Paul Smith was a guitarist originally from Camp Hill, Pa. He had also interned at
Susquehanna Sound and soon became friends with members of the Badlees. Paul also did his own stint in New York City and had met with Terry Selders a few
times while Terry was still at Bassment Records. Everyone liked and respected Paul and they all had discussed the possibility of him joining the band. The
only problem was that they already had two proficient guitar players in Bret and Jeff and only really needed a permanent bass player. As Bret recalls, one
day in 1991 he approached Paul about playing bass in the band, "just as a courtesy, a friend thing". Being that Paul didn't even own a bass, Bret was
pleasantly surprised when he accepted the offer.
With the addition of Smith on bass, the Badlees quintet that would drive through their most productive years was now in tact. The Badlees were now ready to
start work on their first full-length album. Dedicated to performing original music, it was now time to expand their library and this would be accomplished
in 1991 through the prolific songwriting of Alexander, Naydock, and to a smaller extent, Feltenberger.
The result is a well-crafted, entertaining, and thoughtful album with fine, exquisite details called Diamonds in the Coal. Thematically, the album
was nearly sliced in half by the light intermission of "Badlee Rap", performed by rapper Loose Bruce, while doing a session at Waterfront Studios
in Hoboken, NJ. Songs previous to this on the album are mainly pop-oriented with strong hooks such as on the opener "Like a Rembrandt", which The Album
Network picked up for its latest compilation. There’s also the crisp rocker "Just One Moment", the mellow ballad "The Real Thing", and the most
infectious tune on the album, "Back Where We Came From" (commonly referred to as "The Na Na Song"). This latter song was the band's first single from the
album and was added to the regular rotation of several Pennsylvania rock-formatted radio stations. It features a comical monologue in the bridge section by
Mike Naydock, his only appearance on a Badlees record as a performer.
The second "half" of the album contains songs that, while still very pop-sensible and accessible, explored deeper subject matter and richer musical
structure. The upbeat "Dirty Neon Times" includes some fantastic vocal harmonies by Jeff Feltenberger, while "Spending My Inheritance" is a well composed
"people’s anthem" that includes harmonica by Bret Alexander and some fiddle-playing by guest performer David Rose. Perhaps the most unique song on the album
is the smooth, atmospheric "Sister Shirley", which includes a picturesque lyrical narrative by Naydock and some sweet, jazzy lead guitar by Alexander.
But the true masterpiece of Diamonds in the Coal is the closing song of the same name, which brings the listener into the dark, forgotten patch
towns of Pennsylvania's anthracite region. The imagery in this song's lyric is so vivid that you can almost feel the coal dust flying, while the music sets
the perfect scene with a methodic, marching rhythm by Ron Simasek on the bottom end and some authentic, ethnic instrumentation up above.
"There are few things easier than to live badly and die well"
This quote by Oscar Wilde was placed inner sleeve of Diamonds in the Coal, obviously because of the play on the band's name, but this was not the
only quote on the album. Each song on the lyrics page contained its own special quote from philosophers and artists ranging from Aristotle to Andy Warhol.
These extra features show the TLC and attention to detail the Badlees put into the creation of the "album" – their very first. Simasek also located the
pictures that were used for the cover and within the packaging, authentic early 20th century miner photos, from the Tamaqua (PA) Historical Society.
These images would also be used in band promotions around the time of the album's release in January 1992. To the Badlees, Diamonds in the Coal was
much more than an album – it was an epic event.
Today, Bret Alexander looks back with great fondness on the creation of this album, saying he had a tremendous amount of fun and creative fulfillment
writing the songs and producing Diamonds in the Coal. Although he still holds the songs in very high regard, he laments that he doesn't feel that
the overall "sound" of the album has held up sonically through the years and has even considered re-recording some of the better tracks.
There is a definite early-nineties, polished-up quality to Diamond in the Coal – the drum sound is snare-centric, the rhythms contain little
variation, and the well-compressed vocals always seem to hang at eye-level, never quite stimulating the head nor the heart. This album may sound dated or
passé at first glance, but a deeper listener will definitely appreciate the quality of the songs and recognize the watershed of creative musical "springs"
that began their flow with Diamonds, en route to the ultimate destination of the River.
With the local success of their first full-length album, the Badlees popularity and stature continued to grow. They were invited to perform at the famous
South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX and soon landed a corporate sponsorship with Budweiser, who liked the fact
that they played out virtually non-stop. To keep these prolific shows filled, they worked hard to grow and maintain their fan base through a custom mailing
list and by setting up a "Badlees hotline" where fans could get the latest information. The band also occasionally booked some New York City gigs at famous
night clubs such as The China Club and CBGB’s, for which they would provide bus trips for their loyal Pennsylvania fans.
They also opened up new avenues of revenue through the merchandising of tee shirts, hats, coffee mugs, and boxer shorts and produced special cassette
singles with remixed versions of their songs to sell at shows. As for CD sales, Terry Selders made a bold move to enhance the Badlees reputation with record
stores by not selling the CDs themselves at shows but instead directing audience members to the local retailer where it was available. This strategy paid
off as sales steadily climbed and stores gave little resistance to providing shelf space for this unsigned band.
But the fact that the band remained unsigned to a major label through 1992 was quite a disappointment to the members some of whom still maintained "day jobs"
and were enthusiastic that Diamonds would push the band over the top and garner some interest from the larger labels. By 1993, as the Badlees
prepared to work on their second full-length album, they decided to take quite a different approach.
Jack Pyers had known the national spotlight, as bassist with the hair-metal band Dirty Looks in the late eighties. They
were signed to Atlantic records and had modest success with a couple of hit albums and a video on rotation on MTV. Pyers left the band in 1991 and went on
to form Sharkstooth Records with some investors in the Scranton, PA area.
In early 1993, Pyers approached the Badlees about producing their next album, promising a sound that more accurately reflects the energy of their live
shows. By this time, the band had already begun performing and developing new material on stage, and already had a new single, "Laundromat Radio" recorded
for inclusion on the latest Album Network compilation. Ultimately, the band agreed to try a new approach and took most of the summer off from
touring in order to concentrate on the new album.
The resulting effort was called The Unfortunate Result of Spare Time, a title that the Badlees shrugged off as ironic at the time, but have since
come to admit to its more literal meaning. It's not that the music is terrible, in fact there’s some quite good and interesting material on the album, but
the "result" was not quite what the band had hoped for.
"Laugh to Keep from Cryin'" is a steady, building song with an excellent soundscape, while "She's the Woman" has a classic blues-driven hard rock sound with
good guitar riffs and excellent harmonica by guest Daine Paul Russell of The Dr. Groove Band. The opening two songs – "A Better Way to Save
the World" and "Me, Myself and I" – each experiment with song structure, while on the closer, "A Matter of Time" the band experiments with complex harmonies.
"Little Eddie" is a unique number that almost sounds like the Crash Test Dummies-do-Springsteen while the ballad "You're Not the Only One" contains an
excellent melody along with a good mixture of guitars and mandolin. "Tore Down Flat in Jackson" is, perhaps, the one song that really captures the original
intent of the album, the raw, exciting "live" sound.
Much more than on Diamonds in the Coal, Paul Smith's bass is well-represented and better animated on The Unfortunate Result of Spare Time.
Also, there is a definite expansion of Pete Palladino's vocal range and style then on previous recordings. Palladino also came up with the concept and
played a part designing the cover and artwork of this album, which features a bored-looking kid leaning against the door jam of a tenement. The kid was, in
fact, the son of a friend of Pete's named Jimmy Ray, and art designer is a role that Pete would play on all future Badlee releases.
Unfortunately, what is not present is the continuance of the Badlees "roots rock" development that was started with the debut EP and enhanced with the song
"Diamonds in the Coal". While there is something definitively Pennsylvanian about those past efforts, there is nothing that truly tied The Unfortunate
Result of Spare Time geographically to its place of origin. There were also other elements that deviated from the foundation the Badlees had built
through Diamonds. Being that most of material was written live, Mike Naydock played a smaller role on this album, only co-writing three songs. In
fact, Alexander only took partial credit for one song, with the rest being credited to simply "The Badlees".
The Unfortunate Result of Spare Time was also a costly enterprise, not only because they took off so much time from touring to produce it, but also
due to the fact that Pyers was paid for his services (in the role that Alexander usually filled himself) and the album was mixed at a top-notch studio,
Dajhelon Recording, in Rochester, NY. The "unfortunate result" was the fact that the album was not the great leap forward that the band had
hoped for, but more like a "side step" (a term used by both Feltenberger and Selders in separate interviews).
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