Were The Soft Drinks the UK's equivalent to 'The Screamers'?
The Greville brothers(Jon,- future Rudimentry Peni member - and Lee) and a mate(Cliff Silver of Sad overs and Giants!), had synth had drum kit, then made a record......bizarrely on Nick Blinko of Rudimentary Peni fame's Outer Himalayan Records.
They normally liked to sing about various beverages, as heard previously on "The Thing From The Crypt" compilation.
This time they stick mainly to just one song about that Cinzano Bianco series of adverts with Joan Collins; and the a-side about 'Pop Stars in their Pyjamas" (although Cocoa is mentioned)!.....Now you wouldn't find the 'Screamers' singing about that subject matter. They liked to rock out,albeit very artily; whereas the Soft Drinks liked to have a laugh and dilute any rock to the minimum.This seems to be a common difference between Americans and Brits. Americans like to travel in one direction getting more hardcore as they crash into a wall and stay there; where their former colonial master's like to turn left or right,quite often off the edge of a cliff. These tunes are a definite turn to the left off the rock'n'roll highway, maybe even an exit, as they disappeared after this jolly single entered the bargain bins.
Quaint Synth pop ditties made with the tongue firmly in the cheek,by persons who knew how silly Pop music really is.
Tracklist:
A Popstars In Their Pyjamas
B Cinzano Wet Dream
Another classic Street Level compilation of UK DIY ,with shades of Proto-Indie, is "The Thing From The Crypt". A shared album for acts on Dead Hedgehog and Nick Blinko's (of Rudimentary Peni!?) Outer Himalayan Records.
No Anarcho Punk on here, thank fuck,despite Blinko's connection,- he always sounded a step apart from that washed out black clad clique-; but it has much to point towards the vague watershed between UK DIY and the early 'Indie' sound.
There's some quaintly amateurish Goth by S-Haters, but I don't mind a bit of that, as long as its as badly played as these two tracks.
And we have 'Sad Lovers and Giants', who are just too conventionally good in a New Wave sense, and amazingly still exist today!!?
The stand out band are obviously teenage tearaways 'Exhibit A', featuring future' Twelve Cubic Feet'-ers and 'Solid Space' members.
Altogether an album full of that uncertain amateurish charm we all love in this digitally padded cell; yet is soooo absent from today's boringly 'clued up' society.
'They', whatever 'they' may mean(?), are so clued up they are in fact very,very, Clueless.
Tracklist:
A1 –Exhibit A - Rain
A2 –Sad Lovers & Giants - Take Me Inside
A3 –Mex - Evil Creatures
A4 –Gambit Of Shame - Dancing With The Turks
A5 –Flying Beechcraft - Bugger Off
A6 –Image In Ruin - Tank
A7 –Soft Drinks - Squash
A8 –S-Haters - Necromancer
B1 –Soft Drinks - Pepsi Cola
B2 –Flying Beechcraft - Frog Girl
B3 –Image In Ruin - Bottle
B4 –S-Haters - Canal
B5 –Exhibit A - Echoes
B6 –Sad Lovers & Giants - Clint
B7 –Mex - Functioning Fripp Girls
B8 –Gambit Of Shame - She Lawn
