- Artist: The Leaving Trains
- Title: Fuck
- Year: 1987
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 6
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1987 – Promo at Mother’s Records
- Keeper: Maybe
I apologize. And with that out the way let’s talk about the only record I have by The Leaving Trains that I didn’t buy. This one must have been a promo we got when I worked at a chain record store in a shopping mall. You can see from the last pic that the label, SST, ran a display contest. “Win a Plane Trip to a Trains Show.” I guess back in 1987 that would have motivated some folks, but there is no way a chain store in the mall was going cover a wall with record cover reprints, or “flats” as they were called, of an album titled Fuck that just happened to have “FUCK” printed big and bold on the front.
A couple decades later a title like that seems more like a cheap attention-getting gimmick than it did to me at the time. It might work now, but I’m pretty certain this did nothing to help them sell records then. It’s not my favorite of the three LT records I have, but there are some great garage-punk-rock, body-moving songs on this album.
Are The Leaving Trains still making music? I can’t tell.
- Artist: The Leaving Trains
- Title: Kill Tunes
- Year: 1986
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 8
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1986 – Probably at Mother’s Records
- Keeper: Yes
Kill Tunes is my favorite record by The Leaving Trains. It’s the first one I bought, and I believe it’s their debut. I don’t know why I bought it, but I’m guessing the cool cover and the record label being SST were a couple good reasons. This is probably their most rocked-out record, and it includes an excellent cover of an excellent song from an excellent band, “Private Affair” by The Saints. Covers are a sign there are real men in this band, especially since “Private Affair” was less than 10 years old at the time. As I’ve mentioned before, these guys produce a great mix of garage rock and weirdness. That’s really all I need to be happy.
Did I sell out? Call it survival
When everything I do smacks of revival
Cease fire? No way
There’s nothing left behind to save anyway
“10 Generations” — The Leaving Trains
Etched in the vinyl run out margins:
Side 1 – Tunes don’t kill, people do
Side 2 – I buried Manfred
Various Artists -- The Blasting Concept Volume II
- Artist: Various Artists
- Title: The Blasting Concept Volume II
- Year: 1986
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 6
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1986 – Probably at Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA
- Keeper: Yes
No camera can capture the intense greenness of this album cover. I enjoyed The Blasting Concept Volume II more than I expected. I forgot how metal-sounding, a high compliment, some of these bands were back then. I have records by most of the bands on here, but it’s worth keeping for the few good songs I don’t have, like “Watch the Tractor” by Gone. My favorite is the Minutemen’s punkish cover of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talking About Love.” I’ve never heard a bad version of that song, even from the garage band I played drums for in junior high.
- Artist: The Leaving Trains
- Title: Transportational D. Vices
- Year: 1989
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 6
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1989 – At a record store I owned with my brother, RIP Records
- Keeper: Maybe
I have three records by The Leaving Trains and Transportational D. Vices is the newest. Somehow it got to the front of the line, but it terms of favorites it is at the back. Still, it’s a very listenable record, most of the time sounding like they have one foot in the garage, one in a combat boot, and another somewhere in space. It’s three-legged rock that manages to sound familiar and unique. One of my favorites on this one is “Store”, a high speed, rocked out number about going to “the store.” I guess singer Falling James really needed some milk or cigs or something because he sounds like he’s in a hurry to go.
- Artist: Opal
- Title: Happy Nightmare Baby
- Year: 1987
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 8
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1987 – Bought it when I worked at Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA.
The main folks in Opal were David Roback from Rain Parade and Kendra Smith of The Dream Syndicate. Kendra eventually left the band and Hope Sandoval joined Roback to create Mazzy Star. Opal was the record for today, and it’s just a coincidence that I was at my brother’s house tonight and he was playing Mazzy Star. That reminded me how boring that recording is compared to this one. Sure, I like the hit “Fade Into You”, but I like everything on Opal’s “Happy Nightmare Baby.” My favorite is the trippy, riffing, T-Rex-ing album opener, “Rocket Machine.”
