Thursday, September 24, 2020

Rockin Bricks - Havin' A Wild Weeknight!! ep (1982, Major Label)

I know this record is almost forty years old and that I should cut these guys some considerable slack, but I'm puzzled as to why Rockin Bricks lead off their only record with a frivolous piece of party tripe (a la Oingo Boingo) like "Planning My Weekend."  That coupled with a not so credible moniker might have you suspecting this record is an outright throwaway - but stay with me folks, because these Jersey kids redeemed themselves to an almost colossal extent on Havin' A Wild Weeknight!!'s remaining three tunes.  "Heartbeat," "Foreign Girl" and "Can't Say No" rain down like manna from the power pop skies like some of the greatest songs the Romantics (and I mean that band's halcyon era) never got around to penning. I'm picking up on some jangly leads throughout recalling the Plimsouls and other like-minded combos as well.  So skip track one and fall in love with other 75% of Weeknight, because it just might make your month.

01. Planning My Weekend
02. Heartbeat
03. Foreign Girl
04. Can't Say No

Hear

2 comments:

Pernt said...

Your passive sleigh against Oingo Boingo made me laugh. I have never been able to get into OB. And Lord knows, I've tried. One of my best friends LOVED that band, and he played them all the time when we were in the car. Because I thought he was an awesome person, I resolved to listen to OB with fresh ears and an open mind. But try as I might, they never clicked. If anything, they drove me nuts, with that calliope-style carnival chaos sound of theirs. They have precisely one song ("Not My Slave") that I really really like. And "Weird Science" is tolerable because I loved the movie back in the day. But other than that... not my cup of tea.

And what's so weird is: I love Danny Elfman's movie scores! "Batman", "Beetlejuice", "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" (which I watched the other night), and so many others... His musical review style really works for motion picture music.

spavid said...

Pernt, it was definitely the Weird Science-ification of OB that completely turned me off. I actually have a mild appreciation of some of their less gaudy earlier tunes (the song "Just Another Day" comes to mind). I know what you mean by the whole "calliope-style carnival" chaotic sound of theirs. Aptly put. A fun fit for some back in the day, but it was never going to lure me in.