Friday, December 24, 2010

Let's Active - Demos 1983-85

Call it Easter on Christmas, call it Big Plans for those of you who still have Afoot hold on one of the brightest guitar-pop beacons of the 1980s - or why don't we just call it my holiday gift to you?  This collection of vintage  Let's Active demos is my annual BFD holiday upload to all you aficionados of Wilfully Obscure.  Believe it or not, I've been sitting on these for a couple of years now, just waiting for the appropriate moment to unleash them, and what better time than now?  If you have the original albums, you'll want to lay your ears on these (although the variations between the demos and the finished product are occasionally minimal, esp when it comes to some of the Cypress and Big Plans... tracks).  For those unacquainted with Mitch Easter and Co., these collections aren't a bad jumping off point.  There's more where these came from as well, predating the Afoot ep, and perhaps even more Cypress-era material that I may get around to sharing later.  Back in the mid-'00s there was brief talk of a Let's Active box set, but sadly nothing came of it.

I separated these demos chronologically by album.  Let's Active bowed with Afoot in 1983, then came their full length debut Cypress a year later, with Big Plans for Everybody hitting the shelves in 1986.  By far and away this was the cream of LA's proverbial crop, and it's some of finest music of their era, period.  Bon appetit.

Room With a View/Make Up With Me/Co-star/Counting Down/Leader of Men/In Between

Cypress demos:
Ring True/Flags for Everything/Prey/Easy Does/Gravel Truck/Whispered News/Lowdown/Counting Down/Ornamental/Grey Scale/Co-star/Waters Part/Blue Line

Big Plans Left Behind (Big Plans for Everybody) demos:
Still Dark Out/Last Chance Town/Writing the Book of Last Pages/Horizon/Won't Go Wrong/Reflecting Pool/Talking to Myself/I Feel Funny/Horizon/Writing the Book of Last Pages/Premonition/Reflecting Pool/Invisible Hills/Fell (inst)/Talking to Myself (inst)/Whispered News (inst)/Fell/Whispered News/Proposal (inst)/Explain (inst)

15 comments:

Scott Wy said...

This blog is the biggest reason why I don't have my own music focused blog - you are already doing a much better job than I could ever do. Thank you.

spavid said...

I really appreciate that Scott, but you really shouldn't shy away from starting your own blog. Thanks for commenting.

WhatTS said...

Thanks for posting these... Have some other demos myself could offer too.

eric said...

This is quite a BFD to me... I'd be interested in hearing anything Mitch Easter-related from that period. I've had the three LA albums + EP since they were released and have never tired of listening to them... some of the best rock ever! Thanks for sharing this... I've greatly enjoyed listening to it this Christmas evening.

The Curator said...

Awesome Xmas present. Thanks.

amusicalguy said...

Excellent stuff by an excellent band! Can't wait to hear the other unreleased tracks you have from Afoot and Cypress. Keep up the great work!

Spirit of 01776 said...

To quote the great ONJ:

I love you.
I honestly love you.

Thanks for some new stuff featuring one of my favorite guitar players.

amusicalguy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
It's All Music, Man said...

Fantastic stuff. Please post the other stuff! Somewhat off-topic, but "Badger" never fails to amaze me.

ron said...

What a Treat Thanks !!!

reservatory said...

Beauteous! Any chance of a re-up on the Afoot & Cypress demos?? In any case, thanks for everything else!

spavid said...

The Cypress and Afoot demos links have been fixed.

reservatory said...

Many thanks many seasons after the first post!

mojo_goat said...

Any chance you could reap these? Thanks!

annElise said...

I knew Faye Hunter and had all of Let's Active's music...and then lost it in a hard-drive failure. Now I'm working on finding everything that isn't streamable. So thank you many times over for making these available.