Heyday (1979-83)

Embarrassment | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 17, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bar/None Records
• ASIN: B0000048EC
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,392 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Proto-Alternative Retrospective, May 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Heyday (1979-83) (Audio CD)

One of the greatest bands you've never heard of... this 4-piece from the Kansas plains crafted some of the catchiest, oddest, most compelling garage pop of the early 80s. This 2-disc compendium collects all of their powerful studio work (disc 1), including all the songs from their shaggy masterpiece, THE EMBARRASSMENT LP (in 1992 I paid 25 cents for the vinyl in a remainder bin in Salt Lake City... but absolutely one of the best purchases I ever made). Tracks like "Age 5," "Celebrity Art Party," and "Woods of Love" will worm their way into your ears and stay there. Disc 2 collects various live tracks and studio sessions, including a wicked cover of "The Immigrant Song" and one of the Embarrassment's best songs, "She's One of the Other Kind." Most of these songs were recorded by the band in low-budget studios; the production values are correspondingly lo-fi. But there is an irresistable energy and catchiness to their efforts. If you'll permit the cliche, they were genuinely proto-alternative & in that sense were ahead of their time. The music is rough around the edges but the center is always creamy & smooth. Do they sound like they're from Kansas? More like they invented their own Kansas. Visit them there.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Own this record to wallow in it's deranged splendor!, March 8, 2002

By 

Ratbox Ricky (GEORGETOWN, MA. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heyday (1979-83) (Audio CD)

The Embos somehow refracted music through what seems like every worthwhile value to have affected pop in the last 5 decades: Beefheart, Al Green, Johnny Thunders, Esquovil and the whole rest of the shootin' match. No less,they swapped it around and twisted it all and sundered it and made it come out to an even greater whole than the sum of it's parts. Bill Gofrier's guitar is a thing of sputtering, stutter-stepping, mad genius. This music will inhabit you like a wonderful allergic reaction.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Band with the extra special eyes, August 4, 2005

By 

William Morris (Lincoln, Nebraska United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heyday (1979-83) (Audio CD)

What can I say? This is one of the albums I could never part with. One of the great yet little known bands in America. Saw these guys way to few times. A band I was in opened for them a couple times and their liveshows were totally cool. Beat Pop at it's finest! Buy this for yourself, buy some more for your friends!! Brightest colors of the week!!