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With all the fuss people have been making about new wave music, there really hasn't been much to write about other than the pure outrageousness of everything surrounding it all.
The Sex Pistols, who were supposed to lead the pack, were nothing more than obnoxious, bent on their own self-destruction, which they accomplished handily after a brief tour of the United States.
But just as attention toward new wave was starting to wane, Elvis Costello started making himself known.
Costello, who will appear tonight at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, is just about the only punk rocker who has managed to get an album moving on the record charts while still maintaining his respectability as a punk.
In his debut album last year, My Aim Is True (Columbia), Costello demonstrated that more than any of the other new wave acts, he has the ability to sing and perform without having to hide behind a wall of sound more akin to a rocket engine than rock and roll. His recently released This Year's Model (Columbia) is further evidence of his abilities.
His lyrics are just as rebellious at times as the rest of the punks, but his melodies are more clearly rooted in early rock patterns. The most quoted example of Costello's rebellious nature is from "Radio, Radio," from his latest album, in which he declares "I wanna bite the hand that feeds me, I wanna bite that hand so badly, I wanna make them wish they've never seen me."
Yet Costello, 23, also manages to retain a pop quality to his overall music which makes it more accessible to the masses.
On his first album, "Alison" was an example of what must be the first punk ballad. Yet its melody was as good as or better than some of what is coming from the pens of today's pop stylists.
To a large degree, this is in part due to his producer Nick Lowe, who will also perform tonight with his band Rockpile.
What Lowe and Costello have done is to maintain the rough quality of basic rock and roll, which the punks have such an affinity for, and still make it sound fresh and contemporary.
In the few interviews he has granted, Costello has presented himself as a serious musician who gets "infuriated" at "lack of imagination, of individuality, small-mindedness in any area."
With an attitude like that, it seems likely that Elvis Costello will keep the attention on punk rock for a while longer.
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