The A's: The A's (10-inch)

The A's: The A's

1979

Arista Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. After Last Night  2. Who's Gonna Save The World  3.C.I.A.


Here's how I would introduce myself each night on stage if I was in this band:

 "GOOD EVENING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...WE'RE THE  FUCKIN' A's!"

"YAAAAAHHHHH! WHOOO-HOOO!"

"You guys are going to be on a live album tonight, so make some fucken' noise!"

"WHOOO!! LET US, THE AUDIENCE, SUCK YOUR DICKS!!!" 

  "...but seriously...Can we get serious for a moment? Every five minutes 1,800 children die of malnutrition in America...Every five minutes..."

"TONIGHT WE'RE SINGLE!!!"

 "So let me do some quick math here...(carry the 3)....That means America's going to run out of children in a little over three days..."

"YOU'RE HARSHIN' OUR BUZZ, MAN!" 

 "Just thought I'd give y'all something to think about tonight...Anyway, This is a new song from our latest album, it's called..."

"BOO! WE'RE AN AUDIENCE! COLLECTIVE ENTITIES KNOWN AS "AUDIENCES" ONLY LIKE OLD STUFF!!"

"Well, Alright then! We're going to play our entire first album..."

"YEEEEAAAA!"

"In the exact order the songs appear on the album!"

"HOTCHA!!!!"

"In fact, we're just going to put on a record and pipe the album over the loudspeakers and go back to our hotel rooms and do some blow...See you assholes later!"

"THE FIRST WORLD SERIES OCCURRED IN 1903 AND WAS PLAYED BETWEEN PITTSBURGH AND BOSTON!!"

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Boy, that introduction really got away from me...Still, you can tell people you were there to witness the single most pointless entry on the Friday Night Record Party blog...I should probably get around to talking about this A's record...

 This appears to be a promotional 10-inch for the band's first full-length (also self-titled, which I've never heard)...I think the record companies were really trying to push the 10-inch record as a legit format around this time...It seems like every major lable 10 inch record I own came out in '79-'80...

Jens and I were at Eastside one night and we pulled this out of one of their bins...We had never heard of the band, but we took a chance on that cool cover and the eye-popping red vinyl...

 Turns out it was a pretty good find...Very '79 (which is an era I love)...If I had to shoehorn it into a genre, I'd probably go with power-pop but there's a bit of punk bite and a bit of FM radio bombast...It kinda reminds me of a much better version of early Loverboy or something...Very radio-ready but I think it has just a liiiitle too much nervous energy to actually be played on the radio...

The real find here is the final track, "C.I.A" which just a flat-out great song...Lots of energy, catchy hooks, tightly-coiled playing...Everything I look for in a New Wave/punk/FM-rock/power-pop song and ever since I've heard it, it's been in the steady Friday night rotation...The other two songs, while fine, can't top "C.I.A," but "After Last Night" comes pretty close...Pretty much a quintessential, all-cards-on-the-table power-pop opener...If you're were in a power-pop band in 1979, a barn-storming, relentlessly hooky opening track was pretty much mandatory...Otherwise you had to sit at the kids table with the Outfield...

Alright...I think it's time to check out some A's...Here's "C.I.A"...Enjoy...