Instead, this post concerns a complete Belgium concert from 2004 that was archived and sold on a limited edition DVD as Thunder in the Black Cave, and as you might guess I'm giving you the audio from it. Though I have a physical copy, I can't confirm if anyone other than Reed was present and accounted for from Red Lorry's '80s lineup. The photo to your upper-right (credit to Wikipedia) is in fact from a 2004 performance, and it looks like they're pared down to a trio from their usual four-piece setup. At the very least, the audio strikes me as a fairly lucid audience recording, though the band's consistent drony surge lends itself to becoming a bit blaring in spots. It's heavy on their early Red Rhino releases (Talk About the Weather, Paint Your Wagon, and surrounding singles like "Generation"), and their revelatory third album for Beggars Banquet, Nothing's Wrong. The setlist is downright delightful, touching on virtually necessary Lorries composition - "Spinning Round," "Hands Off Me," "Monkeys on Juice," and "Chance," to name a handful. Maybe one or two more representative cuts from 1990's Blow should have made the cut (say, "Happy to See Me") but it's really hard to complain with the nearly two-dozen numbers they selected. For those of you un/under-acquainted with the Lorries, the band's clamshell box on Cherry Red, Albums and Singles 1982-89 is a phenomenal way to get caught up.
Saturday, August 23, 2025
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Thunder in the Black Cave live 2004
Friday, August 22, 2025
Badbob And The New World Crusade - Today's News ep (1987, Incas)
Under the configuration of Badbob and the New World Crusade, three singles and the ep to your right were all cut in the mid-80s. Considerably a heck of a lot more even-tempered than his Lost Generation days of yore, Bob and his aforementioned Crusade stuck well to the middle of the road on Today's News. This generally anti-climactic, albeit strummy, four-songer is wholly approachable in the manner of say what the Windbreakers were concocting around the same era. The title piece makes for a bit of an earworm, but writ large Badbob and his four-piece gaggle weren't a terribly inventive or visionary lot. I need to check out Today's News' surrounding singles, however thus far, I'm more partial to Now is Reaction.
Sunday, August 17, 2025
Saturday, August 16, 2025
Psychic Archie - 4 Tracked (2015, rec. 1984-85)
Between 1984-85 Psychic Archie were responsible for two ep length cassettes, remastered and re-sequenced on the newly minted compendium 4 Tracked. It's not necessarily a wall-to-wall goldmine, but the band's best moments are stunning. This is due in part to local Topeka collaborator Alan Oliver, who wrote two of PA's most memorable songs, "Happy Man," and "No Pictures of Dad." That latter gem was licensed to Josie Cotton (yes, of "Johnny Are You Queer" fame) who performed the song on an episode of the '80s sitcom Square Pegs. The Archies spin on "No Pictures of Dad" isn't as gussied up as Cotton's, rather they transform it into a mid-fi marvel, tweaking it to such a bittersweet extent that you might mistake it for something Guided By Voices wrote, say, in 1990. "Happy Man" was later adopted by a fantastic, one-album-wonder of a band, The Leatherwoods who covered it on their 1992 Topeka Oratorio LP. As you might guess, that band named themselves after the recording studio where PA recorded. And there are even more must hear salvos - "Don't Kiss Me Stranger," the previously unreleased "Flag of My Own," and "Every Time it Hurts," which if listened to attentively reveals a slight similarity to The Paul Collins Beat classic "Walking Out on Love," just when the chorus hits.
Friday, August 15, 2025
The Maxxturs - It's Just Like You 12'' (1988, Pisces)
Sunday, August 10, 2025
damned if I can make out the lyrics...
**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**
Hear
Saturday, August 9, 2025
The Drive - The Journey is the Reward (1987, Thrust)
From what little I've been able to glean on this quartet, they actually had ties to another band I introduced you to some time ago, the vaguely new-wave inflected The Lines from Boston, who dished out a wad of independently released wax in the early/mid-80s. It appears that the Drive's keyboardist/mic fiend Pat Dreier is the one who specifically had a role in both bands. Journey's... tenor isn't far removed from the likes of the Hooters, John Cafferty, and less-so Drivin 'n Cryin' - not necessarily power pop, so to speak, but often adjacent with mid-tempo salvos "Something There," "Life Ain't Without You Baby," and "In Her Head," striking me as compulsively catchy. The Drive weren't pompous enough to work an arena, but definitely a notch or two above your typical bar band fare. Nonetheless, this is ambitious and tight as a duck's ass, impeccably produced and engineered by the band alongside a gent named Phil Greene. Enjoy (or not).
Sunday, August 3, 2025
The terrible shouting in my ears, we wouldn't last the year.
**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**
Hear