Thursday, January 1, 2009

Various Artists - 8 Essential Attitudes

For this entry we remain in Baltimore but go back a few years to 1985 for the Frantic Records sampler album 8 Essential Attitudes. The album cover depicts a can of "Cream of Baltimore" being poured onto a turntable: do not do this! It will ruin your turntable! Fortunately the package contains a solid vinyl LP which is perfectly suited to playing on a turntable. The "8 Essential Attitudes" are eight indie bands from the Baltimore area:
  1. Red Tape - I Know
  2. exibit A - yippi-i-o
  3. Beyond Words - On the Moon
  4. Thee Katatonix - Ordinary Sunday
  5. The View - Only Water
  6. Mission - When Thunder Comes
  7. Off the Wall - She's All Mine
  8. Clever Lines - After the Snow Melts
The most accomplished band here is Off the Wall, but their big-band rockabilly style is decidedly out of place. Red Tape lean toward an AOR sound, Thee Katatonix are the closest thing to punk rock here, Mission have a gothic vibe belied by their preppy appearance, exibit A have an indie-twee sound, Clever Lines go for the grand sound of UK acts like Duran Duran and Simple Minds, and Beyond Words and The View play middle-of-the-road new wave pop. Not as diverse as the gathering on the Merkin Seedy Sampler, but it's a smaller, earlier sample. Get the vinyl rip here or here. (I'm trying out flyupload with the second link; from what I've seen it has no waiting period and does allow download managers. Please let me know if there are any problems with it.)

6 comments:

Unknown said...

First you'd have to FIND a can of Cream of Baltimore.

And I think I bought the last case in 1994.

Anonymous said...

What was the name of the Baltimore punk club that was located in a townhouse? The bar was downstairs and the stage upstairs. I saw some good shows there in the late 80s or early 90s. I forgot when exactly.

Emerson

Fantod said...

Was that Jules's Loft? I never got there myself, but saw many shows at the Marble Bar.

Anonymous said...

hi

can you p l e a s e - p l e a s e - p l e a s s s s e re-up?
files are not downloadable.
rapidshare is a broken link
and flyupload (enterupload?)
is very "unfriendly", Uncomfortable and the file is missing.
will you re-up to mediafire (the best!!!) or megaupload
i am "waiting forward" & very enthusiastic to listen.
thanks
god bless you

Fernfrequency said...

ANY CHANCE OF A RE-UP????????

THANKS!

Mission said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab_4lWfHJaY