No Fixed Address
Belfast. Belgium. Vancouver. Milwaukee. Worcester, England — not Worcester Massachusetts, Worcester England, which is somehow further from the London punk scene than Belfast was. Power pop has rules about where it comes from: the right American city, the right English coast, the right connection to a label that knew what the Raspberries were doing. These ten records didn’t get that memo. They arrived from the wrong coordinates, made the record anyway, and were better for it.
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01
Rudi — “Big Time”
The first record Terri Hooley ever released on Good Vibrations — GOT-1, May 1978, three thousand copies pressed. Belfast was in the middle of the Troubles and Brian Young wrote a song about wanting things to be bigger and better. Three chords, under two minutes, perfect. Henry McDonald of The Observer later called it “one of the most perfect pop songs to come out of this island.” He wasn’t wrong. The label was named after a Beach Boys record. The city was under a curfew.
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02
Protex — “Don’t Ring Me Up”
GOT-6 on Good Vibrations — the same label, the same city, six singles later. Terri Hooley picked them up after seeing them at the Glenmachan Hotel. “Don’t Ring Me Up” is the Buzzcocks translated into Belfast without losing anything in transit: all anxious energy and clean guitar and a hook that comes at you twice as fast as you expect. Rough Trade repressed it and sent it to the rest of the world. The original is better.
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03
The Tights — “Bad Hearts”
First release on Cherry Red Records. The Tights were from Worcester, England — not Worcester Massachusetts, Worcester England, which is not anywhere near the London punk scene by geography or attitude. “Bad Hearts” runs at Buzzcocks-adjacent velocity and doesn’t slow down long enough to prove anything. Three songs on a 7-inch, recorded quickly, sounds like it. The label went on to sign Everything But the Girl and the Cocteau Twins. This is where it started.
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04
The Wasps — “Teenage Treats”
The Teenage Treats compilations were named after this song. Recorded for a Peel session in February 1978, the Wasps had exactly the kind of energy that doesn’t translate into a long career — too fast, too slight, no ballads, no second gear. “Teenage Treats” is a complete object: everything it needs, nothing it doesn’t. Peroxide charms, pogo powder, a girl of sixteen. Peel put it on the radio. They named a comp after it. That was enough.
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05
Hubble Bubble — “Look Around (I Was So Upset)”
Formed in Belgium in 1973, Hubble Bubble had a drummer named Roger Jouret. In 1978 Roger Jouret became Plastic Bertrand, recorded “Ça Plane Pour Moi,” and had a worldwide hit. Before that, he was playing drums on “Look Around (I Was So Upset)” — 95 seconds of Belgian proto-punk from 1977 that starts confused, ends confused, and is completely correct the entire time. Belgium wasn’t supposed to be doing this. Belgium did it anyway.
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06
Young Canadians — “Hawaii”
Art Bergmann’s band before Art Bergmann became Art Bergmann. Known as the K-Tels until a cease-and-desist from the Canadian K-Tel label forced the name change — a fitting origin story for a band this good being this invisible. “Hawaii” is the title track from their 12-inch EP: 102 seconds, no waste, a song about wanting to leave for somewhere warmer written by people who had the specific Vancouver experience of knowing they probably weren’t leaving.
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07
The B Girls — “Fun at the Beach”
Toronto, three women, one record. “Fun at the Beach” gets filed next to the Runaways because that’s the reflex, but it belongs next to the Nerves — this is a power pop single, pure and efficient, no gender-as-novelty framing required. The whole thing is over in under two minutes and you start it again. The B-side is “B-Side.” They understood the format.
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08
The Haskels — “Taking the City by Storm”
Milwaukee Hits Records. That’s the label. That answers the question of whether they had major label backing. The Haskels were from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Maximum RocknRoll described their sound as “a decidedly Midwestern translation of proto-punk grit, glam-tinged snarl, and power-pop hooks.” That’s accurate. The self-titled EP has four songs. All four songs are good. “Taking the City by Storm” later appeared on the Bloodstains Across the Midwest compilation, where it fit perfectly.
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09
The Speedies — “Something on My Mind”
New York, 1981 — slightly late to the power pop window, slightly past the moment. The Speedies didn’t care. “Something on My Mind” has the urgency of a band that knows it’s running a little behind and has decided to make up the time by playing faster. The sound is clean, the hook lands on schedule, and the whole thing operates with the confidence of people who hadn’t been told the genre was over yet.
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10
The Letters — “Nobody Loves Me”
One single. That’s the entire discography. The Letters started in 1978, released one record in 1980, and stopped. “Nobody Loves Me” is a power pop song that shouldn’t exist without a follow-up — too good to be a one-off, too considered to be an accident. There’s a band here, a sound here, a whole run of records that never happened. The A-side is all that’s left. It’s enough to be annoyed about.
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