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…
Rising up from Los Angeles’ early new wave underground to become MOR stars, the Motels abandoned the world that launched them as soon as it was feasible to do so. At first committed to calculated oddness, they found success making bland, almost colorless sophisti-pop records. Both Motels and Careful present the group’s music on a…
Although the Buzzards (originally the Leyton Buzzards) appeared on the surface to be another London-area group of punk/reggae dilettantes, closer examination revealed the quartet to be, in fact, a subversive vehicle for satiric songwriters Geoff Deane (vocals) and David Jaymes (bass). Comprising all their recorded output, this seventeen-track retrospective is jammed with lively (if heavy-handed)…
Formerly known as Kleenex (with a batch of 45s under that name), the three Swiss women in Liliput play a now-popular form of anti-rock characterized by choppy rhythms, harsh melodies and atonal vocals. Amazingly, they exhibit such upbeat enthusiasm in their attack that the music acquires a prickly charm. Hard on the ears, though. (Guitarist…
New Zealand’s Split Enz began their recording career in pleasantly uncommercial fashion, writing gently eccentric tunes that echoed the softer side of Foxtrot-era Genesis. A compilation of demos, Mushroom’s The Beginning of the Enz chronicles those earliest days and finds Tim Finn’s bittersweet singing style starting to work its magic. For Mental Notes — their…
Although the ’70s Senders never broke out of the New York club circuit, the unreconstructed rock’n’roll quartet left behind the Seven Song Super Single as a delightful, all too brief, memento. The rambunctious blend of originals and oldies (Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf et al.) disproves the conventional wisdom that classicism has to be stuffy; the…
Like the Georgia Satellites, North Carolina’s Woods are terminal fans of early Rod Stewart. (In fact, Satellite singer Dan Baird — who guest guitars on one cut here — tarried with the then-Woodpeckers before hitting platinum.) Alas, these guys seem to be running on low-octane gas, only occasionally (“Battleship Chains”) summoning up the abandon required…
Pearl Harbor and the Explosions came out of San Francisco’s early new wave scene, but their lone album consists of bouncy little pop tunes suitable for FM radio: watered-down soul and funk overtones topped off by Pearl E. Gates’ theatrical vocal posturings. Danceably forgettable. Harbour (dropping the Gates and adopting the British spelling; her given…
As lead singer of Texas’ infamous 13th Floor Elevators — one of rock’s earliest, strangest and greatest psychedelic bands — Roky Erickson explored the far reaches of musical and personal extremes. The Elevators’ first two albums (Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators and Easter Everywhere, released, respectively, in 1966 and ’67) are essential classics…
Billing himself as “the last of the full-grown men,” deep-voiced singer Webb Wilder — who could pass for Johnny Cash’s cousin — specializes in jokey yet groove-solid country rock. If the concepts sometimes threaten to overshadow the content (he also makes long-form videos), Wilder’s appealingly light touch and sense of fun invariably save the day.…
Based in Boston, Robin Lane and the Chartbusters boasted a pedigree of sorts: she appeared on Neil Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere; guitarist Leroy Radcliffe was a former Modern Lover; other band members were veterans of the New England music scene. The chiming guitars that kick off “When Things Go Wrong,” the first track…
That’s no greasy middle-aged man, that’s Dexter Romweber, a greasy younger cat from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, whose hillbilly guitar and soulful pipes recapture the primitive off-the-cuff brilliance of early rockabilly (as in Jerry Lee Lewis, not the Stray Cats). While other fans of the old stuff simply try to replicate the past, Flat Duo…
Ain’t rock’n’roll swell? There are few other places where you can be thoroughly derivative and still utterly entertaining. Witness London (later Toronto), Ontario’s Demics, four students (half of them British) in the sneer-and-swagger school taught by the New York Dolls and, later, the Damned. The band’s self-titled album bristles with eager-to-please energy (never mind that…
For folks who prize unspoiled simplicity in rock’n’roll (and especially in rockabilly), Tav Falco’s Panther Burns may be the ultimate band. On the early records, his voice drenched in echo, Falco goes through a familiar repertoire of Presley-derived whoops, mutters and coos, while an amateurish backing ensemble that often includes Alex Chilton grinds away laboriously…
Criminally underused in Deaf School, Bette Bright blossomed into an exciting performer on this solo effort, thanks partly to the help of clever friends. Rhythm Breaks the Ice was produced by fellow DS graduate Clive Langer and his partner, Alan Winstanley, the team behind Madness’ phenomenal success. (Bright intertwined the family trees by marrying that…
On his debut LP, this hard-to-categorize maverick — born in Panama, raised in California — makes slick, soulful pop music that manages to be both subtle and edgy. Thompson gives free reign to his poised, slightly gritty voice in a variety of settings, from cool struttin’ (“So Fine”) to moody romance (“Love Cools Down”) to…
Originally known around San Francisco as the Punts, singer Bonnie Hayes and her backing trio took the grossly overused pure pop formula and managed to turn it interesting again on Good Clean Fun. She follows in the tradition of early Blondie and the Go-Go’s with bright, simple melodies that hop and skip incessantly. Hayes and…
Canada’s Bopcats epitomize the best and worst aspects of the rockabilly revival. They execute classics like “One Hand Loose” and “Rock House” with admirable spirit, yet their originals offer no new wrinkles beyond the admission of mild strains of hard-rock, R&B, etc. While the two pleasing Attic LPs are basically interchangeable, Wild Jungle Rock gets…
Although the Buzzards (originally the Leyton Buzzards, a British geography pun) appeared on the surface to be another London-area group of punk/reggae dilettantes, closer examination revealed them to be a subversive vehicle for Geoff Deane (vocals) and David Jaymes (bass). Comprising their entire recorded output, this seventeen-track retrospective is teeming with lively (if heavy-handed) potshots…
Despite the name, this California group has a dry, almost reflective quality. Behind singer Mark Avnet, the band draws from the cerebral side of late-’60s pyschedelia, as shown by a rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Point Me at the Sky,” but also indicates where the music went — i.e., the empty gestures of later Floyd, Styx…
