The Revelaires - a must

Continuing my trip across the output of Athens' finest...

Dead Letter Office (1987)

And so we come to the various odds and ends that the band released throughout their career - and I'm starting with this album because I own it.  I can't say it gets dusted off very often but there are some interesting tracks on it.

Side 1 - Post Side

1. Crazy
I quite like this because it's nicely jaunty - I know it's a cover version, but can never remember who originally did it (Wikipedia tells me it was Pylon, another Athens band).

2. There She Goes Again
I'm not so keen on this, but it's at least better than the original version from The Velvet Underground (because every Velvet Underground cover by anyone is better than the original).

3. Burning Down
A typical early R.E.M. track - no complaints from me on this.

4. Voice Of Harold
I love the quirk here - it's basically "7 Chinese Bros" with "alternative" lyrics, which are the liner notes to The Revelaires gospel album The Joy Of Knowing Jesus.  Michael sang this without any practice and he mostly gets it to scan nicely.

5. Burning Hell
I'm not so keen on this one - it's a bit screechy

6. White Tornado
This is an instrumental with a quirky 60s feel to it - not unpleasant but a bit odd

7. Toys In The Attic
Another cover - Aerosmith this time (and yes, I had to look it up).  It's a funny one because I don't like it, but I sing along to it.

Side 2 - Script side

1. Wind Out
Bizarre - apparently this is from the soundtrack to Bachelor Party.

2. Ages Of You
This sounds like very early era R.E.M (and Wikipedia tells me it is - it was going to be on Chronic Town, their debut EP, but got moved off at the last minute).

3. Pale Blue Eyes
Another Velvet Underground cover, but this is an unusual one because the original version is actually bearable - this is still better though.

4. Rotary Ten
A slightly peculiar instrumental

5. Bandwagon
Yeah, I quite this one - it's nicely jangly.

6. Femme Fatale
Another VU cover - yes, we get it.  You like them.

7. Walters Theme
A kinda weird instrumental with voice-overs.  All a bit odd.

8. King Of The Road
A most peculiar cover (Roger Miller, 1964) - not terrible, but you do wonder what possessed them to do it.

CD bonus tracks - Chronic Town (their debut EP from '82)

1. Wolves, Lower 
Yeah, this sounds very early R.E.M. - mainly because it is.  I like it, although it does go a bit mad in the middle

2. Gardening At Night
One of their better known non-album tracks from the early days - it's very similar to "Radio Free Europe".

3. Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcar)
Yeah, I like this one - great chorus to it.

4. 1,000,000
Crazy title! Not my favourite off the EP.

5. Stumble
Again, very typical of early R.E.M.

It's pretty variable in quality, but if you like early R.E.M. (and the somewhat sparse production values that accompanied them back then) then it's well worth checking out - it's certainly not essential but it's interesting nonetheless.  In terms of contributing to my playlist, I'm going for "Voice Of Harold" (for the quirky value), "Pale Blue Eyes" (we've got to put a VU cover on there), "Gardening At Night" and "Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcar)" (because we've got to represent Chronic Town properly).

The Wikipedia entry for the album is pretty brief - the band weren't entirely sure they should release what could be viewed as a cash-in, but I suspect IRS would have released it with or without their blessing.  The most amusing bit is that they were all drunk for "Walters Theme" and "King Of The Road" and on the latter you can hear Mike and Peter shouting the required keys at each other.  The record actually charted - #52 in the US and #60 in the UK.

The Chronic Town entry is considerably larger - it came out in '82 ("Radio Free Europe", their debut single, was released in '81).  Explaining the title, Bill Berry said "a 'chronic town' is a city in the state of mind" - I think that makes it all perfectly clear, doesn't it?  The original plan was to release it on the label run by Jefferson Holt (their manager) but "Radio Free Europe" had caught the attention of IRS Records and this was their first US release.

Wikipedia lists another fourteen compilation albums - none of them are like this one with most of them being straightforward best-ofs.  However, there are some that are worth considering for the odd track or two (generally singles released to encourage people to buy the album) so in the next post we'll have a quick rundown of any of them I feel the need to discuss.

Collapse Into Now - The end?!?
Various - The best-ofs the best-ofs from the best-of