Saturday, June 16, 2012

What The Pop Group Would Sound Like These Days If They Did Cocaine

The Pop Group, circa 1980: left to right - Gareth Sager, Bruce Smith (obscured), Mark Stewart, Dan Catsis)

Recently WFMU broadcasted this year's Primavera Sound Festival from Barcelona, Spain and one of the headliners was the reincarnated lineup of The Pop Group, featuring a majority of the members from their prime incarnation (I vastly prefer their work with second bassist Dan Catsis, cf. my earlier TPG blog post).

I listened to the time-delayed broadcast with disappointment. The tempos consistently lagged across the board. Now, to be realistic, The Pop Group are not hormonally addled 16 year old boys anymore, but . . . the group is getting the instrumental timbres, general attack and song selection right, but I really want to hear this material at the blistering tempos they were once played at. It just doesn't sound right to me otherwise.

So, for my personal use, I have electronically sped up the Barcelona broadcast by 15 percent, without altering the pitch. I believe this gives one a fairly accurate portrayal of what the new Pop Group might sound like if their asses were still totally on fire. I give them a B+ for effort, but wish they would pick up the pace . . .  a lot of bands have come back sounding a lot worse. I wish them well!


cheers,

WW

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