Jim Basnight

Long before Seattle was the grunge rock capitol of America, it had a long history of rugged, tough-as-nails rock, beginning in the 1960s with garage rock stalwarts the Sonics and Wailers and culminating in the '80s with Jim Basnight and the Moberlys, a band that evoked the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at the same time, while turning out some of the decade's finest, if unfortunately obscure, New Wave pop. In truth, Seattle is only the beginning and finishing line for the band, the city which gave them their start and to which they finally returned, with a couple other musical hotbeds serving as temporary homes during the middle part of their run. Despite the aggregate's peripatetic career, they accumulated a consistently invigorating, distinctly Seattle body of work that stands as one of the finest collections of mostly unknown songs from the 1980s. Jim Basnight began playing in the Northwest punk underground in its infancy in the late 1970s. He was a young man of 19 years, just out of high school, when he released his first single independently. Although advised that he would need to move to either New York (where he had already spent six months in 1977) or Los Angeles if he really wanted to make a go at a career in rock & roll, Basnight determinedly pressed on despite the naysaying. The single garnered a number of positive reviews and he put together the first lineup of New Wave/power pop band the Moberlys. The band recorded its first self-titled album in 1980 and released it on the local indie label Safety First. It was the first full-length to emerge from the scene and earned positive reviews throughout the United States and even more ecstatic raves in Europe. Unfortunately, the band had broken up just prior to the album's release and Basnight decided to, indeed,...