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The Tubes Most People Don't Know...

R. J. Antler | Silver Spring, MD | 11/19/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"My first exposure to "The Beans" came on Audition Nite at Uncle Sam's in Sebastopol, CA for $.50. A friend of mine said "You got to come over and see this. There's a guy up there dressed as a chick." It was Fee as Carmen Miranda doing the Latin Set. The music that they were delivering was rough, but it was so different then anything I had ever heard. They mixed being a great club dance band and really pissing off the male elements as they refused to continually play in "éven" time, thus making it difficult to dance to...



On this collection, you will find great examples of odd time and unconventional tonality...On Hoy Boy, Wonderbread Bodies,Artaud Poem, The Tubes are doing what they do... Roger Steen and Vince Welnick were great soloists in that format. Along with More/Telstar, TV, and especially Dinosaur Blues (one of my absolute favorites), you have the essence of the early Tubes. Michael Cotton was not in the group at that time, thus no synthesizer. It's the type of music that as you listen to it, you just want to keep playing it until you wear the damn disk out.



The first time I saw the twin guitars and twin drummers, for an aspiring musician, it was magical. This is the first collection that I know of that has the late Bob MacIntosh along with Prairie Prince delivering the syncopated beat that made The Tubes special. They are featured in Artaud Poem and in Let's Do It...Just terrific stuff, and long overdue...The Tubes grew into a Freight Train, simply too big and powerful for most clubs to handle...and my band actually did open for them a year or 2 later...



In October 09, I saw them again in Annapolis for the first time in about 15 or 20 years...They still got it!"

Mutant Memories for Tubes Fans!

Peter Cox | Helden | 08/05/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Despite the fact that The Tubes aren't as big as they should have been (personal opinion), they really can do no wrong with me. Okay, I do like their more commercial and rocking material best, but those very first albums also succeeded to claim their space among my fond memories. I mean, a lot of material is hilarious. And other just simply rock your socks off.



So now they hit us with this new album. Well, wait a minute, the album may be new, but the material on it certainly is not. The backside subtitle is "Mutant Memories from the early seventies". And that says it all really. What is on offer here are recordings from before the release of their official first self titled album from 1975. Or as they put it themselves, the songs that didn't get us signed. Brilliant humour as always.



Some tracks are in fact familiar. We find early versions of the classic White Punks On Dope or Mondo Bondage here. And some lyrics are so off the map, it is obvious why label reps were not eager to sign them based on that. But do we really care?

I guess it is safe to say that this is not going to win them many new fans. No, if you want to discover this band, try The Completion Backward Principle, Remote Control or Outside Inside first.

But for the aficionados like me, this is a wonderful insight in the early development of this vastly underrated band. Who, besides their keen eye for stunning live shows with all it's theatrics, are great songwriters too, who are very adequate on their instrument of choice.

Love it!"