Stepped on you in boots that were filthy...

Ingeniously tweaked indie/tronica circa 2010.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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The Barking Boys - The Yes Girls (1987, World)

So I was a little on the fence about posting this one, because frankly I'm not even sure if I'm down with it.  The Barking Boys were actually a coed combo, presumably from Toronto.  I'd love to give you some personnel info but there's none to be had on the jacket. Perhaps there was an insert that was supposed to go with this and it somehow got displaced before I acquired it.  Who knows, but nonetheless there are boy/girl vocals all over this one, and sadly the male on the mic has an obnoxious parlance to his shtick.  Far more unfortunate, he dominates over his female counterpart on the vast majority of Yes Girls. TBB are gently nudging towards new wave a la latter day Talking Heads, minus much in the way of substantive lyrics, but sonically they have potential here with an equal mesh of gits and synths.  The only entirely female-fronted piece, "Cool it Down" is catchy with a DIY bent, not unlike the kind of stuff you'd encounter on an episode of MTV's Basement Tapes way back when this record was making the rounds in the mid-80s. After this promising number Yes Girls ebbs and flows on a downhill gradient with the "dude's" pipes just not slotting in well with the rest of the proceedings.  Even though this doesn't do the trick for me, you might very well be a different case, so I hope I haven't scared anyone off.  BTW, my copy of the record formally belonged to a radio station, and with it's stickers and markings on the sleeve and such I opted to go with the stock image Discogs provided.

01. Cool it Down
02. Here She Comers
03. Ghost Story
04. Open City
05. Too Hot in Here
06. High Life/Low Life
07. Blood Money
08. Incident in St. James Town

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Vans with fifteen passengers are rolling over...

From 2004.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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V/A - Pop Matters (1995, Wagon Wheel)

I can't believe it hasn't occurred to me share this one after all this time (maybe another blogger had this comp covered and I simply forgot?).  Anyway, the label that released Pop Matters was also responsible for reissuing the Paul Collins Band two albums on CD.  Paul himself was co-executive producer for this sampler of then-current up and coming power pop troupes, and conveniently in the mid-90s practitioners of that stripe of music were enjoying something of a resurgence. There really aren't any household names on Pop Matters to save mine, yours or anyone's life, but The Tearaways, Grip Weeds, Cockeyed Ghost and Jeremy (Morris) all garnered a reasonable modicum of support in indie pop circles, and continued making albums long after this comp had come and gone.  Talented as some of the other participants were, combos including The Kicksouls, Million O' Clock, Prellys and Twin Bees were scarcely whispered of again (or so it would seem).  There are faint parallels to ...Matters and the Yellow Pills compilations which were also a product of the same era.  The consistency of what's presented here is remarkable, and despite a full quarter century sailing by the bulk of this disk is mightily effective.  Dive in and discover a new-old favorite or two. 

01-The Grip Weeds - Salad Days
02-The Hippycrickets - Margaret Sez
03-The Critics - Every Good Boy
04-The Tearaways - Never Again
05-Big Hello - Your Mad Mad World
06-Major Nelson - No Home Outside This House
07-The Rockinghams - More Than One Way
08-The Jennifers - Keep It Up
09-The Kicksouls - Chickie
10-Twin Bees - Daddy Works For The Crime
11-The Idea - Private World
12-Million O'Clock - January Fool
13-Jeremy - I Want To Be With You
14-Cockeyed Ghost - Dirty Bastard
15-Prellys - The Peace I Might Have Lost

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SLIP~ons - Bad TV 7" (2019, Scamindy) - A brief review

Brock Pytel isn’t exactly a household name, so if I may impart a crash course, he was half of the singing/songwriting force behind Montreal’s Doughboys, a rollicking, skate-punk friendly setup who were lucky enough to benefit from his talents in the late ‘80s.  The other half of the Doughboys, Jon Kastner, went onto slightly greater renown, steering his band to a major label in the '90s, albeit sadly, Pytel was out of the lineup by then.  If you've familiarized yourself with the first two Doughboys records, Whatever (1987) and Home Again (1989), Brock's vocals are easily identifiable as the gruffer and more rugged of the band's mouthpieces, on cult-classic punk-pop bangers "You're Related" and "You Don't Know Me."  The more I think about, he almost functioned as the foil to Kastner's comparatively more tuneful pitch.  

He’s been a bit reclusive ever since, managing an under-the-radar solo LP, Second Choice in 2000, but he's convened an ace new posse, the SLIP~ons, whose guitarsy power-pop is an apt showcase for his rugged timbre and emergent melodious chops.  The sonic palette on the band's second single, "Bad TV," isn't far removed from the canvas the Doughboys were won't to assault with spray paint, but it is more economical than what we heard from him in the '80s.  The hooks set in deep on the nearly five-minute "Bad TV," not only exemplifying how far he's evolved over the past three decades, but makes a strong case for this being the most compelling song he's attached his name to.  The even riffier "Cork & Kandy Glass" is another crunchy delight with a passionate melodic under-bite.  Sure, there may only be two numbers amidst these grooves, but it will leave you craving more, desperately more if you're anything like myself.  Many happy returns Brock!

Physical and digital versions of the SLIP~ons latest 45 are available on Bandcamp, and are also streaming on Spotify.

I'm a businessman - we mean business, man!

These '80s wise-asses finally got a bit more serious when the next decade caught up with them. This one includes an intriguing rewrite of an undeniable power pop classic.  

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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The Flex - From the Vacuum (1985)

With it's rather obnoxious and LOUD, flared-out lettering adorning the sleeve, you might venture a guess that The Flex were a cabal of marauding metalheads or colorful skate punks.  The reality, in fact, is this (presumably) Chicago-native trio fall relatively in line with what I typically present you with on this humble site. From the Vacuum kicks off with the smart, incisive "China Dolls" flirting with post-punk undertones but ultimately revealing considerably more in common with contemporaries Wire Train and Translator. "New Wavelength" busts out the bands aptitude for jangly power pop, and what a glorious specimen this tune turns out to be. "What in the World?" indulges in biting, punky chords, and they circle their wagon back onto the pop trail for the winsome "Art Babies."  

By the time The Flex hit side two of this platter it's clear they have a bit of an identity crisis on their hands, with a haphazard melange of songs that run the gamut from the sloppy and unwieldy "Drunken Aerobics" to the dynamic, sax-enhanced "Tropikkana." Despite some occasional inconsistencies ...Vacuum is rewarding if not necessarily revelatory. 

01. China Dolls
02. New Wavelength
03. 20 Minutes Late for Cocktails
04. What in the World?
05. #16 to Rambach
06. Art Babies
07. Dschungle World
08. Draw A. Blank
09. Drunken Aerobics
10. Lovely Day
11. Sleeping Boys
12. Acceleration
13. Tropikanna

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no clue

Sorry no lyrical clue this week. This is from 2003, and if you're into the sonic templates laid out by bands like Pinback and Wheat this might be up your alley. 

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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Chameleons UK & Mark Burgess - random rarities

This is merely a self "curated" pastiche of various Mark Burgess and/or Chameleons tracks stitched together from bootlegs and fan-assembled collections I purloined all the way back in the Napster era. I paid no attention to sequencing, nor am I familiar with the sourcing of several of these tunes. There are a couple tunes from the odds and sods Chameleon's comp Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, an alternate version or two from the band's BBC Evening Sessions, a remix, demos, and even some unreleased bullion.  I included "Ever After" a song that appeared on the bonus EP that was bundled with Strange Times. For some reason this tune (possibly my fave Chameleons track overall) inexplicably didn't make it onto certain CD incarnations of that album. Also in this folder you can get an earful of Mark's pre-Chameleons outfit Mark Burgess & The Clichés, plus scarcities from some of his offshoot projects like The Reegs and The Sun and the Moon. In essence, I dedicate these melodies to you... Enjoy (or not).

Chameleons - Bobby Moore's Wine (Mad Jack demo)
Chameleons - Dear Dead Days
Chameleons - Ever After
Chameleons - Just Say No (unreleased)
Chameleons - Sally
Chameleons - Singing Rule Brittania (Radio One Evening Show, version two)
Chameleons - Splitting in Two (live)
Chameleons - Swamp Thing (loss mix)
Chameleons - The Healer (alternate version)
Chameleons - View From a Hill (Radio One Evening Show)
Mark Burgess - Mickey Mouschwitz
Mark Burgess & The Clichés - Leaving Town
Mark Burgess & The Clichés - Rock of Ages
Mark Burgess & White Rose Transmission - Digging for Water
The Reegs - The Dream Police
The Sun and the Moon - Angels
The Sun and the Moon - Love You, You Bastard

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Sybil - Olympia 7" (1991, eMpTy)

Sybil.  Co-ed (weighted kinda heavily to the female end of the spectrum) Seattle denizens who later expanded their moniker to Kill Sybil featuring in their line-up drummer Patty Schemel who in a few years would make the migration to Hole just in time for their Live Through This and Celebrity Skin records.  After you take in this single you'll understand why it was a wholly logical move on her part, given this disc's a-side "Olympia" is blatant grunge-ola homage to Hole's first record, Pretty on the Inside, not to mention early Mudhoney. It's mildly amusing for the first thirty seconds but downright redundant for the duration.  By the time they hit the second song on the other side of the coin, "Dream" Sybil seemingly evolved into an entirely ball of wax, wielding jangly, indie-pop smarts and adopting a significantly more tuneful aesthetic, which fortunately carried over to Kill Sybil's lone, self-titled full length in 1993.

A. Olympia
B1. Push Me Down
B2. Dream

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think i was cooler when I hated myself...

From 1996. Despite being released by a major label, this one might have met a better fate had this trio stayed indie.  

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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Brakes - For Why You Kicka My Donkey? (1979, Magnet)

The largely under-referenced (online anyway) Brakes were a London quartet, falling several few notches shy of punk. Think more along the lines of pedestrian power pop and pub rock with slightly more enlightened songwriting.  The closest comparison I can draw on their home turf might be The Flys, and stateside they bore a sonic resemblance to oft overlooked contemporaries the Tuff Darts and A's. Speaking of all things North American, For Why You Kicka My Donkey? never enjoyed the light of day in the U.S., but was somehow deemed fit for a Canadian audience. Some of the better songs here border on phenomenal, not the least of which, "The Way I See It," emanating a glorious pop acumen. "Blame it on the Brakes" bleeds shades of Cheap Trick's "Auf Eiedersehen," managing to insert some faint glammy tinctures in the process. "Last Man at the Station" is equally effective, and their reading of Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," if not wholly innovative, puts a spicy spin on things.  

01. What Am I Gonna Do?
02. I Don't Know Nothing About Hollywood
03. Doing Life
04. Who's That Man
05. Like a Rolling Stone
06. Blame it on the Brakes
07. The Way I See It
08. Last Man at the Station
09. Strange Man in the City
10. Yesterday's Arrival
11. It's a Shame

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Your famous last words started once your fingers hit the snooze...

I hope you willing to indulge me this week with one of my most listened to albums of the last six months.  It's a tribute album filled wall-to-wall with thoroughly unrecognizable contributors. No household name talent here.  So why not go with one of the original album's by the band in question?  Well, it's quite possible I shared one of them already on a previous Mystery Monday.  More significantly, their material is stimulating enough to translate effectively in virtually any set of hands that pick them up. To me this band's first three albums are to die for.  BTW, the physical CD version of this album was bundled with a label sampler that I'm omitting as it's irrelevant to the tribute - plus too many of the groups sound alike.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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Uanattached - s/t ep (1988, Throbbing Lobster)

Yet another Beantown proposition, who to their/our detriment only produced this one platter, a mere ep no less, but hey, I'll take six songs over four any day. The Unattached were one of those rare acts that knew how to mix it up from song to song without exuding anything resembling an identity crisis. Bearing a rootsy and rollicking no-frills penchant these four guys (who by the group pics on the back cover misleadingly suggest they were headbangers in the making) were potent rock and roll purists touching on such local luminaries as the Del Fuegos and the Neighborhoods. My pic hit of this platter is none other than "It's Only Love" a power pop basher that would have done the likes of Material Isssue more than a modicum of justice. To the contrary the bluesy slow jam, "Down" which concludes this joint is a lazy maneuver that luckily doesn't mar the whole of the record.

01. Yeah
02. Close Your Eyes
03. Midnight Love Thang
04. Help and Sympathy
05. It's Only Love
06. Down

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I know when everybody's got one you want one too.

It's time for another round of four eps. A dazzling quad-fecta of unrelated artists spanning as many decades as there are titles occupying this weeks folder. 

**Please do not reveal artists in comments!**

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The Heebee Jeebeez - All Sales Are Vinyl (1998, Mooey Bueno)

This week I stuck primarily to reviving dead links (see my last two entries for details), and I didn't have a chance to fool around with my turntable or tape deck...but I do have this, and it's more promising than you might surmise from this quartet bearing a rather hokey moniker.  Details are a bit scant on the Heebee Jeebeez (boy, I hope that name didn't doom them from scoring gigs) but this Bay Area export were a talented combo, specializing in plaintive, sonically spartan power pop who wagered on the trebly end of the spectrum.  No overproduction or slavish studio pizazz here - not by a longshot in fact. It's a bit tricky to link them to the modus operandi of many (if any) of their '90s contemporaries. Cockeyed Ghost perhaps, but even that comparison isn't especially accurate.  All Sales Are Vinyl is saturated with concise, incisively catchy salvos, with "Somebody Else's" and "Outside" winning the most points with yours truly.  The Heebees only falter on the unlisted concluding cut, "Push It," which can easily be excised from your playlist if you so choose.

01. Don't Tell Me
02. Calling All Over
03. Come On
04. Outside
05. Walk Away
06. Out of Time
07. Somebody Else's
08. Favorite Song
09. Anytime
10. Certain Kind of Girl
11. Told You
12. Wherever You Go
13. Push It

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Underneath silk riches sixty six million giving slaves...

Two CD compilation of b-sides spanning this band's career from 1991-2003, including an entire disc dedicated to covers.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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VA - A Wicked Good Time! (1981, Modern Method)

Population only counts for so much. Cities like Houston and Phoenix each boast roughly double the populous of Boston, MA, yet Beantown (at least during the eighties and nineties) outdid some of their larger locales in terms of pumping out renown bands by seemingly exponential margins. And it seems like that's how it went for not-so-renown Boston bands as well, the focus of A Wicked Good Time!  This bountiful seventeen song feast was issued by Modern Method Records, an in-house label for the wildly successful and still operating Newbury Comics chain.  Even though many Newbury Comics outlets resemble FYE's these days, the moniker for this record remains the store's slogan some forty years after the fact.

AWGT starts with a bang, via a combo called Pastiche, an edgy power pop act who only bore a trio of singles in their lifespan, sadly without a proper LP to show for themselves. Pastiche's hooky merger of guitars and keys should have cemented them as Boston's answer to the Pointed Sticks, and a definitive compilation of their studio recordings has been decades overdue.  The Outlets punky "3rd Floor for Me" is perhaps the most aggressive song they ever attached their name to, Swingers Resort were splendid power pop kids who really epitomized what was so enticing about that turn-of-the-decade aesthetic, and Future Dads wield a catchy sax line amidst their bangin' foray "New Feeling." And we're still not done talking about side one!  We're also treated to no less than two cuts from Boston's legendary punks La Peste whose "Lease on Life" plays out like a delightful re-write of Agent Orange's "Bloodstains." Finally, the Young Snakes featured future 'Til Tuesday front-woman Aimee Mann, who exudes a very different vocal dialect then we're used to on "Brains and Eggs." Love the Pylon-esque guitarwork on this one.

The album's second side is a bit spottier and somewhat more avant, with the likes of abrasive no-wavers Bound & Gagged, and on the opposite end of the spectrum Bird Songs of the Mesozoic (featuring Mission of Burma alum Roger Miller) whose instrumental "Pulse Piece" channels a Tubular Bells vein. We get another tasty nugget from Pastiche, and the otherwise unheard of Someone and the Somebodies lead us on a quick post-punk tear. Hometown heroes Boys Life also get it on the action with a pair of sassy, mid-paced punk churners.

01. Pastiche - Psycho Blonde
02. The Outlets - 3rd Floor for Me
03. Future Dads - New Feeling
04. Boys Life - I Wasn't Me
05. La Peste - Army of Apathy
06. Swingers Resort - Hit List
07. Young Snakes - Brains and Eggs
08. Vacuumheads - Preppie Girls
09. La Peste - Lease on Life
10. Suade Cowboys - Master
11. Bound & Gagged - Black Sand
12. Someone and the Somebodies - Before and After
13. Pastiche - This Reminds Me of the Future
14. Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - Pulse Piece
15. The Loners - Planet Spirit
16. Bound & Gagged - Personal Monsters
17. Boys Life - Heroes of the Dead

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Doctors' Mob - She Said 12" (1986, Wrestler)

Doctors' Mob were part and parcel of Austin, TX's so called "new sincerity" indie movement circa the mid-80s, alongside contemporaries Glass Eye and the Reivers among several other bygone aggregations.  The word "sincerity" of course is subjective and is a lousy descriptor of any piece of music, but this guitars-y cabal were considerably amped-out and boasted the kind of integrity most of you will appreciate.  This three-songer finds the Mob applying a Husker Du-ish treatment to their cover of the Fab Four's "She Said, She Said."  They keep things at a rolling boil on this single's pair of crankin' originals, "Time's Up" and "Lost of Course," the latter of which appears to be exclusive to this 12". Additionally, there are two Doctors' Mob full lengths (1986's Headache Machine and '87s Sophomore Slump) to supplement this hearty appetizer.

A. She Said, She Said
B1. Time's Up
B2. Lost of Course

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...in Edmonton, Alberta or home in Halifax?

From 2001. A not-so difficult sophomore solo record to say the least - though technically it's not a "solo" affair.  Sorry for any confusion. Perspective is everything!

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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radioblue - warehouse mLP (1989, mercybeat)

I've been a sucker for U2's tell-tale guitar technique upon hearing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" in '85.  The Edge's serrated but jangly, echoing chords are impossible to tire of, even in the hands of scores of other guitarists, albeit many less capable. radioblue were no doubt tuned into said innovation, but the Bono & Co. comparisons largely end there on the band's warehouse, mini-LP.  Poignant but anything but pompous, this Bethesda, MD foursome didn't merely posses a plethora of raw, tingly licks, rather the songs they're ensconced within were ultimately the main attraction. Sure, by twenty-first century standards this record doesn't strike me as nearly advanced as when these seven tunes were laid down in separate sessions circa the late '80 (side one was committed to 8 track recording apparatus, while the flip went the even more basic 4 track route), but the intervening decades haven't diminished a smidgen of power and appeal from "instead," "love tornados," and "empty sky."  Love what I'm hearing, even if I am three decades late to the party.  Two more radioblue offerings would surface in the coming years, neither of which unfortunately are readily available anymore.  

01. instead
02. siamese
03. everything for you
04. blues
05. untitled interlude
06. lvoe tornados
07. instrumental in d minor, a basic history of art
08. empty sky

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Shelf Life 7" (199?, Cassiel)

I'm not sure what became of Shelf Life, if only due to the fact that I have no pertinent details on how/where they originated.  This single, apparently their lone release, doesn't even bear a copyright date, though a reasonable estimation is 1995/96. Nonetheless, it was a good era to be vending indie rock, and had Shelf Life stuck around for an album or two we might be remebering them in the same thought bubble as contemporaries New Radiant Storm King, The Multiple Cat and Raymond Brake.  I could go for a little more personalty here, but both sides still hit the spot with "Silver Lining" winning me over the most.  BTW Cassiel records was responsible for an early Mountain Goats single, and if you own it you've got a collector's item on your hands.

A. The Object
B. Silver Lining

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...and I'm losing all the stupid games that I swore I'd never play.

From 2000.  One of the first great albums of the twenty-first century.

**Please do not reveal artist in comments!**

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Land of the El Caminos - Subourbon (2001, boojm)

Though it does take me awhile (in this case almost five years!) I eventually make it through the mounds of bargain bin CDs I buy, and just a few months ago I slid this marvelous disk into my auto in-dash. Land of the El Caminos were a Chicago trio who really had their fingers on the pulse of the indie rock motherlode that befell an appreciative world in the 1990s.  Grabbing inspiration not so much from their hometown scene, rather Chapel Hill, NC, the Caminos pilfered a lesson or two from the likes of Small 23 and Archers of Loaf.  In fact mouthpiece and six-string wrangler Dan Fanelli bears a scratchy vocal timbre not far removed from the Archers' Eric Bachman.  No, you're not getting 75 mph pop-punk here, but instead a wiry, but melodically-enhanced splay of bittersweet notions and amped-up sonic appeal that doesn't lean too hard on your typical slacker fence posts.  The surprisingly sober Subourban emanates charm and "feels" for miles - or as long as it's eleven gallon tank will carry us on "Boxed in a Wind Tunel," Sold Me Out," and the concluding "Fragments," which features some shredding J. Mascis-esque fretwork. Two more LotEC albums exist, and I hope to get my mitts on them soon.

01. Slouching in My Spine
02. Boxed in a Wind Tunnel
03. We Never Learned How
04. Heaven
05. Keep On
06. Sold Me Out
07. Greener
08. So Sick
09. Knee Deep
10. Rock Star Crush
11. Fragments

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Classix Nouveau - The Liberty Recordings 1981-83 (Cherry Red, 2021) - A brief review

Arriving in the London new music scene in 1979, Classic Nouveaux were born a few minutes late to be forerunners of the soon-to-be-ample goth and new romantic movements, but were nonetheless earmarked and shoehorned into the latter whether they desired said placement or not.  They bequeathed a catalog of memorable singles and albums, albeit the quartet never ascended to the echelons of the Duran Durans or Culture Clubs of the world, despite bearing a fairly unique image, not to mention a pedigree that consisted of two expats from punk ground-breakers X-Ray Spex.  While three quarters of this foursome brandished a well-coifed visual aplomb that could have comfortably slotted them amidst the rosters of A Flock of Seagulls and Kajagoogoo, it was frontman Sal Solo who bore the band's most striking visage. Egg-bald, with pasty white skin and gaunt facial features, Solo also dabbled in gender bending attire and makeup, with an austere, commanding poise to match.  Take even the most furtive glance at any Classix press photo and it's a cinch to determine who the alpha male of the group was.  Boasting several charting UK singles, sadly none of them were chart toppers.  They were hot to trot for a moment across the pond thanks to heavy rotation on MTV, but success was an even more elusive proposition in the States otherwise. Ironically, they translated best in former eastern bloc locales Poland and Yugoslavia, and even performed in those nations while the iron curtain was still a metaphorical sword of Damocles. Cherry Red has remastered and consolidated C/N's three (technically four) LPs with their accompanying singles and remixes into the handy micro-box The Liberty Recordings 1981-83. In addition to one stop shopping it also remedies the fact that the separate CD reissues of their album have fallen out of press.  

Despite the aforementioned inclusion of two X-Ray Specs (Jak Airport and BP Hurding) Classix did not specialize in avant punk meanderings in the least, instead opting for a more current and streamlined forte wherein the band opted for a quasi-noir tact on their debut platter, Night People, a record that at it's apex yielded a catchy-as-all-get-out stunner of a single, "Guilty." It's driving rhythm and keen melodic strengths garnered them modest chart placement in their native Britain, and the video was a cult hit in America thanks to the quickly burgeoning MTV.  Night People wasn't Classix' most accessible record, and that could be due in part to Sal's discernibly gruff vocal aplomb on several of the deeper album cuts.  Still, the album offered plenty of fun respites with some tunes even exuding a mild theatrical sway (e.g. "Inside Outside" and "Tokyo).  Comparatively raw and frenetic stacked up to later triumphs La Verité and Secrets, Night People was fit for release in North America as a self-titled release with a slightly altered and reshuffled song selection and entirely unique art.  But why?  I have yet to come across a definitive account for the alternate Yankee version, but strictly by virtue of my own perceptions, I reckon Liberty wanted to substitute some of Night People's less approachable cuts for a smoother listening experience for discriminating American ears. Both versions of the record are presented in their entirety on The Liberty Recordings, with unique but contemporary b-sides added to each. 

1982's La Verité massaged and contoured Classix' overarching approach without blunting it.  "Because You're Young" is bejeweled in soaring hooks, and a more pronounced new-wave aptitude is present on the record with an abundance of soothing, lucid keyboard fills.  Less consistent than the debut, it spawned the combo's biggest hit, "Is it a Dream' (scaling it's way to #11 in Britain).  Truthfully, La Verite houses a handful of tunes that should have been as prominent as the aforementioned, namely "Never Again" and "Because You're Young." "1999's" post-punk sub-context is a relative anomaly here, and a highly  rewarding one at that.  If you're seeking an analogy that correlates with Classix' musical development at this phase of their tenure, you could make a solid case that La Verite was their equivalent to the Psychedelic Furs Forever Now, as both were key transitional albums that blended a retention of the band's respective nascent gestures, simultaneously forecasting what would shortly be in the offing. A generous ten bonus cuts, including a cavalcade of single versions/edits and worthy non-LP b-sides are appended.

Classix Nouveau's swan song, Secrets found the band making a break for the dance floor without tripping over themselves, and better yet, maintaining enough restraint to keep themselves from spilling over the brink altogether.  More in keeping with what David Bowie was offering around the same era than caffeinated troupes like Dead or Alive, Classix Nouveau adopted sophistication as their new calling card on Secrets, splitting the difference between rhythmically sentient appeal and plush, deftly crafted songwriting. Though a departure from their early modus operandi, "Forever and a Day" and "Never Never Comes" downplay the melodrama, and instead reroute the emphasis on accessibility, if not sheer infectiousness.  As with the other albums in this collection, we're treated to a phalanx of supplemental material, entailing extended remixes, and a fine stand-alone single "The End...or the Beginning," which preceded the album.  

In 1985 the band called it a career, with singer Sal Solo literally going solo with his first album Heart & Soul arriving later that year. He soon thereafter pursued arranging and performing Christian music.

Classix Nouveau's The Liberty Recordings 1981-83 collection is available direct from Cherry Red Records and Amazon.