Music is My Radar

Back in my days of subscribing to music downloading site emusic, before it went to a pay-per-song fee structure, I amassed quite a few songs to which I have not yet spent much time listening. Among those multitudinous songs were several albums by the seminal Australian jangle-pop band The Go-Betweens. One of the many bands first introduced to me by my friend Paul, The Go-Betweens passed under the radar of many American music fans during their first incarnation in the 1980s, in favor of such kindred souls as R.E.M. and Yo La Tengo. After breaking up in 1989, the band was dormant for years before regrouping in 2000 with two original members and for a time, the members of Sleater-Kinney (yet another band with whom I’ve been meaning to spend more time.)

Anyway, I was at work recently and, having loaded my iPod with the entirety of my Go-Betweens library, decided to have a TGB listening party. Suffice to say, I was impressed.

I remember listening to their 2003 record Bright Yellow Bright Orange and being immediately blown away by how many other of my favorite bands I could hear in those songs. The first song, “Caroline and I,” could easily have been a late-period Velvet Underground song (especially considering that it shares a name with a Lou Reed/VU song). The guitar lead on the second song, “Poison in the Wall,” sounded right off Bewitched by Luna. The vocal on the fourth track, “In Her Diary,” could easily have been delivered by Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo.

Go-Betweens purists might object that I’m selecting songs from the second incarnation of the band, one with only two original members. Duly noted. I do in fact have 16 Lover’s Lane and Tallulah, both released in 1987, before the split, but I haven’t spent much time with them. (Although, I just realized that Tallulah was rereleased in 2004 with a bonus CD. To the record store!!) To be honest, I can’t stand the use of violins, cellos, and other “classical” instruments in rock music (with one notable exception), and at the time the band had a violin player. It doesn’t destroy the music for me, but it does sound a little earnest, and I hate earnest music. But that’s another post. (Side note - for further proof that violins in rock music is a bad idea, read here and here.)

Anyway, before I go off on a tangent about College Republican jam band music, let me conclude by saying that I am very happy to have been introduced to the Go-Betweens, and that while I don’t listen to jangle pop nearly as much as I did in college, I still like it. And so for the many influences I hear in their music, the nostalgic sound of 1980s alternative, and their pop song craft, the Go-Betweens are my Crush of the Moment.

Go have a Foster’s, boys … it’s on me.