Film At 11: The Vaselines

We’re glad to see the Vaselines back together. Their four-run yielded a lot of delightful oddities that reached American shores a little too late. While they were being championed by Kurt Cobain and Calvin Johnson, we felt kind of cheated, like we missed out on something really special that we inadvertently skipped over in the record bin. The Vaselines often flirted with Christian imagery, usually perverting it in some way, like in this video for “Sex With An X,” the title track of their new record, out September 14 via Sub Pop. The way the video tells it is that Eugene Kelly and Francis Mckee entered the priesthood and a convent, respectively, following their group’s demise. The temptation to return to rock ‘n’ roll proved too much and they went on the run, heathen-ing it up on playgrounds and back roads in their native Scotland. The song features some vintage Vaselines amateurism but also boasts some of the polish Kelly adopted in the ’90s with Eugenius. Its chorus, “Feels so good/It must be bad for me,” has obvious sexual overtones but also is kind of an apt description of most indie reunions of late: Good to have you back, but we fans (who might not even have been born during your heyday) feel not worthy. You can find us this fall repenting in the church of the Vaselines when they come stateside for their second-ever U.S. tour.