I thought today would be the ideal opportunity to whizz these up. They're a bunch of demos by Sir Mitch Easter recorded in 82 and 84 for Afoot and Cypress. Yeah I know some of these have been up on Wilfully Obscure (dammit-they're always ahead of me over there!) but there seem to be a few tunes which are unique to this version. You can have fun playing spot the difference... Track 11 seems to be part of a radio broadcast, it seems. I suppose it was about time I uploaded some Ledz, given the title of the blog...
Right that was just a quickie as there are chocolate eggs to be eaten.
Enjoy the holidays everyone!
Lets Active: Afoot+Cypress Demos
01. In Between
02. Counting Down
03. Make Up With Me
04. Safety In Numbers
05. On My Terms (w/Robert 'Sneakers" Keely)
06. We Do The What If
07. Leader Of Men
08. Im Sorry #I
09. Deadline
10. Room With A View
11. DJ> In Fun Town #1
12. I Will Understand #1
13. Out Of Sight Out Of Mind #1
14. Out Of Sight Out Of Mind #2
15. I‘m Sorry #2
14. Out Of Sight Out Of Mind #2
15. I‘m Sorry #2
16. Two Yous
17. Single File
18. In Fun Town #2
19. I Will Understand #2
back in the day always looking for exicting new sounds the names mitch easter and don dixon on the back of the first two rem albums led me to discover the likes of the connells, dumptruck and the smithereens. but by far the two combos i went crazy for were Game Theory and the mighty Let's Active...always loved Let's Active
ReplyDeleteafter the sneakers robert keely was in the semi legenday H Bombs along with Mitch and Peter Holsapple...sadly that combo did not get to record but there are very good quality live tapes in existance...now if anybody could just find them.....
ReplyDeleteHi. Spavid from Wilfully Obscure. Don't worry, I take no offense. In fact, I have seen several different configurations of Let's Active demos, including a factory pressed double CD bootleg if you can believe that.
ReplyDeleteThere was talk several years ago about a Let's Active box set, which apparently isn't in the cards anymore. That's unfortunate because if anything else, it would've been nice to get a "definitive" collection of all these stray demos and such properly assembled by Mr. Easter himself. A pop geek can dream...
The names Dixon and Easter also turned me on to some great bands, but I never found their original or band material from either guy to be that great. To me, Let's Active was just a good band (yeah, I know...blasphemy!). I found Easter's (and Dixon's) genius to be in the studio, recording others. That ain't bad.... Easter is a superb producer with an uncanny ear. All things and personal opinions aside, this material is still worth a listen.
ReplyDeleteI disagree completely with DPSoO - Let's Active was amazing, miles better than some of the other bands that Mitch produced. Love 'em a ton!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the demos!
now that i had a chance to study these gems more i dont think they are let's active as such. i think these are all stuff that mitch recorded in the first year Drive In was open before the band got together.. as for the dj in fun town... on occasion he would phone up local DJ’s and ask if he could drop in a tape for them to maybe play on their shows. He went under the names of the Perma Neats and then the Pre Fabs for these...Single File, I Will Understand, In Fun Town are from these tapes for sure... the rest i think are from this first year and as such do not cross over with the stuff posted over at willfully
ReplyDeleteI bought these demos from the guy who ran the Let's Active fan club, on cassettes. A few different trax but mostly the same list. He implied at the time the sale was Mitch approved, when I mentioned it to Mitch after a show, Mitch was really surprised, had no idea the dude was selling them.
ReplyDelete