Zion, Illinois' Shoes were
influenced by the usual suspects that influenced Power Pop bands of
the late 1970's; namely The Beatles, Nazz, The Who, The Raspberries,
Big Star and Badfinger. Although they'd recorded three privately
released albums in significantly small quantities the band
commercially released their fourth album Black Vinyl Shoes.
Released on their own Black
Vinyl label and on US indie PVC shortly thereafter, the album was
recorded in guitarist Jeff Murphy's living room on a TEAC
3340S reel to reel tape recorder.
The
warm sound, low-key yet mellifluous multi-tracked harmony vocals and
overall impact of the material made the entire recording industry sit
up and acknowledge the fact that an album this professional sounding
could be recorded at one's home and completely take place without the
financial help of a major label. It was released on Sire Records in
the UK in 1979 and in no time at all the band signed with Elektra in
the US and went on to record albums that sounded not too different
than Black Vinyl Shoes.
Musically
the band has the crunch of the Dwight Twilley Band, the vocal
harmonies of The Raspberries, the
melodic punch of fellow Illinois bands Pezband and Off Broadway.
Shoes' vocal harmonies and hooks seem to just roll off very
naturally. Lyrically, Black Vinyl Shoes seems to be
preoccupied with the politics and dynamics of romantic relationships.
The songs can be pretty dark yet they never come off as such on the
surface. There's a certain saminess to the material on this album (as
there are on most Shoes albums). However, generally speaking, if you
like Shoes sound, approach and material, you won't have a problem
with this.
New York's The Fleshtones
are one of the longest-running CBGB's era bands. They've continued
for the last 39 years (since 1976) without a single year of
inactivity. Their blend of freakbeat soulful garage rock has always
resonated with live audiences throughout the world. In 1980 they
signed with Miles Copeland's legendary I.R.S. Records. They released
two magnificent studio albums (Roman Gods and Hexbreaker),
two EP's (Up Front
and American Beat '84),
about a dozen American and European singles and two live albums;
Speed Connection: Live In Paris 85 and
Speed Connection II:
The Final Chapter(Live In Paris 85).
The
album was recorded live at The Gibus Club, Paris, France on March 7,
1985. The band were booked to play nine shows at the club over a
two-week span, in two segments (March 5–9 and March 13–16). The
band had recorded the first show (March 5, 1985) and - at the urging
of the French division of I.R.S. Records' vice-president (and
original Police guitarist) Henri Padovani - subsequently
rush-released it to sell at the venue during their two-week stay. The
record was titled SpeedConnection: Live In Paris 85
(ILP 26412) and was only released in France. The cover art was by
famous French illustrator Serge Clerc. However the band was unhappy
with the record as lead singer Peter Zaremba had a severe case of
laryngitis the night that show was recorded.
The
band owed the American I.R.S. Records one more record to fulfill
their contractual obligations. In September 1985 the label released
Speed Connection II - The Final Chapter (Live In Paris 85)
- a recording of their third night (3/7/85) at the Gibus Club.
"Return to the Haunted House" was actually a studio
recording with canned applause taken from the live album Rock Will
Never Die by Michael Schenker Group. The same recording also later
appeared (minus the canned applause) on the AngryYears 84-86
compilation album on Impossible Records in 1993. The cover artwork
was by organist and lead singer Peter Zaremba. Both albums were
produced by ex-Strangelove Richarard Gottehrer of “I Want Candy
Fame, who had also produced albums by The Go-Go's & Blondie.
The
album contained many cover versions of songs by other artists.
"Trouble" and "Haunted House" by The Kingsmen,
"Wind Out" by R.E.M., "La La La La Reprise" by
The Blendells, "When the Night Falls" by The Eyes, "Twelve
Months Later" by The Sheep (who were actually The Strangeloves
under a pseudonym) and "Hide & Seek" by Bunker Hill.
In critical terms, Speed Connection
really only hints at what a Fleshtones show was like in the 1980's
(as sadly the horn section hasn't really been a fixture of live shows
since the mid 90's). Peter Zaremba's laryngitis is only partially to
blame for the lack of success of the record. A comparatively limp recording is
basically what mars the proceedings. Speed Connection II is
far and away the superior of the two recordings. Although both albums have nearly identical tracklistings, everything sounds slightly better on SC:II and Zaremba's voice is in fine, wild form. The band is tight
as it generally always was at the time (and still is for that
matter). R.E.M.'s Peter Buck makes a special guest appearance on two
songs on guitar and the horn section sounds nice and appropriately
sloppy. The album received uniformly excellent reviews at the time of
its' September 1985 release but the label did literally nothing to
promote it.
I'm
wondering if this is the best starting place for a Fleshtones novice
to start looking into what the band sounded like in the 1980's. This
is possibly the best representation of the band's live prowess. As it
has a loose, sloppy and sweaty soundtrack to a mid 80's party appeal.
Here's The Video Review:
Special Thanks: Joe Bonomo & No Such Thing As Was, Maxwell Max, Robert Barry Francos and Zorro Zero & The Warlocks.
Blur's 2003 album Think Tank was both a
personal landmark for it's experimentation as it was a sad,
disappointing finale to the band's first part of it's career. It made
over a dozen best-album of the year lists yet, it's a far cry from
what makes people connect with Blur. Their blend of diverse
guitar-based Britpop is as inventive-sounding now as it was popular
in the UK then. Guitarist Graham Coxon was fired during the recording
of the album and only appears on the sad, but beautiful “Battery In
Your Leg”. The album does suffer as a result of his absence.
The singles were “Out Of Time”,“Crazy
Beat” and “Good Song”. “Out Of Time” is one of the band's
best ballads and it remains the lone long from the album that the
band still regularly performs live. “Crazy Beat” is a Fatboy
Slim-produced song and sounds like a stab at writing something along
the lines of “Song 2”, but doesn’t really register. “Good
Song” is in fact a good song. It has a sweet, poignant melody and
is a stand-out on the album. A good amount of the album are murky,
low-key grooves that work some of the time (namely on “Ambulance”
and “On The Way To The Club”. There are some throwaways (“We've
Got A File On You” and “Jets”) and some worthwhile moments
(“Sweet Song” and “Battery In Your Leg”).
Think Tank is not a great starting
place to discover who Blur is (that would be Best Of Blur, The
Great Escape and Modern
Life Is Rubbish). And lead
singer Damon Albarn and bassist Alex James have since someone
disowned the album. However it is an interesting experimental album
that does work at least some of the time.
