A Strange Education

04/11/2007 9:00 PM, LAUNCH
Rob O'Connor

When you consider how many ’60s musicians were influenced by bluesmen 20 to 60 years their senior, it shouldn’t seem all that strange that today’s up-and-comers look with fondness on their elders. Echo & the Bunnymen, the Smiths, the Cure and Joy Division were all outstanding bands given wide acceptance in the UK and mixed success in the U.S back in the long-ago 1980s. If a Glasgow quartet uses these influences as a launching pad for tunes as catchy as “Race To The City” and “Break,” well, who are we to argue? It’s what you do with your influences that matter. If your songs end up threatening the lives of innocent children, you should be dealt with in a severe manner. But if your songs wrap up in joyous celebration of an era when reverb and very large-sounding guitars and keyboards made the world seem a better place, well, then, bravo mates! Crap, after all, somewhere tonight a Molly Hatchet tribute band is tuning up – and they must be stopped.