Namesakes #88: Wax

Another week, another band name that has been claimed by multiple suspects. Wax has been slang for songs trapped inside a physical format right back to the days of the wax cylinder. But how many of these are Hot Wax... and how many leave you decidedly cool?

Let's tear off the wax strip and find out...

WAX #1

New York funk from 1981, featuring among its membership one Joseph W. Lattisaw, Jr., who I'm guessing must be related to Stacy Lattislaw, since he also sang backing vocals on some of her records.

Wax - Rock Stomp

WAX #2

In 1981, Lonely Boy Andrew Gold helped 10cc out with keyboards on their Ten Out Of 10 album. They offered him a place in the band, but he was far too busy writing the Golden Girls theme tune. A couple of years later, his diary had freed up some, so he decided to join Graham Gouldman in a new band venture while 10cc were on hiatus. They were originally called World In Action, which sounded too much like that really dull ITV documentary show I never watched as a kid, before changing their name to Common Knowledge. Wax was clearly preferable, but chart success continued to elude them until a couple of years later when their single Right Between The Eyes went to Number One in Spain. Soon after they had a UK hit with the song below and one of those awful 80s animated videos that make your eyes bleed after about 30 seconds...

WAX #3

Swedish punks from 1983 with a cassette-only release that translates as "Punk Is Not Dead". You decide...

Wax - Punken Är Inte Död

WAX #4

Italian disco-pop duo from 1984 whose solo single, Rock A Hong-Kong, is sadly unavailable on the tube of you. However, its b-side, Wax Dance, was remixed and re-issued almost 30 years later by Dutch label Bordello A Parigi. This is the result...

Wax - Wax Dance

WAX #5

Californian rock band who formed in 1991, citing The Ramones and Pixies as influences. Director Spike Jonze worked on some of their videos, including the one below, which was banned from MTV in case it encouraged people to set themselves on fire before going for a jog...

Wax - California

WAX #6

René Pawlowitz is a German techno DJ & producer also known as Shed. Wax is another pseudonym he goes by, producing lots of "tunes" which are so "good" they don't need titles... just numbers. This, from 2008, is 10001. George will be especially pleased to learn that it is 8 minutes long. DON'T DO IT, GEORGE!

Wax - 10001

WAX #7

LA rapper who claims his biggest influences are Guns n Roses and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. Not that you can tell that by listening to his most popular tune, from 2012...

Wax - Rosana

WAX #8

Finally, some contemporary K-Pop balladeering that will chill you to your very marrow... before you realise it's no longer appropriate to mock music that's hugely successful in other cultures just because it doesn't appeal to you. I'm guessing this young lady had made a lot of money though, so good on her for finding a way to turn schmaltz into moolah.

Wax - Coin Laundry

And there we have it. Eight pieces of wax to scrape out of your ears. But which are wax on and which are wax off?

Feel free to wax lyrical in the comments box...

Neverending Top Ten #2.4: Music & Mood

I realised something the other day while Sam and I were listening to the latest in-car mix CD I've created to help further his musical education. This is hardly an earth-shattering revelation, it's something that I'm sure will be obvious to all of you, but I'd never quite thought about it in this way before...

Music depends on mood.

Specifically, our appreciation of music.

I put Sam #82 (yes, this is the 82nd CD I have made for him... I'll soon be beating Now CD numbers) on for the first time on Friday morning. I was worn out after a hectic week and in quite a grumpy mood, so my first reaction to the tracks I'd chosen was pretty negative. "You've made much better CDs before, maybe after 82 CDs you're starting to exhaust all the Sam-friendly tunes, maybe you should go back to the earlier discs where every song's a winner," etc, etc.

We did quite a lot of driving around on Friday, so by mid-day Saturday the CD had flipped back to track one. On Saturday though, I was in a much happier mood, and suddenly I found myself enjoying the same tracks I'd poured scorn on the day before. "This is a brilliant CD! What the hell was wrong with me yesterday?"

Sam's taken a particular fancy to the track below by Wax, an 80s duo made up of Graham Gouldman, formerly of 10CC, and Andrew Gold, formerly of Andrew Gold. I bought the album American English back in 1987 and played it for a couple of months... but not much since. When I first heard it again on Friday afternoon, it sounded like tinny 80s pap. By Sunday, we were both singing along to the cheesy "Woh oh oh oh oh" chorus.

Music & mood... discuss!