Album Review
Riser is a pivotal Boston band formed by songwriters Adrian Medeiros, who was with Tangerine Zoo on Mainstream Records in the '60s, and guitarist/songwriter John Kalishes, who worked with the late Ben Orr of the Cars. This material, tracked in the '70s, including three unreleased tunes by Guess Who producer Jack Richardson, gives a taste what could have been. The strongest songs are the Medeiros composition "Was It The Last Time," with Tom Fey's extraordinary vocals, and "Story in Your Eyes," written by multi-instrumentalist John Garr. "Story in Your Eyes" is a totally different song than the hit recorded by the Moody Blues, and is the one tune not sung by Fey on the disc. The voice is that of songwriter Garr, who displays a fondness for progressive rock hooks that might have been a little too much in the land of Aerosmith, Boston, J. Geils, and the Cars. Sure, Brad Delp of Boston has that high-octane, high-octave tone, but the work of Tom Scholz was so unique it put the band Boston into another realm, almost sci-fi rock at the time. Riser had to face the Supertramp/Styx/Starship with Mickey Thomas categorization, and in the hip Boston underground that launched Willie Alexander and the Rings onto MCA Records, and the Fools onto EMI, well, teaming a progressive rock band up with a producer of hitmakers like the Guess Who was not what "the scene" wanted back then. "Tin Shield" sounds like the group Yes with thick textures, and very un-Richardson-like sounds. His production of "Never Get to Heaven" is more in line with what listeners have come to expect from his work. Those titles and "They All Come out at Night" are the three lost tracks by that major record producer of a Boston band that came so very close to stardom. Riser evolved into Foreign Legion, and true to their craft, they kept playing progressive rock, resulting in the video Chrissie's Sister, but a diverse New England scene which includes the likes of funk-rockers the Jonzun Crew on A & M, degenerate punks the Nervous Eaters on Elektra, and Byrds-inspired Robin Lane & the Chartbusters on Warner Bros. pretty much insured this locally popular group would remain obscure.
