Tommy Keene - Places That Are Gone / Run Now

So much of what gets posted here is really good stuff. So much of it deserves a larger audience and more respect than it's gotten. But let's face it, Albert Ayler was never going to be mainstream. Pere Ubu had no chance of ever going platinum. The Boredoms aren't top of the charts material. And it's better that way. That's part of why we like them.

But there are bands - artists - out there that nailed it: that got pop right. They SHOULD have sold millions. They should have owned the charts, their perfect singles ringing out of our car radios. They were wronged, screwed, and fucked by an industry that didn't get it and a public that bought the crap they were handed.

Tommy Keene was pop perfection. The antidote to all that was wrong with pop music in the eighties. Sadly when his critically acclaimed EPs got him his big contract the recording was badly produced. He made a good (not great) record and then slipped back into obscurity. Oh, but those EPs!

Places That Are Gone is pure pop magic.

From allmusic:

This six-song set became one of 1984's top-selling and critically acclaimed independent releases. Although the reissued version of his 1981 debut album, Strange Alliance, received a lot of press, it wasn't readily available even within a couple of years of its release, so this magnificent collection of intelligent, guitar-based pop was the first glimpse many got of the much-written-about great pop hope from Washington, D.C. Shades of the Who, the Byrds, and Big Star shine through in memorable, hook-laden songs and strong vocal harmonies, with Keene's fluid guitar work adorning every track. Containing five irresistible Keene originals plus an ardent cover of Alex Chilton's "Hey! Little Child," the original and best version of the melodic title track is also the leadoff song.

Rave reviews of the EP in Rolling Stone and the Village Voice helped Keene gain national exposure and catch the attention of major record labels. But similar to Marshall Crenshaw, Keene's critical accolades never translated to record sales, even though he would continue to release truly great and artistically consistent pop/rock records.

Run Now popped up in 1986 after his major debut. It was, however, made up of tracks recorded previously including his searing live cover of Lou Reed's Kill Your Sons that is worth the price of admission.

allmusic again:

Containing the song "Run Now," produced by Bob Clearmountain, and included in the Madonna film Out of Bounds, four of the other five tracks here were culled from the T-Bone Burnett and Don Dixon sessions cut in 1984 for the original version of Songs From the Film. In contrast to the album Geffen ended up releasing, the Burnett/Dixon tracks reveal an effort to capture the subtle nuances and characteristics of Keene's unique guitar sound and style. Thankfully, the drum sound in these recordings belies the typical bigger-than-life studio reverberation found on commercial recordings of the day; Burnett and Dixon opted to keep the foundation for these tracks simple and nature. The title cut — produced by Bob Clearmountain — is okay, but it pales next to songs like "They're in Their Own World" and "Back Again," which appeared in 1984 as a 12" single. A plus is the killer live version of Lou Reed's "Kill Your Sons," which is much better than the studio rendition released on Songs From the Film.

Places That Are Gone is out of print, but the link is a fine vinyl rip.

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Run Now was included (minus the live Kill Your Sons) on Geffen's reissue of Songs From The Film. As a stand alone, however, it is out of print. The link is a stunning rip of the original EP factory cassette.

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