Smoke

Artist: Heats
Label: Chuckie-Boy
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 727325100825
EAN: 0727325100825
ASIN: B00005U2EE

Release Date: 1998-08-10

Smoke

Related Categories:

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Power Pop

| Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Tracks:

I Don't Like Your Face
Let's All Smoke
Some Other Guy
Call Yourself A Man
Ordinary Girls
Night Shift
In Your Town
She Don't Mind
When You're Mine
Have an Idea
Sorry, Girls
Divorcee
Nights With You

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Album Description

Ask anyone who was around Seattle 'round the late '70's-early '80's... The HEATS were THE hottest, funnest, catchy-friggin'-song-writinest' band in the West. A guaranteed party everywhere they played, a genuine drop of rock-n-roll magic. I'm grinning like mad thinking of the crazy show The HEATS tore up with at Olympia's Evergreen State College. This disc captures some of The HEATS very best: Their 10,000-selling single "I Don't Like Your Face", of course; The entire "Have An Idea" LP; and some killer tunes heard here for the first time... "Let's All Smoke" could well become THE tobacco-lovers' national anthem!

Customer Reviews:

Too Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2007-03-17

I was driving down I-5 through Seattle when a local radio station played a track from this CD, I almost drove off the road with excitement!!! I grew up in the Seattle area and was a huge fan of the Heats. I still own two copies of their "have an idea" LP. When I found out that a cd was released I went to Tower Records and purchased it right away. This is some great music that you can't help but love. After all these years the music still sounds new and fresh. I think my cd is already worn out!!!!

A good first effort - harmless, sometimes beatlesque material........2006-02-14

I had originally written a slightly negative (2 star) review for this CD. It isn't often that I change my mind and re-write a review, but I thought I should do so in this instance. I've always been a bit overly critical of these guys and it's time I gave them some credit.

I had originally owned the LP (a very long time ago) and was somewhat dissapointed by it. There's no question that "Nightshift" is a classic (basically unknown) power pop song, but I always felt that the rest of the album was more of an "average" experience. My desire to have a perfect power pop album caused me to look on this effort as a failure.

After all these years I finally purchased this CD release. My initial reaction to the material was once again luke warm. But to be fair, it isn't a failure. When compared to many other power-pop efforts of the same era, such as the first release by the shoes or the first tommy tutone, it holds up fairly well. It does indeed deliver the charm and innocence associated with good power-pop.

So after rethinking my original review, I've given an extra star and would indeed recommend this CD to anyone who enjoys good early 80's power-pop. There are certainly some duds but overall it's a pleasant experience. A shame they never released a follow-up effort, but I honestly think the original release of the album just didn't live up to the hype surrounding these guys (at the time) and it caused the group to implode. If you don't judge them too harshly and simply view this release as a good "first effort" there's a lot of fun to be had listening to this CD.

You might also like these equally "lost" 80's albums:

Action Now - All your dreams... and more
Jack Green - Humanesque

-JM

The Best Power Pop Band You've Probably Never Heard.......2006-01-03

It's hard to say why this Seattle quartet never garnered the acclaim their music deserved. Perhaps it was just their misfortune to miss power pop's first trainride in the mid-to-late '70s, and then to fold before such music took off again later in the '80s. Fellow Northwesterners like the Young Fresh Fellows and Posies found their klieg lights, but the Heats never broke out of the Seattle club scene -- despite production help from Heart's Howard Leese and a label connection from Ann Wilson. Even this reissue of their catalog hasn't garnered the sort of attention it deserves.

But "only a club band" the Heats were not. Despite their tenancy at local taverns and their regional college radio fame, their music was anything but local in scope. Unlike fellow Seattle players like The Visible Targets, the Heats' new wave influences (Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, etc.) were a telephone line back to the British Invasion rather than to then-emerging MTV pop. The Heats influences were the sounds of the Beatles, Big Star, Tom Petty, Dwight Twilley, The Plimsouls and The Everly Brothers. They wrote incredibly catchy originals, including a debut single ("Ordinary Girls" b/w "I Don't Like Your Face") that would've been a double A-side in a fairer world.

Their LP ("Have an Idea" from 1980) was filled with stellar power-pop and the terrific harmony singing of guitarists Steve Pearson and Don Short, and bassist Keith Lilly. Both single and LP sold respectably (about 15,000 copies each) as regional releases, but amazingly, neither generated a major label deal. One suspects that the band was a victim of both the typically rock 'n' roll odds, and a Seattle that had yet to break onto the national scene. Unlike similar efforts from Beserkley's Rubinoos and Greg Kihn Band, the Heats never hooked up with anyone who could successfully push them onto the national scene.

Chuckie-Boy's CD reissue includes most of the Heats' LP, dropping "Questions Questions" in favor of the pair "Let's All Smoke" and "In Your Town." The LP's sixth track, "Remember Me," appears on this CD as an unlisted bonus track. There are a few other oddities: "Ordinary Girls" is missing the chimes heard on the LP; "She Don't Mind" starts and ends as though it were extracted from a live tape; "I Don't Like Your Face" appears to have been taken from the original 7" rather than the LP. It would have been great if all the different versions could have been included (the CD currently clocks in at 41 minutes) and explained. Songwriter credits (and some contemporary interviews with the band) would have been a helpful addition to Eric Lacitis' vintage columns from the Seattle Times. The band really deserved to have their whole story told.

Anyone who loves Big Star's first two LPs, Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend," The Rubinoos debut, Dwight Twilley's "Twilley Don't Mind," The Nerves debut EP (and the debuts of The Plimsouls and Paul Collins' Beat) owes themselves a spin or two hundred of this release. [©2006 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

The Best New Wave Band You Never Heard of..........2005-06-01

The Heats (nee Heaters) should have been one of the great New Wave rock bands of 80's. Sadly, music industry politics and the advent of MTV with the Second British Invasion bands conspired to put American New Wave a-la the Knack, Go-Go's, Romantics, and The (Paul Collin's) Beat out of commission. I saw the band live probably over 100 times in roughly 3 years. The songs here give you a glimpse of what that time was like. The Heats revolved around the twin guitarist-vocal-songwriting duo of Steve Pearson and Don Short, with original bassist Keith Lilly followed by Wayne Clack and drummer Kenny Deans suceeded by Rick Bourgoin. It's hard to say which lineup was best, but the Short-Pearson duo undeniably gave the Heats the core of their whiny New Wave sound. Highlights here from the band's first album include the anthem "I Don't Like Your Face" (sung by Pearson), "Ordinary Girls", "Night Shift", "Remember Me" (which is not in the song listing but is on the CD as the last track), and "Have An Idea" (all sung by Short); and the previously unavailable "Let's All Smoke", and "In Your Town", which got some airplay on MTV in 1982-83. Curiously missing however is the '83 single "Rivals/Count On Me". "Rivals" is perhaps the best track they ever did, featuring a great harmony vocal by Pearson and Short, and was their last ever studio-recorded release. I still have a vinyl 45 of this one, and no, it's never going on eBay. If you like New Wave at all, this CD is a must-have, and a great archive of a great time.

Memories of Bands I used to love.......2004-11-04

The Heats were a must see in the early 80's. I was fortunate to see them live at the UofW Hub and several other venues. There was always a raucous crowd and powerful loud music.

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