I never quite got it right in the 1980’s, the bits I remember anyway. There was the case of the elasticated trousers, where my Mother, with money being very tight in our house, decided to make me my school trousers. She came out with these elasticated monstrosities, a sort of dark blue drainpipe affair, made essentially with a material that you would only use when considering joggers, that frankly didn’t exist in rural England in the 1980s. Walking past the cool kids with those trousers, my frumpy Clarks black school shoes, and my green fur-lined Parker, was desperate.
I had it in my mind that I had to get some Nike trainers. I had made a terrible fashion faux pas by choosing what I thought were a fairly racy pair of Dunlop’s out of me Mum’s catalogue, only to be told in no uncertain terms by my peers that a) they were shoes a small child would wear, and b) Dunlop was a make that was regarded in very low esteem by the fashion police. On my birthday, I pointed out the one’s I wanted, only for my Mother to take it into her own hands and buy the cheapest pair of trainers that Nike made. Cue, much schoolyard hilarity at the very idea I would buy a pair of those. Luckily The Smiths and The Cure saved me, and black clothes and cardigans could be purchased at a fairly reasonable rate anywhere.
Over in New York, the 1980s are, if not remembered, then certainly regarded quite differently. Cardiknox is made up of Lonnie Angle and Thomas Dutton. Having grown up in Seattle, they moved to New York after growing up with classical piano lessons (the former) and punk rock (the latter) to write riotous musicals together.
A musical it may not be, but the band have just released their new single, Hold me down. It takes some of those beats so beloved of 80’s dance artists, those sparkly, chunky keyboard sounds and minimal hip-hop beats, and lays this attitude ridden vocal over the top. It’s as the song reaches the chorus that this attitude subsides, only to morph into some smart, clever pop that has a hook that would knock Floyd Mayweather out.
Listening back to this, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I should find some elasticated drainpipes/joggers, some blue Nike Bongos, and hit the town……
http://cardiknox.com/
http://twitter.com/cardiknox
http://soundcloud.com/cardiknox
