Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#10: That Petrol Emotion “Hey Venus”
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Is it too early for a That Petrol Emotion/BP-oil-spill joke? Right. The fate of the ocean hanging in the balance and all. Let’s move on. A strangely years-too-late, seemingly Reagan-era screed against capitalist greed and, uh, other stuff, “Hey Venus” came out in 1990 and was the product of an oddly configured band. That Petrol Emotion was formed in Northern Ireland by Undertones guitarist John O’Neill (he’d left the group by the time of “Hey Venus”) and featured an American lead singer, Steve Mack. What was weird about Mack—aside from his proto-Offspring dreadlocks—was that he could actually sing; a quality apparently undervalued by the mushmouth-loving alt-rock crowd. That Petrol Emotion pretty much tanked (get it?) after 1990’s Chemicrazy but was well-remembered enough by Kevin Shields to play the My Bloody Valentine-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival last year.
2 replies on “120 Reasons To Live: That Petrol Emotion”
…’Manic Pop Thrill’ and ‘Babble’, from ’85 and ’86 respectively, were both effing awesome.
TPE was formed by John O’Neill *and* his brother Damien, who was also a crucial part of The Undertones.