Gang of Four is a favorite from way back. I got my start with this band by picking up the compilation CD, A Brief History of the Twentieth Century. Once I heard the Damaged Goods track, I was hooked. As a bass player myself, I was amazed at the athletic playing of Dave Allen, and later tracks like Cheeseburger and the blistering live version of What We All Want.

Dave Allen recently offered up a lovely zip file of the three songs from the GoF vinyl Damaged Goods EP in a post on his excellent blog, Pampelmoose.com. I’m a complete fan of the site for a variety of reasons, but mostly because Dave’s a character and I enjoy the posts by him and his contributors. I’m also a bit hooked on the Portland music scene.

As the songs offered in the Pampelmoose entry are ripped from vinyl, they TECHNICALLY fit here, thought I’d much rather chase down the original record and pop it on the turntable. MP3s are fun, but I do love the size, smell and artwork of the good old stuff. MP3s just don’t have any distinctive features whatsoever except the audio itself. Me, I enjoy the whole package. The searching, the finding, the fondling…all of it. But I digress. Have a listen to these great tracks and see what hooked me so many years ago.