Tuesday, July 03, 2007

METROPAK – “OK LET’S GO”

Perhaps no song epitomizes the late 70s rain-sogged UK “Messthetics”/D.I.Y. sound for me as much as METROPAK’s “OK Let’s Go”. This 1979 single was the first of three from this Scottish band, who to my surprise have a great MySpace tribute site up right now where you can download even more, look at photos, watch a video and all that. The distant, delicately strummed chords; the out-of-place keyboard bleeps; the pointless chug and sputter tempos; and the general ennui that pervades this thing make it as much a candidate for this era’s hall of fame as “Redbox” by I JOG AND THE TRACKSUITS and “Smokescreen” by the DESPERATE BICYCLES, to say nothing of “Chance Romance” by SUBVERSE that we posted a few weeks ago.

Play or Download METROPAK – “OK Let’s Go” (from 1979 single)

5 comments:

Jeremy Smears said...

That I Jog and the Tracksuits song rules. Have you checked out that comp that came out last year called 7"up! Redbox is on it, and its a pretty good comp.

Anonymous said...

more info about that 7" Up comp please.

Jeremy Smears said...

We stumbled on this one completely by accident. Its all seven inches from '78 - '82. Early Monochrome Set, Weekend, contact (pre The Passage). Pretty neat.

It came out on this label called crippled dick hot wax. Their website is http://www.crippled.com/

Anonymous said...

They were band from Edinburgh, Scotland, active at the end of the 70s. Sorry I can't say much more...

Anonymous said...

This info from their last.fm bio:

Metropak were a band in Edinburgh circa 1979/80 and were inspired by the New Wave/Punk explosion started at around that time when bands started their own independant labels and made their own records. Metropak were contemporary in Edinbugh at that time with Fire Engines, TV Art, Josef K, Scars, Flowers, Rezillos, The Visitors, The Freeze, It’s Over It’s Over It’s Over, Boots for dancing, Matt Vinyl and the Decorators, Jacki and all the ones, The Colour Group, The Cubs, Green Rayo, Strange Daze and The Delmontes. Metropak played a number of venues in and around Edinburgh, including one at the Odeon with The Clash. Their first ever concert was at the Netherbow Theatre in Edinburgh on 27th January 1979. Three singles were released. In the autumn of 1980, Metropak went to New York and performed at The Mudd Club, Tier 3 and The UK Club. Band members were Murray Bruce, Stephen Harrison(first two singles only), Robin Thistlethwaite, Toni Mcvitie, Helen Rutherford. Two tracks (‘You’re A Rebel’ and ‘Here’s Looking At You’) were re-released in 2008 on a compilation CD called Messthetics # 105 (on the Hyped To Death label) featuring Scottish bands of the same era. Visit the Metropak site on Myspace http://www.myspace.com/metropak for more information, updates on band members current musical activities and contact details.