Eighties Nostalgia Lives!



I love finding odd music videos from bands that seem to be gaining real critical mass. I was recently reminded of "TRS80 ", an instrumental electronic outfit from Chicago, that have a great quirky style seeped in 80s retro-futurism, with liberal doses of regional pride and geek chic. They sound to me like the slightly more chilled funky cousins of Devo or Man or Astro-man?, with just enough Aphex Twin to make it all worthwhile.

I had heard about them over a year ago. Interesting, but I wasn't too compelled. But recently I was surfing fenslerfilm.com (the genius responsible for the G.I. Joe animated mashups) and got a surprise. Eric Fensler has produced a couple videos for TRS80. "Don't Mess with Illinois" is built from period industrial films to a subtle threatening effect. But far and away the best work is for TRS80's "Hand Over Fist".



Click the montage to see the video. A curiously vague narrative which seems to imply that the better you pop and lock, the better you may be at evading the law. Awesome. Totally.

TRS80 has several albums for sale, a couple MP3s on their site, and they are on iTunes.

(P.S. I need to amend my earlier comments about the sound and style of TRS80. These guys are pretty serious at times and not just about retro-futurism. There is an edge. And they know how to use it.)



Posted: Wed - March 1, 2006 at 08:07 PM            

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