In doing some background research for an article that'll probably never end up getting written, I came across a tape of the Urbations, an early '80s white boy soul band from around here. I know that at least some of them have gone on to be Big Dave and The Ultrasonics, then The Shanks, now The Boomerangs, but listening to their album (one of the only references I can find about it has Dean Bob Xgau giving it a B, but saying that it never rises to the necessary), I was struck by how much they presaged a lot of what got the resurgence in Detroit in the last five years— they're a bit of a missing link between The Animal House soundtrack and recent retroists like The Sights (only with a horn section).
Further, and this is again one of those longshots, my copy of their Urban Dance Party is a victim of evil tape warp, and I'm looking for a decent copy of Goin' To Alpena, Cement Capitol of the World and Beam Me Up (including the fantastic sax intro: "How do you play it left-handed?" "Oh, I just use a mirror.")
I saw a CD-R reissue a couple years back, but it seems to have been a) unofficial, and b) totally gone now.
So, since we seem to be out of the "Where's the love for Chuck Eddy's promo pile" threads, I thought I'd see if anyone here remembers these guys aside from me...
― js (honestengine), Friday, 30 December 2005 02:27 (twenty years ago)
yeah, me. But that shouldn't surprise you. Have you checked with Marc (with a "c")? They used to carry all the Urbations and descendents. And mom's buddy Joe is still in touch (I think) with the keyboard player from the Urbs who moved to Switzerland. They went to OSU together.
― j j steichmann (jaysteich), Monday, 2 January 2006 21:21 (twenty years ago)
I accidentally came upon this while looking for stuff on the Urbs on the Internet...
My father (reference in jj's post) was the keyboardist/vocalist--though, on that tape Dan Mulholland is doing the majority of the singing. I have MP3s of two songs from that tape ("I Am a Lonesome Fugitive" and "Wasting My Weekend"). My dad has a couple CDs of Urbs stuff that he's selling now, one of them live at CBGB's (which is pretty impressive as it's just a live recording with no overdubs) and one of the majority of the Urb's studio material.
I also created a myspace account for him at:
http://www.myspace.com/andyboller
― Zac Boller, Sunday, 8 January 2006 13:26 (twenty years ago)
Also, check this guy's site. Looks like he has MP3s of that entire album (search for 'Urbations' on the page):
http://jim.rees.org/culture/mp3-list.html
― Zac Boller, Sunday, 8 January 2006 13:42 (twenty years ago)
Big Dave! Saw them quite a few times back in my college days. (Sorry, can't help you with the Urbations album.)
― Jeff Sumner (Jeff Sumner), Sunday, 8 January 2006 17:52 (twenty years ago)