Reissues: The Things

One of my favorite albums from my 80s college radio days is finally--FINALLY!--getting its digital due. After some 40 years of listening to a scratchy, long-out-of-print LP recorded to a cassette tape (and later digitized), one of the few records which was never released on CD is back, remastered with a few bonus tracks..

I wrote about The Things' largely forgotten 1986 minor classic Outside My Window some time ago, but in brief: The Things were a peripheral part of the 80s Paisley Underground, a Los Angeles retro-psychedelic act in a similar vein as The Rain Parade. Their 1984 debut, Coloured Heaven, was pretty good (and got its own reissue last year). But Window was even better, mining the jangly, trippy psychedelia of the Byrds circa Notorious Byrds Brothers, but with a bit tougher (yet still melodic and poppy) garage rock vibe along the lines of the Electric Prunes or Chocolate Watchband. It's pretty great, and a worthy companion to the Rain Parade's timeless Emergency Third Rail Power Trip.

The reissue is available on Bandcamp (though $20 for a digital download is pretty steep). But it's also streaming for the first time, so check it out!