I love old New Wave music. It was the last popular music that had any kind of a sense of humor about it. Unless you count L.A. Hairspray Metal (Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Motley Cru, et al) which I think may have been unintentionally funny. New Wave also had something that became extinct by the late Eighties and that was FUN. It still irks me to think about a story I read back then about the guy from The Pet Shop Boys directing Liza Minnelli in a music video and yelled at her to stop smiling because "this is Rock & Roll!" WTF?! Neither Liza Minnelli nor the Pet Shop Boys were Rock and Roll so WTF did he know?! Really pisses me off.
Well, it seems the sense of fun is back. And it's back in the form of the last style of music to exhibit any, NEW WAVE. Now some people might call the new four song EP from Tampa, Florida's The Human Darts Punk Rock but it's not. Everything New Wave these days is called Punk. Punk Rock has survived the way the violence of the Old West gave it immortality in the History of America or the 1920s Gangster Era or the Black Death in Europe, we love the evil, dark side of things. That's what we find so fascinating so that's the aspect of certain places and times that survives. So now every New Wave band worth remembering from Blondie to The Go Gos, to The Pretenders are labeled as having at least started as a Punk band. I suppose almost all young bands start out as 'Punk' if by that you mean they sucked. I therefore, shall not be referring to Human Darts as 'Punk' but rather 'New Wave'. Thank you very much.
At this point the Human Darts seem to be Shane
Close and John Arduser on guitars and vocals and Mr. Zelk on drums, keyboards and as the lead vocalist (see bio below).
Production was done at Parsonage Studios in Tampa with Jeff Knauff engineering.
Production was done at Parsonage Studios in Tampa with Jeff Knauff engineering.
The four tracks on the new EP are:
Tell My Sister is in the vein of The Go Gos, The Rubber City Rebels, and any number of L.A. bands that played the Madame Wong's, Club 88, Troubadour, and others circuit in the 1980s.
Zombie Man Chant is a variation on the 'Hot Rod Lincoln' / 'Maybelle', drivin' in my car to escape the Man / my folks / my job / my girlfriend with a driving snare beat and complete with car horn sound effects.
Hey Good Lookin', the old Hank William's classic Country tune souped up as a Punkabilly dance number. Obviously the label asked for a single so they came up with this cover.
Stitches is a B52 style New Wave rocker but without the cheesy female vocal backup singing.
Who are these guys? I'm not sure but according to their bio: In the late 70's a record was released by a a band called the Human Darts. One of the interesting things about this was there was no band.
Three friends released the record and went about their own musical careers. The single turned into a punk under ground 'gotta have it' collectors record. What followed was the start of bands with different members and sometimes different names pounding out the simple sonic signature of the Darts record.
Dart bands in various forms toured the country from the Midwest to California and back sowing the seeds of a further counter culture audience . One of the original producers/writers, a rather strange character by the name of Mr. Zelk who's identity you were never quite sure, had participated on and off due to what some consider an odd obsession with toys, UFOs and pets, suddenly and quite unexpectedly resurfaced. Dragging his toys and animals Zelk tracked down the son of an original member, Shane Close, and original guitarist John Arduser who he found hitting wiffle balls over his house in St. Pete . Fl. And into the studio they went adding other players who fit the eclectic profile of Darts players.
I guess it's the son of an original member who's on the CD cover. BTW, few people realize I was an original member of Klaatu.
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