1986-1990

Bands Who Could Be Good

by Francis DiMenno

   After absorbing punk, new wave, post-punk, two-tone, nouveaux-psychedelia and hardcore/ thrash, by late 1984 the Boston scene seemed temporarily adrift. Although, commercially, heavy metal, synth-based pop, Athens/ Hoboken-style jangle, and U2-style guitar rock predominated, garage punk bands such as Lyres, The Neats, and The Outlets also endured. Cantones and The Underground were long gone, supplanted by Jack’s, Chet’s, Johnny D’s, Green Street Station, and others. As ever, The Rat featured non-mainstream local acts.

    However, by the late 1980s, the scene had undergone a renaissance and two Cambridge clubs in Central Square predominated: T.T. the Bearsand The Middle East. From 1988 to 1990, local booking agent Billy Ruane helped expose breaking acts to a wider audience—who else, for instance, would have given the homeless Mr. Butch his own weekly showcase?

    Let’s backtrack a bit. What factors were behind the revival of the Boston scene? I suspect that by 1985, Boston bands had begun influencing rather than following trends. Furthermore, in 1986 and 1987, vinyl releases became instrumental in driving a local renaissance, abetted by regional record labels Ace of Hearts, Taang!, Homestead, Throbbing Lobster, Arf Arf, and, later, Stanton Park—as well as by airplay on college radio stations such as WMBR and WERS. Furthermore, the rise of alternative rock enabled three significant local bands to gain national exposure.

    The first of these was Throwing Muses, whose 1985 cassette-only and 1986 full-length LP releases were astonishingly novel. There existed no prior frame of reference for their work, except possibly the Shaggs by way of the Go-Gos, albeit fired by an extraordinary lyrical and musical intelligence. They followed up with 1987’s Chains Changed EP, 1988’s Sire Records debut, The Fat Skier, and 1989’s Hunkpapa.

    The second was Dinosaur with their first self-titled release in 1986, and, especially, their SST label LP You’re Living All Over Me, from late 1987. You could liken these Deep Wound offshoots from Western Massachusetts to Neil Young backed by a Crazy Horse who could really play; yet their world-weary cynicism was thoroughly contemporary. They followed up with 1988’s Bug, then Lou Barlow left the band to form Sebadoh.

    To complete the triad, there was the 1987 eight-song debut by The Pixies, Come on Pilgrim. Black Francisliked Lou Reed (he told us so), but The Pixies’ fiery, atavistic approach to rock ’n’ roll (quote: “Cro-Magnons with X-Ray guitars”) was anything but affectless.  They consolidated their reputation with 1988’s Surfer Rosa, 1989’s Doolittle, and 1990’s Bossanova.

    Three very different local bands also excelled: avant-garde mainstay Christmas released their long-awaited LP In Excelsior Dayglo in 1986 and followed it with 1989’s Prophets...; jangle-pop avatar Salem 66 released their ecstatic 1987 LP Frequency and Urgency, and the 1988 follow-up National Treasures…; punk revivalists The Lemonheads appeared with their 1987 debut LP Hate Your Friends, followed by Creator and Lick.

     Former Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns members also made their mark: 1986 gave us The Volcano Suns’ sophomore disc, the rampaging All-Night Lotus Party, as well as brilliant LPs by Dredd Foole & The Din, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, and Roger Miller. In 1987, Miller released the Groping Hands EP and Volcano Suns pounded us into submission with their pot-leaf emblazoned third LP, Bumper Crop. Veterans of the first Volcano Suns lineup, Big Dipper scored with a six-song EP, Boo Boo, and a follow-up LP, Heavens. In 1988 Taang! emptied their vaults and released a slew of Mission of Burma demo recordings and studio out-takes, Dredd Foole’s second LP belatedly appeared, and Big Dipper triumphed with the LP Craps, with its classic Suns-era anthem “Song to be Beautiful.” In 1989 Volcano Suns released Farced, and in 1990, the double-LP Thing of Beauty.

    From 1986-1990, The Noise reviewed many classic local singles, EPs and albums. Overall, 1986 was an extraordinary year: the moody pop-punk band Dumptruck released their second LP, Positively; there were also debuts by roots-rockers The Turbines, blues-minimalists Treat Her Right, the melodic Three Colors and Scruffy the Cat, and two-tone ska holdouts Bim Skala Bim.

     On the heavier side, fans were treated to The Oysters’ garage rock anthem “Mine Caroline”; the LP Burning in Water by the newly reformed Moving Targets; 1986 rumble winners Gang Green’s debut LP, plus debuts by Sorry and straight-edge thrashers Slap Shot. On the more avant-garde side were EPs by Uzi and The Wild Stares, and The Last Sacrifice scored with a compelling goth A-side, thrash B-side single: “Suspended/ Acid Rain Dance.” Further on the fringes were releases by Expando Brain, Holy Cow, and Sleep Chamber.

    Veteran bands also released fine debuts and second albums; these included: Classic Ruins, Men & Volts, The Flies, The Dogmatics, Chain Link Fence, The Nervous Eaters, and The Neighborhoods, with their long-awaited second LP The High Hard One.

    1987 also offered an outstanding roster: In the roots-rock category were Dumptruck’s third, and The Turbines’ second LPs, plus Willie Alexander’s classic Tap-Dancing on My Piano. Three Colors and Dr. Black’s Combo also released collections, and the Mash It Up! anthology showcased local ska/ two-tone bands. There was also “Lunch With Ed,” a demo by the funk-percussion AEF-offshoots in Dogzilla. On the punk side, Clash acolytes Last Stand released their LP debut.

    Older bands such as Lyres and The Neighborhoods also continued to supplement their recorded legacy.  The Girls, an extraordinary avant-garde ensemble from the early 1980s, issued an LP, Reunion, which featured their immortal cult favorite “Jeffrey I Hear You.”  

    In 1988 mainstays Erik Lindgren, Willie Alexander, Men & Volts,  The Unattached, and Wild Stares all released noteworthy records, but this year was also pivotal for up and coming bands: on the roots-rock front were Nova Mob with “Cavalry”/ “Mad House,” plus Tracy Santa, and The Idlewiles, with “Hell in a Handtruck”/ “Fly,” and “A Room as High”/ “Maybe Tomorrow.” The Cavedogs released a pop single, “Step Down”/  “Proud Land”; The Blake Babies debuted with their 9-song LP, Nicely, Nicely; and Galaxie 500 issued a single, following it up with an LP, Today. Bim Skala Bim released their second LP, and Barrence Whitfield, with a new Savages line-up, his third.

   On the hard rock side, Gang Green and Slap Shot pleased their fans with sophomore discs; Hullabaloo and Bullet la Volta issued 6-song EPs; Anastasia Screamed released their first single.

    Other LP debuts arrived, from rhythm-and-politics combo Vasco Da Gama; Uzi offshoots A Scanner Darkly; synth/ grungers Common Ailments of Maturity; and noisemakers World of Distortion and Meltdown. EPs appeared by 1986 rumble winners Childhood and folk-revivalists Big Barn Burning, and The Raindogs debuted with their glum “Lonesome Pain”/ “Grey House.” The folk-rockers in Lazy Susan and Blood Oranges, and world-music aficionados Les Miserables, debuted, with cassettes, as did the inimitable Well Babys; and the poetic folkies in Ed’s Redeeming Qualities released two demos of classic songs.

    1989 was the year that the old order truly began to pass. To be sure, the long-awaited single, “Red Clouds”/ “The Bo Tree,” by Busted Statues finally appeared, plus debut singles by The Gingerbread Men and Mindgrinder (both featuring former members of Children of Paradise). Furthermore, Classic Ruins, Holy Cow and Treat Her Right released follow-up efforts, and the Zulus their first full-lengther; and pop veterans Push Push, garage rockers The Del Fuegos and The Five, plus thrash mainstays Jerry’s Kids and Slapshot, all got out LPs. But this was also the year of The Blake Babies’ Earwig, and LP debuts by The Slaves, Cxema, Buffalo Tom, Hollow Heyday, Miranda Warning, Bullet la Volta, and (1989 rumble champs) The Bags, as well as EP debuts by Anastasia Screamed, Masters of the Obvious, and A.C.  Demos by stomp-rockers Hell Toupee, psyche-recidivists The Void, and avant-edged racketeers Green Magnet School and Still Life all began crowding the oldheads off the racks. 

    In 1990, scene veterans such as Roger Miller(No Man), Nat Freedberg (The Titanics), Kenny Chambers (Moving Targets), Salem 66, and The Cavedogs all released quality LPs, and at the end of that year came Anastasia Screamed’s masterpiece, Laughing Down the Limehouse. But LP releases by Sebadoh, High Risk Group, and Common Ailments of Maturity also heralded the arrival of a new avant-garde sensibility, and single and demo debuts by newer bands were brilliantly abrasive (Think Tree, Gingerbutkis, Slaughter Shack, Medicine Ball, Six Finger Satellite, Bulkhead, Subskin Cables) and willfully odd (Left Nut, Uncle Foamy, Lunk, 7 or 8 Worm Hearts, and Judas & Natasha Experiments), but always original and intriguing. There were also more mainstream pop-oriented releases, such as those by Vasco Da Gama, Buffalo Tom, Laughing Academy, O Positive, Big Barn Burning, Sob Story, Letters To Cleo, Curious Ritual, The 360s, The Dambuilders, The Bosstones, The Vouts, and 1988 Rumble winners Heretix. Such pop bands were also to set the stage, if not the standard, for the next five years.

    As ever, “cult” bands often coalesced into the next period’s hot new acts. Psycho-Tec went on to form Think Tree; The Void became Rootlock and, eventually, Mascara; Mark Sandman (Treat Her Right) and Dana Colley (Three Colors) formed Morphine; Chic Graning and Anastasia Screamed split into Scarce and Delta Clutch, respectively; Rich Gilbert(The Zulus) went on to wider fame.

   And, finally, let’s not forget G.G. Allin. As if we ever could.