The Great Leap Forward

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 9: "Walk away Renee"

O Positive covers The Left Banke.

O Positive - Walk Away Renee.mp3

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 8: "Tied"

8 down, 3 to go.

O Positive -  Tied

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 7: "Weight of days"

O Positive - Weight Of Days

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 6: "Not enough"

O Positive - Not Enough

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 5: "Watch out, this sled's made for a maniac".

O Positive - Watch Out, This Sled's Made For A Maniac

20 years ago today #18 - 17 Jan 1986

The Rat, Boston - XYZ Affair, Pajama Slave Dancers, Lou Miami and the Kozmetix

I've fallen a bit behind.

By now, I was on a roll with show attendance. In 1986 alone, I saw 127 bands. Here are three of them.

Lou Miami was discussed here. If I'm not mistaken, this was the second and last time I saw Lou and the band.

XYZ Affair were like a bad Mr. Mister. Very wimpy and poppy and commercial. Totally wrong for the grungy ol' Rat. One thing I do remember - one of the band members' dads videotaping the performance. I'm sure it'll be on bootleg DVD real soon. Named after a long-gone scandal.

Speaking of long gone, here are the Pajama Slave Dancers: Daxe Rexford, Dave Montovani, Dirk Futon, Scotty Blood and Steve Westfield.

(The image was "borrowed" from Daxe Rexford's site. He left the band in 1988.)

The PSDs were a "punk" band from western Massachusetts. Actually, they were a bunch of rural kids playing at being punks. But god, they were hilarious and they made a couple of OK albums on the way. The first I read of PSD was in Spin, probably from a Byron Coley column. Not too long after, I found a copy of their first LP, Cheap is real, which featured "Defreeze Walt Disney" and "Farm rap" among others. This store is selling a copy for $75.

Carla and I went to see this show. I was hooked after they opened with "No dick":

Well I'm in love
With the girl next door
Yeah I'm in love
Even though she's a whore
Now I've got problems
That I can't lick
Girls don't like me
'Cause I got no dick

No dick (no dick)
No dick (no dick)
No dick (no dick)
No diiiiiiiiiiiick

Thank you, PSDs, wherever you are. (Probably at a bar in Western Mass.)

Not too much of their work remains available. Here's what GEMM has.

More on the PSDs in future posts. I saw them at least 11 times during my time in Boston. Sounds like a lot, but it's only twice a year.

What PSD were up to in the year 2000.

A review of a demo by PSD follow-up Chupacabra, Jr. (2001)

Another bio here, including Steve Westfield's post-PSD work. It looks like he retired from the biz mid-2005.

So far:
Number of shows seen, January 1986: 5
Number of bands seen, January 1986: 13
Number of shows seen, 1985: 13
Number of bands seen, 1985: 32
Total number of shows: 18
Total number of bands seen: 45

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 4: "In the light"

O Positive - In the light

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 3: "Talk about love"

O Positive - Talk about love

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 2: "Say goodbye"

Continuing the posting of O Positive's long-gone CD, here is

"Say goodbye".

O Positive - Only breathing/Cloud factory - track 1: "With you"

In light of the fact that I just recently talked about this band and this CD has been out of print for years and is selling for ungodly amounts of money and I just found my copy in a bin of my old CDs, here is O Positive's Only breathing/Cloud factory CD - one track at a time:

O Positive - 01. With you

Stop back in the near future for more.

Should you happen to be the artist involved and you would like me to cease and desist, please send an e-mail and I will take anyand all files concerned down.