Let's Active

A couple weeks ago, I went to the cool record store down the street from my house, and started thumbing through the discount bins. I came across the first Let's Active EP, Afoot, in the 25 cent bin. I vaguely remembered this being a hard to find item, possibly semi-collectible back in the day, so I figured, what the hell, picked it up. Right behind it was their second LP, Big Plans for Everybody, which I'm more familiar with, and even though I'm not a huge fan, it did have a few nostalgic associations (as my friends were pretty into it when it came out, and I saw them open for REM around that time), and again, 25 cents, so I grabbed that too. Let's Active was fronted by Mitch Easter, who produced the first few REM records, and, at least on the first EP, he had a couple female musicians backing him up (all three were afflicted with tragic 80's hair, as the back cover reveals). I also picked up the first album by the DC hardcore band Government Issue, just because I thought I ought to support the record store by buying something for more than a quarter (listened to it at home, not that into it). Anyway...

The Let's Active EP is a very nice bit of mid-80's college radio jangle pop. The opener, "Every Word Means No," is pretty great, but I really like this last song, "Leader of Men."



I love how the guitar (or maybe it's a keyboard) imitates the sound of James Brown horn stabs, and the song actually has the same basic rhythm as the Stooges' "Funhouse." I also spun the other record, and it's enjoyable, but didn't really seem worth digitizing.