Before the eye. Before there were highrises in London. Before the Tate Modern. Just, ... before. I visited London. It felt like a lifetime I was there. It feels like a life I lost. As usual, my memories rise in snapshots. Snapshots that can't be communicated in words. Increasingly, I feel less and less up to the task. I see Steve Mack leaning in with concentration and listening to The Cure. Going out every night to see That Petrol Emotion at yet another London Club. Everyone thinking I was from Ireland and not being able to tell the different between an American and Irish accent. The last night i was there seeing a Jimmy Hendrix tribute and being completely wasted - telling someone I was from Seattle – you know, like Jimi Hendrix – and them not knowing where Seattle was or even having heard of it.
I learned lots, like Tower Bridge, the famous one, is not actually
That Petrol Emotion was the band that arose from the Ashes of the Undertones of Teenage Kicks fame - possibly the best pop/punk song ever recorded. Steve Mack was working at a Pizza place in London and he met some of the guys from the Understones. They were looking for a singer. I didn't know Steve that well, but I kinda had a boyish crush on him - he seemed the ideal adolescent to me. He drove a motorcycle, and was androgynous enough to wear a skirt or kilt and eyeliner. The last time I had spoken to him he was mere weeks of graduated from the University of Washington and he simply decided he didn't care. He was going to take his guitar and go to London and see what happened. Which I thought was the height of bravery and impulsivity - which for me, back then, were the same thing.
And what happened was, he ended up being a European rock star. He met the guys from the Undertones. Feargal Sharkey had left to use that gorgeous vibrato of his to woo MTV execs with sappy balads, leaving his edgy ex-bandmates with an Irish-size chip on their shoulder.
TPE never made it huge in the US - never charted – but they did have classics in my book. (The book that matters.)
I personally lean towards their early, edgy stuff, but it's all good.
V2.
They had a great version of Pere Ubu's Non-Alignment Pact.
Keen - was probably my favorite.
And James and I had Chemicrazy on Autorepeat for much of the summer of 1991, as we drove around in his rebuilt BMW 2002. It's a definite classic of guitar based ur-alt pop. Nothing before or since comes close to it's inventiveness and the intelligence of the impressionistic lyrics.
I learned lots, like Tower Bridge, the famous one, is not actually
That Petrol Emotion was the band that arose from the Ashes of the Undertones of Teenage Kicks fame - possibly the best pop/punk song ever recorded. Steve Mack was working at a Pizza place in London and he met some of the guys from the Understones. They were looking for a singer. I didn't know Steve that well, but I kinda had a boyish crush on him - he seemed the ideal adolescent to me. He drove a motorcycle, and was androgynous enough to wear a skirt or kilt and eyeliner. The last time I had spoken to him he was mere weeks of graduated from the University of Washington and he simply decided he didn't care. He was going to take his guitar and go to London and see what happened. Which I thought was the height of bravery and impulsivity - which for me, back then, were the same thing.
And what happened was, he ended up being a European rock star. He met the guys from the Undertones. Feargal Sharkey had left to use that gorgeous vibrato of his to woo MTV execs with sappy balads, leaving his edgy ex-bandmates with an Irish-size chip on their shoulder.
TPE never made it huge in the US - never charted – but they did have classics in my book. (The book that matters.)
I personally lean towards their early, edgy stuff, but it's all good.
V2.
They had a great version of Pere Ubu's Non-Alignment Pact.
Keen - was probably my favorite.
And James and I had Chemicrazy on Autorepeat for much of the summer of 1991, as we drove around in his rebuilt BMW 2002. It's a definite classic of guitar based ur-alt pop. Nothing before or since comes close to it's inventiveness and the intelligence of the impressionistic lyrics.