So here I am at the Front Street Warehouse (after a grueling LURCHBOX practice -- and just FYI: you can catch LURCHBOX at the Dayton Sideshow on Saturday, May 14 from 6:45 to 7:30 p.m. OR at the Color of Energy Gallery in the Oregon District on Friday, May 20 with JASPER THE COLOSSAL and WE WERE ANIMALS; doors open at 8 p.m.), and I'm ripping the 1984 LP From the Free World (1987) by Dayton's own U.S. MODS. And I decide to do a little random net research on these blokes... since I know nothing about them except that they released this one LP.
I'm not expecting to find much. As I'll describe in the post in which I offer From the Free World for download, I know nothing about these guys -- except that they have the (dubious) distinction of being the first Dayton band from whom I ever bought any recorded material. But I never saw them live, and as far as I know, I never met any of them personally. I do remember being pleasantly surprised to find their LP in WWSU's music library when I started working there, and I remember that I (and a lot of other DJs at the station) played "Good Shoes" a lot (it's a catchy tune). But I can't think of anything else I know except that I vaguely remember they were still gigging around Dayton in 1987 (but not too long thereafter).
But now here at the Front Street Warehouse, 24 years later, I find four U.S. MODS videos on YouTube. Unfortunately, these are all undated, so I don't know when or how they were recorded, but it all has a fairly authentic 1980s feel. If you know more, please tell me.
Here on the blog, I'll post links to two of the videos I found. The first is for a neat, catchy little tune called "Station 7." Listen up and drink in the new wave goodness:
And here's a video for the MODS' song "Nikki's Changed." This one isn't a live video. It was produced by the same person who posted the other U.S. MODS videos (he/she goes by the name "MoistCracker" on YouTube):
You can find the other two videos (both live videos recorded at U.D.) on MoistCracker's YouTube page.
The YouTube postings also provide a band roster for the U.S. MODS at the time these videos were shot. Here it is: Tom Henninger, Dave Kraus, Bruce Warren and Mike Clements (no instruments mentioned). When I post the U.S. MODS LP (some time next week), I'll talk about how this lineup compares with the personnel mentioned in the liner notes for that album.
Finally, I also found a video for another band, also called U.S. MODS, from Texas. Here it is:
Unfortunately, I can't tell if this is the same U.S. MODS from Dayton or not. The sounds are similar, but not close enough to be definitive. But this video is dated 1980, so if they are the same band, then they should have a pretty healthy back catalog of records, tapes, and perhaps more video spanning at least seven years! If anybody out there can say one way or another on this, please speak up.
UPDATE: After checking out the MySpace page for the last U.S. MODS video offered here, I find that they are definitely NOT the Dayton U.S. MODS. Still, it's a good song by a good band, so I'll leave it.
take care
---Jones()
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