Young Executives, both with their band name and the title of their four-song EP Honey, I’m Home, captured the suburbian homogeneity that was (and to some extent still is…) Bellevue, Washington in the early 1980s. On the other shore of Lake Washington, across from its big sister Seattle, Bellevue managed to fully capture the dullness of non-urban residential enclaves. It had a notable mall (two if you count the older Crossroads) where is where we usually wanted to be taken by our parents. It also had the roller rink that was home to a lot of live shows by local rock and metal bands, kids looking for ways to alleviate the boredom of living on “the Eastside”. I never actually lived in Bellevue, though I did go to high school there for three years, right across the street from the mall, a school comprised of a hodge-podge of buildings, none of which were in great shape and which was eventually torn down and replaced with a nice park, which was a win all the way around. If I ever get lung disease, it will be from the three years I spent in those ancient buildings with their crumbling ceilings.
Honey, I’m Home opens with the ska-meets-Elvis-Costello-ish “Original Sin”, an upbeat jam expressing the desire to break free from what is expected, to do what you want to do. That’s followed by the early-new-wavish “Ice Age”, a fairly sharp change in direction – clearly Young Executives aren’t going to be boxed in by a specific genre or style. The B side opener “Body Waves” stays on the new wave side of the spectrum, flirting with post-punk, particularly in the chorus. The closer, “She Don’t Want It”, brings a different vocal cadence, a sort of staccato as the lyrics “She don’t want it” are repeated over and over.
This is one of the better early-to-mid 1980s Seattle-area private press records I’ve heard.
Whenever I travel I try to pick up local music, especially when I go overseas. Even the biggest name acts in other countries are often unknown here in the US, so there’s a ton of great stuff to find. It’s not always as “easy” to do when I travel here in the US, though, since that requires more of a dive into the underground. It’s not like I was going to grab albums by Kanye and The Smashing Pumpkins on my recent trip to Chicago, after all. And unfortunately there was no “local” section over at Reckless Records, so that wasn’t an option either. Lucky for me then that I came across this ska EP by Heavy Manners in the New Arrivals bin, because the State of Illinois sign right on the cover made me stop and look it up. And lo and behold, they’re from Chicago. And it’s ska, which I don’t have a lot of, so for five bucks why not?
Damn, just the name of the band and title of this thing are almost enough words to be an entire blog on their own. That’s a lot of words for a little 7″ record.