Album: Bandwagonesque, 1991
Justification: You know how there are some bands that you get into purely because you’re into the person who’s into them?
Just looking at this I can hear your mum’s car in the driveway. Put your shirt back on!
The woman who was to become my wife, and then ex-wife, had a cassette of Bandwagonesque in her bedroom when we started going out and that lurid pink cover burned itself onto my brain. To this day I can’t see it without listening out for the sound of her mother getting home from work – which does give the experience of listening to the Fanclub a certain frisson, and also provides me a strong incentive not to refer to them by their accepted nickname of “the Fannies”.
That being said, we didn’t actually listen to it as far as I can remember (our make-out-covering music of choice was Bjork’s Debut, as it happens) and that was kind of a relief because the moments of chugging boogie reminded me too much of the very same Status Quo they referenced in the album’s opener, ‘The Concept’. It wasn’t until many years later, after I’d warmed to them somewhat, that I saw them live at the Governor Hindmarsh and realised a) they were amazing and b) that ‘Sparky’s Dream’ is one of the best songs ever written by humans. That fucking killed live. But that’s a different story – specifically, this one.
I once realised that someone carried something of a torch for me upon discovering that they had been listening to Devo – a band not simply of an uncharacteristic genre but a good four centuries more contemporary than most of her listening habits – for whose upcoming Hordern show I had been enthusiastically counting down the days. In this vein, any women attempting to catch my eye going forward should be sure to express a fondness for either Future of the Left or the Hold Steady. It’d be a dead giveaway. Have you seen the gender split at their gigs? It’d be more subtle just to show up at my apartment naked.
SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2010 & 2011: Missed again, so it’s off to the 1991 archives. Which are great, to be fair.
AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…
479. The Blackeyed Susans: Shangri-La (12 June)
480. Vic Reeves & the Wonder Stuff: Dizzy (13 June)
481. Billy Bragg: Sexuality (14 June)
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