The Three O'Clock

Certain Songs #2723: The Three O’Clock – “Tell Me When It’s Over”

October 28, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: 3×4
Year: 2018

. . .

One thing I didn’t realize before I started researching this post was that it was Michael Quercio who came up with the phrase “The Paisley Underground” to describe the non-hardcore L.A. scene of the early-mid 1980s.

Said scene included not just The Three O’Clock, but also The Bangles, Rain Parade and The Dream Syndicate. At least, and certainly early recordings by Green on Red and the Long Ryders could be tossed into that stew as well, even both bands went towards what we now call Americana pretty swiftly.

Certain Songs #2722: The Three O’Clock – “Her Head’s Revolving”

October 27, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Arrive Without Travelling
Year: 1985

. . .

Ironically, despite the fact that I really didn’t like the the album they put out that year, Arrive Without Travelling — which was also their first album for I.R.S. records — I ended up seeing The Three O’Clock four times in 1985. I don’t recall exactly why I didn’t like Arrive Without Traveling — which, like Baroque Hoedown and Sixteen Tambourines, was a fantastic name for a psychedelic pop album — I just remember that I didn’t. I was pretty cranky in 1985, so that might have been part of it.

I do know why I saw the the Three O’Clock four times that year: for one thing, they played The Star Palace twice in 1985. The first time was in February, with my close personal friends Western Chapter opening, and then they played it again in November, with Camper Van Beethoven and Flying Color opening. I think that might have been a night CVB played “When The Levee Breaks.” Or not.

Certain Songs #2721: The Three O’Clock – “Jet Fighter”

October 26, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sixteen Tambourines
Year: 1983

. . .

You know what album I woefully underrated at the time? The Three O’Clock’s debut full-length, 1983’s Sixteen Tambourines. I stuck it in the mix a couple of months ago and while things like “When Lightning Starts” and “A Day in Erotica” are experiments that still don’t quite gel for me — the former tries to hard to be soul and the latter tries too hard, period — I really love the songs featuring Mike Mariano’s piano, “Fall to the Ground” and (especially) “Tomorrow,” and as I’ve come around on Michael Quercio’s voice over the past forty years, the rest of it is better than I remember.

Certain Songs #2720: The Three O’Clock – “I Go Wild”

October 25, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Baroque Hoedown
Year: 1982

. . .

While Baroque Hoedown was originally released as a five-song EP in October 1982, like all of us, it’s grown in the intervening forty years, and was re-released this year as a nine-song album, which is easily the best configuration, as every “new” song — the Byrds and Pink Floyd covers, and the other songs recorded around that time, like “In Love in Too” and “All in Good Time” — fits perfectly with the original EP. And it’s all aged splendidly, even — or maybe, especially — the thing I always thought was the weakest part of their sound, Michael Quercio’s voice.

Certain Songs #2719: The Three O’Clock – “With a Cantaloupe Girlfriend”

October 24, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Baroque Hoedown
Year: 1982

. . .

One of the key Paisley Underground bands, The Three O’Clock weren’t originally called The Three O’Clock. They were originally called The Salvation Army, and Their first album, 1982’s The Salvation Army, came out on Frontier Records and almost immediately ran afoul of the real Salvation Army.