
Cosmic Room 99 – Plastic Venus
Genre distinctions used to be much more important. They would be followed without fault and, generally, foolishly by fans. The genre distinction was as clear as land border to a country where travel was impossible. It meant that fraternizing with the enemy was forbidden under any circumstances. It also meant that encouraging the enemy or taking on board lessons learned from it was tantamount to treason.
But like the Cold War in the 1980s, resources are slimmer, the traditional enemies are less involved and mutual distrust isn’t what it used to be. Punks made it a badge of honour to perform straightforward rock music with lyrics about the world’s problems. It was all as dry as a bone. Any elements related to psychedelia were heavily discouraged and labelled as the fantasies of silly hippies.
Cosmic Room 99 don’t believe in borders. For their debut single “Plastic Venus” they look straight at some of the most recognizable rock subgenres and set about blending them together with zest and energy.
The result is a kind of psychedelic punk-rock concoction, a tune where the anger is clear to recognize but where the borders are purposely kept fuzzy and unclear. It could even help Cosmic Room 99 score an opening slot with modern post-punk bands. The young Italian band knows that making friends in the music world is a bigger priority than blindly trying to toe the party line.
Stereo League – Joyride (Gimme Love)
We’d all like to think that we’d be able to recognise a great thing when it happened to us. Things like true love or spiritual epiphanies would not be things that would escape us, that we’d be too busy or too tired to notice. But we’re probably wrong. There are enough diversions that we’ve created for ourselves that the very best day of your life might well just feel like an ordinary day in which the Earth spun around its axis.
Some of us would like to think that we could recognise true rock music when we heard it. We’d like to imagine that if a new version of Iggy Pop or David Bowie were to reveal themselves to us, we would know and we’d treat those people with the respect that they deserve. But while it’s likely we’re wrong, that we too would be confused by all the stimuli that we have around us, we can, at least, make the effort, make the first move.
Stereo League’s “Joyride (Gimme Love)” tries to create palatable pop music while using glam-rock as a reference point. But Stereo League avoids the most obvious cliches, too. The song recalls, most of all, The Stooges’ “Raw Power” album and especially songs like “I Need Somebody.” It’s quietly menacing, like a glam party on the wrong side of town. Will we be praising the man behind Stereo League in a few decades the way that we celebrate Iggy? It’s hard to tell, but we can certainly get ourselves prepared.