Sunday, April 15, 2018

Diesel Park West - Shakespeare Alabama demos (1988)

Diesel Park West aren't one of my most powerful hankerings, and maybe not many others as well, but I thought a few of you might enjoy this. My own appreciation of them revolves more around certain songs, not so much entire albums.  These tunes were cut in anticipation of the band's 1989 debut, Shakespeare Alabama.  It's "modern rock" in perhaps the most commercial sense, but there are some real stunners here in the guise of the jangly "All The Myths on Sunday," and the more anthemic "When the Hoodoo Comes."  If you're looking for a few lazy comparisons, DPW run/ran the same gamut as contemporaries Mission UK, latter-80s Alarm, and occasionally Simple Minds.  Like the aforementioned, these Leicester, UK chaps emanated something resembling a social conscience, without ever getting too pious.  This set is well worth checking out, even though the finished versions were minimally revised from these prototypes.

PS: I neglected to mention, this was bundled as a bonus disk with Diesel's 1998 cd, HIPReplacement.

01. Like Princes Do
02. All the Myths on Sunday
03. Bell of Hope
04. Out of Nowhere
05. The Waking  Hour
06. When the Hoodoo Comes
07. Opportunity Crazy
08. Here I Stand
09. Jackie's Still Sad
10. A House Divided
11. Don't Be Scared of the Night
12. What About Us

Hear

3 comments:

Jim H. said...

Thanks!! Loved that album when it came out, and there are a bunch of really great songs on it....."All The Myths..." being a long time favorite.....

SWELLHEADS CGLM said...

Great group. I was wondering if you've heard anything of Ghost Of An American Airman? A great obscure Irish group that I've been obsessed with lately. Very U2-esque as expected with their '80s material but they had two major label releases in the early '90s that were heavier and more akin to the Cult. If you were able to obtain any MP3s of them, especially their I Hear Voices EP or Some Day LP that would be killer!!

Seattleite said...

Would love to hear this if you can reup. Thanks.