The Beat

THE BEAT (PAUL COLLINS’ BEAT)
 
 
The Beat  (soon renamed to Paul Collins’ Beat) is an American rock and power pop group from Los Angeles, California, that formed in 1979.  Paul Collins’ Beat resurfaced in the 1990’s and continues to tour and record new material.  Frontman Paul Collins has released several projects with his alternative country group The Paul Collins Band, who play Americana music inspired by country rock and folk rock.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
By the end of 1978, these two in the Breakaways had also gone their separate ways, with Peter Case forming the Plimsouls and Paul Collins starting the Beat (later Paul Collins’ Beat).  The Beat recorded a couple of good albums for their label, and the Plimsouls did the same, but it wasn’t what could have been.  
 
(April 2010)
 
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Basically dropping everything and pushing a band to the top of the heap on the UARA/UARB stack has happened only one other time among these posts, and it was quite awhile ago:  the UARB for April 2010, the Breakaways.  I had ordered a power-pop package from Bomp!: a retrospective album of, a brand-new CD of a killer live show by the Plimsouls, and then a CD by the Breakaways.  After Jack Lee left the Nerves, the other two members of the band, Paul Collins and Peter Case started playing with a variety of other musicians.  They used the name the Breakaways, but it arguably never was really a band:  These guys just wanted to keep making music together.  They were only around for a little over a year, and they are actually the third of three bands by that name that are listed in Allmusic.  Pretty soon, those two parted ways also, with Peter Case forming the Plimsouls and Paul Collins starting the Beat
 
(December 2012)
 
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Many of the seminal bands in these rock movements released albums on the Bomp!VoxxAlive or Total Energy labels; most of them are not household names by any means, but they are recognized by those in the know as being important bands that shaped the history of rock and roll.  Some of these better-known bands and artists are the Romanticsthe Modern Lovers, the Dead Boys (and Stiv Bators individually), the Plimsouls (and Peter Case individually), the Beat (and Paul Collins individually), the Stooges (and Iggy Pop individually), DevoNikki Suddenthe Black Keysand Soledad Brothers. 

 
(May 2013)
  
Last edited: March 22, 2021