Music, when soft voices die Vibrates in the memory - ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

I first became aware of the Sinceros as  Lene Lovich's backup band on her premiere album Stateless in 1981 when their second album Pet Rock was released.  It's without a doubt one of my favorite album's of the early Eighties. Featuring wonderful songs like "Memory Lane" , Falling in and out of love (later covered by Tracy Ullman) and the haunting gem "Disappearing" Pet Rock is one of my favorite albums of the early 1980's.  All in all, one of the most overlooked bands of all time, a group well worth investigating . Currently their 1st album Sound of Sunbathing can be found on CD at Amazon and other sites,  Pet Rock and the original test pressing 2nd Debut are available at Amazon in digital format. They've also been found at Last.fm in recent years.

Mark Kjeldsen, the group's frontman wrote most of their songs. He had one of the most beautiful voices in power-pop, vibrantly illuminating the songs he wrote for the Sinceros. With tracks like previously mentioned  Falling In and Out of Love and the shimmering Disappearing  Pet Rock simply sparkles. There is a bit more on the net these days about the Sinceros than there used to be, but still little is known about what happened to this band. The band was poorly promoted, it seems, and whispers of creative differences can be found. Mark also had a fine solo single, "Are you Ready" before lapsing into obscurity.

The sad discovery that Mark died of AIDS in the 1990's after working as a social worker and then a cabbie in Holland, comes across as a mere footnote in articles at Wikipedia and the few places you will find if you search for him.  For what it's worth, it's more than a footnote to me. I was living in a small Kansas town when New Wave was at it's height, though I was fortunate (and resourceful) enough to find the music I discovered through Saturday Night Live, HBO's Video Jukebox, Rolling Stone magazine and the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature ( yes there were information resources before the Internet).  Thanks to mail order and trips to nearby Lawrence and KC (and God love my Mom for helping me find it. She didn't understand the music, but she understood how important it was to me). And so I had music I loved, music that spoke to me. I had the Sinceros, and Pet Rock inspired me to hang in there and be true to myself and I felt free, and hopeful.

Mark Kjeldsen was a beautiful man, and he made beautiful music. The spark his music nurtured in me, and in others, lives on. New Wave for me was the promise of new beginnings in a world which felt isolated and far from the world I wanted.   A lesson  which imparted the understanding that life is full of new beginnings, if we have the eyes to see it. Power Pop, indeed.

                        "Take me to your Leader" from "The Sound of Sunbathing."

"Disappearing", from Pet Rock