The New New Wave: Teedo and Vendetta Valentine

Teedo,
"You Are
My Girl"
EP, ICBM
Records
[4/8/08]


Click for mp3s of "You Are My Girl" and "Shut the Door on the World"

Atrocious cover art—and band name—aside, this EP is better than
expected. On "You Are My Girl," Teedo gives glam-era Bolan and
Bowie an '00s update. Theodore Bilecky handles the falsetto stuff
with finesse, while his band mates crank out the space-age disco.

Dominated by Saeko Terano's synth work, "Shut the Door on the
World" has more of a new wave vibe. This four-track release—three
originals and one radio edit—serves as a taster for the Brooklyn
quintet's second full-length, set to be released later this year.

Cross-posted at Fuzz.com.

Vendetta Valentine, There's Nothing Safe, self-released [3/4/08]

We take our inspiration from art and literature and films.
V for Vendetta is a big influence on our songwriting. So
are books like 1984, Brave New World, and Fight Club; the paintings of Odd Nerdrum, Francis Bacon, [and] Bosche.
We want to turn people on to ideas. Our music is hope-
fully a gateway drug to more experience.
-- Vendetta Valentine (2008)

Click here for mp3s and videos

Vendetta Valentine keeps
the spirit of new wave alive
on their debut. It's a mixed blessing. Of the subgenres to emerge from the 1980s, post-punk has proven to have more staying power than new wave. While the Santa Ana, CA trio does-
n't sound exactly like Missing Persons, the B-52s, or Devo, I'd imagine they're familiar with those creatively-coiffured figures.
The keyboard playing of Anna Judd, in particular, recalls
the extravagant "Walking in LA" fivesome [pictured above].

Despite the synth-oriented sound,
frontman/guitarist Thomas Mon-
roe opts not to duplicate the quir-
ky singing styles of his forerunners,
which brings the band up to date
(bass/drum machine programmer
Daniel Powell completes the line-up).

On the slower numbers, Monroe evokes
Daniel Ash of Love & Rockets. On the
more upbeat ones, Bill Carter of the Screaming Blue Messiahs (see "Wide Blue Yonder"). Like
many musicians who dominated MTV in the '80s—regard-
less of origin—he also reveals the trace of a British accent.

In other words, There's Nothing Safe qualifies more as
new new wave than new wave revival. It's like the difference
between the garage-oriented Black Lips and the Beatle-banged,
paisley-shirted characters who look as if they just dropped
in from the 1960s (to see what condition their condition is in).

That said, if a Back to the Future time machine sent Ven-
detta Valentine to the '80s, some savvy music supervisor
would surely secure their services for one of John Hughes's
teen angst opuses, like Some Kind of Wonderful or Pretty in Pink.

Cross-posted at Fuzz.com.

Endnote: For more information about Teedo, please click
here or here. For Vendetta Valentine, try here or here.
Images from the All Music Guide (Missing Persons as seen
by Helmut Newton), Planetary Group, and Wallpaperbase.