Song Of the Day: October 11, 2005
Before there was Britpop, there was Britpop. Now don't worry, I'm not going to start going on about Diesel Park West, Five-Thirty and the Candy Skins, but in the late 80s/early 90s there were plenty of bands working with sources that the Blur/Oasis/Pulp axis brought to worldwide prominence. And similarly, there were some blips and footnotes, one of which was a ridiculously blonde-dyed quartet of paleskinnies called Birdland. The only defense I can muster in support of this band is that their first two 12" EPs on Lazy are wonderful. Ridiculous, over-the-top buzzsaw bubblegum with giddily simple guitar solos and comical vocal posturings that blow up the sugar rush of their brief compositions. Great in the kind of way that the inevitable major-label debut LP that follows the cool indie releases never is. And, as could have been expected, that major-label debut was a huge disappointment; smoothed out and colorless production, and the best songs were mediocre re-writes of the ones we'd already heard. The overheated, laughable hype that accompanied said LP is amusing today when you consider it was written about a band who were about as dangerous as their labelmates, the Primitives.
5 Comments:
the primitives or even *the darling buds*
:0
The difference being that the Primitives and the Darling Buds were actually good.
Back in the dayI saw Birdland a few times. They were pretty good, if a bit too pouty but the thing that I remember most about them is that they all looked just like Joan Rivers!!
useless fact - hollow heart was number 28 in john peels festive fifty of 1989.
I am off home to listen to my tape because this sounds alot quicker than i remember it...but that is probably just my memory
Birdland attended a 4th of July picnic I was at in their heyday (early 90's?). I can clearly remember all of them sitting in their black suits with their bleached white-blonde hairdos on a blanket in my friend's backyard. I don't think I spoke to them but I knew women who had sex with them later on. Now, more than a decade later, when we look back it can only be embarassing to say "I was a groupie for Birdland". Thank God it wasn't me.
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