October 21, 2007

The Mod Sound: The Targets - Searching for a Scene

I'm starting something new, where in every so often (I hesitate to say daily, or even weekly, as I'm a notorious procrastinator) I will be sharing single songs from my collection. These will primarily be mod songs that are perhaps obscure, or at least not mainstream. My hope is that this will introduce you all to things you might have missed otherwise and that you will search out the artists, buy their music or support their live performances.

So the first upload I've selected is from a band that I saw play live only once right at the end of their existence, The Targets. They were a southern California mod band from Claremont, fronted by a young woman named Nikki. The guitarist was Perry Tollet who went on to form the mod power pop band Chardon Square that played the So Cal mod scene throughout the rest of the 80s. This track is Searching for a Scene. It's a simple song, a sort of blend of sixties pop with eighties power pop, and definitely geared for dancing. The lyrics are simple too, but perfect for sixteen year old mods that were into reviving all things sixties, cool and British. We wanna be sharp/when we go out at night/We don't wanna look like skanks/we don't wanna fight/We're so far from London/that sometimes I just ache/Working next here on our own/We're all gonna shake.

Get it here.