Sandii -- Idol Era

December 1st and right on cue...we've been getting hammered with freezing rain, ice pellets and perhaps some snow all day. Weather folks are telling us just to stay home today and I can believe it. I only stepped out to get the newspaper and it felt like I was marching through the wastes of the planet Hoth.

For your "Eating Pleasure" indeed. The band Sandii & The Sunsetz were just getting themselves together and off the ground, changing from The Sunset Gang of blues and West Coast rock into a synthpop act at the end of the 1970s. But before they started putting out records in this new form, Sandii released a solo album called "Eating Pleasure" in 1980.

The first time that I heard Sandii was through the catchy and chirpy Yellow Magic Orchestra "Absolute Ego Dance" in which she contributed some of the vocal effects alongside "R2-D2". So when I heard this lead track on "Eating Pleasure", "Idol Era", for the first time some months ago, the song right away smacked of YMO arrangement. And sure enough, looking up "Idol Era" on the JASRAC database revealed that it had been written by Chris Mosdell and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）.

With that old glompy techno beat, the rock guitar and Sandii's sultry vocals, I couldn't help but get that feeling of American band Blondie after listening to "Idol Era" a few times now.