Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Consumers - We're American (1980)

Side Alpha
The label on the Beta side was intentionally printed in reverse.
Here's another amazing obscurity from the Dumpster label, also released in 1980. This is a super rare, 5-song, 7 inch, 45rpm slice of prime New Jersey punk rock, long unavailable and utterly undiscovered by punk collectors. The top-notch songwriting by a teenage Andrew Overtoom (Leo's brother, see previous post) could be described as a cross between The Jam and Elvis Costello, with a bit of "Warm Jets" Eno synth thrown on top. It's all good, but "Existential Baby" takes the prize here. Singer Andrew Overtoom later headed the NJ based Woodpecker, and then went on to become animation director for the Sponge Bob cartoon.



The Consumers - We're American
Vinyl rip @320 artwork included
MediaFire

3 comments:

D.V. Jones said...

Sorry, but the singer is Mark Gowdy, who worked at Star Music in Morristown. Leo, if I remember, was the drummer.

Ovipositor said...

No, Mark played the sax and perhaps did the synth solo. He does have a tiny vocal part at the end of one song where he says, "What's the matter with you?". That's him in front on the cover closest to the camera. All the singing vocals were by Andrew. Leo on drums and Phil Cohen on bass. Producer James Randolf also worked at Star. But who is DV Jones?

Andrew Overtoom said...

Actually vocal duties were shared by Andrew and Mark -- or should I say Buzz and Rhino Poodle! Andrew sang lead and Mark would join for emphasis, chorus, or pretty much whenever he felt like it! Gowdy played the Ornette Coleman inspired saxophone breaks as well! James Randolph - also from Star Music, played the synth parts.
A great band and a great document of the times.