The Suburbs

In Minneapolis in the early 1980s, The Suburbs were the stylish bridge between Prince's synth-dance experimentalism and the scruffy punk invention of Husker Du and The Replacements. Their perfectly-coiffed look was closer to the New Romantics than the hardcore kids, and most of the songs were rooted in singer-songwriter Chan Poling's synthesizers, but the quintet formed amidst Minneapolis' initial punk explosion--their 1978 debut seven-inch, featuring nine(!) ultra-short blasts, was the first release on the now-legendary Twin/Tone label--and throughout their career, dancefloor-ready singles like "Waiting" and "Music For Boys" shared space with minimalist post-punk oddities called "Cows" and "Tape Your Wife To The Ceiling." Aside from the absurdist lyrics of Poling and his frontman foil, manic guitarist Blaine John "Beej" Chaney, what set the Suburbs apart was bassist Michael Halliday and drummer Hugo Klaers, perhaps the most aggressive and unexpectedly inventive rhythm section in town. One of the few bands of their era to make the indie-to-major leap with its artistic mojo intact--the Mercury Records release Love Is The Law is every bit as strange and awesome as its Twin/Tone predecessors Credit In Heaven and In Combo (despite the potentially worrying fact that it was co-produced by Steve Greenberg, the man behind Lipps, Inc.'s "Funkytown")--the Suburbs were finally just too weird for the mid-'80s mainstream. Though they played the occasional hometown gig after their 1987 split, any hope of a more permanent reunion was dashed by guitarist Bruce Allen's 2009 death.