Single Bullet Theory were an AOR/power-pop band based out of Richmond, VA, who released a rather underpromoted album for the Columbia Records Nemperor imprint (yep, home to the Romantics) in 1982. Thought this might be of some interest to you out there. On a more trivial note, upon dissolution of the band, two of Blimkie's hired guns went onto greater success in Honeymoon Suite. Steve Blimkie and the Reason falls just shy of classic status, offering succinct, whip-smart pearls like 'Can't Say I'm Sorry,' 'Subway,' and 'It Only Happened Twice,' all clocking in well under the three-minute mark. Think early Joe Jackson, Tommy Tutone, and The A's. They compensated for their lack of innovation with sheer quality and a respectable amount of character to boot. Steve Blimkie and the Reason were a Toronto quartet who released two albums (this being the first) and about a half dozen singles during their 1979-81 run (scroll over to the hyperlink for a bio on The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia). Once again I uncover a great, virtually unknown power-pop talent from an era I thought I'd reached the bottom of the barrel of a long time ago. BTW, if it's Jimmy demos, rarities or live shows you're looking for, you'll do no better than heading over to vast trove archived at B-Sides 'R' Us. Besides it's appearance on this wax, 'Better Than Oh' may have been included on the Japanese version of the combo's quite essential Singles collection, but that incarnation of the album has long been unavailable.

I'm pretty positive this track has Linton's vocal prints on it, as he possesses quite a distinctive bellow from Adkins. At this phase in their career, the group was splitting the vocals between Jim Adkins (the one who sings all the MTV hits) and Tom Linton, who still resides in the Jimmy Eat World lineup.

'Better Than Oh' was recorded as a demo for the band's second album, the pre-stardom Static Prevails. The vast majority of their catalog is still in print, and while I could easily go into specifics about my albums of choice by the Mesa, AZ boys done good, I'll focus on this very scarce split single. It would be no exaggeration to say that I've been on a huge Jimmy Eat World kick lately (not that a lot of you would necessarily care, or in any small way be affected by that, but I digress).

Passion pit take a walk zippyshare