For those not in the know, the just-released Absolute Grey – CBGB’s 1985 features 10 previously unreleased live recordings from the 1980s indie rock band that shared the stage with Rain Parade, Salem 66, Dream Syndicate, Alex Chilton, Long Ryders, and even Three O’clock.

Featuring Beth Brown, Mitchell Rasor, Pat Thomas, and Matt Kitchen, imagine, if you will for a moment, early REM with female vocals, blending Fairport Convention and Jefferson Airplane with Echo & the Bunnymen; for example.

Long before self-reflective female singers became the hip trend on the alternative music scene, Beth Brown of Rochester, New York’s Absolute Grey was writing and singing about loneliness and the challenge of independence…a garage-pop approach, the bass carrying most of the melody and the guitar adding color with Peter Buck-like arpeggios.

Complete with liner notes by Karen Schoemer, Jim DeRogatis, and Luke Wood, this release is a magnificent live testament to a band that escaped the musical gaze of too many back in the day, but who can hopefully now readjust their gaze rightly so back onto them now.

1. Gardens
2. Umbrella
3. (Untitled)
4. More Walnuts
5. A Joke
6. No Man’s Land
7. Memory of You
8. Willow
9. White Rabbit
10. Killing Birds

Recorded in 1985, and yet very much still an excellent introduction to Absolute Grey for all those who might have missed them the first time around, they open on the goth-lite Gardens and the gorgeous hipsway of Umbrella and the come the free flowing indie pop vibe of (Untitled), the alt-indie brilliance of More Walnuts and the gothic-hued A Joke.

Along next is the engaging No Man’s Land which is in turn backed by the resoundingly melodious Memory of You, the alt-pop of Willow, the set rounding out on some affecting nuances within White Rabbit, coming to a rousing close on a somewhat menacing moan that threads throughout Killing Birds.