The Plimsouls - Zero Hour - Expanded Version (1980)

In my last post, I expanded an EP by R.E.M. into a full album. I'm doing it again here, but this time with the 1980 EP "Zero Hour" by the Plimsouls.

Are you familiar with the Plimsouls? They're best known for their 1983 hit "A Million Miles Away." But they're much more than a one-hit wonder. Even though they only put out two full albums before breaking up in 1984, they're one of my favorite 1980s bands.What really makes them stand out is the songwriting and singing of Peter Case, who went on to have a long career as a singer-songwriter.

The Plimsouls' first release was the "Zero Hour" EP in 1980, followed by full albums in 1981 and 1983. Their 1981 album, cleverly called "The Plimsouls," has been available for many years under the title "The Plimsouls... Plus," with this EP plus some other songs added to it. But there's enough material to expand the EP to a full album, adding a bunch of songs to it that all predate their 1981 album.

To start with, I go way back, all the way to 1976, when Case was part of a band called the Nerves. They weren't around long, and only put out one EP. They're best known for the song "Hanging on the Telephone," which became a hit when Blondie covered it. But the Nerves were a band with three songwriters, and "Hanging on the Telephone" was written or sung by Case, so I'm not including it here. Instead, I've included "When You Find Out," the only song on that Nerves EP written and sung by Case. If you look further down the song list, you'll notice the Plimsouls did a version of this, but only as an instrumental. They're different enough versions for me to include both.

The next two songs are by the Breakaways. The Breakaways only existed for a short time. They were co-lead by Case and Paul Collins, the guy in the Nerves who wrote "Hanging on the Telephone." I've only included two songs written and sung by Case. They broke up before they could officially release any music, but some of their stuff eventually came out decades later.

The rest of the album contains just the Plimsouls. The fourth song is an original that was recorded live in 1979. The next five songs are from the "Zero Hour" EP. That's followed by seven more songs, mostly from 1980. I believe "Memory" and "One Way Ticket" are originals.

The Plimsouls weren't really a "new wave" band like so many others in the early 1980s, though they were lumped in with that movement. As you can see from their choice of covers here, they proudly based their music on the rock and soul of the 1950s and 1960s, but then added their own creativity to make it something different. They do covers by James Brown ("Night Train"), Otis Redding ("I Can't Turn You Loose"), Elvis Presley ("Kid Creole"), and a Larry Williams song that was also done by the Beatles ("Dizzy Miss Lizzy").

Three of these extra songs are officially unreleased. But they all come from excellent bootlegs, probably soundboards, so I don't think you'll notice any difference in sound quality.

Altogether, the songs on this album add up to 43 minutes. That's an ideal album length, in my opinion. But what really makes this a worthy album are the originals songs. Even with this, the band's first music, I think the originals go toe-to-toe with the famous covers they did. The whole thing simply rocks.

01 When You Find Out (Nerves)
02 Radio Station (Breakaways)
03 House on the Hill (Breakaways)
04 Thing of the Past (Plimsouls)
05 Great Big World (Plimsouls)
06 Zero Hour [Original Version] (Plimsouls)
07 Hypnotized (Plimsouls)
08 How Long Will It Take (Plimsouls)
09 I Can't Turn You Loose (Plimsouls)
10 Memory (Plimsouls)
11 Night Train (Plimsouls)
12 One Way Ticket (Plimsouls)
13 Kid Creole (Plimsouls)
14 Dizzy Miss Lizzie (Plimsouls)
15 Hush, Hush (Plimsouls)
16 When You Find Out [Instrumental Version] (Plimsouls)

https://www.imagenetz.de/bVwRz

For the cover art, I've used the cover to the "Zero Hour" EP. Except that cover looked exceedingly boring, because they entire thing was in shades of grey. I've spiced it up by tinting the whole thing blue, and then colorizing some of the text red.