Soundcloud has become the place to go to discover obscure bands from the 80s. The latest find hails from Denver, Colorado, and were called The Presley Underground. A pun? I’m sure they liked the bands associated to the Paisley Underground scene.
What information will I be able to find? Probably little. I don’t have high hopes. But let’s have a look…
The first song the band recorded was titled “Trains“. It was recorded at Budget Studios in Denver over 3 days in October of 1988. The recording was done live on a 16 track Fostex deck with overdubs on guitar and vocals, some drums and bass. The music was written by Alan Stiles with lyrics by Rick Hyde. This song would be part of the band’s first demo.
The second song we find is the superb “Fall of Promises“. This song has a different story. It seems Rick Hyde was jamming with someone called Aaron at Fort Lewis College in the fall of 1986 and he would remember a bass line from that session. Years later when Rick showed this bassline to the guys in Presley Underground they all liked it and started playing it in 1988. Brian Sneider is on drums, Otto Wrecker is on bass and Rick on guitar. What about Alan Stiles? Did he leave the band? Was he not part of the band originally? The recording details about this song are the same as “Trains”.
From that same recording session of October 1988 we find a third song, “Set it Aside“.
There are other 3 songs on Rick Hyde’s Soundcloud, “Deep River”, “Killing Floor” and “Metal”. But it doesn’t say if they were by The Presley Underground. Someone has commented that they aren’t. Who would know? Maybe these were from the band Rick was after?
The only other mention of the band comes from a blog called King Concert. This is a page dedicated to live music by Colorado writer-photographer Tim Van Schmidt.
On his post he mentions a concert were The Presley Underground supported the Meat Puppets on December 2nd 1988 at the CSU Student Center North Ballroom. He describes the sound of the band as fuzzy, loud dissonant rock.
And that’s what I could find by them. A few songs and little more. Would be great if someone could give us some more details about them!
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