Blister Pop is the name of an album from the Embarrassment, this wonderful little band that has become something of a cult legend over the last two decades. The Kansas-based group crafted a shambolic -- and really quite nervy -- brand of underground awesomeness that fell in the cracks between post-punk, hardcore, power pop and Attractions-style pub rock. Nowadays, the Embarrassment would be considered indie rock or quite possibly pop-punk, but back in the 1980s there wasn't a quality name for what they were doing.
The Reagan-to-Papa-Bush era produced more than a few bands that embodied a similar aesthetic. Why don't we call it ... blister pop? On the East Coast there were the Feelies and all them great Boston bands: Mission of Burma, Volcano Suns, Big Dipper and, of course, the early Lemonheads, long before Evan Dando became a famous-for-15-seconds alterna-hunk.
The West Coast also produced its fair share of relevant acts: Flop, Red Kross, Wipers and the Urinals. The Minutemen, not long before D. Boon's tragic death in 1985, also helped define the blister-pop sound, with its more "commercial" offerings.
Though both coasts produced a slew of great bands, "blister pop" found its purest voice in that sprawling expanse known as the American Midwest. This has to do with the fact that punks in states like Minnesota, Kansas, Michigan and Ohio held a place in their hearts for classic rock's edgier groups, stuff like Cheap Trick, the Who and the Kinks. In the Midwest -- pre-Internet, that is -- there was no sealing yourself off from mainstream culture. There was no Lower East Side-type hipster bubble to hide inside, and so alterna-types in the middle of the country tended to mix everything together into one big stew. This how you get Husker Du, a group that found a way to fuse insanely thrashy hardcore and 1960s-inspired pop.
Scott Stevens, drummer for one of blister pop's great unsung heroes from the Midwest, the Sinatras, explained it best when, like a total fanboy, I recently e-mailed him and gushed about the group's amazing new compilation, Life in Flames. Do check it out.
"We were too punk for pop," he wrote back, "and too pop for punk."
Other Midwest bands that totally tore it up include Scrawl, Great Plains and the Mice, a Cleveland-based group that exerted a huge influence on Superchunk and Guided by Voices.
For a primer on blister pop crank the playlist below, or go here and have at it!
The West Coast also produced its fair share of relevant acts: Flop, Red Kross, Wipers and the Urinals. The Minutemen, not long before D. Boon's tragic death in 1985, also helped define the blister-pop sound, with its more "commercial" offerings.
Though both coasts produced a slew of great bands, "blister pop" found its purest voice in that sprawling expanse known as the American Midwest. This has to do with the fact that punks in states like Minnesota, Kansas, Michigan and Ohio held a place in their hearts for classic rock's edgier groups, stuff like Cheap Trick, the Who and the Kinks. In the Midwest -- pre-Internet, that is -- there was no sealing yourself off from mainstream culture. There was no Lower East Side-type hipster bubble to hide inside, and so alterna-types in the middle of the country tended to mix everything together into one big stew. This how you get Husker Du, a group that found a way to fuse insanely thrashy hardcore and 1960s-inspired pop.
Scott Stevens, drummer for one of blister pop's great unsung heroes from the Midwest, the Sinatras, explained it best when, like a total fanboy, I recently e-mailed him and gushed about the group's amazing new compilation, Life in Flames. Do check it out.
"We were too punk for pop," he wrote back, "and too pop for punk."
Other Midwest bands that totally tore it up include Scrawl, Great Plains and the Mice, a Cleveland-based group that exerted a huge influence on Superchunk and Guided by Voices.
For a primer on blister pop crank the playlist below, or go here and have at it!
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I think it's ironic that this is named after a phrase coined by The Embarrassment yet you have a picture of Husker Du (no disrespect to them intended) at the top of the article. Yet, I gotta admit, this is a nice little article, and great little playlist. And as to Blister Pop being a dumb name (Glorious Noise) it was tongue in cheek, but certainly as descriptive and apropos as any other.