Sometimes bands are more influential than successful and Bluesbunny supposes that it is true of Glasgow band The Pastels. We don't have that many thoughts here at Bluesbunny Towers but when do, we follow them up. A rummage through the Vinyl Vault unearthed this single from 1987.
You had the Glasgow sound in those days. Ah, those days! You hear the influences - local ones such as Orange Juice, far way ones like the Ramones and the Surfaris. As a song, "Crawl Babies" manages to be a bit psychotic. In fact, a search through the YouTube thing even turned up a promo video for this song. Stephen Pastel looks like a politics student on the verge of a serious breach of the criminal code. All that intensity and repressed rage with the joys of being young reflected in deadpan vocals, jangly guitars and truly audible angst. Looking back on the song in the cold light of today, you have to wonder where it all went wrong for Glasgow. For a hotbed of musical activity (as it is today), musical innovators like the Pastels are few and far between. What does escape from Glasgow easily falls into the "we're so quirky and yet so pretty" category. No meat on the musical bones at all.
Enough of the musing on the fate of music in Glasgow. "Crawl Babies" is a track well worth tracking down on its original vinyl - it's even quite collectible now so you could call it an investment. Nothing wrong with the flipside either. It's a quality bit of audio carnage called "Empty House" that comes across like the Ramones meet a girl group with Shadow Morton producing.
Oh God, I've just found a Strawberry Switchblade picture disc…