TO BE A MUSICIAN SHE GOES TO SCHOOL

Trouser Press, February 1982
Holly and the Italians
1. Poster Boy
2. Medley (I Wanna Go Home/Miles Away/Tell That Girl to Shut Up)



There was a time when it was the ultimate insult to call a band “faceless.”

The appellation was generally reserved for your Foreigners and your Styxes and your Kansases. You know-- bland, colorless, corporate rock.

But I have to admit, I couldn't pick Holly and the Italians from a sassy power-pop lineup of themselves, the Waitresses, Josie Cotton, and say, Martha and the Muffins.

Probably the signal characteristic of Holly and the Italians was the one that was shared by the others of their ilk: a single, defining song.

In the case of Holly and company, that song was Tell That Girl to Shut Up, and it's included on this bright, opaque lipstick-red flexi as part of a medley with two lesser songs.

It is Rip Her to Shreds writ sideways, and awesome at that.

Transvision Vamp covered it in the late '80s, adding a British accent, booming late '80s drums, and a face.

But I'll take the brilliant anonymity of the Holly and the Italians original every time...