Song Of the Day: January 20, 2006
TV 21 – Something’s Wrong
Deram Records 45, 1981
To this day, I still get guff for my love of brooding big guitar 80’s bands from the UK. The Chameleons, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Comsat Angels, etc. Dramatic, overly-serious, romantically depressive, and epic (some would say pretentious) in all aspects. Gothic without actually being Goth. I’ve often wondered what band put out the first record of this genre. Does it stem from Joy Division? Early U2? My latest shaky theory is that it originated with the Damned’s excellent “Wait for the Blackout”–the opening tune of my first ever radio show–with a bit of Siouxsie and the Banshee’s “Happy House” thrown in there.
TV 21 was one of the lesser known bands that trafficked in these pre-Raphaelite lands. An early-ish Ian Brodie production in the vein of Steve Lillywhite, the drums pound, the guitar oscillates through its chorus and Roland Echoplex, and the synths re-enforce the general vibe of precision and uneasiness. You can almost hear the peroxide hair and multi-zippered blue janitor’s suits. Precision is the right word for this–I love how precise and alive the production and playing sound on so many of these English records, especially when compared to most of the stuff coming out of the US underground (and mainstream, too) at the time, recordings which seemed flat and staid by comparison. Bright beefy English production that added a nice aggressive edge. The 7” of Something’s Wrong is edited slightly from the album version, probably for the better. Edits like this for 7”’s, probably for radio, seemed fairly common back then. I somehow wound up with three different edits of U2’s “New Year’s Day” (speaking of Edge). The other notable track from the TV 21 album A Thin Red Line, “Snakes and Ladders”, also became a single.
Andrew Chalfen
13 Comments:
The first time I heard about this group was when Jack Rabid interviewed their lead singer in the Big Takeover. The following year I picked up their album very cheaply at a local store. I still have the album and consider it a personal favorite. Thanks for posting this.
I bought their Album "A thin red line" after hearing their hitsingle "All join hands". I always loved the album, but when I play it now and listen to the fourth song on the album "Ticking away" I have to be carefull not to fall into a midlife-crisis.....
Thanks for sharing - it would be nice to hear "The Hidden Voice" (b-side), too ;-)
I REALLY wish I remember who said this, or the verbatim quote, or what it was in reference to...
anyway, what you say about the Brits getting production right versus the Americans reminds me of this quote I saw (see above disclaimer)...
it was said that the British are better at making records while the Americans are better *live bands, which was explained by these factors: the bad British weather drives folks indoors to craft albums all day and night; UK tours aren't very long to get that great road-hardened band tightness; American kids like to jump in the van for a ROAD TRIP!!! rather than twiddle knobs all day... and so on.
Interpol should be jealous.
playing with fire, man, playing with fire. first 7". playing with fire.
Came across this site while googling.
Thanks for the kind words guys.
We're back together again and playing live locally in our home town of Edinburgh, Scotland. You can hear some stuff here with hopefully more to come.
http://www.myspace.com/tv21official
All the best,
Ally Palmer
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