A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 45th anniversary, Porterhouse Records reissue of the Perfect Youth LP by Pointed Sticks. It might sound tragic at first, but it is a fact that some bands are completely incapable of fitting in with their peers because the verdict is always out regarding whether they’re ahead of their time or completely anachronistic. Vancouver’s Pointed Sticks exemplified that logistical dilemma perfectly; formed in 1978, the band successfully came in behind the first wave of punk bands but, because the bandmembers were actually solid players (guitarist Bill Napier-Hemy was not afraid of solos and drummer Dimwit was capable of playing with more feeling than many of the players who filled the drum seat in The Ramones), they were ahead of many of the players in the burgeoning New Wave scene too. Simply said, Pointed Sticks were simply not an easy fit into any musical community when they were starting out and, while some more forward-thinking critics would call that commendable, the truth is that not having a community or peer group can hurt as much as it helps because it can really limit word-of-mouth – in that case, people just really have to see that band they can’t define for themselves because they’re really not sure how to sing that band’s praises, or to whom.
That sense of feeling something really special, unique and rare will likely overtake listeners as they look at the cover of Porterhouse Records’ reissue of Perfect Youth. The cover image of a hand drawn and androgynous character with cotton candy pink hair complimented with an orange shirt and contrasted against a green table cloth and a blue floor is very striking – and listeners will realize how complimentary it is to the music when needle catches groove and “Marching Song” opens the A-side of the album. There, from note one, Pointed Sticks don’t so much direct listeners what they can expect from the album so much as just throw them in and get to work; Napier-Remy’s stringy, sinewy guitar propels the song along with the help of Dimwit’s drums (yes, bassist Tony Bardach is present on the cut, but locks in so close to Napier-Remy’s guitar that it’s difficult to tell one from the other), and Nick Jones rides the crest of the cut with some very nasal – but also very clear – vocals. The result is excellent, truly; it sounds like the work of the best punk band you’ve never heard, and will pull listeners along with it using quality performance as the greatest hook.
After “Marching Song” sets the tone for the album, it follows up hurriedly with Perfect Youth‘s title track and really sets some of the precedents that other bands would borrow and come to establish themselves with too, in the years which would follow when this release hit, originally. Between the incredibly poppy vocal melody and guitar tones, for example, it’s easy to figure out what notes Peter Buck was making for the early days of R.E.M. – when he was working at a record store. There too, lines like, “If you’re perfect, there isn’t any right or wrong” feel revolutionary when you’re reading them, but just tossed off, off-handedly when Jones sings them and, in that way (or because of it), it just feels like the place where punk rock really had the chance to germinate – not in New York or London. In that way too, the horns which appear on “No Use For U” dance so well with the rest of the band that they feel like the outlier which should have given birth to X-Ray Spex – even if it might have happened the other way around.
Of course, there are moments in the running which are also undeniably flies in the ointment on this side of Perfect Youth. “American Song,” with its’ very tight and focussed savvy, would eventually come to define New Wave but feels a little left of centre when it appears in this running, as does the overly keyboard-driven ballad, “When She’s Alone.” Even so though, there’s no question that Pointed Sticks has a greater gift for arrangement than many of the other bands from that time period, and that knowledge does help to enrich this album.
The surprises continue to materialize after listeners renew the album’s play on its’ B-side. There, Pointed Sticks show that Sublime might have cribbed the riff from “The Witch” for “Date Rape,” decades later, as it plays through. Laughably, the arrangement of “Way You Do” sounds like it might have come from the score of a cartoon. As left-of-center as the B-side might get though, when they return to form, Pointed Sticks really hit the mark; “Out Of Luck” doesn’t exactly grind out a classic kind of punk rhythm figure, but it is absolutely impossible to ignore and really engages listeners as well as buy some tolerance for the synths which dilute “Part of the Noise,” “Destitute” (which is devoid of the quality writing which appeared elsewhere on Perfect Youth) and “Angeline” (which sounds like it could have been a throwaway cut from the Grease soundtrack).
For as many problematic cuts as there might be in the album’s late-playing, the standout songs throughout the runtime of Perfect Youth make fans who are strong enough to look past the missteps. Those listeners who run front-to-back with the album won’t be finished with it after the first time through; there is plenty on this reissue to appreciate, and those who already know that, will begin the process of disseminating the praise so that others will start looking for their own copy to discover and sing the praises of. [Bill Adams]
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Album:
The 45th Anniversary pressing of Pointed Sticks’ Perfect Youth is out now. Buy it here, directly from Porterhouse Records. https://porterhouserecords.com/store/pointedSticks/perfectYouth.html
