- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Let’s Active is considered to be one of the finest jangle-pop bands, and that seems to be a specialty of Tarheel musicians.
Let’s Active – Cypress (1984): Like the dB’s, Let’s Active is another rock band from my hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They are considered to be one of the finest jangle-pop bands, and that seems to be a specialty of Tarheel musicians. The band name was taken from an example of a series of Japanese T-shirts that had nonsense phrases in English and sometimes names, an odd sort of fad in that time period. Founded by Mitch Easter (guitar and vocals), a top record producer who is best known for co-producing the first two R.E.M. albums and also for producing their first EP, most of the other bandmembers in Let’s Active were women, originally Faye Hunter (bass and vocals) and Sara Romweber (drums).
The first live performance by Let’s Active was opening for R.E.M. in November 1981 in Atlanta. Partly because Mitch Easter’s time was divided between the promotion of his band and his record producing duties, Let’s Active had limited success, leading to considerable turnover in personnel; though they released three albums and an EP that I managed to find over the years. Cypress is their debut album and features my favorite song by Let’s Active, “Blue Line”. Unlike Let’s Active, R.E.M. became one of the top rock bands in the world; their second album Reckoning also came out in 1984.