in glorious 4:3 video
July 21, 2015 10:16 AM   Subscribe

Watch noisy Texas power pop band Radioactivity play two songs in an abandoned shopping mall.

Stream their new album Silent Kill here.
posted by item (14 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble



 
You posted this just to brighten my day, didn't you? Bless you dear, kind...um...item.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:54 AM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


Performing at Linneman's in Milwaukee this Thursday July 23rd with Tenement and The Sugar Stems.
posted by j03 at 11:04 AM on July 21, 2015


Good stuff, even if I could get all technical and say they strikes me as more pop punk and all.

More importantly, good stuff. I like the energy.
posted by Samizdata at 11:30 AM on July 21, 2015


Oh this is good.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 12:30 PM on July 21, 2015


They're playing The Empty Bottle this Friday! Why, no, I don't run a Chicago DIY/punk/garage show calendar, why do you ask
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:35 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm getting flashbacks to Hüsker Dü. Neat.
posted by brokkr at 2:49 PM on July 21, 2015


These guys are good! Interesting definition of "power pop", though...I think of power pop as being post-Cheap Trick songs with hummable melodies and big riffs. These guys have a more angular feel, like the Buzzcocks.

And now I'm going down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out where this mall is.
posted by pxe2000 at 4:08 PM on July 21, 2015


pxe2000, I believe that's Valley View Mall.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:57 PM on July 21, 2015


Hm, it's the wrong mural (or maybe it's a different side of the building?) Or maybe it's Collin Creek in Plano, TX, if that's closed yet? There's a comment on this post from 2011 that lists the status of those murals and their various malls. Not sure how many remain even 4 years later.
posted by unknowncommand at 8:06 PM on July 21, 2015


Aha! It's Six Flags Mall (or at least that particular mosaic was there). Now I can sleep.
posted by unknowncommand at 8:11 PM on July 21, 2015


wooo they are playing in the bar i'm in in about whenever minutes!
posted by ghostbikes at 8:15 PM on July 21, 2015


CAN'TWAAaaaaaiiiit
posted by ghostbikes at 8:27 PM on July 21, 2015


If you're digging this (and I sure am) the band is lead by one of the guys from Marked Men. And Marked Men's 2009 album Ghosts is one of the best spizzy punk albums ever. The whole second side of the thing keeps climbing like an Escher staircase, getting tighter and faster and somehow more reckless. Can't get speedier— gets speedier.
posted by bendybendy at 3:26 AM on July 22, 2015


So, I didn't leap into the "what genre is this" fray with "garage punk, duh" because A) who cares and B) everyone knows that the use of garage punk to describe like every variant of punk-leaning rock-n-roll has diluted it into uselessness as a descriptor. However, I was somewhat delighted to see my buddy Philip Montoro mention the exact debate today over at the Reader:
Some folks want to call this "power pop" rather than "garage punk," I assume because the high concentration of melodic and harmonic information in Radioactivity's simple songs is something they associate with the former. Whatever you call it, it's gonna make for a hell of a show.
posted by Juliet Banana at 11:02 AM on July 23, 2015


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