The Apartments are a wonderful band from Australia. I honestly don't know anyone else who knows or cares much about them and that makes me profoundly sad. So I thought I'd use the mighty power of blog to share them with some people who might give a damn. Or might not. But share I shall.
The band is basically singer/songwriter Peter Milton Walsh, and whatever musicians he decides to surround himself with at any given time. Walsh was a member of an early incarnation of the Go-Betweens. The Apartments came into being in the early eighties as a post punk outfit with a couple of good singles. They broke up very soon and reformed again a few years later.
They never made much of a dent here in the US, though I understand they have a big cult following in in France. Their biggest claim to fame is a song included on the soundtrack to the John Hughes film, Some Kind of Wonderful. The film was pretty much Pretty In Pink all over again. But not as good. Hmmm. I guess that's not much of a claim to fame. But have you ever had a song in a John Hughes film? Didn't think so.
This Mortal Coil also covered their song "Mr. Somewhere" on their Blood album. The original version is better.
The essential Apartments album is Life Full of Farewells from 1995. I never tire of it. It's a world of it's own...sad, sweet, melancholy chamber pop to make you swoon and dream of people and places long gone. Perfect & beautiful. If you have an ear for the sublime you might want to give it a listen.
Walsh quit recording and performing some years ago after the death of his son. He unexpectedly got a band together and played a few shows in Australia in 2007. Whether he plans to continue to perform or make new music I have no idea. But I can hope.
Thanks for reading. That's about all I have to report in the wee hours of this Wednesday morning. I am sleepy now. Good night.
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OMG. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for posting this!! I totally needed to remember them. I made a note forEVER ago to pick up one of their records & never did, and guess what?? NOW I CAN!! Hurrah! And I am totally gonna add your blog to my "blog roll" on my blog. Hope you don't mind... :)
ReplyDelete-Ariel
Ariel..I knew you, if anyone, might dig their stuff. You should really pick up a copy of Life Full of Farewells.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see a fan of this great band from the states, The Apartments are hardly even known here in Australia.
ReplyDeleteWhen the band played the first reformation gig in june 07 it was the first time they had played here in 30 years.
Both my fav album of all time and single song come from Peters band, sublime is a good word to describe their music.
I was actually at the gig in Melbourne that Bob has a copy of and you can still download at his site...it is in the comments of the Apartments post. I think I still have some photos I took that night so I shall see if I can find them and maybe Bob can put it all up because as you so rightly point out they do deserve to be heard by more people!
ReplyDeleteRegards/