Artist description When you have a small, niche oriented label that focuses a lot of its energies on 'power pop', a lot obscure projects cross the desks here. So many talented bands released albums that were lost and marginalized and ignored when they came out that deserve rediscovery. But The Deal will not ring a bell of familiarity to 99% of even the most passionate 'power pop' fans. Why? Well, the story is one that has been heard before and we'll direct you to the liner notes of the CD for that. And they never had even one single 45, EP or LP released in their time. But in the early/mid 80's they streamed together a ton of demos in various studios in the Southeast that were heard only by the most intimate fans and industry people(okay, we'll mention part of the story, they had a few record deals that never resulted anything getting released). This CD hopes to rectify their obscurity to fans of 'power pop'. This 15 track collection of demos and lost studio trax is one made of a sugar pop fans' dreams. Imagine a combination of classic Raspberries strongly dosed up with Shoes and Fools Face. Other bands of reference would be Hawks, The Producers and The Secrets. Later material from The Deal pre-dates an early formulation of the "Dear 23" sound from The Posies with strongly strummed acoustic guitars on top of gorgeous Hollies-esque harmonies. A few songs from this era sound like outtakes from Wire Train, as well. Just listen to the sound clips and swallow hard. This is one to rejoice in un-earthing!

Artist History The Deal, from Charlottesville, Virginia, was a band whose talent was exceeded only by its luck-bothe good and bad. Almost before they were ready, thay had grabbed the attention of some heavy hitters in the music business. Andy Warhol deemed the band fit to occupy a full page spread in Interview, and Musician magazine dubbed them one of the "20 Best Unsigned Bands" in the country. But over and over, just when things would seem ready to break The Deal's way, it would all evaporate practically before the member's eyes. And by the end of The Deal's story, the band's lead guitarist would be dead. The Deal was formed in 1979 in Charlottesville by University of Virginia students Mark Roebuck, Eric Scwartz and Haines Fullerton. Roebuckwrote most of the songs, but it was Fullerton's guitar playing and drive that propelled the band through its formative years. Fullerton, a Memphis native who had rubbed elbows with Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens at an early age, had a vision of a band in the tradition of his idols, Big Star. When he heard Mark Roebuck's songs, tunes Roebuck was performing as an acoustic duo with Schwartz, he saw the possibilities. From the very start, the band-it wasn't even really aband yet-was shaped by Fullerton's passion and sense of purpose. Things began rolling quickly: In the summer of 1979, Fullerton took Roebuck and Schwartz to Ardent studios, where they teamed up with Allen McCool(blessed with that name at birth, by the way) to record four songs. Read more in the liner notes. buy your copy of -The Deal-goodbye september-at www.notlame.com

Group Members The Deal was, at one time or another: Mark Roebuck: guitar, keyboards, vocals Haines Fullerton: lead guitar, vocals Eric Schwartz: guitar, vocals Jeff Roberts: bass, vocals Jim Jones: bass, vocals Hugh Patton: drums Mike Clark: drums

Location Charlottesville, VA - USA

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