Customer Reviews

In Combo

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In Combo was released in Minneapolis/St. Paul in 1980 and, more or less, no where else - which was too bad. To the uninitiated, the album's get-up-and-dance, in your face, first track "Hobnobbin" is the listener's first clue to what is in store. Combo is that rare album where each song is a true gem. Many of the band's crowd favorites are included : Goggles On, Big Steer Blues, Baby Heartbeat, Cig Machine, Chemistry Set, and everyone's favorite, Cows ('cause they go - moo!). Having seen the band countless times belting out the hits during their primeval best (Jay's Longhorn, Diamond Jim's, the notorious concert at Mac Cafferty's (where they ran out of libation), Grand Old Days and other venues) this collection ranks as one of my most sought after recordings from the overlooked and greatly underestimated Minneapolis Scene of the late 70s and early 80s. With the exception of London and (possibly) New York, the Twin Cities were THE place to be, and the world's best artists knew it too. Prior to this recording the Suburbs released two EPs. The first, released in 1978 contained : Your Phone, Couldn't Care Less Anymore, You, Prehistoric Jaws, Memory, Go, Stereo, Teenage Run-in, and the first recording of Chemistry Set (included In Combo). The second was a 45 rpm that featured World War III and Change Agent. Many fans would love to return to those raw, early "Punk/New Wave" years and listen to these classics on CD if they were available. What do you think Beej?

Prince wasn't the ONLY thing to come out of the Twin Cities during the 80's! There were The Suburbs!!!

If you've never heard The Suburbs, I feel sad for you. They play outrageous rock and roll. I can only imagine what they must have been like in the 80's, tearing up Minneapolis bars and night clubs. (I would've been a fetus back then) They burst with energy throughout. Plus, every single song on this disk is catchy, witty and highly entertaining.

I was introduced to the Suburbs last year by my high school band teacher. He played the CD for me after school one day, and I was hooked right away. Screeching guitars, old skool 80's synthpads, volatile drumming, dead pan humor... All the songs are excellent, but the stand out tracks are "Hobnobbin," "Tiny People," "Eyesight," "Cig Machine" and of course, the insanely hilarious "Cows." (They got the skinny feet.)

Definately a must buy! If you dig great rock and roll musicianship with witty lyrics, then you should become a slave to this band. The Suburbs are one of many great bands in the Twin Cities scene you should check out, too, both past and present. ;)

A Suburbs reissue in every garage!
by Peter S. Scholtes writer with the City P
August 7, 2002

The Suburbs
In Combo
Beejtar/Universal

The Suburbs were Nicolas Cage punks: debonair, blasé, volatile. They were New Romantic, sure, like an unexpected and inappropriate proposal of marriage--an hour into a first date, say, with the Champagne flowing in toast to everyone and everything in the steakhouse. Banned from the Longhorn (Minneapolis's CBGB), and forced to graze in the regional rock circuit of the late Seventies and early Eighties, they sounded happy to be a band, happy to observe the indignation or delirium they provoked in their audience. This was how New Wave was meant to Ferry its way through the slam-dancers, cigarette dangling on pursed lips, lit ashes on skin, suit gathering moisture.
Even those who never saw the Suburbs in the Eighties can glean all this from their full-length recordings, the first three of which have been reissued by Universal Records. Fans will doubtless swoop in hungrily on the hard-to-find sophomore double-disc, Credit in Heaven, which documents the quintet's growth into a white, grumbling Time. Others will recall Love Is the Law, the band's best-ever bid to stop the world and meld with you, O fan of smart songs and smarter hair. (It presaged Ike Reilly's "Commie Drives a Nova" with "Perfect Communist," which featured the punch line, "I'd love to share.")
For Hives enthusiasts, however, the real event is the reissue of In Combo, the criminally forgotten arty-party debut that not only echoes the new haircut bands, but tears them limb from limb and beats them with their own appendages. It might be the funniest record to be shelved among Minnesota classics--think Let It Be if Westerberg had written all his lyrics for Tommy Stinson... Irony would describe the attitude only if the Suburbs' admiration for the extremities of cattle (to take the example of "Cows") had been feigned. But keyboardist Chan Poling could find no more fitting a thing to toast than the supremely indifferent creatures dotting the prairies between Grand Forks and Milwaukee.
Singer-guitarist Beej Chaney was the jaded center of the band, too cool for old school but eager to swallow R&B and funk with roughage of guitar riffage. He made music for those fidgety rock guys stuck in the disco, and in the process reconciled the Rolling Stones' Some Girls with the ...needs of the speedy freaks around him. (This music struts for its life.) Chaney himself sounds like he's going to explode with "Goggles On," the most sensational, inspirational, Muppetational tribute ever penned to tripping out while annoying everyone around you. ("I see in color/Not black and white!") That squeaky-high voice might be a rabid Chipmunk squashed under the weight of a giant cowboy boot. Hey, I'll sweat to that oldie.

We never missed a show when the Suburbs came into Madison Wi. Whatever gin mill or punk club they came to. We would always be on the left side of the stage. They knew us well. We would leave our empty bottles on the stage, Merlyns didn't sell bottled beer. They would give us a good talking to during sets. But we were never asked to leave even though we would tear up the place. They remembered us every time they came to town. Each and every show was a complete riot. The best was one night Beej had loaded up his hair with baby powder or something like that, and powder was flying everytime he would start jumping around. Maybe you had to be there, but it was awesome. Being that we were all from a farmimg town, we all loved Cows (the tune). Check out their music it is the best in the loud party situations.

I couldn't even begin to count how many times I saw these guys live in Madison, Wi.I even went to see Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Merlyn's because they were backing her...and this LP was the soundtrack of those fun, crazy days. Every song is a punk/new wave gem.