The Prime Movers >> They led me to strange beliefs and now my head is a museum

California Month, tremor #20:

The Prime Movers - "Museum"

(Birdcage Records, 1985 / 2005)

I first heard The Prime Movers in 2005 on a compilation CD called Beating Up The Campus: 18 College Rock Classics Of The '80s.  It was their very poppy song "On The Trail," which led me to check out what else they did in the '80s.  So I found out they put out an LP called Museum on their own Birdcage Records, which led to them being picked up by Island Records.  They were from Sierra Madre, CA.

At the 2:30 mark, right after the final lyric is delivered, the song explodes into a noisily beautiful Sonic Youth-esque cacophony before quickly fading out.  This mp3 is a freebie from the band's official site.  I would have preferred to post "In Touch With You," which has an even sicker bassline than this one, but I grew to love this song enough to post it.  There's so much going on in a mere 3-minute span.  Its bassline is a thing of rare beauty, muscular and powerful, yet funky as a damned son of a biotch.  The chiming / screaming guitar soundscapes are obviously very influenced by U2.  This band had serious chops, which is not something I often say, since I'm not into "chops"-type bands.  But man, their bassist was just amazing, their guitarist was very abstract though not averse to occasional arena heroics, and their drummer could own any kind of beat.

They were tapped to do a song for the Michael Mann film Manhunter, which was of course the prequel to The Silence Of The Lambs.  It was a strange, krautrock-y, Roxy-Music-on-steroids-and-coke tune called "Strong As I Am":

The Movers were rocking some nice "KROQ hair" in that clip.  Astute readers will recognize Manhunter's lead actor, William Petersen, from the epic car chase clip from the movie To Live And Die In L.A. that I showed in my post about the band Feverdream.  He was basically the proto-Tom Cruise, but without the lameness, and I can't understand why he never became a bigger star.  By the same token, The Prime Movers should've been stars, but you knew that by now.  They could be lumped into the "Big Music" scene of the mid-'80s, mainly consisting of U.K. bands like U2, Big Country, Simple Minds, The Alarm, Cactus World News, etc., who penned unabashedly heartfelt "big" songs combining some degree of post-punk underpinnings with sociologically-relevant lyrics.  And the P.M.'s even signed to U2's label, Island, so they had every bit of momentum going their way.  I'd say the archetypal song of this movement was unquestionably U2's global hit "Pride (In The Name Of Love)," which seemed like a love song but was actually about Martin Luther King, Jr.  You also had The Alarm's "Rain In The Summertime," Simple Minds' "Speed Your Love To Me," and of course Big Country's "In A Big Country." You could maybe include more ethereal songs like "Life In A Northern Town" by The Dream Academy.

Signed back cover of the "Dark Western Night" 12" (Island Records, 1986)

Well, hopefully Big Music will make a comeback and The Prime Movers will be rediscovered.  Their website intriguingly says "Birdcage Records has obtained rights to the entire Prime Movers catalogue and beginning October 1st will be releasing a song every month.  Birdcage co-founder Chas Maselli says, 'It's a cryin' shame that only 25% of this band's recordings are currently available to the public. We have over 30 songs we are readying for release, at least half of which were previously unavailable in any form.'"  Hopefully they'll have a studio version of the incredible "Way Station," which so far has only been released in blistering live form, as a bonus track on the Museum CD.  Note that the band's other singer, the dark haired one, sings lead on this one, whereas the blond one sang lead on "Strong As I Am" (and presumably on "Museum").  Here it is, live at The Roxy in Hollywood in 1986, starting at the 1:30 mark:

Planets with similar climates: Gang Of Four - "Call Me Up" (1982), Gene Loves Jezebel - "Bruises" (1983), The Pop Group - "Colour Blind" (1980), Cactus World News - "Pilots Of Beka" (1986), The Sound - "Longest Days" (1984), Minutemen - "Anxious Mo-Fo" (1984).