🎵 AotW The Tubes - T.R.A.S.H. (SP-4870)

[LPJim]

The Tubes
T.R.A.S.H.
A&M SP-4870

Upon being dropped by A&M and to meet their contract obligation before departing for Capitol Records, the Tubes released this compilation. "TRASH" stands for "Tubes Rarities And Smash Hits."

SIDE ONE

Drivin' All Night
What Do You Want From Life?
Turn Me On
Slipped My Disco
Don't Touch Me There
Mondo Bondage

SIDE TWO

Love Will Keep Us Together
White Punks on Dope (Parts 'A' and 'B')
Prime Time
I'm Just a Mess
Only the Strong Survive

Released Nov. 1981
Peaked at #148 on the Billboard Top 200
Reissued as SP/CD 3244


JB

 

[jfiedler17]

No other comments on this one yet?
This comp was actually the first record of theirs I ever heard, and I remember being hooked on this compilation for quite a while before I finally started springing for their regular studio albums.
These guys didn't really hit their stride (certainly not commercially) until Capitol, where they put out their most accessible material ("She's a Beauty" and "Don't Want to Wait Anymore" are the most famous of course, but I myself like "Talk to Ya Later" and "Tip of My Tongue" better - how "Talk" never even so much as cracked the Hot 100, never mind the Top 40, is a mystery to me!). But this hits package - which is a truly fun one, not in the least because of all the superb rarities included on here, like their hard-rock reworking of "Love Will Keep Us Together" or the radically-rearranged live version of "White Punks" - is proof that that these guys had more great songs in them during their A&M tenure than they tend to get credit for. It never could have been a radio hit, but the ever-catchy "Don't Touch Me There" is one of the band's greatest moments, managing to include just enough of the band's distinctive comical flavor without sounding like an outright comedy or novelty record (which a lot of the band's material often does, i.e. "What Do You Want from Life," "Sushi Girl," "Wild Women of Wongo," etc.) "I'm Just a Mess" (my personal favorite track on here) sounds like it almost could have been a lost recording from Peter Frampton's I'm in You album. "Turn Me On" was probably just a tad too ahead of its time to be a hit but bears shades of a lot of the best new-wave singles from the early '80s. And while I'd agree that Captain & Tennile's version of "Love Will ..." is still the definitive and best version of that song, the Tubes' version is awfully fun and brilliant in its own right. By all logic, including stuttered beats and guitar feedback and synth shrieks in a cover of that song shouldn't work, but these guys pull it off somehow. Mind you, I'm sure Sedaka winced quite a bit if he ever heard their rendition, but ... I like it, anyway.
These guys could really play, too. Prairie Prince especially is one heck of an underrated drummer.

- Jeff