More Lost Bands: The Shivvers

Courtesy of the indefatigable Kid Charlemagne, I stumble across a band I should have known, but didn't. The Shivvers were a Milwaukee band in the high era of power pop, 1978-82 (and undoubtedly fit into my complex theory of PP as midwestern minor literature).


The Shivvers. 

Sure they had their roots in the `60s music, but their future was in the newborn eighties.They were more "new-wavey" than "punk" but retained from the latter a sense of urgency that could be heard in their sole single "Teen Line" released on the Fliptop indepedent label in 1980. This 7" release had favorable reviews from Greg Shaw in Bomp and Ken Barnes in New York Rocker. It was a very catchy song, kind of bubbly pop rocker akin to bands like Little Girls (of "Earthquake song" fame) or to the poppiest material of Nikki & The Corvettes. Some powerpop aficionados are not so fond of female lead vocals in powerpop (oh, really?) but the very distinctive vocals of Jill Kossoris had a kind of intonation with a bit of a sultry attitude that sounded truly great.

They had a few demos, lots of opening slots (including opening for local heroes like Shoes and Off Broadway), lots of interest, but never signed to a label. My guess: they were probably just about a year too late down the line. That's what it looks like, anyway.

It's worth asking why the power pop bubble crashed in 80-81, and how many bands got destroyed in the process: personally I think the massive political realignments of that era had a devastating effect. This source suggests increasing rigidity of radio formats: I don't see that as an opposing viewpoint. (Reagan -> deregulation -> larger and more tightly controlled media conglomerates, culminating eventually in the ClearChannel age.) Undoubtedly, there were massive shifts in the industry at that time, including the rise of MTV, and power pop got lost in the shuffle. (It can't just have been annoyance at The Knack.)

But this band has some really fun tunes (most streaming on mp3's through these various links), and I can't believe they never hit my radar before. Enjoy!

Hyped2Death has a compilation. Improbably, they don't seem to have a link at Great Lost Bands of the New Wave Era.