This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Dreams So Real's "Bearing Witness"

Well, now, here's one that truly earns the above title I bestow upon it. This Athens, Ga. guitar rock band's first widely released album, 1988's solidly brilliant Rough Night in Jericho, is so damn forgotten, underrated, and maybe even never heard in the first place that it's next to impossible to find on CD and only slightly easier to locate online. Over the years, in fact, more than a few far more colorful profanities have accompanied my desperate efforts to get this record without resorting to climbing into the attic to retrieve my dusty old cassette copy. However, I won't (or can't) share those with you now.

Anyway, to my slight but welcome surprise, "Bearing Witness" sounds just as wonderful to me now as it did during my late high school and early college days, when I spent just about as much time fondling or playing this tape as I did in my girlfriend's dorm room. Anyway yet again, this track represents '80s guitar rock, jangle pop and college rock at its most dense, sophisticated and listenable. And although there are some who tag Dreams So Real as a "minor" Athens band, clearly I am not one of them. I don't think you should be either.

• Sample or download "Bearing Witness" here.
• Dreams So Real's Official MySpace Music Page
• College Rock Profile
• Top 10 '80s U.S. Music Scenes