Black Vinyl Shoes Shoes Artist

Most bands start out trying to bang their songs together in someone's living room, but {|Shoes|} certainly made more of that experience than most people. {|Jeff Murphy|}, {|Gary Klebe|}, and {|John Murphy|} were three {|pop|} obsessives from Zion, IL... Read more

Most bands start out trying to bang their songs together in someone's living room, but {|Shoes|} certainly made more of that experience than most people. {|Jeff Murphy|}, {|Gary Klebe|}, and {|John Murphy|} were three {|pop|} obsessives from Zion, IL, who bought a four-track, found a drummer ({|Skip Meyer|}), and started putting songs on tape in {|Murphy|}'s living room with all the care their primitive circumstances would allow. While the results were intended to be used only as a demo, {|Black Vinyl Shoes|} eventually attracted the attention of {|PVC Records|}, who gave the homemade set a nationwide release; the album's positive press eventually earned the band a major-label deal. Like their contemporaries and kindred spirits {|the Scruffs|}, {|Shoes|} were one of the few interesting {|pop|} bands to emerge in the mid- to late '70s who were very obviously not {|new wave|}; {|Shoes|} were {|pop|} classicists in the manner of {|the Beatles|} and {|the Raspberries|}, and if their low-tech recording setup dictated a leaner and more basic approach than the Fab Four, the thick guitar lines, smooth backing harmonies, and trickier-than-they-sound melodic structures made it clear their back-to-basic style was a nod to past {|rock|} glories as much as a call to jangly arms. But {|Shoes|} also had their own set of quirks to bring to the table (again like {|the Scruffs|}, {|Shoes|} had an unusual perspective on the male/female relationship), and there's an understated, off-kilter wit to songs like {|Tragedy,|} {|Do You Wanna Get Lucky?,|} and {|Capital Gains|} that's as delicious as the band's rich, satisfying songcraft. {|Black Vinyl Shoes|} is an album whose somewhat primitive production actually works in its favor; with 15 tunes to record and only four tracks on hand, {|Shoes|} made a record that was about melodies, hooks, and harmonies, and the result was an album that helped kick start the '80s {|pop|} revival -- and still sounds fine almost a quarter of a century later. ~ Mark Deming Less