BREAKOUTS “JACKED UP URBAN MODIFIED” CD (SAN
FRANCISCO, 1996)
Breakouts release, by the reformed version of the band that was around in the mid
90’s. This CD is not mind blowing or
anything for me (and, er, the title sounds a little corny), but for purposes of completion and to satisfy the curiosity of
others I thought I’d post it. My two
favorite blogs, Killed By Death Records
and Good Bad Music (and I’m not just
saying that cuz I know those dudes), posted all three of the great late 70’s and early
80’s Breakouts records- the 1st 7″ from 1979 here, the 2nd 7″ from 1980 here, and the “No More” 12″EP from 1983 here.
I don’t have an original copy of this CD but
it was dubbed for me by J.T. in ’96 back in my tape trading days and was
originally identified as an unreleased CD.
For all of these years I thought it was never was officially released
UNTIL I began putting this post together and found out that it was indeed
released, albeit in a limited manner and apparently without any distribution. I also found out the official name of it,
because for all of these years I have just been calling it “Unreleased
Breakouts CD”. Did have the track listing for all these years, tho.
guitarist of the band on this CD is still Rudy Fontaine from the original
Breakouts, and you can still hear his distinctive singing and great whiny guitar
noodling style in some parts, especially on hummable songs songs like “Not Like That” or “India Basin” (which refers not the country of India but rather an area around San Francisco). But there is more “professional” production on this CD and there’s a bit more of a rock-ish
influence in the geetar, so don’t expect this CD to sound like a carbon copy of the old
Breakouts sound. Perhaps
Mr. Fontaine reformed the band after they started appearing on KBD comps(?)-
their first comp appearance was 1980’s “Waiting For A Change” that came out on
the so-so Back To Front v.6 in the Summer of 1995. Then “In
Vagueness Deal”, from the 1st 1979 7″, was included on the
spectacular Killed By Death #9 in the Fall of ’95 (and also used as the cover for said volume). This, of course, is not to say that no one
was listening to the old Breakouts records before they were comped or that a comp apperance “validated” the band in some way, but comps really open up an old band to a
brand new audience- the first time I heard the Breakouts was on KBD#9.
also shared a member with the S.F. band Split A Kiss (the bass player “Geoff At
Large”), and those two bands released a split 7″EP on the Breakouts’
Accelerator label. Apparently there were
1,000 pressed but it received no distribution, so old smelly cardboard boxes chock full of them are probably sitting somewhere.
Both of the Breakouts’ tracks from that split EP also appear on this CD
(see the last two tracks). According to the
Split A Kiss bass player’s MySpace page, Mr. Fontaine disappeared
sometime after that. Several Google
searches on his name, or his relation to S.F. or the Breakouts, produces
similar cold leads for me. But maybe Mr.
Fontaine moved to
because whenever I Google the name of this CD it takes me to old German eBay listings
or old German set sale lists that used to have the CD listed on it. Funny that an undistributed CD turns up
mostly in one country, hmmm…
If anyone knows of
his whereabouts (or if you are reading this yourself Rudy Fontaine), post some
comments. Some comments on another blog talk about how mighty the Breakouts were live in early 80’s, and other blog commenter mentioned that he has live tapes from that era full of unreleased tracks- if this is you, share the
wealth eh.