GAOTW: The Soft Boys

One of my few regrets is not seeing THE SOFT BOYS when the reunited. I have seen Robyn Hitchcock many times (back in Chicago and Milwaukee) but since my move to the desert - the quality of artists that hit the Valley of the Sun has been waining. Earlier this month I had tickets to see THE FRATELLIS (a show my son and I were both looking forward to). They cancelled. So while I sit here, sweating to the oldies, THE SOFT BOYS willl be my latest artist of the week.

The Soft Boys have turned out to be one of the most influential bands in shaping contemporary alternative music, though few are completely familiar with the quirky band's legacy. Formed in Cambridge, England in 1976 on the heels of the punk revolution, the Soft Boys eschewed the three-chord nihilism of punk and opted for a crude version of psychedelic/folk-rock that was well on its way out of fashion, but oddly, just on the cusp of a resurgence. Robyn Hitchcock recruited Cambridge musicians Morris Windsor on drums, Andy Metcalfe on bass, and guitarist Alan Davies, and recorded Give It to the Soft Boys in Hitchcock's living room in 1976. Davies was soon replaced by guitarist Kimberley Rew. The band released a single, "(I Want to Be An) Anglepoise Lamp," followed by the Can of Bees album in 1979. While recording the follow-up, Metcalfe left the band and was replaced by Matthew Seligman. The new lineup started fresh and recorded Underwater Moonlight, the album that found the band trading psychedelic jams for a more straight-ahead jangle pop-guitar rock sound. The LP has become extremely influential in the guitar rock canon -- the Replacements, R.E.M., and the L.A. Paisley Underground scene all claimed it as a prime influence. The album launched a thousand bands, but it turned out to be the Soft Boys' swan song. Two more recordings were released posthumously: the 2 Halfs for the Price of One EP in 1981, and some early sessions compiled on Invisible Hits in 1983. The first EP was re-released in 1984 as Wading Through a Ventilator. Windsor and Metcalfe began to collaborate with Hitchcock again in 1984 as the Egyptians, while Seligman became an in-demand session musician and Rew went on to form Katrina & the Waves. Hitchcock has had a prolific post-Soft Boys recording career, sticking to the unusual style he's forged and finessed since 1976, with 15 albums to his credit. ~ Denise Sullivan, All Music Guide

Albums

Give It To The Soft Boys (EP) (1977)
A Can of Bees (LP) (1979) (reissued as CD 1992)
Underwater Moonlight (LP) (1980) (reissued as CD 1992)
Near the Soft Boys (EP) (1980)
Two Halves for the Price of One (LP) (1981)
Invisible Hits (LP) (1983) (reissued as CD 1992)
Live at the Portland Arms (cassette) (1983) (reissued as LP 1988)
Wading Through a Ventilator (EP) (1984)
Raw Cuts (CD EP) (1989)
1976-81 (2 CD) (1993)
Underwater Moonlight... And How It Got There (2 CD) (2001)
Nextdoorland (CD) (2002)
Side Three (CD EP) (2002)

Singles

"(I Want to Be an) Anglepoise Lamp" b/w "Fatman's Son" (45) (1978)
"I Wanna Destroy You" b/w "Old Pervert" (45) (1980)
"Only the Stones Remain" b/w "The Asking Tree" (45) (1981)
"Love Poisoning" (45) (1982)
"He's a Reptile" b/w "Song No. 4" (45) (1983)
"The Face of Death" b/w "The Yodelling Hoover" (45) (1989)