Excellent albums worth of material culled from four demo tapes recorded between1989 and1991.Defcon were a band from Chicago whos material varied between bouncy melodic aor and driving, edgy melodic rock in the same vein as bands like Heavens Edge, King Kobra and Signal. Personally I think Defcon were at their best when they were "wimping" it out, but all the tracks on show here are worth the price. Recommended!
Band Members :
Mark Matthews - Bass, Lead Vocals Tony Artino - Guitars Nick Lepar - Drums Shawn Zavodney - Keyboards, Vocals
1.How Close 2.Rock Me 3.My Time To Fly 4.Cold Hearted 5.Time Waits 6.Into The Night 7.Don't Stop The Lovin 8.Never Too Far Away 9.All Night Long 10.All Your Love 11.Hard Loud & Heavy 12.One Last Time
Robert escribió:Ostias, ¿a nadie le mola tanto como a un servidor este temazo?
Pues a mí sí!!
Into the Night fue la tercera demo, en 1990. Mejor que Phase I y Phase II de años anteriores. Grupo de culto en el "tape trading" de aquella época. Si ya las producciones eran malas, imaginaros la calidad de lo que escuchabas cuando lo que te llegaba era la TDK con la copia de la copia de la copia.... de la original. Así que había que intentar conseguir originales o segundas/terceras generaciones de la cinta.
Hace algún tiempo Retrospect publicó la recopilación de las 3 demos de Defcon.
Otro grupo de culto en el trapicheo de cassettes era "In the Pink", que después aparecerían como Sunshine Jive. A mí personalmente me gustaban mucho más las primeras versiones de In the Pink.
Retrospect sacaron su mejor edicion con esta banda, vaya libretazo. El disco hace años me parecio regular, y hace poco lo recupere pero recuerdo que los primeros temas no eran mu buenos, ya lo volvere a pinchar.
Otro grupo de culto en el trapicheo de cassettes era "In the Pink", que después aparecerían como Sunshine Jive. A mí personalmente me gustaban mucho más las primeras versiones de In the Pink.
SUNSHINE JIVE is another band resurrected by an european label at the end of the nineties. Born in Chicago, formerly known as IN THE PINK, the group recorded 2 professional pre-production demos in '89 and '91 released locally. Judging the quality of this material the big question is: how the fr*ll they didn't get signed back in the '80s? Luckily, all these tracks plus some never published found their way onto CD in 1998. Self produced, with some songs engineered & mixed by Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), this is top class stadium melodic rock / AOR with a bit of hard funk. Deep harmonies and catchy hooks, that's it.
The Journey-esque opener "Fools Parade" has a muscular driving bass line and pounding drums, while the guitars / keys are strong. Singer Tommy Dempsey (very good pipes) sounds a lot like Steve Perry. Title track "Sunshine Jive" rocks with its melodic rock / funk mix. Here the band reminds me Dan Reed Network. Very consistent tune. "You Got What You Wanted" is the closest track to Extreme here (probably the Nuno connection?) although this one isn't mixed by him. Get back to the Journey style with "Lost In Love". Beautiful midtempo with huge backing vocals and Dempsey in Perry's shoes again. Love this one.
I understand why "Under Summer Skies" was a big radio hit in the Boston area back in the day. This is a wonderful late '80s AOR power ballad including all the ingredients to be a monster chart cracker. A self reflecting song with a great chorus and piano/keyboards. Other highlights are the very catchy and (again) Journey influenced "When You Love Someone", the rockin' funkiness of "Stop This Crazy Ride", the aorish and gentle "Reason For Me" and the powerful, piano based ballad "Something More" (great one). The asian bonus is a straight melodic rocker driven by an impressive riff and a very good solo.
"Sunshine Jive" gets you back to the golden era when the melody was the rule. What all the tracks have in common is the quality, there's a couple of fillers (or perhaps in a style that doesn't match the album), but most of the songs are great, catchy and entertaining. This Asian press it's really hard to find. Recommended.
01 - Fools Parade 02 - Sunshine Jive 03 - You Got What You Wanted 04 - Lost In Love 05 - Under Summer Skies 06 - Love Reaction 07 - Sunday Rain 08 - When You Love Someone 09 - Sha Na La La 10 - Stop This Crazy Ride 11 - Reason For Me 12 - Trapped 13 - Something More 14 - Bad Blood [bonus track]
Tommy Dempsey : Vocals Robby Hoffman : Guitars Eric Bosniak : Bass, backing vocals Steve Ferlazzo : Keyboards, backing vocals Frank Lombardi : Drums Brian Tichy (Ace Frehley, Foreigner) : Add. Drums Tracks 1, 4, 8 Mixed by Nuno Bettencourt
