A's for Effort
Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 06/24/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Wow. One of my longtime wishlist bands finally, finally gets a CD. The A's recorded two albums for Arista in the early 80's before they imploded in a mess of mismanagement and personal disputes. But that hardly matters when you hear the many uber-cool new-wave raves that lay upon this 2-fer-one CD. In fact, the only thing missing would have been the band's swan-song "Four Dances" EP.
However, all is forgiven just due to the fact that I can pop this puppy into my CD player and feel the electricity from the debut's lead track "After Last Night." Pure 80's skinny-tie new wave, nervous jittery vocals and snotty attitude, yet danceable as heck. The rest of the album followed suit, with wicked hooks and a delicious sense of humor, as witnessed by the extrapolation of "Grounded/Twist and Shout." Singer Richard Bush sounded like an every-punk with adolescent wisdom paired with musical smarts, backed up by Rocco Notte on keyboards and Rick DiFonzo on guitar, with a solid beat supplied by Terry Bortman on bass and Michael Snyder on drums. Unless you were Eastern PA (or maybe the Jersey Shore), it's likely you didn't hear any of these.
Arista Records smelled success and smoothed the band out a bit for the second album, "A Woman's Got The Power." It was easily as energetic as the debut while more sophisticated, and was partially produced by Nick Garvey of The Motors while Rick Chertoff did the rest. (Chertoff eventually became the producer of such stars as Cyndi Lauper.) The title track even managed a good bit of airplay, enough so to be on a few 80's compilation albums. Arista honcho Clive Davis even spoon-fed The A's a "hit" that the band allegedly hated ("When The Rebel Comes Home"). You could hear the band stretch out on "Heart Of America" - ya gotta dig that banjo! - that made me think of The Plimsouls. This was great stuff, but the world wasn't digging it.
Doesn't mean you can't catch up. The A's were one of the first New Wave bands to break out of Philadelphia, along with others that tried but failed (The Cats, Quincy, The Reds) and those that made it (The Hooters, the late Robert Hazard). We have waited long enough, so get this now."
Long Time Fan Review
A. Warner | 05/30/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As a band in the 80s, the A's were unique in many ways with a pure Philly sound and thier own songs and sound. Having been college age and growing up in a Philadelphia suburb, it was a great time for great local bands. Bands like the A's, Robert Hazard and the Heroes, Quincy, and The Hooters, were what we listened to live, on the radio, and bought all the albums for. If you are new to A's music, listen to the clips from these two albums and try to imagine yourself in a small club on South Street with way too many other people in the room. You'll want to hear it all. The earlier album is more basic than Woman's got the power, but still great fun. Actually, that's what A's music is - Fun! I own all of the LPs and bought this CD so that my scratchy recordings can get a big upgrade. Now all we need is for "Four Dances" (The A's independant EP) to get released!"
Long forgotten gems!
T. Shannon | 06/05/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you were into the Philly live band scene in the early 80's then you already know about the A's. In my case, though, I had totally forgotten about them until listening to The Hooters recently got me thinking about all the great local bands back then. My A's search turned up this newly release CD which I immediately pre-ordered and am now thrilled to have in my CD colletion. All the great memories came flooding back and the songs, to me, are even better than I remembered. Even if you're not familar with the A's, it's definitely worth checking out!"
Track Listings (21) - Disc #1