The Neats
The Neats were a jangly rock quartet that formed in the late ’70s and dissolved in 1990. During the first wave of the punk invasion, they were a big deal in the Boston’s rock universe and had a short – but important and influential – run on the scene playing well-crafted tunes with a psychedelic power-pop sound akin to that of The Dream Syndicate, The Feelies, Lyres, Question Mark and The Mysterians.
ORIGINAL LINEUP, LATER PERSONNEL, FIRST RECORDINGS
“We actually met and started playing together in a basement apartment on Beacon Street in Back Bay,” says guitarist-vocalist Phil Caruso. “Friends of friends. We eventually moved to Allston in late 1980.” The band consisted of Caruso, guitarist-vocalist-harmonicist-organist Eric Martin, drummer Terry Hanley and a succession of three four-stringers: first Jerry Channell, then Jay Parham (The Flies) and finally David Lee. Channell left to work in the graphics field and Parham was in the band very briefly, and Caruso says that when Lee came aboard, “the sound was becoming more blues-oriented, louder, with more improvisation.”
Their discography closely reflects the band’s history. They first recorded for the Independent label Propeller and appeared on two compilation albums in 1981; their swirling Vox organ song “Six” appears on the EP Propeller Product and “Do the Things” and a live take of “Another Broken Dream” appear on a Propeller cassette sold only at Newbury Comics in Boston. Both are psychedelic garage rock at its best, according to most fans of the genre.
EPS, ALBUMS, POST-NEATS ACTIVITY, LEGACY
In 1982, they recorded the EP The Monkey’s Head in the Corner Of The Room with on Ace of Hearts with label founder Rick Harte producing. It was voted one of the best EPs of the year by The Village Voice in their annual Pazz + Jop Poll. Three full-length albums and an Ace of Hearts compilation followed: The Neats (Ace of Hearts, 1983), Crash At Crush (Coyote-Twin Tone, 1987), Blues End Blue (Coyote-Twin Tone,1989) and Neats 1981-84 The Ace of Hearts Years (2009, Ace Of Hearts). Terry Hanley died after a fall from a balcony on October 5, 1999. Eric Martin is still on the scene in Eric Martin & The Illyrians.
Many consider The Neats a long lost band that shoulda, woulda, coulda. Caruso says one of the band’s fans once described them as “two of the best bands in Boston in the 80s,” meaning that The Neats’ sound combined what Caruso calls “our jangly, chordy beginnings with Jerry and then our louder, blues based sound with Dave.”
I liked that [comment],” he says. “It described The Neats’ clean cut onstage image and clean and mean guitar riffs still that strike a chord with many local music buffs. Early on, during the time Jerry was in the band, we were more psychedelic. We used more reverb and fit in well and played shows with Lyres. We shared some music structure with The Feelies in that we had two guitars strumming chords using reverb creating a lot of overtones in our sound.
(by A.J. Wachtel)
