The Embarrassment - Blister Pop
(My Pal God)
The long-dead Embarrassment existed during that great post-punk period of 1979-83, which yielded
countless gems of quirky bands finding their way in a pop scene recently relieved of the necessity of polish
or genre boundaries. The Embarrassment are exemplary of this period in that they are an obscure band
from a remote, though not unlikely location (Kansas), who threw all kinds of rock, pop and whatever they
else could find into their homemade blenders and produced a strange and tasty confection.
Blister Pop is a term coined by one of the band members as a response to the never ending,
always annoying inquiry as to which category of music the Embarrassment fit into (included in CD's
opening montage of the band's various, tongue-in-cheek responses to this question during radio
interviews). It's not a bad label. Though the Embarrassment are clearly a pop band, they are not always
sweet and pretty. Though the band was clearly influenced by punk, they are not really nasty or ugly.
Songs like "Podman" and "Song for Val" bring to mind such bands as the Ramones or really early Jesus
and Mary Chain, not so much in superficial sound, but in an appreciation for pop hooks and a desire to
incorporate them into a more organic, less contrived form than straight pop music.
Perhaps the best insight into the Embarrassment is through their numerous covers. Their pre-Van Halen
take on "Oh Pretty Woman" is a great example. The vocals retain Roy Orbison's dripping sentimentality
and melodicism, however the music is ragged and raw, with buzzing guitars and muted riffing. They wear
other diverse influences on their collective sleeve in their covers of the Chamber Brother's psychedelic
funk classic "Time Has Come Today" and Buddy Holly's "Maybe Baby." They throw in some songs by
the Seeds and the Beatles for good measure. Most bizarre, however, is their version of the Stooges "I
Wanna Be Your Dog" which, which its bass-heavy drive and jerking rhythms, comes off as both menacing
and geeky. (Also included is a barely together rendition of Iggy Pop's "Funtime," which, really, is the only
way to play Iggy.)
Most of the songs on this compilation are from live recordings, radio sessions, demos, etc. What that
means is that they sound pretty bad. One must keep in mind, however, that this is from the fledgling era of
DIY. To sound otherwise--cleaner or more polished--would be to deny what that era really was.
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