Find out what the CL Music Team is jamming this fine Monday to rocket launch the work week. Click here to check out previous entries.
Julie – Adam and the Ants, Antics in the Forbidden Zone (1990)
Talk about ants in the pants. Right at the very same moment Music Editor Leilani Polk issued her dispatch for Monday music listenings, I got an e-mail from Hard Rock's publicist that Adam Ant re-scheduled his show (originally set for February) for Sept. 27 at the Hard Rock right here in Tampa. Just last night I was playing the above-referenced ANT-thology while driving on the Courtney Campbell Causeway, singing and spazzing out like I was a tween again. As much as I'm not a fan of "greatest hits" reductions, I really love this one, which brings you from lo-fi gems like Adam and the Ants' "Kick" and "Xerox" to the catchy pop sensations of Adam Ant's solo hits "Goody Two Shoes" (which I nixed from my copy) and "Friend or Foe." On that same drive, I recounted to my BF how my BFF, when we were 12, wrote the lyrics to "Ant Music" and "Stand and Deliver" for me on notebook paper. I speechified about how original he was by combining indigenous tribal music, brassy flair, proto New Wave rock and old-fashioned romantic swish; plus he was always sexy, clever and an utterly entertaining showman. I shared that I'd seen him perform for his "Strip" tour at the Bayfront Center during my freshman year of high school and it changed my life (the Romantics, funny enough, opened the show). Count me in for Hard Rock's upcoming nostalgia fest. I hope I get to review it; that said, I'll be happy to relinquish the honor to my compadre in old-school old wave, Gabe Echazabal. [More entries, Gabe's included, and some with video, after the jump.]
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2012.