I encountered
Ten Ten's sophomore album,
Walk On, very briefly several years back, and could have sworn they were on something of a power pop tip. Maybe I had them confused with another band, because their debut,
Ordinary Thinking found the combo on a slightly different wavelength, vaguely channeling U2. There are some post-punk inklings at play on this one, but not nearly radical enough to dissuade or out-cool the more pedestrian audience Ten Ten seemed to be angling for. Frontman
Mark Lewis is a dead ringer for Cactus World News mouthpiece, Eoin McEvoy, but likely a coincidence as Cactus was barely in their infancy at the time. Sonically, T/T weren't far removed from their Irish contemporaries, evidenced by the tingly guitar splay exuded on some of
Ordinary's livelier numbers, like "Giving In" and "Four Pieces." If you enjoyed the
Epic Rumors record I put up a few years back, this is thoroughly along the same lines, and is sure to be a welcome addition on your hard drive.
01. Tell the World
02. All You Want
03. Look In My Eyes
04. Your Word
05. Ordinary Thinking
06. Four Pieces
07. Giving In
08. Doesn't it Seem Strange
09. In the End
Hear
1 comment:
This is what I'm talking about... who in their right mind writes about Ten Ten? That's a rhetorical question. This was my "test search" to see how deep into the wilfully obscure you'd actually go... and here they are. Ha!
Although Ten Ten were only a so-so band, I always thought they could've "made it" with a little more luck. The music wasn't bad. They looked the part given the period. But the lyrics were a bit of a disaster - almost every song was girl/boy themed, and not cleverly. And Ordinary Thinking was under-produced while Walk On was way over-produced.
Regardless, I was introduced to one of my favorite bands, The Chameleons, via Ten Ten. Ten Ten opened for the Chameleons at the 930 Club in 1984 (the Chameleons' first ever show in the US) and a friend of mine was the keyboard player in Ten Ten so I went to the show and The Chameleons blew me away. Then, to come full circle, I just saw The Chameleons in New Orleans a week ago.
Post a Comment