Mirrors: Before there was Punk, there was Cleveland

In attempts to properly figure out when and where punk started a laundry list of injustices are done. There’s no supreme answer as to where this music came from – probably somewhere between 1965 and 1977, though, right? That’s a pretty long span of time for a genre to be founded. So, sticking to later dates makes sense even as it occasionally disqualifies a number of Cleveland based rock acts from inclusion in this history.

Granted, a great many of the Cleveland bands don’t sound all punk and proper – the Pagans do, but even the Dead Boys come off as a glammy rock band pretty frequently over the duration of its 1977 Young, Loud and Snotty album. Regardless of that, though, before either of those groups started causing scenes in public, the Mirrors were kicking around and playing shows at the few local venues daring enough to book ‘em.

Including members that would eventually go on to become the Styrenes, play with Pere Ubu and sundry other local acts, Mirrors only issued a lone single through David Thomas’ imprint in 1977, a few years after the band ceased to exist in its original state. For a pretty long time “She Smiled Wild” and “Shirley” were the only two songs officially released by the band. And while that first effort probably trumps just about everything else the band got down on tape, the rest of Mirrors’ recorded legacy is still pretty entertaining.

Issued by Violet Times outta New York, the vinyl only release of Something That Would Never Do supplements a compilation entitled Those Were Different Times which included a few of the efforts here, but not all. And with supplemental assistance in the liner note department from the fellow behind Blog to Comm the eighteen dollar price tag doesn’t even seem like a rip off.

Anyway, back to the music. With such a stunning punk lineage in Cleveland, songs like “How Could I” might seem odd and almost out of place. Taking into account the Velvet Underground worship – a point no Mirrors write up can do without – some of the more fey moments here make a bit more sense. It’s in these easy going sections of various songs – “Beaver Girls” as well – that make the coming onslaught of fuzz and almost punk posturing as shocking as they are on songs like “Annie.”

These guys have been contrasted with just about everyone from the era – including the Modern Lovers. And while that might make sense, there really wasn’t another group out there during the first few years of the seventies reworking the sixties and presaging the following decade of music. Required listening.