Senseless Things

The Senseless Things were a very young and peppy pop-punk band from England who made a brief impression on the British scene in the early '90s. Sadly for them, they were a few years ahead of their time as bands like Green Day and Blink 182 became worldwide stars using the same template as the Senseless Things. Formed in 1987 in the town of Twickenham in West London, the band (Mark Keds on guitar and vocals, Ben Harding on guitar and vocals, Cass Browne on drums, Morgan Nicholls on bass) made a series of fast, melodic, and charmingly light-hearted singles for indie label Way Cool. The 1988 album, Postcard C.V., solidified their feel-good punk style and found them sounding like a perfect mix of the Buzzcocks and the Undertones with a little Archies thrown in. Around this time, the band struck up a friendship with Jamie Hewlett, creator of Tank Girl, and their record sleeves featured his work. A single, "Too Much Kissing," taken from the album soon became a solid indie hit and a larger label, Decoy, snapped up the band. Decoy was the home of the Mega City Four, another fine British pop-punk group. The Senseless Things released two well-received EPs in 1990, and after a storming appearance at the Reading Festival and a packed house tour of U.K. clubs, Epic Records signed them. The band was maturing musically and their first album for Epic found them utilizing acoustic guitars and exploring slower tempos. 1991's First of Too Many was a medium-sized hit, as were the singles taken from it, and the band seemed poised for more success. The next album, 1993's Empire of the Senseless, showed the band maturing lyrically as well. "Homophobic Asshole" was the first single from the record and although it was not a huge commercial hit, showed that the band may have a future beyond...