In recently mentioning Indiana’s Dow Jones and the Industrials while describing the odd Midwestern aesthetic combining hard rock, nascent punk stuff and weirdo synth experiments, it seemed as if it sprung from that area specifically. And it may have. But that’s just another one of those proclamations like “So and so were the first punk band.” With that in mind, a band kicking around Houston towards the end of the seventies didn’t sound too detached from whatever was going on in the breadbasket.
Plastic Idols have a succinct and unquestionably punky name. Is there a better combination of adjective and noun to exude the first wave of punk’s disdain for popular culture and thought (political and otherwise). As obvious as the band’s name is, the source material plundered to come up with the tracks comprising Singles, Demos & Live and originally recorded four decades back winds up being a bit more obscure.
There’s that overt seventies’ punk thing happening. But the hard rock penchant that this ensemble had was run through with a cheese ball pop conception of radio stardom. There was even a bit of mod styled power pop inserted every once in a while. The group’s best thought of second single, which includes “Einstein Experience,” is almost a garage album gussied up with synthesizer. Again, none of this is revelatory, just an weird confluence of sounds – but what else should we expect from Texans?
Probably what kept these guys from making a name for themselves – like Dow Jones, but not MX-80 Sound – was an inability to tour. That’s not properly documented, but a safe guess given the time period from which this springs. Plastic Idols had a bit of everything for the Dr. Demento crowd. Ok, it was mostly synthesizer explorations, but still it was a distinct departure from the Ramones.
“I'm Already Dead” stands apart from the rest of this clutch of twenty songs. It counts as one of the more straightforward songs on the disc. But what makes the difference is the band’s dismissal of the synth, even if it’s just for two minutes and fifty seconds.
Drawing back on the most difficult part of its sound doesn’t mean Plastic Idols were on occasion attempting to land on a hit – that was pretty unlikely. But just exhibits the band’s ties to straighter musics seeing as the Ubus, MX-80 or whoever else wouldn’t have been able to record something like this and have it hold together. Good, but not essential.