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Does anyone remember The Stairs?
They came out with an amazing debut album 'Mexican R n B' on Go Disks in 1991- i used to have it taped off a friend but i don't have it any more and its sadly long out of print. I've tried looking for tracks on Peer to peer networks- and on Ebay/ Amazon it goes for £20- £30 quid ouch! a bit too much but i'm often tempted...
Anyway they were ace - they tend to get lumped in with the mersey beat thing with The Coral, The Zutons & The Las- all of which i'm totally indifferent about- however The Stairs made a record that sounds like Mick Jagger fronting The Sonics- great garage rock riffs in the style of satisfaction- if fact the first time i heard them i thought it was the stones on some long lost album.
Of course when you see pictures of them they look like geeky inspiral carpets wannabes or there dressed in dads old suit- 1991 wasn't the best of years for indie cool as i remember- half way between baggy and grunge- but thats part of their charm they weren't cool but they made damn cool music- like an early 90's version of The Zombies.
The singles Mary Joanna & Weed bus pay homage in true Mersey Beat style to their love of spliff and although a little lyrically naive, the riff and gruff holler on Mary Joanna is enough to raise the heckles on the back of the neck of any self respecting garage rock fan- it certainly feels more 'authentic' than many of the later and more successful retro scousers.
The tragedy is they're one of those bands that will probably never reform, or even get a re-release simply cos of their lack of initial success (but neds atomic dustbin do- wheres the justice!) Maybe they'll get used in a successful advertising campaign or someone will have the good sense to compile a more recent 'nuggets' style re-release or even press 1000 more copies and see what happens- everyone i know that has heard this record loves it (bootleggers take note!)
Anyway does anybody have this long lost gem of an album or even remember it? anyone that can burn me a cd would be rewarded in mix cd's a plenty. Comments on the long lost band?
...anyone?
...anyone? |
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