Rubellan Remasters | UC | CD | 2018 | RUBY05CD
Trees: Sleep Convention DLX RM US CD [2018]
- Come Back
- Shock Of The New
- Delta Sleep
- No Stranger
- Midnight In America
- 11:00 A.M.
- Wildwood
- India
- Gotta Moon
- Red Car
- Come Back (Alternate Version)
- 11:00 A.M. (Alternate Version)
- Fire
- Never Believe It
- Searchin’
- Runnin’ Wild
- Devil On A String
- Move On
- Don’t Look In Her Eyes
- In A Booth
- Live Like You
- Pandora’s Box
I heard about Trees, a.k.a. Dane Conover for the first …and last time in issue # 79 of Trouser Press magazine from November 1982. Publisher and founder gave the album “Sleep Convention” the kind of rave review that always made me stand up and take notice. But that and six dollars will get you a chai latte. In spite of having a great interest in buying this album, I can honestly say that I had never seen a copy for sale until last summer, when I was shopping for music in Los Angeles. By which time it was already out on CD format with a dozen bonus tracks! I stayed my hand on the LP then, but after hearing this CD, I am doubting my decision to forego the LP which I would have bought on any day from 1982-1017. It’s not redundant to have an album this great on multiple formats!
So apparently, Dane Conover was in the San Diego New Wave band Puppies, whom I’d not heard of in their time. Dane played keys and co-wrote the tunes there. They have a 1981 indie EP and 7″ single on Stiff Records to their credit, but now this band’s oeuvre is on my want list. The EP is not going for cheap, so I may never hear that one. Mr. Conover had built up quite a collection of songs by the time he recorded this opus and had plenty of chops to make them happen in more ways than one.
Once he signed to MCA Records as Trees, he linked up with engineer Earl Mankey in his Thousand Oaks studio and holed up for a month making this eye-wideningly great debut album. Conover played everything but the drums on “Sleep Convention” and his take on meticulously constructing busy but gratifying technopop arrangements all by himself must mark him as some sort of pop savant.
Next: …But What About The Tunes?
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Post-Punk Monk 
Oooh this sounds most intriguing! Looking forward to the review.
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chasinvictoria – So am I! I’m slammed right now so time is scant!
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Thank you for such a nice review of Dane’s album! You mentioned you were also interested in Dane’s previous band Puppies, before Trees. Here is a live video of Puppies back in 1981. You can see a few more Puppies videos up on youtube….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii3PzuSkkoA
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Marisa Conover – Welcome to the comments! Thanks for sharing the Puppy Love. I love your duet version of “Come Back” – it’s a hoot. How weird was it having an argument on tape right up front with the guy who would eventually be your husband? I guess it broke the ice.
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Doing the “argument” with Dane on “Come Back” wasn’t weird at all because we thought it was funny. We improvised that argument on the mic in one take. Dane wanted to also smash a bunch of dishes and glasses, but Earle wouldn’t let him, so he banged on the piano instead! I’m glad you enjoyed it and the rest of the album :-)
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Many thanks for your in depth assessment of Sleep Convention! I’m glad it’s again making the rounds ~ of all reviews over the years, this is top shelf. Your analysis reveals the album in a fresh way, putting it into historical perspective heretofore impossible! Kudos ~
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Dane Conover – Welcome to the comments! Hah! We’re all about penetrating analysis here at PPM! I think that you really captured a moment with this album, and it needed all the room I gave it. As you pointed out the technology was changing quickly at that time when digital tech was just getting poised to make serious inroads. I have to say that I do prefer the analog sounds. I hope that more of your music reaches the public ear moving forward. It definitely was to my detriment that it took nearly 40 years to hear this album. I should have been championing this one all along, but thankfully I was at least aware of it from Ira Robbins rave review in Trouser Press at the time.
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I was 8 when this lp came out but became aware of it around 1990 or so when the Trouser Press review was included in the Trouser Press record guide. I lived in the cultural wasteland known as Dover, Delaware so there was no way to find Sleep Convention. Once I became of age to drive, this was high on my list to find on sorties to Philly, Wilmington and Newark where there were decent record stores. No dice. I eventually found it in an unlikely farmers market in lower, slower Delaware. Needless to say, I was stoked and put that down on my turntable as soon as I got home. It totally delivered and I spun it a few times right off the bat. Great tunes and excellent production. Without going into detail, you can tell it was a labor of love. I’ve only met 1 person since that time that has ever heard this lp. A nice German girl who told me she would play it at parties. Must me nice to live in a country that still has parties! Agreed that no shame in owning a great lp in two formats so I ordered the CD when I found out it had been issued. Nice to have the bonus tracks and a little info on the making of the lp. In hindsight, a song like Red Car would have fit in perfectly on the soundtrack of the 80’s flick Real Genius or Delta Sleep in Better Off Dead. The record still sounds great today to these ears.
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Tom Avazian – Welcome to the comments! Wow! Your tale was amazing. Especially since you actually managed to find a copy in the least likely place imaginable! I wonder how many MCA pressed up back then. I never saw a copy until 2018 when visiting Los Angeles that summer. If you can’t find a record in Los Angeles, you can’t find it anywhere. You are so on point with the movie tie-ins that should have been if only …MCA had been more media savvy [??!]. And a good record should always sound great. As this one certainly does.
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