Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!wjh12!foxvax1!brunix!mw
From: mw@brunix.UUCP (Boy Woo)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Bangles
Message-ID: <10516@brunix.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Nov-84 21:30:05 EST
Article-I.D.: brunix.10516
Posted: Mon Nov 12 21:30:05 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Nov-84 00:44:18 EST
References: smu.15400018, <437@intelca.UUCP>
Lines: 43

I saw the Bangles live in a Providence, Rhode Island club about a month ago.
They were a lot of fun, not serious or earth-shaking rock n roll, but fun.
The best, brief descriptions I've heard of them are from a Boston Globe
review ("LA-by-way-of-Liverpool sound") and a friend of mine who works at
Sun ("a cross between Buffalo Springfield and the Go-Gos").  Their sound
seems refreshingly new, but there are so many homages and outright thefts
from the 50's and 60's, but always with one foot on the dance floor.

Everyone in the group sings.  There is Susanna Hoffs, the rhythm guitarist,
who has the high voice, who sings lead on "Hero Takes a Fall."  She has
the voice which most fits in with the Go-Gos' cooings.  Susanna also has
the most riveting eyes on stage; she looks right through you.  Then there
are the two sisters, Vicki (guitarist) and Debbi Peterson (drummer).  They
have similar husky voices, although I find Debbi's smoother.  Vicki writes
most of their material, which has gone from rather submissive girlish topics
to a more dominant, "I've-got-control-of-my-life," lyrics.  For example,
in the EP, there were songs like "The Real World" in which the singer/heroine
claims to be "insecure" until she finds the man of her dreams, and the song
"I'm In Line" in which the woman is willing to wait in line for her man.  In
the "All Over the Place" LP, these women don't seem like they will stand for
anymore of this nonsense.  The song "Hero Takes a Fall" features the hook
"Well, I won't feel bad at all/When the hero takes a fall."  In the song,
"Tell Me," the refrain is:  "1, 2, 3, abandon me/8, 9, 10, you're back again/
surprise, surprise/I'm moving on."

The fourth member of the group is bassist, Michael Steele.  She replaced
Annette Zilinskas, who played both bass and harmonica on the Bangles EP.
In concert, Michael wore a T-shirt which read, "Why do you think they call
it dope?" as she stared out into space, while playing her bass.  After a dozen
songs, she sang lead as the group did a cover of the Yardbirds'
"I'm Not Talking."  Then she made a joke and broke out into the biggest, silliest
grin of the night.  She's really strange.

I think the Bangles are a lot of fun.  They can certainly sing and play their
instruments and they are getting better at writing material.  They definitely
have a distinctive Bangles' sound--a wall of female voices, guitars and drums.
They are presently opening for Cyndi Lauper.  (You can be the coolest human
being alive, by going to see the Bangles open for Lauper and then leaving after
their opening act.)

Mason Woo
Brown University
brunix!mw