Time to fire up this website and our email list and all the TwittyFaceBonkerGrams and announce this skawesome new release! Get Out Of My Way (The early recordings) is now available on the Liberation Hall label. This contains the band’s very first studio recordings, from 1983 at John Altmann and Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, plus the long out-of-print KUSA EP, recorded at the Automatt in 1984. All these songs feature the Uptones’ original lineups with Erik Rader on lead vocals, Thomas White and then Jay Lane on drums, Gregory Blanche on Keyboards, Michael Wadman on Trombone, Kenny Brooks and then Dave Ellis on Sax, Paul Jackson on Trumpet and then Keyboards, then Scott Jensen on Trumpet (Ska-T!) Charles Stella and Eric Dinwiddie on Guitar, and Ben Eastwood heroically holdin’ the whole thing up from start to finish on Bass. Whew! What! That’s a lot o’ cats. Did I miss anyone? Probably. Read the full credits in the cool CD booklet by artist Peter Montgomery who was there when and knows. Oh! Liner notes by Sarah Cain, who saw the whole thing up close and tells the saga from her perspective as a friend, a fan, and a mod. Out now on CD and streaming services. God knows how the timing worked out this way, we’ve only been thinking of compiling and remastering these old tapes for three decades. More to follow about some of the songs and stories behind them, but for now, wanted to let you know this is up.
