Mithch Easter

Backi in the early seventies, Mitch Easter was a boy in love with rock music. His turntable was probably a busy machine. Together with his friends Chris Stamey and Peter Holfsaple he formed a band called The Rattlehouse Square and that band even made one record in 1972, mostly filled with Mitch's songs. Mitch was only 18 just like Stamey and Holfsapple was 16. Today, this record represents a hard to find rarity, but Rattlehouse Square was a start of something that would become an impetus for the "alternative rock" as we know today. Since then, Easter changed bands and learned a lot about studio technique. Holsapple and Stamey formed dB's, and Easter wasn't there.

Easter fought on two fronts. In 1981. he formed his band Let's Active that would later become a cult attraction for many music lover, including myself. On the other front, he invested in a studio in his Winston-Salem in North Carolina and a young band from Athens Georgia called R.E.M. came to see him there in 1981 with their song Radio Free Europe wanting to record it. Combination was perfect. Young band needed an experienced, but openminded producer to work out a new sound that they brought to the world. Needless to say, the single and first ep and next two lp albums by R.E.M. became big deals and a definite start of college radio mania. Janglig guitars were back in fashion, and the dude who created their sound was Mitch Easter.

At the same time, Mithc Easter pushed on with his own band, Let's Active. This band was perhaps even more interesting than the early R.E.M.. Their songs were complex, with a lot of changes, with smart lyrics.

First came out the ep, Afoot which was openned by Every Word Means No, even today, Let's Active's most popular and best known song. Not so long after that, Cypress came out in 1984. It was an extension of Afoot, with a bunch of great songs, but this time it was more a band than just Easter. Easter shared credentials on several songs with the bass player of the band, Faye Hunter, and the got to sing several tunes with her appealing voice. This added to the rich texture of this record and kept it as one of the most interesting records of all time.

Let's Active were big shots on college radio stations at that time, however, not as big as R.E.M. was. There were also certain problems in the band, and Easter found himself alone. Nevertheless, Easter continued with the band and in 1986 Big Plans for Everybody came out. It was recently rightfully voted as one of the best forgotten records in the history of rock music. It came out after the memory in college radio community about the band already started to fade, but it was a wonderful record. Again, it was compriced only with Easter's songs and he was able to incorporate many different influences into one stunning piece. You could hear blues, power pop, glam... a lot of different things coming out of that record, yet, record seems very consistent and it represent Easter's creative peak. From opening piano bites in Little Ways to the instumental Route 67 this record will take you places no other record ever took you before. More than that, this is not just a stylistic product by an inteligent producer, but some really neat emotions and deep thoughts are hiden it those lyrics. Especially in Talking To Myself.

Time goes in instants, by fits and starts
I think I see the future and where we are
And it's some golden age I'm still afraid to touch
Expected everything to fade - now not so much
You, how could you know how I felt
I Was a shadow I was talking to myself
Here we go down to where it's raining
all the time and it's okay
I mean everything has got a certain side
I want to see with you.
We've got it figured and multiplied
A universal number it never dies
So lond you dead-end things we'll watch you on TV
So What to anything now we are you and me
House of cards town of factions
People all on hold, hold it dear
Tell me once show me twice
I'd walk into walls but I feel fine

Perhaps there is only one character in the whole history of rock'n'roll that can be compared to Mitch. That's Todd Rundgren, only take off some of the Rundgren's egoistic genius and add to emotional sentiment of Mitch Easter.

Although Let's Active was never officially disbanded, it faded away. After another classic in 1989 Every Dog Has Its Day, band recorded nothing. His career as an author stagnated since Let's Active, unfortunatelly. Meanwhile, Let's Active albums reach astronomical prices in used record shops, and Easter becomes exclusevly devoted to production. Besides for doing job for his friends in Mississippi based Paisley Pop band Windbreakers (he even played drums for Bobby Sutliff), he produced several very important rock albums, like Game Theory's Lolita Nation, and Velvet Crush' Teenage Symphonies To God. He also landed his buttons to Pavement on Brighten the Corners and Moose on XYZ. One of the most interesting Mitch's newer works is his engineering and coproduction work with George Usher on his album Day's of Plenty.

The best place to find out all possible details about Mitch is this yahoo club.

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