DOWN UNDER

Trouser Press, March 1983
Divinyls
Boys in Town/Science Fiction

Divinyls were the antipodean Blondie-- a slightly rough-edged New Wave band with chickfactor style to burn.

While Debbie Harry had a studied New York aloofness, Divinyls' Christina Amphlett struck a petulant pose, all angular bangs, garters, and wrinkled plaid skirts.

Blondie's seminal pop-culture moment was Heart of Glass, a masterstroke that furrowed brows with its Studio 54 sheen. The marriage of disco and punk seemed unlikely at the time, but it would prove to be an enduring match...

Divinyls are best known in the states for 1991's I Touch Myself, and if you subscribe to the notion that every generation gets the female masturbation song that it deserves, you'll recognize I Touch Myself as the perfect precursor to the Clinton era. There is no Reagan-age She-Bopian angst over the act here, just “When I think about you, I touch myself.”

I honestly do.

The two early '80s songs featured on this clear flexi were hit singles in Australia, and it's easy enough to see/hear why.

If you don't have the patience to sit through both songs, I would urge you to at least skip ahead to the 1:21 point of Boys in Town, where Christina does something I've never heard before in the history of recorded music...