Jonathan Postal has had an extensive music career fronting three different bands throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. Raised in New York City he ended up in San Francisco during the late ‘70s punk and new wave scene where he received a BFA in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute.

His photo work shooting various bands on the SF scene led him to photo stints at CBS Records, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, the Soho Weekly News and the Miami New Times. This 18-track collection compiles tracks from the three bands along with his own solo material.

Most popular and significant of those bands were the Readymades, an influential bay area group from that iconic period. The group released two singles with an album that were all compiled along with other unreleased material on the Liberation Hall 2021 release, “More Live Than Not: San Francsico 1978”.

“All The Boys on St. Mark’s Place” features three unreleased Readymades tracks that feature the female new wave band the B Girls with Cynthia Ross and Xena Holiday on background vocals. Also features Bart Lewis on guitar who went on to form the NYC glam metal band Smashed Gladys.

In the early 1980s Postal moved back to New York where he formed the band The Odds. The group featured local playing legends Kenny Aaronson on bass (Rick Derringer, Bob Dylan, Billy Idol, The Yardbirds), Johnny Rao on guitar (David Johansen, Sylvain Sylvain) and the late Lee Crystal (Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Sylvain Sylvain) on drums. The collection features 4 unreleased tracks from the NYC super group.

Jonathan’s next band The Gift contribute eight unreleased tracks that feature New York City local musicians Freddie Katz on guitar/vocals, Robert Koechel on bass and Johnny Decal on drums. The 18-track set is completed and rounded off with three solo Jonathan Postal tracks.

1. Floating World/The Odds (3:11)
2. The Wrong Man/The Odds (3:11)
3. Send It C.O.D./The Odds (2:35)
4. Nurse Debbie/The Odds (2:35)
5. Get Used To the Fact/The Readymades (2:13)
6. Fallen Angel/The Readymades (3:03)
7. Living In the Movies/The Gift (3:21)
8. Angry Young Men/The Readymades (2:35)
9. Love Me Or Leave Me Alone/The Gift (3:15)
10. You Were There/The Gift (3:05)
11. The Architect/The Gift (4:08)
12. The Girl In the Glass Cage (4:51)
13. Shut Up, This Ain’t Love (3:24)
14. Mistaken For Love/The Gift (4:37)
15. The Gift/The Gift (4:42)
16. Don’t Get Excited/The Gift (3:36)
17. Secrets Of The Heart/The Gift (3:23)
18. Nobody’s Fool (2:20)

The collection opens on four from The Odds, starting with the gently rambunctious Floating World, the more strident The Wrong Man, the free flowing rocker Send It C.O.D. and the countrified pop-rock of Nurse Debbie, and then we get three from The Readymades in the form of the pop-rocker Get Used To the Fact, the melodic, punk-hued Fallen Angel, the finger-clicking beauty Angry Young Men, with a bunch from The Gift threaded throughout: the pop-tastic Living In the Movies, the alt-rocker Love Me Or Leave Me Alone/The Gift, the rhythmic hipsway of You Were There and then we get the dutiful The Architect.

The brilliant synth-imbibed rocker The Girl In the Glass Cage is one of the highlights of this album for me and is backed by the synth drum-fed, anti-love song Shut Up, This Ain’t Love and then come a quartet from The Gift; the first being the regimented Mistaken For Love, the forthright alt-pop rocker The Gift, the resounding Don’t Get Excited, the collection rounding out on the poptastic Secrets Of The Heart, closing on the twanging countrified beauty Nobody’s Fool.

Jonathan currently resides in Memphis performing with his band the Rattlesnake Whips. He continues with his art and is the creator of Postal Guitars. For more info check out their site here: www.postalguitars.com

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