Old Enough to Forget

The Northern Pikes were never one of my go-to bands. They skirted the periphery for me, although they had a couple of killer tunes: “Things I Do For Money” was a nearly perfect ‘80s song with a wonderfully syncopated delay on the guitar and a head-bopping groove. The other was “Hopes Go Astray,” which was (still is) a captivating song from Secrets of the Alibi , but I don't remember much else. The only thing I remember was being a bit disappointed. I was probably mix tape hunting, and aside from that one great song ("Hopes Go Astray") I didn’t pull anything else off, and I suppose that was enough for me to bury it. Who knows. I was pretty quick to pass judgment, and often it was brutal. As I've found out in hindsight, my loss. The band would keep dropping albums I more or less ignored ... okay, it was more, but I'm trying to soften my ambivalence. When they dropped "She Ain't Pretty" I had to admit it was catchy, but the little hairs on my neck didn...