In 2021 I recommended everyone to get a 12″ vinyl record titled “May Never Happen” by the Kent, Ohio, band Moonlove. I hope you listened to me as that compilation is sold out.

This band is really good. And was obscure for many decades (and probably still is). The label Concentric Circles was smart to see the quality of the songs and released it as the fifth release on their catalogue (CC005).

The 10 songs on the album were recorded at Sprucewood Studios in Sandusky, Ohio, on a cassette deck and a Betamax videocassette recorder. The songs were “Level Ground”, “All Your Mysteries”, “Cast Your Troubles and Dreams Away”, “Triangle” and “Goodbye” on the A side and “Venus”, “Blue Skies”, “Trying to Find”, “Moroccan Moon” and “Hearse on the Highway” on the B side.

The band was formed by Jeff Curtis on guitar, bass and vocals, Randy Russell on electric guitar, bass, drums and vocals and Edda Blaine on acoustic guitar, violin and voice.

A name I notice in the credits is that of Beth Erickson who co-wrote “Venus” with Randy and “Trying to Find” with Jeff. It seems Beth Erickson was an alias of Edda actually!

Other credits include Jim Clinefelter who took the photography on the record.

I look for other music they may have made. I noticed Edda had contributed violin to a song by the band Gibson Bros on their album “Dedicated Fool” in 1989. Randy Russell and Jeff Curtis had been in a band called The Channel Masters. Jeff was even in more bands including Gem, Iron Oxide, Mohammed Cartoon, My Dad is Dead, Satan’s Satellites, The Bad Crabs and Vengeance Space Quartet.

The only other song the band released was “Call it Love” that appeared on “Azimith Tape Adjustment: Best of Own the Whole World Cassette Compilation ’84-’85” in 2019.

You can listen to all the songs on Bandcamp. There you’ll also find some description fo what to expect from the album. The sound is likened to the Velvet Underground, the Paisley underground and also to the Dunedin Sound. A band they compare Moonlove to is the great Look Blue Go Purple.

I keep looking for more info. One important detail is that the album was actually released in 1985, in an edition of probably fewer than 25 copies. That limited edition was a cassette on the classic Kent, Ohio, label Discographies for the Deaf (DFTD 4).

I can’t find any other bits of info about the band. It is great though to see that the label has managed to get the record be sold by many mailorders abroad and even on Walmart domestically. Don’t know how they do it with an unknown band. But good for them of course.

Would love to hear from the band members directly about the band. Did they play many gigs? Why they didnt release more records? Are these all the recordings they made? Hope we find out!

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Listen
Moonlove – Level Ground