From a music perspective, I never was one to settle on the main stream. Right now, for the life of me, I can’t tell you who is in the top 40, and I can’t even tell you if I’ve recently heard anything from any artist in the top 40. And that pretty much goes back as far as I can remember. I never was a “top 40″ kind of guy. Maybe in grade school, I’d pretty much settle for anything on the radio or anything that popped up on that crazy channel, MTV (I’ll spare you the “when they used to play music” joke here).
This being said, it didn’t take MP3′s or the “Internets” to make me realize that maybe, just maybe, the best or most creative bands out there did not always end up on the radio or in the main stream of pop culture.
So, with that being said, we’re starting a new featured series of posts you can only get here, exclusively on GenXLS.com called ”The Greatest Things You’ve Never Heard“, where we will spotlight little known Albums or Bands that we thought were great, but never quite made the mainstream. So enough of the hype, let’s get to our first Album you never heard…
Band: The Darling Buds
Album: Erotica (1992, Epic Records)
Genre: Alternative, Indy
The Darling Buds were an alternative band out of the U.K., specifically Newport, Wales. There’s no hiding this band’s place of origin thanks to the lead vocal performance of Andrea Lewis, and the melodic yet simple guitar and bass driven sound we’ve so come to love from U.K. bands like the Beatles, Happy Mondays, Oasis, the Psychedelic Furs, etc.
Released in 1992, Erotica was the final album for the Darling Buds. The album was the perfect balance of music for the time – trippy bass grooves and rock steady beats filled with angst, passion and hope. Add to that passive aggressive vocals and lyrics of indifference, and Erotica pretty much sums up the early 90′s.
In my view, the whole album is worth a listen, assuming you like this genre of music. Even when listening to the simple and repetitive beats in songs like ”Off My Mind” and “Gently Fall“, perfectly timed tempo changes and masses of distortion kick in to pay homage to sounds first heard in the 1960′s garage rock scene. ”Please Yourself“, a fast paced yet melodic track laced with heavy bass grooves was one of the songs released as a single, and the video was played prominently on the early 1990′s MTV Alternative Music Show 120 Minutes. The album’s other single, “Long Day in the Universe” was featured in the movie/soundtrack for “So I Married an Axe Murder” starring Mike Meyers. Other must here songs: Angels Fallen, One Thing Leads to Another, Sure Thing, Wave, If
Erotica was the last album from the Darling Buds. Although they toured the U.S. in support of Erotica for a year, the Darling Buds packed it in, frustrated by the lack of commercial success. Back in 1992, this sound was still pretty much “underground”, and just couldn’t get mainstream airplay. To further throw salt in the wounds, Madonna released an album with the same name 2 weeks after The Buds’ version of Erotica was released.
Their influences: The Beatles, Iggy and the Stooges, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Modern English, The Psychedelic Furs, Joy Division, the Cure
Similar Artists on their scene: Happy Mondays, Smashing Pumpkins, Jellyfish, Medicine, Sundial, Jesus and Mary Chain, Oasis, Juliana Hatfield, SpaceHog, the Sneaker Pimps
Artists Influenced: The Duke Spirit, Paramore, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sparklehorse, Republica, Elastica