Search - Wednesday Week :: What We Had

Sweetness on the Edge

Joe Beine | Denver, CO United States | 01/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wednesday Week's 1987 debut album, "What We Had," has been reissued with 10 bonus tracks. Included is their 1983 EP, "Betsy's House," making its CD debut. "Betsy's House," released when Wednesday Week was an all female trio, is the first thing I heard by them. It sounds wonderfully naive now, but back then I felt the EP showed a band with great potential. In 1985 I visited Los Angeles, the band's home, and saw them perform live in Reseda. By then guitarist David Nolte had joined the band and they had left "Betsy's House" far behind. More guitars, better singing, better songs. Potential realized. After landing a recording contract with Enigma records, they headed off to Charlotte, North Carolina to record "What We Had" with Don Dixon producing. He got the band's sound just right, all soaring guitars and heartfelt vocals. "Sweetness on the edge," I called it then.



Most of the songs were written by the Callan sisters (singer/guitarist Kristi and drummer Kelly) with occasional collaborators. My favorites have always been the yearning "I Wonder What You Hear" and the wondering "I Thought," which has a beautiful vocal section toward the end that is nearly transcendent. I've also always liked "All That Again," which is a crazed stomping thrashing thing that questions the pain of dealing with relationships ("do I really want to go through all that again?"). Bassist Heidi Rodewald's songs are also strong, particularly "Missionary" and "Why," which Don Dixon himself covered.



"What We Had" has been out of print for far too long and it has aged well -- Don Dixon take a bow. Now's your chance to discover it anew more than 20 years later. It's probably the coolest eighties album you've never heard."

Underknown Paisley Underground-era indie-rock

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 03/15/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Los Angeles-bred Wednesday Week debuted alongside the Paisley Underground on the early '80s compilations "The Radio Tokyo Tapes" and "Warf Rat Tales," but their sound had more to do with minimalist pop (ala Oh-Ok) and new wave indie rock (ala The Neats) than the flowering, droning and buzzing neo-psych. What linked them to their SoCal contemporaries was a DIY garage sensibility which flowered in an initial batch of songs that were written and sung with the emphatic, confessional tone of diary entries.



This CD reissue augments the group's 1987 full-length LP for Enigma ("What We Had") with their earlier 1983 EP for Warf Rat ("Betsy's House"), and five selections from both before and after the album. Programmed in chronological order (14-18, 21, 20, 22, 1-13, 23), you can hear the band evolve from DIY roots ("I Hate Lying to Mom") to frenetic, angular post-punk ("I Don't Know") to Byrdsian/REM-styled chime ("Christmas Here" and "You Wanted Me To Hang Around"), to rock ("The Leopard") electric-folk ("Also Clear"), and finally to the heavier, big-drum sound of the LP.



Produced by Don Dixon (REM, Chris Stamey, Windbreakers), the album tracks are thicker, more polished and ultimately more generic than the earlier and later sides produced by Vitus Matare, Ethan James and Earle Mankey. Several album tracks sound quite like Holly & The Italians or Bonnie Hayes & The Wild Combo, particularly in the vocals. But even as the group moved away from the sparseness of their first EP, Kristi and Kelly Callan's lyrics retained the intimate personality lost in major label contracts (and subsequent video shoots) by contemporaries like The Bangles.



Kristi Callan's chameleon vocals can really be heard on two of the bonus tracks. 1983's terrific version of Gary Valentine's "You Wanted Me To Hang Around" (from the "Girls Can't Help It" compilation) sounds remarkably like early Olivia Newton-John, and 1990's "No Going Back" channels Susan Jacks of the Poppy Family. Though this CD isn't a complete band discography (there are numerous EP and compilation album tracks missing), this is a superb overview of Wednesday Week's core catalog, and a welcome reintroduction to one of the lesser known indie bands of mid-80s L.A. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]"

What a rare gem**Wednesday Week's 1987 debut album**

Michael A. Walsh | 09/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard songs off this record when watching classic slasher film (Slumber Party Massacre 2) and i was hooked.The Callan sisters are sexy and talented Musicians,This album was out of print for many years and finally has been released.Bottom line here is the tunes are awesome and if you like 80's rock this belongs in your collection.



Personal favorites.



Why

If only

I Wonder What You Hear

Feel So Small

Sometimes

\M/"