Have you ever listened to a song by a band you've not heard before and thought, "Wow! This is the best song I've heard in ages! I must hear the band's entire back catalogue right this instant!" And then when you finally manage to track down the band's tiny record label and listen to other songs it's horribly disappointing and you hate everything else they've ever recorded? If not, you're incredibly fortunate. If, like me, you've experienced this frustrating and annoying phenomenon then you'll probably appreciate the time I'm about to save you with this entry.
The following bands have one brilliant song and, beyond that, aren't worth bothering with (in my humble opinion). So enjoy these songs and don't investigate too much further! (Or do if you want to. I'd be very interested to hear if you share my opinion or not...)
Firstly we have San Francisco noisemakers Henry's Dress - disbanded since 1996. The band originally formed in Albuquerque but followed singer/drummer/guitarist Amy Linton (later of the much, much better purveyors of quality noise The Aislers Set) to San Fran. Their tuneful fuzz in Hey Allison sounds like the band plugged in a load of electric guitars, threw them in a feedback-producing heap and recorded the results. I'm not normally one for the louder side of things (hence my complete disinterest in the rest of their output), but this is a song I love to turn up loud and dance to until I'm breathless. When no-one's watching, of course.
Henry's Dress - Hey Allison mp3 (right click and save as)
Next we have the quieter, but similarly underwhelming The Busy Band, made up of Amanda Aldervall from Free Loan Investments (blogged about here) and Samuel Petersson from The State of Samuel. They've been together since 2002 but they've been rather quiet for a while, so I'm not sure how together they are any more. The pedigree they both bring was probably responsible for getting my hopes up too high.
The song below is a handclapping tweepop delight - lovely rather than mindblowing, it has to be said. Unfortunately their other songs sound like a hundred other mediocre but not unpleasant bands. It's a shame because I feel like they're capable of so much more.
The Busy Band - The Sign Says Walk mp3 (right click and save as)
And finally, the band who never again managed to reach the heights of their brilliant ode to self-love. Christina Amphlett and Mark McEntee are The Divinyls and their greatest song reached number 10 in the UK charts in 1991. A ten-year-old Spike loved but didn't understand it. Without this track, The Divinyls would just be a dull Australian MOR pop rock band, destined to appear unobtrusively in the background of Aussie tv programmes.
The Divinyls - I Touch Myself mp3 (left click available for 7 days)
2 comments:
Ah yes, all hail the bands-with-only-one-good-song! There are a lot of them out there, wandering rock's lost highway. Or something.
That Divinyls track is also notable for the fact that the video was featured in an episode of My So-Called Life. (it was playing on a TV screen, sans sound, in the background as Jordan Catalano slouched about at a party.)
Who are you pompous,uniformed,unmusical,no taste fat smug motherfucker?Divinyls have had much better songs than I touch Myself.Type in Divinyls on UTube and educate your ignorant arse.!!!!!!!
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