Death Of Samantha - "Where The Women Wear The Glory And The Men Wear The Pants"

In the late 80's/early 90's - I was struggling to find new music. Major chains like Record Bar and Tracks had created a small section of "Alternative" music. At the time, finding any of it on cd was damn near impossible, not to mention extortion - so cassettes were my only course of pursuit. This has actually worked out, in that this all was taking place when the tapes from the 80's were going out of print, labels were going under, and these two chains were about so die a quiet death.

Death Of Samantha; this cassette in particular was one that I picked up at least a half dozen times over the course of a year...and put down. I was intrigued by the way they looked (the album's cover made that intrigue possible), but there was no track listing on the j-card. It was completely unheard of for any of the tapes in the "Alternative" section to be anything under $9.99. I think out of complete lack of curiosity about anything else, I finally bought this. I played it - and didn't play it again for about 8 years. I didn't dig it then. Thousands of years passed, the internet was invented, and my friend Shawn began throwing me musical curveballs from all directions. In an effort to show him I wasn't utterly lame and had some music of interest, I started digging thru the dusty side of the tape rack. I rediscovered this cassette. The band is a mix of post punk/glam rock, and it's actually quite good. There's touches of Bowie, T-Rex and The Stooges, and progressive rock. I don't think 1988 was looking for a band the flew the flag of 70's glam and thus were forced to swim the rivers of obscurity. It seems like Death Of Samantha would be one of those bands that has a small, hardcore fanbase. "Lucky Dog (Lost My Pride)" is an epic flow across genres and stands out amongst the others.

However, this tape (mine is on Homestead/Dutch East) - suffers from sound level inconsistency. Quite annoying. It even starts getting wavy - grrrr.