If you stress it, they’ll press it. —Ed.
VIA PRESS RELEASE | Guadalcanal Diary exploded on the scene in 1985 when the previous year’s Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man was issued via Elektra Records and spawned the hit “Watusi Rodeo.”
Over the next four years, Murray Attaway (vocals, guitar), Jeff Walls (guitar, vocals), Rhett Crowe (bass, vocals), and John Poe (drums, vocals) released three more critically acclaimed albums before calling it a day. The band reconvened for live shows in the late ’90s; tape was rolling during a two-night stand at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta, Ga., January 1998. The following year, At Your Birthday Party was self-released as a thank-you to “Guadal fans everywhere.”
This 16-track performance finally will receive worldwide distribution on July 13, 2018 via Omnivore Recordings, with updated artwork and new liner notes from Attaway. It encompasses everything their fans love about the band — favorites from all four Elektra releases, as well as one song that only appears on this collection, plus the hooks and passion that filled venues.
According to Attaway, from the liner notes, “After doing one solo album in L.A., I wanted to go back to the South and record with musicians who were pals and who had the same record collection that I had…A lot of tracks that I love came from those sessions, but others seemed like Guadalcanal songs. Guadal needed to do them. So Rhett Crowe, John Poe, and Jeff Walls all agreed to play on the tracks.
That record remains unreleased, unfortunately. But during the sessions, the four of us had big fun and we decided to do some live shows. Again, a good time was had by all. Then we got anxious to do a live album, as we never quite got our sound on record accurately, because you never do. So we did that. ” At Your Birthday Party shows that the band never lost its drive, and that the songs still resonate.
Track listing:
1. Gilbert Takes the Wheel
2. Trail of Tears
3. Country Club Gun
4. Pretty is as Pretty Does
5. The Likes of You
6. Lips of Steel
7. Newborn
8. Say Please
9. I See Moe
10. Whiskey Talk
11. Vista
12. Litany (Life Goes On)
13. Dead Eyes
14. Cattle Prod
15. Pau Pau
16. Watusi Rodeo
