Gray Matter – Take It Back LP Dischord Records

2023 repress on blue vinyl. “Gray Matter officially formed in the summer of 1983 but Geoff Turner, Mark Haggerty and Dante Ferrando had been playing in bands since their early middle school days. By early 1983, Dante and Mark were playing in Iron Cross, but when the band’s image began to reflect its supporters more than the members themselves, Dante quit. Soon after Mark also left and the two reunited with Geoff and Iron Cross roadie Steve Niles and started playing shows around Washington, DC as Gray Matter. The band’s first album, Food For Thought was originally released on R&B records in 1985 while the members were still in high school. Food For Thought was the name of Dante’s father’s restaurant (and Gray Matter’s rehearsal space) and was soon to host many of the shows by Rites of Spring, Gray Matter, Embrace, etc. that gave rise to DC’s Revolution Summer in 1985. The Take It Back EP, released in September 1986, was recorded in the immediate afterglow of Revolution Summer and features that era’s raw melodic energy contained only by Gray Matter’s impeccable song craft. Shortly after the EP’s release Mark left DC to go to college and the band went on one of its frequent hiatuses. Gray Matter re-emerged in the spring of 1990 and released a 4 song double seven inch in 1991 (DIS58.5). The band released its final full-length, Thog in 1992 and continues to appear for one-off shows from time to time. In late 2008, Dischord Records began recutting much of our vinyl catalog here in the United States. We began by re-pressing current titles, and later re-issuing others, all re-cut at Chicago Mastering Service. This edition of Gray Matter’s Take It Back has been expanded into a full-length LP with the addition of the 4 songs from the band’s 1991 double seven inch. The vinyl was re-cut from original source tapes, is being reissued on colored vinyl and features a free MP3 album download coupon.”