EMPIRE

Awkward, unambitious and with only one album, the trio still left a huge mark, influencing the Stone Roses as well as the entire DC hardcore scene.

Empire was an offshoot of punk legends Generation X, very influential for the '80s Washington D.C. hardcore and UK neo-psychedelic scenes, acting somehow as the missing link between new wave and grunge. "Expensive Sound" was originally released in 1981. While "Expensive Sound" may be better known for the bands it inspired - the neo-psychedia of The Stone Roses and the athletic fretwork of Fugazi - they deserve appreciation on its own merits: one of the finest guitar pop records of the era. Originally released in 1981, the same year Gary Numan and Soft Cell were raking in big bucks with their noir- flecked brand of retrofuturism, "Expensive Sound" was out-of-step with the climate of commercial music. Their music was raw, bare, warm - distinct from the glacial, antiseptic pop that would dominate the decade. The album was neither totally forward-looking nor nostalgia embracing. Instead, "Expensive Sound" does what great albums tend to: preserves a specific moment in time.