A Playful Post-Punk Romp

0:00I tell you, everybody, this whole island is bewitched. Just the cops to it, I lost the seal. Now I'm feeling all my own. Stand in for fun, home. Look, you remember, we were shipwrecked together. Welcome to this bonus episode of Sound Opinions. I am Greg Kot. My partner is Jim Derigadas. And if you want to be the first to hear our bonus podcast, become a Sound Opinions member on Patreon. Like Jane Mecklenberg from Chicago, she listens to us on WBZ as a great Patreon supporter. Jane, we cannot thank you enough for being our supporter on our home station here in Chicago. Jim, you've got an opportunity to plug a quarter in the Desert Island jukebox. Thanks to Jane's support. What are you going to play? Greg, I am going to play in my ongoing effort to highlight great.

1:02Sometimes only one hit wonder, female bands from the last 30 years or so. I'm going to play one that I know you have always had the greatest use of hand claps in any song in pop music history is Laura Nero's famous collaboration with LeBel on I Met Him on a Sunday. I would say that the hand clap interlude in the song I'm going to highlight is second best. All right, I can't wait to hear it. That's going to be in a minute on Sound Opinions. Sound Opinions is supported by the Goose Island beer company. For over 20 years, Goose Island has been brewing their iconic 312 beer for the best moments in our city. It's the Chicago thing. We're asking listeners to go to soundopinions.org and leave us a voice message on the most Chicago thing you've ever seen or experienced. I was visiting a friend a few years ago. I attended a neighbor's block party. And just as I arrived, the band broke into Jail House Rock.

2:03And then someone pointed out to me that the lead singer was your convicted ex-governor Rob Lagoiavich. Who reminded us that he had 2,900 days to learn that song. And that was my quintessential Chicago moment. 312 Beer, it's a Chicago thing. Sound Opinions is an independent production supported by listeners like me on Patreon. Join us in keeping independent music criticism in the world by clicking the link in this episode's description. Welcome back to Sound Opinions to our listeners. And Jim, you are going to play a great song for us. I can't wait for the handclaps. You know that post punk era Greg in the UK and in the US had so many wonderful bands. Some of them that had one album if they were lucky and then they were never heard from again.

3:03But some immortal songs in that era. And so I'm going to talk about the Modets. Multinational, female, all female post punk band formed in 1979. In the UK, guitarist Kate Corris had briefly done time in the slits and also the raincoats. A band that we talked about at length not long ago. A lot of people were in and out of the raincoats and Kate was one of them. She put together the Modets and you know they had a hitch. Right off the bat written by Jane Crawford in the band who would go on to spend 15 years married to somebody from the Skah band madness. There's a little hint of Skah in what the Modets were doing. But also some of that bare bones post punk female sound of the slits and raincoats and a lot of other stuff. It's all informed by punk.

4:04You know the drummer would go on to do some stuff with Funboy 3. It's a tight scene in the UK at that time. White mice I think is one of the best songs of that era. It's a classic of a female sexual empowerment with a killer chorus. This is these young women speaking to men. Don't be stupid. Don't be limp. No girl likes to love a wimp. Dance and make fun nicely done. Come by and be my number one. And you know they give it to us several times in a three minute single. And the best is when it breaks down and the music drops out and they're just hand clapping to it. Right. Maybe we can highlight that part in this. You remember that song? It's a classic. Yes, yes I do. You know we're never going to run out of these like immortal singles that there was only one album. The story so far in 1981 and the Modets Ape and Herd of Synths. But for that alone and this alone they deserve to be remembered.

5:27Make fun of the song. Oh, baby, but why don't you be don't be limp. No girl likes to love a wimp. Dance and make fun of the song. Modets was the Modets or Modets. I've seen it both ways. It doesn't matter. White mice is a song you needed to hear and I wanted to play for you. Excellent excellent. Thanks for the hand claps Jim. Thanks for this bonus episode for more full episodes. Visit soundapenians.org to sponsor the show. Email sponsor at soundapenians.org. Sound opinions is produced by Andrew Gill, Alex Clayborn and Max Hadlam, or social media consultant is Katie Cot. Thanks as always for listening.