Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#104: Close Lobsters “Let’s Make Some Plans”
This town isn’t big enough for the both of us. Hi, neighbor. We’ll be moving out soon. If you want 120 Minutes videos without all the annoying commentary, go there.
Close Lobsters? Total C86 band, by which you can only infer they existed in 1986. Other bands on that compilation went on to mid-level international success—Primal Scream, the Mighty Lemon Drops, the Wedding Present (who later covered “Let’s Make Some Plans”)—but 80% of them, well, didn’t. Paisley, Scotland’s Close Lobsters weren’t always as jangly as the Rickenbacker chime of “Plans” suggests; the band had a significant psychedelic/dream-pop side to it that helped push U.K. pop beyond the stranglehold of the Smiths.
