Invitation to the Student Teachers

Student Teachers is a punk band from New York that started off as teenage fans of bands like The Ramones, Blondie, and other CBGB headliners during the late 70’s and early 80’s. The band began playing shows at the soon to be huge venues and eventually found their way to opening for their idols. In less then two years they were headlining gigs and turning heads. Alas, a record deal never happened for the band and they, and their music, were lost to us. 

 

Luckily Nacional Records has put together the first ever collection of all their works under one roof for future generations and past generations (who remember them) to enjoy. The title of this once in a lifetime opportunity is titled- Invitation to….the Student Teachers- The Complete Syllabus (1978-1980). 

 

This probably attributes to the fact that the band toured aggressively and no record deal was ever produced, that the album is a short 9 tracks long and comes in at just under twenty five minutes. Still I can appreciate the bands sound. Kind of like a mix between Joy Division, Oingo Boingo, and the coming explosion of synthetic music (as an underlying theme). 

 

While Punk, as a genre term, has been largely debated over the years by fans, Student Teachers isn’t going to be an aggressive, in your face, politically charged generator. No will it be a gloomy interpretation of early post punk workings. The band is more in line with say, The Damned during their crossover years, but with that punk energy behind the drums, Alternative indie synthetic on keyboards, and wild Talking Heads meets Oingo Boingo meets Black Flag on vocals. That’s kind of pulling at straws, but once you grab yourself a snippet from you tube (track “Looks” can be found there in both its live version as album version) you’ll get it.

 

I’m old enough to recall when music sounded like this so to me this is a nostalgic treat. Even though it’s old (like me) it’s still fresh sounding (like me) with a tone that grabs at several different genres and delivers a timeless sound. For those that haven’t heard this band before, do yourself a favor and check them out. Enjoy.