More of That Boxed-In Feeling

By Rick Horowitz

OK, music fans -- for years now, you've been sending us desperate letters, flooding our switchboard with anguished phone calls.

"When?" you cry. "When do we get the good stuff?"

This is the good stuff.

Detritus Records is proud to announce the long-awaited release of the boxed set to end all boxed sets: Cleaning Out The Attic: The Bleach Boys Anthology. We're talking big -- 37 CDs, with every note ever produced by Ohio's biggest sun-and-fun band. That's right: Edgar, Mitch, Bruno, Spleen, Wink, Dink and Pete -- together again and sounding better than ever!

Digitally remastered from the original session tapes, here are all the hits, and all the rarities, too -- alternate takes, unreleased singles, public service announcements, everything. Feast your ears on 952 tracks in chronological order, culled from every label the boys from Sandusky ever graced with their high-energy presence. And not just their Bleach Boys sides either, but also their earliest, long-out-of-print work as Wayne and the Shirt Loops, the Marshmallow Squares, and even the Dangly Seat Belts.

Plus you get all their various solo projects -- and if you remember how often the boys squabbled over "creative differences," you'll know we've got plenty of exciting material here, too. Bruno's legendary Buzz Me In sessions, for instance -- 22 Little Richard classics performed on comb and tissue paper and never released. Until now, that is.

And how about Pete's Sounds? Recorded without Pete's knowledge in the bathroom of Chicago's famous Parcheesi studios, this is the album that supposedly inspired the Beatles to give up touring altogether. We've got the stereo and (for the first time in decades) the original mono mix, plus three bonus bathroom tracks that -- well, you'll just have to hear them.

Of course, what made the Bleach Boys the Bleach Boys was their group work -- the highly individual tunings and the sudden, unexplained tempo changes -- and we've collected every bit of that special Bleach Boys magic for you. For instance? You'll hear all 14 studio takes of "Erie Mama," their first chart topper, plus 67 absolutely identical live performances of "Jump in the Lake," which never appeared on any album.

You'll get rarely heard backing tracks for "Cuter Polluter" (from the band's short-lived enviro phase), as well as the full-length versions of their follow-up hits, "RV Lady" and "Tailpipe."

And speaking of live shows, wait till you hear A Little More Bass, Please, two entire CDs of Bleach Boys sound checks. Trust us -- it's a lot more than "Testing, 1-2-3...."

Naturally, some of the Bleach Boys' most creative moments happened outside the studio, but Cleaning Out The Attic doesn't miss a beat. We've got Wink and Dink's long-lost bus-ride tapes, where the boys tried out ideas for their first concept album, Let's Make Lots of Money. And don't forget I'm Not Home Now: The Best of Mitch's Answering Machine, with two full hours of messages from some of rock's biggest (or at least longest) names.

All this, plus a 746-page book featuring never-before-seen pictures, track-by-track reminiscences from the boys themselves, and copies of every room-service menu and therapy bill -- individual and group -- the boys accumulated during their long run in the limelight. And the entire collection is packaged in a hand-woven, individually numbered macrame carrying case with mahogany handle and heavy-duty chromium wheels.

Where has rock-and-roll been hiding all these years? It's been hiding in The Attic -- and now it's back!

Don't miss it!!

12/5/97