PERSONNEL:
Andy Bigan: drums
Jon Chaikin: guitar, vocals
Walter Roberti: lead guitar
Walter Sczesny: vocals, bass

Engineer, keyboards: Pete Puleo
Mixed by David Eng

TRACK LISTING:
Side A
Best Behavior
Day After Day
Out Of Luck
Before We’ve Gone

This one of the oldest demo tapes in my collection; I probably reviewed it under my pen name, Andy Glass, for my Independents’ Day! column in the Long Island free weekly The Musician’s Exchange.

It’s also one of my favorite tapes, and it was such a joy to listen to this again! Jangle-pop aficionados will absolutely adore it! The best song here, the Jon Chaikin-penned “Day After Day” (not the Badfinger song!) was previously released as a 7″ single in 1988 on Chaikin’s Galt Records label, with Walter Sczesny‘s “Out Of Luck” on the B-side. (I have a copy, and you all should be jealous.)

In 1991, Enemies In The Grass released a 12″ EP, Blind Crossing, that includes all four of these songs, plus two sings written by former Cyclones/Fleshtones/Mad Violet bassist Sczesny, “Wants It That Way” and “Kind Of Girl.” That same year, “Wants It That Way” appeared on Galt’s essential CD Hear No Evil: A Compilation, which brought together a host of excellent NY/NJ underground faves: Melting Hopefuls, Nate Ouderkirk, Third Eye Butterfly and Mystery Date, among others. Yet another EITG song, “Yesterday’s Gone,” closed out Hear No Evil Volume Two, released in 1993. That marks the end of the Enemies. Chaikin put out a 7″ single by Jerry Kitzrow & Wild Honey in 1993, and two by Lost, Lonely & Vicious in 1995, at which point Galt came to a halt.

Jon (who prior to EITG played guitar and sang with Colouring Book, a shortlived band that featured the late Aussie drummer Hamish Kilgour) moved to California and became a mastering engineer, working on a boatload of releases by Portland/San Francisco-based Shelflife Records. mostly recently albums by Jetstream Pony and The Luxembourg Signal, both in 2020. Hasn’t been seen since. Jon and I were good friends back when our bands played at the Ludlow Cafe, but I lost touch with him. Hope he sees this!

Drummer Andy Bigan has had a very successful and interesting career since then (including the purchase of an historic Queens tavern with David Eng)!

Lead guitarist Walter Roberti is now living in LA. He’s remained active — released an album in 1995 with Xan Abeyratne, and backed The Platters, Ben E. King, and The Drifters on the oldies circuit — and Robert recently posted a new single with Virginia Summerville on Soundcloud.

Walter Sczesny apparently vanished from music history after 1993. I just friended a guy who might be him on Facebook, so we’ll see where that leads.