I wasn't too discriminating about music at the age of 16, so when Dave Kendall told me O-Positive were great just before playing one of their videos on 120 Minutes, I accepted it as gospel and ran out to buy toyboatToyBoatTOYBOAT at Record Bar.

Another 16 years has passed and, in that time, I've discovered that not everything you learn from television is true.

O-Positive formed in Boston in the mid-'80s, and immediately gained acceptance in the quickly growing college rock scene of the era. In retrospect, the common thread amongst all these bands seems be having bought and studied copies of R.E.M.'s Murmur. Who's going to fault them, though? It's a great record. And, to O-Positive's credit, they did a lot besides simply mimic R.E.M. like several other bands chose to do.

Dave Herlihy's vocals were expansive and clear as his heavily affected Edge-like guitar chimed from all four corners of the studio. Bassist Dave Ingham took his cues from overseas as well, bravely drenching his tones with watery chorus as The Cure's Simon Gallup and New Order's Peter Hook had done.

In fact, every member of the band was more than competent. O-Positive sounded great 100% of the time, but suffered from the affliction that sends most bands to an eternal grave in obscurity—a lack of solid and memorable material. That said, over the course of two EPs and one major-label LP, O-Positive did manage to make worthwhile songs materialize now and again (as you'll find below).

Maybe O-Positive's career should remain an obscure curiosity; not having ever been as great as Dave Kendall led me to believe, but also having had more to offer than a number of the odiously mediocre bands they called their peers. Just remember to pay them a visit from time to time.

Download:

"With You" (MP3) and "Pictures" (MP3) from the Only Breathing/Cloud Factory EP compilation (1987)

"Overflow" (MP3) and "On To Something" (MP3) from the toyboatToyBoatTOYBOAT LP (1990)