Thursday 18 October 2018

Various Artists ‎– "Seattle Syndrome - Volume One" (Engram Records ‎– ENG 002) 1981

Seattle, the scene of that nineties atrocity "Grunge", the american equivalent of "Brit Pop".
You will be very pleased to know that this local band compilation is a gauranteed Grunge-free zone; but it does prove that Seattle had a real talent for mediocrity a decade before it was given its label in the Rock'n'Roll hall of the Lame. I mean, even Jimi Hendrix had to escape from here to be reborn in London.If he stayed in Seattle, he would probably be on this compilation, fronting some electronic rock group on vocals and Keytar; but he would still be alive at least.
Isolated on the north west coast, you had to leave if you wanted to get anywhere i suppose.
There's a lot of sub-standard versions of musical styles imported from elsewhere,including the obligatory punky reggae number (Yuk!), and the even worse Rockabilly number (Double Yuk!!).
There's a few sub-Flock of Seagulls tracks that are entertaining at low volume,but the rest are just standard 3rd division american punk and lame power poop.
American local comps never seem to have anything truly strange, or innovative,or even catchy on them......everyone is trying to please and habor dreams of minor stardom. Ambition is inherant in American culture unfortunately, which leads to a bland homogenous soup.

DOWNLOAD this down syndrome of a record HERE!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would we bother?

emuziek said...

I liked some of the tracks. "I'm 37" by the Macs + Body Falling Downstairs - "Stationary Dance" by Savant.
There are some local sports references (Seattle Supersonics) in the track from The Beakers- "I went downtown, to see Fred Brown." "Downtown Freddie Brown" .Some youngsters may not appreciate or understand just who Fred Brown is. You will need to Google your Seattle history. A very important person. Get it done. 

Kzka said...

The Fastbacks and the Blackouts were great, but yeah, most of the rest was crapola

Kzka said...

The early comps on the K label were a much better representation of the local music at the time. The "Let's Together" comp possibly being the best.