Plasticland - "No Shine For the Shoes"

RE: The Normal's "Warm Leatherette." I wasn't aware there was anyone left who hadn't heard this song, if not the original, then the myriad cover versions. Most notable cover versions: Grace Jones, Chicks on Speed, Die Todliche Doris. That song was totally foundational to my thinking, as it was both "real" industrial music—hard, minimal, cold—and it was incredibly perverse. Piece of trivia: Daniel Miller actually wrote the first screenplay for the film adaptation of Crash back in the early 1980s, even though it was eventually rejected and the film was written and directed by David Cronenberg in 1996.

But onto sunnier vistas with the neo-psychedelia of Inspiral Carpets, drenched with reverb and Farfisa organ. The Carpets were part of an outcropping of bands that were playing with the formula of 1960s psychedelic garage rock, as popularized by the Nuggets collections. In fact, when the compilers of Nuggets decided to compile the Children of Nuggets - Original Artyfacts From the Second Psychedelic Era 1976-1996 box set, they were sure to include Inspiral Carpets.

Who else did they include? Another great, completely forgotten neo-psych band, and one of my personal favorites: Plasticland. We're jumping across the Atlantic to middle America: Milwaukee, in fact. These guys were amazing, and this is my favorite track from their 1985 LP Wonder Wonderful Wonderland.



Listen to (or download) Plasticland's "No Shine For the Shoes"