Customer Reviews

Best of 415 Records

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The Best of 415 Records is a compilation CD containing great tracks from the bands on the roster of 415 records, specifically Wire Train, Red Rockers, Translator, Until December, and Romeo Void.

For this review, I am going to limit my comments to the Romeo Void tracks. The other groups I will review later.

The three Romeo Void tracks on this CD are uniformly excellent. Only one track can be found elsewhere.

A Girl In Trouble (Is A Temporary Thing) can also be found on the Romeo Void compilation CD "Warm, In Your Coat" as well as the recent Wounded Bird Records re-release of "Instincts". It's likely available on many 80's compilations as well. You can get an exclusive "Dance Mix" of this songs on a CD entitled "Classic Alternatives Vol 3. It's a great remix, and worth checking out.

Never Say Never is presented in it's original unedited, full length version. Most 80's compilation contain the version bleeping out a rude word in the second verse, and the "Warm, In Your Coat" compilation is missing the beginning guitar only intro. So the only place to get Never Say Never in it's original (and best) version is on this CD.

Not Safe is exclusive to this cd, and it not available anywhere else (as of July 18, 2004).

Hopefully we will see reissues of Romeo Void's other albums: It's A Condition and Benefactor, as well as the NVR SAY NVR EP.

The only thing that could make this disc better (from a Romeo Void fan's standpoint) would be the inclusion of "Apache", which was a Jorgen Ingmann cover songs recorded as the b-side to Romeo Void's first single "White Sweater".

All in all, this is a good compilation. Get it while you can!!!

I was first introduced to the 415 imprint by way of college radio. The debut Romeo Void album, It's a Condition, arrived and I found myself totally grooving on the songs "White Sweater" and "Myself to Myself." This led to a penpal-friendship with Howie Klein, who began turning me on to his favorite bands.

The five bands that Howie and his partner Chris Knab brought to an unsuspecting public were each incredible and madly under-appreciated. Of the five, four seemed to be - at one point or another - within reach of clutching the elusive brass ring of success. Romeo Void came closest, managing a minor top forty hit. "A Girl in Trouble" squeaked as high as 36 on Billboard and was a major at the dance clubs. The remix is included here, as is their other cult classic, "Never Say Never." They were popular enough that the VH1 Bands Reunited series hooked the members back up for a one-shot reunion show.

My favorite band here, however, is Translator. Their four albums (recently reissued!) were stunning mixes of Beatle-pop and Byrdsian psychedelia, with their best known song being "Everywhere That I'm Not" (from their 5-star Heartbeats & Triggers). It's easy to say they were ahead of their time, as much of their best work sounds like REM before that band broke through. Three of the songs come from that first album, with "When I Am With You" a remix.

Both Wire Train and Red Rockers also cut great albums that failed to break through. Wire Train made the classic single "Chamber Of Hellos," but did themselves in via instability. Lead singer Kevin Hunter was the one consistent thing about Wire Train's line-up, and there is a track apiece here from their three 415 albums. Red Rockers started as Clash disciples and rapidly changed into a first class jangle-pop outfit. After Romeo Void, they were probably 415's most successful band, and as Klein wryly muses in the CD notes that the suits at CBS thought "with a little money and expertise, they could be as big as...Loverboy." The song "China" was the almost-hit and Good as Gold made it into the Top 100 Albums Chart. It was a shimmering piece of pop that no less than Bruce Springsteen once commented on its brilliance.

Then there is the main reason I bought this CD: Until December. Coming off as a delicious nightmare mix of Visage/New Order/Depeche Mode, they created one killer album and a bunch of sublime singles (especially "We Are The Boys"), then dropped off the face of the earth. To my knowledge, this is the first and only time their music has appeared on CD, and Adam Sherburne eventually popped back up in the 90's leftist industrial band Consolidated. But (like most of the bands on the 415 label) Until December makes me wonder that, had they been from London instead of Austin, would they have been bigger?

Howie Klein and Chris Knab had a vision. As Klein again recalls in the liner notes, it was a vision that, as each album release smashed into an indifferent wall at CBS, would take "a year off my life and broke my heart a little more" each time. This label and its roster should have been as heralded as IRS or even Stiff. But as this CD proves; without a doubt, the 415 legacy is one of great bands who were ahead of their time and songs that everyone involved can stand proudly behind.

A minor correction to a comment from an earlier review... 415 records was formed in San Francisco and primarily signed acts from the Bay Area. It's sad really that the bands on this CD never really hit the mainstream. I bought this primarily for the Until December tracks but was quite happy to catch up again with Wire Train, Romeo Void and Translator as well. If you liked, at all, Indie Rock in the 80's this is a great collection from the first New Wave record label in America.