an origin story

Bob Hair, Terrie Cloth and Tater Totts played in a rock group called Swinging Verves in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
We listened to New Order, The Cocteau Twins, Prince, The Time, Whodini, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Afrika Bambaataa and Run DMC. Rap and dance records are flying out of the five boroughs. The Smiths are getting noticed on this side of the pond. Mitch Easter was producing REM down the road. Chris Stamey had split from the dBs.
Bob says to Dlux “buy a drum machine and learn to rap, we will start another group.” Thrift Bakery was born in 1985.
Mitch and Angie Carlson of Let’s Active were at the first show at a club called The Riff. Bob found some black and white movies and a projector at the library and played them before our handful of songs. We should have kept doing that.
We played at clubs in the Carolinas. We got the “professional rate” at Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem, where these photos were taken. We opened for the Cucumbers and Fetchin’ Bones. We began to record the songs that will comprise our album. We are a melange of melody and machines run by Bob, along with Terrie’s authentic mezzo soprano and D in your face.
Freshness Test Link was released by Hopewell Records in 1987, the seventh release on the label.
Phil Morrison storyboards the video for The Well and shoots it on film stock. The video is distributed in 1988 and is shown in prisons and bowling alleys. Hopewell Records disappears.

The Well is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vUyCfpg8Ww&t=8s

Freshness Test can be found here https://www.discogs.com/Thrift-Bakery-Freshness-Test/release/4608523