Song Of the Day: September 18, 2005
Did any of you guys like this band? I recall receiving this album as a graduation gift from my pal David Ring, (who I've lost contact with, and as he's not the kind of guy who probably goes around Googling himself, dropping his name here probably isn't going to help) and subsequently penciling it in as my favorite LP of 1984 for the year-end list bulletin board at Second Time Around Records in Wichita (still maybe my favorite record store ever). I seem to recall ranking it ahead of, for example Meat Puppets II (which actually came out in '83, but indie rock records didn't really have street dates back then, and besides, I was in friggin' Pratt, KS, so give me a break already) which seems a bit dubious, but then this thing did have the Sound Of Jon's Bedroom, ca. 1984; it sounded like a cross between REM and U2/Big Country. Many tracks were used on mix tapes, and I memorized the entire LP in a way I almost never do with a current release.
Uh...I didn't like their next album as much.
12 Comments:
i loved the album, too. "chamber of hellos" is an all-time fave, as is "everything's turning up down again." the followup albums were horrible, though!
i remember seeing them on alan thicke's late-night show. blew me away!
Oh man,
This is one of my all time favorite bands. This was a great record with "I Forget It All" and of course "I'll Do You". Got to see them open for Big Country at Wake Forest U. Incredible show!!! Their next record "Between Two Words" was what really won me over. Back in the late 90's Oglio released a twofer of "In A Chamber and "Between Two Words". A great disc to track down.
At least you were in Pratt in 83/84, dude. That was close enough to Wichita to do the occasional record store crawl. I was in friggin' Russell at that time! When you have to go to a mall in Hays, Kansas to get a halfway decent record store, you are officially in the ass end of nowhere.
But yeah, I liked Wire Train's first album a lot. I have a 12" of "Chamber of Hellos" that has a Francophone version of "Never" on the flip, "Personne Jamais."
I was into Wire Train, but I was even MORE into their equally forgotten 415 labelmates, Translator. -- jonhope
Jon,
That comment was everywhere that I'm not.
Alex
The more I think about it, "No Time Like Now" from Translator's second album would be perfect for a Little Hits post. But that's impossible, that's im. That's impossible, that's im-poss. That's impossible, that's im-poss-i-ble.
-- jonhope
i luv wire train! my fave track was 'no pretties'. the single chamber of hellos was pretty much overplayed here in the philippines. i also loved their albums between two words, ten women & no soul no strain. can't understand why u didn't.
Stewart-
Yeah, but that was a GOOD mall store...I bought Spongetones, Replacements, Factory Records stuff there...but there was another Record store in Hays as well that had a lot of major label stuff reasonably cheap. I remember buying stuff like Let's Active and Translator there. Do you know what I'm talking about? I think it just closed this year...
Best,
Jon
You know, now that I think about it again, that WAS a surprisingly good record store to be in a mall in Hays. (I can't remember the name of it, can you?) All I knew at the time was that I had moved to Russell from Boulder, and I was going through severe Rocky Mountain Records withdrawal.
I've written before in other places that in retrospect, moving to Russell was probably really good for me. By the time I was in junior high in Boulder, the music scene had gotten really Balkanized: you pretty much had to like, y'know, Madness OR the Dead Kennedys OR U2 OR Depeche Mode. Whereas in Russell, because I wasn't listening to your basic mainstream AOR, I was automatically this poncy little faggot. So really, if I was going to be getting slammed into the lockers by seniors every day anyway, it was okay for me to like Duran Duran and Black Flag about equally. It was actually quite liberating.
As far as I can remember, the mall record store in Hays was the only one I knew of. I actually only lived in Russell about nine months, and I haven't been back since.
Stewart-
The Brass Ear
Jon
Yes! I can even remember the sign now! Funny, I had it in my mind that it was probably like a Camelot or a Peaches or something.
You said that David Ring turned you onto Wire Train...you may find him at the website he created: http://www.backwash.com
If it's the same David Ring, of course. We who write over there like to call him "Ringy" ;)
Good luck in seeing if it's the same David. And thanks for your Blog - any chance of getting the version of 'Waterline' from that Icicle Works 12" put up too??? That song is HARD TO FIND.
Cheers.
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