How come I never mentioned
The Connells in here?
I'm a fan, and I listen to them very often, but apparently I haven't mentioned them in this topic. Currently listening to them, songs played in order of appearance:
"Scotty's Lament"
"Darker days"
"Over there"
"Seven" (now playing)
"Seven" and "Darker days" are off the first album ("Darker days"), when the band drew comparisons with The Smiths in the press, including a local magazine naming them "Raleigh's local depressants". Their music evolved a lot throughout their career. Vocalist Doug MacMillan also changed vocal style quite radically after that first album, which makes people sometimes wrongly assume that the band changed vocalist. They never did though.
This band is so underrated it's almost criminal. Also, people should stop comparing them to REM. They both have jangle influences in their music, they both hail from the American South, they both started off in the 80s. There the comparison stops.
It's so sad that people often call them a "one hit wonder" based on the success of "74-75" in Europe, while they have so many good songs. They're working on a new album now, they had record company problems for years but it seems the new album is finally coming now. Hopefully there will be a tour with European dates included, although I doubt it given the lack of fame of their songs other than "74-75" here. Guess I'll have to catch a flight to Raleigh at some point if I ever wanna see them live.