Mod Gone Wrong: My New Wave Roots

Okay, quiz time! 

Take a moment and try to guess what's wrong in the following photo:

Having a hard time? Seriously?? Okay then, let me give you a hint:

Yup, you guessed it! The Smiths poster in the background.* Not that there's anything wrong with liking The Smiths. In fact, I was a HUGE Smiths fan back in the day. They were the very first band that I felt understood my 13-year-old adolescent angst.

And yes, that's me  in the photo above, acne and all. When this photo was taken (about a month after I moved to the Bay Area to start school), I was proud to display my 'counter-cultural' roots (The Smiths) to all who walked past our dorm room. But see, little did I realize, I was probably contributing to one of my pet peeves and the reason for this post: people's confusion of 'Mod' with 'New Wave'. 

I'm guessing that this started in the '80s when people who were into punk, new wave, new romantic, post-punk, or (fill in the blank) started moving on to a Mod look or just started banding together with what few Mod types were around at school or in social circles. It's easy to see why people from differing subcultures, back then, would have come together in the face of overwhelming OP shirts and upturned polo collars. We experienced the same thing in my time, only we were trying to get away from all the spiked-hair mullets and NKOTB groupies.

Yeah, I can see why people would get confused. And yes, Blondie are lookin' pretty rockin' right here!

In the '90s, 'Mod' often got grouped together with 'New Wave' and 'Indie,' thanks to all those indie (and britty-pop) bands appropriating '60s touches. I'm sure shaggy hair, Fred Perrys, and name-dropping The Kinks helped blur any lines dividing these different styles.

Today, the general public is a bit more savvy, but I still get a sense that people think dressing like The Libertines or The Horrors somehow makes one Mod(!).

Wait, did Poison and Love & Rockets form a super group?

Now before I go on, let's get something straight: I think diggin' on New Wave, indie, alternative, or whatever you want to call it is really, really great. Seriously. We all have different tastes in music and I'm all down with celebrating diversity. (Heck, some of you would probably cringe at the fact that there's a Snoop Doggy Dogg record in the ol' Mod Male record vaults!) That said, New Wave/indie/alt-whatever does not equal Mod. I understand how it can be confusing, but they are totally different things.

Granted, if it wasn't for this confusion in the first place, I wouldn't be Mod-bloggin' today. Heck, I'd probably be writing about which Morrissey solo album is best (I wouldn't know since I stopped at the first one) or who would win in a lightsaber fight, Han Solo or Boba Fett.  Instead, it's the Mod thing that became the #1 target of my obsession, all thanks to my cousin calling me a 'Mod' because I liked The Smiths. So for that, let me stand up and thank New Wave music!

Of course, these days my Smiths records get played maybe about once every 3 years... if I'm feeling nostalgic and Morrissey bugs the living daylights out of me. But there was a time when they were on my turntable, on average, 4-5 hours a day. Whenever I felt the world was against me (which was daily for me as an average 13/14-year-old), I could get lost in pretty much any of their songs. If I didn't feel like eating my mom's corned beef, I could just say my political position that evening was "Meat is Murder." And if I couldn't find a date to the school dance, I could just say I was celibate like Morrissey. These reasons are why that band will always hold some significance for me.

And if I want to get defensive about my past tastes, I'll have you know that not only did The Smiths grace their record covers with awesome '60s imagery, they also covered a Twinkle song. Oh yeah, and did you know that Johnny Marr was a huge Small Faces, Who, and Motown fan (according to one of my Smiths quote books that, yes, I still have)? Plus, he rocked a huge back-comb at various points in his Smiths career.

Johnny Marr with back-comb and desert boots.

So there... take your Smiths-hatin' elsewhere! By the way, are The Smiths even considered New Wave?

*BONUS POINTS if you said 'Sunglasses being worn indoors' or 'Posing in a dirty dorm room.' 

Mod Gone Wrong: The Worst of Britpop?

Okay, everyone, let's time-travel back to 1994... a time of Britpop and New Wave of New Wave.

New Wave of New Wave... anyone else old enough to remember that term? Frankly, I thought it was a MUCH better way to describe many of the Britpop bands of the time. I was never a fan of Britpop, to be honest, unlike a lot of other people. To each his own, I guess. Plus, other than shaggy hair and Fred Perrys, I didn't see much of the Mod thing everyone else seemed to see in these bands. As my friend put it, a "watered down version of Mod as filtered through the '70s." And to my ears, the music of many of these bands seemed to be much more influenced by various New Wave and 'alternative' bands than the Small Faces or The Action. Now, let's take a look at one of my 'favorite' bands from this period, Menswear (click to enlarge), in an article from November, 1994:

I remember reading many articles on how these guys were the new direction of "Mod!" (Yes, I know it was a whole media publicity thing, but I was younger then and easily riled up!) A couple of friends and I hated this stuff! While we were out searching the bins for the Zombies, Arthur Alexander, Pebbles and Rubbles comps, and anything Carnaby Street-looking, this band and their ilk were taking the Mod thing down a path of post-punk pop wrapped up in Lonsdale sweatshirts. Argh! (Believe it or not, I've mellowed out over the years on this, but remember... we've traveled back to 1994 so you gotta deal with my '94 rage!)

Now, although Menswear were, from what I can remember, a music industry creation, they were still a face of this new "Mod" movement. So, let's take a closer look at their awesome "Mod" look, shall we?

Click to Menswear-size it.

1. Okay, this guy doesn't look horrible, especially for someone who looks to be 16-years-old. I'll cut him a break, despite the fact that he looks like he's shrinking within the suit. Either that or he's got incredible shoulder strength!
2. The second guy in the line-up just looks uncomfortable in his get-up... almost as if he's waiting for the photographer to finish up before tossing aside these clothes for a t-shirt, baggy pants and Adidas 'trainers'. Overall, he looks okay, but I will point out one of my pet peeves: the bottom button of his jacket is buttoned! I can't criticize him too much though, as I learned that rule myself probably around the time of this photo.
3. Now this guy ain't even really tryin'. By the look of his tired eyes and greasy hair, he must have been up all night schmoozing industry bigwigs at a Blur show and being, as per the article text, a "cheeky f***er." Look at the lapel of his 2-button jacket... I'm guessing he borrowed it from the photographer of the shoot.
4. Rock star sneer before becoming an actual star. 'Nuff said.
5. Y'know, his sneer is really making me hate everything about him, even the suit. It's probably the closest thing to 'Mod' these guys came to, but for my tastes, it's just a bit too 'glittery'. I'm sure I'd have a different opinion of the outfit if I replaced his head with someone a bit more humble and like-able.
6. Geez, they took this photo on Savile Row, home to some of the greatest bespoke tailors EVER! This is like taking a photo of a Happy Meal in front of The Russian Tea Room.
7. Oh boy... did I even have to circle these for you to notice them? The clodhoppers of the first two fellows are bad enough, but even I'd wear them if given the choice of that last guy's CREEPERS. There you go, folks, the 'New Mod of New Mod' as the article states. Creepers. Hey, maybe I was on to something when I wore creepers at ages 13-15 in junior high and high school. But, heck, even my creepers were a cool, pointed, black-and-white pair! Kids made fun of me then, but THIS GUY actually does have on Frankenstein's Monster's shoes!

Yeah, believe it or not, I'm much more mellow than the 20-year-old me was when I first read this article. In my old age, I realize that some people probably did dig their sound and these guys probably did act as most young kids would if given 15 minutes of rock'n'roll fame. But looking at what they had to say back then, years later, there are still a couple of lines that irk me:

"He's an Ace Face. If you push him too hard, he might Blow Up!" and "The true mods now are the ravers, the people who are into jungle and music that sounds futuristic."

God, these guys sucked.
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And by the way, if this post somehow reaches anyone back in time in 1994, here's a message for you: skip these guys and stick with Detour Records!