I love it when these sort of things happen. My last post on PPM was a look at Grace Jones, and at a certain point I needed to find out data about the “Hurricane” album. So I went to Discogs and did a search on “hurricane”+”Jones” and sure, sure. I got hits on the album by Grace Jones, but I also got hits on the 1981 album by Hurricane Jones. Which triggered memories of seeing an ad in Trouser Press magazine ca.. ’81-’82. Which sent me tumbling down the Discogs rabbit hole; one of my favorite things. I recall seeing the quirky looking, indie release in Trouser Press. For the last 30 years, if I run across anything I can recall seeing but not hearing from Trouser Press, it’s obviously a point of interest.
I went to the Hurricane Jones page on Discogs and I wondered to myself, the Mutiny Shadow International label sure had a weird name. How many releases did they have, anyway? I pivoted to the label page and saw that there were only four: Hurricane Jones, SVT [ex-Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady’s “New Wave” band whom I remembered from the era], The Mutants, and what looked like a vaguely New Romantic technopop band, Neeva! They looked like refugees from the Spoons’ “Nova Heart” video. Of course, I was drawn to Neeva like a moth to the flame. Here’s their one album, which got a Canadian release [through Quality Records] in 1983; the last from the MSI label.
Neeva: Neeva – CAN – LP [1983]
- Starshine
- Love [Gotta Hold On Me]
- Blue Star
- In Tune
- Seventeen
- Walking On Air
- Let Your Body Go
- Will You Be Mine [Part I and II]
- Tomorrow’s On Its Way
The core of the band were vocalist/guitarist Nevius with Ms. Wilkinson on synths [Korg MS-20, Wasp, Micromoog] with C.P. Roth also on synths [Yamaha CS-80, Oberheim]. Lots of gear from the golden age of analog synths! T.J. Tindall [MFSB, Salsoul Orchestra] produced and played guitar. But this band avoided the drum machine scenario. Instead they got the Great Andy Newmark [Sly + The Family Stone, Roxy Music, Bowie…to name a few] to bang the skins. So this was a late in the game album from 1983 that featured synths, guitars, and real drumming…by a top notch pro! Better still, the actual sessions were from two years earlier. Making this an album from the holy year of 1981! I was now hooked on hearing this.
I looked at the availability of LPs and found that even though this was from the “Minimal Synth” era copies of this on LP were still affordable. I started digging deeper and found some very interesting pedigree to one of the players here. Ms. Wilkinson came from California to the East Coast [Tenafly, New Jersey, actually] with her boyfriend, Keith Silva in 1979. Vanessa, Keith and their high school friend Layne Rico had formed Our Daughter’s Wedding. But when Vanessa broke up with Keith, She was out of the band and Scott Simon, of Jim Nevius’ band Neighbors and Allies joined the nascent ODW in time to decamp from the East coast to California to record “Lawnchairs.” For ODW, the rest was history.
Meanwhile, Ms. Wilkinson found a new boyfriend in Jim Nevius and they formed Neeva. T.J. Tindall of various Gamble + Huff projects took an interest and offered to produce their sole LP, recorded in 1981. Which finally came out in 1983…in Canada. And now, 42 years later, this album seems like technopop catnip for me. I’m tempted to buy a copy tout suite and check it out. To be continued…?
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Post-Punk Monk 
That cover image is amazing!
The album is available in the UK on iTunes and Amazon as downloads,I am tempted after hearing the snippets but non-essential purchases are on hold until our house sale goes through as I have put everything into buying our new home.
There are a couple of articles about them on webpages I have followed over the years-it seems that Vanessa is now living and working in Alaska.
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gavinthemetamorph – We will be investigating Neeva very soon and will report back with our findings. I just dug up the “Blue Star” song and it was quite joyous. Love that new Gravatar, by the way! Rocking a new Warhol look, I see!
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Looking forward to your update review…
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Immediately after reading your post I listened to most of the album as I was intrigued by the great sleeve and the Our Daughter’s Wedding connection. I was a little diappointed as the music is a little too bright, too bouncy, perhaps too naive? However on the plus side there’s some proggy synth action, especially in the second part of “Will You Be Mine”. I suspect you will appreciate the LP more than I did.
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strange_idol – I’ve only sampled the single, “Blue Star,” but I loved the winsome quality. It felt honest. And if it comes bundled with proggy synth action, then it’s my lucky day!
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I am sure you will like it, and I didn’t mean to spread negativity. By the way, the credits on Discogs seem incomplete as Vanessa Wilkinson also sings on the album. Mostly backing vocals, but she takes the lead on “Seventeen”.
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