Just when I thought I'd heard the last of
Mitch Easter's prolific, 1980s productions, I'm lovingly slapped upside the head with one that almost escaped. In the case of North Carolina's
Riff Doctors I suppose I could be forgiven considering this was a cassette-only release, that I happened upon in a large allotment of old demos that I recently came into. Containing six songs, this little reel is the stuff of jangle-pop nirvana, if evidenced by nothing else than the opening salvo "Say Goodbye."
Fred Bednash and
Donna Esposito trade off on vox, making comparisons to Mitch's coincidentally co-ed ensemble, Let's Active a bit of a no-brainer (even if Game Theory would be more accurate). By tape's end, the Doctors settle on a Buddy Holly-esque sock-hop rocker. "The Things That Make Me Glad That I Met You." In addition to this cassette, the group is also survived by the a
1983 single, "Falling" on Coyote Records, which one seller on
Ebay has a staggering price tag for. That song was anthologized on the
Teen Line Vol 1 cd, as was a song from the demo which I'm presenting in it's entirety below.
01. Say Goodbye
02. Turn Me On
03. Set the World on Fire
04. She
05. Reckless
06. The Things That Make Me Glad That I Met You
Hear
18 comments:
Hello, the link for the single is dead.
Can you post it?
Best Regards
Efstathiou Stathis
Unfortunatey I'm not hosting the single. You'll have to contact someone over at Shotgun Solution and request they re-up it.
Hi Spavid,
There is no way this could possibly be as good as I am imagining it is in my mind based on that description. But if it's only about 50% there, it should be great. I fully expect another amazing discovery.
Wotta site!
Ace K.
I take it all back. This IS as good as I imagined it would be. Some of these (e.g., "Reckless") could become among my favorites obscurities. I will see how I feel once the novelty wears off, but right now I am happy and grinning.
Would love to hear more if anyone's got 'em.
Thanks!
Ace K.
This is good shit Ace, no question about it. Thanks for the kind words.
So it is known
The rhythm section was Dave Ryan on drums and Tom Shad on bass
so it is known
Tom Shad played bass and Dave Ryan played drums on these six songs. The band was from Jersey City , NJ
Thanks for comenting Tom. I was misinformed about where the Riff Doctors were based. Did the band record anything else besides the single and this tape?
Thanks for the link to my post. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you; but I haven't had much time lately. Great post by the way as usual!!! I reposted the single, for anyone interested. Thanks again, and take care!
Frank and Donna recorded as Cowboy And Spin Girl after the Riff Doctors split. They put a record out on the UK Subway Organization label and stateside on Parasol.
The Cowboy and Spingirl record IS the Riff Doctors 85 demo . I played on it.
Heard this again last night, and it still got me right from track one. And "Reckless" is really great!
Ace K.
Any chance for a reup?
As always late to the party, could I get a re-up when u have time. I appreciate it. Thank you
Hello. This page was just linked to by Shotgun Solution. Any chance of a reup? Many thanks!
I forgot to add. It is Frank Bednash, not Fred
Please can you reup? Thanks
RUP PLZ!
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