Cambridge's WMBR, in addition to being key to the development of my musical tastes in general, is a big part of my fascination with these old records and what a bunch of college DJs thought of them. There was (and I'm sure still is) a lot to love about the station, but Pipeline!, their weekly local music show with regular live performances, was always a favorite of mine. The show is now celebrating its 25th anniversary (only the 25th?) in major style, with a month of shows all over the Boston area featuring a laundry list of nostalgic names: O Positive, Pods, The Sheila Divine, Anastasia Screamed, Crazy Alice, Kudgel, Green Magnet School, The Cavedogs... the list goes on (and on). Of course if you didn't live in that area in the last decade or two of the 20th century, most of those names will mean nothing to you, but man, for those of us who know, it's a pretty exciting set of lineups.
There is, sadly, a giant Volcano Suns-shaped hole in the roster, though. As a band that was in the prime of their relatively short first lifespan in 1989, I know they would have a been a regular feature of those early years - and look, here's a review of the Pipeline! 10th anniversary show in 1999, which they played. I'm sure there' s a very good reason for the lack of Volcano Suns in this lineup, though, and their absence certainly doesn't make the list of bands who are playing any less great for us Bostonians of a certain age and set of interests. If I were out there I'd be at as many of these shows as possible, and there are a couple of nights that seriously tempted me to look into buying a plane ticket.
Reading the reviews on this record, it looks like I'm not the only Seattleite with love for Volcano Suns. They sure managed to woo this gang of hardened college DJs!
"Another band out of the ashes of Mission of Burma. This one based out of drummer Peter Prescott and his palz. Pop stuff from Boston, with a little bit of thrashy edge.""'Cornfield' is cool!"
"Lordy Lordy, worship praise etc. ALL bow down!"
"Great band!"
"yes Jon - I like them too."
"Good hooks, good drums, good guitars, wow! This is good!"
"As of 8/25 - Best record in N (yes, even better than that)."
"By golly this good record."
"As good in their own way as Burma were, and as Birdsongs of the Mesozoic are."
"This band has made some great ones. 'Balancing Act'"
I know I've tried to think of a name for this phenomenon before – maybe even on this very blog – but what do you call a super group in reverse; i.e., a relatively obscure and unsuccessful band whose members go on to achieve great things? How about a pour grepus? (Think about it.)
