Biography
Mitch Easter earned renown during the 1980s as an astute producer, above all for guiding R.E.M. through the sessions that yielded Murmur and Reckoning. Those accomplishments, however, repeatedly pulled attention away from the recordings he made with his own outfit, Let's Active, which between 1983 and 1988 issued several of the decade's strongest examples of Southern power pop and jangle pop. In the same manner as R.E.M., the group refreshed the ringing guitar textures associated with the Byrds inside a new-wave framework. Although the lineup fluctuated sharply, Easter stayed at the creative core, completing three albums before the project wound down near the close of the 1980s.
Having first played in the Sneakers, the North Carolina group he started in the late 1970s alongside future dB's member Chris Stamey, Easter opened his renowned Drive-In Studios in 1981 and assembled Let's Active with bassist Faye Hunter and drummer Sara Romweber. The three-piece issued its debut, the six-song EP Afoot, on IRS Records in 1983. The following year brought the more exploratory full-length Cypress. Both releases achieved only modest commercial results yet attracted a devoted listenership within the growing alternative and college-rock audience. After Hunter and Romweber departed, Let's Active effectively became Easter's solo endeavor; Romweber subsequently performed with Snatches of Pink and the Dexter Romweber Duo, the latter fronted by her brother, founder of Flat Duo Jets.
For the 1986 album Big Plans for Everybody Easter enlisted drummers Eric Marshall and Rob Ladd plus multi-instrumentalist Angie Carlson, with Hunter returning briefly on bass; the record earned strong critical notice while remaining commercially overlooked. The harder-hitting Every Dog Has His Day appeared in 1988 after John Heames took over as permanent bassist. A modest tour of college venues followed, after which the band entered an indefinite pause with no further recordings completed. Easter kept working as a producer in later years and performed with Velvet Crush, Vinyl Devotion, Shalini, and the Fiendish Minstrels. His first solo album, Dynamico, came out in 2007. Sara Romweber passed away in March 2019 following a brain-tumor diagnosis.
Having first played in the Sneakers, the North Carolina group he started in the late 1970s alongside future dB's member Chris Stamey, Easter opened his renowned Drive-In Studios in 1981 and assembled Let's Active with bassist Faye Hunter and drummer Sara Romweber. The three-piece issued its debut, the six-song EP Afoot, on IRS Records in 1983. The following year brought the more exploratory full-length Cypress. Both releases achieved only modest commercial results yet attracted a devoted listenership within the growing alternative and college-rock audience. After Hunter and Romweber departed, Let's Active effectively became Easter's solo endeavor; Romweber subsequently performed with Snatches of Pink and the Dexter Romweber Duo, the latter fronted by her brother, founder of Flat Duo Jets.
For the 1986 album Big Plans for Everybody Easter enlisted drummers Eric Marshall and Rob Ladd plus multi-instrumentalist Angie Carlson, with Hunter returning briefly on bass; the record earned strong critical notice while remaining commercially overlooked. The harder-hitting Every Dog Has His Day appeared in 1988 after John Heames took over as permanent bassist. A modest tour of college venues followed, after which the band entered an indefinite pause with no further recordings completed. Easter kept working as a producer in later years and performed with Velvet Crush, Vinyl Devotion, Shalini, and the Fiendish Minstrels. His first solo album, Dynamico, came out in 2007. Sara Romweber passed away in March 2019 following a brain-tumor diagnosis.
Albums
Singles
