{"id":28449,"date":"2024-11-21T05:30:41","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T10:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28449"},"modified":"2024-11-22T07:14:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T12:14:51","slug":"edge-of-the-world-lets-active-at-40-part-2-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/21\/edge-of-the-world-lets-active-at-40-part-2-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Edge of the World: Let\u2019s Active at 40 (Part 2 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Easter looks back at that period \u2013 now thought of as the dawn of \u201ccollege rock\u201d or alternative rock \u2013 as a musically freewheeling time when the possibilities were open-ended. \u201cIf your band seemed to fit with what the audience was looking for, you could kind of get away with murder in some ways,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause the times were changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the members of Let\u2019s Active, that first gig at 688 represented a turning point. Not just for them, but as part of something bigger. \u201cAround here,\u201d says Easter, referring to the Winston-Salem bar and music scene, \u201cthings were just barely coming out out of the dark ages of beer drinking and getting sick.\u201d He notes that bars were generally depressing places, even if they had music (and many did not). But the tiny Atlanta club on Spring Street \u201cseemed to have a cultural stance about it,\u201d Easter says. Headlining act R.E.M. was \u201cinstantly beloved\u201d by the crowd at 688.<\/p>\n

And that affection extended to the unknown trio from North Carolina as well. \u201cThere were a lot of people there,\u201d Easter recalls. \u201cAnd they kind of paid attention to us. They couldn\u2019t have known who we were, but they looked at us and clapped.\u201d<\/p>\n

With their spare, unconventional sound and Easter\u2019s appealing (but decidedly un-rock-god-like) vocals, Let\u2019s Active benefited from the openness of the emerging music scene. Easter observes one of that scene\u2019s defining characteristics. \u201cWhen people focus on what they are, they also sometimes really focus on what they are not<\/i>,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that scene was definitely defined by what it was not: \u2018It’s not what’s on the radio, and it’s not classic rock, and it’s not stadium rock,\u2019 you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Easter returns to his point about Let\u2019s Active not being a logical extension of his earlier bands. \u201cIf I had played with my old buddies in the band,\u201d he suggests with a hearty laugh, \u201cwe would’ve looked like we were going to bust into an Allman Brothers song!\u201d And while he doesn\u2019t want to over-emphasize the visual aspect of his new trio, Easter acknowledges that it was significant. Sara Romweber and Faye Hunter \u201cjust didn’t look like most of these band dudes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, it was Let\u2019s Active\u2019s sound that represented a clean break from what Easter had been doing musically up to that point. And he credits his rhythm section for that. \u201cThe way they played was more \u2018of the time\u2019 than me,\u201d he suggests. And that influenced his own musical approach. \u201cI purposely tried to forget everything I knew when I was playing in this band,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause I was bored with that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An acknowledged aficionado of some of music\u2019s more adventurous exponents \u2013 it\u2019s not unusual to spot Easter out on the town sporting a Magma t-shirt, for example \u2013 he sought to set those influences aside for his work with Let\u2019s Active. \u201cI just thought, \u2018It’s fun to try to sound different,\u2019\u201d he says. He notes that his earlier playing featured plenty of string bending and a thick sound. \u201cBut I wanted our three-piece band to be kind of \u2018empty.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Faye Hunter\u2019s style on the bass was distinctive, and Easter notes that she came by it quickly and naturally. \u201cFaye was as old as me, but she didn’t play music before Let\u2019s Active,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cAnd Sara was a kid!\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone appreciated the new music coming out of bands like Let\u2019s Active, R.E.M., The dB\u2019s and other young artists in the American South. Easter recalls the recording sessions for R.E.M.\u2019s first LP, 1983\u2019s Murmur<\/i>. Working at Reflection Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina with co-producer Don Dixon, Easter was struck by the cold reception. \u201cSome of the regulars who worked there were kind of looking at [R.E.M.] like, \u2018What is this<\/i>?\u2019 There was a sense of \u2018Who do we align ourselves with here?\u2019\u201d Easter says that many among the studio staff clearly preferred another band recording at Reflection at the same time. \u201cBut,\u201d he notes with a smile, \u201cthose guys faded into history, and R.E.M. got big.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easter is visibly uncomfortable when the subject of gender is raised with respect to Let\u2019s Active. It\u2019s an inescapable fact that in the early 1980s, a rock trio featuring a female rhythm section was still somewhat unusual in pop music. But Easter is wary of making too much of that fact. \u201cAll these things fall back into clich\u00e9s,\u201d he says. \u201cIt sort of dehumanizes everybody and makes everything sort of iconic. I know it\u2019s not meant to be insulting, but it\u2019s kind of …weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Let’s Active with some famous friends<\/p><\/div>\n

He admits that when the band was interviewed, questions inevitably took the form of asking Hunter and Romweber things like, \u201cWhat\u2019s it like being a woman in a band?\u201d Easter says that he understands why people asked, \u201cbut it was still a ridiculous question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Active would become known for having a collective personality best described as cuddly. Part of that came from the fetching good looks of the three musicians \u2013 they looked like the slightly nerdy kids next door, but with way-cooler hair \u2013 and some of it came by way of an infamous music video shot for MTV.<\/p>\n

Debuting in March 1983 on the relatively new cable channel MTV, I.R.S. Presents the Cutting Edge<\/i> was a means to provide exposure to artists who \u2013 at the time \u2013 were on the fringes of what was considered commercially viable. Let\u2019s Active appeared on the program, performing \u201cEvery Word Means No.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easter recalls that when it came time to make the video, the band was told, \u201cIf you guys have any ideas for the way you want to do this, you know, cool<\/i>.\u201d And he notes that all three musicians liked dogs, so…they asked for dogs. But what they got were puppies. \u201cThey were adorable,\u201d Easter admits. \u201cSo, they’re in there, and that adorable factor \u2013 and the way we look sort of like Smurfs \u2013 definitely cast us a [certain] way for all eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n

That video was recorded just after the band signed a record deal. And R.E.M. played an important role in helping make that happen. \u201c[Through them] we got to cross paths with some of the people who worked at I.R.S. [Records],\u201d Easter says. The group signed with Miles Copeland\u2019s label in time to release Afoot<\/i>, made as a demo tape and originally planned for release on a local indie label. \u201cMaybe the R.E.M. guys gave the I.R.S. people a little nudge or whatever,\u201d he says with shrug. \u201cI don\u2019t really know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Easter looks back at that period \u2013 now thought of as the dawn of \u201ccollege rock\u201d or alternative rock \u2013 as a musically freewheeling time when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,50,62],"tags":[4574,1492],"class_list":["post-28449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-wave","category-rawk","tag-lets-active","tag-mitch-easter","cat-41-id","cat-50-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28449"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28578,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28449\/revisions\/28578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}