Fervent young Germans with a love for English-speaking bands, Plan B have emerged from the shadows of heavies like U2 and the Clash to become solid rockers in their own right. The quintet’s debut EP is marked by good intentions and an obvious delight at being able to create a ruckus: “Gimme the Reason” is…
Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Snatches of Pink played a tasty blend of Stones raunch and punk insistence, well- crafted tunes delivered with jackhammer finesse on its debut, Send in the Clowns. Singer Andy McMillan is a young good-ol’-boy with an aching twang stuck in his throat, spurred to spill his guts by Michael Rank’s barbed…
For the record, Icehouse began as Flowers. For its first Anglo-American album release, the Sydney, Australia band renamed itself after the title of the Flowers LP, subtracted one cut, remixed and resequenced it. Icehouse’s debut LP effectively mates emotional tension with the streamlined efficiency of modern synthesizer outfits. “Icehouse” and “Can’t Help Myself,” in particular,…
The look of a sensitive young Elvis…moody, atmospheric tunes…sweet, brooding vocals…heaps of twangy guitar. Chris Isaak has his shtick down cold, that’s for sure. Happily, this retro package offers more than selfconscious imagery: he walks the tightrope stretched between irony and sincerity as well as anyone. At his best, Isaak summons up the deep hurt…
Signed to an unhip label, London cut one lone LP without a proper producer, yet still earned posthumous notoriety when drummer Jon Moss, following stints in the Damned and other bands, surfaced in Culture Club. For London’s part, maybe a producer could have sorted out the confusion that dominates Animal Games — an angry Pistols/Who…
Although Raleigh, North Carolina’s Dish and Motocaster share singer/guitarist Bo Taylor, neither band is a side project. Motocaster, a noisy trio formerly known as Motorolla, serves as the outlet for Taylor’s ruder self, while in Dish he plays a strong second banana to singer/pianist Dana Kletter, tempering her chamber-pop tendencies with a ragged, soulful edge.…
Singer Marc Almond and keyboardist David Ball performed a minor miracle in 1981, taking an obscure soul song and turning it into a most atypical synthesizer tune, coming up in the process with a worldwide smash hit that rode Billboard‘s chart for almost a year. “Tainted Love” (written by Ed Cobb but known in its…
“Imperfect records for an imperfect world” proclaims the back cover of Compare and Decide, an indication of the solemnity that Loyd and Neal Grossman bring to their work: they’d probably be offended if anyone dared take them seriously. The Massachusetts duo turns terminal Anglophilia into an asset: Loyd sings like a charmingly inebriated Ray Davies,…
Like Joy Division and the Cure, Sheffield’s Comsat Angels mastered the art of atmospherics; only nominally involved in rock’n’roll at the outset, they were actually interested in creating haunting mood music. Firm beats play against melancholy melodies and hushed vocals to create the impression of eavesdropping on someone’s inner turmoil, an approach which is morosely…
Since the shuttering of San Franciscan political punk provocateurs Dead Kennedys in the late ’80s, Jello Biafra (the onetime Eric Boucher of Boulder, Colorado) has continued to ply his prankster-cum-missionary trade with spoken-word records and numerous intriguing musical collaborations. Until he was set upon by skinheads and seriously injured in the fabled East Bay 924…
Led by guitarists Kim Kane and Marshall Keith, Washington, DC’s Slickee Boys have been scene stalwarts for a decade and a half; through a series of lineups they developed from a punky rock’n’roll band with an affection for classic English forebears into a far more individualistic and distinctly American band with their own ideas. Featuring…
And slam they do! When this breathless Midwestern quintet thanks the Damned in the liner notes, they aren’t kidding: their rip-snorting platter has the careening, free-for-all edge of those zany punk pioneers. It’s buzzy fun with a message: “Won’t Sell Out” champions integrity, while “It’s Alright to Show You CARE” proves the Watusis aren’t blank…
Under the innocuous name of Chrome, two San Franciscans — Damon Edge (vocals, synths, etc.) and Helios Creed (vocals, guitar, etc.), with part-time rhythm-section assistance by the Stench brothers of Pearl Harbor’s band — created an often awesome series of pre-industrial LPs that explore a dark state of mind only hinted at by ’60s psychedelia.…
Martha and the Muffins were originally clever amateurs who had fun fooling around with music in Toronto. However, the subtly catchy “Echo Beach” made them chart stars in the UK and brought their days of leisure to an abrupt halt. A minor miracle of this slick age, Metro Music captures a mild-mannered, unpretentious group at…
For an example of shifting perceptions, consider the Cars. When their debut LP appeared in 1978, the Boston quintet was tagged as a prime commercial and critical prospect of the emerging post-punk phenomenon called new wave. In other words, they were cool and potentially popular. Then, presto! Upon release of an album, the Cars became…
Heir to the existential angst of such late-’70s luminaries as John Lydon and Tom Verlaine, England’s Ian Lowery (whose first recorded musical strivings were with a late-’70s punk band, the Wall) talk-sings in that wonderfully curdled sneer we’ve heard a million times before. But few do it as well. Lowery has had his current moves…
For some reason, the lovable Dickies — a Mad magazine-flavored punk self-parody — never endeared themselves to as large an international cult as the Ramones. Perhaps this mob of San Fernando Valley zanies has always been too unserious and knowing of their own idiocy. Yet right after Green Day sold millions by cannibalizing a sound…
Dismissed by more than a few as a bad joke, London’s never-say-die Chelsea was one of the few original punk groups to forge a unique sound and survive. Their distinctiveness stems from the grunt’n’groan vocals of Gene October, the guiding force and only constant member through enough lineup changes to rival John Mayall’s role in…
Pat and Barbara K. MacDonald are wry, rueful observers of society’s ills; their dry, dusty voices have a down-home charm that makes up for occasional excesses in their lyrics. Using a rhythm box for backing, they burst out of the Austin, Texas, scene with the peppy, corrosively sarcastic hit “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta…
One of the few artistic successes on producer Mike Chapman’s original Dreamland label, Nervus Rex epitomizes the bubblegum side of new wave pioneered by Blondie. The pace is brisk and the touch light on predictable yet pleasing throwaways like “Go Go Girl” and “The Incredible Crawling Eye.” As a perfect point of reference, the New…
