Weird Music Wednesday: Sigue Sigue Sputnik

1. The band responsible for a confounding music video I caught on my undergrad' college roomie's black & white tv set toward the end of the first semester of 1986 proved to be seemingly one of the most divisive among who now would be called alternative rock lovers in the U.S. and were one of the most outrageous acts on the U.K. pop charts in that decade. Sigue Sigue Sputnik (translated roughly from Russian as "burn satellite," supposedly the name a Russian street gang) debuted with "Love Missle F1-11," a kind of anti-military electronic rockabilly romp was a top five U.K. single, its creators the subject of much debate at punk/new wave record shops I visited in my state's biggest city that summer. Before reading this question, had you heard Sigue Sigue Sputnik's biggest hit?

2. SSS (as I'm going to abbreviate the band's name, at least some) have their roots in the mid-late 1970's U.K. punk rock explosion, as co-founder Tony James had placed bass in Generation X--later Gen X--the band for which Bill Idol sang lead vocals before exiting for his solo career. Were you aware of Gen(eration) X before reading this question?

3. Much had changed in British pop in the nine years that elapsed from Generation X's 1977 debut t the '86 release of SSS' first album, Flaunt It. The lynchpin of controversy attributed to the latter may be the album's inclusion of commercials between tracks (those compiled in the clip accompanying this come from a CD issue of the album; those on the original UK LP and the US cassette, a copy of the latter a friend working at the radio station of the college he and I attended gave me, differ some). The ads heard here, to my ears, merge pretty seamlessly with Flaunt It's electronic and electric textures. but, what do you think of the idea of hearing advertisements on an album you'd purchase?

4. The hype, bravado and ego surrounding SSS was probably abetted by the release of their second single, "21st Century Boy," with its title evoking that of a song by '70's English glam rock titans T. Rex (best known in the U.S. for "Bang a Gong [Get It On])"), "20th Century Boy." Can you think of any songs by musicians you like who've sung songs with titles probably intended to put listeners in mind of older songs with similar titles?

5. I own a copy of the second SSs album--one of my prizes among the the records I nabbed from the discard pile in the headquarters of the FM pop station in my state's capital city whose top five requests of the day I co-hosted on a summer 1989 Thursday night--but, after researching this poll, I may be glad I never listened to it. Videos for its singles I've found reveal that, at least to my ears, 'tain't great. Its commercial misfortune aptly, I believe, reflected how the Sputs sounded to be operating on fumes (abetted by the underperformance of their debut ?). Yet, unlike some bands who've disbanded after their second album tanked, the Sigue'sters have soldiered on in at least a couple of iterations with new releases dated to 2015. It could be that some of their work postdating their sophomore album, Dress For Excess, matches or exceeds the best of Flaunt It; but I don't see myself testing that hypothesis soon. Do any bands who you think should've called it a day after their first long-player come to your mind?