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THE BLONDES
Summer Strut/The Blondes (Middle Class Pig Records)
Reviewed by Alan Wright
The story goes that this band was called Eagle up until Don Henley of the Eagles launched a lawsuit against them forcing them to change their name. I hope no former or current members of Blondie, Blonde On Blonde, Platinum Blonde, Blonde Redhead or Concrete Blonde take 'em to take over their new moniker! Another funny aside to this is that a few years ago, I was on this newsgroup that I won't mention and there was this one poster - whose name I also won't mention - that was such an asshole to everyone on the list that I eventually lost interest and left. He was really into this band when they were called Eagle though, and now hearing them finally I'm quite surprised that he was/is such a fan considering their musical style.
Firstly, they're far more polished than I expected, and not at all lo-fi or raw. Their music is quite influenced I'd say by late '70s powerpop and New Wave bands. They have a knack (pun intended) for writing really catchy tunes, with elements of Big Star, the Raspberries, 20/20, the Plimsouls and even the Rubinoos. The one thing I have issues with is the sometimes-annoying keyboards. When they use them like say the way the early Cars or Missing Persons did, it sounds cool, but every so often they seem a little overbearing. I guess you've got to give 'em credit for bringing back a keyboard sound which you really don't hear much anymore (except maybe in a
band like the Epoxies). That said, I think I like the first CD the best. The songs seem better, and they cover Mud's "Dyna-mite," a highly overlooked exponent of the early '70s British glam rock scene. Songs like "Teenage Foxes" and the name checking "Suzi Quatro" are pretty damn catchy. Which brings me to an interesting point: MCP makes a big deal of mentioning how different these guys are from other MCP artists, and how the sound is cleaner, no feedback, etc., but there is most certainly lotsa guitar and there definitely is feedback, especially on the aforementioned "Suzi Quatro," which has a big guitar sound, and a break part where the guitars are totallly just feeding back!
Anyways, on the second CD, keyboardist Autumn DeWilde has left - though she appears on one song singing - and most of the keyboards are played by Brian Kehew (sometimes keyboardist for some other band called Air, and a member of Moog Cookbook). Apparently, since this recording, Ward Dotson (Gun Club, Pontiac Brothers, Liquor Giants) has joined on keyboards.
[Pick this up at http://www.middleclasspig.com.]
© 2003 - Alan Wright