Panel from Spencer Spook comic book issue #100, March 1955
When I was really getting into the Magnetic Fields in the mid-90s, a few names kept popping up - bands that were especially recommended for Magnetic Fields bands. And one of the names was Holiday. In retrospect, the comparison is a little puzzling - although the Yale-born band had a Merritt-inspired sense of melody, a few things put the band more in the realm of generic indie-pop. First, frontman Josh Gennet's wispy tenor voice was just about as far as you can get from Merritt's baritone, and the band's straightforward British-Invasion-isms didn't cross over much with the Magnetic Fields' stage-ready witticisms. But Holiday's Ready, Steady, Go! ranks among my favorite twee-pop albums nonetheless, not in the least because of the liberal use of handclaps, used prominently on songs like "April Cries" and "Who's Gonna Find Out" and more subtly in songs like "She's Not the Person You Think You Know". The song is an odd one, made up of a single "Hello Goodbye"-quoting chorus that is repeated several times while modulating between different keys, interspersed with nice horn-and-clapping breaks.
"She's Not the Person You Think You Know" by Holiday
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