More new to NA ... and more margins

Last week, driving around the city, I was listening to my local community radio station. The DJs, Ciaran and Mick Oglesby of Lost Radio Outpost, seemed to be conducting some kind of review of 2019's indie. And they played a couple of songs by bands new to yours truly. Not surprising, is it, I'm nearly 50, my finger is no longer on the pulse of the indie world. But that isn't what got to me, oh no. I was struck, once more, by the fine margins that exist between breaking through, being really successful, and just not quite making it. I've written about those margins before but I thought about them again, because one of the new tracks (new to me, anyway) was this, Useful Information by Purling Hiss.

Now your mileage may vary but this track immediately put me in mind of early REM, especially the drunken studio out-take tracks that ended up on Dead Letter Office. Mumbled, semi-coherent, obtuse lyrics? Check. Chiming, chugging, lone Rickenbacker? Check. Melody straining against bar-band buzz? Check. But REM became the biggest band on the planet, and I'm pretty sure Purling Hiss won't. And that's not just because Purling Hiss is a terrible name, the sort that seems funny at first but doesn't age well. No. It's those margins. Something... some thing elevated REM to a higher plane. What? Stipe's lyrics and frontman skills? Buck's superior way with that Rickenbacker? Mills's musicality and harmonies? Berry's songcraft and arrangements (and if you don't know what I mean by that, note the difference after he left)? Jefferson Holt's management? Bertis Downs? Luck? All of the above?

And no, this isn't just an excuse to embed some early REM. But since we're here...

Oh, and if you think I'm being mean about the name Purling Hiss... before they settled on REM, the lads from Georgia considered calling themselves Cans of Piss. Considered, but decided against. Another fine margin. Would they have bestrode the planet called Cans of Piss? Unlikely...

I haven't been able to ID the other track that caught my ear (despite "reaching out", in the modern parlance, to the DJs), other than that it was by French-speaking Canadian band Corridor. So here's a random track by them, that has a neat video.

There's no other point to this post (or blog). I have no conclusions, no theory to espouse. Just ... margins. Life, eh?

EDIT: the DJs came back to me - the Corridor track was Junior, and it's mighty fine.