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the Tears For Fears saga is so richly absurd
-named after a line in a crank psychology book no one remembers anymore
-formed so that they could make a few singles and get enough money to receive therapy from the author of said book
-whom they eventually met
-named after a line in a crank psychology book no one remembers anymore
-formed so that they could make a few singles and get enough money to receive therapy from the author of said book
-whom they eventually met
-he wanted them to help him write a musical about primal scream therapy, whereupon they were disillusioned, feeling he'd "gone Hollywood"
-roland (the hooded-eyed one), on achieving success, had an extremely public fight with his deadbeat dad
-roland (the hooded-eyed one), on achieving success, had an extremely public fight with his deadbeat dad
-recorded the slickest album ever made, got very rich, and gave many interviews, in one of which curt (the other one) accused *sade* of being *too slick*. my man, you toured with the thompson twins. think this through
-took four years recording a totally floribund third album
-took four years recording a totally floribund third album
-broke up while mutually accusing each other of being sellouts, which is *the* most gen x way for a band to break up
-wrote dueling songs about each other
-curt got very skinny and ran a sub-three-hour marathon
-wrote dueling songs about each other
-curt got very skinny and ran a sub-three-hour marathon
-roland made a drum-and-bass record which was supposed to come out on sept 11 2001
-roland wrote a novel about a pop singer who studies opera with a ~magical teacher~ who gives him ~important perspective~ and then literally disappears
-roland wrote a novel about a pop singer who studies opera with a ~magical teacher~ who gives him ~important perspective~ and then literally disappears
-became the backbone of several episodes of the television program "psych"
-suddenly, inexplicably beloved of millennials, causing my seventh-grade self to jump up and down with the joy of sheer vindication, while adult me recognizes that they have maybe eight good songs at best
-suddenly, inexplicably beloved of millennials, causing my seventh-grade self to jump up and down with the joy of sheer vindication, while adult me recognizes that they have maybe eight good songs at best
(maybe the opera teacher in the novel died, I can't remember, but there was something magic realist involved)
don delillo could not do better. renata adler could write all this down in a hurry, with no proper names, and we'd think It was the most confusing thing in the novel
speaking of the thompson twins, I just want to remind everybody that the video for "you take me up" tells the story of some sort of postapocalyptic slave uprising. absolutely batshit. better than most of the star wars films
the thompson twins were kind of a proto jack-and-meg-white thing in that they were originally a seven-piece band named after characters in a tintin comic, but by the time anybody knew who they were, they were a trio, and ppl just assumed the two white members were siblings
in fact they were married!! (though as of the writing of Lori Majewski's magisterial "Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs that Defined the 1980s" they had split :/)
(I think Alannah became a therapist or something)
the book MAD WORLD is delightful, and nowhere more so in the way that artists such as limahl and flock of seagulls guy attest to their sense of wounded artistic dignity
the best pair of sentences I'll ever write were describing this book, in a proposal (rejected) for a 33 1/3 book on tears for fears, in which I said, "Everybody shits on A Flock of Seagulls. It's like a reverse day at the beach"
lest my tone be mistaken, I think the world of A Flock of Seagulls. "space age love song," "wishing (if I had a photograph of you)", how many of us will leave the world so many hours of harmless enjoyment
he got that hair, by the way, bc one of the other guys in the band was unable to see through the lead singer's bouffant to the mirror, so the other bandmate just stuck his hand down and flattened it, and an iconic look was born
probably the most legit sad "'80s new wave" story is INXS. they sound like nice guys who really got along, then michael gets that head injury and starts acting erratic, next thing you know ... real memento mori shit
INXS is probably the least misogynistic male band to base all their songs on being horny. the songs all have a kind of prince-like fascination with the ability of some woman to compel the speaker's interest
every INXS song is either "life, wot? makes you think, wot?" or "I would die for this stripper I just met"
that's also not a putdown, I fucking *love* INXS
out of that crowd, in terms of sheer artistry, I can't decide between japan, OMD, and ABC
I mean
but otoh, radiohead eat your heart out
but otOoh, susan sontag call your agent
(new order is obviously greater than any of these groups but I count them as part of a slightly earlier milieu, cf. their lack of any discernible "look")
just pure yearning, this song
