Very interesting postpunk band from Denver, Colorado. They mix the gloomy side of postpunk with 60's rock influences. The band only existed for 2 years but they made a hell of a lot of songs. Prior to this vinyl release, Soul Merchants released 2 cassette albums, 'God’s Hand Touched Him, And He Slept' and 'Before The Gates'. After the album they recorded the 'Let It Brood' cassette but this one was never officially released, probably because the band was falling apart.
I found out about Soul Merchants not so long ago, while reading the reviews in old Maximum Rock'n Roll editions,. You can find these on the Operation Phoenix Records site. Some reviews caught my attention and the 'Gates Of Heaven' LP was one of them. I went looking for a copy and came across their MySpace page. I was immediately impressed and asked Noinim and Fritz Die Spinne for more info. Fritz sent me MP3's of the cassette albums, which were originally digitized by Noinim as he knows one of the ex-members very well. And I managed to find a copy of the vinyl album on eBay recently.
One of the reasons that I post the album is that it's quite rare and hard-to-find. The other reason is to announce the release of the double CD set 'Black Boots And Sideburns' which contains almost all of the songs released on the 3 cassette albums. 5 songs didn't make it (of which 2 are drawn out psychedelic tunes). This release can now be obtained through Smooch Records. I really recommend you to do so. I already ordered mine and, being from Europe, asked for shipping charges but there are none. Talk about cheap!
Note: sorry for the purple-ish colour in the scan of the frontsleeve. Blame my scanner!
Gates Of Heaven LP (Iron Gate Records-IG 003-1986)
1. Phases Of The Moon
2. Within This Place
3. Marriage Hearse
4. Black Rain
5. When I Smile
6. Staircase
7. Country Lane
8. Frame House
9. Blue On Blue
10. Just One More Favour
New link!
Soul Merchants
9 comments:
there are a few decent songs on this album, i like that "harpsichord??" on Black Rain. thanks for the upload.
Thanks for this.
ahhh, Michael will be so happy to see your entry on his old crusty band! i have a promo copy of the 2-CD set and I must tell you that it sounds better than expected.
hi there again - after a brief absence, i was catching up on your blog, and discovered that the soul merchants link is down (mediafire gives the "invalid quick key" message). wm2007
Hi there, I'll re-up tomorrow morning, OK? Seems that mediafire likes to delete some of my uploads without reason...
I am lucky to be old enough to have had a pen pal send me a copy of the double cassette release titled- "Before The Gates" back in 1986 not long after I found "Gates Of Heaven" at an idie store. I am an "old deathrocker" that has most bands from the era in their collection - The Soul Merchants are my all time favorite - this new release just gave me a whole new album of material to listen to -even after 20 years! It's great to hear songs like "Rotten Rose" and "Save My Soul" where the lyrics are just that much more clear that I can hear them again for the first time - Cheers to Bob and to Andrew for their hard work!
I joined the Soul Merchants in 1988 and change it to a Metal band.
Wow, This was really unexpected. I've only heard "Country Lane" before and was looking for the bands releases on iTunes, but only today found them.
It's a collection of 40 songs with 3 of them being from the Gates Of Heaven LP. Country Lane was not in this collection, but I have it now, thanks to you, & at 256 KB quality, which I really appreciate! I would gladly have purchased it from iTunes had it been available.
Thank you very much for doing this & for the info & links you provided!
Any chance the other Soul Merchant cds could be uploaded?
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