by Eric N. Danielson

In the Spring of 1984 Napalm Beach finally recorded what would become their first full-length vinyl album at Triangle Recording Studios in Seattle, with Chris and Sam joined by Terry Gwartney on bass. It was released in 1985 with the title Teen Dream, but was initially only available on cassette tape.

The Teen Dream album’s recording and release was financed by Napalm’s new manager Doug Reed, who oversaw their business affairs for about two years from the Spring of 1984 to the end of 1986. The initial cassette-only release was such a hit that it kept selling out at local record stores such as Cellophane Square, who could hardly keep it in stock. The success of the 1985 cassette prompted Doug to invest the necessary money into a full blown vinyl album release on his own Here After label in the Summer of 1986. This was Napalm’s first vinyl LP and only their second vinyl since 1981’s Trap Sampler.

From the standpoint of a local fan, the Teen Dream period from 1985 to 1986 marked the peak of Napalm’s success. They played the summer Bumbershoot Festival at the Seattle Center two years in a row, the first year on the large outdoor mural amphitheater stage, and the second year on a large indoor stage. Their base of operations in Seattle became the Central Tavern in Pioneer Square, where they could headline as often as once a month, while their musical home in Portland was the Satyricon club. Alternating shows at these two clubs in two cities, combined with record and cassette sales, the band could almost make a living as full-time musicians. The sound of their music had evolved away from the new wave of the Untouchables and into a cow punk sound inspired by Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club, whom they had opened up for in Seattle in 1982. Their hairstyles had changed too, with long flowing hair that blew in the wind replacing their short spiky dos of yore.

The highlight of a Napalm show at The Central in these days was always when they played “Road to Recovery,” usually in about the middle of their set. It was kind of the equivalent of going to see The U-Men and waiting pensively for them to play “Shoot ‘Em Down.” The audience would wait in nervous anticipation for the climax of the night.

Unlike bands that played monotonously fast hardcore punk, but also contrary to the sleepily slow moving rhythm and blues bands, and even distinct from the continuous in your face onslaught of a deafeningly loud heavy metal band, “Road to Recovery” was a roller coaster ride of alternating slow and fast, mellow and heavy. Climbing gradually up to the summit, with Chris quietly mumbling lyrics over a deceptively repetitive, hypnotic guitar riff, an intensely wild Sam Henry drum solo suddenly breaks out from nowhere raising Keith Moon’s ghost from the dead, the guitars hit a perfectly synchronized power chord, Chris belts out the lyrics’ chorus like an opera singer shouting, “I’ve got to stay alive, for the sake of rock and roll!” after which the train rolls over the summit of the mountain and the song slowly descends back into its previous hypnotic riff overlaid with quietly mumbled vocals until it hits bottom and begins the ascent back up the mountain again…

– from an unpublished essay called “Chris Newman: On The Road To Recovery.”