Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Hits - Count On You/All the Girls (Wanna Be in Gangs)







Steven Priest, founding member and bassist of glam legends Sweet, produced this 1980 7" from New York City boys The Hits, and it is apparently their only release. "Count on You" is strong anthemic power pop that falls squarely in the sound of it's year of recording, while "All the Girls" draws on an earlier influence of the New York Dolls/NYC glam scene which took inspiration from the uniquely NYC sound of early-mid 60's girl group records. "All the Girls" is ultimately the more interesting side, with it's turn-of-the-decade blend of 70's glam and 80's new wave, but both songs satisfy, and it's a shame that we don't have more recordings of The Hits to remember them by. Vocalist Mikael Kirke remains active in music (and appears to have been a writer on music for soft-porn mag Oui back in the 80's), and is reportedly working with Steve Priest again on a solo effort as I type this.

Both sides of the single are available for stream/download below, and I've also posted a video of them performing a third song, "Survivor," on the Flo & Eddie TV show further down. A video of them lip-synching the single on the legendary Uncle Floyd Show is easily google-able as well, and includes a great interview with the band, including them promoting their upcoming appearance on a WNEW spotlight that appears to have landed them the Flo & Eddie gig. Worth finding although the aped performance is hard to watch.




(A) Count On You:



(B) All the Girls (Wanna Be In Gangs):








Sunday, August 16, 2009

Crash Street Kids - Little Girls




Certainly the regional power-pop era of the early 80's must stand as one of the most nelgected of modern music for rediscovery and reissue. Countless best-forgotten demos from teenage garage bands of the 60's and cassette-only crude efforts of the most inept punk groups receive deluxe 220-gram LP reissues with gushing liner notes and a write-up from the most posh mags and blogs, while the best albums and EP's of the power pop scene, some of which were genuine hits in their native region, go neglected and known only to those lucky enough to stumble across a copy of the original release. Of course, it is understood that the dominant power pop of this era was released on 7", and many if not most of the best stuff has long been reissued on mixtapes and comps like the Teenline series and others. But when albums from groups like D.C.'s The Strand, The Late Show of Indianapolis, and today's featured band, Minnesota's Crash Street Kids, go without ever having been issued on CD or re-released in any format, then something is clearly wrong here.

Crash Street Kids are the perfect example of local heros who should have broken nationally, but never got the exposure outside of their hometown that they deserved. Endless gigging throughout the Minneapolis area and various midwest locations built them a strong reputation and a devoted fanbase in the early 80's, resulting in one release, the fantastic Little Girls LP for the Fat City label in 1982. Like all the best power pop, the songs mainly deal with dating, sex and masturbation. While the fantastic songwriting, playing and production of this album may have never received the attention it was due outside of Minnesota, the influence of Crash Street Kids can clearly and without doubt be heard in the later recordings of fellow Minneapolis legends The Replacements. One listen to this album will convince you Paul Westerberg took his vocal cues from Melvin James, who we can assume Westerberg must have seen and maybe even supported live with the Replacements at some point in their early days together.

As previously stated, this album has gone strangely unissued in any format for the 27 years and counting since it's initial LP release. Copies sell on eBay for decent money, although the typical going rate of $40 certainly seems reasonable for an out-of-print seminal release such as this. I've ripped 2 of my favorite tracks for your use below, and more tracks from the album can be streamed at an unofficial fan page here.

Now, SOMEBODY dig up the master tapes, some live tracks, and the "Mystery Girl" video(!), and give this legendary album a proper repressing!




1) Into You:



2) Mystery Girl: