The Lienke Brothers City Band - s/t (1979, No Sweat)

I wasn't able to give you much this week, so at the very least I thought I'd attend to a recent request.  Back in 2010 I presented a 1982 record (Brothers by Choice) by a different incarnation of the same band, who by then were making themselves known as The Lienkes.  Based in Oklahoma City, The Lienke Brothers City Band weren't striving for any punk/wave credentials, at least not in this phase of their tenure.  There's a couple of power-poppy stunners however, specifically "The Observer" and "Squeeze Play," both strutting a faint Rundgren-esque stride.  Elsewhere, the bulk of this disk isn't particularly idiosyncratic, and in fact skews closer to the mid and right stratas of the dial, clinging preciously to the last vestiges of '70s pop/rock.  To their credit, the Lienke's have the acumen down pat with Top 40-ready morels "In a Plane" and "Caroline."  And then there are the deal-breakers.  "It Started to Get Good" humps a Bee Gees groove that I'm totally not in the market for, and I was just as desperate to escape from their token swing number "Hotel Black."  Consider yourselves warned.

01. The Observer
02. Hotel Black
03. When I Was Young
04. Well What About It
05. Caroline
06. It Started to Get Good
07. Squeeze Play
08. Innocence
09. Once Before
10. In the Jungle
11. In a Plane
12. Nothing to Lose

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