The Post Punk Nightmare

Game Theory complex...confusing...doubtful...and...poppy? Formed in Sacramento in 1982 Game Theory, the apparent brainchild of lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Scott Miller, is what one might call a pop, psychedelic, new wave blend that found itself placed in the context of a burgeoning alternative rock era. Game Theory plainly spoke to the college rock ethos and came on what Allmusic describes as the fringes of the Paisley Underground – a select pop rock music scene and genre that began in California inspired by the folk and psychedelia of the 1960's.

The band's initial lineup began as Scott Miller (Lead vocals/Guitar), Fred Juhos (bass guitar), Michael Erwin (drums) and Nancy Becker (keyboards) as a power pop quartet with considerable doses of punk thrown about the mix. The band would fail to find the pocket of mainstream success but were popular on college radio stations with strong reviews by critics. After a complete lineup change in 1985 a new, kind of re-branded Game Theory emerged with more refined sound, and were more attuned to the popular ear of audiences. The band it seems would find and maintain a relative niche as the clever, wry, buzzing college-radio bangers, a status that would earn them, if nothing else, solidified cult status.

Game Theory builds on beaming bright displays and pop melodies that are all too confused by a rancorous jangle, and maddened guitar. The music is certainly lively that still packs of a heavy breath with occasional sighs of despair. Listen for a sly, and subtly arranged complexities of the guitar which interlopes from the bangs and throws of the rhythm while the keyboards has seizing spurs that coolly lock things into a broad stroke.

The album included on this post is a Game Theory's 1994 compilation that includes material from their 1982 album, most of the two EP's released after that album, and songs 1983's 'Pointed Accounts of People You Know' and 1984's Distortion by the band.

Enjoy.

Game Theory - Distrotion of Glory (1993)