Diamonds in the Coal

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Diamonds in the Coal
1992 TheBadlees DiamondsInTheCoal.jpg
Studio album by
The Badlees
ReleasedJanuary 14, 1992
RecordedWaterfront Recording
Hoboken, NJ
Susquehanna Sound
Northumberland, PA
Length47:20
Label Rite-Off Records
Producer Bret Alexander and The Badlees
The Badlees chronology
It Ain't for You
(1990)		Diamonds in the Coal
(1992)		 The Unfortunate Result of Spare Time
(1993)

Diamonds in the Coal is The Badlees first full-length album, recorded in late 1991 and released in January 1992. It is the first to feature Paul Smith on bass. The album is an entertaining and thoughtful album that split the difference between accessible pop songs and deeper message-oriented folk and roots rock.

The Badlees

The Badlees are an American roots rock band from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania formed in 1990. They released several independent albums and achieved national success with their 1995 album River Songs. In 1998, after recording a follow-up album, Polydor/Atlas was sold to the Seagram Corporation, which delayed the release of the album and eventually led to the Badlees being dropped from the roster. They have continued to perform and produce albums independently, and released in 2013 the double album Epiphones and Empty Rooms. The Badlees and its individual members have inspired, mentored, advised, produced for, and performed with artists throughout the Pennsylvania music scene.

Contents

Background

With the addition of Smith on bass, the Badlees quintet that would drive through their most productive years was now intact. The Badlees were now ready to start work on their first full-length album. Dedicated to performing original music, it was now time to expand their library and this would be accomplished in 1991 through the prolific songwriting of Bret Alexander, Mike Naydock, and to a smaller extent, Jeff Feltenberger.

The result is Diamonds in the Coal which, thematically, is nearly sliced in half by the light intermission of "Badlee Rap", performed by rapper Loose Bruce, while doing a session at Waterfront Studios in Hoboken, New Jersey. Songs previous to this on the album are mainly pop-oriented with strong hooks such as on the opener "Like a Rembrandt", which The Album Network picked up for its latest compilation. There’s also the crisp rocker "Just One Moment", the mellow ballad "The Real Thing", and the most infectious tune on the album, "Back Where We Came From" (commonly referred to as "The Na Na Song"). This latter song was the band's first single from the album and was added to the regular rotation of several Pennsylvania rock-formatted radio stations. It features a comical monologue in the bridge section by Mike Naydock, his only appearance on a Badlees record as a performer; the monologue is actually a quote from the Minutemen song "#1 Hit Song" from Double Nickels on the Dime .

Hoboken, New Jersey City in Hudson County, New Jersey, U.S.

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005, having grown by 11,428 (+29.6%) from 38,577 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 5,180 (+15.5%) from the 33,397 in the 1990 Census. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the tri-state region.

<i>Double Nickels on the Dime</i> 1984 studio album by Minutemen

Double Nickels on the Dime is the third album by American punk trio Minutemen, released on the California independent record label SST Records in 1984. A double album containing 45 songs, Double Nickels on the Dime combines elements of punk rock, funk, country, spoken word and jazz, and references a variety of themes, from the Vietnam War and racism in America, to working-class experience and linguistics.

The second "half" of the album contains songs that, while still very pop-sensible and accessible, explored deeper subject matter and richer musical structure. The upbeat "Dirty Neon Times" includes some fantastic vocal harmonies by Jeff Feltenberger, while "Spending My Inheritance" is a well composed "people’s anthem" that includes harmonica by Bret Alexander and some fiddle-playing by guest performer David Rose. Perhaps the most unusual song on the album is the smooth, atmospheric "Sister Shirley", which includes a picturesque lyrical narrative by Naydock and some sweet, jazzy lead guitar by Alexander.

But the true masterpiece of Diamonds in the Coal is the closing song of the same name, which brings the listener into the dark, forgotten patch towns of Pennsylvania's Anthracite Region. The imagery in this song's lyric is so vivid that you can almost feel the coal dust flying, while the music sets the perfect scene with a methodic, marching rhythm by Ron Simasek on the bottom end and some authentic, ethnic instrumentation up above.

Coal Region

The Coal Region is a historically important coal-mining area in Northeastern Pennsylvania in the central Ridge-and-valley Appalachian Mountains, comprising Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northumberland, and the extreme northeast corner of Dauphin counties. Academics have made the distinction North Anthracite Coal Field and South Anthracite Coal Field, the lower region bearing the further classification Anthracite Uplands in physical geology. The Southern Coal Region can be further broken into the Southeastern and Southwestern Coal Regions, with the divide between the Little Schuylkill and easternmost tributary of the Schuylkill River with the additional divide line from the Lehigh watershed extended through Barnesville the determining basins.

"There are few things easier than to live badly and die well"

This quote by Oscar Wilde was placed inner sleeve of Diamonds in the Coal, obviously because of the play on the band's name, but this was not the only quote on the album. Each song on the lyrics page contained its own special quote from philosophers and artists ranging from Aristotle to Andy Warhol. These extra features show the T-L-C and attention to detail the Badlees put into the creation of the "album" – their very first. Simasek also located the pictures that were used for the cover and within the packaging, authentic early 20th century miner photos, from the Tamaqua (PA) Historical Society. These images would also be used in band promotions around the time of the album's release in January 1992.

Oscar Wilde 19th-century Irish poet, playwright and aesthete

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for "gross indecency", imprisonment, and early death at age 46.

Aristotle philosopher in ancient Greece

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, the founder of the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school of philosophy and Aristotelian tradition. Along with his teacher Plato, he has been called the "Father of Western Philosophy". His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics and government. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him, and it was above all from his teachings that the West inherited its intellectual lexicon, as well as problems and methods of inquiry. As a result, his philosophy has exerted a unique influence on almost every form of knowledge in the West and it continues to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.

Andy Warhol American artist

Andy Warhol was an American artist, director and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture. Some of his best known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell's Soup Cans (1962) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), the experimental film Chelsea Girls (1966), and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966–67).

Track listing

No.TitleMusicLength
1."Like a Rembrandt" Bret Alexander,  Mike Naydock 3:35
2."Back Where We Came From"Alexander3:26
3."Just One Moment"Alexander3:41
4."The Real Thing"Alexander, Naydock3:57
5."Heaven On Earth"Alexander,  Jeff Feltenberger 3:32
6."Interlude / Badlee Rap"Loose Bruce,  The Badlees 1:21
7."The Next Big Thing"Alexander, Naydock3:42
8."Dirty Neon Times"Alexander, Naydock3:49
9."Spending My Inheritance"Alexander4:37
10."Sister Shirley"Alexander, Naydock3:45
11."Mystery Girl"Alexander, Naydock3:31
12."Road to Paradise"Feltenberger3:42
13."Diamonds in the Coal"Alexander4:42

Personnel

The Badlees
Additional musicians
Production

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