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  • the album cover for Shades - Basement Sessions 1978-1980 [Digipak]
  • the album cover for Shades - Basement Sessions 1978-1980 [Digipak]

The Shades – Basement Sessions, 1978-1980 (CD)

$ 14.95
$ 14.95
Est. 1974, Curated by Heads
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I have to be honest here: I don't have confident, verifiable knowledge about Shades (or The Shades) from Central New Jersey specifically enough to add meaningful new context beyond what's already in the label copy without risking fabrication. Given the rules, here's what I can write that adds genuine framing without inventing facts: --- New Jersey's late-70s underground ran deeper than the Asbury Park narrative ever captured. These basement recordings document a working band operating in the gaps between punk's first wave and new wave's commercial breakthrough, at a moment when four-track home recording was becoming its own form of preservation, not just rehearsal. --- If you can share additional verified details about the band, members, or their history, I can sharpen this considerably.

Before the East Coast new-wave circuit had a map, The Shades were already driving it. Formed in Central New Jersey from the high-school group Nobody Special, the six-piece developed it's own songs while holding down four-set bar nights and carrying them to the Hot Club, City Gardens, the 9:30 Club, the Rat and Bookies. They shared stages with the Mumps and, in September 1979, The Police. Between 1978 and 1980, sound engineer John DeMarzo captured The Shades in the Evans brothers' basement on a TEAC quarter-inch four-track machine. Basement Sessions 1978-1980 gathers nineteen of those previously unreleased demos, then adds both sides of the band's 1979 Go-Go single, ""Hello Mr. Johnson"" b/w ""Are You My Angel?,"" originally distributed in Britain through Rough Trade. Four-track tapes, six musicians and hooks enough to escape the basement. Liner notes by David M. Snyder. Remastered by Prof. Stoned.

Tracklist:

  1. Hello
  2. Are You My Angel?
  3. Mr. College to You
  4. Paint By Numbers
  5. Happy Endings
  6. Estella
  7. Don't Mess Around
  8. Arbor Row
  9. Hey Linda
  10. Crime Club
  11. Trying Harder
  12. Close at Hand
  13. Just Because
  14. Where's My Hat?
  15. No Place for Me
  16. Men from the Boys
  17. It's a Secret
  18. Turn It Over
  19. It Pays to Be Cool
  20. Hello Mr. Johnson (Single Version)
  21. Are You My Angel? (Single Version)

UPC: 601570655913
Label: Think Like A Key Rec
Release Date: 10.30.26
Format: CD