Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
For a decade the music coming out of Los Angeles was raw, energetic, magnificent. It had grown from its encompassing roots of Californian 60s rock standards, flower power child sensibilities, its long hair ‘hippy’ roots and taken on a greater, more fierce, more competitive edge as it sought to outmarch bands emerging from its East Coast counterparts and those from Europe and Australia.
The 80s seemed dominant with this hard hotting explosive good looking, handsome creations, replete with attitude and an energy that seemed boundless, if you had the chops then you had the contract, you were virtually assured to be feted, to have Hollywood acknowledge you, and to see your name in lights, your image in the papers, and journalists salivating as they hung around the gates at the end of the drive as they concocted and weaved stories out of apparent thin air.
Almost assured, almost famous…
For one band, the dream inescapably never found its way to realisation, not for the talent, because as you listen to the first of two compilation albums of unreleased works by Taz, what is noticeable is the depth of their writing, the pleasure to be heard as songs that should have, would have been staples of the genre and illuminating stadiums alongside others of their craft, and yet somehow became lost to time.
The thing is Time never truly forgets, it stores the knowledge until humanity is ready for it, to truly grasp the genius and generosity of expression, and as Wake Up And Sweat, Vol 1 immediately rocks the heavens and shakes Hell to pieces, so Taz assuredly finally finds a home in which to groove.
To have been in attendance when Taz, with their combination of Pop, Funk, Metal and Glam, strutted with desire and thought through their setlists on stage, must have been a thrill, and as songs collated by Eonian Records attest, that thrill was, to say the least, worthy of the time in the sun they were absurdly not afforded.
The first volume retrospective sees tracks such as She Does Bad Things Good, Love Violations, SEX, Political Songs, Caroline, and Bad Religion, showcase the band, K.K. Kleven, Ethan Gladstone, Rik Berry, Chris Roy and Kenny Pierce & Joey Carallo, to such an extent that the thrill that was missing, that jigsaw piece that would have made the time and the place make complete sense, restored and understood, made it loved even more.
A lovingly collated set of songs, to wake up and sweat in anticipation of the music that was denied full exposure is to feel Time restored and a band given its proper admiration.
Ian D. Hall