Eames Era...

Before I get to the music at hand I just wanted to mention a nostalgia show that I went to this weekend. I saw Dave Wakeling as General Public at a relatively small bar in my town. Now as a youth I was deeply affected by New Wave and ska. This of course means that I was a huge English Beat fan and consequently a pretty fervent fan of GP. I saw them in concert a number of times during college and even went so far as to dye stripes in my hair ala Ranking Roger. No, I don't have any pics so don't ask because if I did I wouldn't share them. The show was surprisingly good considering the Dave was working with a hired band and is, of course, considerably older. They played alot of English Beat (Doors of your Heart, I Confess, Save it for Later, Mirror in the Bathroom, Tears of a Clown..) as well as the requisite GP songs (Tenderness {twice, they fucking played it twice??}, Never You Done That). Dave was a bit more stout around the middle but was in surprisingly good voice. It was fun, but it also made me realize that you can't go back to your youth. Memories are precious and are often best left alone. I prefer to remember Dave Wakeling as about the coolest incarnation of a lead singer that I could think of at age 17 and not as a slightly manic middle age guy singing old songs and drinking glasses of red wine.

On the musical front I bring you Eames Era. Formed in 2002 by a friends at LSU (that's where Shaq went right?) they play a fun brand of power pop that's probably 2 steps removed from the bands that gigged at frat houses when you were in college. They're certainly better musicians, clearly practiced at what they do, but there's not a ton of imagination here. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. A good clean pop song is a gem to be treasured and these don't need much polish. The female lead vocal makes me think of the Darling Buds, a bit of Garbage maybe.

All from The Second EP

I Said

All Of Seventeen

I Could Be Anything