The Silos-Cuba (1987)

 



Artist: The Silos

Title:  Cuba

Label: Dualtone

Format: CD

Catalog Number: 08302-01129-2

Year of Release: 1987

Country and Year of Edition: US 2002 BMG Music Club Edition

Sell Price: $5.01

Sell Date: 5/30/26

Condition: VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold: 5/15/25 NM/NM $5.00

Low: $4.99

Median: $5.50

Average: $5.66

High: $6.99

Current low price: $3.75

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 2 

Have/Want: 12/2

Where Sold: Bay City, MI

Time It Took To Sell:  3 years

Where and When Bought: Facebook marketplace lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

I've seen the Walter Silas Humara-led Silos regularly for the past quarter century, initially on the urging of Rubric co-hort Kenny.  He was a big fan of this album from 1987, Cuba. Cuba was issued on the Record Collect label and the original CD was laying around the office in the late 90's.   The one after it was  issued initially on RCA and in those major label years they had the recently passed Bob Rupe (2025 at 69), who after the 1990 album moved on to Cracker, Sparklehorse and Gutterball.  Walter has continued with the Silos all these years with various members.  

With this 2002 reissue copy on Dualtone, the album has been expanded with outtakes and live tracks.  With the term "Americana" not coined yet for this style of rock, there is a mix typical of 1987 American Independent Rock with the snare cranked, but it doesn't quite descend into "Letterman Rock."  It sounds more appropriate in bar than a the-a-tre.  Margaret may not wait up!  It's telling you can see the Black Flag t-shirt featured promenantly when you watch the MTV debut video that I'm guessing made 120 Minutes.  The songs here are uniformly excellent.  The bonus tracks you can see why they didn't make the cut particularly something like "Hook In My Lip" which nods to Rupe's roots in bands like The Bobs and Psycho Daisies earlier in the 80's.  The real sound of the day you can hear is REM, which was the commercially dominant band of the time that all things seemed in this genre seemed to eminate from whether they did directly or not.  They certainly had access to the circuit and the majors did indeed bring them on to give them their shot.

The main ten tracks though are universally excellent particularly the opening track, the video "Tennessee Fire" included as part of the enhanced CD. "All Falls Away," the album closer is another favorite of mine.  "Just This Morning" is a not too thinly veiled tribute to hearing Wall of Voodoo on the radio.  When the bonus tracks kick in with "Give Me Back My Name" you can hear whispers of ragged Replacements with violins kicking it.  "You and Your Sister" is NOT the Chris Bell song.  We close where we started with a live version of "Tennessee Fire."

Not sure if this is Walter's flagship record, but it's gotta be one of 'em.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bob Dylan-Masterpieces (1978)

Image
  Artist:  Bob Dylan Title: Masterpieces Label: Columbia Format: 3xCD Catalog Number: 462448 9 Year of Release: 1978 Country and Year  of Edition: Australia 1991 (sticker has 30 year anniversary) Sell Price: $26.69 Sell Date: 4/19/26 Condition: VG+/VG+  Discogs Last Sold: 2/27/26 NM/NM $16.22 Low: $7.19 Median: $20.00 Average: $26.50 High: $64.59 Current  low price:  $7.17 Current Number on  Sale at Discogs: 29 Have/Want: 539/41 Where Sold: Middlebury, VT Time It Took  To Sell:  2 years  Where and When  Bought: Facebook marketplace lot Gwiz-gau Grade:  A Sad To See  It Go: No Of the many Bob Dylan compilations, I never had Masterpieces until fairly recently in a lot purchase.  It was always in the store bin at a triple CD import price when my fingers would flip over it in the early 90's Dylan section.  In that time period it meant over $50 easy whether it was from Australia, New Zealand or Japan where is was...
Read more

Blur-13 (1999)

Image
  Artist: Blur Title: 13 Label: Food/Virgin Format: CD Cat #: 7243 4 99129 2 2 Year of Release: 1999 Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1999 Listed Condition: VG+/VG+  Sell Date: 3/9/25 Sell Price: $2.84 Discogs Last Sold: 2/19/25 NM/NM $5.50 Low: $0.49 Median: $3.12 Average: $3.61 High: $8.68 Current low price: $2.83 Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 34 Have/Want: 1960/168 Where Sold: Columbia, SC Time it took to sell: 14 years Where and When Bought: internet mail order circa time of release used guessing CD Warehouse Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+ Sad To See It Go: No Another "critics" record I bought at the end of the year in 1999 that I maybe listened to once, dropped it into the CD carousel and let it pop up on random shuffle for most of 2000.  This 13 track album called 13 is the 6th full length Blur album and I would say the second one I bought after their eponymously titled 5th album. I'm going to say this one is quality start to finish.  My favorite cut is th...
Read more

Big Black-The Incredibly Corporate Whorish Big Black Interview Album (1987)

Image
  Artist: Big Black Title: The Incredibly Corporate Whorish Big Black Interview Album Side One     Side Two Label: Touch 'n' Go Format: LP Cat #:  TG-LP-INT-1 Year of Release: 1987 Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1987 Promo only Listed Condition: VG+/VG Sell Date: 7/18/25 Sell Price: $15.57 Discogs Last Sold: 5/17/25 NM/NM $23.26   Low: $14.95 NM/NM 1/14/20 Median: $25.00 Average: $26.78 High: $40.00 NM/NM like new Current low price: $17.44 VG+/VG Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 5 Have/Want: 128/147 Where: Chicago, IL Time it took to sell: 10 years Where and When Bought: promo Gwiz-gau Letter Grade:  A- Sad To See It Go: No One of those collection crown jewels that somehow dropped to 15 bucks over the years.  I'm sure I opened up at 40 many years ago, but a dreaded 2" seam split in my notes made other people that actually wanted the record opt for "NM/NM" copies in the 25-40 range. This was a promo that came before the "He's A Whore" si...
Read more