Something has always fascinated me about rural/small town indie rock, maybe because there seems to be so little of it. Signal Thirty, ostensibly hailing from Paducah, KY, could have conveniently chosen to season their ears on such mainstream purveyors of
the day as Def Leppard or John Cougar Mellencamp, but I tend to think
their collective tastes ran a little deeper than the Top-ten. Said to have
been recorded over the course of Memorial Day weekend in '87, Purpose sounds like a dandy way to have killed three days. Varying from twangy, albeit skewed roots rock, to jangly REM-isms, this trio never quite settles on a singular penchant here, yet manages to keep the entire affair structured. Purpose really gets cooking on side two, with brisk keepers like "Wild With Me," "(The Adventures of) Laritasm," and "Some Sweet Day" all exuding verve and zest, not to mention a homegrown aplomb that occasionally floats in the vicinity of what the Meat Puppets had up their sleeves around the same time. Solid stuff. The record ends in somewhat uncharacteristic fashion with a medley of the reverent country ballad "Wings of a Dove" and the theme to Petticoat Junction.01. Long White Sleeve
02. Napalm Luv
03. I Know It's You
04. I See God
05. Misconnected
06. Swimming's Funny
07. Fine Lines
08. Comparison
09. Wild With Me
10. (The Adventures of) Laritasm
11. Life Light (White World)
12. Some Sweet Day
13. Wings of a Dove/Petticoat Junction theme
Hear
1 comment:
I grew up fairly close to Paducah in the 1980s. Due to limited radio/tv exposure, our idea of "alternative" would have fallen between REM and Jason and the Scorchers. I haven't listened to this yet (having D/L issues), but I bet it was the same for these guys.
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