Comments on Sparks Revival

It's not just the virtuosity that makes Sparks so inspiring, it's the depth of music styles that they've shown such a deft mastery of. 70's era Sparks is undoubtedly one of my favorites, but their electronic stuff is not to be overlooked.

Their music only seems more relevant as the years go by.

We've been having Sparks fever all year long at Sonic Boom. Last Sunday, we played nothing but Sparks all day long, dubbing the day Sparks Sunday. Arthur's latest issue has a nice interview/feature with Sparks, and the complete discography in review. Sparks fever is here!

Dirtbombs do two Sparks covers on their newest 7". "Sherlock Holmes" and "Nothing to Do."

Also: You must hear Angst In My Pants and No. 1 in Heaven. Two essentials from their storied career.

Youtube their SNL performance from 1982.

Let us enlighten you!

Lastly, I wish I could be in London.

I heart Sparks, but I never thought of them as a prog band, really...is that what they are?

No, on the whole they're not a prog band, but the song I posted definitely has some prog flavoring to it. The rest of Kimono My House musically follows closer down the Queen road than the Yes one, but the singer's got a Jon Anderson/Geddy Lee falsetto going that makes it hard not to draw prog comparisons.

Yeah. I just never listened to much prog, so I came to Sparks from a different perspective and never made those connections. They actually never really had a genre in my head. Just a fantastic pop band.

I have a great version of This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us with Faith No More.

sparks does not = prog. EVER!

they are far to clever by half and then some to ever be prog.

you should try to find Big Beat and Introducing. those albums have never been released on CD. and both are unknown gems!

it seems like every year i introduce someone to sparks, and every year i hear the same thing.

"WHO?!?!"

so happy there's another convert!

I never heard of Sparks until a few years ago, when I got the Morrissey "Under the Influence" CD (where he picks a bunch of songs for a CD...lots of other artists have made them, too) and they had a song on it. I immediately went out and got a bunch of their other stuff and love it all...danceable and interesting and funny (Young girls?!?!?!).

I should also mention I was introduced to the fantastic Ludus from this CD. And Twinkle from some Morrissey interview...man, he's got goooood taste!

Terry,

Big Beat got reissued on CD in 2006, and Introducing Sparks got reissued on CD in 2007.

Neither are close to being their best albums, but both have their moments.

You guys can watch live audio streams of each of the London shows, btw. It's not really hi-fi, but you gotsta take what you can get. Each show starts 1pm PST.

Without a doubt, one of my favorite albums by them is 1999's "Plagiarism". It's similar to Kraftwerk's "The mix" in the fact that it's electronic remixes of their best material. Housey- beats with string sections. Timeless!

You know they're doing a concernt series right now where they're playing all 21 albums in 21 days?

Totally awesome.

I'd like to toss my two cents in here and recommend that people track down "Whomp That Sucker" which came out in between "No. 1 in Heaven" and "Angst in my Pants." It's got some real burners on it.

But yeah, "No. 1 in Heaven" is No. 1. Although the little run of albums from "Kimono My House" through "Indiscreet" are tops. Plus "Indiscreet" has the song "Tits" which blows my mind every time i hear it.