September 27, 2005

Green Light

Anyone who has received a mix tape or disc from the Toe Stubber in the past four years has heard at least one Equals song. Not only because they’re one of the most underrated pop/rock bands ever, but because their tunes are so fucking catchy, I feel that I must pass them on like a chain letter or bad luck will befall me.

The band is mostly known among non-nerd musicologists as being Eddy Grant’s band in the 1960s. (You know, the Guyanese-English guy who wrote, performed and rocked on down to “Electric Avenue” in the ‘80s, and then he took it higher…) Aside from that monster hit, his solo stuff is not really to my taste, but you can find out everything about Eddy’s post-1980 career here.

When Chris Santamaria first gave me an Equals tape, I grooved on it for weeks before asking him who “all the bands” were. There was such a wealth of sugary sweet funk and soulful pop on the tape it seemed like it must have been a compilation of the very best of some recently discovered 1960s underground scene – no one group could have such a broad range of styles that all kicked ass. Jessica Mirmak has an early-’70s film on video that has two vintage lip-synchin’ Equals performances, and lemme tell ya, them cats were wild! And apparently they liked hanging around in English castles!

Some retard at Trouser Press actually has the gall to call some of the Equals’ songs “utter tripe“! Asshole.

Contrary to the opinions of loser assholes, there really are no bad Equals tunes. Figuring out which two songs to post was, for me, like deciding which eight toes to chop off.

Fortunately, I only use two digits to type.

The Equals – “Christine”
The Equals – “Honey Gum”

Rick at 10:17 pm

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