Fellow New Wave superfans, I have a confession: Although I may be in possession of something one might fairly call a punk personality, when it comes to music, I am no aficionado of punk, as a genre. Furthermore, as a musically impressionable teenager, I was never able to get my hands on a copy of Volume 1 of this Living in Oblivion compilation, which means I never got the chance to get into a New Wave punk band like 999, or even to hear their semi-obscure hit, “Homicide.” Have I been living under a New Wave rock?

Then again, this isn’t a standout track to me. Yes, I enjoy it’s morbid chorus (I believe in homicide!) and totally countercultural message. I even enjoy lead singer Nick Cash’s smart red bow tie and yellow sport shirt combo in the music video for “Homicide,” and how incongruous that look is with a song about killing people. But it just doesn’t light me up the way other New Wave tracks do.

However, I will say that the music video for “Homicide” is super New Wave; not just for its graininess, but for its bleached-out, overexposed aesthetic, which was a feature of many other New Wave videos of the time, a la Missing Persons, Adam Ant, and Bow Wow Wow, if I’m not mistaken. I also appreciate that the members of 999 dressed in primary colors, so as to stand out more powerfully against that bleached-out background. So let’s say 6/10, because I don’t want to discourage them. They’ve got a good energy and they seem like fine young chaps. The kind you’d never suspect harbor this burning desire to eliminate their fellow man.

💘

VOL. 1, TRACK 8: 999, “HOMICIDE”

VOL. 1, TRACK 9: COMBO AUDIO, “ROMANTICIDE”

VOL. 1, TRACK 7: PAUL HARDCASTLE, “19”