BLISS THE POCKET OPERA

I feel like BLISS THE POCKET OPERA are a "love it or hate it" kind of band. Their sound is almost goth but occasionally almost anarcho punk, the vocals are just a hair off of what could be considered beautiful and teeter on the edge of being super annoying at times, they don't swing enough to dance to, but they aren't pretentious enough to be true dark goth freaks. There are rhythms that conjure up mental images of afternoons wasted at Renaissance Fair(e)s....and still I fall into the "love it" category. "Merry Go Round Games" with its flute taking the lead and the tempo build up at the end before that borders on some Fiddler On The Roof shit before the band chants and picks up the tempo for "Geda" to close this short three song offering. I can't tell you why I like them, because every descriptor I can offer just makes them sound like pretentious drivel...but it's fukkn great. I've shared two other demos on these pages, both were received to mixed reviews (Tribal Dance is one that I have no reservations about - it's truly excellent). This short demo is a live recording from 1987 - and while I'm pretty sure that BTPO benefited greatly from the tools that a studio setting offered....? I'll still take it. 

LIVE '87

BLISS THE POCKET OPERA

Listening in the future, these songs could have easily been from any number of second tier late '80s goth bands - vocals wailing like a banshee over morose indulgent music. There is an attempt to highlight the guitar in a couple of tracks, which helps them come off with more of an edge than they probably intended, but the star on 1988's Tribal Dance is "Paradise Island" with it's COCTEAU TWINS meets Jimmy Sommerville on quaaludes vocal delivery. Go ahead, we won't tell the punks.

TRIBAL DANCE

BLISS THE POCKET OPERA

I was playing this in the van one day while on tour with an 80s UK band a few years ago. The drummer poked his head up into the front of the van and asked, "Is this BLISS THE POCKET OPERA?" "It is," I replied, surprised that he knew and/or was familiar with the band, "did you like them back when they were around?" He laughed. A deep, raspy, and quite sincere full body laugh, "I always thought they were rubbish, fucking rubbish then, and complete rubbish now!" And went back to the rear recesses of the van. BLISS THE POCKET OPERA play keyboard driven anthemic goth/new wave with female vocals (the singer sounds just like the vocalist for BOOK OF LOVE, though the music is way way better, and I just lost a load of credibility by comparing anything to BOOK OF LOVE, didn't i? shit), and I can't get enough of these songs.

BLISS THE POCKET OPERA