Charlie Pickett & the MC3
“If This is Love, Can I Get My Money Back?”
(Florida 1988)
Fact: Charlie Pickett started making records in 1981, a mere 15 years after the garage band explosion of 1966. It’s now 2007, more than 15 years after the alternarock explosion of 1991. You can work out what that means for yourself.
That’s not a random fact: Charlie’s first cousin Mark Markham led Mark Markham & the Jesters, Ft. Lauderdale’s most successful 60s punk band with a single picked up by RCA for national distribution.
Mark made a big impression on his much-younger cousin. Charlie Pickett & the Eggs recorded Mark’s song “If This is Love Can I Get My Money Back?” on their first single in 1981. I’ve been looking for a copy of this record since 1982 with zero success. I hear it’s amazing.
Charlie somehow made it to Minneapolis and recorded a decidedly not-punk album called Route 33 for Twin/Tone Records in 1986. Even though everyone remembers Twin/Tone for releasing the Replacements and Soul Asylum, the label always tried to make mainstream records on the cheap. Records by the Suburbs, the Wallets, Curtiss A and Figures may have their charms but they don’t really fit with the label’s underground image. Route 33 was probably Twin/Tone’s best fake-major-label record, but it didn’t make Charlie Pickett a star.
So Charlie went back to Florida and put together the MC3. Safety Net Records got Peter Buck to produce The Wilderness, a full-on garage band record that included this fine new version of “If This is Love.”
Since this was 1988, the label made some CDs but good luck finding one.
- Download: If This is Love Can I Get My Money Back?
(Safety Net Records NET 15)
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