Polyrock. Polyrock. Polyrock. (imagine it cascading down an LP cover)

April 15, 2010 9:07 PM

Polyrock "could be pitched as Talking Heads under the tutelage of Philip Glass." With cover art that looked like it had been dollar bin for years, Polyrock may have been doomed from the beginning. Somehow their obscure, angsty-but-therapeutic sound has yet to be stolen, despite a semi-recent CD re-release. Romantic Me. No Love Lost Live. (Better than that "No Love Lost," if you can believe it). Cries and Whispers. Love Song. Changing Hearts. Bucket Rider. Working on My Love.

Because Polyrock is only mentioned once, in an (admittedly terrific) AskMe comment, on this whole site!

posted by activitystory (11 comments total)

It's weird to me how everything is "pitched" through a mention of the Talking Heads. This really is their age: everyone listens to them, everyone wants to sound like them, everyone takes a cue from them. It seems as though this was very much the case in the 1980s, and probably even more true today. Polyrock always sounded more like Suicide + Television to me, but either way, they're fine with me.

This is great. Thanks. Polyrock really were fantastic.
posted by koeselitz at 9:19 PM on April 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, wow. I've never heard of these guys, but this is good stuff. Reminds me of The Feelies.
posted by mr_roboto at 9:20 PM on April 15, 2010

Top shelf stuff. There's a good sampler of Polyrock available here.
posted by jet_silver at 9:38 PM on April 15, 2010

Thanks for this. I think I'd heard of them, but never heard any of their songs. Now I'm going to have this YouTube tab open for a while.

Awesome first post, too!
posted by not_on_display at 10:06 PM on April 15, 2010

Thank you, activitystory. It's been so long, I had forgotten them. And they're so good.
posted by Superfrankenstein at 10:28 PM on April 15, 2010

I vaguely remember them, but don't think they made much of an impact in Toronto -- oh wait, I think Romantic Me got some airplay, as the hooks feel familiar.

They remind me of Wire more than Talking Heads, though.
posted by maudlin at 10:29 PM on April 15, 2010

I agree, koeselitz, I don't see the Talking Heads comparison as much as I see a single-minded devotion to a particular sound a la the Feelies or Suicide. If we are to compare them to a Talking Heads-ish band, I pick Urban Verbs, Chris Frantz's little brother's band. But I do believe they have a certain something unreplicated. Plus, they were actually produced by Philip Glass!
posted by activitystory at 10:29 PM on April 15, 2010

I'm really enjoying this glass of bourbon that I'm finishing up; it made me think, "mmm, tones of Tina Weymouth." My omelet this morning was as delicious as the bassline of Psycho Killer. I just finished watching the Torchwood: Children of Earth miniseries and thought it was excellent. The themes and plot were not at all similar, but somehow it reminded me of Stop Making Sense, or maybe True Stories.
posted by painquale at 1:22 AM on April 16, 2010 [2 favorites]

I remember hearing ads for their album on WNEW (or was it WPLJ?), but I don't think they ever played any of their songs.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:22 AM on April 16, 2010

Wow, weird, I just unaccountably had Love Song stuck in my head the other day after not even thinking about Polyrock for about 20 years. Great band! They always reminded me of the Feelies as well, but I never thought of them in relation to Talking Heads. I think activitystory is right on the mark when he pins their obscurity largely on that awful cover art.
posted by newmoistness at 8:01 AM on April 16, 2010

I just scurried over to my local record shop at lunch and found an original copy of Changing Hearts for $7. Score!
posted by HumanComplex at 10:58 AM on April 16, 2010