Vertebrats
- Continuous
Shows
This is our second
posthumous release from Champaign's late-great Vertebrats.
From 1979-1982, The Vertebrats brand of simple, urgent,
garage rock songs defined music in Champaign.
On a good night
live, the 'Brats were raw, dynamic, and unpretentious like
many of their influences - the Clash, Rockpile, CCR, the
Ramones, Neil Young. And like their influences, what made
them all the more fun live was their inexplicable chemistry.
We've tried to
capture that chemistry on Continuous Shows - twenty-two
live songs (60+ minutes) from The Vertebrats. These songs
were either recorded live at shows the band played in Champaign/Chicago
or were recorded in one take for copyrighting purposes
at the house they shared.
Ironically,
what makes the band sound so vital today is probably the
same
thing that kept the 'Brats from getting a record contract
in their prime. The Vertebrats' music was too tuneful to
make them "punk," too rough around the edges
to qualify them as "new wave." Despite their
rave reviews in the New York rock press, shortsighted record
label execs didn't know what to make of their approach.
Listen to their
songs and you will hear all of the energy, all of the desperation,
all of the passion, all of the dreams and fears, and all
of the great talent that makes great rock and roll.
"Prov[ing]
what a lost rock 'n' roll treasure this late 70's/early 80's
Champaign, Illinois quartet was. Long before Guided By Voices,
the Midwest produced a slew of hooky, dirty, tuneful bashers
who knew their pop (Replacements were just the best known),
and the Vertebrats are suddenly unearthed... Here's an instant
history lesson that sounds even better today than it did
then... [T]he sound quality is hot, capturing the pop in
the snare drum under banging guitar rockers. More excellence." -The
Big Takeover
|
