MAGIC         PORK

Why isn’t this band more popular? Sometimes I’ll hear a good band but I realize they don’t have the type of sound that will make them hit it big, such as Architecture in Helsinki. But other times I’ll hear a good band and be surprised months or years later when they’re not popular. I’m not talking U2 popular, but at least Buckcherry popular. (BTW I saw Buckcherry at Water Street Music Hall last year. Most memorable moment was during “Lit” when they got the crowd chanting “CO… CAINE!! CO… CAINE!!”.)

Morningwood was one of those bands. I heard “Nth Degree” on some commercial and a TV show but then that was about it. There was also Hot Chip. The Warning is an incredible album. I also saw them live at Lollapalooza and they put on a great show. (If you follow that link to their MySpace page, check out “Over and Over” and “Look After Me”.) But how much later is this, and still they’re not well-known. (Note that I’m talking about in the U.S. not U.K. where they have more of a following.) Again - I’m not saying they should be topping the charts, but at least on the radar. Hearing “And I Was A Boy From School” playing in Express For Men doesn’t count.

The Subways are another band that I saw at Lollapalooza in ‘06 that I thought for sure would be bigger by now than they are.

But back to Under The Influence Of Giants…

More so than any of those other bands I mentioned above, this band has a perfect pop-rock sound. I first saw them on MTV. Yes MTV does still play videos, just at strange hours like 6 AM but with my TiVo I don’t care when they’re on. “Mama’s Room” was catchy, the band had a unique (well, uniquely retro) look, and the video had hot scantily-clad girls in it. What’s not to like there? I thought they’d just go up from there but whenever I mention them to someone I’m just met with a blank stare so I assume they didn’t get any Top 40 play. I really don’t get why. I read online that they were pretty popular downloads on iTunes but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about popular-popular not Internet-download-popular.

Go to that link above and click on the “Music” link. You can listen to the entire album online. So if you have a high-speed connection you have no excuse to not check out their music. If you don’t have a high-speed connection and you live near me, maybe I’ll let you borrow it. My favorite tracks are “Against All Odds” (not a Phil Collins cover), but it would be hard to pick a runner-up between “Got Nothing”,”In The Clouds”, “Mama’s Room”, and “Heaven Is Full”. That was a problem when I was putting together a playlist for a little get-together I had a few weeks back. I had to stop myself from adding the entire CD on there and have people say “who the hell is this band you keep playing??”.

Did you listen to them yet? Well what are you waiting for? I’ll be here when you’re done.

OK so now do you agree? They’re not going to make music history, but they’re catchy and fun and in my book there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a perfect CD to play in the car and bop along to while drumming my hands on the steering wheel. On an R.E.M. scale, I’d place their sound somewhere north of “Imitation of Life” but south of “Shiny Happy People” in its pop-ness.

Let me know what you think, or if you think they are popular and I’m just out of the loop.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 11:32 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.