The Kings - The Kings are Here

I found this one about a year ago, and put it in the wrong pile and sort of forgot about it. I was playing The Cry, also released in 1980, and the new wave organ on a couple of their songs reminded me of The Kings, and then it was like, "Hey, I really need to sit and listen to The Kings."

Like most people I have a soft spot for their double sided hit. "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide" that is always played as a combo, and they're among a rarefied few who can command that kind of airtime. "Feeling That Way / Anytime" by Journey and "We Will Rock You / We are the Champions" by Queen come to mind, and maybe one or two others that escape me at the moment.

To say this was career defining for the band is sort of an understatement. However, I have always been curious about what else was out there, and I know I could have just gone and streamed it, but I held off. "Why?" you ask. I dunno, why not?

The band's sound was a curious blend of high energy new wave and good old crunchy rock and roll, the kind that punk was supposed to be railing against. Somehow the band managed to engage Bob Ezrin (BOB FREAKIN' EZRIN) to produce their debut The Kings are Here. Admittedly it's an interesting fit as this falls sort of right after his stellar work with Pink Floyd on The Wall, and KISS' Destroyer. However the band delivered a party on a platter over ten tight tracks.

One of the weird things about revisiting an album over forty years after the fact is there are forty years of accumulated baggage to unpack. Most of the weight comes from the opening one, two punch of "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide" songs so ingrained now in the fabric of classic rock they cast a shadow over everything the band has ever done.

Sequencing is everything and it was the right call to start the album with a bang, but when I sat down to go through this, I mean really go through this, I dropped the needle on the third track "It's Okay" and then went through both sides before going to the beginning. I wanted to hear everything else.

I had earlier hinted at the strange sweet spot the band was aiming for. They were a quirky rock band. They employed new wave energy, complete with the cheesy organ that was part of so much early post punk music before thankfully fading away. They were also a rock band, lots of guitar and a driving beat all nestled into a tight power pop delivery system.

The guys even channelled their inner Ramones (or Blotto) by adopting what I can only assume were clever pseudonyms for themselves.

David Diamond (vocals, bass)
Sonny Keyes (keyboards)
Max Styles (drums)
Aryan Zero (guitar) - although this seems to have been changed later to Mister Zero

The songs are good. Often very good, "Partyitis" is a turbo charged celebration, and "Don't Let Me Know" is a really great power pop song that should have been a hit. It is so good. However, it was the albatross that overshadows everything else. Which is a shame as the band really did deliver the goods, and where the double A side should have been the icing on the cake it ended up being all anyone took from the buffet.

By all accounts the band was putting in the roadwork, and building their audience, and their big hit certainly didn't hurt. Momentum was on their side. When the band went back into the studio, again with Bob Ezrin producing, their 1981 follow up Amazon Beach was met with ...nothing. So much for momentum.

Despite only being 8 songs Amazon Beach is really good. They were trying to change with the times and still remain themselves. I didn't expect it to be so good. Do yourself a favour and give it a listen.

The Kings are still here proving the beat does indeed go on ... and on.

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the...

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