Strange Alliance

Now that the World Cup is over, I'm kicking off the half-month of Tommy Keene with a post about Strange Alliance, his 1982 debut,

This record was self-released in a limited run of a few thousand copies 28 years ago, and has never been reissued in any format, so it's extremely rare and hard to find (which does not equate to "good"). Tommy's nw compilation (which came out today!) is listed with a date range of 1983-2009, which leads me to believe that he's trying to sweep SA under the rug.

Not Lame tried to reissue Strange Alliance a few years ago, but ran into rights issues, so it's still a rarity. One friend who lived in D.C. back in the day made me a tape of SA while ago, so I've heard it, and it's pretty good, even though it does sound very much of it's time, heavy on the reverb with a Steve Lillywhite early U2 feel. Kind of the sound of a promising talent before he found his voice.

Obscure records have become easier to find in this internet age, and Strange Alliance is available here as a rapidshare link, for those who are curious about what it sounds like but don't want to pay collector prices. There isn't a lot of TK on youtube, so I might have to resort to "imaginary Tommy" for many of these posts.