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Take a little trip with me, down memory lane… I was a high
school kid in the 1980's, and if you were, then you more than
likely experienced many of the same films that I did. And in those
films, you probably heard and fell in love with much of the music
the same way that I did. Well, so did the folks over at American
Laundromat Records. So, together with Face Down Records, those
guys put together this amazing tribute record featuring some of
the greatest songs from some of the greatest movies of the 80's
covered by some of the great artists around today. Let's take
a quick look down the list…
The Dipsomaniacs turn in a note for note cover of "A
Million Miles Away", as seen in the Valley Girl movie,
which leads into a blistering version of Tom Petty's "American
Girl" ably interpreted by the master of noise pop himself,
Matthew Sweet. From Sixteen Candles comes Blank
Pages' cover of the Vapors' "Turning Japanese",
which is slowed a bit, but retains all of its jangling enthusiasm.
Relative newcomers AM turn in a drastically re-interpreted
version of "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from the eternal
Breakfast Club, taking out the smooth keyboards and grunging
everything into a garagey rock tornado of sound. Lori McKenna
covers Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" as a smoky
loungey acoustic number while The Modifiers rock out on
the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way" and The
Atomic Hep Cats add a bit of edge and distortion to one of
my favorite songs of all time, Echo And The Bunnymen's
"Bring On The Dancing Horses". The Commons turn
out a very close version of The Cars' "Moving In Stereo",
doing a brilliant job at replicating the keyboard sweeps and bleeps,
and maintaining the same calm cool that Ric Ocasek was
so fond of. The Dresden Dolls re-interpret the classic
"Pretty In Pink" into a faster tempo, piano backed,
slightly off-key whirlwind of memories while Kristin Hersh
slows down and acoustifies the Pixies' "Wave Of Mutilation".
Underdog garagifies "I Melt With You" and does
so with a ton of dynamics and grace as Frank Black turns
in a haunting version of "Repo Man" and PC Munoz
electrifies and scatters a slowed down and emptied out cover of
"I Go Crazy". Wrapping the record is an acoustic ballad
version of The Replacements' "Within Your Reach"
provided by Bastards Of Melody… I miss the drum machine
beat, but the slide guitars and chiming acoustics are tre' beautiful.
Whether you remember the first time you heard these songs or
saw these movies is fairly irrelevant… This album is an
amazing collection of amazing songs re-worked by some amazing
artists. Despite the couple of sleeper tracks, you'll find yourself
enjoying these timeless classics all over again… unless
you were 50 in the 1980's, and then you're not reading this
anyway.
-L. Keane
Track Listing:
1. John P Strohm - Somebody's Baby
2. Dipsomaniacs - A Million Miles Away
3. Matthew Sweet - American Girl
4. Blank Pages - Turning Japanese
5. The Bennies - Weird Science
6. AM - Don't You (Forget About Me)
7. Lori McKenna - In Your Eyes
8. Kitty Hawk - If You Were Here
9. Nova Social - Little Bitch
10. The Modifiers - Love My Way
11. The Atomic Hep Cats - Bring On The Dancing Horses
12. The Commons - Moving In Stereo
13. The Dresden Dolls - Pretty In Pink
14. Kristin Hersh - Wave Of Mutilation
15. The Caulfield Sisters - Please Please Let Me Get What I
Want
16. Underdog - I Melt With You
17. The Wading Girl - Danke Schoen
18. Frank Black - Repo Man
19. PC Munoz - I Go Crazy
20. Bastards Of Melody - Within Your Reach
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