Shoes - Primal Vinyl - New LP

"Primal Vinyl" is a collection of classic Shoes songs (late 1970s to early 1980s) that includes a previously unreleased live track and material released on vinyl for the first time.

Zion, Illinois’ Shoes comes in second only to Cheap Trick in embodying the sound and story of Illinois pop in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Helmed by brothers Jon and Jeff Murphy and schoolmate Gary Klebe, Zion’s favorite sons were more bedroom than barroom, focusing on nailing their technique, not the local barmaid. Though their catalog has remained in print on CD for as long as the format has been around, the LPs have had far less bin exposure as the decades have worn on.

"Most bands start out trying to bang their songs together in someone's living room, but Shoes certainly made more of that experience than most people. Jeff Murphy, Gary Klebe, and John Murphy were three pop obsessives from Zion, IL, who bought a four-track, found a drummer (Skip Meyer), and started putting songs on tape in Murphy's living room with all the care their primitive circumstances would allow. While the results were intended to be used only as a demo, Black Vinyl Shoes eventually attracted the attention of PVC Records, who gave the homemade set a nationwide release; the album's positive press eventually earned the band a major-label deal. Like their contemporaries and kindred spirits the Scruffs, Shoes were one of the few interesting pop bands to emerge in the mid- to late '70s who were very obviously not new wave; Shoes were pop classicists in the manner of the Beatles and the Raspberries, and if their low-tech recording setup dictated a leaner and more basic approach than the Fab Four, the thick guitar lines, smooth backing harmonies, and trickier-than-they-sound melodic structures made it clear their back-to-basic style was a nod to past rock glories as much as a call to jangly arms."