THE TUNES - EP

Tune’s Tunes, 1982

ELEVATOR

CROWDED HEART

TOO PROUD

SHE'S MAD

Thanks to Collin for this post!

As most punks went down to the basement or into the pit and as new wave pop styled its hair and steeled its heart toward visions of a more inorganic, fretless future, Topeka, KS foursome, the Tunes, waved one last, desperate flag for the style of updated 60s pop the region had been noted (but not famous) for producing since the original Titan! Record ripples of the late 1970s. Despite the band’s location, the Tunes’ approach was much slicker than any of the Titan! groups or even the Regular Guys, recalling the glossy style of J.D. Buhl or Buddy Love, albeit with much classier songwriting and much less annoying vocals. That said, it’s hard not to hear echoes of the Regular Guys on the more Mersey-derived tracks on the record‘s flipside. All too predictably, the Tunes’ self-released EP proved to be the group’s lone release, rendering fine service - along with the EP by Artists! - as both a document of a talented band and the last-gasp of the prairie pop style.