Thrift Store Music: Primitons

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Primitons - s/t

Name: Primitons
Album: s/t
Year: 1985
Style: Jangle Pop, College Radio
Similar Bands: Game Theory, REM, Let's Active
"One-Word" Review: Airy Distant Jangle Pop
Based Out Of: Birmingham, AL
Label: Throbbing Lobster

Cover, Record

Back, Record, Lyric Sheet

Primitons (1985)

All My Friends 2:16
Five Lines 4:41
Seeing is Believing 3:35
She Sleeps 4:10 /
You'll Never Know 3:43
Stars 3:34
City People 3:43

Album Rating (1-10): 7.5

Members & Other Bands:

Mitch Easter - Producer, Mixing, Guitar (Grover, Lets Active, Rittenhouse Square, Shalini, Orange Humble Band, Sneakers, Cosmopolitans, Kimberley Rew, X-Teens, Game Theory, Bandola, Loud Family, Helium, Windbreakers, The 6ths, Shalini, Coronet Blue lots of credits)
Brad Dorset - Vox, Bass, Guitar, Piano
Leif Bondarenko - Drums, Percussion, Accordion (Jim Bob and the Leisure Suits, Bucket Fillers, J. Willoughby & Touwncriers, Walton Smith, Sugarcane Jane)
Mots Roden - Vox, Guitar, Organ (Jim Bob and the Leisure Suits, Carnival Season)
Stephanie Truelove Wright - Lyrics (Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires)
Garri Meighen - Vox
LaDonna Smith - Accordion (Trans-Idio, Vario 20, Ron Pate's Debonairs, Transcendprovisation, Andrea Centazzo, Blue Denim Deals Without the Arms, Gino Robair, Valentina Ponomareva, Eugene Chadbourne, John Zorn, Free Music Communion, Toner, Return From Earth, Wally Shoup, Rotcod Zzaj, Little Red Rocket, Misha Feigin, Shiva's Quintessence, Jasper Lee, Ramble Tamble)
Greg Calbi - Mastering
Fernande Bonkarenko - Jacket Design
Richard Mock - Cover Illustration
Grady Turner - Back Design
Rachel Dobson - Insert Illustrations
Sue Davidson - Typesetting

Unknown-ness: Never heard of them. But with the wood cut-like print cover art, i'm getting a sense of Cowpunk or roots music. Los Lobos comes to mind. The album is produced by Mitch Easter, and it is on the Boston indie label Throbbing Lobster, so it might be jangley. The Picasso copied band portrait is a nice touch on the back.

Album Review: Jangle pop is the name of the game on this record...the meandering bass and lofty vocal melodies make a perfect fit for the strummey guitar style. These Alabama gents fell right into the Southern Jangle-Pop scene, a few miles inland from Atlanta, but still roped into the same fitting sub-genre as REM, if only a little more straight ahead rocking. They have a fourth member, but she is a non-performing lyricist, whom would build songs out of bits and ideas Roden brought to her. Their name is short for Primitive Tones, they only produced two (barely) full lengths, and an ep between 1984-1990.

Stand Out Track: All My Friends, Stars

Links:

Full collection Spotify
BHAM Wiki