Punk Business Manager

The band hailed from an area that’s about 70 or 80 miles Southwest
of London.  The label name, Tearaway, is kinda ironic- the white picture
sleeve appears to be a tearaway of sorts since most copies I’ve seen of it
have ringwear and rumpling.  White picture sleeves have long been the bane
of collectors who strive for “NM” across the board in their libraries.
I love homemade artwork and here you get it in spades, both on the front
which I think spoofs those cheesy 70’s ads with couples in them and ‘specially
on the back which is all cool and handwritten.

Posting this record makes me realize that I don’t feature many discs from the UK for some reason.   But here is a great one.  Three of the four songs from this Media EP has been posted in bits and pieces on other sites over the years but never all four so here you go.  Thanks to the kind man who hooked me up with a rip of all four tracks this past summer, which I know see as my summer of acquisition since I was lucky enough to get a lot of discs checked off of my want list.

This Media EP has grown on me over the years and is great combination of melody and power and, most importantly, ENERGY.  That is a tough fence to ride many times, as I’ve found too many bands trying to combine these things end up being too melodic for my tastes.  All 4 songs on this EP are catchy as hell and there are no clunkers for my ears.  Every song has that singalong quality to it, the kind where you throw your arms around your friend’s shoulders and yell some of the lyrics out loud.  Even the second track that starts off scaring me that it might be a- yikes!- white boy reggae track with that initial guitar strumming that I hear.  But even though it’s my least favorite track on the record, I think they still pull it off OK ‘cuz their energy level is SO HIGH.

My two favorite tracks are the first one, “TV Kids”, and the third one, “Getting High”.  They just nail it on these two songs and everything just gels perfectly with this four piece outfit- enthusiastic drumming, great vocals and some good bass playing, especially some nice chunky plucking on “TV Kids”.  And some awesome guitar noise- I am a big fan of “chugga chugga” playing and there’s plenty of that during “Getting High”. As well as some high-pitched noise that grabs you right at the beginning of it.  And let’s not forget about the last track, “Rose n Crown”, which is slower paced but still very catchy especially when the guitar kicks in at various parts.  And it makes good use of some whistling even.  Lyrically, this song is the most sophisticated on the EP and I assume refers to the 1974 bombing of the Rose & Crown bar in Belfast in which six people died.

Media released a single a year later, in 1980, the “South Coast Rockers / Back on The Beach Again” 7″ on the Brain Boosters label (great name!).  I have never heard it so I cannot vouch for its quality but the liner notes of a certain comp called it “worthwhile” (not sure how to interpret that, though- does that mearly mean passable or what?!). The Bored Teenagers site said it’s a more Mod influenced record.  Would anyone like to share this second 7”?  Thanks. [UPDATE: SEE BELOW FOR THIS 2nd 7″]

/files/98398-90993/02__Dont_Sit_Back.mp3″>Dont Sit Back.mp3
/files/98398-90993/04__Rose_n_Crown.mp3″>Rose n Crown.mp3

COLLECTOR SCUM DISCUSSION PARAGRAPH ALERT: There appears to be some dispute over how many copies were pressed- the GREAT Media page on the great Bored Teenagers site ( that has info from former bass player Michael Wichello, by the way) says 500 copies while the equally great Low Down Kids site says 1,500 copies released in July of 1979.  However many copies were pressed, I’ll probably never own a copy since they have sold for upwards of $100 on eBay and I don’t like spending that much on records.  The other noteworthy stamp collector stat is that the third track (aka Side 2, Track 1) is sometimes referred to as “Getting High (Just For You)”- this is because “Just For You” was originally written on the labels but this was apparently a mistake so most (read: not all) copies have “Just For You” crossed off with a line.  If your copy has no cross-out line then Cumstains Over Your Record Collection, mate!

The labels with “Just For You” crossed out

2.8 UPDATE: Thanks to Mr. My Life Is A Jigsaw, here are the
labels WITHOUT the crossout line

Which, to segue, was the name of the 1998 comp that “re-discovered” Media when it included “TV Kids”- “Getting High” was comped later in 1998 on Bloodstains Across The UK #3 which is where I first heard Media since, for some reason, I skipped buying a copy of “Cumstains…” earlier in the year. I bought so many comps back then I guess I was trying to prioritize, if you will, but I think my priorities were wrong since Cumstains had a very cool silkscreened sleeve and was a good un. Oh well, can’t win em all.  Like the old store Final Vinyl in NYC used to say:

“You will…
Never know everything
Never hear everything
Never own everything
Never remember everything”

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2.8.2012 UPDATE