The 1981 Listening Post - Human Sexual Response - In a Roman Mood

Human Sexual Response - In a Roman Mood

#417

September 9 1981

Human Sexual Response

In a Roman Mood

Genre: New Wave

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Andy Fell

Pound

Blow Up

Land of the Glass Pinecones

Requisite 80s cover:

A terrific and creepy groovy ghoulie version of “A Question of Temperature” by The Balloon Farm. The original is decidedly 60s psychedelia. HSR’s version could be played on the radio today. 

HSR’s follow up to the incredible and indelible Fig. 14 opens with a big 80s alternative sounding “Andy Fell” and maybe that’s why when I had the single back in the day I didn’t gravitate toward it. HSR was looking toward the future, a future where R.E.M. reigned and ushered in a new, Independent sound because “Andy Fell” sounds like it belongs more on Chronic Town than in a Larry Bangor band. But it’s decidedly an HSR song; an uplifting beat and melody about a college suicide. It’s perfect. 

Following it with the art-rock tribal sequel to “Marone Moan”, “Marone Offering” calls to mind Echo & the Bunneymen in it’s haunting and ethereal quality but the Bostonians have more energy than their kinsmen from across the pond. HSR wants you to fall under their spell and lose yourself in the harmonies while they conjure some spirits to whisk us all to the “Land of the Glass Pinecones).

Listening to “Pound” and knowing that this is the era of Kings of the Wild Frontiers I think they were either slightly too late or someone just didn’t want to give them the love they deserve. 

I have this record but I got it from Amoeba just before my turntable crapped out and I never replaced it so, I have actually never heard the entire thing until now. 

I’m struck by how bands like The Mowgli’s and Polyphonic Spree remind me of Human Sexual Response. The giant collective as rock band with heady lyrics and abject joy is something we need in rock. 

This record is simultaneously more mature than their previous but also a bit of a letdown for some reason, but not by much. I don’t know what I was expecting. Like there was an “Unba Unba” on Fig 14, here we get “12345678910”. First we get “What Does Sex Mean to Me” and here we get “Blow Up”, which is a machine gun of song, btw. 

So, I’m not sure what I was expecting outside of the discovery, which I got in spades from the first record. But Roman Mood is a more difficult to pierce record so, I’m sort of glad they ended on this note. 

By the way: Glass Pinecones are beer bottles making contact with guitar strings. Party bands. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnve0tFfhmQ&list=PLlvn8uktX5LvlgDbI5MIjeX8Zu1xRQHQq

The 1980 Listening Post - Human Sexual Response - Fig. 14

 Human Sexual Response - Fig. 14

#180

Human Sexual Response

Fig. 14

Genre: New Wave

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Guardian Angel

Jackie Onassis

What Does Sex Mean to Me

Requisite 80’s cover: “Cool Jerk”. I love the nerdy, hiccupy version of this song even more than the original. 

Spooky action at a distance. 

Have you heard of it? 

Quantum Entanglement. 

I have a theory about it so, here goes. I’ll make it short. 

When my daughter died in 2006 something interesting happened. As we were in the midst of sitting shiva, my first post-college roommate, a man I hadn’t spoken to (or even about) in 16 years, suddenly reached out and called me to see how I was. He had some life news he wanted to share and I told him about Liz. He came to Shiva and that was the first contact he and I had in over a decade and a half. 

Just a coincidence, though, right?

I didn’t think so. And the reason is because when Liz died I received, also seemingly out of the blue, an email from a woman who meant quite a bit to me as a youth. She and I hadn’t really spoken to each other in about 7 years or so and even then it was cursory. The most meaningful exchanges being when we were both in our teens to early 20s. My affection for her was not entirely reciprocated but it was deep, for me. She influenced the way I saw the world. She was confusing, magical, funny, spiritual and unlike anyone I’d ever met before. One of those people. 

Her email was of the “I was thinking about you” sort. And, as I said, it seemed to come out of the blue. 

I believe in Quantum Entanglement. I believe in it because it’s science and it’s proven. When two particles become entangled they develop a physical relationship. One spins while the other does not. You can take the spinning one and separate it from its twin, move it to an island 100 miles away or take it to the moon and when it stops spinning, the other one will start. 

How do particles become entangled? I think the emotional quotient of the relationship has something to do with it. 

So, when my particles were spinning, my friend’s were not. And then, my daughter died. And I believe that my particles stopped spinning (or started, depending on their state). And that caused the spinning of particles in my roommate or the girl. 

Hence the outreach. 

I’ve been thinking about Quantum Entanglement lately because we are all in a heightened state of emotion right now, being quarantined and I had reached out to the woman to see if she was interested in reviewing the record that she lent me when I was 16, which was, among The Incredibly Shrinking Dickies and Gary Numan’s Telekon, Human Sexual Response’s Fig. 14. After all, that was a really important experience for me. She basically formed the musical taste of my mid teens with those records. Perhaps she had some insights as to why they were important. 

So, I reached out. She didn’t respond. 

I let it go for a while, until I looked at the spreadsheet and realized that the album was coming up for review and I hadn’t assigned it to anyone. 

I asked again if she was interested, perhaps she just missed the message. 

This morning, around 5 AM I had a dream about her. The content isn’t important, but it was personal. It wasn’t fantastical. It was almost purely conversation. And walking. It was a gentle dream. It was calm. It was comfortable. 

I awoke and thought to myself, “self, if Quantum Entanglement is a thing, I bet you that while you were dreaming of her, she responded to that message.” I reached over, picked up my phone and, lo and behold, at the precise time I was dreaming about her, she wrote to me on facebook, politely declining to do the review as her life is incredibly busy and she didn’t think she would have the time. 

It’s impossible for me to be dispassionate about this record. I am entangled with it. And with the person who lent it to me. It has remained a singularly indelible moment for me. And, as life would have it, when I did finally make contact with her about the record, and asked why it was important enough to lend it to me, she had little recollection of the band or the album at all. 

Life is irony. And wonderful. And weird. 

And so is this record. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/fig-15/121697220

The 1980 Listening Post - Human Sexual Response - Fig. 14

Human Sexual Response - Fig. 14

#180

Human Sexual Response

Fig. 14

Genre: New Wave

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Guardian Angel

Jackie Onassis

What Does Sex Mean to Me

Requisite 80’s cover: “Cool Jerk”. I love the nerdy, hiccupy version of this song even more than the original. 

Spooky action at a distance. 

Have you heard of it? 

Quantum Entanglement. 

I have a theory about it so, here goes. I’ll make it short. 

When my daughter died in 2006 something interesting happened. As we were in the midst of sitting shiva, my first post-college roommate, a man I hadn’t spoken to (or even about) in 16 years, suddenly reached out and called me to see how I was. He had some life news he wanted to share and I told him about Liz. He came to Shiva and that was the first contact he and I had in over a decade and a half. 

Just a coincidence, though, right?

I didn’t think so. And the reason is because when Liz died I received, also seemingly out of the blue, an email from a woman who meant quite a bit to me as a youth. She and I hadn’t really spoken to each other in about 7 years or so and even then it was cursory. The most meaningful exchanges being when we were both in our teens to early 20s. My affection for her was not entirely reciprocated but it was deep, for me. She influenced the way I saw the world. She was confusing, magical, funny, spiritual and unlike anyone I’d ever met before. One of those people. 

Her email was of the “I was thinking about you” sort. And, as I said, it seemed to come out of the blue. 

I believe in Quantum Entanglement. I believe in it because it’s science and it’s proven. When two particles become entangled they develop a physical relationship. One spins while the other does not. You can take the spinning one and separate it from its twin, move it to an island 100 miles away or take it to the moon and when it stops spinning, the other one will start. 

How do particles become entangled? I think the emotional quotient of the relationship has something to do with it. 

So, when my particles were spinning, my friend’s were not. And then, my daughter died. And I believe that my particles stopped spinning (or started, depending on their state). And that caused the spinning of particles in my roommate or the girl. 

Hence the outreach. 

I’ve been thinking about Quantum Entanglement lately because we are all in a heightened state of emotion right now, being quarantined and I had reached out to the woman to see if she was interested in reviewing the record that she lent me when I was 16, which was, among The Incredibly Shrinking Dickies and Gary Numan’s Telekon, Human Sexual Response’s Fig. 14. After all, that was a really important experience for me. She basically formed the musical taste of my mid teens with those records. Perhaps she had some insights as to why they were important. 

So, I reached out. She didn’t respond. 

I let it go for a while, until I looked at the spreadsheet and realized that the album was coming up for review and I hadn’t assigned it to anyone. 

I asked again if she was interested, perhaps she just missed the message. 

This morning, around 5 AM I had a dream about her. The content isn’t important, but it was personal. It wasn’t fantastical. It was almost purely conversation. And walking. It was a gentle dream. It was calm. It was comfortable. 

I awoke and thought to myself, “self, if Quantum Entanglement is a thing, I bet you that while you were dreaming of her, she responded to that message.” I reached over, picked up my phone and, lo and behold, at the precise time I was dreaming about her, she wrote to me on facebook, politely declining to do the review as her life is incredibly busy and she didn’t think she would have the time. 

It’s impossible for me to be dispassionate about this record. I am entangled with it. And with the person who lent it to me. It has remained a singularly indelible moment for me. And, as life would have it, when I did finally make contact with her about the record, and asked why it was important enough to lend it to me, she had little recollection of the band or the album at all. 

Life is irony. And wonderful. And weird. 

And so is this record. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/fig-15/121697220