Better Than Imitation Crab

This is a continuation.
I'm halfway through ripping those cds I mentioned in the previous post.
I'm also still listening to the previous Lp and stalling before I switch to this one for while I type out this current post. It helps.

Anyway

Imitation Life (1981)

Yeah, here is the follow up by Robin Lane & the Chartbusters. 

It's called "Imitation Life"

Seems like Warner Brothers gave them one more chance.

It's another strong effort. Does not fall prey to the dreaded sophomore slump. 

 I'd be hard pressed to consider which track ought to have been the single. Warner Bros. went with "Solid Rock" though I might have gone with "Imitation Life" or even "Pretty Mala"  since it's a nice upbeat pop song on what's actually a slightly darker album overall. As I remember it, local radio station WBCN played "Send Me an Angel" a bunch at the time long before Clear Channel came along and ruined radio for everybody.

But alas. Nada.

Another dollar record and this one without even a compact disc reissue.

They lasted on Warner Brothers for one more Live Ep (which I don't have. I used to have it in my Discogs wantlist, but I'd get inundated by so many copies in the daily email that I had to take it out)

Well, I like it and I'm enjoying listening to it.

You do the same.

When Things Go Wrong

I got a nice bundle of NOS compact discs from Sunday Records this afternoon that I'm ripping while I type this. It's going to be a good night.

Robin Lane & the Chartbusters (1980)

I won't pretend I understand the ins and outs of the music business. If I probably wouldn't be doing this stuff. I'd be off on my private island banging supermodels before wandering into my state of the art home studio and shitting out another mega-hit. Or at the very least I wouldn't have to work a regular job.

But I don't and I do.

So here we have the debut record on major label by Robin Lane & the Chartbusters. It's a really fucking great pop record. It has "When Things Go Wrong" on it and that song is one of those that I usually have to play a few extra times whenever it comes on. 

It should have been a huge fucking hit.

I dare to you to google up the top 100 hits of 1980 and tell me that Rupert Holmes and Christoper Cross made better records than this. I mean, Olivia Newton John had the #3 song. I call bullshit.

Plus half of the Chartbusters were in the mid-70s incarnation of Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers. That's a pedigree.

So needless to say, but said anyway, I really really like this record. I couldn't explain to you why, but I do. It actually saddens me a bit that you can find copies for a dollar. (Though for some reason, people are asking crazy money for a 2002 reissue on compact disc). It's consistently good all the way through.

I really really like it.

I think you should too.

Middle of the Road

I don't know.
But here it is anyway.

Private Lives (1983)

AOR New Wave from Texas by a band with really nice hair.

(Except for maybe that guy in the back with the receding hairline, but he writes the songs, so suck it)

"When the World Comes Crashing Through" really ought to/could have been a radio hit. 

It wasn't.

(That said, I certainly enjoy this more than some of their contemporary peers like the Motels or Missing Persons.)

But there you go.

Fate is fickle.

Some Things Exist as Themselves

I really need to eat something, but I'm digging listening to these two first.

 The French Are From Hell (1984)

Very little is to be found on the interwebs about this band. I had a link at one time that can't be bothered to find right now. In the end it doesn't really matter.

What does matter is how fucking good this seven inch is.

I mean, every once in a while I buy something blind. Simply based on random factors like date or one familiar name on an otherwise obscure sleeve. This was recorded by Don Zientara who recorded basically everything in and around Washington DC worth listening to.

The music nerds might say this is some sort of post-punk nonsense with saxophone or something silly like that.

 I just say this one is Gold.

All four songs. Gold.

"Pinned Under a Jet" is arguably the hit, but damn, I wish there was an lp hiding somewhere or a few stray compilation tracks, but sadly no...

I just want some more.

Climb (1983)

Chorus pedal abusing New Wave trio from Boston with at least one member being an Irish expat which explains why some further releases by the band were on an Irish label.

It's still the good stuff.

At least for me, I guess. It has a certain nostalgic appeal that brings back a time and a place and sense memories of the parking lot of the Channel right on Boston harbor where I'm pretty sure I probably saw them at least once for some all ages show. I should have kept a show diary...

Yet Another Vintage Regional Compilation

This month we travel upstate New York.

Live at 288 (1983)

French Letter - For You

Jeannie Smith & the Hurricanes - Ooby Dooby

the Watts - Look at Me

Lumpen Proles - Worlds in Darkness

the Stars That Wouldn't Shine - Scream and Shout

Operation Pluto - Doggie Biscuits

the Tragics - It's Ok

Capitle - All There is for Use

the Reedies - Mirage

Nine tracks by nine bands recorded live at a place called the 288 Club in Albany, NY.

This one is another keeper. Only a few of these bands released anything else in their lifetimes and it covers a nice gamut of New Wave to Pop to Synths and Punk with a stray Rockabilly track thrown in for good measure. All of whom would have disappeared without a trace but for records like this one. (Certainly the Tragics and Capitle should have been comped on some punk rock exploitation record a long ass time ago, but they haven't to the best of my knowledge.)

 And really all are pretty damn good and I would certainly have enjoyed this as much then as I do now and even now it's hard for me to pick a highlight. 

Plus no ska or faux Jam mod bands.

Everyone's a winner at the 288.