| Reviews: |
| (From Degenerate Press Archive)
Next up, The Hill Valley Preservation Society, a group that started off with a disclaimer about how they didn't really exist as a band, they were just a group trying to preserve everything 80's. Funny stuff, especially for a fundraiser for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for research into Parkinson's disease.
Then they charged into music of the youth of every 20-something who ever watched television.
I snagged their set list off the stage afterward because I couldn't possibly write down even a representative sampling of the tunes they cover:
Cartoon Medley (holy cow, if you watched anything animated in the 80's they covered it)
Diff'rent Strokes
Perfect Strangers
3-2-1 Contact
G.I. Joe Public Service Announcement
Magic Dance (Bowie's tune from Labyrinth.)
Star Wars
Reading Rainbow
Muppet Babies
Action Medley (you know, Knight Rider, A-Team and such)
Michael J. Fox set with Family Ties and Silver Spoons
WKRP
Charles in Charge
Inspector Gadget
8-Bit Trilogy (I can't remember exactly what video games they covered 'cause they were after my time)
Hey Dude
You Can't Do That On Television
Ghostbusters mixed up with Michael Jackson's Bad
Dukes of Hazzard
Price is Right
The Jeffersons
They came back for an encore as well.
And it’s not just the breadth and depth of the songs they cover that impressed me, but the degree of skill they showed doing it. Every song replicated the cheesy, synth-heavy studio sound that was the wasteland of 80’s theme music. They even brought out an Applause-O-Meter with a couple of Coreys, Anthony Michael Hall, and in the top spot Michael J. Fox himself.
Most of the shows and video games who's tunes they covered were not important to me – they all brought to mind a hungover haze or sitting on the couch looking for something to watch and thinking, “No, hate that. Hate that. That sucks. Hate that. That’s crap.” But if you need a dose of 80’s nostalgia that you won’t hear on the countless retro radio shows, check out Hill Valley Preservation Society. They even have a cute site online at http://www.hvps.org | - hvps |