Song of the Day: 'Room With a View' by Let's Active

Heartbroken to read about the death of Let's Active drummer Sara Romweber at 55. 

Pitchfork recalls that Romweber joined frontman Mitch Easter and bassist Faye Hunter in Let’s Active when she was 17. Their first performance found them opening for R.E.M. in Atlanta in 1981. Romweber quit the band in 1984 after the release of the “Afoot” EP and their debut full-length, “Cypress.” Later, she co-founded the group Snatches of Pink and performed with her brother as the Dex Romweber Duo. In 2014, she reunited with Mitch Easter as Let’s Active for a benefit show.

Will never forget driving “all the way” to the westside from Mesa -- Phoenicians will understand this -- to see the band perform at the Mason Jar in high school, shortly after getting my driver’s license in 1984. (I went with my stalker-turned-gal pal Susan!)  

Read lots of loving tributes HERE.

“Every Word Means No” was such a great single and the “Afoot” EP and “Cypress” album were equally catchy. “I’d write songs and she’d figure out what to do with it, and she could make sense of it. She was a little bit wild, which I liked,” Easter told the Winston Salem Journal. We lost bass player Faye Hunter to suicide in 2013 and now Sara to a brain tumor. Too much sad news from a band that gave me so much happiness. RIP.

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Sara Romweber was one of the kindest, most unique & inspiring people i've known & she passed away yesterday. She was so important to me that i wrote a paper about her my freshman year in college. The Romweber home on Pine St in Carrboro was open to everyone & the heart of a musical community -- you can see some of this in the episode of "IRS The Cutting Edge" if it's on anywhere. A fantastically powerful and creative drummer -- watching her play was a joy no matter what band -- & I'll be listening to these masterpieces this morning & thinking about Sara and her family. #RIP #sararomweber #letsactive

A post shared by Mac McCaughan (@macsuperchunk) on Mar 5, 2019 at 7:02am PST

RIP: Faye Hunter, Bassist of Let's Active, Is Dead at 59

Very sad to read that Faye Hunter, the founding bassist of Let's Active -- whose jangle-pop single "Every Word Means No" was a staple on early MTV -- has died of an apparent suicide. (Spin has details HERE.) I will cherish my memory of seeing the band live at the Mason Jar in Phoenix back on Dec. 5, 1984, which you can read about HERE. RIP, Faye. Your hair was the funnest!

Faye shares vocal duties in this classic from "Afoot."

Song of the Day: 'Every Word Means No' by Let's Active

It might surprise you how happy this song makes me, taken from the band's debut EP, "Afoot."

 

Music Box: Let's Active

At the height of the British new wave explosion in 1983, when eye liner, synthesizers and drum machines ruled the U.S. charts, along came Let's Active -- an American jangle-guitar band fronted by Mitch Easter, who had already made a name for himself by producing R.E.M.'s classic debut, "Murmur." With his crazy hair and his fun-girl rhythm section, Let's Active's debut single, "Every Word Means No," quickly became one of my faves, as did the EP from which it came, "Afoot." A full-length effort, "Cypress" followed in '84, as well as a promotional tour on which I was lucky enough to see them at the Mason Jar (I lost the ticket stub, but I know the show was on Dec. 5, 1984, thanks to my trusty old concert diary!). The band had unraveled by the time (the ironically titled) "Big Plans for Everyone" came out in '86 (I can't even remember if I bought that one, but it was largely an Easter solo album), but the catchy refrain from "Every Word Means No," along with the video's puppy dogs and Mitch's puppy-dog eyes, are things that stay with 25 years later ...