in peace, Mr Brownson.

I guess I'm the one guy who really liked '"Unbelievable." A modern "Louie Louie"-like rocker, even kinda had similar chord changes. But with hiphop-y sonic gimmicks thrown in. Pretty fresh for its time.

No, I never explored further, but with bubblegum, or most of those '60s garage bands, do you really need their whole album?

I’m with you Fab, I never hated their big hit. I thought they and Jesus jones were on to something potentially big…

… but it wasn’t to be. Grunge killed this type of music off (the silent victim) along with the much-discussed death of hair metal.

( I will admit that the more you heard ‘unbelievable’, the more annoying it would probably be. I’m guessing its detractors probably wore out their Cass-single of the track before souring on it!!!)

I'm also of the school of liking "Unbelievable" just fine but never being the least bit tempted to pick up Schubert Dip as a result. Just one of those bands like their contemporaries Jesus Jones where I was happy enough that music of that ilk was doing well on the charts, but not so happy I was going to spend money on it.

Maybe the thing most people would find unbelievable is the fact that EMF were not technically a one hit wonder in the U.S. Their song "Lies" also made it into the top 20, although I couldn't tell you if I ever actually heard it, even though I was working in an office where the top 40 station was on all day during that era. I doubt that I'd be too far off the mark if I assumed that "Lies" was likely close to indistinguishable from "Unbelievable," but that's just a guess.

Jesus Jones, to us, was in a different league from EMF ... mainly because EMF had just one single we heard that was okay, whereas Jesus Jones had a lot of songs that we liked quite a bit. Their album Doubt, to us, was almost like a greatest-hits album of all new material. There's much more to that disc than just the singles. The follow-up album, Perverse, was more of a singles-plus-filler release, but those singles still sounded great to us. We saw them on that tour, at the Paramount Theater in Denver in 1992, with the Stereo MC's opening. That was one great show; Jesus Jones was a very energetic band on stage.

I had tickets to see Jesus Jones on their US tour but those were bought because Soho were supposed to be the opening act. But as the US tour finally happened, Soho were off the tour so I passed on seeing Jesus Jones even thought I had tickets in hand. I thought they were a flash in the pan, albeit better than EMF! Of all of the late 80s SamplerRock bands the one I liked and can still enjoy to this day were Happyhead. Their "Give Happyhead" album brought Carl Marsh's post-Shriekback A-level game to the table at the very least. And "Digital Love Thing" should have been a massive 3:00 hit single in that environment.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
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