There are so many albums out there, meaning countless efforts that once stirred interest, even in a small pocket of listenership, get entirely left behind. My recollection is that when the self-titled, debut release from Boston’s East of Eden arrived at our radio station, sometime in 1989, it got a respectable amount of airplay, especially for the single “Mystic Love.” It was preceded by some modest hype, helped along significantly by the release’s major label status. It didn’t become some major hit for us, as evidenced by its absence from the year-end chart, but it landed on the station turntables with some frequency.
As far as I can tell, this was the band’s only release, so there was no reminder to the on-air staff of their previous record’s existence upon the follow-up. Instead, the album that was added to playlists when it was in our rotation was all but forgotten when it moved into the general stacks. Certainly the slicked up pop sound (Trouser Press compared East of Eden to Simple Minds as a means to dismiss them) was already starting to fall out of favor as the eighties were giving way to the nineties. The buzzy insistence of the Pixies was fast replacing the grandiosity of Tears for Fears on the left end of the dial. A band like East of Eden never had a chance.
This isn’t a woeful lament for a band that should have been huge. I’ve listened to East of Eden fairly recently, and it’s not a lost classic. It’s fine, solid enough, and there’s definitely an appeal to lead singer Cinde Lager’s vocals. Like a lot of releases from the time, it’s tempting to imagine it with at least one less layer of studio shellac on it. But I also need to admit that this kind of sound — professional, controlled, produced — stirs a very different nostalgia for me, and an appreciation for the time when labels and bands felt they needed to put some real effort into courting the college radio crowd. By the time I returned to the noncommercial trenches some ten years later, there was such a defiant adherence to sometimes painful lo-fi sensibilities that a band that tried for audio gussying up would have never made it off of music directors’ desks. Hell, no one would likely send it to the college stations in the first place. It was a turn of events that could make college radio feel like an afterthought. Songs like “Mystic Love” make me pine for the brief stretch of time when labels really wanted the attention and affection of student programmers.
Listen or download –> East of Eden, “Mystic Love”
(Disclaimer: It is quite difficult to find information on the band East of Eden. There are simply too many other, far more popular options that spring up in online searches, including a whole other band of that name. Still, I’m more confident than usual, just by the way the band and its sole release feel like they’ve been erased from the collective memory, that East of Eden is out of print, at least as a physical object that can be procured from your favorite local, independently-owned record store in a way that fiscally benefits both the proprietor of said store and the artist. That is the context I carry as I share this song on my humble little corner of the internet. I mean no harm. That typed, I will gladly remove this track if asked to do so by any entity or individual with due authority to make such a request.)
Coffee for Two 
I found this Lp used at Amoeba Records here in Los Angeles. Rather agree with your article above’s take on the nature of their sound. This is the ONLY place i’ve found ANY actual information on the band. (Only the other band of same name started in 1967 came up for me). Thanks for the historical document. I thought an album produced by Roy Thomas Baker would have more online references! -Patrick
I was looking on Youtube for this self-titled album by Boston band ‘East of Eden’ fronted by Cinde Lager. This album was the only recording they released back from 1989 on Capital Records I believe. There is nothing on Youtube. It would be great if somebody with the album could upload the tracks there.
I remember this band opening for Psychedelic Furs in 1989–the first show I ever saw, at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas. (“Bronco Bowl”–sounds like a stadium, right? No! It’s a bowling alley with a stage in it.) Local radio station The Edge (which was then 94.5 KDGE–one of the nation’s first alternative stations) played this song regularly, back when it was a truly distinctive, truly local-oriented station.
Yea, I’m a fan. Had the album, loved the song & a few others. Put ’em on mix tapes which I was then, later, able to download to my MAC. Still in the mix, and, hell, I love rock of the 80’s, so there. Now let’s see if we can find out what happened to A Girl Named Eddy.
PS Eddy was produced by Richard Hawley, 2004, She dropped in, she dropped out of sight. Maybe moved to Spain, this Jersey girl. She’s the kind of artist who only needs to make an album every ten years, so she’s due. She’ll need a good producer who won’t muck it up. Hawley did a very nice job.
Anyone other old people remember Falling Joys’ “You’re in a Mess” from 1991? I’ve had the chorus pop up in my head over the years, for some reason, and I finally got around to Googling the line. Another catchy but obscure tune from that weird little mini-era that was the pre-Clinton ’90s.
I saw them warm up the Psychedelic Furs in Palm Springs, California 1989. Went out and bought the CD. I am sure, I still have it. Must have made an impression on me.
I have this album, bought new when it was released during my college years. I’ve pulled it out periodically and enjoyed every spin. I wish the band had lasted longer to hear what a sophomore effort might have yielded, as the one album is enjoyable. There was a time about a decade later when a show was billed with the lead singer, Cinde Lager, as being the former vocalist for East of Eden. And the show was cancelled – never learned why. I would have gone to hear her.
My wife’s Cousin Eric was the guitarist for this band, he later went on to tour with Iggy Pop, Tin Machine, and They Might Be Giants, he also “replaced” Johnny Marr in The The, as well as recording with Richard Butler and many others. He is a fine musician who recorded this album when he was a student at Berklee school of music in Boston.
That’s a very impressive resume, to be sure!
I saw them open for the Psychedelic Furs around that time. I bought the tape as soon as I could. For some reason the entire album resonated so much that every 10 years I try find their CD. Hoping that some one would rip it to youtube or whomever owned the rights would finally release it. Hey, Belfegore came out on iTunes, anything could happen. East of Eden pretty much represented the late 80’s sound. Not rock, not alternative, just good music from that time. I can’t decide if I’m trying to remember a time when I was young, or if I just want to hear a good album again. Sure there are really fantastic bands today. But not where you have their sound.
full album and a video. enjoy.
A Girl Named Eddy just appeared again, 14 years later; album The Last Detail. She still magic. Check it out.