Soundtracks: The Bangles, All Over the Place (reissue)

Much love to The Smudge of Ashen Fluff for letting us know about the just-released reissue of All Over the Place, the first full-length by The Bangles. I think I have a copy of the album somewhere but it's vinyl and most likely hidden in my parents' attic in Massachusetts, and technically it belongs to my stepdad anyway. I don't remember much of that record, but I never stopped loving "Hero Takes a Fall" and still put it on mix CDs as proof that The Bangles made a lot of fiercely perfect jangle-pop songs apart from the one about walking like an Egyptian.

It's funny, looking through photos of the band now: I don't remember them dressing so much like secretly goth high-school art teachers. I can't deal with all that velvet but I do appreciate their getting the California hippie thing all tangled up with a Sunset-Strip-circa-'87 kind of glam. I just look at the hair and go, "Oh yeah, Aqua Net!" I'd forgotten that Aqua Net ever existed. And did you know that their original name was The Supersonic Bangs?

Probably the main reason I'm writing this post is I've still got hardcore Bangle smittenness left over from when I was 11 and got to meet them backstage at one of their concerts. It was me and two of my best friends, and the band was supernice and signed our 8 x 10 photos and gave us Diet Coke and asked us about our summer vacations. (Vicki was the coolest one of all; I LOVE YOU, VICKI.) Anyway, that night they opened with "Hazy Shade of Winter," which is possibly my favorite Bangles song, even though it's not actually a Bangles song. And it's not on All Over the Place either but I'm going to post the video here anyway, because maybe we'll never do another post about The Bangles again and because - in addition to my enduring Vicki Peterson crush - I've still got a mega thing for Andrew McCarthy, who never looked better than in Less Than Zero.

Posted by Liz in Soundtracks
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