Johnny & The Plaid Cowboys

Having formed in Albany—a miniscule burg in Northern California—Johnny & The Plaid Cowboys embarked upon a barnstorming World Tour in 1986 of only the smallest nations. After intriguing and confusing small crowds in Andorra, Liechtenstein and The Papal States, JPC got lost attempting to find ever smaller venues and nations in which to play.If you didn’t See JPC back in the mid-’80s, you weren’t living in a microscopic city-nation. Or you just weren’t looking in the right direction as they went shuttling past, searching for compact backyards or garages where they could plug in their Casio keyboard.Not satisfied with the industry-standard recording equipment on offer during their career (1985-7), they instead opted to use a pair of cheap headphones for a microphone, and a stereo tape deck. Overdubs were added only to prove that you CAN put lipstick on a pig. But that doesn’t improve its bad-breath or acne.Every snap and pop, every fuzzed out vocal on what few recordings remain is a testament to the effectiveness of Placebos. To be taken in doses commensurate with those that induced their creation, this is the lurid story of The Apocryphal Plaid Placebos.