Live from Allston Rock City
The Atlantics — One Last Night
(from the LP Big City Rock, ABC Records 1979)
Today was the first of March, and like clockwork, Boston’s weather clicked over from late winter snows to that peculiarity of early spring, the wet, slushy rainstorm with an icy wind that’s possibly even more dispiriting than a proper blizzard. So when my wife and I were out running our neighborhood errands — post office, bakery, the Asian food court for a banh mi for lunch — I proposed walking over to In Your Ear for a restorative browse through the vinyl.
In Your Ear is the sort of record store I can only go into a couple times a year, even though it is by some distance the closest record store to my house. It’s jammed full with more stuff than I could even begin to look at in the course of a visit: so full, in fact, that it can be impossible to look at the things I want to look at because there’s piles of boxes stacked five feet high in front of that bin. The singles bins taunt me for that very reason. Plus, I’m just OCD enough that I can only be in there so long before I start wanting to properly alphabetize things.
Today was a fairly typical In Your Ear visit. Charity found some amazingly weird things in the spoken word bins and bought an old Ewan MacColl record. I rooted around a little looking for the one album I knew I wanted to search for, the Turbines’ 1985 LP, and didn’t find it but did gather up about $30 worth of goodies that’ll be showing up here shortly, including the minor holy grail of the Stepmothers’ 1981 album You Were Never My Age (which I’ve been looking for for frickin’ years), two of the Throbbing Lobster compilations, a potentially interesting looking LP called Sugarbeat by the Manta Rays, and a supposedly great power pop classic that I have never actually seen a copy of before, the Atlantics’ Big City Rock, which cost a whopping $1.99.
The Atlantics were part of Boston’s fertile new wave scene from the turn of the ’80s, but they were royally screwed by their label, ABC Records, which went out of business about a month after their debut hit the streets. This was just part of a long line of bad luck, according to the surviving bandmembers in the comments to an earlier Little Hits post on this album: according to drummer Ray Boy Fernandes, ABC wouldn’t pay for Ed Stasium, who the band wanted, and assigned a clueless staff producer to the sessions, which resulted in the album’s undeniably weak and ball-less sound. Opening track “One Last Night” is one of those good songs that clearly should have been a great song.
Knowing that the bandmembers themselves were disappointed in the record makes it easier for me to say that after listening to this album a couple of times this evening, I do find myself wondering why so many hardcore power pop fans consider Big City Rock a lost treasure. I suspect a lot of the album’s most fervent fans were locals who were there for the band’s still fondly remembered live sets, but I also wonder if the album’s general scarcity (hard to find on vinyl and likely never to be reissued on CD due to rights issues) might be inflating its perceived value a bit. Big City Rock is a good power pop album with a number of very solid song that potentially could have been a great power pop album had it been more sensitively produced. But as it stands, it sounds a bit more like a case of “what could have been.”
–Stewart Mason
Andrew said,
March 2, 2008 @ 9:30 am
I just checked in with my original post, and I was shocked to see the number of comments (23) on there since my last visit to that post, including posts by various Atlantics and all sorts of Boston scenesters of yore coming out of the woodwork. Funny, I had completely forgotten about “Sorry, Wrong Number”. Can’t wait to hear “Pop Shivers” again after all these years of thinking about it.
http://www.littlehits.com/2006/01/song-of-day-january-5-2006.html#comments
Jon B. said,
March 2, 2008 @ 10:31 am
I have an extra copy of “Last Dance Before Highway”, Stewart. For you, I’ll give you a good deal, my friend.
Stewart said,
March 2, 2008 @ 2:47 pm
Actually, I found a cheap sealed copy on eBay last night. If it falls through, I’ll drop you a line.
To be fair, I listened to (the Atlantics’ post-ABC single) “Lonelyhearts” again this morning and it kicks just as much ass as I remember — I agree with Ray Boy that the fault lies primarily with the producer.
jim said,
March 2, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
Stewart: i agree about the Atlantics, as well as In Your Ear!! My girlfriend/fiance who grew up in the Boston area remembered, and loved the Atlantics, but having grown up in the Philly area, and only reading about them in Trouser Press, I was expecting godhead when I found that lp on cassette somwhere…a coupla great tunes, but not super-solid all the way thru-also see similar Boston-recorded experiences like the Nervous Eaters, La Peste and the Neighborhoods…..”Lonelyhearts” is swell, but I remember post-Atlantics stuff like Ball & Pivot from the mid 80’s, and, well……yeah, In Your Ear is tough to navigate, but the 2 previous locations on Comm. Avenue in Boston were tough too! I have found some way cool stuff there and even IPO main man David Bash has been there with me!!!! jim h.
mzamar said,
March 3, 2008 @ 3:40 pm
Ooh, you should post ‘Lonelyhearts’. It does kick! Bought ‘Big City Rock’ probably 15 yrs ago and was perplexed why the songs did not rock like ‘Pop Shivers’ and ‘Sorry Wrong Number’. I have them on cassette somewhere, taped off WBCN’s local countdown when I was in high school. Sigh!
PJ said,
March 3, 2008 @ 6:44 pm
DIY:Mass Ave, The Boston Scene (1975-1983) has “Lonelyhearts” well-reproduced onto the CD. I was doing college radio in Worcester around those years, and everytime I stop by here at Little Hits, I am thrilled, edified, and entertained. Thank you !
In Your Ear Records : allston city limits said,
March 3, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
[…] Stewart Mason on Little Hits on finds at In Your Ear- Today was a fairly typical In Your Ear visit. Charity found some amazingly weird things in the spoken word bins and bought an old Ewan MacColl record. I rooted around a little looking for the one album I knew I wanted to search for, the Turbines’ 1985 LP, and didn’t find it but did gather up about $30 worth of goodies that’ll be showing up here shortly, including the minor holy grail of the Stepmothers’ 1981 album You Were Never My Age (which I’ve been looking for for frickin’ years), two of the Throbbing Lobster compilations, a potentially interesting looking LP called Sugarbeat by the Manta Rays, and a supposedly great power pop classic that I have never actually seen a copy of before, the Atlantics’ Big City Rock, which cost a whopping $1.99. […]
David Shea said,
March 4, 2008 @ 10:56 pm
The Manta Rays! I have that album and even saw them play live once at NightStage in Cambridge. it’s been close to 20 years since I listened to it but I remember it being at least fun.
I have so many albums bought at In Your Ear, I bet 75 to 100 or more, I didn’t know it was still open.
I’m hoping to get one of the new turntables this year that makes ripping easy, I have lot’s of Boston / Alternative / NZ LPs I want to convert… someday!
:-D
EERO said,
March 5, 2008 @ 7:03 am
I saw them opening for Roxy Music in NY in 1979, and was hooked. Bought Big City Rock soon after and played it to death. Yes, it is flawed, and the production is thin, but I love it and still play it. It’s a worthy candidate for re-mastering, it’s a shame that the legal issues will keep it from happening.
One Last Night, Nowhere to Run and It’s Been So Long are the anchors of my Power Pop iPod Playlists.
filmfeline said,
October 8, 2009 @ 9:39 pm
David Shea!
I still have that album too! Becky was in my French class and Allan is a good friend of mine. That music was so sweet. You can’t beat Boston in the 90’s, sorry it’s the best music scene. The album is rare, but really good.
If you’re a fan of the Beatles/Police and Stray Cats try to find my little bros album too called ‘Shooting Up a Star’ the band was called Feedback. They sold all the CDs, but the music is really good…maybe there are still some sold online, as used. I don’t know why the band is gone, but it is…