THE EMBARRASSMENT 1980 Patio Set/Sex Drive 7" 45

$

75

Here it is, The Embarrassment 1980 45rpm!  Bought from the band for one dollar at the Cedar in Wichita.  Was well-aquainted with them and now plan on cashing in on their fame.

Record is not unplayed, but not punked out.  You'll get a real feel of the beginning of this creative group.  There might be a pop or two, but so what?  Below is courtesy of

http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~wall/embos/discography.html#patio

"Patio Set"/"Sex Drive" 7"
(Big Time - BT1 - 1980) [both HD; " Sex Drive" on ERT]

Recorded 11/79 at Hi-Fidelity in Wichita and put out by the band, the first and only Big Time release. Both these cuts appear in higher fidelity re-issue on Heyday, and a medium-fi version of "Sex Drive" was on the ERT. Production credits to John Salem.

Even though "Patio Set" was the "A" side (or was it a double A?) "Sex Drive" is the song that became better known.

John Bernhardt helpfully reports the following: "Patio Set" is listed as BT-1-A and "Sex Drive" is listed as BT-1-1 on the printed label. On the etched matrix, Patio is BT-1-3:07 and Sex Drive is BT-1-5:00. On the back of the sleeve printed in someone's handwriting is

which is the only actual "ordering" implicit between the two tracks.

Some of the first sleeves were assembled incorrectly by the band and the two halves are "upside down" from one another.

Also recorded in these sessions were "Berliner's Night Out", which appeared on both the ERT and HD, the version of the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard" which appeared on the BOMP collection, and the original version of "After the Disco", which surfaced on HD and the "Time for a Change" compilation.

Only 500 copies were pressed, and this record has become something of a minor collectible. Two different people wrote me to say they'd gladly paid $75 and $100 for original copies of this single (pre-Heyday-release), and we've had reports of it selling for as much as $200.

The record got sparsely reviewed, and of the two tunes, "Sex Drive" got the most notice. "Patio Set" was performed by the band throughout its early career, though, and the song's sound continued to evolve even as "Sex Drive" became the song most eagerly sought out by cognoscenti in later years.

The band's sound at the time is angular, chunky, and grindingly rhythmic. The Embarrassment at the time were basically a punk band with what could later be called New Wave overtones, yet had already established a fairly unique signature sound, as well as the lyrical touchstones that they'd continue to revisit over the following five years.