The Rabbit Hole USA

Here are just a few of the awesome new disks that have arrived at The Rabbit Hole this week. Generation X featuring Billy Idol were on the vanguard of UK punk rock with their first LP in 1978, and we’ve got the two follow-up albums, as well.

One of Boston’s most important local exports in the late 80s were the Blake Babies, featuring Juliana Hatfield, who, in 1992, went solo and became an alternative-music priestess almost overnight after appearing in an episode of the popular TV series My So-Called Life starring a young Claire Danes. The first and best three Blake Babies disks are on our shelves, including period newspaper and zine articles and even a few actual set-lists from the band’s shows! See a live video of a 2001 reunion.

Walter Wanderley was huge in his native Brazil and eventually cracked America in the mid 60s doing his bossa nova organ thing like no other, including one LP with Astrud Gilberto. Remember Summer Samba from 1966, which hit the US Top 20? We have three of his solo disks (two CDs and Cheganca on vinyl). This consummate musician is now legendary.

Another top local band who went on to national fame are They Might Be Giants. The duo from Lincoln, MA relocated to NYC to make it big, beginning with their first two LPs on the independent label Bar/None — the second of which is titled after their home town. Here at RH we’ve got them both, first editions, in pristine condition.

We have a rare find indeed with a perfect copy the Bats’ first US vinyl release, 1986′s Daddy’s Highway. These New Zealand indie pop legends are still going strong with all the original members.

Pristine copies of early albums by yet more local heroes, Dinosaur Jr. from Amherst, who took the grunge-rock style national a good two years before Nirvana, are on the shelves. We also have new arrivals from Frente, Moonpools & Caterpillars, Liliput, Same, and more. Come in and sample them on our new LP/CD listening station in the record department.

The plethora of snotty, young, sugar-coated, high-energy power-pop-punk bands that inundate American airwaves today are the musical descendants of, ironically, The Descendents. And perhaps no band has ever done the style better! Started by powerhouse drummer Bill Stevenson (who, during the group’s 1983-1984 hiatus, was drafted by Black Flag), this quartet emerged from the Los Angeles punk scene and, fronted by angry young nerd, Milo Aukerman, virtually invented, in raw form, the sound that is so popular today. We have all four of their full-length 1980s LPs. They disbanded in 1987, sort of, when Milo went off to pursue a career in biochemistry. But not only have they intermittently reformed for several albums and successful tours since then, but the other three members continued in the same style with other singers under the name All.

See this awesome live video clip of the band doing I’m the One, and another of Hope.

All has blazed a stunning power-punk-pop trail since 1988. First with ex-Dag Nasty vocalist Dave Smalley, then Scott Reynolds, and then Chad Price, while always remaining true to their sound. They even achieved a major-label record deal in 1995 with the release of Pummel. The Rabbit Hole has Pummel on CD and the first three All albums on vinyl. That’s seven straight years of all the releases by Descendents-All, virtually one group, and they prove it often by doing All songs at Descendents shows, and Descendents songs at All shows.

Here’s a live vid of the group doing Skin Deep, and another of Mary (song starts about one minute in), and one more of Postage.

One of the most critically acclaimed indie pop/rock groups of the late 80s were North Carolina’s The Connells. Lush, jangly, 12-string guitars, soaring melodies, emotive singing and strong, often melancholy songs have been the band’s hallmarks since 1984, though they sometimes foray into a harder sound or even a Celtic direction. They’ve even been Top Twenty hitmakers in Europe. The Rabbit Hole has acquired excellent copies of the band’s first three full-length LPs – a great find!

Check out videos of Over There and Stone Cold Yesterday.