Soft Boys Rock Hard

Lame-ass, title, huh? Anyway, if you aren't familiar with The Soft Boys, you should definitely check them out. They're part of my "commercially unsuccessful but hugely influential bands from the late 70's/early 80's" series of posts. Trippy old Robyn Hitchcock was the lead singer, and the guitarist, Kimberly Rew, went on to form Katrina and the Waves. The Soft Boys were a huge influence on REM and some of our other favorite artists from the 80's. Their 2nd album, Underwater Moonlight, is a classic. Two standout tracks are:

- I Wanna Destroy You (a response to punk rock)
- Queen of Eyes (talk about jangle-pop!)

You can listen to clips on Amazon, although not Queen of Eyes unfortunately. However, looks like Amazon offers Insanely Jealous as a free download.

The Soft Boys reunited for a few years earlier this century and put out a new album that was well-received critically. You can download a good track (Mr. Kennedy) from it at Epitonic.