Scritti Politti hits the Roxy Theater this Saturday.

A bit of background on them follows, in case your only memory of them is as a 80’s band that received a passing reference as Mike Seaver’s favorite band on Growing Pains.

From the outset, lyrically and aesthetically Scritti was an intellectual collective, grounded in Marxism, led by songwriter Green Gartside. Unfortunately, Scritti is known here for their 1985 Top 40 hit “Perfect Way,” which, while catchy, today sounds fairly unlistenable by our sonic standards. On the flipside, their early Rough Trade singles sound surprisingly energetic and adventurous now. Download “Skank Bloc Bologna” and you’ll see what I mean.

A good source on the backstory of Scritti is Chapter 8 of Simon Reynolds’ essential postpunk history Rip It Up and Start Again. Also, an excellent consise essay on them by Sasha Frere Jones appeared in the New Yorker this past summer. Read it here.

While they are not officially a “reunited” band, this is not a band to miss this time around, as who knows when they’ll be here next.