Albums you’ve probably never heard 11/21/08 edition

November 21, 2008, 7:21 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

First up: The Last – Painting Smiles on a Dead Man

Sadly, this band has completly been forgotten. I haven’t seen their original records on CD ever

Just look at their wikipedia page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_(band)

not even a discography! I first discovered them in high school. I read an interview with the descendents where they gushed over their love of this band. I came across a copy of this album in the dollar bin at poo bah’s records in pasadena. Later on I came across another album “LA Explosion” also amazing.

Painting Smiles came out sometime in the late 70′s (1976 i think?). The record reminds me of a somewhat more surfy mid era Beatles wannabe, but somehow it holds its own, despite the fact you can tell they are really trying to be British (they are from hermosa beach).
The fake accent is a little annoying, but overall it’s catchy, poppy and fun music.

The files below were copied from vinyl and converted to mp3 so the sound quality ain’t that great
Painting smiles 1
Painting smiles 2
Painting smiles 3

The band still plays around their home town of hermosa beach from time to time but I haven’t caught em yet.

UPDATE:
found the official Last website

http://www.laexplosion.com/

turns out the album came out in 83, comprised of songs mostly written earlier in their career (late 70′s)

also found a very early video of the band playing

and a music video from 1982