Half studio recordings and with side B taken from a live set at City Winery, this finds ’80s Hoboken contemporaries and longtime friends Richard Barone (best known for The Bongos, but part of many other ventures as well) and Glenn Mercer (best known as guitarist and vocalist of The Feelies) covering ’70s glam-rock songs that shaped their youth and part of the foundation of their musical education before starting bands of their own.
That Barone is doing this shouldn’t be a surprise to fans who have been paying attention. Not only did The Bongos cover T Rex‘s “Mambo Sun” on their debut LP Drums Along the Hudson, but Barone also wrote extensively about his love for T Rex and Marc Bolan (as well as some of their contemporaries) in his wonderful 2007 autobiography Frontman and has covered David Bowie‘s “The Man Who Sold the World” on his 1987 solo album Cool Blue Halo, just a few years before Nirvana‘s quite similar and much more well-known cover of the same song shoved its way into public consciousness via their MTV Unplugged set.
Named for a line in Bowie’s “Starman,” this collection covers classics by not only the aforementioned T Rex and Bowie, but also Iggy Pop (a raucous “Funtime” and a subdued “Raw Power”), Lou Reed (“Vicious”), Brian Eno (“Needle in the Camel’s Eye” and “Baby’s on Fire”), and Roxy Music (“Editions of You,” incidentally my favorite song of theirs). The vibe on both sides is light-hearted, casual, and FUN with a capital ‘F,’ as expected with world-class musicians playing some of their favorite songs. For instance, on the side A opener (Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs”), they even quote the infamous intro (if you know, you know).
Interesting, this physical edition, the only physical release of this album, is limited to 250 copies, is also on the venerable New Hampshire-based Pine Hill Records, mostly known for releasing punk rock and reissuing classic NYHC 7“s (like Antidote‘s Thou Shall Not Kill) on cassette but with a diverse roster that includes post-punk, jazz, and even new age/ambient as well. It continues label founder Tino Valpa‘s desire to document lesser-known recordings from this specific robust and diverse musical New Jersey family tree, given that he has also reissued Feelies offshoot Wild Carnation‘s second (and to date, most recent) album Superbus on vinyl for the first time a few years ago. Get it while you can!
