| |
|
Twenty seven years after The Individuals first created hook-riddled pop tones, I am pleased to announce that for the first time, their music is finally available on CD on Bar/None Records' Fields/Aquamarine. As one of the early crusaders of indie rock and one of the bands that pioneered the Hoboken, NJ scene, The Individuals impact on music has outlived the group’s short career. The release, mastered by former dB Gene Holder, combines a selection of twenty tracks of The Individuals’ stemming from their critically acclaimed debut EP Aquamarine, full-length album Fields supplemented with B-sides, extended single mixes and alternate takes. The packaging includes extensive liner notes and rarely seen photos.
Featuring guitarist/singer/songwriter Glenn Morrow, lead guitarist Jon Klages and the sibling rhythm section of bassist/vocalist Janet Wygal and drummer Doug, The Individuals made accessible yet idiosyncratic music that mixed jittery, danceable rhythms, inventive guitar interplay, unconventional song structures and enigmatic yet expressive lyrics. The band helped make Hoboken, NJ -- a ghost town, plagued by arson, crime and poverty, when they first arrived -- a bastion for artistically provocative music.
The Individuals formed in the Summer of 1979 and by 1980, the quartet had established itself as a formidable live act, combining musical adventurousness and manic energy. As the Boston Globe proclaimed, “The Individuals play thoughtful, textural music that is busy pushing you to the dance floor. It’s artful music that rocks.” The band spent the early 80s logging thousands of miles in their Econoline cargo van performing relentlessly and building a reputation for their vigorous live sets. Along the way, they opened for The Cure and headlined over ‘Til Tuesday and 10,000 Maniacs.
They undertook this touring without label support and met many like-minded individuals who later became well known figures in the history of indie rock, including Mission of Burma, Love Tractor, Pylon and R.E.M. Guitarist Glenn Morrow looked back on those times and said, “Most of the CBGB bands used traditional agents and major-label tour support, so we were among the first real wave of D.I.Y. bands. I feel like we helped to create a network that didn’t exist before bands like us."
The Aquamarine EP, the band’s recording debut, was released in late 1981 on the Lust/Unlust label. Aquamarine was recorded at New York’s 39th Street Studio produced by the dB’s Gene Holder and was voted one of the year’s best releases in the Village Voice "Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll."
|
|
Back to Clients
-------------------------------
In the Spring of 1982, The Individuals’ released their only full length record, Fields on the Plexus label. The album was recorded in the congenial environs of Mitch Easter’s Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where R.E.M. were simultaneously recording their Chronic Town EP; Holder produced again with Easter engineering. Fields received substantial praise from the critics around the country. Rolling Stone’s David Fricke wrote, "Fields yields its rewards with familiarity, springing its surprises like carefully timed bombs. Accepting this album into your home is, as one song title here puts it, a ‘Leap of faith.’ Take it and be amazed.” The New York Times’ Robert Palmer named it one of 1982’s ten best albums. It also received commercial radio exposure: “Dancing with My Eighty Wives” got substantial airplay on Long Island’s WLIR, while “Walk by Your House” was a hit at trendsetting Washington, D.C. station WHFS.
Morrow attributes much of the success The Individuals had to being the one of the first to walk through the door of Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ in the summer of 1977. “On the far side of the Hudson, we found a place to call our own,” he says. Early on, The Individuals became a cornerstone of the burgeoning Hoboken indie-pop scene, which included the dBs, The Bongos, Tiny Lights, Human Switchboard, The Feelies and the Golden Palominos, and gradually, the press began to write about the “Hoboken Sound.”
During off-hours, the club became the band’s practice space. As Glenn says about the club’s Steve Fallon and his brother-in-law remembering their firsr meeting thirty-one years ago, “Steve was willing to give everyone a shot if not two or three and made everyone feel like Maxwell’s was their club.
Now, almost three decades after the original release of the band’s first EP, Aquamarine, The Individuals upbeat pop attitude combined with an art-school sensibility and a knack of embracing a wide world of endless musical options is finally available on CD on Fields/Aquamarine. The track listing includes:
1. My Three Sons (Revolve around the earth)
2. Can’t Get Started
3. Hooks & Ladders
4. Monkey
5. Our World*
6. Dancing With My Eighty Wives
7. Walk By Your House
8. Leap Of Faith
9. White
10. Johnny’s In the Mines
11. Thinking Aloud
12. Swimming In the Streets
13. Young and Dancing
14. Okay Chorale
15. Piledrive
16. Jackie Said, “So…”
17. The Argument
BONUS TRACKS
18. Seven Hours By Motorboat (Single B-Side)
19. Our World (Single Version)
20. Dancing With My 80 Wives (12” extended mix)**
21. Hidden Track (from Aquamarine EP)
*Alternate mix
** Previously unreleased
|
|
|
|
