THE STEMS - TERMINAL COOL: ANTHOLOGY 83-86 AUSTRALIAN GARAGE POWER POP SEALED CD

Description

THE STEMS – Terminal Cool: Anthology 83-86. Get Hip GH 1130 CD. FACTORY SEALED NEW CD. Issued in 2005. 21-tracks. From Perth, in Western Australia led by Dom Mariani. Power pop rock with a punk garage edge. MEMBERS: Dom Mariani, Richard Lane, Julian Matthews, and Gary Chambers (later replaced by David Huck Shaw after the release of the Love Will Grow EP). TRACKS: 01) She’s A Monster 02) Make You Mine 03) Tears Me In Two 04) No Heart 05) Can’t Resist 06) Love Will Grow 07) Under Your Mushroom 08) Just Ain’t Enough 09) Jumping To Conclusions 10) On & On 11) For Always (previously unreleased) 12) Terminal Cool (previously unreleased demo) 13) Don’t Let Me 14) All You Want Me For 15) Mr. Misery (demo version) 16) Sad Girl (previously unreleased demo) 17) She’s Fine 18) Can’t Forget That Girl 19) Lon Chaney Junior’s Daughter 20) Spaceship (previously unreleased demo) 21) Let Your Head Rest (previously unavailable on CD) DESCRIPTION: The following comes from the PopMatters website as written by Stephen Haag (published in April of 2006) with some editing by me, and I could have minced adjectives, but he says what I feel about their body of work and does a good job of it. You owe it to yourself to check out this outstanding band: “Anyone wise enough to have gotten his or her hands on last year’s Children of Nuggets box know what a useful jumping-off point for exploring the second garage scene (1976-1995) that set is. Australia’s The Stems have two songs featured in that box— She’s Fine and Love Will Grow —and both are pop gems that demanded further investigation of the Stems’ back catalog by discerning garage fans. Enter Get Hip Records, which is more often than not, uh, hip to the needs of those fans, with a burgeoning roster of quality acts and now, with the Stems’ Terminal Cool: Anthology 1983-1986 , Get Hip trolls the archives, sharing great, long-forgotten music that stands the test of time. Admittedly, the Stems—singer/guitarist Dom Mariani, singer/guitarist/keyboardist Richard Lane, bassist Julian Matthews, and drummer Gary Chambers—haven’t been completely consigned to the Jukebox of History, having been anthologized as recently as 2003 ( Mushroom Soup: The Citadel Years ), but that’s a hard-to-find import (at least, it is Stateside) and Get Hip’s version boasts four tracks not on Mushroom Soup (though it omits Power Of Love ). Whether another anthology was truly necessary is debatable, but to these eyes and ears, the scale tips in favor of Get Hip. That said, two grumbles: The liner notes of Terminal Cool are riddled with typos and lack discographical information—release dates, album/single/EP covers, etc. The big question, of course: How does it all sound? The Stems’ body of work has held up well. They were always a band out of time—they emulated ‘60s garage and psychedelia in early ‘80s Australia, after all—so tunes like the fast ‘n’ fuzzed-out She’s A Monster and jangly Make You Min e (the band’s first two singles) sound just as good in 2006 as they would have in 1986 or even 1966. That said, the Stems’ m.o. is decidedly retro, - down to garb; lots of mop tops and paisley shirts in the liner note photos—so if an hour or so of fuzztone guitar, organ flourishes, and three-minute long nuggets about girls loved and/or lost is not your idea of a good time, you should probably stop reading this review now. Everybody else: Groove out to the psychedelic Under Your Mushroom (“There’s a world that’s up here too,” frontman Mariani reminds a too-blissed-out friend, in an odd bit anti-psychedelics psychedelia); the bluesy, barroom stomp of On And O n; and the surf-rock/horror movie instrumental Lon Cheney Juniors Daughter [sic]. And, yes, She’s Fine , a little-more polished sounding than some of their other tunes, will always be their finest pure pop moment—it’s like the La’s There She Goes if that song was actually about a girl, instead of heroin—and it’s one of the revival scene’s best songs. By and large, a lot of the Stems songs sound the same, but the band was never out to reinvent rock music. If anything, the Stems are important and enduring because they helped, along with the Hoodoo Gurus and Lime Spiders, to introduce ‘60s garage rock to an entire continent. Unfortunately, intra-band strife on the eve of their 1987 European tour hastened the Stems’ demise and scuttled any plans for world domination the band members might’ve secretly harbored, but Terminal Cool is still a great snapshot of a band that, for three years at least, did their best to spread the gospel of garage rock to the masses.” The following along with some additional text by me comes from Get Hip: “This brilliant retrospective captures a confident, self-assured band recorded during those halcyon years of ’83 – ’86, and proves that Australia’s Stems were indeed an extremely varied animal. Brimming with gorgeous pop melodies alongside great garage riffs and backbeats, this collection effectively showcases their versatility from the Fuzztone hits She’s A Monster and Tears Me In Two , to the bluesy garage bop of On And On , Byrdsian jangle of Love Will Grow , the pure pop of Can’t Forget That Girl , and the psychedelic snarl of Jumping To Conclusions .” The post Stems work of Dom Mariani is also worth checking out (DM3, for one). Music still continues to be a part of his life, one of the essences of life one can (should) not deny, though as a performer/recording artist he shares his time these days with a family business and he remains a music fan himself (having been a customer of mine). Outside of this being simply a great collection of music, if you’re unfamiliar with the music of The Stems, this makes for a great entry into their world of power pop. Do it! THIS ITEM IS NEW AND UNPLAYED. 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