#376/1012 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
1985 Housekeeping
Game Theory
Real Nighttime
Genre: Jangle Pop
4.75 out of 5
Highlights:
24
I Mean it This Time
Friend of the Family
Real Nighttime
Oh, man, where has Game Theory been in my life?
Let me explain why I am so baffled that I never heard of them:
There was a bit torrent site called Soulseek in the mid aughts. I used to linger there and convince millennials to download Throttle Back Sparky’s album. Especially in the densely populate “Indie” room. And that’s where I heard of sooooooo many bands who would’ve escaped my notice. Groups like Exploding Hearts and Epoxies and The Thermals and Olivia Tremor Control and others. (And yes, I bought their CDs, so shut up)
I won’t say what member of what band was on there and traded some of his stuff with me, but suffice to say the band was excellent and one of their part time members is in this group.
I conversed with him (and others) about Power Pop as it’s so often misidentified. That sent me on a journey (on soulseek and a variety of places) for all things PP. From Raspberries to Bay city Rollers to Big Star to Rick Springfield and all stops between and off the track and never once did I hear the name Game Theory. I mean, I heard of The Spongetones, dammit. But never ever ever this band.
That this brilliance escaped that journey is mind boggling.
The second (or 3rd) Power Pop renaissance in LA, with the likes of Martin Luther Lennon, Chewy Marble, The Andersons, Wonderboy, Lisa Mychols, Sparklejets U*K*, Jellyfish, The Wonderments and so many others, owe more, I think, to Game Theory than, almost anyone else. Sure, the Chilton is there but I feel like there are over 1000 bands who have been featured on the International Pop Overthrow who owe something to Game Theory.
RIP, Scott Miller.
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