Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Friends Of The Maid - Friends Of The Maid (1984)


It's been quite a long time since I've posted anything here, and I'm sorry for that! I've been in between homes, and finally getting settled down again. Hopefully I'll be able to post a bit more often now!

This DIY 12" was made in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA! A great obscure synthwave record for your listening pleasure. The main line-up involved in recording this record had a split after the record was released, although Brett Edgar and Carl White supposedly continued on and recorded more music as Friends Of The Maid (I have no further knowledge of this). The obvious stand-out track here is "Love Turn Around", which really could have been a hit with a bit more exposure. Enjoy!


Track List:

A1 - Love Turn Around
A2 - My Love For You Is Gone
B1 - Waiting For A Chance
B2 - Carolina Called
B3 - Ah! Sweet Mystery Of Life
Download

36 comments:

TymexPyres said...

My favourite on here was 'CArolina Called'. Thanks for sharing.

Vanilla Face said...

A close second for me, good call :)

bX-59cppw said...

...thank you sir! :-)

Anonymous said...

Wow, talk about obscure, undiscovered treasures!

Daniel said...

Hey awesome post! thanks a bunch. Maybe you can teach your buddy THE VINYL OBSCURITY FILES blogger to share his music like you do instead of showing off his collection!

Vanilla Face said...

Hah, I've already asked him to do so. No telling whether he will or not.

I added him to the blog roll to keep track when I first visited his blog. Without checking, I had thought he was sharing download links with each post. Let's just say I'm hoping to see some downloads available soon...

Anonymous said...

@Daniel: I know that guy, he loves teasing people with his amazing raqre 80s collection. He only accepts CD-R trades of equally rare stuff so don't hold much hope.

-Craig

Daniel said...

Thanks for the heads-up guys. In terms of trading music, I guess it's really outdated given all the blogs and torrents uploads around. These records will re-surface and will be posted by someone soon.

Vanilla Face said...

It irritates me when people aren't willing to openly share this kind of music. Selfishness is ugly and pathetic.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, selfishness is pathetic. I think we harassed him a little already with a few of the comments on his blog. I doubt it phased him.

Anonymous said...

I don't think it's good to go and harass him either, if anything his blog is a good reference to look for more undiscovered 80s records. altough it would be so awesome if he did like our friends Vanilla Face and bX-59cppw and others in the blogosphere who are keeping this music alive and unforgotten!

-Craig

Vanilla Face said...

He informed me that he doesn't have the time, combined with the fact that he worries over legal crackdowns...

That's his choice. Of course, it'd be great to get at least a taste of the sound on each record. I'm not typically too adventurous when it comes to buying something that I have no idea what the sound is like (unless it's cheap, which is rarely the case with these records). So I'll take an occasional glance at his posts and keep them in the back of my mind.

I agree with Craig, no real point in harassing him about it. Don't like that he isn't sharing? Don't visit his blog.

bX-59cppw said...

...thing is the spirit of sharing to be kept alive,that's the whole deal...
It kinda works like an "infection"...
ie.Vanilla Face is actually the guy who convinced me,
to start blogging as well...

Although i dislike speaking for others,
if my friend Vanilla Face allows me to do so in public,
be rest assured that we're both planning to keep people busy for way long time...
although lack of spare time is certainly an important issue.
What i mean in short is,
there should be no worries regarding people who keep their stuff private for "trading" instead of sharing,or i don't even know what...
One way or another,it will all be shared/posted eventually,there should be no worries there... :-)

Anonymous said...

I know...Iam sorry. I didn't do it too much. Nothing productive could come from it. My apologies to vinyl person. But, it wouldn't hurt to share..o...say one in every 20 lps. The guy has posted 80 some odd post, not one share. But, that is his perrogative. And, like Vanilla face said, don't like it-Don't go there. Mea Culpa ;)

Anonymous said...

Okay guys, enough bashing...1st-You have it all wrong Craig, whoever you are...You say you know me and I tease people....Couldn't be further from the truth...I'm not in grade school anymore...That's an immature thing to say in the first place.. and to your comment about CDR trades...I haven't traded a CDR in 5 years....

All i'm doing is sharing stuff from my collection and will at some point add download samples at the very least...Everyone is so fixated with downloads..why don't you just buy the real thing and keep the vinyl alive?

You guys make is sound like I'm committing high treason...chill out..

And not everything I post is rare..it may be obscure, but not rare...I've seen some of my posts for 1-5 dollars...

finally, I'm not the only blog out there that currently doesn't have downloads...get your facts straight...

Respectfully, thevinylobscurityfile

Anonymous said...

thevinylobscurityfile, you did not explain what your blog is good for as we have discogs for such references. It's totally a show off thing.

Respectfully, a pissed off music lover.

Anonymous said...

This music collector's drama is getting on my nerves. Anyone with the time and money can have a rare music collection. Now days it seems like all of these Internet hipsters are nostalgic for a generation that they were never part of. You can’t buy memories. The only reason I have an 80’s music collection is because it is a soundtrack to my life. I have a fond memory and an experience that is correlated with most of the songs from that time period. I’m not just trying to be cool. Go out and make memories of your own.

Anonymous said...

In the late 70’s & early 80’s there was a musical explosion called New Wave. This changed the face of Rock N Roll forever. Sure in the 70’s it started with Punk, but that transitory sound morphed into several sub genres collectively called, New Wave. Almost every Rock group of the late 70s early 80s added elements of New Wave to their sound. Punky guitars or synthesizers, skinny ties and shinny suits, or danceable drumbeats. Some of the bands were trendsetter while others were just bad Rock n Roll club bands.

As we look over amusicman’s blog of The Vinyl Obscurity Files, we see this is where these bands come to die. Amusicman before you lash out because your ego is bruised and you think this is a personal attack out of jealousy, I have listened to most of these bands and I have some them in my collection. First let me just say, I read some of the negative comments and I think most people are angry because the blog name, “The Vinyl Obscurity Files” in this day and age implies that after your blog entries there are some files posted somewhere. I’m no stranger to the world of blogs and I spent several minutes searching for a link to listen to the songs. If you are not going to post any song files or links to listen, at least you can state that in your profile. If you don’t want to share your music, at least you could post a jukebox or something. It’s your blog and you can do what you want to, but you come off like you are dangling your collection in front of people to come off like a big man. “Oh look at me I have all of this rare music and you don’t”

The nice thing about this modern era is it’s easy to share or post files for others to listen to. (If a song falls in the woods and no one is there to listen to it, it is really a hit) and a lot of the OGs (Old Guys) are posting these rarities for others to listen to. By sharing these files you aren’t taking money out of the band’s pockets, you are just going to pay some collector a silly amount of money for it.

That being said, as I was getting to in the beginning of this rant, I too am an avid 80s music collector. I’ve been sharing music for years. But the one thing I’ve learned about rare and out of print music, is most of it is rare and oop for a reason. Notice that on this site how most of these bands have only e.p.’s, if you pay $50 for that e.p., from an over priced collector, you will come to realize, the 70’s and 80’s were full of bad Rock n Roll bands disguising themselves as “New Wave”. Bad AOR bands with hair perms wearing neon colored clothes singing crappy Rock songs. Club bands with skinny ties and bad suits with croppy hair singing terrible pop songs. Hundreds of Joy Division and Bauhaus clone bands playing shitty goth rock who look like your crazy alcoholic aunt. Terribly boring Minimal Synth bands that never change the preset patterns of their drum machines and synths that drone on forever. I think amusicman knows this. If he shares these “rare” files, most of us will realize this, so it’s better to keep these “rarities” under lock and key to inflate the sense of value and boost his ego. Plus, other collectors have this stuff and it is just a matter of time before someone else posts the song files on their blog for all to listen to. Some of the stuff posted is worth listen to, but most of it is what I described above, so remember just because it is rare doesn’t mean it is good.

Anonymous said...

^tl;dr, leave the poor guy alone, I think his reviews are spot-on and his blog is a great guide for fellow rare 80s vinyl enthusiasts.
Maybe all this outrage could have been avoided if he named the blog The Vinyl Obscurity Reviews or something to avoid confusion from people expecting a more typical blog with mp3 downloads. Plus, I guess people are angry since he's showcasing records that are so expensive and hard to find but I don't blame him, ripping, cleaning and posting tracks from vinyl is time consuming and tedious. And I guess all this people insulting him isn't going to motivate him either, sadly.

Vanilla Face said...

Just to let everyone know, it looks like he posted a few songs on his latest post. Whether he continues to do so on other posts is up to him. It's his blog and his prerogative to post music or not.

We may not prefer the lack of downloads because we've become so accustomed to easy access across all the blogs, but like my friend bX said, it'll all end up online eventually. If nothing else his posts will inspire the records to surface a bit quicker. Fingers crossed that he helps make that happen every now and again.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your candid feedback, I apologize if there was a misinterpretation of my blog...In all honesty, I am a bit technically challenged with ripping vinyl to MP3 format as I don't have a usb turntable, but where I can, I will post samples and downloads or point you to where you can get them....I will try and figure it out though...

I will in the coming weeks be adding downloads to some previous posts where I had the vinyl remastered to CDR many years ago...I hope this will ease the frustration level...

Please don't get me wrong, I want to share this music, but right now I can only share some of it due the inability to transfer the vinyl to my computer...At a minimum, I would like to give you samples.

Anyway, like my about me states, I'm just trying to give you some recommendations for your vinyl collections - pretty straight forward and simple...I totally agree, this stuff is going to be online someday and the more the merrier..hopefully it will keep buying vinyl alive as well

And to the "pissed off music lover", I'm sorry you feel that way, but you need to understand, I'm not trying to "show off" or anything of the sort...Is posting reviews about records that are 1-10 bucks and easily found showing off? come on....

Vanilla Face, thanks for your support and I will let you know when I get that Quarks EP loaded..should be this week!

obscurityfile g.

Vanilla Face said...

Great to hear, been wanting to hear that record for quite some time. Looking forward to it.

Unknown said...

Greetings
I've added a bunch of downloads to my blog posts. More will be coming.

Vanilla Face - I added a couple of Quarks songs..let me know what you think...

thanks for your patience.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Vinylobscurity for the change of heart. I hope it didn’t seem like we strong armed you into the change of mind, but the changes over the years have been a mini social revolution in itself. File sharing in sorts is giving the power back to the people. Many of us have had a lifetime price gouging by the corporate world and all of the bullshit that use to be attached to music. Too many people were getting rich and it was rarely the artist that crated the music. Music use to be a high priced commodity. Most of these rarities are just that because of the backlash from the bullshit of the record industry. It was really, there for a while, all about the money. I love file sharing from the standpoint of finally getting a chance to hear the music. Over the years, I’ve converted all of my collection to MP3s, which as far as from a tangible commodity standpoint has rendered my collection “worthless”. File sharing and trading has given me the means to listen to “rare” music. It is similar to the story of those rare art collectors who have wonderful painting locked up in vaults when they should be on display for the world to see and enjoy. Isn’t that the initial intent by the artist?

Right now as I’m typing this I’m listening to Friends Of The Maid & your newly posted Boys From The East for the first time ever and loving it. Sure I’ve heard about these bands but because the above-mentioned reasons I’ve never got a chance to listen to them. Tons of great music remains unheard by the masses because of the lack of distribution and the lack of promotion by the record companies as a bottom line financial decision. Now because of technology and file sharing, a lot of music that has been just collecting dust somewhere, is being listened to by many, some for the fist time. I’ve read many comments on blog sites where the artist that made the music has commented to the fact that he’s happy that someone is finally getting a chance to hear his music. He’s not angry because someone is giving away his music for free. He knows the reality of the music business, when people get rich off of music; it’s usually not the artist anyhow. Now because of the backlash from the record bullshit his record sits in a cut-out bin somewhere.

Sure it takes some time to rip old records, but think of the joy you are sharing with others that really love music. My hat goes off to all of the Bloggers who have taken the time to share their wonderful collection with others.

Anonymous said...

I second that motion. Kudos bloggers, for all your time you put in.
-TymexPyres

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your comments. I know I got off to a bumpy start, but it's a learning process and I should be good to go now... I concure with you..and I'm glad I can share some of this unknown stuff with you. As soon as I can get a USB turntable and figure out the vinyl transfer process, I will go back and add downloads to all the posts that don't have them...

Funny you should mention artists contacting bloggers...Benjamin Russell contacted me shortly after I added his record to my blog. He was very cool and gave me the info to his video and album stream, which I put on my post...

Thanks for your support and please continue to check back often for regular new postings...

vinylobscurity.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Hey vinyl, sorry if we were rough with you. I now notice you're a cool guy and this was all a misunderstanding. share or not, we are cool

an ex-pissed of music lover

Unknown said...

No problem, I'm used to tough crowds... BTW - I spent some time last night updating about 40 of my posts with downloads...Also, I should have a set up within the next two weeks to get my vinyl transferred, so once that's done, I'll be going back and updating all the older posts that don't have downloads...

thanks
vinylobscurity

Anonymous said...

awesome news! at least open the comments section so that people can thank you and add comments about the releases. Bloggers are unsung heros of the lost music....

Unknown said...

Okay, sounds good...I'll open the comments....I do hope the dust is starting to settle now and you will approve of my blog going forward...There is a lot of stuff I want to share with you..and get your feedback on...Again, for all the posts that currently don't have downloads, once I'm set up here in about 2 weeks, I'll go back and update them...going forward, everything will have downloads, samples, etc...

thanks for your support and I hope you can listen to what you think is cool stuff...

vinylobscurity....

Anonymous said...

...sooooo much fuzz over... nothing,lmao...gazillions of mp3s to download nowadays on the net,and nothing can change that...
couldn't give a f*ck neither for vinyl collectors,bloggers,the RIAA,the MPAA or whoever else out there... :-)

"...bloggers are unsung heros of the lost music..." ->
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1fw6j_bonnie-tyler-i-need-a-hero_music

Anonymous said...

Friends of the Maid contributor Brett Edgar worked on many records after this but did a full length album project under the name Red Red Groovy. The album is called "25" and is cool trippy psych pop. A video is on Yahoo Music and the album is can be tracked down.

Ollie Stench said...

I'm from Minneapolis, and was around in 1984. I have never heard of this band or seen their record. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing this vinyl, I pulled it out and played for the first time in many years (20?). FoM was a studio band really, never played around but had some legendary parties at their studio on 28th and Colfax in early eighties - good times. LB

Andy said...

Well, I second that thank you to vinylobscurity's change of heart. As we say, sometimes bad press can cause these "changes of heart." ;-P

But all teasing aside, vinylobscurity, you must remember the typical saying "buy it and keep the vinyl alive" does not really hold a candle IMHO. Many people do no longer have a turntable and do not even plan to buy one (since it would not be worth the trouble for less than 30 records).
Ah, yes, there are "USB turntables!" There are indeed some of those, but some of us (me too) have less powerful machines and for me it would always mean to rip out my web cam because these puppies tend to be real POWER LEECHERS!!
And if you have a Creative web cam, please consider the massive effort you have once you pull this thing out. You can't expect it to work OOTB after you plug it in again. (Clean uninstall->Clean reinstall, at least on Windows)

The world is not just black and white.

Andy

Andy said...

Lastly, just a clear-but-sad fact: the link has expired.