Another excavation from the Wicked Cheap bins at Newbury’s, this had me giggling like a madman at the preview table. My particular favorite subgenre of “New Wave” is this sort of cold-wave minimal synth – the more deliciously obscure, the better. And I’m happy that, in 2009, we are firmly in that 20-30 year retro-cycle which is having lots of new bands digging back in time to find their root-cause influences in early 80’s synth stuff. This album by The Fitness is a collection of songs just like this. It’s really great, actually. Perhaps the influences are a little too obvious: Dignity-era Human League, Boys-Don’t-Cry era Cure, and all things Deutschland Neue Welle a la the Zick Zack label circa 1980. OK, so maybe that last one’s not so obvious, but that’s just fine.
The Fitness is from Seattle and features singer Bree Nichols, singer/guitarist Tom Bridgman, guitarist Rebeka Dunbar, and keyboardist Adam Finn. They debuted in 2002, when the Fitness began playing local gigs supporting bands including the Epoxies, Stereo Total (watch, soonish, for a screamer from Stereo Total, as well), the Streets, the Postal Service, the Gossip, Audio Bullys, and W.I.T. The Fitness signed to Control Group and released this, their debut album, Call Me for Together, in fall 2003. There is a single that predates this and a follow-on CD as well, but I haven’t been able to track those down yet…
So anyway, Now YOU can sing along with The Fitness:
DAY JOB
I can’t dance cause the clubs too full
don’t understand cause the DJ’s dull
I showed up at half past ten
now my life can begin again
I get a drink to unwind
so I slip to the end of the line
I look around and all i see is
everybody is staring at me ohhh…
could it be my Gucci shoes?
could it be my new hair doo?
could it be my Prada pants?
or could it be that you don’t have a chance? ….ahooh ooh
I see a friend across the club
who walking over and shoulder rub
talk about that we don’t care and….
why we both don’t want to be there ohh
small talk used to make me ill
that’s all changed now I’m on paccil
she is sweet but I cannot trust
we look around and they’re staring at us ooh
could it be my couture clothes?
could it be my brand new nose?
could it be my model’s pose?
or could it be all the people I know? ….wahooh ooh
it’s 4 am and I’m kinda drunk
gotta be at work by 7 o’clock
I get home and lay in bed
and thoughts of me flash through my head
like how i danced and how i moved
how I looked and how i stood
all the things that I said
the awful things that i regret ….ahooh ooh
hahooh ooh
hahooh ooh
wahooh … ooh
****
I simultaneously liberated from a dark closet a 1983 cassette-only release of my own work as “The Gossamer Years” and piggy-backed a cut from that at the end of the track from The Fitness. Another obscure thing – this tape was only given out for free at my very few gigs back then, so only a handful of people have ever heard it. This version was recorded on Crappy Clarion 4-track cassette and mastered to stereo cassette – which explains its earthy muddiness and knee-level noise floor. But it was fun to make nonetheless. Instruments used: Linn Drum Machine (courtesy Baker Street Studios Watertown MA) and a variety of cheap, sequencer-less discount department store Casio synthesizers.
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