The New Wave

If you know where and how to look there are millions of records of bands that appeared, recorded and then slipped back into the darkness with nary whimper escaping to the greater world beyond the band and their immediate friends. I love that shit. Obscurity not for the sake of obscurity, but because it's always an adventure and a gamble. You never quite know what you're forking your hard earned over for. Sometimes it pays off with something good and sometimes you get the lamest AOR nonsense and the occasional shitty half ass ska band.

Acrylix (1982)


So here is Acrylix. There's not much to be found that I've come across without diving deeper into the rabbit hole. They appear to be from the DC area. They apparently released a pair of 12"s later on. The sleeve is a nice New Wave design capsule with the rubberized graphic logo and the hot pink and yellow color scheme that by simply looking at floods one's memory with the scent of way too much Aquanet. The hit side is "Waiting in the Car For You", but the b side... "Dancing in the Middle of Inflation". There's the feeling of the times. Reagan is president. The economy is in the toilet. The threat of nuclear annihilation looms large. At least we can morosely dance about it in day-glo clothes.

 A Single Love (1980)

From Minneapolis and a bit of a mystery. They seem to have lasted far into the ass end of the 80's. There's  a flyer in the First Avenue archive for a show by them in the 7th St Entry as late as 1987. Other than that, I think I'd traced a name on the sleeve to another 90's band a while ago, but I really don't feel up to tracking that down this morning. (I'd need another cup of coffee and an extra fuck to give.) The single itself is another case of "We've got PiL records and we know how to use them." at least as far as the vocals go. "Times of Change" has some nice jangly swirly guitar stuff going on. They probably killed it in 1980.