Shades Apart – Neon

When I went to college I had a friend whose nickname was “Mal”, after Mal Sondock an American DJ who in the early 80s presented the Top 40 pop hits on the regional radio station where we both grew up. Mal was given his moniker by some of his high-school friends to reflect the fact that he used to proselytize about music. Throughout college, he and I used to trade mix-tapes, each of us trying to convert the other to what we were currently into. Mal had extensive knowledge of everything “Industrial” and made me mixes that ranged from scraping noise to ethereal ambient sounds, while I pestered him with The Melvins and straight-up hardcore. I think we both enjoyed making the mixtapes much more than listening to what the other had cooked up. While I enjoyed the process and many of the individual songs on these mixtapes, I can’t recall that either of us ever said “hey can you give me more from artist XYZ?”. There was one exception though. On one of these tapes I had included “Good luck charm” from Shade Apart’s “Neon”, and a couple of days/weeks later Mal comes and asks me to tape the whole album for him. Naturally, I was shocked. As it turned out his girlfriend really liked the song, but since she was a snooty bitch she didn’t ask me herself, but rather sent him to ask me for the record. I know this anticlimactic ending completely ruins the whole story, but it’s the type of stuff that I still remember 15 years later (I guess you had to be there…).

Anyway, I always liked this record, although I have a hard time describing why. The music is the type of post-hardcore that was en-vogue in the early 90s in the wake of the grunge explosion. However, this album takes it a step further, probably because Shades Apart were never typical hardcore to begin with. They released their self-titled debut in 1988 on the classical hardcore label Wishingwell, but even that album is more Descendents or Dag Nasty than Youth of Today.

“Neon” is very moody and melancholically with a couple of ballads (and very opaque post-hardcore lyrics…). But it also has great melodies and riffs that chug along quite nicely, including well accentuated Bad Religion-style dual vocal harmonies. This all comes out very nicely because the whole album is superbly produced. This is probably even more noteworthy because Neon was released on the small label SKENE! Records, a DIY label out of Minneapolis. SKENE! might best be compared to their contemporaries Lookout! Records, and they had a fantastic run of records by bands including (but clearly not limited to) Green Day, Jawbreaker, Phleg Camp and GO!, just to name a few fan favorites. I actually liked some of their other bands that remained obscure even better (If someone has rips of old SKENE! 7”s I would be very thrilled!!). In any case, I can’t remember that any release from the other SKENE! bands ever sounded as crisp and clean as Shades Apart’s Neon.

Shades Apart had 2 more full-lengths on Revelation, which were OK, but not particularly great and veered too much into the Powerpop genre for me. The first of these, “Save it” (1995), gained them quite some exposure because it featured a pretty uninspired and forgettable cover of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love”. It all just seemed very calculated and Ready-for-College-Radio. In any case it worked, because shortly thereafter they signed with a major (Universal) and released 2 more albums. The song “Stranger by the day” was even featured in one of the American Pie movies. However, by the time of their 2^nd Revelation LP I had already lost all interest in them, but “Neon” has always stayed with me. My personal favorite from this album is the ballad “Good Luck Charm”; it always puts me in a somber mood.

So, if your girlfriend likes Dag Nasty or Farside (or even the later Shades Apart), check this out.

Shades Apart – Neon