Song of the Week – Don’t Give It Up Now, Lyres

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In Boston, back in the early 70s, Jeff “Monoman” Conolly formed a punk rock band called DMZ. That band was heavily influenced by the 60s garage band sounds that were popularized by Lenny Kaye’s superbly curated Nuggets compilation. After a couple of years, Conolly dropped DMZ and took his garage band strategy up a notch with his next band – Lyres.

Their best song – and today’s Song of the Week – was “Don’t Give It Up Now.”

I remember going to see them at the now defunct Inn Square Men’s Bar in Cambridge, MA with my friend Phil H. in the early 80s. When they played “Don’t Give It Up Now”, the sweat, energy and excitement in the room was palpable; a truly memorable experience
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Their trademark sound comes from Monoman’s hair raising and nearly unintelligible vocals, his Vox Continental organ playing chords with one hand, and his insistent tambourine played with the other. When you add in the vintage sound Danny McCormack draws out of his Danelectro guitar, you’d swear you were listening to an early Kinks cut or something by the 13th Floor Elevators.

Some time ago, when writing about The Only Ones’ “Another Girl, Another Planet” I remarked “… I can honestly say I’ve never turned anyone onto this song that didn’t instantly and for always fall in love with it. It’s that good!” The same can be said about “Don’t Give It Up Now.”

Enjoy… until next week.

3 thoughts on “Song of the Week – Don’t Give It Up Now, Lyres

  1. Good one. Absolutely agree about “Another Girl, Another Planet.” Peter Perrett was a good friend of Johnny Thunders and is all over the So Alone album. The Only Ones were a killer live band too, saw ’em at the Ritz and Johnny came up to do Like a Rolling Stone.

  2. 1) Love the drumming. A Lyres drummer (this guy? – I don’t know how many they had) is now the drummer for The Upper Crust, a Steve Moyer favorite, as recommended by Peter Remnant.

    2) Monoman must’ve had a helluva bruise on his left hip.

    3) I opened for The Lyres in the Lehigh Valley as a member of Follow Fashion Monkeys.

    4) Did anyone else like another great bunch of Boston garagers, The Real Kids? I loved the first album, especially “Reggae Reggae” which had nothing at all to do with reggae.

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