Listening to The Long Ryders for the first time, it's not clear to me that they should have been lumped in with the Paisley Underground bands of the '80s (covered previously in this Rain Parade post). They definitely had '60s influences, but as far as I can tell they were much more a country-rock band in the mold of Gram Parsons than a hippy-dippy retro-groovy type thing. Maybe it was just the fact that they were an '80s band from LA doing '60s inspired music, regardless of genre. Or maybe it was the fact that one of their members is sporting the paisliest paisley shirt you ever did see on the cover of their debut EP. It's hard to look at this cover and think anything but "paisley," so I guess people can be forgiven for slapping the Paisley label on The Long Ryders. Why these comments end up devolving into an argument about wrestling is anyone's guess.
"'Put on your paisleys.' [See what I mean?] As heard on the Radio Tokyo Tapes. Totally FAB." "Yo! Guitars! Drums!" "Can you imagine how stupid they'd look on the street in those . . . clothes? -Wrestling 1" "New Wave Rock + Roll" "Yes!!!" "'10-5-60" "[Illegible, but I imagine something along the lines of 'Better to be seen in these clothes . . .'] than fat, sweat and wrestling trunks!" "Can you imagine just how cool it would be to see them on the streets of Seattle? (That'll be the day.)" "Whattya mean, Seattle? Anyone can see these guys at the Blue Moon." [I have no idea if that was true, or a dig at the band, or the Blue Moon, or both, or what.] "What's wrong with wrestling trunks? Wrestling is a good and honorable occupation! -Wrestling 1" "Wrestling is cool. -Wrestling Jr." "I like!" "Yahoo!" |
I know I covered Soul Asylum in this space not too long ago, but I just couldn't resist sharing this delightful cover (Soul Asylum's take on a much-parodied Herb Alpert album cover) with you all, and with another legendary Minneapolis band in the news today, it seemed like as good a time as any. Ev…
There aren't as many comments as I usually like to see on this copy of In the Hothouse, the live album by the underappreciated British band (yes, yet another one) The Sound. But reading these, and then digging a bit into The Sound online (pro tip for bands with generic names like "The Sound": searc…
