Friday, March 4, 2022

The 1981 Listening Post - Sunnyboys - Sunnyboys

 Sunnyboys - Sunnyboys


#440

September 1981 Listening Post Discovery

Sunnyboys

Sunnyboys

Genre: Alternative

4.5 out of 5



Highlights:

It’s Not Me

Happy Man

Tunnel of Love

I’m Shakin’



This is the burgeoning alternative sound that we will come to love from The Waterboys and so many other deliciously “alternative” bands. That an Australian band in 1981 was right there with the basic infrastructure of what will come to be THE sound of college radio in about 5 years is sort of astounding. 

Listen to “Trouble in My Brain” and tell me you don’t think these guys were channeling the same muse that fueled “Radio Free Europe” by REM. But Chronic Town is a year off. And this sound was percolating down under. 

If you can get past Oxley’s voice (it’s not great…kind of reminds me of Glenn Danzig in a way) then you can totally get down with Sunnyboys as they anticipate alternative radio with their syncopated rhythms and Byrd’s on speed approach that Peter Buck fans will find appealing.

While it flags a bit late on Side Two it redeems itself with the explosive “I’m Shakin’”.

Wild.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXQ3HLQx7HE&list=PLlvn8uktX5LvsZqXsYgh5o1B2iBXuYlbj

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