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June 13, 2008
Ripping Vinyl, part 3
After many years of musical obsession completely removed from a record player, my pile of vinyl now grows incrementally, aided by the quality LP sellers of New York City. Baubles from the treasure chest will be posted here whenever it seems appropriate...
Romeo Void was a post-punk/new-wave line-straddling four-piece from San Francisco, whose sole enduring 1982 hit"Never Say Never" also gives name to the EP I poached from the "new arrivals" bin at a local Brooklyn wax merchant. While I fondly remembered the song immediately from name, I confess that I sort of thought it an orphan hit from the 90s. The up-front sexuality of the amusing "I might like you better if we slept together" refrain seemed to slot in perfectly with the riot grrl movement occurring at the time of my first exposure to the song. When it was uncoolly handed to me as the backing music for some dumbshit moment on the Real World: LA I immediately associated it with the L7 videos that had assaulted and intrigued my 14-year old psyche. So, if nostalgia got me to pick up the record, it was Ric Ocasek's name on the producer's line that made me take it home.
Though other 90s children probably think of Weezer's "Blue Album" as the pinnacle of the ex-Cars' production career, he's always astounded me as the man who sweetened up Suicide on their second record. Though something as primal as their first LP's "Rocket Rocket USA" sounds as if it just fought its way out of a subway grate somewhere with a knife in its teeth, the likes of the Ocasek-helmed "Dream Baby Dream" was handled with a sweetness that the NYC duo never achieved on their lonesome. Ric's way with navigating between sugar and spike seems to have been a big plus for Romeo Void as well.
The famous title cut is presented here in its original, 6-minute juggernaut form, which is far more substantial than the radio edit that was shoehorned into the band's 1982 album Benefactor. When mis-imagining them as a bunch of baby-doll dressed Gen Xers, I certainly didn't have singer Debora Iyall pegged for a rotund Native American. But contradicted daydreams aside, it's hard to see how a leering titan who looks like (Pere Ubu frontman) Crocus Behemoth's little sister could make you any less punk. She's the song's star, though Peter Woods' nervous guitar lines and Benjamin Bossi's sax--which blasts out unpredictably like a cloud of mysterious New York City steam--cement its place as more than an amusing novelty. The EP's forgotten gem is the flip-side's "Not Safe." Bossi starts the track being kind of overbearing with his woodwind, but Iyall's dead-eyed late night city travelogue soon restores the track's itchy cool. "I'm not safe...or sorry" goes the chorus. For a band that's seen as a bit of a novelty radio curiosity, it turns out to be a surprisingly factual declaration.
Romeo Void - "Never Say Never"
Previously:
- the Raincoats, live @ the BBC
- Linear Movement play "the Game"
Posted by Jeff Klingman at June 13, 2008 12:45 PM
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Comments
i didn't know, that's so interesting
Posted by: karis at June 13, 2008 02:22 PM
