Wednesday, November 21, 2007

T.S.O.L. change today LP (1984)

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1. blackmagic
2. just like me
3. in time
4. red shadows
5. flowers by the door
6. American zone
7. It's gray
8. John
9. nice guys
10. how do

True Sounds Of Liberty were an early Southern California punk band, whom had built a brilliant reputation for starting fights and causing numerous problems inside and outside the punk scene. I'd known about their reputation long before I'd actually heard the bands tunes.
In those days It was in fact pretty hard to meet girls if you were a misfit or an outcast of society, like most punks and metal heads were(in my town at least). The only girls that seemed to take interest in us were Goth or new wave girls. At any rate this girl Tina that I was fooling around with in my teenage years turned me on to TSOL. She wasn't a punk girl, but listened to stuff like the Cure, Joy Division, Killing Joke, the Smiths, New Order, etc. For some reason she gave me her copy of this album. I remember being somewhat disappointed by the music, thinking it was wimpy compared to the bands bad ass rep. Listening on through the years though, there is so much going on with these guys on this LP. Everything from a Misfits influence to a Joy Division influence, just straight up depressed/gloomy sounding punk with no metal influence what so ever. Prolly the last good record these guys did.

http://rapidshare.com/files/71192906/tsol_change_today.zip.html
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12 comments:

  1. this isn 't the original TSOL. this is TSOL ver 2.0. -Jack Grisham, the original singer left and was replaced with Joe Wood. although this is a good album, check out their "Black" EP and the second album Dance With Me. way better stuff.
    skip the "metal/rock" albums, they suck.

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  2. hey Anonymous~
    I'm familiar with most TSOL (ccept the rock records actually). Again, this record holds an even more important place in my heart because of a certain person who gave me the record, and of where I was at that certain point in my life. Those things combined make this my fav record by these guys.

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  3. I'm glad this record is getting some credit. Definitely not on par with Dance With Me or the two 7"s, but this record definitely has some good jams on it, Flowers By the Door being my favorite.

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  4. A little rough around the edges, but an all around _great_ record. The CD has a few extra comp. and outtake tracks. People who care will debate the merits which band is better -- T.S.O.L. or TSOL. I own two of each band: Weathered Statues and Beneath The Shadows for the Grisham (or whatever moniker he happened to have) era, and Change Today and Revenge for the Joe Wood era.

    The OP opinioned that Change Today was the last good TSOL album. I find Revenge to be an even better album, with stronger musicianship and much better production. After that, I will unapologetically join along with anyone who says they were an awful band when they turned to LA Buttrock crap. I'm not alone, as the remaining original members bailed on the band too.

    Read most any interview with the reformed original members and they'll say they sorely wish that had changed the band name. I'd almost agree, but it wouldn't be much fun to to debate the merits of each band if they had different names.

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  5. Remarkable evolution of a band. They started as jocks and surfers who hated punk and punks, then got into punk heavily, first formed Vicious Circle and embraced the term 'ultra-violence' to characterize their 'approach'. However, the had to cool down the V.C. Huntington Beach punk gang craziness when too many people were seeking revenge on them.

    So Vicious Circle disbanded, and after laying low, TSOL was born. Then, they came out with the first ep, a masterpieces of hardcore punk with a surf vibe. Then the dark yet stellar Dance With Me, equal parts hardcore punk and death rock, and then they transformed into a heavy yet ambient keyboard-layden proto-goth band with the third record. And then the shit hit the fan, and suddenly they'd gone glam rock with 4 non-original members who were using the name despite Jack Grisham and the other orig. members continued protests. Sad times for LA punks too.

    Jack was known for wearing dresses and makeup at a time when you just didn't do that, though he also had the reputation for kicking the crap out of anyone who'd try to rile him up with it (he was a big badass dude). Fun times.

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  6. Thanks for posting this. Such a great album and I have to agree that this and Revenge bring me back to some great memories of hanging out and skating in the summer. Alot of people I met later on never got how I could like this era TSOL, but to be honest I still thinks its better than the early stuff. Like Drunk Injuns and alot of other bands of the mid 90's they attempted "songwriting" while going full blast. The stuff beyond revenge must be horrible, I still havent heard it.

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  7. oops i meant mid 80's

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  8. does anybody have VICIOUS CIRCLE demo?

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  11. Their reputation precedes them in so many ways, I believe most people knew of them way before ever listening to their music. I don't know if that is all good considering the stories, but bad press is still press.

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  12. I have an original Change Today lp. sealed in shrink wrap. Anyone interested?

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