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McCarthy

City of Origin: Barking, England, UK

Period of Activity: Late 1980s to early 1990s

Members: Gary Baker, Malcolm Eden, Tim Gane, Laetitia Sadier, John Williamson

Related Artists: Stereolab

Discography:

• "Red Sleeping Beauty" (1986, single)
• "Frans Hals" (1987, single)
• I Am A Wallet (1987)
• "Should the Bible Be Banned" (1988, single)
• The Enraged Will Inherit the Earth (1989)
• McCarthy at War EP (1989)
• Banking, Violence and the Inner Life Today (1990)
• That's All Very Well, But... (1991, compilation)

Social Media: None

McCarthy are best known for one of two things, depending on how your taste in music goes: they're either that band that Manic Street Preachers covered a lot, or they're that band that ended up becoming Stereolab. Musically, they're a pretty run-of-the-mill jangle pop band for their time, with the main thing that sets them being apart is how explicitly left-wing their lyrics were. For example, they give us such cheery song titles as "The Procession of Popular Capitalism" and "And Tomorrow the Stock Exchange Will Be the Human Race", just in case you were worried they'd be too subtle about it. They're about twice as preachy and half as fun as Stereolab, but even still, McCarthy were capable of coming up with a good song every now and then.