Friday, October 12, 2007

Blight from the Past


I've always been just a little nuts about Blightobody, a Columbia band that had an extremely slight burst of national fame in 1994, when it won a Best Band contest on the then-struggling Conan O'Brien Show.

Doubtless, almost nobody noticed except the locals, as Conan hadn't even been on the air a year and was fighting off news of its imminent demise on an almost daily basis. Also, to tell the truth, Blightobody was very much of a love-it-or-hate-it sort of thing; their winning song, after all, was this rather odd ditty called "Party Snout" about a fake dog mask. Either you were into their goofy groove or you just thought they were annoying as hell.

Me, I liked them a lot. Still do, as I was reminded when I found the site linked above, where you can hear their breakthrough (for lack of a better word) album, Poovy's Grove. It's a gloriously odd album, full of bravely stupid lyrics that recall the early Stooges, and played with terrific bar-band enthusiasm. "Nothing is better/when you're fleshy from the wetter" -- what in the hell does that mean? Is it some kind of post-coital thing? Who cares?

Another thing: I thought they represented the city well -- or maybe better than Columbia deserves, as no one will ever accuse Columbia of being a really happening place. It's always been a city with a massive identity crisis, in that it just hasn't seen that much action since it was torched by Sherman. Blightobody would have been a way of saying to the world: we're just as strange as you are.

Instead our goodwill ambassadors are Hootie & the Blowfish or that whiny sob sister Danielle Howle.

Anyway, after weeks of hitting this site, I finally clicked on the contact link to ask how I could buy the thing. Within minutes, I got a response -- from Todd Turner, the drummer responsible for the band's massive-attack backbeat -- who kindly offered to send me the disc for nothing.

I am eternally in his debt.

5 comments:

Carthian Dreams said...

Sorry for the random comment, but I found you when Googling Blightobody. ;)

I hadn't heard anything by Blightobody for over ten years, since I went to school at Furman University up in Greenville, SC. How awesome to find them suddenly on the web, and to hear that music again. It's also good to know that there are other people out there who remember this band.

Unknown said...

Glad to make your acquaintance, Dex. Bring back Blightobody!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I too loved this band. I was an aquantance of a few of it's members and remember their live performances fondly. It's a crying shame they never went further. I too emailed Todd a few years back and he sent me a few of their cd's I only had on cassette for free as well.Great and talented guy.
Peace,
Herc
www.sketchcharlotte.com
www.illtiki.livejournal.com

Anonymous said...

Todd God, King of Sod!

-E- said...

I also got a copy of "Poovy's Groove" from Todd sometime in 2007 or so. I have played the hell out of that thing...

Blightobody shows in Rockafella's... Those were good times, man...