Live At Cbgb's 1985 [With Booklet]

This release features 10 previously unreleased live recordings from the 1980s indie rock band Absolute Grey, which shared the stage with Rain Parade, Salem 66, Dream Syndicate, Alex Chilton, Long Ryders, and Three O'Clock, and includes performances by Beth Brown, Mitchell Rasor, Pat Thomas, and Matt Kitchen. Evoking early R.E.M. with female vocals, the band's sound blends elements of Fairport Convention, Jefferson Airplane, and Echo & the Bunnymen. The package also includes liner notes by Karen Schoemer, Jim DeRogatis, and Luke Wood. Trouser Press Record Guide wrote that, long before self-reflective female singers became a trend on the alternative music scene, Beth Brown of Rochester, New York's Absolute Grey was writing and singing about loneliness and independence through a garage-pop approach in which the bass carried much of the melody and the guitar added color with Peter Buck-like arpeggios. AllMusic Guide described Absolute Grey as playing intelligent, tuneful folk-rock with intriguing melodies, subtle but effective hooks, and a psychedelic undertow that would have fit comfortably alongside both the paisley underground bands of the West Coast and the jangle pop scene in Athens, Georgia, while noting that the band's approach was less trippy and less retro than Rain Parade and notably cooler and more hard-edged than R.E.M. or Pylon. Byron Coley of Forced Exposure likewise praised the group for creating a sound that has never been imitated, writing that Beth Brown's vocals were so filled with emotion they seemed to teeter on the edge of chaos, while the band forged a compelling and unpredictable form of new wave folk rock that simply worked.