LOW POP SUICIDE – THE DEATH OF EXCELLENCE
Between 1993 and 1997 the newly formed record label World Domination put a number of decent records (easily the best of the bunch is Carolida by Latimer, try and track that down if you can), the label was formed by a man called Dave Allen. He once played bass in Gang of Four and after leaving them he set out on his own, and formed Low Pop Suicide, with a male called Rick Boston who sang and Jeff Ward who played drums. Unsurprisingly he signed Low Pop Suicide to his own label and put out a couple of records by them. He left the band before this album was made so essentially Low Pop Suicide became a vehicle for Rick Boston to express his teenage angst (aged in his mid to late twenties) and fears.
Sadly, they never set the world on fire. It’s a shame because The Death of Excellence is to be honest a really good record. This album was ignored both critically and commercially and I’d largely forgotten it existed – but after digging it out of the box this morning I have played it twice and will probably give a third spin later on. I wouldn’t say it’s a lost classic or anything but it sits on the right side of decent. They described it, at the time, as sounding like Nine Inch Nails if fronted by Eddie Vedder (stop, come back!) please don’t let put you off. If it was released today, I guess the closest comparison I can find in my own collection is perhaps, the Cold War Kids, or, The Hold Steady its not as poppy (or jolly) but its in that ilk. The guitars are what I would have described in 1995 as ‘spiky’. I think in a post Nirvana world and with Britpop hurdling over the horizon we just didn’t want more of the same.
mp3 : Low Pop Suicide – Suicide Eyes
I’m not sure if World Domination Records are still going, but Low Pop Suicide split in 1996 after the commercial failure of The Death of Excellence and (partly) because the drummer Jeff Ward committed suicide. Rick Boston is still in the music world he does a lot of work on soundtracks and I think he married one of The Geraldine Fibbers a few years back.
Thanks for reading, see you next week, hopefully with something a bit more jolly.
JC adds….
I can honestly say this is the first time that I’ve ever heard of Low Pop Suicide – given what subsequently happened to their drummer it’s an unfortunate name for the band. Given how wonderful SWC’s contributions have been (and having had a preview of next week’s post it’s another one a few of you will probably want to comment on…..), I have tracked down thge track he mentioned in his opening para (and it’s another first time appearance on TVV or T(n)VV:-
mp3 : Latimer – Carolida
Enjoy
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 