With all of the media available to us these days, it's only a matter of odds that you would likely miss a thing or two. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you are talking about a movie or a TV show and they say "I can't believe you have never seen that!". It's not that you have never heard of it, but you just haven't carved out the time to sit down and watch it.
Is you life less fulfilling because of that?
Probably not, like I said, with all of the stuff available to consume these days, it's a foregone conclusion that you would never be able to partake in all of it. I consider myself a pretty avid 80's movie fan. Even so, there are a plethora of movies one might consider classics that I have never seen.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Lost Boys, Good Fellas (I know, technically 1990) are just a few. Do I regret some of them? Sure, maybe, but again, my life isn't "less" because I haven't seen them.
Music is the same way.
There are literally hundreds of new songs and new bands being introduced every day. Even before the era of the Internet and digital music, that was likely the case. Small town bands doing what they can to find their big break. It's a tale as old as time. It's inevitable that (more than) a few of them would pass by us unheard.
That's what my #threetunetuesday post is going to be about today. Thanks to this great initiative started by @ablaze, I am going to share some bands with you that were never on my radar, but totally should have been. It was only recently that I discovered them and decided to take a deep dive into them.
I was spending some time listening to Aztec Camera after it was highlighted by I think @tengolotodo. After the albums by that artist finished up, the Spotify algorithm kicked into gear and as you might imagine a lot of other new wave style music started to be played. That's when "Birds Fly" came on and it immediately caught my attention. There was something familiar about it, but I can't say as though I have ever heard it before in my life.
Like many new wave bands, it appears The Icicle Works had a bit more success in the UK than they did in the US. Don't hold me to that, but since they originated in the UK, it only makes sense I guess. It does appear that Birds Fly had some top 40 success in the US, so maybe I did hear it and just didn't remember it.
The biggest hit of theirs in the UK was "Love is a wonderful colour". I've always enjoyed the new wave style of music, some might argue a lot of it sounds the same, but I think there is something unique about it that really speaks to me. Apparently, the Icicle Works are still together in some form and making music as late as 2024. I highly encourage you to dig into more of their stuff if you like this song.
The Screaming Trees is another band that has a really familiar sound, but for some reason, they never really pinged on my radar when they were in their prime. I was pretty big into grunge back in the day, but my attention was focused more on bands like Live, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and the other popular ones.
After listening to "Nearly Lost You", it was pretty clear to me that The Screaming Trees had something really special that I had sorely overlooked back in the day. It shouldn't be much of a shock that the band originated out of Washington in the US. I think a large number of grunge bands back then came from that geographic area.
The Screaming Trees are considered one of the pioneers of grunge, so maybe that is why I missed them. My guess is, by the time I got into the sound, they were on their way out to be replaced by the big name artists that I mentioned previously. It's hard to say, but if you have never listened to The Screaming Trees, I encourage you to take a bit of a dive into them. They have a total of eight or so albums with the latest one being released in 2011.
Finally, I am going to jump back to the new wave kind of style, but with a definite grunge twist. It's not that I had never heard of The Cult before, but I honestly didn't realize just how good they are. It was only recently that I moved beyond the song "Fire Woman" and I started listening to more of their stuff.
Given the mix of new wave and grunge I have brought you already today, I decided to share the song "Nirvana" by The Cult. I think it tells you something when bands can stay together in at least one form or another and still create music years after they are popular. It might not have the same spark as they try to reinvent themselves, but there is still something special about it. The Cult has been making music as recently as 2022, so that should tell you something right there.
For me, there is something a little more raw and edgy about the style of music The Cult does that you don't find in other music by similar artists. I feel like their style of new wave music is a bit more sing songy, where The Cult is hard and heavy and driving. It's the kind of stuff you want to drive angry to if you can't quite handle death metal or something a bit harder.
I honestly spent a good two weeks diving into The Cult a couple of months ago and boy am I glad I did.
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