MY HEART HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN

There was a lot of interesting stuff happening musically on the West Coast in the early '80s.

You had Slash with bands like X, Dream Syndicate, and Green on Red.

SST with Black Flag and The Minutemen.

The 415 bands: Romeo Void, Red Rockers, Wire Train. And Translator.

For some reason, I’ve been thinking about Translator a bunch the last couple of days.

I’ve been thinking about how great Everywhere That I’m Not was. You know the song—it goes like this:

Well, that impossible, that’s im,
That’s impossible, that’s im-poss,
That’s impossible, that’s im-poss-ible…

It’s a gas to hear them build the word “impossible” —it sounds like a kid trying very hard to understand what it actually means.

More particularly, I’ve been considering Un-Alone as one of the great “lost” songs of that era.

It shimmers and chimes like the best contemporary R.E.M., Let’s Active, Plimsouls material, with just the right amount of ache.

If it’s not part of your collection, I’d recommend dropping the buck-minus-a-penny at iTunes. You won’t regret it…