Whoever posted that 120 Minutes clip didn't bother editing out a video by the Bel-Fires, who I've never heard of before. They had one EP and an album, from '85 and '88, and that was probably the alpha and omega of their career. I think every decent-sized town had a band like the Bel-Fires, right down to the drummer with the big goth hair and the Siouxsie-damaged singer with the gypsy skirt, cutoff leggings and granny boots. Bands like this were the tallow that greased the gears of music TV, whose videos could be played once or twice to fill in the space between the ones on heavy rotation and the clips that set up the interviews. I remember the Scrap Bar - drank there a couple of times visiting my then-girlfriend at NYU. Toronto's own copycat version, the Bovine Sex Club, is still going strong, believe it or not, hanging on like some old diner or TV repair shop whose continued existence has become quaint, even cherished.

I always wondered what happened to Karen Finley.

For a while in the early '90s I would get together with a couple of friends and basically play non-specific covers of those two Talk Talk albums; we'd just try to copy the sound, but not the specific songs. Amazing records.

Check it out - the prototype hipster couple.