Let's Active

Mitch Easter carved his place in music history as a hip producer in the '80s, most notably for the early R.E.M. albums Murmur and Reckoning; unfortunately, these achievements often overshadowed and distracted him from giving his full commitment to his own recording career with Let's Active, a band that, between 1983 and 1988, released some of the finest Southern power-pop/jangle-pop of the decade. After a short stint with the Sneakers, a band he formed with future dB's Chris Stamey in North Carolina in the late '70s, Mitch Easter set up his legendary Drive-In Studios in 1981 and formed Let's Active with bassist Faye Hunter and drummer Sara Romweber. The trio released a six-song EP, 1983's Afoot, on IRS Records. In 1984, the band released the more experimental Cypress. While the EP and album sold modestly, they found a strong following in the emerging alternative/"college rock" audience. Hunter and Romweber left shortly after the release, leaving Let's Active as essentially a solo project for Easter. Romweber later went on to join Snatches of Pink. Easter recruited drummers Eric Marshall and Rob Ladd, along with multi-instrumentalist Angie Carlson (Hunter returned temporarily for bass duties) for Big Plans For Everybody in 1986, another critically praised yet commercially undervalued album. The harder-edged Every Dog Has His Day, which replaced Hunter with a full-time bassist, John Heames, was released in 1988. Following a small-scale promotional tour of college campuses, the band hung in limbo -- no subsequent albums were recorded. Easter has continued producing into the '90s while infrequently playing with other bands, including Velvet Crush and Vinyl Devotion. ~ Chris Woodstra, All Music Guide