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LP
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CRYPT 126LP
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"Crypt continues its delve into the boss-town low-down with this shit-hot 39 minute blastin' mutha (don't ya know!) of Lyres at their most ferocious and in top rip-roaring fidelity thanks to a reel to reel tape discovered in August 2017 in the vaults at Erik Lindgren's studio! Erik set one line direct into the board and one mic suspended above the audience and the result is a beast of a set! Jeff Conolly (natch!) on organ and vocal and tambourine, DMZ cats Peter Greenberg (guit) and Mike Lewis (bass), plus ex-Real Kid Howie Ferguson on drums. Gatefold sleeve with unseen photos plus liner notes by Peter Greenberg, Mike Lewis and longtime Boss-town fanatic/scribe Bill Tupper. the music? ripping, absolutely ripping ROCK and ROLL music."
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7x7"+CD BOX
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MR 7275EP
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Formed in Boston in the late '70s from the ashes of the legendary DMZ, Lyres are one of the truly essential garage bands -- and the seven 7"s (and CD) contained in this boxed set clearly prove why. Featuring 16 tracks spanning 1979 to 1991, they're loaded with sound, attitude, and a way of making music not found around too often. This set includes the contents of Lyres' never-released first acetate, recorded live and pressed by the band only two weeks after their first rehearsal. Their amazing debut 7" on Sounds Interesting Records is presented with facsimile artwork, as are a string of magnificent tracks the band recorded during the 1980s for Boston's Ace of Hearts Records, run by Rick Harte, who also produced the recordings. Tracks such as "Buried Alive," "Help You Ann," "I Really Want You Right Now," "She Pays The Rent," "Not Looking Back," and other staples of the 1980s rock and roll scene show the band (and its varying line-ups) at the top of their game. Includes 20-page booklet with photos and liner notes by Lyres organist and vocalist Jeff Conolly. Limited edition of 700.
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CD
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MR 327CD
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Munster reissues the third Lyres LP, originally released on Ace of Hearts, from 1988. "Anyone following the career of Lyres for any length of time throughout that mid-to-late '80s period would doubtless be interested in the ongoing personnel shuffles that were taking place around this time. 'What really happened,' Jeff Conolly explains, 'is that we had to totally re-group the line-up with each LP because people instantly discovered that it was nearly impossible to go professional and maintain a living and do the kind of not-sell-out music we did at the same time. Our special Murphy drummer would leave and then re-join many, many times, and then we started getting robbed on tour a lot, and many nice things were lost to us... After the tour van got busted into in Amsterdam in May 1987 we had to get a new guitar guy to go along with our new rhythm section. At this point there was very little 'connection' with the original concept or sound of the 1979 group which had been founded on being aspiring amateur musicians.' Although one or two of USA's then modern garage-type bands were beginning to make some inroads beyond a cult-only success, particularly overseas, it was nearly always accepted as a given that playing this type of unfashionable music could only ever result in rather limited dividends, commercially speaking. But successful or otherwise, Lyres can be seen as purveyors of a rich stream of powerful music, distilled from an amalgam of influences, injected with unusual verve and vitality, and presented in a wholly authentic, provocatively different way from all other groups. Of the many startling 'Conolloid' creations, self-penned, or imaginatively reinvestigated, one wonders often how Lyres came up with such radical reinterpretations of songs such as Dave Dee and company's life-affirming piano ballad 'Here's a Heart.' 'I started buying original UK freakbeat records beginning in the early 1980s when they were still relatively affordable,' states Conolly. 'I liked that weirdo USA Fontana Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich LP that had a ton of their hits on it, and I finally realized that their recording of 'Here's a Heart' had the special charming majick. On one of our trips to Paris I crashed with Carolyn and Stiv [Bators -- ex of U.S. punks The Dead Boys] and we discovered that we were both nuts about 'Here's a Heart.' I had bought myself a nice and reasonable DDDBM&T EP souvenir that afternoon at USA Records and we played it at Carolyn's and me and Stiv sang with it a lot. We kinda agreed to record it in one way or another, and later in January 1988 Stiv was in NYC and he came down to sing it with me live for the album #3.' With any kind of success, whether musical or otherwise, there also comes with it a certain degree of pressure, and so it was no different for Conolly and Lyres. 'All of a sudden I had to figure out a 'new' kind of Lyres sound and matching style/material to go with it,' says Conolly. 'And I had to do it real fast, so I started coming up with junk that was sort of like the very expensive but cool records I had been acquiring and sort of investigating, these freakbeaty records, which accounts for our trying to sort of figure out John's Children in 1987 and 1988.'" --Lenny Helsing
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LP
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MR 327LP
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Gatefold LP version. Munster reissues the third Lyres LP, originally released on Ace of Hearts, from 1988. "Anyone following the career of Lyres for any length of time throughout that mid-to-late '80s period would doubtless be interested in the ongoing personnel shuffles that were taking place around this time. 'What really happened,' Jeff Conolly explains, 'is that we had to totally re-group the line-up with each LP because people instantly discovered that it was nearly impossible to go professional and maintain a living and do the kind of not-sell-out music we did at the same time. Our special Murphy drummer would leave and then re-join many, many times, and then we started getting robbed on tour a lot, and many nice things were lost to us... After the tour van got busted into in Amsterdam in May 1987 we had to get a new guitar guy to go along with our new rhythm section. At this point there was very little 'connection' with the original concept or sound of the 1979 group which had been founded on being aspiring amateur musicians.' Although one or two of USA's then modern garage-type bands were beginning to make some inroads beyond a cult-only success, particularly overseas, it was nearly always accepted as a given that playing this type of unfashionable music could only ever result in rather limited dividends, commercially speaking. But successful or otherwise, Lyres can be seen as purveyors of a rich stream of powerful music, distilled from an amalgam of influences, injected with unusual verve and vitality, and presented in a wholly authentic, provocatively different way from all other groups. Of the many startling 'Conolloid' creations, self-penned, or imaginatively reinvestigated, one wonders often how Lyres came up with such radical reinterpretations of songs such as Dave Dee and company's life-affirming piano ballad 'Here's a Heart.' 'I started buying original UK freakbeat records beginning in the early 1980s when they were still relatively affordable,' states Conolly. 'I liked that weirdo USA Fontana Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich LP that had a ton of their hits on it, and I finally realized that their recording of 'Here's a Heart' had the special charming majick. On one of our trips to Paris I crashed with Carolyn and Stiv [Bators -- ex of U.S. punks The Dead Boys] and we discovered that we were both nuts about 'Here's a Heart.' I had bought myself a nice and reasonable DDDBM&T EP souvenir that afternoon at USA Records and we played it at Carolyn's and me and Stiv sang with it a lot. We kinda agreed to record it in one way or another, and later in January 1988 Stiv was in NYC and he came down to sing it with me live for the album #3.' With any kind of success, whether musical or otherwise, there also comes with it a certain degree of pressure, and so it was no different for Conolly and Lyres. 'All of a sudden I had to figure out a 'new' kind of Lyres sound and matching style/material to go with it,' says Conolly. 'And I had to do it real fast, so I started coming up with junk that was sort of like the very expensive but cool records I had been acquiring and sort of investigating, these freakbeaty records, which accounts for our trying to sort of figure out John's Children in 1987 and 1988.'" --Lenny Helsing
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LP
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MR 328LP
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Lost Lyres compiles seven tracks from Lyres recording sessions that took place in summer 1980 plus another five tracks recorded at the same time as their first album, On Fyre (1984). "Perhaps one reason why Lyres didn't set the world's charts alight, and enjoy the kind of success some other groups attained, was that they weren't quite as easy to pigeon-hole as some. It's also true that Jeff Conolly refused to let the group be molded by anyone who would try and turn them into something which they didn't feel real and honest about. 'I allow for one thing about the group DMZ/Lyres,' Conolly states matter of factly, 'no manager -- self managed.' And whether any given record release was a success or not, it wasn't going to alter the fact that here was a group with a righteously original take on old school beat-rock and, regardless, they would do their own thing. Jeff's unique songwriting craft would also continue to propel them forward. 'I don't know which came first, the song, music, title or just fear of having to come up with something,' he reveals today, 'but that's where the 'record collecting' could once-in-awhile be of some help, certain things to keep your mind functioning and to 'be interested' in... The thing that you had always loved which had now turned into this 'job' nitemare...' And what of others who had gone before who had also tried to make a decent fist of things largely on their own terms? 'Some of these tune-smiths can really crank them out,' reasons Conolly, 'but even a Ray Davies will break down on his own and then what? Turn the corner and 'go soft' with nostalgia or 're-invent the wheel' with whatever.' One can easily surmise that this would not be something that Jeff Conolly would be happy to go along with at all. Fans of Lyres both old and new will be delighted to learn that some of the best of the group's early magic has been finely sifted and duly selected for inclusion on this here very collection which, hopefully, you are digging pretty big on right around now!" --Lenny Helsing
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CD
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MR 322CD
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A sticker on this LP's shockingly pink jacket proclaimed this new product to be Lyres Lyres (their second album, produced in 1986). Upon examining the rear cover, we find that the group's personnel had shifted slightly, with Paul Murphy no longer in the drum seat, his place now taken by John Bernardo, also known as John Smith. While a previous EP version of "She Pays the Rent" had a fairly moderate pace, the LP reading couldn't have been any more different, moving at a snail's pace and somewhat dramatic to boot. This version could well be Jeff "Monoman" Conolly at his most James Brown/Otis Redding soulful best, shredding his larynx as he bares his soul. Their cover of The Nightcrawlers' heart-breaking "If You Want My Love," is an emotionally-charged choker. It's fair to say that some of the greatest achievements in Lyres cover version territory present themselves on Lyres Lyres, specifically, their glorious interpretation of two Dutch beat gems from the writing duo of Ronnie Splinter and Wally Tax -- lead guitarist and lead singer, respectively, of The Outsiders. "Teach Me To Forget You" is sad beyond belief, a tale of lost love. "I Love Her Still, I Always Will" too, another B-side beauty, came from an early Outsiders single. "Back from the Grave" stars The Alarm Clocks and The Jesters Of Newport also get "Lyred" as their stone-cold killers "No Reason to Complain" and "Stormy" are brought kicking and screaming from the darkened void into the dazzling daylight of the modern world. It's a similar situation regarding "You'll Never Do It, Baby." Lyres Lyres also houses one of their most enduring creations, the juggernaut garage-pop sensation, "You Won't Be Sad Anymore." Another significant factor of the Lyres Lyres record is that it produced a kind of polarization in some quarters, between some fan factions who wanted them to stay as they had been before, raw and basic with not quite yet still an air of slavish '60s-style garage affectations, and just the minimal acquiescence towards a half-way modern sound. Others, meanwhile, welcomed the new approach. Indeed, Lyres Lyres is an album that can stand up to repeated plays year on year and always offers something new to the listener.
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LP
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MR 322LP
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LP version on 180 gram vinyl with 4-page color insert. A sticker on this LP's shockingly pink jacket proclaimed this new product to be Lyres Lyres (their second album, produced in 1986). Upon examining the rear cover, we find that the group's personnel had shifted slightly, with Paul Murphy no longer in the drum seat, his place now taken by John Bernardo, also known as John Smith. While a previous EP version of "She Pays the Rent" had a fairly moderate pace, the LP reading couldn't have been any more different, moving at a snail's pace and somewhat dramatic to boot. This version could well be Jeff "Monoman" Conolly at his most James Brown/Otis Redding soulful best, shredding his larynx as he bares his soul. Their cover of The Nightcrawlers' heart-breaking "If You Want My Love," is an emotionally-charged choker. It's fair to say that some of the greatest achievements in Lyres cover version territory present themselves on Lyres Lyres, specifically, their glorious interpretation of two Dutch beat gems from the writing duo of Ronnie Splinter and Wally Tax -- lead guitarist and lead singer, respectively, of The Outsiders. "Teach Me To Forget You" is sad beyond belief, a tale of lost love. "I Love Her Still, I Always Will" too, another B-side beauty, came from an early Outsiders single. "Back from the Grave" stars The Alarm Clocks and The Jesters Of Newport also get "Lyred" as their stone-cold killers "No Reason to Complain" and "Stormy" are brought kicking and screaming from the darkened void into the dazzling daylight of the modern world. It's a similar situation regarding "You'll Never Do It, Baby." Lyres Lyres also houses one of their most enduring creations, the juggernaut garage-pop sensation, "You Won't Be Sad Anymore." Another significant factor of the Lyres Lyres record is that it produced a kind of polarization in some quarters, between some fan factions who wanted them to stay as they had been before, raw and basic with not quite yet still an air of slavish '60s-style garage affectations, and just the minimal acquiescence towards a half-way modern sound. Others, meanwhile, welcomed the new approach. Indeed, Lyres Lyres is an album that can stand up to repeated plays year on year and always offers something new to the listener.
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LP
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MR 321LP
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2018 repress; LP version on 180 gram vinyl with 4-page color insert. "Like many young Europeans at the time, the first real taste I had of Lyres -- aside from copious blastings of a second generation cassette tape of their exhilarating Dutch VPRO radio broadcast from 1983 -- came when their debut long-player, the sensational On Fyre, was released the following year. Nothing we'd heard previously coming out of the USA around that time could have quite prepared us for the sound of Lyres. You see, theirs was born of an altogether different mother strain. Yes, there were those groups that were part of the still-burgeoning scene that was beginning to happen, and yes, most other contenders that came our way at that time were also said to be heavily influenced by the wildly intoxicating sounds of the 1960s garage bands; but the majority weren't cut from the same raw and inspiring framework that Lyres were. Not the kind of group who deemed it more important to look like they stepped out of a Rolling Stones photo shoot circa '65, or could be bothered with parading any uniform look such as any of their own heroes, like say Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Kinks, or even The Wailers, presented back in the mid-'60s. Lyres were just gonna let the music do all the talking, and so for them jeans, tee-shirts, leather jackets and a pair of sneakers would do just fine. Producer Rick Harte's Ace Of Hearts label was already known for their attention to detail regarding presentation of sound and artwork, through releases by the likes of Mission Of Burma and Classic Ruins. They also issued a stunning 12" EP of the earlier Lyres, and pre-figured On Fyre with the release of a crackshot double-deck 45 with "Help You Ann" and "I Really Want You Right Now," both stone-cold killer tunes. On Fyre itself is a royal succession of unstoppably great selections, all with inventive use of major/minor chord switches, ear-bending tremolo gear, and/or relentless in-motion rhythmic sequences -- sometimes all at once. Home base for Lyres, nearly always, has been Boston, Massachusetts, where the majority of the group's early personnel had already experienced a pretty strong taste of group life, having played a major part in one of the foremost punk-era outfits the city had earlier thrown up; they were, of course, the legendary DMZ. Both DMZ and Lyres were spearheaded by lead vocalist, organ/piano player and tambourine-basher extraordinaire, Jeff Conolly, whose own individual performances have a direct lineage that can be traced back to the unbridled abandonment displayed by none more so than the legendary Jerry Lee Lewis. That the raw sonic exultation captured throughout On Fyre was unleashed almost 30 years ago now is quite an astonishing, terrifying statistic given that, it's a record that still sounds as fresh, bold, new and exciting as it did back in 1984." --Munster Records
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7"
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MR 7246EP
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Two killer tracks from Lyres' first two LPs. A preview of their forthcoming Ace of Hearts reissue program on Munster.
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LP
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MR 311LP
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The 1970s garage punk band from Boston, DMZ, had dissolved in a 1978 train wreck. Jeff "Mono Mann" Conolly, DMZ's inspired singer and songwriter, decided to take a Vox organ-driven direction next in his Lyres. Lyres evolved into an amorphous group of players moving in and out of the band over the years with certain mainstays like Paul Murphy and Ricky Coraccio, DMZ's drummer and bass player respectively, hanging in longer than most. Ricky "Little Man" Carmel was the original guitarist for Lyres and was with Conolly, Murphy and Coraccio when they recorded the classic 1979 45 Don't Give It Up Now/How Do You Know? By the time Peter Greenberg, DMZ's lead guitarist, returned to Boston from Cincinnati in the summer of 1980 to join Lyres, the original line-up had also dissolved and Conolly was filling in players on an ad hoc basis. The next iteration of Lyres had some staying power and included, along with Conolly and Greenberg, Michael Lewis, DMZ's original bass player, and Howie Ferguson, who had been the drummer for the Real Kids. This band recorded Lyres' first two releases for Ace of Hearts Records, the EP AHS1005 and the 45 Help You Ann/I Really Want You Right Now. This batch of Lyres collapsed at the end of 1981. Conolly re-recruited Murphy and Phil Lenker (ex-21-645) and kept Greenberg for the 1982 Lyres after Mike Lewis split. However, for the recording at hand, Live At Cantone, Boston 1982, Coraccio got "the call" from Conolly to fill in the night of the show. From a historical perspective, this night at Cantone's is reported to be the only night where Conolly, Murphy, Coraccio, and Greenberg -- four-fifths of DMZ -- played together as Lyres -- except for a much later Spanish tour in 2009. Cantones was an Italian restaurant in Boston's financial district by day. By night, the suits were gone and left those cold and empty streets to the kids. This particular show is an energetic and raucous representation of the many, many nights Lyres cranked it out at Cantones. It was commonplace for the night to end at 2:30am with brawls that spilled out through broken windows into the street. This is a great rock & roll recording of early Lyres material with a bit more of a DMZ edge to it. None of this material has ever been released before.
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