I know it's terribly tacky to exult in the misfortunes of others, but one of the nicest things that ever happened to me was the financial collapse of Enigma Records in 1990-91. As the label started to go under, their LPs and CDs began flooding the remainder bins of chains like Record Bar and Camelot for bargain-basement prices that allowed me (a broke college student on the Texas/New Mexico border with limited access to the indie stores where I would have been able to find these records for full price) to stock up on gems by artists like Game Theory, the Cavedogs, Wire (through their licensing deal with Mute) and, crucially, the Close Lobsters. To this day one of my favorite bands of their time and place, the Close Lobsters were one of several points of entry into the UK indie scene (unlike many bands lumped under this banner, they actually WERE on the legendary C86 cassette released by the NME) and I surely would not have discovered them as early as 1990 without being able to pick up their entire output for $5.64 plus tax at the Record Bar outlet in Lubbock's South Plains Mall one afternoon in early 1990.
Yet as much as I love all three of those records (the 1988 EP What Is There To Smile About? and 1989's Headache Rhetoric complete the trio), for me the primal appeal of the Close Lobsters is neatly summed up by the debut album's stunning opener "Just Too Bloody Stupid." A killer twang-guitar opening riff, rhythm guitars that define the whole post-Smiths British indie aesthetic of treble plus caffeine, and singer Andrew Burnett's atypically punky vocal style and dark lyrical sense ("These backwards, spineless, selfish swine" isn't your usual chorus hook) combine for a nervy three-minute rush of semi-psychedelic fuzz-pop bliss. Nearly two decades later, it still sounds incredibly fresh.
-Stewart Mason
posted by Jon Harrison at 8:38 AM
12 Comments:
Nice. I hadn't listened to Close Lobsters for probably 10 years -I'd forgotten how much I liked this record at the time. Thanks for the way-back.
I know it's terribly tacky to exult in the misfortunes of others, but one of the nicest things that ever happened to me was the financial collapse of Enigma Records in 1990-91.
OUCH!
Sorry about that, Dean. I thought you guys had already jumped ship by the time the rot set in.
Fantastic! I lost my copy of this album--on vinyl more than a decade ago.
Oh, and Game Theory...damn but I wish I could track down my cassette of "Lolita Nation". P'raps I'll go spelinking tomorrow.
Anyway, thanks.
Wow, that comment featured my worst. Typing. Evar.
For the record, I meant to add a dash after "vinyl" and I do so know how to spell "spelunking". I shall now go to bed, imagining definitions for "spelinking".
Great song. I also benefitted from enigma's collapse, I recall buying this very cheap on cassette. This was one of their best tracks as I remember it.
I thought "spelinking" was a new word for doing speculative research online. I thought it was a clever new neologism that I hadn't heard yet!
nice one Stewart -
I actually thought it was some hip/obscure term for those hours I spend flipping through used record bins in dusty corners of mom & pop stores.
Headache Rhetoric needs more love. "Nature Thing" and "Gutache" are top.
So true!
My sad Close Lobsters story is this: Summer 1991, a friend and I saw this record and one other by them in the cheapo bin at a Record Bar and bought them on our way to starting a job at a summer camp in South Carolina.
They sat in the back of my car that whole summer and were as warped as possible when we finally got them home. Unplayable. Nice to finally be able to hear them.
I loved their debut 45, "Going Up to Heaven to See If It Rains" (IIRC), but I seem to remember the album that followed being a lot more slick.
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