Oh Hillary, tonight we rock for thee...
Hillary- The Quick Mondo Deco
Crash- The Primitives Lovely
Tie Me Up- Johnny Thunders & Patti Palladin Crawfish 7"
What Can I Do- Fast Cars Coming, Ready or Not!
Zero Ambition- Back Seat Romeos Zero Ambition 7"
All That Matters- Pointed Sticks Part Of The Noise
Just A Chance- Badfinger Wish You Were Here
Monkey Suit- Pernice Brothers Overcome by Happiness
^Is She Really Going Out with Him?- Joe Jackson Look Smart
Baby You're A Star- Gidgets Ga Ga PPO 2009 Top Ten
Suspicious Minds- The Sports Don't Throw Stones
Schooldays- The Starjets God Bless Starjets
Stay Close To Me- Bad Brains Pay To Cum 7"
Comeback- The Rockers The Rockers E.P. 7"
*No Place Like Home- The Neighborhoods 12 Classic 45s
*1+1<2- Classic Ruins 12 Classic 45s
*I Want To Help You Ann- The Lyres 12 Classic 45s
*Academy Fight Song- Mission Of Burma 12 Classic 45s
One For The Road- Travoltas Endless Summer
New Difference- Manual Scan Plan Of Action EP
Searching For Affection- Contraband In The Night 45
Wig In A Box- Hedwig And The Angry Inch Soundtrack
You Say You- The Pencils Watching The Tears 7"
Is It Over- The Fevers Love Always Wins
>Shape Of Things To Come- Max Frost & The Troopers Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era
Paper Girl- The Jets Lover Boy 45
Telephone- Transistors Telephone 7"
Lost in the Supermarket- The Clash London Calling: 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition
Bad Indication- Off Broadway On
Don't Dictate- Penetration DIY Don't Dictate
One Of The Kids- Paul Warren & Explorer One Of The Kids
^Power Pop Peak: #21 Billboard Hot 100 6/9/79
*SacroSet: Ace of Hearts Records
>Power Pop Prototype: 1968
Alright! We went two weeks without a major figure in Power Pop shuffling off this mortal coil! I have to say, it was great to get back to straight up rocking this week. The Quick's "Hillary"gets us off to a fine start and Joe Jackson provides another Power Pop Peak from the genre's 1979 heyday. As the blog post from Show #28 proves, the Davis In The 80's SacroSet got me thinking about late 70's/early 80's music scenes across the country, especially the one in my hometown, Boston, Massachusetts. 
After The Real Kid's first album (which of course includes the opus "All Kindsa Girls"), my favorite early Boston rock records were the singles on Ace of Hearts. Classic Ruins' "1+1<2," The Neighborhoods "Prettiest Girl," Mission of Burma's "Academy Fight Song-" these are amazing records that I would put up against the releases of any label anywhere in the world. The songs, the production, the artwork, the 
packaging- Ace of Hearts singles were second to none. I'm not alone in this assessment; The Neighborhoods single sold 10,000 copies and the Burma record sold out its first pressing of 7500- these are amazing numbers for 7 inches on a regional independent label.
Ace of Hearts owner Rick Harte is an eccentric dude but he knew enough to go out and find which bands were driving them wild in the clubs and he had the money to do something about it. You'd hear stories about his Phil Spectoresque tendencies in the studio (minus the firearms of course) like a 28 hour mix down session on "Max Ernst," the flipside of the first Burma single, that wasn't even the one they eventually used. 
I met Rick Harte in the mid-80's when I interviewed him for acollege project. He gave very cryptic answers to all of my questions and only loosened up when he could see I was a huge fan of the label. Then I blew it by asking him about having The Lyres (who he was managing at the time) play on my radio show, WERS' Boston rock showcase Metrowave. Apparently the band's last performance on the station was bootlegged in the Netherlands or Sweden and he was still pissed off about it. Anyway, before I left he gave me the rare color sleeve of Mission of Burma's "Trem Two" single and an uncut "Academy Fight Song" sleeve that still had all the registration marks which was VERY cool. (Adding insult to injury when they bootlegged the Lyres show, they put a picture of the stolen WERS radio tape on the back cover!)
The early Ace of Hearts singles are compiled on the 12 Classic 45's CD pictured at the top of this post. In my opinion, it's
really only nine classic 45's as I don't care for most of the non-reissue releases on the label after the mid 80's. I'm not sure what happened, but it seems like Harte kind of lost it around that time. Still, from 1978 to 1985 the dude was a bona fide genius and he helped document an important musical era for which I'm deeply thankful.
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| Rick Harte |
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