Hi Sheriffs of Blue, Hi Sheriffs of Blue (12" EP)

Mark Dagley is known in the visual art world for his active work as an abstract painter.  In music, his best-remembered project may be the Girls, the late-70s Boston band for whom he played guitar.  In the early-80s, roughly between these two, he moved to New York and fronted the Hi Sheriffs of Blue.  They released two 12" EPs: a collection of their 7" singles, followed by this self-titled 1982 set of four songs.  While no one else from the band's original line-up is a recognizable name, but Elliot Sharp had joined for this EP.  Side A is the more uniform, with two songs combining simplistic structures, reminiscent of the Hi Sheriffs' no wave contemporaries, with fragmented blues riffs that reference garage rock and the earliest Rolling Stones albums.  At times, a slight similarity to MX-80 Sound emerges, but the drums are mixed much louder here, and they fill a more rock-oriented role in creating propulsion.  Side B has two very different tracks. "War Between the States" is built around an acoustic rhythm guitar part, while "12 Gates" features a female backing vocal drenched in reverb for a vaguely goth feel.  Having only heard this EP, it's unclear to me how these four tracks relate to the band's, or perhaps Dagley's, core vision.  The recording is excessively clean and sterile, in a way that had come into fashion by 1982.  The low-budget design on the packaging is more dated than charming, and really doesn't flatter Hi Sheriffs of Blue's relevant contents.