Monday, June 2, 2008

The Icons - Art in the Dark LP (1985, Press)

Yet more Athens, GA mid-80s rock that barely made it's way onto my radar. The Icons started life as Art in the Dark and released a scarce ep under that moniker in 1983. Rechristened The Icons a couple years later, ’85 saw the release of their one and only album, it’s title being the band’s original namesake. Hmmm…wonder what that was all about? Not particularly new-wavy or post-modern, Art in the Dark was still several notches above the mainstream fray. For all intents and purposes, the Icons fit in nicely with local yokels Dreams So Real, as well as west coast contemporaries Translator from San Francisco. The boys do a nice cover of Big Star’s “Way Out West,” amid eight worthy originals, including the ‘live’ “The Girl Is Mine” fleshed out with a faux arena audience, cheering their heroes on. What little else you can familiarize yourself about The Icons with can be perused here and here.

01. Number
02. Lots of Money
03. Trouble In Havana
04. Nothin' Left to Save
05. Try
06. Way Out West
07. Tonight (There's a Sign)
08. The Girl Is Mine
09. Chains

Hear

10 comments:

barefootjim said...

Awesome! I've been looking for this for years!!

evr said...

You had this, you SOB? I've been looking for this for over 20 years. I played the crap out of this on WCVF 24 years ago!

Thanks for an awesome surprise!

spavid said...

Got this a couple years ago, but didn't listen to it in it's entirety until a few days ago. Glad to hear ya'll are enjoying it!

evr said...

Hey,

Someone just sent me the remaining tracks from the 2 EPs (none of these tracks are on this LP). I think that's everything now!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/grkote

contains the "Four Songs" EP and the "$+3" EP

spavid said...

Awesome! Thanks.

Unknown said...

Can anyone post the 2 EP's anywhere?

Patrick said...

I know it's been a while since this was posted, but is there any chance of a re-up for the Art In The Dark eps that were posted with the above listed sendspace link? That link is no longer active. Much obliged!!!

Robert Nagle said...

Wow, Art in the Dark is a great and tight album. (Zippy link still works btw). I just got around to listening.

Thanks for re-upping these things regularly too.

Unknown said...

Can you re-post this please? I used to see these guys and played them on the college radio station WUOG in Athens, Ga.

t.e said...

Excerpts from Art in the Dark live shows at the 40 Watt Club in Athens are posted at the website of "Pat the Wiz" - the 40 Watt sound man from the 1980s.

See: https://www.patthewiz.com/music-archives

Clips from their shows appear in weeks 2, 146, 255, 350, and 456.