the Outsiders vs the Rentals

I've got a cold. It feels kind of like somebody's taken a broom handle and stuffed my sinus cavities with wet sponges. My morning coffee tastes like total ass and I'm constantly amazed at the staggering amounts of fluid my body can generate in short periods of time. I'm not a happy camper. The white on the computer screen where I'm typing this part here is like a painful affront to my brain.

This sucks. But what doesn't suck is this.


1. One to Infinity
2. New Uniform
3. Consequences
4. Freeway

There were at least three bands I can think of that called themselves the Outsiders. There's the US 60's on that excreted "Time Won't Let Me" into the top 40. The Dutch 60's Outsiders who were actually a rather good beat group. And then there was the late 70's one we have here led by Adrian Borland. I've got an Lp as well by them entitled "Calling On Youth" that's also quite good. (Good especially for UK punk rock which for me generally lacks the immediate "Oomph!" of American Punk. But we invented it.) These guys stripped things down. They came to rock and didn't need to play dress up. They succeeded quite well, I think. These tracks smolder nicely.
Later Adrian Boland would go on to front the Sound and make many other records before succumbing to mental illness and suicide in 1999. (R.I.P.)

Meanwhile on the other side of the pond and a couple years later :



1. I Got a Crush On You
2. New York

Speaking of reused band names we've got the Rentals. Now this is not the Rentals that was formed by ex-Weezer bassist Matt Sharp. This The Rentals is one of the several projects based around the husband & wife team of Jeff & Jane Hudson. It's the sort of primitive half-assed proto-New Wave stuff that you expect of the fringes of the New York scene of the time (though the band formed in Boston) And with absolutely no connection to Weezer at all. Dead pan and charming and produced by WBCN radio personality Oedipus. I am rather fond of it.