Moving Targets-BURNING IN WATER (Taang!- 1986)

i have to say that this is one of the best debuts in indie rock/punk/post punk/whatever history. seriously, the songs are that good. apparently moving targets had been around for quite some time before they recorded this debut with man -about- town-at-the-time Lou Giordano in January of 1986. the band had originally started out as a hardcore band but by the time of BURNING IN WATER most of their peers had either broken up or gone metal (remember those final records by SSD and DYS?) and on this record the 'targets had left the h/c world behind for a more post-punk, melodic sound akin to what bands like husker du and squirrel bait were doing (those two bands get mentioned a lot in moving targets reviews but it is true). the record was getting rave reviews in all the zines at the time and i just had to hear it. from the first tune "the other side" to the last "squares and circles" it was evident that these three (occasionally four) men were truly onto something. first off they were all terrific players leader/guitarist/singer/songwriter kenny chambers mandhandled his axe like no other while bassist chuck freeman was as nimble and versatile as they come and drummer pat brady was a monster, a neal peart (the dude from rush) in disguise who could really hammer. on this record it is evident that the magic just happened. the ultra-melodic opener "the other side" perfectly sets the tone which then rips right into my favorite m.t. song of all time, "faith" a monster mix of tension and melody with one of the greatest guitar leads in indie rock history. elsewhere you have the nearly perfect "less than gravity", the blood and guts of "almost certain/drone", the ripping "mtv", the menacing, epic "coming home", the anthemic "squares and circles" and on and on. there is truly not a bad song on this record. in an interview i did with kenny chambers a few years back he said he was really happy to be recording these songs as most of them were 2-3 years old at that point and they wanted to get them down on tape.

not sure if the vinyl of this is still in print (i know that taang! is still around) but it was reissued as a two0fer on taang! along with their 2nd (good but not nearly as good) record BRAVE NOISE on one cd. the BURNING IN WATER tracks make up songs 14-27 on the cd. stop whatever it is you're doing right now and buy it. seriously.