High School Faves

I'm fucking old. There's no denying it at this point. I gave up. I don't even bother celebrating my birthday anymore because it's just kind of depressing and I've had enough of them that some of the shine of living another fucking year feels much less like an accomplishment.

Perhaps in another dozen years it will be again.

Big City Rock (1979)

If you were any kind of fan of the Power Pop in the Boston area in the late 70's there really was one band that ruled them all. It was the Atlantics. They had the songs. They had the moves. They were just fucking brilliant live. You really weren't likely to leave a show without one hook or another stuck in your brain. Myself and some other friends in high school were fairly obsessed with them and connived all sorts of ways to getting our underage asses into clubs or any all ages show that they appeared at. It was a great time to be young and stupid. Unfortunately for all involved though was that by the time we'd come of enough age to accomplish sneaking into bars the band itself was heading towards its nadir and eventual dissolution. But fuck, it was great while it lasted.

The Atlantics were just one of those bands for whom fame and fortune initially seemed like destiny only the stars didn't quite align. They made a single and just before they were going to release it they signed with ABC records which stipulated that all remaining copies of that as yet unreleased single were to be destroyed as part of their signing deal. (Some copies apparently escaped. It's a personal holy grail record) They then went in and recorded this Lp with a producer whose credits included Joe Walsh & that one terrible Keith Moon solo lp. He didn't get it. The record really ended up lacking the spark of the band live. The Power Pop nuggets are all in place, but the fire is more or less scrubbed in the mix. Then to make matters worse, ABC records got sold to MCA a week after its release and the band was subsequently left out in the cold. They got hosed, no support and then dropped in quick order.

Shit happens.

(At one point there was talk of them trying to negotiate an opportunity to remix, remaster and rerelease the Lp, but MCA wanted too much money for the tapes.)

Which is not to say that the Lp is a total waste. It's got some great stuff and is thoroughly enjoyable as it is. "One Last Night" & a great cover of  Martha and the Vandellas "Nowhere to Run", but it did take me a few years away from the live versions I was used to to get there.

Here's some contemporary live recording from 1979. Compare and contrast.

Lonelyhearts (1981)

The fuck of it is that their swan song was a huge local hit back in the days before Clear Channel bought and homogenized radio into the preconceived pablum of shit that it is today nation wide. A local band could actually get played on a local mainstream radio station at one time long ago rather than the same fifteen songs mandated by corporate bean counters telling the entire nation what constitutes a "hit". I don't listen to the radio.

So they put out this record. The A-side is listed as "Can't Wait Forever", but it's "Lonelyhearts" that was the undisputed plug side. If shit hadn't gone south with their Lp, there's a good possibility that they could have had some kind of at the very least, Top 100 action with it. It's a Power Pop juggernaut. It sounds like the band live. It should have been. It wasn't, but this still exists.

(After the band broke up the rhythm section remained and formed Ball and Pivot which is quintessentially mid-80's nonsense. I was not a fan.)

I prefer to remember stuff like this from a Saturday afternoon local access show of bands live in the studio. "Weekend" is fab, but "Pop Shivers" is a lost classic. (Both of which are available on retrospective discs via Cd Baby. Do yourself a favor. Pick them up.)