Search - Embarrassment :: Heyday (1979-83)

Essential Proto-Alternative Retrospective

05/07/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the greatest bands you've never heard of... this 4-piece from the Kansas plains crafted some of the catchiest, oddest, most compelling garage pop of the early 80s. This 2-disc compendium collects all of their powerful studio work (disc 1), including all the songs from their shaggy masterpiece, THE EMBARRASSMENT LP (in 1992 I paid 25 cents for the vinyl in a remainder bin in Salt Lake City... but absolutely one of the best purchases I ever made). Tracks like "Age 5," "Celebrity Art Party," and "Woods of Love" will worm their way into your ears and stay there. Disc 2 collects various live tracks and studio sessions, including a wicked cover of "The Immigrant Song" and one of the Embarrassment's best songs, "She's One of the Other Kind." Most of these songs were recorded by the band in low-budget studios; the production values are correspondingly lo-fi. But there is an irresistable energy and catchiness to their efforts. If you'll permit the cliche, they were genuinely proto-alternative & in that sense were ahead of their time. The music is rough around the edges but the center is always creamy & smooth. Do they sound like they're from Kansas? More like they invented their own Kansas. Visit them there."

Own this record to wallow in it's deranged splendor!

Ratbox Ricky | GEORGETOWN, MA. USA | 03/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Embos somehow refracted music through what seems like every worthwhile value to have affected pop in the last 5 decades: Beefheart, Al Green, Johnny Thunders, Esquovil and the whole rest of the shootin' match. No less,they swapped it around and twisted it all and sundered it and made it come out to an even greater whole than the sum of it's parts. Bill Gofrier's guitar is a thing of sputtering, stutter-stepping, mad genius. This music will inhabit you like a wonderful allergic reaction."

Band with the extra special eyes

William Morris | Lincoln, Nebraska United States | 08/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What can I say? This is one of the albums I could never part with. One of the great yet little known bands in America. Saw these guys way to few times. A band I was in opened for them a couple times and their liveshows were totally cool. Beat Pop at it's finest! Buy this for yourself, buy some more for your friends!! Brightest colors of the week!!"