The Shirts!

My Parents had a reel to reel tape player on top of our stereo cabinet during the 70's and 80's. I swear to god that it was the same model used in the Evil Dead movies,but that could just be the similarities of most reel to reel tape players.

I remember my dad kept a couple dozen reels in the bottom of the cabinet and would play them from time to time. Steppenwolf, the Beatles, Jesus Christ Superstar and others. The Hair soundtrack was also played, which really is quite awful, but one of the female stars in the motion picture was Annie Golden lead singer of the band The Shirts.

The Shirts were among the first wave of bands to play CBGB in the late 70's art/punk movement. Not really given the notoriety of the Talking Heads, Television or the Ramones, The Shirts having a much poppier sound, they still add to an impressive list of the acts coming from that time and place.

Why didn't my parents go the extra mile and get a couple Shirts LPs and play those? Didn't they know Annie Golden was involved in something way cooler than Hair...all you had to do was Google it.... in the 1970s....

Here is a song called "Teenage Crutch" from their self titled debut LP.

Teenage Crutch

The Shirts apparently reformed after many years of inactivity... www.theshirts.net

The Banned "Him Or Me"

This single happened to be out on my stacks of CDs, and it is great...so I have posted it.

A nice slice of 1978 punk/power pop, a cover of Paul Revere & the Raider's "Him or Me".

From Tooting (!) England, one of several bands that made a moderately successful single and then vanished. This is NOT their moderately successful single - it is the follow up, which I like better. Besides their moderately successful single was a less interesting cover (Little Girl by Syndicate of Sound.)

enjoy!

http://www.the-banned.com/

Him Or Me

The Incredible Kidda Band

Formed in 1977 The Incredible Kidda Band released a couple singles in the late 70's but seemed to have recorded a lot of music. A CD only compilation of 29 of their songs came out and apparently sold out.

Thanks to the great blog Powerpop Overdose for turning me on to this group.

This is straight out of the time of skinny ties and feathered hair but it is pop at its best, good guitar riffs and classic melodies and songs... rough production is kind of endearing to me, the whole reissue cd is fabulous.

Here are two tracks from that CD.

Radio Caroline

Fighting My Way Back