TRACK #278:
On Your Feet by Shok Paris
As mentioned a few tracks back, the body jumping, insectoid alien creature from The Hidden has a penchant for loud music.
He’s also rude as shit.
He blast his loud ass music all over the place – on the sidewalk, at a nice family restaurant and from whatever stolen car he’s just peeled out in. He even beats the hell out of a poor record store clerk in order to steal a boom box. What can I say, the thing knows what it wants.
As such, The Hidden soundtrack is loaded with some pulse poundin’ tunes. My favorite of the bunch is On Your Feet. You can hear this one early on in the film, while the Hank Jennings form of the alien is recklessly tearing ass around Downtown L.A., killing cops and blasting through roadblocks. It’s a hell of a tune, and right up ole Shindig alley. And when you’re me, the first thing you think of when hearing a song of this nature, in a movie of this nature is “Who the hell is this, does it exist outside of this movie, and where can I fit it on the playlist?”
Well, it’s Shok Paris. Yes it does. And, apparently, right after a double-shot of W.A.S.P.
Now, Shok Paris was a band I was a little shoked to see in the credits of The Hidden. I’m no authority on music by any means, let’s get that out of the way. Sure, I have this blog here, and I can probably answer a few questions regarding the specific 277 songs that have preceded this one, but no expert does that make me, not even on those 277 songs.
You could certainly say I’m a guy who likes himself some 80’s metal. But again, I’m no scholar on that matter, either. I’ve heard of some bands, and I’m familiar with some of the ones that have had songs like this in movies like this. But there’s a metric fuck-ton of 80’s metal, of varying varieties, and I’m not up on all of them, Shok Paris included. My apologies, Lou Kiss.
So, I couldn’t tell you how familiar everyone else is, and how familiar I should have been with Shok Paris. But, what I can tell you however, is how familiar I am with them now.
Shok Paris was a local Cleveland group who eschewed the typically cover-band trap and launch directly into writing original songs. In 1984, they released their 1st record, Go For the Throat. However, it was their 1986 album, Steel and Starlight, that produced the 2 songs used in The Hidden, a move which afforded the band perhaps it’s widest exposure.
After opening for such acts a Savatage, and fellow Shindigger’s Lizzy Borden, Shok Paris hung it up in 1989. Which, given the musical landscape’s shifting terrain, probably wasn’t the worst idea they could have had.
So here’s to Shok Paris, for tearing it up on The Hidden with On Your Feet!
