Gleaming Spires

Gleaming Spires started out as Bates Motel, the pairing of Leslie Bohem and David Kendrick, until brothers Ron and Russell Mael drafted them into the early-'80s lineup of Sparks. With the Maels' blessing they spun off a band of their own, cutting demos with a then-green Stephen Hague and pulling in fellow Sparks players Jim Goodwin and Bob Haag. Kendrick, for the record, would later turn up in Devo and Xiu Xiu.

The song that made them was nearly an afterthought. "Are You Ready For The Sex Girls?" was meant as a stand-alone B-side, yet it got them signed to Posh Boy Records and became a hit on Los Angeles' KROQ, and it ended up anchoring Songs of the Spires in 1981. It's a party record dressed up as a dare, wiry, bouncy and deadpan, new wave that knows exactly how silly it is and plays it straight anyway. Hollywood agreed: it turned up in The Last American Virgin and Revenge of the Nerds, the latter also borrowing their "All Night Party".

Even the packaging had pedigree. Kevin J. Walker, who designed covers for T.S.O.L. and Channel 3, handled their early promotional art, and Mark Kostabi designed the sleeve for Walk on Well Lighted Streets.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.