Mirrors were a great mid-70's band out of Cleveland, Ohio. They were formed in 1973 by members Jamie Klimek, Jim Crook, Craig Bell, and Michael Weldon. Keyboadist Paul Marotta joined soon thereafter. The mid-70's were one of the weirdest times for rock. These guys were too late to be considered psychedelic or progressive rock and too early to be called punk but their sound is an interesting hybrid of both. The Velvet Underground were undeniably a huge influence (Klimek allegedly recorded all of VU's Cleveland concerts on tape), but Mirrors sound was more personal and definitely had it's own strange voice. In their lifetime, the band released very little, this single on Hearthan being one of the only things you could get. However, the band recorded almost 2 or 3 albums worth of material, and in 2001 a label from the UK named Overground released a CD called "Hands In My Pockets" which compiled almost all of the their 70's recordings. Ten of these songs can also be found on the wonderful "Those Were Different Times" triple 10 inch compilation (also available on double CD) on Scat Records. That compilation features tracks by other Cleveland bands who commonly shared bills/members with Mirrors, including the Electric Eels, and The Styrenes. About 2 months ago an LP collection containing 15 tracks from "Hands In My Pockets was issued as a split release by Hovercraft and Violet Times Records and distributed by Matador.
Even though this single was released in 1977, the material was recorded in June and August of 1975. Mirrors probably disentegrated around '77. Jim Crook went on to be in another infamous Cleveland band Rocket From The Tombs. Paul Marotta went on to join The Styrenes. Michael Weldon went on to do the amazing magazine Psychotronic, which reviewed any kind of movie imaginable, especially those of the "B" variety as well as articles and interviews with various film and music people. He also published mindblowing reference books such as The Psychotronic Encyclopedia Of Film and The Psychotronic Video Guide, both of which have attained Bible-like status in my home library. Mirrors reformed briefly in the late 80's and released another record. Unfortunately the label that released it went bankrupt and the record faded into obscurity in a pressing of around 200 copies. Apparently, ROIR Records will someday re-release this album. (Blake) Here's a great television clip from the late 80's of Michael Weldon talking about the sad destruction of the "real" 42nd St. in NYC.
ROIR re-released Another Nail in the Coffin five years ago, actually.
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