The Vertebrats - A Thousand Day Dream (2025)

Review by Nitsuh Abebe

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Champaign/Urbana, IL, gained some notoriety as a college town with a surprisingly great independent music scene (along the lines of Athens, GA) -- one of the bands that pioneered and set the tone for the town's scene in the '80s was the Vertebrats, whose occasionally wonderful post-punk tunes gained enough recognition for the Replacements to cover one of them. A Thousand Day Dream, released through the C/U label Parasol, collects a great deal of the band's recordings, some of which is semi-brilliant and some of which is not -- the band takes its Clash, Rockpile, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ramones, and Neil Young influences into the sort of American post-punk territory (Replacements, Husker Du, Mission of Burma) one would expect, and with laudable results. Parasol's package includes extensive liner notes from members of the band and from Paul Budin of the Outnumbered, a C/U band that followed very directly in the Vertebrats' footsteps.

Tracklist:
1-1 The Vertebrats - Don't Think About It [4:06]
1-2 The Vertebrats - How Come [3:23]
1-3 The Vertebrats - Any Day Now [3:46]
1-4 The Vertebrats - Johnny Avante [4:19]
1-5 The Vertebrats - Hang On To Your Man [3:44]
1-6 The Vertebrats - Psychedelia [3:51]
1-7 The Vertebrats - Big Yellow Bus [2:38]
1-8 The Vertebrats - Left In The Dark [3:21]
1-9 The Vertebrats - Diamonds In the Rough [2:27]
1-10 The Vertebrats - Jackie's Gone [3:50]
1-11 The Vertebrats - Teen Seen [1:43]
1-12 The Vertebrats - Robbery [5:02]
1-13 The Vertebrats - Put Your Toys Away [2:54]
1-14 The Vertebrats - Some Like It Hot [2:55]
1-15 The Vertebrats - Turn On Your Face [1:51]
1-16 The Vertebrats - Try Again [4:34]
1-17 The Vertebrats - Every Once In Awhile [2:24]
1-18 The Vertebrats - Up Till Then [2:18]
1-19 The Vertebrats - Mystery Of Love [3:19]
1-20 The Vertebrats - Oklahoma [2:37]
1-21 The Vertebrats - Honey Bee [3:11]
1-22 The Vertebrats - This Before [3:56]