A recent thought-provoking post by Paul over at Setting The Woods On Fire, where he asked himself and his readers what would be the world´s most underrated rock band, immediately made me think of Human Switchboard for some reason. I really don´t know if they´re the correct answer to that impossible but fun question, but over the years I found that hardly anyone remembers that band, which sure is a shame.
The trio from Kent, Ohio debuted with a nice but ramshackle single, which was produced by David Thomas of Pere Ubu fame. Apart from two live recordings, they only released one official studio album, the great Who´s Landing In My Hangar? from ´81. Listening to it, their Velvets fandom is obvious, but the farfisa organ they´re using throughout makes one think alternately of sixties garage and late seventies new wave (think Costello´s Attractions).
So check out the beautiful, intense ballad Refrigerator Door, where they alternate male (Robert Pfeifer) and female (Myrna Marcarian) vocals to great effect, the rather Blondie-ish I Can Walk Alone and the uptempo rocker No Heart and tell me what you think ok? It´s just that I wonder if I´m the only one who thinks that a cd reissue of this gem is way overdue...
Human Switchboard - Refrigerator Door MP3
Human Switchboard - I Can Walk Alone MP3
Human Switchboard - No Heart MP3
4 comments:
I never heard of them until you mentioned them in your comment at my post. I like them. In doing some follow up research to determine the most underrated rock band I learned that Human Switchboard has only 316 listeners at Last.fm, which is REALLY low. (The Beatles have over 1.6 million.) You might double the total just with this post.
I have this album on vinyl, but I admit that I haven't played it in years. Thanks for the reminder! I saw the band on a double bill with the Rain Parade in 1983 or so -- a great show.
great. i love the internet some days. thank you
I'm surprised no one mentioned the lead singer is being sentenced and already spent time in prison for wiretapping his hooker girlfriend's phone and was arrested for beating his ex wife (and beat the girlfriend too) It's all at http://HumanSwitchboard.com on their website.
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