Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Bright Open Mouths

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Check out Bob Weston in the photo above, wearing one of the "I Hate The Bait" t-shirts that I just mentioned in the Bastro post, one post down from this one. The picture was taken after "Bumper Crop" came out, which explains why the Suns put plastic sunflowers on the mic stands in order to enhance their stage presence. It was either that or expensive pyro, and we all know what can happen when that shit screws up.

I can remember back when I began weaning myself off hardcore (a process that would take years to finish), and the first few records in my box of singles were all from Homestead, and bands like Dinosaur, Big Black, Phantom Tollbooth, and Volcano Suns. "Sea Cruise" came out in 1986, but neither song ended up on the album that followed ("All Night Lotus Party"), as you'll note by the "Shinin' The Purple Helmet" reference on the back of the 45 sleeve. There's plenty of in-jokes to spare here; "Drink Fight and Fuck", scrawled on the runout groove of the a-side, is a G.G. Allin song that the Suns used to cover way back when.

This is a great single, obviously, and it showcases the two sides of Volcano Suns: the poppy, hook-happy side ("Sea Cruise"), and the crunching, noise-driven side ("Greasy Spine").





Volcano Suns -

"Sea Cruise"

"Greasy Spine"

(these files are now listen-only)





click for enlarged view



click for enlarged view

7 comments:

Jersey Beat Podcast said...

I always wanted one of those I Hate The Bait tshirts.

Volcano Suns were a great band, too.

Brushback said...

Yeah, if I'd ever seen an "I Hate The Bait" t-shirt up for public sale back then, I woulda jumped on it.

Jim, you probably won't know this one, but "Bright Open Mouths" is a reference to a particular zine; the first person who can tell me which one gets a nickle.

Barry said...

Their myspace page claims CD versions of Bright Orange Years and All Night Lotus Party coming out in January 2008 on Taang. Oops. Perhaps exigencies of declining economy hexed the deal, a drag as they are one of my favorite 80's bands. If anyone has rip'd the vinyl of All Night Lotus Party, I have the best vinyl rip of Bright Orange Years that I know of (done by an engineer friend). It still gets more distorted toward the end of each side, noticably more on Silvertone than other cuts.

Brushback said...

Yeah, I heard about the Taang! re-issues also, so let's hope they're still coming out (though I doubt they'll be on vinyl).

There's gotta be some blogs out there that have ripped All Night Lotus Party; I know that Jim Hoffman did, for his Vinyl Mine blog, but I'm pretty sure that the files have expired by now.

It's crummy how some LPs get distorted on the last track of each side, though not all of them; I've mentioned that before, when I posted the first Doughboys LP.

Anonymous said...

I have both direct vinyl rips of Bright Orange Years and All Night Lotus Party as well as a rip of a cassette I got (I think from Al Quint?) of the very first VS lineup w/ the two Big Dipper guys (Gary Waleik and Steve Michener) on a WERS-FM Metrowave live-on-the-radio gig from 1984. They do "Blackboard" (a Prescott carryover from his days in Burma), "A Song To Be Beautiful" and "Which Would You Rather" (which ended up on Big Dipper's LPs) along with some songs I have no idea what the names are (oh yeh, and some songs that DID end up on the first two VS LPs). It rules, needless to say.

Order today and I'll throw in a Sorry Metrowave recording from 1984 too (sound quality on both is EX+ as the tape traders would say).

I'm at neonfromcandlelight@yahoo.com if you want to contact me.

Brushback said...

I remember that WERS tape; I had it at one point, too (one of the many things of mine that went by the wayside over the years)-- no doubt either from you, Scott, or Al Quint. It's pretty great, definitely.

Brushback said...

The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files. For those of you who came to the party late, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original files. I won't throw in a Sorry Metrowave recording from 1984, though.