The Giant Panther

Yet another Boston band from the 80's was a band called The Del Fuegos. In the late eighties an artist named Juliana Hatfield immortalized The Del Fuegos in her song "My Sister" by name checking them as the warm-up act for a potential Violent Femmes show her sister might have taken her to if she'd stuck around. Before they had a record out, before they went gold...and started to grow. I always liked that line. In 1985 The Del Fuegos released an album called Boston, MA. WBCN was squarely behind them and the first single was "Don't Run Wild." It took me a few spins to warm up to it, but I was soon a huge fan of this single.

I wasn't really sure what to make of The Del Fuegos when they released their first album in 1984. Yeah, they were a garage rock band, but aside from "Longest Day" and "Backseat Nothing" there wasn't much to write home about relative to radio airplay. Led by brothers Dan and Warren Zanes, the band had an awful lot of hype around the station, but I didn't really get the feeling they were headed for big things at the time. If memory serves they were toppled by the Aimee Mann led 'Til Tuesday in the 1983 WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble (a battle of the bands for the unfamiliar). In fact the runner up was The Sex Execs of "My Ex" fame. Talk about where are they now huh? And I'm dead certain none of the judges were dazzled by Aimee's drop dead good looks either. In fairness "Voices Carry" was and is a tremendous song and The Del Fuegos had yet to unleash "Don't Run Wild." The Fuegos were left behind with the likes of Digney Fignus and their hit "The Girl With The Curious Hand." I'm sure they were hoping for more as good as that song was.

After "Don't Run Wild" became a WBCN staple the world was The Del Fuegos' oyster. They had another track called "I Still Want You" and "The Sound of Our Town" that did some minor charting, but "Don't Run Wild" was a killer track. I don't know what exactly happened to these folks after 1985, but it was all over by 1989 for The Del Fuegos. No matter. Every time I hear "Don't Run Wild" I think very fondly of this time of my life. And to name their record Boston, MA was pretty ballsy even though it guaranteed some airplay with a title like that in this town. I hope you like this track as much as I do. I love the whole feel of it. Great tune.

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.