Dead Center | ||||
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Compilation album by | ||||
Released | 1984, 2014 | |||
Genre | Power pop, new wave | |||
Length | 36:37 (LP) 1:19:17 (CD) | |||
Label | Lolita (1984) Omnivore (2014) | |||
Producer | Michael Quercio Scott Miller | |||
Game Theory chronology | ||||
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Alternative cover | ||||
Dead Center is a compilation album from Game Theory, a California power pop band fronted by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. Initially released in France on Lolita Records in 1984, a newly remastered version was released on CD on November 24, 2014 on Omnivore Recordings. [1]
By mid-1982, Scott Miller had assembled the first iteration of Game Theory, [2] which consisted of Miller (lead guitar, vocals), Nancy Becker (keyboards, vocals), Fred Juhos (bass, guitar, vocals), and Michael Irwin (drums). The first Game Theory album was the Blaze of Glory LP, released on Rational Records in 1982. [2] [3]
With Dave Gill replacing Michael Irwin on drums, two 12-inch EPs followed. In 1983, the group released the six-song EP Pointed Accounts of People You Know , recorded at Samurai Sound Studio, which was co-owned by Gill. The group then recorded the five-song Distortion EP in December 1983 (released 1984), with The Three O'Clock's Michael Quercio producing.
A long version of the song "Dead Center," a rare promotional single, was recorded in 1983 as a 7-inch flexidisc for distribution with the music magazine Option , and appeared on the 1993 Alias Records compilation CD Distortion of Glory . [4] This version of the song included an introductory portion that featured, over instrumental music, layers of Scott Miller's spoken responses to an interviewer's unheard questions. [4] It appears as a bonus track on the 2014 CD reissue of Dead Center.
Omnivore Recordings obtained 300 of the original flexidiscs, and announced a plan to distribute them as a bonus to 300 pre-release purchasers of their March 2015 vinyl reissue of Game Theory's 1985 Real Nighttime LP. [5]
In 1984, the Dead Center LP was released in France, on the Lolita label. The French release of Dead Center was a compilation of selected tracks from Game Theory's Pointed Accounts of People You Know and Distortion EPs.
The French release included two additional tracks: the group's cover of "The Letter" (a 1967 hit for the Box Tops with Alex Chilton's vocals), and a shorter version of the song "Dead Center" with different lyrics and no spoken-word interview.
In 2014, Omnivore announced its commitment to reissue Game Theory's recordings, remastered from the original tapes by co-producer Dan Vallor, who was Game Theory's tour manager and sound engineer during the 1980s. [6] [7] The remastered version of Dead Center was released on November 24, 2014, as Omnivore's omnibus CD release encompassing material from the Pointed Accounts of People You Know EP and the Distortion EP. [1] At the request of Fred Juhos, the CD of Dead Center omitted three songs written by Juhos that appeared on the two EPs. [8] [9] "The Letter" and both versions of the song "Dead Center" were included on the CD. [10]
The release of Dead Center on CD and for digital download, but not on vinyl, was followed on November 28 by limited-edition Black Friday Record Store Day releases of the two EPs on colored 10-inch vinyl. [1] [11] The Pointed Accounts and Distortion EP releases included digital download cards. [11] [12]
Describing the bonus tracks on the 2014 reissue, Wilfully Obscure wrote, "There's a lo-fi acoustic run-through of Badfinger's 'No Matter What,' and ... Van Morrison's "Gloria" and Bryan Ferry's "Mother of Pearl" also get the in-concert Game Theory treatment." [13]
The bonus tracks also include Miller's first performance of an audience-requested live cover of R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe," after taking only a few seconds to work out the chords before launching into a solo rendition. [8] According to drummer Gil Ray, "Either Buck or Stipe told Scott Miller in our band the real words to 'Radio Free Europe' and every now and then we'd do it as a cover because Scott knew the words. It was a big deal to know the words to any of their songs." [14] [15]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [16] |
Blurt | [17] |
According to Blurt , "While no striking developmental steps get taken here, leader Scott Miller sharpens his songsmithery, even as his lyrics get more abstract, and the band likewise tightens its grip on its power popping psychedelic new wave. Like a college rock top 40 machine, GT effortlessly sets 'em up and knocks 'em down." [17] Of the reissue, Blurt added, "Nicely enhanced, Omnivore," noting that the bonus tracks added up to "another LP's worth of tracks, both demos and live versions of album cuts and a passel of covers that pay tribute to Miller's dedicated fandom." [17]
Popshifter wrote, "As with its other reissues, Omnivore hit it out of the park with the beautiful digipak and comprehensive liner notes (including a very sweet remembrance from Michael Quercio, one of Miller's key collaborators)." [18]
Critic Jeff Elbel, writing in Illinois Entertainer, called the reissue a "thorough reintroduction to Game Theory's sophomore efforts and Miller's developing acumen as a sharp and witty observer. The eight EP tracks may not represent Miller's peak, but they include must-have gems like the cautiously hopeful 'Penny, Things Won't' and sinewy 'Shark Pretty.'" [19] Elbel praised Miller's version of "Radio Free Europe" as "a telling and fearlessly off-the-cuff live cover," [19] which another reviewer noted that Miller "manages to pull off adeptly." [13]
All tracks are written by Scott Miller, except as noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Nine Lives to Rigel Five" | 2:42 | |
2. | "Penny, Things Won't" | 5:16 | |
3. | "Dead Center" | 3:55 | |
4. | "The Red Baron" | 3:34 | |
5. | "The Letter" | Wayne Carson | 2:02 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
6. | "Shark Pretty" | 3:55 | |
7. | "Metal and Glass Exact" | 3:33 | |
8. | "Selfish Again" | 4:08 | |
9. | "Too Late for Tears" | 3:42 | |
10. | "37th Day" | Fred Juhos | 3:49 |
All tracks are written by Scott Miller, except as noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Nine Lives to Rigel Five" | 2:46 | |
2. | "Penny, Things Won't" | 5:21 | |
3. | "Dead Center" (French LP version) | 3:58 | |
4. | "The Red Baron" | 3:39 | |
5. | "The Letter" | Wayne Carson | 2:06 |
6. | "Shark Pretty" | 4:01 | |
7. | "Metal and Glass Exact" | 3:39 | |
8. | "Selfish Again" | 4:12 | |
9. | "Too Late for Tears" | 3:43 | |
10. | "Life in July" | Scott Miller, Nancy Becker | 2:41 |
11. | "No Matter What" (demo) | Pete Ham | 2:52 |
12. | "Mother of Pearl" (live) | Bryan Ferry | 4:29 |
13. | "Nine Lives to Rigel Five" (live) | 2:25 | |
14. | "Trouble" (live) | Cat Stevens | 2:54 |
15. | "Shark Pretty" (live) | 4:03 | |
16. | "Gloria" (live) | Van Morrison | 3:41 |
17. | "Too Late for Tears" (Michael Quercio's "George Martin" rough mix) | 3:47 | |
18. | "Radio Free Europe" (live) | Bill Berry, Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck | 4:12 |
19. | "Penny, Things Won't" (live) | 5:15 | |
20. | "Say It Ain't So Joe" (radio session) | Murray Head | 4:02 |
21. | "Dead Center" (flexi disc version) | 6:05 |
Paisley Underground is a musical genre that originated in California. It was particularly popular in Los Angeles, reaching a peak in the mid-1980s. Paisley Underground bands incorporated psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and guitar interplay, owing a particular debt to 1960s groups such as Love and the Byrds, but more generally referencing a wide range of pop and garage rock revival.
Game Theory was an American power pop band, founded in 1982 by singer/songwriter Scott Miller, combining melodic jangle pop with dense experimental production and hyperliterate lyrics. MTV described their sound as "still visceral and vital" in 2013, with records "full of sweetly psychedelic-tinged, appealingly idiosyncratic gems" that continued "influencing a new generation of indie artists." Between 1982 and 1990, Game Theory released five studio albums and two EPs, which had long been out of print until 2014, when Omnivore Recordings began a series of remastered reissues of the entire Game Theory catalog. Miller's posthumously completed Game Theory album, Supercalifragile, was released in August 2017 in a limited first pressing.
The Three O'Clock is an American alternative rock group associated with the Los Angeles 1980s Paisley Underground scene. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio is credited with coining the term "Paisley Underground" to describe a subset of the 1980s L.A. music scene which included bands such as Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green on Red, the Long Ryders and the Bangles.
Michael Quercio is an American musician. He is the founder, bassist and lead singer of The Three O'Clock, and coined the term Paisley Underground as the name of a musical subgenre.
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Lolita Nation is the fourth full-length album by Game Theory, a California power pop band fronted by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. Originally released in 1987 as a double LP, the album was reissued by Omnivore Recordings in February 2016 as a double CD set with 21 bonus tracks.
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Scott Warren Miller was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known for his work as leader of the 1980s band Game Theory and 1990s band The Loud Family, and as the author of a 2010 book of music criticism. He was described by The New York Times as "a hyperintellectual singer and songwriter who liked to tinker with pop the way a born mathematician tinkers with numbers", having "a shimmery-sweet pop sensibility, in the tradition of Brian Wilson and Alex Chilton."
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