Thursday, May 18, 2017

Aunt Helen - Nephews Were Never Like This ep (1980, Razor)

Noooo!   Skinny ties and facial hair should never mix!  Granted, you'll have to download the record to see what I'm referring to on the back cover of Nephews...  I'm not sure what their point of origination is/was (Boston?) but the four-man Aunt Helen were about as scattershot as they come.  Something of a one-song-wonder, this record starts out with a genuine bang in the guise of "Psychology Today" and deescalates rapidly from there.   The keeper in question, "Psychology," boasts the sass and savvy of AH's Midwest contemporaries Fools Face and Secrets, not to mention a dash of The A's.  As you might have gleaned from the cover art, this was not a band that took themselves particularly seriously.  A sardonic, calypso reading of "Wild Thing" doesn't impress, nor does much of Helen's willfully cheeky approach on the remainder of Nephews.  Such goofball tactics are either charming and endearing or a fatal flaw.  I'll let you be the judge.

01. Psychology Today
02. Wild Thing
03. It Just Isn't Fair
04. Razor
05. Do the Nip
06. (If I Had An) Electric Guitar

Hear

12 comments:

Mark Alfred said...

Thanks. This post has solved a 35-year-quest to track down "Do the Nip," which I heard once on KCSC, the classical station of Edmond, OK, Central State University. After midnight, the grown-ups turned the broadcast booth over to the students, who aired a new-wave show they called "The Insect Lounge." I happened to be cassette-cording the show one night. "Do the Nip" was one of the songs aired. I listened over and over to that set of songs before losing the tape in the 1990s.

Thanks for happening across something that matched up with a hole in my knowledge!

Please send any interested readers to my pop-culture blog and my music blog!

http://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/
http://spocksrecordround-up.blogspot.com/

spavid said...

Hey Mark. I did a search for this album before posting it, and I think I saw your explanation on a message board of some sort. Wow. Small world. Will check out your blogs soon. Thanks!

Missa said...

Yes, AH was from Boston. George Westbay later formed Sharp Stick. Berkeley trained players having fun as a quirky / goofy bar band.

Mark Alfred said...

Please let me plug the final result, a compilation of all the songs I remembered from that KSCS-FM cassette dub.

http://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/ma-119-insect-lounge-80s-re-creation.html

Thanks!
Mark
https://markssuperblog.blogspot.com/
https://spocksrecordround-up.blogspot.com/

0101001x_x said...

Please re upload! I've been looking everywhere for this one...

Regards,
0101001x_x

Mark Alfred said...

Dear Spavid, if you can't re-upload, I can provide what I DL'd from you, for this EP, for pillihp zelaznog.

Skimpy said...

I saw this band. Great songs and wonderful playerd

Skimpy said...

This is a very good band. Great songs and wonderful performers

Skimpy said...

Sharp Stick (in the eye) was a very clever band with great performers - they had a large wheel with the names of recording artists that customers could spin and the band would play a song by that artist. Lots of fun.

Brett said...

Yes! The "Dead Rockstar Wheel of Chance". Brilliant shows.

NH Guy said...

It breaks my heart to share with you this past Saturday, June 4. 2022, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist, composer and teacher, George Westbay passed into Heavens Rock Club. George spent his life amazing his audiences and gathered the love and respect of all of his students. For those of us who knew him, his impact on our lives was indelible. We now add his name to the Rock Star Wheel of Fortune. Big shoes to fill. Love you brother. Rest...

Mark Alfred said...

I hope you can bring a smile from your memories as you miss your friend. Condolences to all who will miss him.