This weekend I’ll mostly be listening to… the Mad Violets June 19, 2010
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to....trackback
The Mad Violets, neo-psychedelic garage band, based in New York during the early to mid 1980s and led by Wendy Wild, artist, performance artist (she was closely associated with John Sex), singer, person around town, character. She died in 1996 at the shockingly young age of 40 from breast cancer.
You’ll find on her wiki page that she worked with a range of people including Bronski Beat, the Fleshtones, and the Hoodoo Gurus. So an eclectic mix there then.
I first heard them on a neo-psychedelic compilation in the mid 1980s and was struck by her voice, an individual voice – although I have to admit to really liking it. The Mad Violets were definitely Wild’s band, and the work she did with them was memorable. That voice managed to make them sound not so much of the 1980s as the late 60s. Which is to say that if she had intended to lead a garage/neo-psychedelia band then she managed that task admirably.
I’ve always loved their song ‘Come Out and Play’, which is here. A lovely melody set to a chugging rhythm and keyboards. She did a remarkable version of ‘Morning Dew’ with some of the Fleshtones as her backing band, but that’s not available on YouTube. So I’ve had to put in another Fleshtones collaboration which is, sadly, nowhere near as good.
There’s a newish compilation album out from them, and an old mini-album of theirs, ‘Worlds of LSD’ (natch!) from 1986 or so which you can hunt down on t’internet should the mood take you.
Enjoy.
Come out and play
Psilocybe
I Go Wild (by the Wild Hyenas fronted by Wendy Wild – atypical in terms of the sound of the Mad Violets)
Hmmm – I think I’ll stick to Lydia Lunch to get me through my weekends… having only listened to the track you think the best.
Looking at the photo backing that 2nd track – I’m sure I saw that lot in the Green Dolphin some time late 80s – or was I just on the product they make allusion to ?
You’ll eventually have to get on to Goth mid-table strugglers the MARCH Violets WBS
[...] should have been. And if I were remaking it I’d definitely add Beach Boy by Bad Karma Beckons and Come out and Play by the Mad Violets. [...]