New Wave for the New Week #148

There's an old saying that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, and only time will tell you which.  A similar rule could be applied to bands that you hear:  some artists you hear and they evolve into favorites for life, while others may have only a stretch of two or three good albums before they start moving in a direction you don't care for.  And then, there are the bands that show up only for a reason: that one album, or one incredible song.

Camden, England's Passion Puppets are a fine example of the latter.  Appearing essentially out of nowhere in 1984, Passion Puppets' album Beyond The Pale sported an awesome single, "Like Dust," that was seized upon by college radio DJs across the land.  With its spaghetti-western guitar twang, chunka-kachunka percussion, and chant-along chorus, it's a schizophrenic record:  Brit kids with Echo & The Bunnymen haircuts trying to be as American as The Del Fuegos or Green On Red, just missing the mark but still coming up with something pretty damn nifty in its own right.

Then, just as fast, they were gone.  No follow up, no info, nothing.  "Like Dust" hung around in the back of the minds of those of us who loved it back then, occasionally showing up on New Wave compilation CDs here and there, until it and its parent album were surprisingly reissued on CD in 2006, with a few B-sides and unreleased recordings tacked on for good measure.  That disc has now fallen out of print, but both it and the original vinyl can be found pretty easily.  Worth picking up.

For this week's NW4NW entry, here is the clip for "Like Dust."  Enjoy!