{"id":4016,"date":"2011-11-01T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T13:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4016"},"modified":"2011-11-01T07:03:45","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T14:03:45","slug":"the-bangles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/the-bangles\/","title":{"rendered":"THE BANGLES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>THE BANGLES<\/h2>\n

Learning to love the \u201980s, with some help from a real-life revolution<\/strong><\/h2>\n

With lyrics about hating school, liking donuts and striking silly poses, the Bangles\u2019 1986 hit \u201cWalk Like an Egyptian\u201d would have hardly been pegged as a political anthem at the time. Yet when protestors took to the streets of Cairo earlier this year to demand the ouster of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, many there adopted the song (penned by Liam Sternberg) as a rallying cry. \u201cThat just shows you how music can still resonate many years later,\u201d says Bangles singer and guitarist Susanna Hoffs, who formed the group with sisters Vicki Peterson (guitars, vocals) and Debbi Peterson (drums, vocals) 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

The song\u2019s unexpected revival came as the group readied their first studio album in eight years, the new Sweetheart of the Sun<\/em>. After finding fame with \u201980s smashes like \u201cManic Monday,\u201d \u201cHazy Shade of Winter\u201d and \u201cEternal Flame,\u201d the Bangles broke up for more than a decade before returning with 2003\u2019s Doll Revolution<\/em>. The long layoff between projects is owed in part to the members\u2019 lives being very different today than when the band first formed in Los Angeles. \u201cIt\u2019s a juggling act these days with families, kids and the amount of touring we\u2019ve been doing,\u201d Hoffs says. \u201cMaking an album was on the agenda, but it was one of those things you put off like cleaning out your closet.\u201d<\/p>\n

She means that quite literally. All three Bangles sing and write, and beginning work on Sweetheart<\/em>\u2014produced by Hoffs\u2019 frequent duet partner, singer and songwriter Matthew Sweet\u2014required them to sift through piles of demos they\u2019d amassed over the years. \u201cWe all started by digging through old boxes of tapes\u2014literally<\/em> tapes in some cases,\u201d Hoffs says. \u201cThat\u2019s how far the technology has come.\u201d That retro approach is nothing new for the Bangles\u2014the group first emerged from the \u201cpaisley underground\u201d scene, a haven for young bands with \u201960s leanings. On Sweetheart<\/em> the trio once again pairs jangling, Byrds-style guitars with the sun-dappled three-part harmonies popular in that era.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, Hoffs today acknowledges a newfound appreciation for the 1980s\u2014a decade in which she and her bandmates felt out of place in at the time. \u201cI run into so many people who are younger than I am but who have such good feelings about it as a musical era,\u201d says Hoffs. \u201cThere was a lot of joy and fun. I can see why people have a\u00a0connection to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Kenneth Partridge<\/p>\n

\n

“That just shows you how music can still resonate many years later.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE BANGLES Learning to love the \u201980s, with some help from a real-life revolution With lyrics about hating school, liking donuts and striking silly poses, the Bangles\u2019 1986 hit \u201cWalk Like an Egyptian\u201d would have hardly been pegged as a political anthem at the time. Yet when protestors took to the streets of Cairo earlier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2695,2700,2699,2698,2682,2697,10156,2696,2692,2694,2693],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4016"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4027,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions\/4027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}