I had never heard of The Pursuit of Happiness until recently, when their song "She's So Young" popped up on my iTunes shuffle. It's the kind of power pop that really grabs me; I'm a sucker for catchy, upbeat 3-chord rock. Turns out they were a Canadian band comprised of college students during the late 1980s. "She's So Young" appeared on their first LP, LOVE JUNK, which was produced by Todd Rundgren. The album was a major smash in Canada, but doesn't appear to have done much in the U.S.
Nothing The Pursuit of Happiness did after LOVE JUNK matched that album's success, but they still managed to keep somewhat of a star presence in their home country. According to Wikipedia, The Pursuit of Happiness were inducted into the Canadian Indies Hall of Fame two years ago.
I've listened to "She's So Young" three times while I've been writing this. Here's the video. I hope you like it.
"Love Junk" is a highly enjoyable album, and contains TPOH's biggest hit, "I'm an Adult Now". They had actually released the song previously - and shot a music video for it - before "Love Junk", which offers a more polished version. It's funny seeing the two versions of the music video, as Moe Berg's hair is noticeably longer in the second edition. "Hard to Laugh" from the same album also received significant airplay, and I liked another cut on the album titled "Consciousness Raising as a Social Tool".
ReplyDeleteyoutube took down the video, probly whpever put it up eatned their wroth.
ReplyDeleteShame, I used to be Todd's occult book dealer back when he was making records based on the color theories of Alice A. Bailey...I worked at an antiquarian occult book store, and he would devour every obscure book preaching any wild theory of music and/or color. His ambition to be a wizard was pretty real.
oh now it works. Got a turntable? The vinyl's at Ebay for 6 bucks
ReplyDeleteI got to see POH at CBGBs in NYC (lots of initials in this sentance so far, isn't there?) on what turned out to be their last tour, at least here in the States back around 1996.
ReplyDeleteI've also been known to bust out "I'm An Adult Now" at karaoke now and then... ;)