Between calling themselves Captain America and ripping off the logo from a chain store, it cant come as too much of a surprise that all sorts of injunctions soon forced changes and led to this 1992 single being deleted very very quickly.
Captain America arose from the ashes of The Vaselines, a band that comprised the duo of Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee and one that really did fit into the definition of 'cult but largely unknown'. That was until the day that Kurt Cobain started telling all and sundry that they were a huge influence on Nirvana. Indeed the famous MTV Unplugged appearance by Nirvana saw them perform cover versions of two songs originally written and recorded by The Vaselines.
Eugene Kelly performed with Nirvana on stage at the 1991 Reading Festival and then subsequently he was asked to bring his new band on the road as support to the rock superstars as they criss-crossed the globe.
The name Captain America, and the use of the red, white and blue colours, led to Marvel Comics making all sorts of threats against the band, and after just two EPs in November 1991 and April 1992 they decided to avoid further controversy by changing their name to Eugenius.
The Cobain endorsement however, didn't lead to any success, and after two LPs and three singles under the Eugenius moniker, none of which came near the charts, the band called it a day.
I reckon Flame On, which hit the shops for a short time in April 1992, is one of the great lost singles of the era. To my ears, it's the perfect offspring of a breeding exercise involving Seattle grunge and Bellshill harmonic pop. Nirvana meets Teenage Fanclub in other words.....
mp3 : Captain America - Flame On
mp3 : Captain America - Buttermilk
mp3 : Captain America - Indian Summer
This is another song that I first became aware of thanks to Jacques the Kipper shoving it on a compilation C90 cassette tape way back in the days. I never got round to actually buying the thing, but I did pick up a second-hand copy the other day specifically for posting on the blog, which I originally did back in January 2010.
Next up......Champion Doug Veitch
1 comment:
Thanks, I've never heard that before but it's an excellent addition to my collection of comic book songs - and timely in the week of The Avengers too.
And as your resident geek reader, I should point out that not only did they use the name Captain America but that 'Flame On' is the Human Torch's catchphrase too.
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