Wild Wild West

The Escape Club, “Wild Wild West” 12” (Atlantic, 1988)
In my teenage indie-drug-punk salad days, merely hearing this chunk of hysterical techno-rock schlock (think a near-rip-off of “Pump It Up” if Elvis Costello had written it as theme music for the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” cartoon) on the radio would send me into an inanimate-object-destroying fury, like whenever Larry plays “Pop Goes the Weasel” to Curly. A quarter-century later, I find myself genuinely enjoying this, in all its crass, garish glory. Laugh at me if you want, I deserve it, but it’s not inconceivable that some of those reading this will find themselves, twenty or so years hence, responding in a comparable manner to the “Works” of Kreayshawn or 3! OH! 3! Like the man said, the owl of Minerva flies at dusk.
Try A/2 (the single edit)
10/3/13
Compellingly preposterous dance-rock-shlock commercial kitchen-sink concoction; ham-fisted “topical” lyrics, grating horns, flash guitar wank, boomingly hollow syndrums, all redeemed by a total absence of irony. Thirty years later, and I still don’t know if I’m laughing with this or at it.
Try 1/ 1, 1/ 3
6/18/18