Old Enough to Forget

Fingerprintz was released in 1979, and it was mining the raw energy of punk but was infused with the emerging new wave elements and a ska beat. The album was released everywhere except North America as The Very Dab . Back in '79 I'd have had no idea what that meant, and I guess the folks at Virgin / PolyGram didn't either, so they just blacked it out and voila, a self-titled record. Although I suspect the version we got in Canada wasn't the same. For those who don't know, like me, The Very Dab , according to Google, is a traditional Scots dialect phrase meaning "the exact thing required" or "absolutely perfect." I picked this up because of Jimme O'Neill and Cha Burns, who I knew from The Silencers. Cha Burns is one of the greatest guitar players you've likely never heard of. There was something about how he played and the way he added texture and feel to the songs he played on. It's hard to describe. It's sort of like trying to de...

The Silencers. The band that should have been. It's not like they were all over the radio, although I think I've retrofitted a memory of hearing "Painted Moon" on the radio - but I'm pretty sure it was just on a mix tape. It was the cover I found enticing. A simple white jacket with wee little black and white cut outs of the band on the bottom right corner. It looked intriguing, and it was also in a discount bin. Ah, the liquidation bin ... there was a warehouse that specialized in selling off store inventory from failed businesses and one day a couple of very large tables appeared that were full of CDs ... new CDs and they were cheap. Which was good because back in '87 my purchasing habit was insatiable, which was fun for the ears and hard on the wallet. I can't remember how many discs I got from those disorganized tables, but it was a lot ... the only one I truly remember getting is A Letter From St. Paul . Partly because of "Painted Moon" and ...