The Giant Panther

So, with WBCN officially dead and gone, I figured I'd post a song by a Boston band called The Lyres. The only consistent Lyres lineup has Jeff Connolly (who goes by Monoman) on vocals and organ; after that it was just a matter of what era you are talking about. The single I came to post today, "I Want To Help You Ann," was released on Ace of Hearts records in 1981. According to their web site the lineup for this single was Jeff Connolly, Peter Greenberg on guitar, Mike Lewis on bass and Howie Ferguson on drums. It is referred to as Lineup #6 spanning June 1980 to January 1982. The Lyres were a trip to see live, but their buzz exceeded their catalogue for the most part. The artwork I post here was originally from a four song 1981 EP known as AHS: 1005, which I'm guessing is the Ace of Hearts catalogue number. It has since been expanded to include "I Want To Help You Ann," but the lead track on this piece of vinyl was "What a Girl Can Do." They also had minor hits with "Don't Give It Up" and "She Pays The Rent" which I always thought were pretty good tracks, but by and large The Lyres were never much of a household name outside of Boston.

The Lyres were a garage rock band. "I Want To Help You Ann" is a big time cut. It comes at you like a freight train. The Lyres were descendants of an earlier garage rock band called DMZ. Apparently DMZ, Connolly's prior band, was signed to the awesome Sire Records label only to have their initial release tabled due to a poor mix (allegedly by Flo & Eddie of Turtles fame). It is said DMZ eventually morphed into The Lyres. They finally got their debut record, Lyres On Fire, released in 1984. It is a garage rock classic if you read the reviews on Amazon.com, but I'm going to have to go back and listen to it again. I was right there (in Boston, working at WBCN...the radio station that helped break them) when this all went down and I can't recall it being a game changer, but I don't mean to disparage The Lyres in any way. I love garage rock and I love a handful of their tracks, but I would probably place them on a par with a band like The Del Fuegos. The Del Fuegos were another Boston band with at least one monster track in "Don't Run Wild." I wish I had written both of them to be sure, but neither of these acts went on to live in infamy. In fact, I think I'm going to post "Don't Run Wild" in a few minutes for fun. "I Want To Help You Ann" rocks. Simple as that. I hope you add it to your iPods and look fondly on The Giant Panther as a result.