Bangles, I remember you

I’ve been rediscovering my own vinyl lately and felt compelled to write a bit here about The Bangles. No, not the embarrassing Egyptian-walking Bangles you remember, I mean the first IRS EP Bangles.

The year is 1982 and it’s a time when people still release EP’s to intro a new band or to add to a collection of someone more established. People buy EP’s even. It’s a wild time before the Internet even existed. Imagine that. It’s a time so deep in the past that The Bangles have not yet met Prince, and are unaware that they will one day give in to trading on possessing a total of 8 human breasts between them in order to get airplay. But I digress...

The Bangles don’t have bassist Michael Steele yet, they have a lady named Annette Zilinkas in the band, who in a move that years later will be sure to make her think about the fickle finger of fate, will depart to sing in Blood on the Saddle before the Bangles on their next record become a big commercial success. So the first Bangles EP (and for that matter the instrumental track “Bitchen Summer Speedway” which appears on compilation Rodney on the Roq Volume 3) is a snapshot of the Bangles before fame has tainted them, and before Susanna Hoffs mistakenly believes she is an actress.

On The Bangles EP, the production isn’t much, so what is most noticeable are the million part harmonies that collide and shimmer all over the place. On tracks like ‘Mary Street’ the band sound as lush as a female choir delivering the chorus, and on “The Real World” Hoffs’ vocals sparkle with little girl sweetness over an irrepressible jangly mix that epitomized that Paisley Underground sound so popular in the early 80’s LA scene. It’s a shame that as time went by The Bangles just became less a band and more a vehicle for Hoffs’ bedroom eyes and less a vehicle for jangle pop. Some remnants of this early Bangles does spill over into All Over The Place on tracks like “James” and more fully developed single “Hero Takes a Fall” but by Different Light it’s a whole different band. Farewell to youth, hello to ick.