Saturday, December 12, 2015

Seventh night of Chanukah: The Lads - Out From the Shadows (1983, UN)

What would Chanukah be like on Wilfully Obscure if I didn't gift you at least one completely unknown quantity? You see, it just so happens that last month a DJ saved my life.  Well, maybe I shouldn't give him that much credit, but he did turn me onto this phenomenal disk, which I was motivated to track down a physical copy of for myself.

Presumably from the environs of greater Boston, MA, The Lads were a walloping power pop quintet purloining a page or three from UK pub-punksters The Boys and Pistols offshoots The Professionals, whilst on the Stateside front indulging in the rhythmic ebb and flow of Shoes and Off Broadway not to mention vital obscuros Crash Street Kids.  Out From the Shadows is comprised of eight captivating and unyieldingly catchy assaults, a brief but fiercely capable cavalcade of shoulda-been-blaring-from-the-jukebox salvos including "Bostown Girls," "Downtown Start," and "Neighborhood Kids."  What's more, "In the Clouds" tantalizingly cops half of the Knack's "My Sharona" riff before transitioning into an infectious persuasion of it's own.  Often bordering on phenomenal, ...Shadows is a serious Teen Line-esque gold-rush flowing your way peeps.  A must hear for those of you who dug those Philisteens records I posted some years back.

01. Neighborhood Kids
02. Get Back in the Race
03. In the Clouds
04. Bostown Girls
05. On the Prowl
06. Downtown Start
07. Out From the Shadows
08. Empty Subway Train

MP3  or  FLAC

6 comments:

Jim H. said...

Really good! Not quite sure if I hear the Professionals, but very much The (UK) Boys...i moved up here to Boston wth a drummer from Philadelphia in late 1984, and have NEVER ever heard of these guys......we were BIG time Shoes and power pop fans, so I am surprised they didn't register much....wonder where they are now? thanks much!!!!!!

Bruce K. said...

Jeepers, with the names dropped in relation to this one, I have to hear it. A cut-out of The Shoes "Black Vinyl Shoes" purchased from Toonerville Trolley back in the day genuinely changed my life and The Professionals LP is really good.

I have a vague memory of hearing about The Lads, but given what a great band name it is (except for decades later online searching) it might just be a band I thought I had heard about.

P.S. Listened to "Yuletunes" today while driving with my daughter to get our tree.

thenoiseboy said...

Thanks for sharing as always. This is a _great_ LP. W/the synths, some of the tunes remind me of a poppier version of The Brains. "Neighborhood Kids" is like an East Coast approximation of The Beat (Paul Collins). These Bostonites were definitely cut more in the image of The Real Kids than Burma.

Earthdog70 said...

All you had to do was mention Crash Street Kids to entice me to take a listen! Thanks.

Jim P. said...

As a nerd for this kinda thing from the Boston area (although I was born in 1979, so I missed the heyday)...I am upset at myself that I never came across this record in the approximately 3,000 hours I spent scrounging around record stores from Methuen down to Springfield. If you took all the money I spent in In Your Ear's location in Harvard Square alone I could probably pay off my college loans. I met a lot of the "old" Boston heads (Jeff from the Lyres, etc) but I never heard this band mentioned.

ANYWAY- THIS IS AWESOME. Thanks for sharing.

PS- speaking of the Philisteens, here's a recent interview with Michael Glover (drummer) where he says they opened for the Ramones.

http://www.themovienetwork.com/interview/interview-michael-glover-robyn-rosenkrantz-go-le-flo

cdestef142 said...

Any way to re-up? Would love this one. Thanks