Max Demian Band - The Call Of The Wild

geovian

ARTIST: Max Demian Band
ALBUM: The Call Of The Wild
LABEL: RCA
SERIAL: AFL1-3525
YEAR: 1980

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
LINEUP: Dan Howe - keyboards, vocals * Jim LeFevre - guitars, keyboards, vocals * Kirt Pennebaker - bells, bass, vocals * Paul Rose - guitar, vocals * Fofi Lanchan - drums, percussion

TRACK LISTING: 01 Bundle A Nerves * 02 Terminal Man * 03 Is There Anybody In There * 04 The Call Of The Wild * 05 Slip Away * 06 The Best Of Me * 07 Brainchild * 08 Suzanne * 09 Born Senile * 10 Class Of '84

Background

If you click on the tag below, you'll see our article on Max Demian Band's debut album from 1979. We won't reiterate their history as it's already been covered. Between albums, there is one change, with drummer Fofi Lanchan coming in for Peter Siegel.

The Songs

Into 1980, and MDB were ready for round two: 'Call Of The Wild'. They had a year under their belt to improve on their debut. The songs presented here all seem to fit under a single-blanket style-wise, which was something that couldn't be said for their debut. I'll admit I struggled to get into the ideas presented on that first album.

I read somewhere the producers on TITTM were given a clean slate without hindrance from the record label. That's all well and good, but a clean slate doesn't mean the final output is going to be a winner.

Put it this way, I've listened to and been exposed to hundreds if not thousands of bands during this era, and MDB come nowhere close to being innovative or exciting enough to tickle my fancy. I will admit that the material on 'Call Of The Wild' is superior to that of 'Take It To The Max', but not by much.

The energy is up a few notches, the arrangements sit right in the middle of the power-pop sub-genre, and overall the excitometer sits above the halfway mark which is a good thing. However, when compared with other similar bands around the nation, or even up in Canada, MDB sit slightly behind. One can clearly deduce that Miami was not the power-pop capital of the USA!

In Summary

RCA could only handle this pair of albums before calling it a day. I picked up both of them on the Grooveshark website many years ago, but I think these can be sourced elsewhere on the Net now. Apparently, MDB is still active, and even released a live video on DVD, which must be as rare as rocking-horse doo-dah. For power-pop investigatees only I would suggest.

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dangerzone

As George says this isn't anything classic overall, but still a solid effort. The title track is the pick of the bunch, heavy AOR of sorts with aggressive guitar work.