While in the car, I heard these two songs back to back on KEXP the other day and thought for sure I knew where the DJ would be going as the trifecta. Alas, I was wrong. He started with "Glorious" from grossly underrated shoegazers Adorable, led by Pete Fijalkowski. Not sure why this wasn't a single. If you lived in the UK or Japan, the song kicked off debut album 'Against Perfection.' Came out in '93 on Creation Records. Some people hear "Bone Machine" by Pixies. Do you hear that? I don't, but I do think Interpol, in the early days, may have been into this song. The following version is about 30 seconds shorter than the album version. The intro is taken out and gets right to it. Can be found on band comp 'Footnotes 92-94.'
Glorious
Next up was "I Don't Know Why I Love You" by the House of Love. This is probably their best known song on this side of the Atlantic. Still gets played quite a bit on nostagic alt radio stations. It came out on their first album for Fontana. No, not as good as that brilliant debut album for Creation, but it does have its moments. By this time, cracks in the band were showing, and Terry Bickers would leave the mess behind after this one. Opening lyrics still make me guffaw. "I don't know why I love you, your face is a hammer in my head, I remember every word you said, I just don't know why I love you, I don't know why I care, I never even liked your hair, I feel like a seventh heir, but I don't know why I love you..."
I Don't Know Why I Love You
As I was listening, in my mind, I was anticipating something by the duo Pete Fij & Terry Bickers to follow these two great songs. I have never heard anything by them together on a radio station, and I was pretty excited at the prospect. I thought for sure the DJ would come on after this trio of songs and tell us all about what these two have been up to in the 21st century. It really stuck in my craw. I'm here today to right this wrong. Please imagine the following in a DJ voice: "From the 2014 album 'Broken Heart Surgery,' here are Pete Fij and Terry Bickers, addicted to love by the sound of this one, with 'Betty Ford.'"
Betty Ford
Ah, that's better. Note to self. Look for their 2017 album 'We Are Millionaires.' Several years ago my pal (and quite possibly yours too) the Swede sent me a note about 'Broken Heart Surgery' being up my alley. He was so right. It's the type of recommendation that would have never happened without our little community here. For that, I am thankful. As for any bad feelings toward KEXP for missing this golden opportunity, I'm exaggerating, of course. Hearing Adorable and and the House of Love back to back was the best six minutes of radio I had heard in a long time.
3 comments:
I loved that first Adorable album. 'Homeboy' was one of my go-to songs of the period. Funnily enough, so was 'I Don't Know Why I Love You'. Great stuff.
I was a big House of Love fan and loved IDKWILY- the lyrics to that song are/ were pretty awful though- also always laughed along with 'television/ turns me on/ when the summer's hot and the spirits long'.
I watched a Fij & Bickers live stream a few months back which was very enjoyable. Pete asked Terry what band he would like to step in on as guitar player if that band suddenly lost theirs mid-tour. U2 was the answer, can't argue with that I suppose.
Pete also used to do a brilliant off-the-wall pop-quiz in a local pub once a month. In one round he would do a dance and you had to guess what song he was dancing to. It was called "I Predict Pop Quiz", but sadly he called it a day a few years back.
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