Real Nighttime

Game Theory's first official full-length LP Real Nighttime was recorded in the Summer of 1984, just after the release of Distortion, but didn't come out unti the following year due to band and label shakeups.

Real Nighttime was recorded by the same lineup that made the preceding EPs, but the band broke up after a tumultuous national tour. By the time the album came out in early 1985, Scott Miller for all intents and purposes, was Game Theory, and his photo was prominently featured on the cover.

Game Theory's label Rational had also entered a licensing agreement with Enigma Records that put Real Nighttime in release limbo for a few months, but gave the album national distribution. For most GT fans, including myself, Real Nighttime was our first exposure to Game Theory. I remember hearing "24" and "Shark Pretty" on an Engma compilation, where both songs stood out among the rest of the hoi polloi on the $4.98 label comp.

The album Real Nighttime was also discount priced, and I bought the cassette version that had a cover of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" as a bonus track. The album also ad a cover of a Big Star song ("You Can't Have Me"), was produced by Mitch Easter of Let's Active/R.E.M. fame, and featured cryptic Joycean liner notes, so it seemed to be engineered for my own musical aesthetic.

I was completely blown away that these songs with deep and meaningful lyrics still had hooks and melody and rhythm and all those other cool things. Most reviews were turned off by Scott Miller's voice, but I thought it fit the songs really well. There were also complaints that Real Nighttime sounded too much like an antiquated relic from the 60s (guitars are passe, man!), but nowadays if anything, it sounds like a synth and timpani mid-80s relic. The power of the songwriting overrrides any period arrangements and productions.

Here's the epic "Friend Of The Family" performed by the original band at that same Berkeley show (which was 1984, not 1983). Somewhere below Nancy's screechy keys and Dave's kettle drums, there's a great rock song crying to be unleashed!



Between the time Real Nighttime was recorded and released, Scott Miller move from Davis to San Francisco and formed a new Game Theory band (GT MkII) with drummer Gil Ray, keyboardist Shelley LaFreniere, and bassist Suzi Ziegler. This lineup toured the country and recorded a new album (Big Shot Chronicles) with Mitch Easter that wasn't released until the following year. By which time the lineup had changed again. And so on and so forth.