The Greatest Post-Punk Bands You Never Heard

Haven't heard enough of these to make any proper comparison, but I do like The Nightingales.

Never heard of is right!

Kleenex were amazing.

Quite a few of these I have heard, but equally quite a few I haven't. My gut instinct is saying Kleenex but I'm going to mull it over a little before voting.

xpost to SV, ha.

Oh crap, just saw the Fire Engines are in there too. And all of the 'D' bands are great.

Kleenex and Delta 5 stand out to me.

Weren't The Virgin Prunes extremely goth?

I guess Kleenex has a big fanbase. Most of their stuff that you hear on the reissues was recorded as Liliput. Virgin Prunes might have influence goth, but they were much more. If I Die, I Die was produced by Wire's Colin Newman and was pretty adventurous.

There's some really excellent stuff here. Well over 90% of these have been reissued and are in print. I came up with the list from my own playlist of FLAC files ripped from CDs and MP3s.

One example, The Sleepers - (Superior Viaduct, 1981) was reissued on vinyl on November 27 last year, and comes with a digital download card. A really great band from San Francisco.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51O4Jl+sR4L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Ludus discography is messy quality-wise but the Pickpocket cassette EP is one of favourite discoveries of the past few years, really hoping someone will reissue it on vinyl at some point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmYGDROw68g

It's a very tight race between Liliput/Kleenex and Essential Logic for me. I love them both soooo much.

Essential Logic is Lora Logic, right? I keep bringing her solo single to mind but can't think of any group songs off the top of my head.

I also have a lot of affection for the Passage, tbh. Or at least that industrial-funk sounding record I have (lame terminology on my part, I suppose, but the first description I could think of that seemed right... would also go for some of the other Factory bands, I guess).

Catch-22: you can only vote for someone where the title doesn't apply. For me, that narrows the list (give or take a stray song) to Delta 5, Essential Logic, Human Switchboard, Liliput, Pauline Murray, and Pylon. Liliput, easily--I think there's a chance they'll dominate this.

The Stockholm Monsters

always liked and also the trees - maps on her wrists and arms
kneejerk response = LiliPUT over human switchboard and then pylon

I was turned on to Ludus and The Passage via Simon Reynold's book. The latter are in my mix.

You don't have to vote right away. Why not find out about some of these and vote later in the week? Especially those who only know one or a few bands on the list I encourage to give some more of them a listen before voting!

Mix: 13 Bands, 54 Songs, 453.5 MB, 4:23:59. Just click on this image on my site:
http://fastnbulbous.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/post-punk.png

I have LPs, EPs, and/or CDs (often career retrospectives) by these:

Delta 5
The Embarrassment
Essential Logic
Fire Engines
Human Switchboard
The Individuals
Liliput/Kleenex
Pauline Murray & The Invisible Girls
New Musik
The Nightingales
Pink Military
Pylon
Virgin Prunes

Also, of ones you said you left out: Doll By Doll, Metal Urbain, The Prefects, The Scientists, Skids, Theoretical Girls.

Have heard several others too (didn't like the Social Climbers collection I heard last year at all, fwiw.)

Voting Essential Logic, though a few others come close.

I think the most "well-known" Essential Logic song is Aerosol Burns, their first single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AcUkQ5oUR8

Blue Orchids <3<3<3 Also really like Pylon, Ike Yard and Trisomie 21

These are 2 of my favourite songs ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r7ZxfrW-gE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNnYNHKJHTY

YOU YOU YOU YOOOO

at first i was thinking: 4.5 hours of music to d/l and listen to?! you have got to be kidding. but reading your blog post got me kinda excited at the chance to hear all this stuff in one place. hanx!

Got to admit it's odd to see New Musik in this list as they were never really considered post-punk here in the UK. I may end up voting for them, or the Factory bands, or The Blue Orchids. Tough choice.

Ones I have never heard:

And Also The Trees
Asylum Party
Breathless
Crispy Ambulance
For Against
Happy Refugees
Human Switchboard
The Individuals
Lives Of Angels
Lowlife
The Names
New Musik
Nyam Nyam
Opposition
Sad Lovers and Giants
The Sleepers
Social Climbers
Sort Sol
Trisomie 21

Yeah, looks like Liliput and Essential Logic are just as well known as, say Au Pairs. Oh well. Anyone who haven't heard the 1981 albums by Modern Eon and Opposition should at least check out those songs in the mix.

I would've voted Monoton, if it was the Monoton who did the monotonprodukt releases!

As it is, Kleenex and Pylon are my favourites of those listed, but since those are two of the biggest names on the list and I haven't heard many of the others, I may not be qualified to vote (apart from living up to the thread title).

odd to see New Musik in this list as they were never really considered post-punk here in the UK

Not in the States either, I don't think. They were basically a mid-level early synth-pop band, with at least one album and a 10-inch EP (a "nu-disk") on a major label. "Straight Lines" may have even got a little AOR airplay. It never would've occurred to me to call them post-punk.

Can't vote for the ones I've never heard (unless I'm missing something?) but will rep hard for Josef K. But also love Pylon, that first Virgin Prunes, like Crispy Ambulance and Stockholm Monsters. A lot on there I've never heard or heard of!

xp At the time, though, guess New Musik just would've been classified as "new wave." But not a particularly uncommercial kind. (New Trouser Press Record Guide, 1985: "'Straight Lines' -- preceding Gary Numan's 'Cars' -- nearly crossed over from the dance clubs to the mass market as an import.")

Virgin Prunes has to be one of the better known acts on this list. I've kind of forgotten what they sound like, however.

boycotting because no scientists

"you never heard" say you wrote something, presuming your audience never heard any of 'em so you're telling 'em now. Fine, but since can only vote for one, voted for Essential Logic just because they're alphabetically ahead of my other faves on here, Human Switchboard, Kleenex Liliput, and Pylon. Prob Delta 5 and some others as well, but I'm most familiar with the aforementioned groups, thanks to excellent, extensive reissues. Perfect Sound Forever's Jason Gross instigated both the EL and KL comps, plus the Delta 5 I haven't heard. All of these bands occasionally veer into arty blurs, but most of the time they cut a sharp set of (frequently female) profiles.

Would have been a tossup between Scientists and Desperate Bicycles, but
Pylon were pretty well-mentioned at least during the Athens Inside/Out era. I vaguely recall not especially disliking them.

The Pylon reissues are great, got all the singles-only added. too. Oh yeah, and those Individuals reissues a few years back were mostly better for their bonus tracks; "Fields" is still my fave track, Janet Wygal wailing from the trail, "I walk by your house"--amen, sister!

The Ike Yard collection is awesome too.

Just got a live set with Blue Orchids backing Nico in '82 from Dime last week. Sounds like a good set but I'm not sure how great the sound is.

Please, please: go listen to Feeding the Flame by Sad Lovers & Giants!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSK1lYHH_Ks

Yeah, part of the point of this is to encourage people to hear some of these bands for the first time before voting. Some can't be bothered which is fine. But it's 2013, so anyone who's interested and motivated should have easy access to any and all the bands.

On New Musik's From A to B (Straight Lines) (1980), they seemed to me just as much Factory/Joy Division acolytes as new wave synth poppers, but I probably shouldn't have included them, oh well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mTX83ekglM&feature=youtu.be

There's something about the Desperate Bicycles' "Smokescreen" that touches an Anglophiliac nerve like nothing else from the period. You have to go back to the '60s.

THere was also a Delta 5 live set upped to Dime earlier today. Been several post-punk things from around '82 put up over the last couple of days.

the answer to any poll with pylon is pylon

Now that I think about it more - obviously, there's '70s/'80s Anglophilia as well. But "Smokescreen" is like skiffle or something. It's also the song that makes me think, "This is the punk band who could write songs as good as Neil Innes or someone."

the wake aren't the greatest of all time or anything but they're basically the original wild nothing

My knowledge of this list is spotty at best but Josef K's Sorry For Laughing is great. Someone here alerted me to New Musik's '24 hours from culture' as a proto house tune. Sounds like a Nu Groove b-side.. Will check some more out of this list.. great thread.

it was new musik that had a hit in the uk with living by numbers right? thats the only song of theirs i think i've ever heard, so in my head they're in the same sort of slightly wacky synthpop ballpark as landscape, and even maybe m or the buggles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=creUlGjTJms

lives of angels came up on a similar thread the other day and they turned out to be a nice find. reminded me a bit of the clean or the bats or someone in places but with a nice android drum machine sound going on too

I picked up the digital release of the newish Ike Yard remix 12" featuring Regis and Monoton the other week but had never knowingly heard Ike Yard themselves until tonight. Pretty neat minimal electronic stuff, right up my alley. Thank you thread!

ike yard are a weird band and it boggles me a bit that they were putting out stuff thy did way back when

Man, need to hear more of these! The ones I have heard--Pylon, Josef K, Human Switchboard, Fire Engines, Section 25--are pretty rad

ctrl-f "wipers"

[not found]

:-(

are the wipers more well-known then pylon?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZjUgxgKqHs

I don't want to hijack the thread with more on New Musik but Nick is right in classing them alongside Buggles and M as studio boffins making proto-synth pop, a very 1979-80 thing to do. Certainly they are the only band on this list who I knew of at the time (I was 11 in 1980 and have a distinct memory of seeing them play "Luxury" on "Swapshop"). I'm sure there's an old thread about them on ILM, I can remember myself and Harvey Williams raving about them. Enough about them from me.

Three Wipers albums made the most recent ILM 80s poll so I figured they're pretty well known at least in these parts.

Wipers are definitely well-known. I haven't heard Pylon, I don't think - did they have standing over here or is it more of a US cult following?

ive heard 10 of these

fire engines / theoretical girls were of the first rank of post-punk

wipers had a big boost from cobain fandom amirite? just like the raincoats and the vaselines etc

Outside of Athens, Ga and surroundings, in the beginning Pylon was bigger in the UK than the US. This changed later, though.

Missed the inclusion of Theoretical Girls--yeah, they had their moments, although sometimes a bit too proggy for me--but going in a CBGB/loft/warehouse/dungeon mutation of live early 80s King Crimson, so not bad in that sense. And not always like that anyway though I like Branca's own albums better. emil.y, Pylon have their own good thread, and yeah they had their own standing, before they got grossed out by touring with U2 early on, and dropped out of the music business for a while. Their eventual reunion album was okay for a reunion album, then they were live-only, with no CD reissues until fairly recently. They were damn good, live or studio: the earthiest first rate post-punk band I've ever heard. Took their name from the title of Faulkner's boozedelic tale of rowdy barnstorming stunt pilots.

i don't know who I was thinking of, but when i said i liked Trisomie 21 upthread, i think i was probably getting them confused with someone else. just been trying to find good youtubes of them and they're all a bit lame. very euro cure with terrible singing, not really my thing. brainfartz.

only heard the lines fairly recently, had no idea before that the adult net's white night was a cover

one of my favourite songs, so a no brainer for me. Would have liked to see Durutti Column on the list though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyEeYSEPm0Y

might well have voted Theoretical Girls had they made the cut, Delta 5 prolly have the most consistent highs of the bands here I know. love Wipers but don't tend to think of them as a postpunk band as such

I don't want to hijack the thread with more on New Musik but Nick is right in classing them alongside Buggles and M as studio boffins making proto-synth pop

LEST ANYONE FORGET THE KORGIS.

My last tv appearance involved telling The Korgis their single was terrible.

It was called "Young and Russian", and it is.

i know it'll seem parochial but i'd go for the best of the australian bands above almost all of these. and i'm not talking about the ones i was in either. how about the primitive calculators, even.

Give us a list please! And comments.

The Sunday Painters!

posted a few times here before but http://nonightsweats.com/nns_band.htm has the sydney bands. melbourne's scene was about the same size but better documented (in film) but the little band scene was great. see the raft of compilations released since 2000 including "can't stop it I and II", "inner city sound" and m-squareds "terrace industry"

Pylon . . . with no CD reissues until fairly recently.

They were one of the first of the bands of those on the poll to see a reissue of any of their material, with the nearly quarter century old "Hits" CD (1989), which combined most of their catalog - the best of the two albums and their singles, minus maybe seven songs and some alternate versions.

Actually, based on some quick research, they were THE FIRST of all these bands to see a reissue on CD. The only bands with earlier CDs are And Also The Trees, Asylum Party, For Against, Sad Lovers and Giants, Trisomie 21, Wah! and Wild Swans . . . but technically, those bands were still going when CDs became a thing, and strictly speaking they didn't really have reissues before Pylon, just new releases that came out on CD before any of the other bands saw actual reissues.

For Against, though a tough choice it was.

Nice curveball throwing Second Layer in there, I must say.

Voted for Wild Swans, amongst many worthy options. (But the Chameleons, Comsat Angels and the Sound are among my all-time favorites.)

One of the better legato-n-chorus post-punk riffs, Sad Lovers and Giant's "Clint"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWqBCid_eJ0

And as much as I like and have been involved with post-punk (I've worked with several of the bands and know members of many of them) . . . I have to say that this is a very awkward list.

Some bands not included perhaps should have been . . . like the Sound, who never sold back in the day and were fairly obscure until recently. Others, like Wah! and New Musik actually had chart hits, so why were they included?

Many of the bands I wouldn't call post-punk per se, as they were far more "alternative," with roots in the very pop side of post-punk (like Echo & the Bunnymen, Comsat Angels, even U2) and eschewing much of the real experimentation, politics, philosophy and malaise as what I'd consider 'real' post-punk (name, bands that were only an iteration or two away from actual "punk.") I'm not knocking any of these bands are even mentioning them by name - I like many of the posts by Fastnbulbous and know he digs this sound a lot. And I like some of the bands, too! But some of them owe very little directly to punk *or* post-punk, and more than a couple of them have / had members who would happily admit not liking any of that stuff! A poll with For Against in there with the Fire Engines doesn't make sense, really. A poll with For Against and Win might have. If you see what I'm saying.

I think this mix of some of these bands with UK bands more overtly post-PUNK (those on Rough Trade / New Hormones / and the odd (early) Cherry Red band, plus the Fire Engines, Glaxo Babies, et al) doesn't make much sense. When you toss in disparate American bands like the Embarrassment or Y Pants or the Individuals, things get really confusing. The Sleepers, okay, despite their real lack of recordings. The Embarrassment - yeah, I can hear Marc Riley in stuff like "Death Travels West," and Y Pants may be very vaguely analogous to something like Delta 5, but the Individuals were mediocre watered down version of what became college rock at best (in retrospect) - why bother? Some of these bands barely have any profile today, others only due to the good fortune of being reissued in a relatively high profile way. Some of the bands have had their recorded legacies treated really well on CD (even if they don't deserve it!), others haven't. It's a crime that the Delta 5's "See The Whirl" isn't on CD, and that the Delta 5 collection that did come out suffered from poor sound (as did the Essential Logic collection), though at least Essential Logic and Kleenex will do deservedly well.

The ones here I suspect will be genuinely underrated? The Nightingales, the Blue Orchids, the Embarrassment, Josef K. Maybe Virgin Prunes and Delta 5. I'd have liked to see the Transmitters, Cowboys International and Rip, Rig & Panic included, among many others. This should probably have been three separate polls!

But the biggest thing is that people are (obviously) only going to vote for the bands they've heard, so the greatest one most people haven't heard won't be discovered. Once poll results are in, I'm going to do a voodoo ranking versus actual sales thing (I have a good idea for most of the bands how well they've sold) and post who has the best ratio of poor sales to high reputation in my opinion. Totally unscientific, of course. Because we'll never know for sure.

Awkward--that's the word I was looking for. Exactly. In part, the problem is the all-encompassing vagueness of the term "post-punk," but even by that loose standard it's not as if the Scientists have anything to do with the Visitors (I'm assuming we're talking about the Edinburgh Visitors, not the Dundee one, and certainly not the Aussie, post-Birdman one....) I mean, the Scientists were mod-pop punks who went swamp, while Edinburgh's Visitors were quirky Messtheticians who succumbed to Joy Division damage before being able to get their LP done.

As with Simon Reynolds's book, Australia and Germany get very short shrift here....

The problem with these things is always whether "post punk" refers to a style, or to a period. And since it meant different things in different places, it gets tricky fast.

And yeah, that KIll Rock Stars Delta 5 thing was sonically weak--super noisy--I came up with something better from a ratty copy of the 12" singles comp without even trying. And the LP gets knocked around critically, but mostly because post punk fans have heard the singles and not the album. Needs to get reissued, soon. Weird that it hasn't, with all the lesser things that have seen the light of day of late.

Can I air my grievance here as well?

I've come to hate the term "post-punk."

As very much a second generation kid (now in my early 30's) who didn't know this stuff the first time around and just gravitated to it as something that I liked, I always found the bands I liked (the Chameleons, the Cure, Joy Division/New Order, the Sound, OMD, the Comsats, Echo, etc.) in one of two places in the used record stores: the rock section or the punk section IF —and that's a big if— they even had one.

I mean, the Ramones were called punk AND new wave in the late 70's/early 80's. Same with the Clash. How do we classify those bands now?

(rhetorical question: punk, for the most part)

Further, what is Orange Juice? "post-punk"

And what is Culture Club? "new wave"

Just because one *looks* way cooler in retrospect, it does not merit a new sub-genre tag to delineate "coolness."

I even have a friend who's a decade older than I am that objects to calling bands like For Against or the Chameleons "new wave" in favor of calling them "post-punk" because, in his own words, "new wave is poppier and more produced."

I call bullshit.

Tony Wilson considered the Durutti Column, Spandau Ballet and Joy Division to be "new wave" bands. Because they were inspired by punk, but sounded nothing like it.

If it's good enough for Tony fucking Wilson, it's good enough for me.

Thesis of this post: "post-punk" is a bullshit label created by idiots that wanted say they liked new wave bands without actually saying, "I like this new wave band."

xp Last two bitchfests appeared before I finished this, still thinking on whether to deal with that can of worms...

Nice to see so much activity on a Sunday! Post-punk of course covers a wide area and means different things to different people. I originally was going to stick to the area of proto-"dark wave" that I covered in my piece and accompanying mix, but could already anticipate the complaints about this and that missing, so crammed in everything I could think of. I have to say Rip, Rig + Panic was a total oversight, not sure how I missed that one. I had not heard Transmitters before, and had forgotten about Cowboys International as I didn't have their album, which is being corrected now. Sounds like straight-up synth pop to me, but admittedly they probably have more post-punk credentials than New Musik.

I'm aware that Wah! did have some commercial impact at the time in the UK, but I also know that they've been critical whipping boys compared to peers like the Bunnymen, Teardrops, Psych Furs, Soft Boys, Simple Minds, etc. So now they kind of are under the radar, underheard, underdogs. As a Feelies fan I was pretty excited about the Individuals reissue. Whether or not it measured up to my expectations, I still liked them enough to bother. I may not think they'll win, but that's up to the voters. So you're suggesting I should have done separate polls for the various sub-genres within post-punk? I don't think it would be worth the inevitable arguments about who would go in which poll and the risk of diminishing interest/participation.

But if there are still people passionate enough about these bands to spill some drinks, flip some tables and shout a little, that's a damn pleasant surprise!

xxp I've got a couple great Australian comps. I might have included more bands if I heard some full albums. I figure a candidate for this poll should at least have put out a full length.

So you're suggesting I should have done separate polls for the various sub-genres within post-punk?

I guess my point is —and if I sounded fired up, it was not at you, because you certainly were not the first to start the whole "post-punk" bullshit— that: how can there be sub-genres within a sub-genre that is completely fabricated?

Would have voted for Doll by Doll, one of the best live acts I've ever seen, so focused, so cathartic...voted the Embarrassment. They made me spill drinks and flip tables.

Austin, you want to call everything new wave? Really? If I were to do that in the context of this poll, it would open it up to all kinds of more awkwardness and confusion. People would be asking why I didn't include the Buggles, Haircut One Hundred, Visage, Dollar, Naked Eyes, The Vapors, The Kings, Fad Gadget, The Photos, Altered Images, The Suburbs, Yello, The Jags, The Flying Lizards, M, Nick Gilder, The Monochrome Set, Toyah, The Cleaners From Venus, etc. I like many of those bands, but they just wouldn't fit. Post-punk means more than just after punk, no bullshit! Sure, there's a couple bands in the poll that you could debate their relevance to post-punk. But I'm not the first to put any of them in that category.

Aren't all sub-genres fabricated? Look at heavy metal. There's dozens and dozens of bands from the 70s that are now considered "metal," yet none of them self-identified themselves with that label before 1978 except Judas Priest. So is it bullshit? No. The way people consume, organize, talk about and think about bands cannot be controlled by the bands themselves or any singular cultural guardians. Whether a sub-genre name was first brought up by a journalist or musician or fan, it doesn't matter. Some names for sub-genres stick, some don't. If it takes off, there's a reason for it.

And then there's the mind-boggling array of metal sub-genres, many of which are indeed sub-genres of sub-genres! They exist because they're meaningful for enough people. They might annoy people who aren't into the particular music associated with the sub-genres, but those deep into it couldn't give a rat's ass what others think. I have to admit I originally bristled when I first heard terms like "coldwave" and "dark wave." But I'm not sure why. Maybe I assumed it was associated with shitty bands? Usually I just get too preoccupied with tracking down and enjoying great music to care what people are calling it.

Everything that's happened since 1976 or so is "post-punk," and you're right, Michael, it's hard to know whether it's supposed to refer to a style or period, but neither makes much sense. In my opinion, the only way to define it is as music that was largely informed by or derived from punk, without actually "being" punk. It's the only definition that makes consistent sense. The only odd thing about it is "creep" - that is, a lot of what was kind of considered "punk" to many people prior to the early 1980s is considered by many to be post-punk today - the Banshees' "The Scream," the Slits' "Cut," Subway Sect, Public Image Ltd, and so on. Punk kind of got reduced to the Sex Pistols, the first Clash album, the first two or three by the Damned, a ton of lesser bands from the era (Sham 69, Chelsea, 999, the Vibrators, the Boys, etc) and a lot of the more formulaic stuff that followed - Oi!, hardcore. Punk got reduced to something simpler and structurally and musically dumber. Post-punk kind of took the mantle of what punk originally was to many of its first followers - a largely uncommercial music with its roots in originality and self-expression.

By that definition, the polling list is a mess. As I roughly alluded to before, you could look at bands like the battling triplets Wah!, Echo & the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes as post-punk, in that (originally anyhow) they came out of punk, and punk originally had a lot to do with their sound. You'd be forgiven for thinking that if you heard something like the self-titled Echo & the Bunnymen album (their 5th) which, while it has a lot of fine stuff on, no longer has much of anything to do with punk, nor does it really follow a course of individuality. It sounds like they were honing in on the sort of mega-appeal sound that made U2 or the Simple Minds huge bands. Quite a lot of the bands on the list are versions of less commercial exponents of this sort of thing - like Sad Lovers And Giants or For Against, who are really reductions of bands like the Sound or the Comsat Angels, rather than anything informed by punk itself. Consistently more similar sounding than most post-punk bands, shared "textural" guitars, bland vocals, buoyant bass, snappy drums, largely even-tempoed rhythms. It's a sound some people love, but it lacks what made the best post-punk great.

(I'm not making a judgment here; post-punk lacked a lot of what made other genres great. I'm just saying, it's a different genre! But I do think it's the "sound" that people like - generally speaking, the songs aren't really there, these are mood pieces instead. Even bands like Essential Logic or the Raincoats or the Gist, with songs widely considered at the time to be highly unusual structure-wise, are now seen to have been fairly ace songwriters with a decent understanding of "pop," even if that's not what they were going for. I wasn't surprised when even members of two of those bands went on to help create big-selling chart hits.)

Other bands I noticed were missing, who really should have been there: the sadly underrated Laughing Clowns, Savage Republic, Human Hands, Three Johns, Microdisney. Originals all!

Okay, I just read a couple of responses I shall respond to:

Austin: I was there during the original punk explosion, and know many of the protagonists from then and beyond. By which I mean to say, I've watched all this stuff go down in real time. "Post-punk" makes pretty good sense to those of us who were there. Another way I'd define it would be those bands that had the spirit of punk, without actually sounding that punk. So to quantify your examples: the Ramones were a punk band who kind of lapsed into self-parody. The Clash started out as a punk band, and became a weird hybrid of a post-punk band (much of "Sandinista!" and even a lot of "Combat Rock") and a simple rock band (most of the hits.) Orange Juice were clearly a post-punk band. Why? They were a total piss-take! (I know two of the members.) Always a laugh. Even at their commercial peak, they were quoting the Buzzcocks, covering Vic Godard, funding other artists, having Jim "Foetus" Thirwell guest on records and hysterically putting words like "discourteously" into songs just to see if anyone would notice. They couldn't sell out if they'd wanted to; their sense of perversity was just too great. (The original band split up because some of them wanted to sound more like Can and Throbbing Gristle.) Edwyn is still like this 30+ years and two strokes later - despite his two career hits. The band that you really should compare them too is Haircut 100, who stole their look, superficial aspects of their sound and general marketing sense . . . but left out all the residue from punk. And had bigger hits and a better career. The Culture Club (and to some extent) Spandau Ballet were more opportunistic. They were a reaction against punk. Like Madonna, they grabbed a few commercial things (largely visual) from the post-punk era, often watered them down, wrote commercial songs (sometimes good, sometimes awful) and played the game correctly, for the most part. To me, they didn't even sound like they were having fun.

"New wave" was purely a marketing term. I never knew anyone involved with any of the good music associated with it as anything more than a marketing term, at least not for long. And that includes Tony Wilson, who would most assuredly be describing the situation differently today, were he around to ask. (Durutti Column and Joy Division were clearly post-punk; I suspect that when he mentioned Spandau Ballet it was when they still made allusion to outré subject matter (first couple of singles? I didn't follow them closely.) Later, it was obvious that that wasn't what they were about, in essence. "New wave" was *always* considered a marketing term by anyone around these bands and the bands themselves, and despite my ardent love of the most popular examples of "new wave" artists - I love Devo, Nick Lowe, stuff like the Flying Lizards "Money," and I think the first Lene Lovich album is a masterpiece, I see early Devo (anything up to including "Duty Now For The Future") and the Flying Lizards as clearly post-punk (late Devo is just pop to me) and Nick Lowe and Lene Lovich (and many of the early Stiff bands, come to think of it) as just solid pop music. New wave doesn't enter into it; it never did.

But the idea that the "sub-genre" is completely fabricated is silly. I have a Rough Trade catalog from 1978 that talks about what it means, long before nearly all of the bands on the poll existed.

Fastnbulbous: Don't take any of this as personal; I like that you made the list. But I'd have made three: UK postpunk commercial unknowns, ditto for the US and what you call your proto-"dark wave." But now that I say that, the US version would be tough, things were very fragmented when most of the bands one would include were around, and some managed to survive long enough to build a lasting legacy (like the Feelies or Mission of Burma) and many didn't and were only seen by people for a short time in a small region, so I don't know how you'd ever get an accurate vote out of it.

The Transmitters were great. They had a 12" on Mark Perry's Step Forward label (as did Marco Pironni's band The Models, Sham 69, Chelsea, the Fall and the Lemon Kittens) which was great, but their real masterpiece was on Bristol's Heartbeat label. Entitled "And We Call this Leisure Time," it's similar to the Glaxo Babies, i'd guess, or the Pop Group with a bit more structure. They do a lyrically-altered version of Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On" which is actually up there with the Gang of Four or Pop Group in terms of social commentary. I have it on CD, which had three bonus tracks from who knows where.

Cowboys International is synth pop that owes a lot to Bowie's Berlin albums, "Low," Lodger" and "Heroes," but with some unexpected odd sounds, a personnel that includes former (or then-current) members of everyone from Duran Duran to the Clash to Public Image, Ltd. (Main guy Ken Lockie was in PiL during part of the "Metal Box" era and plays, uncredited, on the album.) It is the EXACT halfway point between post-punk ("Metal Box") and new pop ("Hungry Like The Wolf") in every way, save commercial success. Hugely underrated. Dig that Keith Levine guitar on "Wish!"

No, again, I'm not calling YOU out. You're just working within established ideas.

I'm saying that those established ideas suck.

And, to your initial question, I answer with another question: why shouldn't Haircut 100, Romeo Void, Aztec Camera, Josef K and Orange Juice belong in the same section?

And further, don't those records just seem to "fit" next to the Cure, Siouxsie and the Cocteaus?

xpost, obviously.

Anyone else rep for Breathless? Voted for them on the strength of their great 90s albums Between Happiness & Heartache and Blue Moon. Haven't heard the new one yet.

"New wave" was purely a marketing term. I never knew anyone involved with any of the good music associated with it as anything more than a marketing term, at least not for long. And that includes Tony Wilson, who would most assuredly be describing the situation differently today, were he around to ask.

But, I mean, that's pretty crap, my friend.

Speaking for a dead man and whathaveyou.

Vini clearly said at the time that he hated rock and roll, but loved the new wave.

Really not trying to get fired up over this, but the revisionist mindset really gets me going (in a bad way).

So what next? Jandek is post-punk?

For Against is post-punk revival, I guess?

Not seeing it, from any angle.

People would be asking why I didn't include the Buggles, Haircut One Hundred, Visage, Dollar, Naked Eyes, The Vapors, The Kings, Fad Gadget, The Photos, Altered Images, The Suburbs, Yello, The Jags, The Flying Lizards, M, Nick Gilder, The Monochrome Set, Toyah, The Cleaners From Venus, etc.

I guess we should consider "new wave" the opportunistic cousin to post-punk! I'd exclude The Cleaners From Venus from this list, as they entered public consciousness a bit later and are part of a totally different English tradition, really. The Monochrome Set were legitimately "post-punk" for a while, before becoming more accessible (if still commercially failed) and making still decent oddball pop. The Flying Lizards reputation rests too largely on "Money" and "Summertime Blues" (both commercial but great) than what they sounded like most of the time, which was quite different. Viv Goldman, Patti Palladin (Snatch) and Viv Albertine (the Slits) perform on their records, as well as experimental musicians like David Toop, Steve Beresford and Michael Nyman. The main guy in the band, David Cunningham, also produced and released the first This Heat album, which bears some heavy resemblance to the Flying Lizard's debut, in places. The second album is even less commercial than the first. The third (and last) album is sort of an attempt to score again with the "Money" formula, but still pretty weird. If you haven't heard their full records, you should check out the deluxe reissue of the first two albums (plus bonus tracks) on a 2xCD from Cherry Red. Pretty experimental and not all that pop.

But the rest of those artists, yeah - opportunistic versions of post-punk, in one way or the other. Some have a little more cred than others (Fad Gadget at first, and Dieter Meier of Yello did some odder stuff earlier on), but Toyah, the Vapors, the Buggles, Nick Gilder and so on, for all their charms, really had nothing much to do with punk or post-punk or anything genuinely like it. (Though the Photos did form out of the very punk Satan's Rats!) Still, you can't deny "Hot Child In The City," can you?

Well, I guess all I can say in this case is, "good for you."

I'm not taking anything personally, though I'm not sure why Mr. Austin is getting worked up. I was sort of exasperated at yet more tirades about genres, but if it inspires an epic response like that of crustaceanrebel's, awesome! And his post pretty much answers Austin's question too. There's certainly a long history of complaining about genres. Many bands bristled at being called "punk." As did earlier ones at "glam." And later ones at "new wave." Crustacean is right about it being a marketing term in that was used in the "Don't Call It Punk" campaign spearheaded by Seymour Stein of Sire records because he feared "punk" would hurt the sales of all the bands he recently signed. Nick Kent and and Dave Marsh used it in reference to the New York Dolls and the Velvet Underground but it didn't catch on. So there's certainly a strong case for "new wave" being even more of a bullshit term than "post-punk." But it caught on, and serves its purpose, as does post-punk.

Savage Republic seems quite popular around here, so I didn't include them. I don't know Human Hands will check them out, thanks.

No, I'm not fired up.

Which is why all the bands mentioned here that I have in my iTunes are filed under "Rock."

Genre tags, outside of obvious assertions ("rock", "jazz", "blues", "pop") are pretty much useless.

I mean, really: is the Cure's first three albums "post-punk" but everything after that something else?

See my point?

Really not trying to get fired up over this, but the revisionist mindset really gets me going (in a bad way).

It's not revisionist. I was there, I remember. You're in your early 30s, from what you say. And I must have had twenty conversation with Tony Wilson over the years, so while I cannot actually speak for the gent, I can tell you that his statement did not reflect anything like a consensus opinion, and he was foremost a person attempting to promote the bands he looked after (Durutti and JD at any rate) using interview marketing lingo for record execs, not what most people used. And even then, that minority sense would have vanished soon afterwards, when things fragmented in unpredictable ways - in this case, Spandau further embracing commercialism until songs like "True" bore no trace whatsoever of anything except the sort of stuff my mum liked. I can't speak for Vini, but he certainly played in rock and punk bands before Durutti, and he's also a strange 9but lovely) guy. You're taking a couple of minor quotes way out of the context of the times. I can't blame you, you weren't there. But it's weirdly inaccurate and revisionist in itself. Amongst the musicians and fans, "new wave" was a derided term from the beginning (TV Smith was making fun of it in song by the end of 1977!), whilst "post-punk" was not. Not that post-punk was used as much more as a descriptor. It originally meant what I said above, nothing more, nothing less.

And, to your initial question, I answer with another question: why shouldn't Haircut 100, Romeo Void, Aztec Camera, Josef K and Orange Juice belong in the same section?

And further, don't those records just seem to "fit" next to the Cure, Siouxsie and the Cocteaus?

You can things in whatever section you like. But to answer your question is difficult, since you've mentioned eight different artists in comparison to one another, which is a lot of permutations.

Romeo Void never made much of an impression on me, save "Never Say Never," which I remember as a fairly decent dance hit. Everything else I heard by them just sounded like what I'd call Californian post-Fleetwood Mac pop. Like the Motels, Pearl Harbour & the Explosions and that sort of thing. Just pop music, some good, some bad, tarted up for the times. This is subtly reflected in their production and record covers and visual identities. And by chance that they came along at a time with a woman leading a band was a lot more acceptable than it had been previously. This probably had more to do with Fleetwood Mac than the Slits, but times were changing a little, so these bands were marketed as "new wave." In truth, they weren't seen as being particularly different or new. I'd call it 80s pop - it's pop and the "80s" bit helps conjure up the imagery, artwork, production and so on. I guess in this sense, Haircut 100 would fit in here, too.

But the Postcard bands you mention are a bit different. As I mentioned previously with Orange Juice, there was a perversity there that defied real commercial success. Even more so with Josef K, who went even further than Orange Juice in attempting to never see the charts, though in their case it was less likely anyhow. They didn't want success. They didn't care. This was somewhat true, in the beginning, with Aztec Camera, who became fairly successful without trying, and then bit the bullet and went for success in a big way . . . managed some, but lost much in the process. And Roddy regrets that now. In a sense, it can be said that all three of these bands were founded in punk, remained true to those ideals (or came to regret it) and even today more or less play by those rules of punk. For some, like Edwyn, it paid off - he refused deals for his publishing despite needing the cash - he'd seen that such a deal was a kind of servitude and garnered little - only to make a fortune when "Girl Like You" became a gigantic hit and he'd held onto the rights.

The Cure and Siouxsie and the Cocteaus became big-to giant stars. In part, they did this by never stopping until the times caught up to them. Their respective sounds didn't change much (at least not after the mid-80s) and they hung in there long enough to reap the rewards of the world catching up. I've talked to one of the Banshees, who regrets crossing a line around the time of "Tinderbox" to a just-commercial-enough sound, which he says ultimately made the band less interesting and caused them too much work, without proportionate rewards and led to the split.

But they're all, at their core, pop bands. Why not put them all in the same section? There's no reason.

The thing is, the poll was not, "the greatest 80s pop bands you never heard," it was "the great POST-PUNK bands you never heard." And my argument with that is a somewhat too-encompassing definition of post-punk, because (and here's the truth) some people started calling some of them post-punk long after the fact . . . probably when the distance between the very final drabs of the post-punk era in terms of new bands (say, 1984) was longer than the time between early punk and post-punk - about 8 years, or 1992, give or take a few. So people conflated things, when they were pretty distinctly different to those who were there.

I just listened to the first For Against single, since they are one of the last bands on the poll to start putting out records. The a-side "Autocrat" is a fairly catchy, very 80s tune, described on its YouTube video as "dream pop," which is kind of accurate - it's atmospheric and has a sort of Factory Records sound without the tension you'd find on any Joy Division record - it's pop. It actually sounds a but like A Flock Of Seagulls, who weren't post-punk either, but simply opportunistic early 80s pop. So why would For Against be considered post-punk at all? There's not really any connection there, like them or not. At best, they're kind of post-post-punk, but at that point, the "punk" bit is just pointless. You can't say that about Josef K or Orange Juice or the Passage or the Delta 5 or many of the others, who were directly influenced by punk and it showed.

I'm sorry, I hear no distinction between the catchy psuedo-funky jangle riffs and purposely impenetrable lyrics of 'Rip it Up' than I do the minor chord vamp and catchy vocal melody of 'Autocrat.'

If one is post-punk and the other new wave, I'm lost.

Dream pop is a fake genre made up after the fact as well.

And further, you seem to be caught up on years of release.

What would you consider the Smiths then?

I mean, really: is the Cure's first three albums "post-punk" but everything after that something else?

Well, it's tricky. I mean, I could call the first Beatles album a "beat group" album, but calling "Abbey Road" that would seem silly. Bands change and do different things. Billy Joel and Paul McCartney and Joe Jackson are (generally) pop musicians, but they've all recorded orchestral pieces that clearly weren't pop. Which is fine.

Post-punk was a reaction to punk which embraced a lot of the tenets of punk and expanded on them. So while the first three (I'd say four) albums by the Cure are pretty-lcearly post-punk, a change does happen somewhere in there. And it was purposeful - they went "pop." That's not me saying it, either, it was their stated objective and I've talked to folks like Steve Goulding (who played drums on at least one of their pop makeover singles, maybe "Let's Go To Bed") and for the Cure, the embrace was wholehearted. That's great - my favorite record by the Cure is their debut and the singles around it, but after that, I loved the early pop stuff. I thought albums two through four were too imitative, and apparently Robert Smith acknowledges this. So they became an 80s pop band. So what?

The Banshees evolution was similar, I suppose, but yeah - they became something else. I could listen to the final Banshees album and appreciate what went into it, but it wasn't what I liked (the first five studio albums, in this descending order of quality: 1, 3, 2, 4, 5) and that's fine.

The beauty of the Cure, if you will, is that they managed their entry into pop while still retaining a lot of their very individual quirks - certain sounds and certainly Robert's voice. That's a tricky thing to pull off and I admire them for it. But to me - like the Ramones, who did much the same thing but without the subsequent success - they did kind of lapse into self-parody and I think that by about 1987 the song quality started noticeably declining.

Fastnbulbous: There's one Human Hands CD retrospective, "Bouncing To Disc," and there were plans for a second, which I don't think ever happened. They didn't put all the good stuff on the first volume, but the one track you should hear, if you can only hear one to "get" their sound, is "Trains Vs Planes," which is a bit like the Embarrassment, but more LA than that. They have connections to everyone from Wall of Voodoo to X and Savage Republic.

i'm certain this genre naming thing has been discussed here a few times in other threads.

in australia we would never have associated ourselves with 'new wave' although that term was used a lot in mags and fanzines. to my mind that was linked with the poppier, professional section of bands - like b-52s, elvis costello, xtc, etc (no matter what year they started). still love them all, btw. we never called / linked ourselves with any genre as we were just too young and having an enormous amount of fun. but, as was said above, we were all heavily influenced by some sort of punk / diy attitude and we tried to make a specific type of sound - intially heavier, gloomier, etc. but that all dissipated fairly quickly.

i wanted to be the in the new pere ubu, really, and they started in 1975 way before i heard their stuff.

fastn': i note your idea about album bands but most of the aussie ones were so unprofessional and had such limited funds that a single or EP was all they could ever make before they self-imploded. with that proviso in mind, here are the ones i can think of:

primitive calculators - self titled live album (they're finally releasing a studio album this year)
voigt/465 - slights unspoken (band i was in)
pel mel - out of reason
laughing clowns - Mr Uddich Schmuddich Goes To Town
the makers of the dead travel fast - the vessels
scattered order - prat culture
slugfuckers - transformational salt
tactics - my houdini
birthday party / boys next door - i suppose they're too famous

i could almost consider pel mel new wave but def none of the rest

Due to the limit to 50, these weren't included: Doll By Doll, Kevin Hewick, The Lotus Eaters, Metal Urbain, Monoton, Necropolis Of Love, Pink Industry, The Prefects, The Scientists, Skids, Spherical Objects and Theoretical Girls.

I know an easy way to hear at least a few of these.

http://acuterecords.com/

And of course I voted for The Lines

Apologies to Happy Refugees, Fire Engines, Ike Yard etc.

I don't know Austin, I can hear the sarcasm and irony in "Rip It Up" (and the one chord guitar quote from the Buzzcocks' "Boredom" makes it obvious where they're coming from) and nothing like that in "Autocrat." And that's not even mentioning the huge differences in the rest of their respective oeuvres. Plain as day to me.

"Dream pop" was never a genre, nor did I imply it was one as such, it's just a pretty apt sonic description.

The Smiths, well, that's interesting. They were different from the beginning and I did know them, so I'm speaking more attitude than music. They were outsiders and brilliant at being purposefully obscure on one level and perfectly consistent on another. Morrissey was a pretty well-known character for years before the Smiths, and among people that first heard the Smiths there was an obvious shock that they were so unique and complete and good. I'd see "This Charming Man" as pretty much the barrier between post-punk and what came after. ("Hand In Glove" was first, but it didn't seem as astonishing and even RT was much more conservative in its promotion (no 12") and so it was the follow-up that amazed. In retrospect, everything seems to have changed within months - you can get a sense of this by looking at Rough Trade releases before and after. All the "old guard" just disappeared, with very few exceptions. All of a sudden, Rough Trade released quite a lot of pop hopefuls (like Woodentops, James), mainstream reggae attempts, American college rock and so on, and earlier Rough Trade artists mostly disappeared. That was the end of post-punk, and the beginning of the great splintering that I think has lasted until this day. The fairest thing to call it, from an American perspective, would have been college rock - meaning everything from the Smiths to stuff like For Against, to rock revivalist acts like the Dream Syndicate to SST bands to Violent Femmes, REM's ascent and so on. I was a lot less interested in much of this. Few post-punk bands from before really survived. Most just disappeared. A few people turned up in really different guises with much different aspirations, but it's amazing how many disappeared for years. From a British perspective, it was just a mess, until many of the older punk / post-punk labels folded and the Cartel (big distributor) collapsed and you had a ton of things like real "indie" records - records that stood almost no chance at all, and the are occasional band out of nowhere. Lots and lots of rave and dance music.

I suppose the first really clear "trend" after all that was Britpop, at least in Britain, and one could make the case that the Smiths were the forerunner example of that. To me, the Smiths were one of those strange bands like the Kinks, who were kind of part of something like a scene, but really stood alone in many ways. I liked some of their music, was blown away by what they did in other ways.

The Smiths could almost have been the last non-retro post-punk band - they were clearly "of" punk and a lot that followed (and a lot that came before), but I think enough time had passed since punk that it all came out very differently. You can't compare Essential Logic and This Heat and the Nightingales and Liliput in direct musical terms, but they were of the same set of influences and had something of a common attitude. The Smiths were different from that. Maybe punk was just too far back, or maybe the band's other influences (New York Dolls, girl groups from the 60s, etc) diffused it, but it wasn't the same, it was something different.

One thing you have to keep in mind is how static everything was until punk. When bands could really be "unique," they were almost mind-blowingly unique. You were (literally) risking your personal safety by being into this stuff, just walking down the street - so the attitude was, you might as well REALLY say what you had to say. When it became more acceptable to do one's own thing, the compulsion to push limits died down a lot. All of a sudden, the vast number of choices that punk ultimately caused meant that things would never again be so cohesive in musical trends. Then when the internet came along, things got even more fantastically fragmented. I think the Smiths just happened to come along at a time when kids could be a goth or a punk or a heavy metal kid or a rave fanatic or whatever - a million things - and find a place to feel okay, rather than being restricted to just a couple of choices. I don't know that they had much to do with it (other than to offer yet another choice), and their success was probably only possible because they had great timing. If Morrissey had started a band five years earlier, I wonder if anyone would really be talking about him today.

The Spherical Objects were mentioned, despite their incredible obscurity (despite the ungodly wonderful gift of their reissues), but their label-mate and occasional work partner, Steve Miro should also be mentioned. Brilliant stuff

Xp, the term "dream pop" was created by A.R.Kane to describe their own music in 87 / 88.

Also Grow Up.

As with Simon Reynolds's book, Australia and Germany get very short shrift

UK-centric, Simon Reynolds? Surely not.

(When I got into italodisco I looked at Energy Flash to see what Reynolds had written about it. It got a single sentence which noted that European kids listened to cheesy European records in clubs. That covered the entirety of Italian and mainland European dance/synth music between Moroder and Ride On Time according to S. Reynolds. Oh well.)

Looking forward to checking out some more of the polled bands and some of nonightsweats' Aussie bands when I'm not at work...

In my own mind, I use the term "art punk", and if the artist seems to fit that description, I write out the word post-punk, since that seemed to be the accepted term. I don't think of it as a genre per se, but rather something different from the received streetish reputation of "punk" and the poppish connotations of "new wave". Of course this just pushes the distiction off to how one might define "art", but it's useful for me.

only heard a couple of these so i don't know but this is all-time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTctKIUlHKc

Modern Eon are pretty good if i remember correctly

There's been way too much chatter on this thread for me to catch up properly, but I just want to say... since when is saying "I like New Wave" meant to be uncool?

That whole part of this thread was very strange tbh. Apart from anything else, the term post-punk apparently appeared in Sounds in 1977 so it's not like no-one ever used it at the time (cf. Freakbeat, Garage Punk, Northern Soul etc)

I have this thing at work where you can define a genre by picking a set of representative artists, and then get an extrapolation (or interpolation, depending on how you look at it) to bands like <i>that</i>. I put in this poll's bands as the seeds, and had it generate an introductory playlist to whatever it is they collectively define.

http://open.spotify.com/user/glennpmcdonald/playlist/31ngQVszhBHQLklebwbG0m

Or, for those of you out of reach of Spotify:

Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
Echo And The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
Magazine – Shot By Both Sides
The Cure – Just Like Heaven
Gang Of Four – Damaged Goods - Remastered Album Version
Siouxsie And The Banshees – Hong Kong Garden
Wire – Ex Lion Tamer - 2006 Digital Remaster
Young Marble Giants – N.I.T.A.
The Teardrop Explodes – Reward
The Psychedelic Furs – Love My Way
The Chameleons – Don't Fall
Killing Joke – Love Like Blood
Delta 5 – Mind Your Own Business
Public Image Ltd. – Rise
Sad Lovers And Giants – Things We Never Did
Au Pairs – It's Obvious
The Monochrome Set – Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
The Wake – Melancholy Man
SECTION 25 – Looking From A Hilltop
The Fall – Totally Wired
The Raincoats – Lola
The Durutti Column – For Belgian Friends
Colin Newman – Alone
Lene Lovich – Lucky Number
Fad Gadget – Collapsing New People
The Associates – Party Fears Two - Pavilion Glasgow 11/03/1985
Crispy Ambulance – Deaf
The Soft Boys – I Wanna Destroy You
For Against – Sabres
Pylon – Crazy
Gary Numan – Are ‘Friends’ Electric?
The Danse Society – Somewhere
The Birthday Party – Release The Bats
Medium Medium – Hungry, So Angry
A Certain Ratio – Flight - Massey Mix
The The – This Is The Day
Altered Images – Happy Birthday
The Pop Group – She Is Beyond Good And Evil
Glaxo Babies – This Is Your Life
Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday
Essential Logic – Aerosol Burns
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry – Hollow Eyes
The Slits – I Heard It Through The Grapevine
The Normal – Warm Leatherette
The Flying Lizards – Money
Wall Of Voodoo – Mexican Radio
Orange Juice – Rip It Up
And Also The Trees – Dialogue
Crime And The City Solution – The Adversary
Shriekback – Nemesis
Bush Tetras – Too Many Creeps
Lydia Lunch – Spooky
Minny Pops – Blue Roses
Scritti Politti – Perfect Way
Department S – Is Vic There?
23 Skidoo – Vegas El Bandito
The Raincoats – Shouting Out Loud
SpizzEnergi – Where's Captain Kirk?
Love And Rockets – So Alive
Cabaret Voltaire – Nag, Nag, Nag
Swell Maps – H.S. Art
Tuxedomoon – In A Manner Of Speaking
Girls At Our Best! – Getting Nowhere Fast
Virgin Prunes – Pagan Lovesong
The Wolfgang Press – Mama Told Me Not To Come
Julian Cope – World Shut Your Mouth - Janice Long 6/8/1986
Suicide – Ghost Rider
The Wild Swans – Young Manhood
Liquid Liquid – Optimo
Alternative TV – Action Time Vision
The Bolshoi – Sunday Morning
Peter Murphy – Cuts You Up
The Glove – Like An Animal - Remastered LP Version
The Prefects – Going Through the Motions
Dif Juz – No Motion
Japan – Ghosts
B-Movie – Institution Walls
Life Without Buildings – The Leanover
Mekons – Where Were You
Spear Of Destiny – Never Take Me Alive
My Dad Is Dead – Nothing Special
E.S.G. – I Don't Dance
Ike Yard – Loss
Gene Loves Jezebel – Desire (Come And Get It) (Re-recorded / Remastered)
New Model Army – 51st State
Mo-Dettes – White Mice
Lizzy Mercier Descloux – Fire
Theatre Of Hate – Original Sin
Tones On Tail – Go! (club Mix)
Liliput – Ain't You
Malaria! – You You
The Feelies – Let's Go
These Immortal Souls – Marry Me (Lie! Lie!)
The Gist – Love At The First Sight
Lords Of The New Church – Dance With Me
This Mortal Coil – Song To The Siren
Thomas Leer – All About You
Teenage Jesus & The Jerks – The Closet
Grauzone – Eisbär (Remix by Carlos Perón)
Quando Quango – Love Tempo - Remix
X-Ray Spex – Oh Bondage: Up Yours! - Live
Alan Vega – Jukebox Babe
Dark Day – No, Nothing, Never
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness – According To Plan
The Icicle Works – Love Is A Wonderful Colour (Live Town & Country Club)
John Cooper Clarke – Evidently Chickentown
Romeo Void – Never Say Never
Breathless – Next Time You Fall
Ipso Facto – Circle Of Fifths
Danielle Dax – Big Hollow Man
Pigbag – Big Bean (12 Version)
Minimal Man – Consexual
Motorama – Rose in the Vase
Fra Lippo Lippi – Shouldn't Have To Be Like That
Close Lobsters – Just Too Bloody Stupid
Siouxsie – Into A Swan
Half Japanese – 1,000,000 Kisses
Disco Inferno – Can't See Through It
The Gun Club – Sex Beat
The Only Ones – Another Girl Another Planet
The Wedding Present – Brassneck
Subway Sect – Nobody's Scared
Play Dead – Propaganda
Adam Ant – Goody Two Shoes
Trisomie 21 – The Last Song
The Lotus Eaters – The First Picture Of You
Felt – Dirty Girl
Martin Dupont – Just Because
Mars – India Sleeping
Tom Tom Club – Genius Of Love
Dalis Car – His Box
Kas Product – Never Come Back
Xmal Deutschland – Incubus Succubus II
The Mighty Lemon Drops – Inside Out
Chris And Cosey – Obsession
Urinals – Hologram
Chrome – TV As Eyes
Mighty Lemon Drops – Inside Out
The Go-Betweens – Streets Of Your Town
The Dream Syndicate – Tell Me When It's Over
Richard Hell – Blank Generation
Specimen – Syria
The Clean – Anything Could Happen
John Foxx – Underpass (1980 SINGLE EDIT)
Kitchens Of Distinction – Drive That Fast
Anne Clark – Our Darkness
Half Man Half Biscuit – Joy Division Oven Gloves
Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers – Pablo Picasso
Marine Girls – A Place In The Sun
No More – Suicide Commando
War Tapes – Dreaming of You
Destroy All Monsters – Bored
Sonic Youth (Ciccone Youth) – Into the Groovey
Alien Sex Fiend – I Walk The Line
Veil Veil Vanish – Anthem For A Doomed Youth
Frustration – Too Many Questions
Beat Happening – Our Secret
Pete Shelley – Homosapien (Dub)
Red Zebra – I Can't Live In a Living Room
Bill Nelson – Flaming Desire
The Adverts – Bored Teenagers
Throwing Muses – Not Too Soon
Free Kitten – Oh Bondage Up Yours
The Vaselines – Son Of A Gun
Death Cult – God’s Zoo
The March Violets – Snake Dance
Skeletal Family – Promised Land (7” Version)
Chrisma – Black Silk Stocking
The Triffids – Wide Open Road
Red Rockers – China
It's Immaterial – Space
Iron Curtain – The Condos
The Rezillos – Top Of The Pops
Nina Hagen – TV-GLOTZER (WHITE PUNKS ON DOPE)
China Crisis – Wishful Thinking
Robert Smith – Very Good Advice
Bats – Wolfwrangler
The Coathangers – Hurricane

Hilariously, due to some screwed up credits on an old compilation, Spotify thinks "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is a collaboration between Joy Division and Chubb Rock.

OK I'm going for the epic mix. I think this is the biggest mix I've ever downloaded.

I've been trying to get more into post-punk recently but I don't know most of these bands. I got the Ike Yard reissued album a few months ago and I really like it. Also genuine lol at the Chubb Rock thing

Dif Juz – No Motion

^ Have been playing the shit out of this song of late

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUbQiUv1QHo

I know it's not at all unknown but I still find it a staggering piece of music

Other than New Order getting it from New York, itslodisco didn't have a big impact in the uk. America's take and filtering if Italo is a whole other question, which I've probably explained on another thread.

lol I would have voted Chameleons

Oh yeah also missing is Rema Rema.

That Spotify playlist is not bad. I don't use Spotify because streaming at work is discouraged, and I have a backup of my 4TB collection at work anyway. Sub-genres, labels, etc. are useful. I make use of my genre tags for autoplaylists when I feel like listening to certain kinds of music on random. For the record, I tagged the first five Cure albums through The Top as "Post-Punk," and the rest as just "Alt Rock." Depending on how specific a mood I'm in, I might create more specific playlists, as I may be in a mood for the pop end of post-punk like Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, Scritti Politti and Associates, or the more difficult listening stuff like The Pop Group, Ludus, etc. Works better than say, Rock 1.0, Rock 2.2 ;)

Look forward to checking out other recommendations like Steve Miro. I don't see the album reissues but I did find the LTM Auteur Labels Object Music comp.

For Against do indeed belong here. They formed in 1984, evolving from different bands in the early 80s, and their 1985 "Autocrat" single reflected a Gang of Four influence, and then signed to Independent Music alongside Savage Republic, and developed their own sound that's a mix of Martin Hannett's productions and what was eventually described as "dream pop" as previously mentioned. Some may not like that sound, but I do, and at least one other ILMer considers them one of the "greatest bands of all time."

the Individuals were mediocre watered down version of what became college rock at best (in retrospect) - why bother?

Agree they were more jangle/pop/rock than post-punk (like their contemporaries The DB's and The Bongos - neither of whom made the list above so I'm not sure how The Individuals did) - but I just want to stick up for 'em here. Still really love Fields.

Within at least the ILM universe, I felt the Bongos and especially the dB's, who toured with R.E.M. in 1987 in big stadiums, were quite well known. And there's only room for so many token jangle entries! Along with defending the honor of certain bands, feel free to talk up/promote your own favorites.

Also, this thread resulted in my discovering that there was a new Breathless album called Green to Blue in 2012!

I feel a little like I should be voting Stockholm Monsters but I'm going Virgin Prunes instead

frickin love the Embos, I was living in Wichita KS, their hometown, during their heyday -- unfortunately I was like 12 and oblivious.

"Julia" alone means Asylum Party win this.

just look at these fuckin guys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeZtT8zBaZU

I'd choose the Bongos any day over the Individuals or the dB's, simply due to the fact that the were a little more original and arty and were more clearly influenced by stranger acts than the Individuals or the dB's were. "Colorful" in the way the Feelies' debut was - not so drab as the Individuals or as slavishly conventional as the dB's. Plus, they were labelmates with Snatch, Clock Dva and 23 Skidoo! They collaborated on a live version of "In The Congo" with members of Throbbing Gristle and the Bush Tetras. Their song "Clay Midgets" was allegedly inspired by Young Marble Giants (they said in interviews; aside from the title, I don't see how!) Like a lot of American bands, they made the big mistake of letting their major label stuff be way too over-produced . . . at the time, there wasn't quite the support network for a workable post-punk "career" that there was in the UK, so this tended to happen a bit. And I think that sunk their reputation, although the CD reissue of "Drums Along The Hudson" can still be found and has everything you'd want.

(1)xp Pylon's albums Gyrate (1980) and Chomp (1983) were finally released on CD, with welcome rarities, as Gyrate Plus (2007) and Chomp More (2009). Those are the ones I had in mind. Haven't seen Hits or Chain, the reunion album, in a long time, sadly.
(2) The Bongos and the Individuals (though the latter are well-bolstered by bonus tracks) are both uneven in the studio,true. You take one, I'll take the other, but no way are the dB's "slavisnly conventional"--they're as true to their influences as hothouse Bongos, but they're also true to their own creative ambition, whether their aim is true (often enough) or not (not too often). The 2012 dB's album, Falling Off The Sky, is mostly pretty good too--although jangle is a better commercial tag for them and the Individuals than post-punk.
(3) As Dan Selzer reminds us, Acute Records provides a great trove.

not exactly obscure but not one of the top 10 pylon songs that people seem to like imo:

youtube - Working is no Problem

LOVE THIS SONG, blast at 15x volume

but no way are the dB's "slavisnly conventional"--they're as true to their influences as hothouse Bongos, but they're also true to their own creative ambition, whether their aim is true (often enough) or not (not too often).

I might have been a little harsh on the dB's - they had a few interesting songs that were vaguely 'of their time' and it's decent pop - but I'd still argue that aside from a certain sparseness and a few production techniques, there's nothing on the first two albums (which I reckon were their most interesting) that someone who was a Beatles fan frozen in ice prior to the release of "Sgt Pepper's" couldn't absolutely relate to. That might make it a little odd in 1981 or whenever, but how would you argue that they'd made any significant progression from "Rubber Soul" or "Revolver?" Their music is pretty well rooted in that sort of thing.

I never saw live the Individuals, but I've always believed the only reason that anyone pretended to care was because the band members were all music writers and influential scenesters! I actually went back and listened to their best-known songs. They're bland, mostly, and when they're not, they're just not very good. They sound like that huge wake of bands that appeared in the wake of REM, far too hugely influenced by a single band. I'll give them props for actually being ahead of that curve chronologically, but it doesn't make them any better.

I consider Ike Yard to be something like Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4 or that Charanjit Singh Synthesizing album, stumbling across a sound quite natural to electronics that listeners didn't catch up to for a decade or more. Not quite post-punk, despite their history.

Ludus is probably the most interesting of the lot ideawise, but the albums are so patchy. Morrissey was a huge fan, and you can hear the influence of Ian Devine/Pincolme's highlife guitar experiments in Johnny Marr.

Probably like the Fatal Microbe's contemporaneous EP more than most of these artists' discographies.

Struggling, and failing to fight the pull of a Martin Hannett production. So Section 25 it is.

Well Ike Yard were distinctly drawing from a cross section of Suicide and certain aspect of no wave (mars, implog), Hannett/Factory atmosphere (Joy Division and Section 25) and increasingly an awareness of Germany. Plus some academic electronic stuff and while they eventually reached an electronic sound that sounds way ahead of its time, it makes more sense in the context of things like NDW.

Ludus could have been really great, but being on New Hormones wasn't a great career move for anyone, and they lacked quality control. Their best material is amazing. Their lesser stuff is godawful. Morrissey wasn't a fan so much of Ludus as he was of Linder, which was true of much of arty Manchester.

A lot of these are great bands, and the Rough Trade crew in particular is dear to my heart, but I gotta go with the Virgin Prunes here. No, not really goth, more like evil performance art. I'm probably gonna be the only vote but they really deserve some love.

I've heard about half of these - going w/ Kleenex.

The Virgin Prunes would be in my top ten. Their records were really great, at least up to "If I Die, I Die," which was fine but nothing like how fantastic the material came across when played live, and the the last one with Gavin, which exists in an unreleased and far-far-far-superior early version. But the earlier stuff was pretty uniformly spooky in a very real way, and I loved all their philosophical stuff and weird relating to the mentally ill and 'touched' people. There really wasn't anything like them, and for the many bands influenced by them directly or not, I don't think any of them really understood what they were aping. They were the anti-U2 in very real ways, and the stories of the early inter-minglings of the two bands are pretty great. "If I Die, I Die" is the easiest thing to get into, I suppose, but it always felt like a compromise - as if they'd better get their act together, because watching U2 become millionaires with about 4% of the originality and ideas that the Virgin Prunes had was just getting too hard to bear! That said, the Dave-Id sung "Ballad Of The Man" is one of the most beautiful and touching post-punk songs, even if it was intended to be a Springsteen piss-take. But the real one to get is the CD that compiles some of the "A New Form of Beauty" series (some bits still unreleased), which does a good job of capturing the band half-way between song and strangeness. "When you're down and out / Nobody wants to know you / A boy and girl running away / They won't get far." Fucking great!

A small selection of Virgin Prunes stuff:

Moments And Mine (Despite Straight Lines)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJY_HG2MZVg

Sandpaper Lullaby, from "A New Form of Beauty"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azSHz-5ZTXg

Their contribution to the NME / Rough Trade compilation cassette "C81"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYC09mVEkMs

The very commercial "Baby Turns Blue" from "If I Die, I Die"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IimsciWwHHk

Even most Virgin Prunes fans do not know Princess Tinymeat, which one of the members started after leaving the band (before "If I Die, I Die," I believe) - he sort of took some of the scariness with him. Here are both sides of a Rough Trade 12"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jkXjkyYe_o

Hadn't noticed the Nyam Nyam reissue until now. Surprised it doesn't include the dance mixes of Fate/Hate which is their claim to fame. Perhaps it didn't fit and/or James and co. decided it was already covered on the Cool of Ice compilation. I've played it regularly in dance sets to pretty decent response.

Also regarding the top post-punk since 2000 list on http://fastnbulbous.com, why no The Rapture? They were really the ones that represented the post-punk revival of the early 80s the best. Though it seems your list veers more towards the moody post-Joy Division side of "post-punk" and less to the funky Gang of Four/PiL death disco side.

"Julia" alone means Asylum Party win this.

DOPE track - totally new to me!

And while I'm here, I'd like to rep more for Rema Rema since nobody seems to be responding to my plug. First record to bear the 4ad logo. Featuring Marco Pirroni before Adam and the Ants, the rest of the band shortly formed Mass, who broke up and gave us Wolfgang Press and Renegade Soundwave (singer Gary Asquith). They had the 1 EP with 4 songs, 2 live and 2 studio, and they are totally amazing. They also have an obscure live track on some old comp tape and a few other live recordings that would occasionally make an appearance on Gary Asquith's myspace page.

Big Black covered them. So did This Mortal Coil. Shouldn't you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWGPcA0eIY8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdyd_mO9Ptc

I didn't like Nyam Nyam much, but their debut single was really fab. I thought after that they devolved into that sub-Facotry sound far too much and lost their edge and lacked a more distinct sound.

The Rapture were one of the few post-punk revival bands that might have appealed to me back in the day, I always have a good laugh when watching "Misfits" (which uses one of their songs as an intro) at how perfectly they mimic a certain aspect of Public Image circa Metal Box, with a slightly more disco feel, but even (seemingly) paraphrasing the lyrics of "Careering" a bit. But to be honest, a post-punk revivalist band is a dumb idea, dumber even than a Grateful Dead copyist band, since post-punk was far more about individuality than just about any other post-WWII popular music form.

I loved Rema-Rema and was sorry when they disbanded. Marco was also in Cowboys International for a few gigs at least. All the other members did other things (notably Wolfgang Press) but they really would have been remembered as legendary if they'd stuck around and made a real album.

XP I will be forever grateful to Dan for the Ike Yard compilation on Acute. I first heard them when John Peel played "NCR" on his show in the summer of 84, it blew my 15 yr old mind, I played my tape of it over and over again. He also played "Night after night" which I also taped. There was absolutely no information I could find on them at the time, except a small review in the "Trouser Press Record Guide". Four years later Peel played another track from "A fact a second" stating "This sounds more timely than ever" as it was surrounded by acid house. And that was the last time I heard them for years. Web searches didn't generate much hope until I saw the Acute reissue. Ordered it, devoured it, loved it. Thank you.

Your welcome. The recent french vinyl pressing of the Factory LP has spread their sound even further than our CD.

I wasn't interested in post-punk revival bands, though if done well I prefer that to any other kind of revival band. It mostly wasn't done well, but to their credit, even within the most derivative songs they had hooks, and live at the time, they were one of the best bands I'd ever seen. I saw them absolutely destroy every room they played in the year or two up to and around the release of Echoes.

The Rema-Rema cd single was only available off the Beggars/4AD website, which is now closed

"you're welcome" is what that should've read. sorry, it's late.

I lucked out a few years ago and got the Rema Rema 12" off Ebay for something ridiculous like £2.

Not familiar with most of these, I thought I was done with post-punk (I probably overdid it for a bit) but every so often someone points me towards another undiscovered gem. Appreciate the work Fastnbulbous has done here, lots to check out.

I'm voting Josef K.

voted for against natch

The Rema-Rema cd single was only available off the Beggars/4AD website, which is now closed

It's on sale for $1500 on Discogs.com!! The digital version is slightly more affordable.

This is clearly my wheelhouse as post-punk is to me what garage rock is to many others - a genre worth constantly revisiting and digging for gold. So many bands release one great single and then disappeared (cf The Past Seven Days). Most of the bands in this poll can be represented by a single reissue CD:

The Blue Orchids - there are 2 or 3 different compilations which basically have the same tracks. I have "A View From The City". I dig it but it doesn't call to me.
Delta 5 - The "Singles & Sessions" comp is terrific, I'm not sure what sound quality issues there are. I have a rip of the LP and it's ok, but the singles are where it's at. Wonderful stuff.
Desperate Bicycles - Sadly, they won't reissue their stuff.
Diagram Brothers - I discovered "Some Marvels Of Modern Science" a few years back and it blew my mind.
The Embarrassment - the 2 CD retrospective is excellent.
Essential Logic - the 2 CD comp is good if frustratingly incomplete. I have vinyl rips of all Lora's material and it's mindbendingly good.
Fire Engines - I have "Fond" though you all should go buy Dan's reissue on Acute! I prefer Josef K but their best is great.
Glaxo Babies - I've got a number of tracks on compilations but never spring for a comp.
Human Switchboard - Downloaded all their stuff a few years back, good but didn't inspire me.
Josef K - Just picked up the "Crazy To Exist" live CD. I don't pull them out often but they really do scratch a particular itch.
Liliput/Kleenex - 2 CD comp is all kinds of crazy good.
The Lines - Dan's 2 CD reissues are excellent. I dig them when I play them but they don't stick in my brain like others.
Lowlife - There was an excellent retrospective "From A Scream To A Whisper" but I think it's been superceded by a recent LTM comp. I was an early fan of these guys.
Modern Eon - Possibly the single most criminally neglected reissue. If the Scars album can show up on CD (albeit very briefly), "Fiction Tales" can too!
Pauline Murray & The Invisible Girls - I adore Penetration and the first solo album is good though not at the same level. The second solo album never came out on CD.
New Musik - Had "A To Z" years ago. Sold it. Not my thing for some reason.
The Nightingales - "Pissed And Potless" is my favorite comp, I find the albums inconsistent.
Nyam Nyam - Just got the LTM reissue, really good. I can understand the folks who say they lost something after the first single, but not that much.
Opposition - The debut "Breaking The Silence" is on my post-punk top 20, subsequent albums (on CD but way way out of print) are very good as well.
Pylon - I have "Hits" which has its moments but has never made me love it.
Sad Lovers and Giants - Had them, sold them. They felt too derivative of The Chameleons and The Sound.
Scars - "Author Author" was reissued a few years back but is out of print again. Not quite as good as the early singles.
Second Layer - This throws a monkey-wrench for me as it's from Adrian Borland, one of my 3 favorite musicians of all-time. And I think this out-Joy Division's Joy Division. Fantastic, creepy, moody.
The Sleepers - There was a CD that came out in the 90s, live stuff and demos I think. Sold it.
The Stockholm Monsters - Another band where I've got lots of excellent compilation cuts but haven't picked up more.
TV21 - They finally got a reissue a couple of years ago, excellent power-pop but not close to post-punk in my mind.
Virgin Prunes - "If I Die, I Die" is a fabulous record, with Colin Newman's fingerprints all over it. A singular vision for sure.
Wah! - The debut "Nah Poo = The Art Of Bluff" is all kinds of crazy good, taking the best bits of early Teardrops and Echo and fusing them with Pete Wylie's over-the-top vocals. There's a great 2 CD anthology as well.
The Wake - I recently sold the stuff I had, they just never clicked for me.
Y Pants - There was a CD that came out about 10 years ago. Sold it.

These types of polls are hard, it's like thinking about sports Hall Of Fame questions: do you look at the absolute peak performance, or the career-spanning achievements? Since most of these bands put out one or two albums, I suppose peak performance determines the winner. In that case, I have to go with Opposition.

LinesJosefKFireEngines

Word on the street is there's some more Glaxo Babies reissues coming on vinyl.

Gerald, spend more time with the Lines, I don't know anyone who hasn't eventually gotten hooked, it just stakes a while.

My favorite song that Joy Division never wrote is "Into the Garden" by Artery.

It's on sale for $1500 on Discogs.com!! The digital version is slightly more affordable.

Blimey, it recently sold for £63 on ebay

crustaceanrebel, I'm not going to beat a dead horse on The Individuals; I loved them, you don't. Just curious when you say they were "far too hugely influenced by a single band" what band that was? Trouser Press said Cure and Gang of Four, neither of which I get tbh, and the Db's, which I do. The guitar interplay is a bit Television to me in spots, the rhythm section a little bit Talking Heads. I kind of lump them with bands like Let's Active, but they don't really jangle (and Individuals records actually came out first.)

Loving this thread by the way, tons of stuff I've heard of but not heard.

My vote goes to The Human Switchboard.

I know you're busy and have lots of things to occupy your time, but it would be great if you took 8 minutes and 8 seconds to listen to their Stairway To Heaven, Refrigerator Door.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tfAG-52xt8

Not sure why the link didn't show up. Try clicking here

Bar/None Records just put out a Human Switchboard Comp. Good Stuff

God bless Acute. Hope yall get another chance to release that expanded (or "even" the original) Wanna Buy A Bridge?, Dan.
Really like 2012's Fac Dance 02--was afraid there would be too many Joy D/New O wannabees, but it went much further than expected--didn't know Factory was involved with rai, for instance. This review is too tough on some tracks, but I certainly agree with favorable mentions of ESG, A Certain Ratio (in the years covered by this comp) and others. Don't know if all the streams still work, but as a Comments guy points out, it's also on Spotify (although I'm not gonna set up housekeeping with Fecebook just to get into Spotify--not just yet)
http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=11667

Thanks dow.

The Wanna Buy a Bridge was a pipe-dream from a long time ago. The difficulty of dealing with major labels for licensing a few key tracks (WBAB without We Are All Prostitutes?), the issues of licensing a comp from so many different people, and finally the passing of Nikki Sudden all made it slip through our fingers. I've told this story probably too many times, but I met NIkki the night he died in New York and he was excited to help me with the liner notes and put me in touch with Gina Birch.

For what it was worth, here's how I envisioned it. A CD release of Wanna Buy a Bridge with a set of bonus tracks culled from other early RT releases. The tracklisting would've been:

The original LP:
1. Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business
2. The Slits - Man Next Door
3. Essential Logic -Aerosol Burns
4. Television Personalities - Part Time Punks
5. Swell Maps - Read About Seymour
6. The Pop Group - We Are All Prostitutes
7. Spizzenergi - Soldier Soldier
8. Liliput - Aint You
9. Cabaret Voltaire - Nag Nag Nag
10. Young Marble Giants - Final Day
11. Scritti Politti - Skank Bloc Bologna
12. Robert Wyatt - At Last I Am Free

CD bonus tracks:
13. Subway Sect - Ambition
14. The Nightingales - Idiot Strength
15. The Monochrome Set - He's Frank
16. The Red Krayola - Born in Flames
17. Cult Figures - Zip Nolan
18. Blue Orchids - Work
19. Missing Scientists - Big City, Bright Lights
20. David Gamson - Sugar, Sugar
21. The Gist - This is Love
22. Epic Soundtracks - Jelly, Babies

It flows really great, so feel free to buy all those songs individually and make a CD-length playlist of them.

Another idea I had was to JUST use the bonus tracks and call it Wanna Buy a Bridge 2, a nice compilation of more Rough Trade stuff, though there are a lot of great Rough Trade comps, like this italian one that I own:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Cross-Current/release/593442

and this japanese one:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Clear-Cut/release/593437

Not the bonus tracks end with a Robert Wyatt vocal, just like the original.

OK I totally had good intentions to listen to more of these guys before the poll ended but I've just ended up listening to Lives of Angels on repeat all yesterday evening and this evening.

Damn, this is good! Thanks to NickB and everyone on the other post-punk thread for saying the magic words that got me listening. So I guess that's going to be my vote, anyway.

One vote for The Embos.

Now , where the fuck is my' retrospective' cd eh? Which great mate did I lend it to all those years ago?
I need it now, 'pal'

Afterthought. No, I have that tape somewhere - it's the double cd I'm missing

xp Nice rundown, thanks Gerald!

It may have been crustacean who inspired me to get all four Spherical Objects reissues a few years back. I really wanted to like 'em, but cannot get past the excruciating vocals. You'd think if I could take David Thomas I could handle anything. Listening to Steve Miro and not clicking yet. I do really like the Rema Rema EP, great noisy stuff. If there were other unreleased recordings I'd expect to see it on Acute someday!

I can almost, but not quite appreciate someone who was lucky enough to experience the original post-punk era firsthand not wanting anything to do with later so-called "revival" stuff. I'm really liking the recent releases from Merchandise, Deep Time, Big Joan, Pins, Savages, New War and Talk Normal. Like most bands, they just pick and choose elements from many sources they like and aren't necessarily revivalists. To say they're not worth bothering with because PiL or Joy Division were more original is like saying the Stones and many other great rock bands aren't worth bothering with because Chuck Berry did it first. For a while back in 2000 my favorite band was The Fire Show, who were based in Chicago so I actually got to see them live several times. They were brilliant, and I was bummed when they split (M. Resplendent moved to Europe), and I always have a gaping hole in my live show schedule for great post-punk inspired bands. I could easily have expanded this poll beyond the 80s but there were already more bands than I could fit. The mention of my exclusion of The Rapture upthread was just an oversight -- I must have forgotten to give them the "post-punk" tag in my database.

I have both Lines CDs and have been enjoying re-listening to 'em. Right now I'm listening to a playlist called "electro-glam" made up mostly of early stuff from Ultravox, Tubeway Army and Japan. Maybe I should promote it as a sub-genre to irritate certain people :)

I've just ended up listening to Lives of Angels on repeat all yesterday evening and this evening.

Glad you liked it!

Dan - thanks for that excellent expabded Bridge, I am going to compile that immediately!

Is it just me or has the crush of great post-punk comps ended? In the 00s it felt like there were many great ones every year, covering scenes all around the globe. But the last few years has seen a dearth of them. Even the Messthetics series has slowed to a crawl.

hey what about Five or Six?

Oh boy, LOVE Portrait, which I knew from Pillows and Prayers, and Another Reason, which I think maybe was on Seeds Electronic? Then I got the LP A Thriving and Happy Land which is really wonderful if a bit all over the place. Kind of the post-Syd/pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd era of Post-Punk. There's a 12 minute song called "Consider This" that's just beautiful. Then when Cherry Red finally did an Five or Six collection, I was surprised none of Thriving was on it. Really don't know much about them as a band. I see I have another track, The Building Kind, from a Where to Now? compilation (UK post-punkish club night). But that track's not on the Cherry Red Best of.

Certainly if they had an album's worth of "Portrait" they'd be talked about as a key proto-jangle band w/ Orange Juice, Monochrome Set etc.

my friend put out an LP & CD of Irish Post-Punk, DIY and Electronic Music 1980-1983 last year. got good reviews from RA & FACT so might be more electronic than post-punk in appeal but here it is anyway
http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/discog_cache03.html

http://www.factmag.com/2012/11/30/the-40-best-reissues-of-2012/27/
http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=11312

dan--re Five or Six--their Polar Exposure mini-lp is great; a-side produced by Kevin Coyne. very mysterious band.

Is that stuff that's on the Cherry Red CD?

looks like the track Polar Exposure and two from the other side are on the Cherry Red comp.

Proto-jangle! If this poll spawns/popularizes even more sub-genre names, that would be excellent! And if someone could shoot a documentary called "Jangle," even better, though some may confuse it with Django.

There is/was a documentary in the works called "The Sound of Young Scotland" but I don't know what happened to it. Your basic Postcard/Fire Engines etc story.

xpost Yeah, that Irish post-punk comp was good if a bit inconsistent (as these things tend to be). Very glad to have it, it was my sole comp bought last year!

The fact that there's bands mentioned in this thread for whom I have no tracks on compilations indicates there's still room for more archival releases.

Check out the Instant Pop Classics bootlegs. Turned me onto Desperate Bicycles.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Random thoughts at 11 pm...

Far worse things than the Modern Eon LP have seen the light of day recently. There'd be a nice cd of that with the singles and the comp tracks. I'm rather fond of the Street to Street vol. 1 track. Sounds rougher, and earlier, than the LP. Not a bad thing—not every moment is all breathless importance.

That Scars cd was, to my ears, a travesty. Somebody may have won the loudness wars on that one. And not being able to include one of the all-time post-punk greats, "Adult/ery," is rough. There's some talk of another attempt by these folks: https://www.facebook.com/scaredtogethappy?fref=ts

Exposing the Individuals to a list that includes Josef K, Liliput, and the Lines is almost actionably cruel.

And I've had this Systematics song on the brain of late. Can be found on the M-Squared box set.

Decent stand-in for all its ignored Aussie brethren. Title is wrong on YouTube. Should be "International Voltage."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvZGCrtOt24

And my Australian fave, though here the high end (amongst other registers) has been excised by shoddy transferring, so all the proto-jungle skittering of the drum machine has to be imagined. Wollongong, 1983. Second of two albums (if we're trying to satisfy the LP quotient mentioned above), which came after three singles and some cassette stuff. 250 copies....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYRdsf79E2E

yeah that's my favourite systematics too xpost

that sunday painters song is cool, i haven't heard that one before

I wish the YouTube version sounded better. So much missing. Though the crappy-stylus crunchy distortion has its points, too.

Oh, and to close the circle, the Sunday Painters' 15-minute "Rema-Rema" cover from their live, early '82 cassette (Any Port in a Storm, is a great thing. Beat This Mortal Coil and Albini to the punch.

You sure know a lot about The Sunday Painters!

I never really got into Modern Eon. A friend who I think now runs SXSW or something tried to pitch me on doing a reissue. Don't know if knew them or had a connection or just thought I should do it. He burned me a CD-R, back when that's what you'd do. I liked it but didn't really get into it.

I did a playlist of Joy Division-influenced/likeminded grey raincoat post-punk stuff that I called Nightshift. This is the tracklisting:

Artery-Into the Garden
Dance Chapter-New Dance
The Associates-Amused as Always
The Cure-A Forest
Section 25-Friendly Fires
The Gist-Dark Shots
Comsat Angels-Independence Day
The Wild Swans-Revolutionary Spirit
Wah! Heat-Better Scream
2.3-Where to Now?
Article 58-Echoes
23 Skidoo-Another Baby's Face
The Sound-Night Versus Day
Nocturnal Projections-You'll Never Know
The Durutti Column-Spent Time
New Order-Ceremony
U2-Gloria
Garage Class-Terminal Tokyo
Josef K-It's Kinda Funny
Gardez Darkz-Winter Scene
Modern Eon-Child's Play
The Names-Nightshift
Stockholm Monsters-Death is Slowly Coming
The Wake-Favour

Dan - I just put the finishing touches on your expanded Bridge comp. Did you leave off the SLF and Raincoats tracks intentionally?

No. You know that probably happened? I made the playlist, and sometime since then, deleted those files and replaced them with different versions, or just didn't have them and forgot to put them in the playlist. Or I had removed the SLF already because I knew it'd be a licensing issue. The Raincoats I don't know what happend.

So you found David Gamson and Missing Scientists?

Oh I should mention regarding Acute's 2 Lines CDs that although thanking and credits were minimal, ILX poster Michael Train was a part of that. I had all the 7"s but couldn't find Cool Snap. Michael burned me a CD-R with the cover artwork being Cool Snap and a few of the singles (though I think you were missing one? Maybe House of Cracks?). It basically looked just like Memory Span, which makes sense because that looks just like Cool Snap. Anyway I never owned Cool Snap until well after the first Lines CD came out and my friend Joseph Colbourne, a disco DJ in boston, was in NY and had a copy and I told him that he had to sell it to me because it was ridiculous that I didn't own a copy of Cool Snap, and he was generally selling off post-punk singles to buy more disco singles, so everyone came out on top.

Yup, I found Gamson on a blog and Missing Scientists on slsk. Everything else I had one place or another. I'll spin it tomorrow but I know it'll be great as I love most of it already. Boy, I sure wish Rough Trade put together a giant singles box set like Cherry Red did a few years back.

The big difference there is that Rough Trade, in it's creator-owned hippie attitudes, let all rights remain with the artists, many of whom have since sold to bigger/major labels, whereas Cherry Red own mechanicals or publishing for 80% of all music, and know how to license what they don't own!

So if anybody's gonna do a Rough Trade comp, maybe Cherry Red should!

Voting Lilliput/Kleenex, the same way I voted for "Surfin' Bird" on the other thread.

Yeah, full disclosure suggests I should admit to being in the middle of trying to reissue everything by the Sunday Painters, as great an unreissued art punk band as I know. Sorry for using this space promotionally....Seemed sort of the right audience.

And if I were to attempt a quick distinction between art punk and post punk, it'd have to do with the centrality and distortion of the guitars. Of course, some bands wander across the line repeatedly. Or pass through one on the way to the other. As with...

The cd of Wire demos, Behind the Curtain, is maybe the best instruction manual. Several demos from each period: they go from thrash, to pub, to punk, to art punk, to post punk, to experimental in three years and thirty songs.... Ontology recapitulating phylogeny. Out of print, I'm sure, but well worth tracking down. includes many album songs, but without the keyboards and production, which is often a very nice thing.

Co-sign Wire's "Behind The Curtain". Shockingly great versions, and one or two tracks they never recorded I believe. Very few bands demos are worth more than a single listen, this album get regular plays. Indeed it is way out of print, going for a minimum of $30. Pity.

Would make an excellent double Lp these days.

How do you know they're great if you haven't heard them?

Most people in general haven't heard most of the bands, but this is ILM, where most people have heard some, and as grown-ass music nerds in 2013 are fully capable of giving at least a handful a listen if they're so inclined. Handholding and spoonfeeding even including providing a mix with 13 of the bands. Youtube links galore upthread, and some are on Spotify. I don't know what else to tell ya. Poll ends in a few hours.

xp Behind the Curtain used to be pretty widely available. I have it and am happy to hook up anyone who wants a rip. I should give it a listen today, Wire are one of my all-time faves. Their new album Change Becomes Us comes out March 25. Hope it's good!

Thanks for sharing news about Sunday Painters, it's absolutely welcome here. This poll has exceeded expectations, turning into a goldmine of recommendations beyond the list I did my best to come up with. If there's enough interest perhaps someday there can be a proper Greatest Post-Punk Albums poll with nominations and up to 50 album ballots.

And don't get Dan and me started on Nocturnal Projections, NZ's best post punkers. That cd is out of print, too. Dont know what it goes for now. Time for a double Lp?

I must MUST track down Behind the Curtain. I didn't even know it existed!

Has anyone mentioned the Homosexuals? That multi-disc comp from several years back is pretty cool (headed out the door and blanking on title, sorry). Some of it goes back so far, maybe not so much post-punk as para-punk. Also, since Theoretical Girls came up, should we conaider no wave? If Mars and DNA are too radical for this loose round-up, maybe Contortions/James White & The Blacks, Material, some of the bands Arthur Russell passed though?

Also, early Flesheaters, when they incl. members of X and the Blasters: punk, in terms of abrasive elements, like some sounds associated withe wilder side of early "roots", also with free jazz, lurid/ominous/deadpan camp b-movie imagery, grooves best danced to/in when really blitzed, which danceablity, though challenging, can be part of the "post-" (some long live performances posted in YouTube from time to time)

xposts then you probably don't know about "Turns and Strokes" either?

http://www.discogs.com/Wire-Turns-And-Strokes/release/1871722

The Homosexuals were absolutely my favorite for a long time and I was really obsessed with their various incarnations and off-shoots and trying to learn about them. There was so much mystery back in the day that people really didn't even know what was or wasn't a Homosexuals release, or if something was related or not. Unfortunately I have to say I don't listen as much any more. It's kind of strange. The Homosexuals and Arthur Russell were two MAJOR obsessions of mine that were not shared by many people. I assure you I didn't stop listening because they suddenly became familiar to your listener, I just think I overdid it. I compiled a 2cd Homosexuals CD-r that I used to trade which became canon prior to the release of the ReR/Morphius "Record" CD and Chuck's Astral Glamour. The funny story there is that some of the material had come from a guy I knew who wrote for Perfect Sound Forever and he had gotten a CDr from Johan Kugelberg. Johan had put a version of Rainy Day Sunshine Girl as recorded by one of his bands or a friends band or something on the CD, so by the time I got it I was like "omg The Homosexuals covering Faust, and not sounding like the Homosexuals one bit!" and put it on my best-of, so for years during the soulseek days people thought that was the Homosexuals. It was only way later when Chuck was working on the CD that he asked Bruno and Bruno was like, "that's not us" and Chuck asked me about it did I realize my complicity in the spreading of misinformation.

I helped out on Astral Glamour. At 1 point Chuck was going to release it through Acute but things got confusing. I did a couple comps for the cover design, which somewhat influenced (but isn't) the final cover, so I get credit in the liner notes.

Wire's "Turns And Strokes" is decidedly less critical than "Behind The Curtain". It's a companion piece to "Document And Eyewitness", which I find unrewarding. The best thing about it is that it has the final studio b-sides before they broke up the first time.

Nocturnal Projections! Brilliant band, yes. I can only find the CD on discogs.com or $60+. It wasn't even a complete anthology. Someone needs to put that out, and probably a good Peter Jefferies career overview as well.

Yeah, "Turns and Strokes" is kinda rubbish

Michael gave me Graeme Jefferies contact info years ago and I wrote him then annoyingly waited too long to follow up and missed our chance. Maybe I'll suggest it to Captured Tracks.

Finished listening to the "expanded" Wanna Buy A Bridge. The version of "Sugar Sugar" is loopy but holy cow the Epic Soundtracks/Robert Wyatt "Jelly Babies" is stunning! As far as I can tell it only just got a CD release on the recent Epic anthology.

Sugar Sugar is def a stretch, but I love it and thought it was a fun excursion. I was turned onto it by Danny Wang. Or I turned him onto it. I can't remember. Gamson had one other song I know of, No Turn on Red, which was on one of the NME comps and a sorta new wave dance comp from the early 80s. After that I think he moved to New York and collaborated with Green on Scritti Politti's big hits.

but holy cow the Epic Soundtracks/Robert Wyatt "Jelly Babies" is stunning! As far as I can tell it only just got a CD release on the recent Epic anthology.

It was supposed to have been included on a Robert Wyatt anthology, Flotsam Jetsam, and appeared on early publicity sheet track listings. But didn't make it on the CD.

Hah, just looked up that RW anthology and it goes for stupid money, too. I thought CDs were supposed to be dirt cheap these days! ;-)

Speaking of those long live Flesheaters experiences, there's the punk-associated tradition that goes against punk austerity: the jam, man. Or at least, the performance outward bound, however covertly charted or not. Thinking of Velvets, 10-60-75 The Numbers Band, ca. Jimmy Bell's Still In Town (they did some more compact stuff later), Television, Sonic Youth---UK in this vein--?

I feel like Polyrock should be on this list.

oh yeah, I never heard them much--did see an early long video performance, "live" or live (fancy lighting, no audible/visible audience). Produced by/some kind of connection to Philip Glass, right?

First album co-produced by Glass, yeah. Unlike many of the bands above they made it to the US hinterlands, so I saw them twice in Minneapolis.

^^^ Second album also, I guess.

Just checking some of these posts out. The Dif Juz was incredible and I liked Asylum Party. Rema Rema s/t I would have sworn was mid-80s Fall. Obviously S Reynolds' hypothesis about this era of music is crude, and I am biased because I was a teenager then, but its relentless experimentation has left a legacy of unearthed treasures, some of which I am hearing for the first time and are startlingly good. So thank you Fastnbulbous for starting this thread.

I snatched up the reissue of The Homosexuals' Record (1984) when it came out because it was in The Wire's piece from the '90s, 100 Records That Set The World On Fire While No One Was Listening. It must not have sunk in as I forgot about it.

1. The Homosexuals Record is just a portion of the story, and while it was the most well known example for a long time, it lacks several of their best songs, all of which are on the Astral Glamour set.

2. Spend more time with them.

Here's a song not on the Homosexuals Record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8aVutmoGSw&playnext=1&list=PL0840F7495337906A&feature=results_video

The one-two punch of "Prestel" into "You're not moving the way you are supposed to" is as fine a combination as art punk ever landed. Get the 3CD set; the Homsexuals cd lacks A lot. Though of course the triple cd overwhelms.

another one not on the single cd:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KARcDGfcj4

missing from poll: icicle works. i fucking love icicle works!

love that Sara Goes Pop release, that's essentially a Homosexuals record, no?

Yeah me too, I even have the deluxe reissue of The Small Price of a Bicycle! But you know, "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)" pretty much rules them out as being unheard just like Modern English's "I'll Melt With You." Songs beyond those hits may be underappreciated.

xp Sirs, yes sirs, I'll get right on that. Seriously, I will check out more Homosexuals soon.

So a few more minutes to go but I gotta catch a train. Who's gonna win? Probably Liliput/Kleenex followed by Essential Logic and Pylon?

interesting - i never knew Birds Fly was a hit in any context. amazing song either way!

I am biased because I was a teenager then, but its relentless experimentation has left a legacy of unearthed treasures, some of which I am hearing for the first time and are startlingly good.

Dr. X O and I are on the exact same page. The "relentless experimentation" is what I miss the most. I know it's there in young bands, and I do run across it from time to time, but in the original era it was almost expected that bands would progress from album to album and experiment with different angles/sound/approaches. The goal wasn't to sound like their heroes, it was to integrate different things into something new.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Icicle Works biggest hit by far in the UK was Love Is A Wonderful Colour which went Top 20 here. I do think it's a lesser song than Birds Fly which is just fantastic, but it's a good one all the same. Hollow Horse, Seven Horses and When It All Comes Down are all top notch too. Anyhow, they were fairly big for a while and sat nicely alongside other psychedelic Liverpool stuff like the Bunnymen, Julian Cope, Wild Swans/Lotus Eaters etc.

The Wake def deserve their one vote, tho I prefer their kinda-shoegazy Sarah records to most of their 80s stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUtGA0rVxjY

You prefer that to this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO2odzxUsoI

And I like Pylon well enough, but they were one-tenth the band Liliput was. Odd result.

You prefer that to this? - yes, tho that track has its charms! tbh I'm kinda Sarah-biased in general.

Well, to each his own. They made larger gestures in the early 80s....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13DZ9O_uY0w

I just missed the cutoff, my Pylon vote would have put them over the top. As a longtime fan and Randy Bewley disciple, I don't think my vote could have gone anywhere else. I need Liliput and Embarrassment comps; fascinating bands I haven't heard enough by. A lot of Sad Lovers and Giants-type stuff I dismissed as too mopey back in the day sounds better to me now, but still lacks most of the prickly abrasion I love in bands like Delta 5 and Essential Logic. The Individuals, whatever their genre tag, still sound fucking great to me.

I'm with Pillbox re: The Wake. I never could get into their first two albums, preferring their Sarah period. But just barely, they're decidedly 3rd tier for me.

better showing for Virgin Prunes than I expected!

Pylon were talked up big time by R.E.M. for much of the 80s, but their stuff was impossible to find for a long time, which made their reissues kind of exciting. I like 'em but yeah they're more middle of pack for me. When all the Liliput/Kleenex stuff was first reissued on CD back in '93 by the Swiss Off Course label I was so freakin' excited because I'd only had a couple compilation tracks before that. It was definitely a Raincoats-level of revelation for me. I'll listen to them tonight in tribute!

Acute gets 3 votes. 4 if you count The Nightingales.

I forgot to do this earlier, I'd really be interested to see what Post-Punk magazine would be like, so I'm plugging their funding campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/post-punk

I mentioned in my piece that their Kickstarter campaign didn't succeed but they're trying again with more marketing push. I'm still pondering which amount to give.

Give til it hurts, you goth wannabe!

Seriously, though, that mag looks great, though could it match the quality of writing on this board (The Associates thread is my all-time favorite).

PS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_gAVZBKoMI

PPS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohJFLK9Autw

Yes! I was going to mention Basement 5 but I was away from a computer when I thought of them.

guitar tone on that track is INsane

just noticed the basement 5 peel session's up on youtube

seems like there should be more Germans in any "unknown" post punk list. Two that come quickly to mind, since they had several albums each, are S.Y.P.H. and Geisterfahrer.

Here's a punky S.Y.P.H. song from their first LP, which has some longer, more experimental pieces too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGl3Hx8kIcc

And the first Geisterfahrer single. Zick Zack 1. 1980

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYJo6MdYRMs

speaking of German post-punk, Instant Music from 1980 - precursor to early 2000s Morr maybe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rzpRqRU8ZE

Nice record that. Of course, the list of German (and Australian) post punk bands with a single or a 12" EP is long. Getting an album out was less likely, let alone multiple albums.

you could do a lot worse than spending 7 dollars on downloading this:

http://thehomosexuals.bandcamp.com/album/astral-glamour

And if you've only heard the single CD release, make sure you get far enough into it. When I had the original ReR compilation (The Homosexuals Record), I remember loving the first side in it's punky mess, and took a while to get to the second side, where some of their most produced and complete and best pop moments like False Sentiments and Astral Glamour live. Revisiting this now, it's just amazing, I remember well now why I was so obsessed. Really unlike anything. A bit of Syd Barrett or Kevin Ayers. Some power-pop and punk rock. Some ReR rock-in-opposition. DIY deconstruction of the highest order. Dub. Incredible String Band. Such a wild range of sounds.

Regarding the comment above about Sara Goes Pop...those records were Amos aka Jim aka L. Voag who was one third of the band with Bruno and Anton, if I have my story straight. I think he definitely brought the most experimental stuff to the band, though judging by a few of the catchier moments on the L Voag LP and EP, he could knock out a pop hook or two or three when he wanted to. He also did the Nancy Sesay and the Melodaires single, which is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MH71-pNxkc

Go to Astral Glamour and check out (Do The) Total Drop. And Walk Before Imitate. And Calvary. And Mad Bombers of Majour Valour....

I was the only person to vote for The Fire Engines? You people are crazy. The correct answer to this poll was probably Big Flame though.

Quickie list of some lesser-known Australian post punk bands with at least one LP-length release. Obviously, there start to be tons more excellent bands if you just go 7" or cassette; the LP standard is a tough one, but it's a place to start.

Laughing Clowns, Makers of the Dead Travel Fast, Moodists, Primitive Calculators, Severed Heads, Slugfuckers/Rhythmx Chymx, SPK, Sunday Painters, Systematics, Tactics, Voigt/465

And for New Zealand you get something like

Bilders, Gordons, Paul Luker/Phantom Forth/This is Heaven. Nocturnal Projections, Pin Group, Playthings, Victor Dimisich Band

But with NZ, you really feel the LP restriction and then have to fudge a bit. Nocturnal Projections, for example, had a strong cd's worth of material, but spread out over two tapes, a single, two 12"S, and some comp stuff. Plus the unreleased stuff that showed up on the cd.

In their honor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duOQMantKVw

Gets more fun if you go singles, as ever....

From NZ, 1981 7". Shoes this High

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm3F1papWgI

Tracklisting of upcoming 80s uk indie compilation, which picks up still in post-punk territory and follows that thread into C86/jangle/Ron Johnson and other indie territories:

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A UK 80s Nuggets featuring The Lines and The Fire Engines!
* STOP PRESS - SCARED TO GET HAPPY TRACK LISTING *

Well, it's taken a while... feels like forever... and maybe it'll change... still a few tracks we want... but... here it is. Bit of room at the end for stragglers. Otherwise... it's done!

Disc 1:
1. THE WILD SWANS Revolutionary Spirit
2. GIRLS AT OUR BEST Getting Nowhere Fast
3. THE PALE FOUNTAINS (There’s Always) Something On My Mind
4. JOSEF K The Missionary
5. THE MONOCHROME SET Jet Set Junta
6. THE BLUE ORCHIDS Dumb Magician
7. THE MARINE GIRLS Don’t Come Back
8. THE FIRE ENGINES Candy Skin
9. DOLLY MIXTURE Everything And More
10. SCARS All About You
11. THE NIGHTINGALES Paraffin Brain
12. FARMERS BOYS I Think I Need Help
13. JANE It’s A Fine Day
14. PREFAB SPROUT Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone)
15. WEEKEND Summerdays
16. THE LINES Nerve Pylon
17. FANTASTIC SOMETHING If She Doesn’t Smile It’ll Rain
18. THE HIGSONS The Lost And The Lonely
19. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Feeling Dizzy *
20. BLACK Human Features
21. STRAWBERRY SWITCHBLADE Trees And Flowers
22. THE DAINTEES Roll On Summertime
23. NICK NICELY 49 Cigars
24. TRIXIE’S BIG RED MOTORBIKE Norman And Narcissus
25. THE CHERRY BOYS Kardomah Café
26. AZTEC CAMERA Oblivious

Disc 2:
1. HURRAH The Sun Shines Here
2. THE PASTELS I Wonder Why
3. PULP Everybody’s Problem
4. GRAB GRAB THE HADDOCK I'm Used Now
5. FRIENDS AGAIN Honey At The Core (Moonboot Version)
6. THE BLUEBELLS Callander Green
7. LLOYD COLE & THE COMMOTIONS Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken (Indie Version)
8. IN EMBRACE This Brilliant Evening
9. MICRODISNEY Dolly
10. THE WOODENTOPS Plenty
11. THE JAZZ BUTCHER Southern Mark Smith
12. THE JASMINE MINKS Where The Traffic Goes
13. THE JUNE BRIDES Every Conversation (Single Version)
14. THE REVOLVING PAINT DREAM In The Afternoon
15. THE SHOP ASSISTANTS All Day Long
16. BIFF BANG POW! The Chocolate Elephant Man
17. JAMES Hymn From A Village
18. THE JESUS & MARY CHAIN Just Like Honey (Demo Oct ‘84)
19. THE LOFT Up The Hill And Down The Slope
20. THAT PETROL EMOTION Keen
21. YEAH YEAH NOH Temple Of Convenience
22. THE WEDDING PRESENT Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy
23. THE BODINES God Bless
24. WE'VE GOT A FUZZBOX AND WE’RE GONNA USE IT XX Sex (Demo)
25. McCARTHY Red Sleeping Beauty
26. THE MIGHTY LEMON DROPS Something Happens

Disc 3:
1. PRIMAL SCREAM Velocity Girl
2. THE PRIMITIVES Thru The Flowers
3. THE BMX BANDITS Sad
4. MIGHTY MIGHTY Is There Anyone Out There?
5. THE SOUP DRAGONS Fair's Fair
6. THE WOLFHOUNDS Cut The Cake
7. THE CHESTERFIELDS Completely And Utterly
8. THE SERVANTS Transparent
9. THE CLOSE LOBSTERS What Is There To Smile About (Demo)
10. POP WILL EAT ITSELF Sick Little Girl
11. THE RAZORCUTS Big Pink Cake
12. THE WEATHER PROPHETS Almost Prayed
13. JAMIE WEDNESDAY Vote For Love
14. TALULAH GOSH Beatnik Boy
15. THE DENTISTS She Dazzled Me With Basil
16. THE RAILWAY CHILDREN A Gentle Sound
17. THE GROOVE FARM Baby Blue Marine
18. JESSE GARON & THE DESPERADOES The Rain Fell Down
19. ROSEMARY’S CHILDREN (Whatever Happened To) Alice?
20. THE WONDER STUFF A Wonderful Day
21. THIS POISON! Engine Failure
22. THE BRILLIANT CORNERS Delilah Sands
23. 14 ICED BEARS Balloon Song
24. THE HEART THROBS Toy
25. THE ROSEHIPS Room In Your Heart
26. KING OF LUXEMBOURG A Picture Of Dorian Gray

Disc 4:
1. HOUSE OF LOVE Shine On
2. THE DARLING BUDS Shame On You (Native Single Version)
3. THE POOH STICKS Indiepop Ain’t Noise Pollution
4. THE BACHELOR PAD The Albums Of Jack
5. THE SHAMEN Something About You
6. GOL GAPPAS Albert Parker
7. HANGMAN'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS Love Is Blue
8. WHIRL Heaven Forbid
9. THE BOY HAIRDRESSERS Tidalwave
10. THE FLATMATES Shimmer
11. APPLE BOUTIQUE Love Resistance
12. LAUGH Take Your Time Yeah!
13. GROOVY LITTLE NUMBERS You Make My Head Explode
14. THE WALTONES She Looks Right Through Me
15. YEAH JAZZ Sharon
16. THE CLOUDS Tranquil
17. THE RAW HERBS She’s A Nurse But She's Alright
18. THE SIDDELEYS My Favourite Wet Wednesday Afternoon
19. RODNEY ALLEN Circle Line
20. THE CORN DOLLIES Be Small Again
21. THE HEPBURNS The World Is
22. BUBBLEGUM SPLASH One Of Those Things
23. THE McTELLS Jesse Man Rae
24. THE CHARLOTTES Are You Happy Now?
25. ANOTHER SUNNY DAY I’m In Love With A Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist
26. THE LA's Son Of A Gun (Demo)

Disc 5:
1. THE STONE ROSES The Hardest Thing In The World
2. THE INSPIRAL CARPETS Keep The Circle Around
3. THE SEA URCHINS Solace
4. CUD Only (A Prawn In Whitby)
5. THE POPGUNS Landslide
6. EAST VILLAGE Strawberry Window
7. THE FANATICS Suburban Love Songs
8. THE MILLTOWN BROTHERS Roses
9. THE ORCHIDS I’ve Got A Habit
10. BRADFORD Skin Storm
11. THE CLAIM Picking Up The Bitter Little Pieces
12. THE POPPYHEADS Pictures You Weave
13. THE SUN AND THE MOON Adam’s Song (Pour Fenella)
14. THE DESERT WOLVES Speak To Me Rochelle
15. THE GOLDEN DAWN My Secret World
16. BLOW UP Forever Holiday
17. KOROVA MILK BAR Do It Again
18. AVO-8 Big Car
19. THE RAIN Dry The Rain
20. THE BOO RADLEYS Catweazle
21. THE SEERS Sun Is In The Sky
22. THE TELESCOPES Perfect Needle
23. THE VASELINES Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam

hah, sorry I copied part of the Acute facebook page...I had posted this info there so I went there to copy it, and now you can see that at some point while operating as Acute Records I "liked" Broadcast and Sexual Objects (post-post-Fire Engines!)

Oh yeah, the Servants. The Sun a Small Star is lovely

housecleaning

love the diachronic/internoise/island-of-misfit-death-disco slant of the thread, so I’m gonna run w/that f/a minute and add Colin Newman’s new-to-me melted-genre nod Troisieme from lol ’80. could prob. go in this threadbut it’s such a sweet mess of proto-techno stomp, martial guitar + drums from the ghost of Swans future, rinky piano plonking, sax lost in reverb, Fripp-ish guitar, and pop vox w/ hints of Bowie damage that it snaps in here w/out effort, so w/e:

http://youtu.be/fNEkicBxe2o

― Hellhouse, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 10:40 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Even though I have at least half of that material, I'm still really excited for that indie nuggets box!

ha I didn't even see that The Lines were on this list. definitely would have voted for them.

I just ordered all 10 volumes of "The Indie Scene: The History Of British Independent Music" covering 1977-1986. I've had MP3s of these for years but meant to get the CDs, this thread inspired me to do so. I'm a sucker for great compilations!

Just posted a photobooth photo of The Lines dug up by drummer Nick Cash (also of Fad Gadget and PragVEC!) up on the Acute facebook page. I suggest joining it, even though facebook won't show you the page unless I pay to "promote" it.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Acute-Records/304608789347

I just ordered all 10 volumes of "The Indie Scene: The History Of British Independent Music" covering 1977-1986...

Where the heck did you find that?

The first 5 were on AmazonUK and the last 5 were on discogs.com - all were between $10 and $20.

Thanks for the FB link, I've just 'liked' your record label Dan.

Talking obscure post punk - I've always loved "China's eternal" by The Tights since I heard it on the "Business Unusual" compilation. It's got a similar mood to "Chairs missing" era Wire. Did they issue anything else, and has the song appeared on cd?

The Tights! Brilliant call Rob. They released 3 singles on Cherry Red, all of which are on the 8cd singles box that came out a few years back. And they're all good tracks.

I thought they only did one single. I'll have to look into that Cherry Red singles set.

Just found the track listing in another thread. That's my kind of boxed set - Felt, Monochrome Set, Marine Girls, Joe Crow, Passage, Eyeless in Gaza., Hybrid Kids.. Ok, let's see if it's on Amazon... Thanks!

There were three? I only know two, the more post-punk Howard Hughes / china and the more punk Bad Hearts, which has three songs, all very catchy. Of there's a third, send it my way.

I just sold The Indie Scene 1982 on discogs for £10 - seems those CDs are pretty sought after.

My mistake, just 2 singles from The Tights covering 5 songs, all great.

On the "I'll give you my heart" box set, they talk about having a reunion and making a new album for Cherry Red. Did they ever get to do this?

(i.e. The Tights)

Those in Chicago might like to know that Reckless has a used copy of the Kill Rock Stars double CD reissue of poll co-winners Liliput for just $6.99. You already probably know but you can call and put it on hold or transfer from the Broadway store to downtown or Wicker Park.

The Flexible funding campaign for Post-Punk magazine ends Feb 27. $15 gets you their first issue plus a CD comp, $30 an issue + backer t-shirt and $75 a year sub + t-shirt, not much more than it would normally cost for getting a UK sub in the US anyway. I might do the amount where they post a profile and my top 5 post-punk albums.

http://www.indiegogo.com/post-punk

Dangit, I missed the deadline, got swamped at work and spaced. Looks like they didn't make it unfortunately. I just saw this comment on my site from Feb 7 from a Rob Cioffi:

Nice work, brilliant for the uninitiated!

A few things to add -

Sad Lovers And Giants: continue to stage a few shows per year and have been readying a new LP. They have self-released a new single in recent years (Himalaya/Happiness Is Fragile) and have included several new songs in their current set-lists. Singer Garce self-released his first solo EP in 2012. Tony McGuinness (guitars) is 1/3 of progressive trance global heavyweight Above & Beyond. The band is very active on Facebook and have a rabid, loyal following world-wide.

Modern Eon: I actually emailed LTM label head James Nice about releasing Fiction Tales for the very first time on CD (the only CD releases have been two widely circulated bootlegs, one Fiction Tales Plus , the other Peel Sessions & Live). The label investigated this and passed. Cherry Red may end up issuing this sometime down the road.

Breathless: hailed by Jack Rabid in the pages of Big Takeover, and ended up in several best of lists there.

Asylum Party: released 2 LPs, both were reissued as The Grey Years Vol. 1 (2-CD set) and The Grey Years Vol. 2 (2-CD set), both bolstered with singles, non-LP tracks and demos. Both sets can be ordered direct from their label, infrastition.com, and via Discogs.

And Also The Trees: several compilations can be great entry points. The best that is still in print is 1980-2005 but the best is From Horizon To Horizon (Singles 1983-92), which is long out of print.

Lowlife: their final LP, Gush, remains out of print. LTM will not be reissuing due to lack of bonus material.

Opposition: their entire back catalogue, remastered in digital form, is available from their website, http://www.theopposition.fr/ To my knowledge, these are unlikely to receive a physical release.

The following band should also be considered for this article:

Abecedarians

This brilliant Los Angeles post-punk band released their first single on the legendary Factory label and has opened for New Order when they toured Southern California. Their sound is similar to The Chameleons, etc and until 2012, their entire back catalogue remained out of print. Their magnificent debut album, Eureka, was finally released on CD via Pylon Records and can be ordered here http://pylonrecords.com/ in a several different formats.

Their are plans to reissue final LP, Resin, as well.

Despite their demos collection being released on the famed indie label, IPR, they never received recognition for their musical legacy and thus were the hidden jewel in the deepest of deep post-punk collections.

If you love any of the above bands, you must check them out...you will not be disappointed!

Those Asylum Party reissues are tempting, but are possibly more than $30USD each with shipping! Ugh. I was excited about the Opposition site but it looks like it's just streaming. They need to get their post-punk asses on Bandcamp. Abecedarians is interesting, though the only way to get the bonus CD of songs from their 1985-86 era is to buy the vinyl, which is a load of crap.

How can you tell what's on those Abecadarian releases? I have the IPR vinyl but never really dug it. All I want is Smiling Monarchs on vinyl.

forget it, I see the tracklisting on discogs

this stuff come with downloads? It's criminal if labels put out vinyl and not include a download code.

The Dark Entries and Medical Records releases are without downloads, unless I've been missing something. Extra work...

Speaking of Dark Entries, the reissue of The Thing from the Crypt compilation LP is very fine. Grab one. The Fall of Saigon 12" has its moments.

we'll have to talk to those folks. what are they doing without downloads.

FFS, offer a CD option of "The Thing From The Crypt"! Didn't it have a sequel too?

I support not releasing CDs. Gotta have downloads though! Ill bring it up at our next meeting.

Another Thing from the Crypt. Bands not quite as iconic, but still a good record. Don't think anyone will be reissuing it. Mutant Sounds had it up at one point, I think.

Posted this the other day in the Australian Post Punk thread, but that may be too narrow a demographic....

For my money, the greatest post-punk band that nobody's ever heard is a group from Wollongong Australia called the Sunday Painters. Three singles, two LPs, cassettes, and comp tracks. At work on a reissue, but thought I'd put a song on on Sound Cloud since Monday marked the thirty-year anniversary of one of their high points: the Sedition Festival, a three-day showcase of 22 bands, as well as assorted video artists, at the Trade Union Club. $10 for the lot….Other bands included the Scientists, Wet Taxi, Celibate Rifles. The Same, and Severed Heads.

The Painters played the opening night. Three and a half songs have survived from their set; two of which made it onto the Sedition—Go Broke cassette. This one, “In My Dreams,” did not, though it’s a monster, reworked into drum-machine form from its origins as a practice-room kraut jam outtake that made up the b-side of the band’s second single (Painting By Numbers, 1980, 250 copies). Like X covering PIL, with a New Order keyboard flourish.

Please feel free to share, to download, to play.

https://soundcloud.com/michael-train/in-my-dreams

Taught myself to play "Smokescreen" by the Desperate Bicycles and it only underscored how unusual it is. The guy sings straight through for three and a half minutes or however long it is and there are eight verses.

hey, thanks, that's pretty awesome! xpost

Thought I'd try it as a video (well, at least a photo montage):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NTISSJPyLw

Cool. I'm really proud of the iMovie Ken Burns video montage I made for Disco Zombies and Happy Refugees.

Crazy what you can do within ten minutes of opening iMovie for the first time, but wow do I now have respect for real video editors....

One year anniversary, here's a Spotify playlist finally! None of the early And Also The Trees, The Sound or Comsat Angels, but a good sampling of most of what I wrote about.

http://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/3RkhJjuRHTIamrXejVwa9H
spotify:user:1212496385:playlist:3RkhJjuRHTIamrXejVwa9H

50 Minute And Also The Trees documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgp8gwgjTPs&list=PL6B10D8ECB2D36111

90 Minute live show recorded September 28, 2013 at La Cave à Musique in Mâcon, Burgundy, France:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iOivHqNgpQ&list=FLvS7HOg0xXDKPhctmMyG1Qw

Documentary embedded (I hope?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgp8gwgjTPs&list=PL6B10D8ECB2D36111&feature=share

Tiny Desk Unit has never been mentioned on ILM? I stumbled across this video today and remembered the name, probably from New York Rocker. This kind of art/dance/drone/skronk would have been like catnip to me when this was new, but I'm finding it only mildly interesting in 2014. Great that these Hurrah videos are out there, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHHwKO9NvgU

Nice to see this topic active again. Reminds me that we've finally made some real headway with our Sunday Painters reissues. (The Painters were a Wollongong, Australia art punk band most active from 1980-86, putting out records on their own Terminal Records in minuscule runs.) We'll be collecting the band's three singles on one LP (see the link below), out in January, then doing the two albums by the end of spring. Each with digital downloads and bonus tracks drawn from live cassettes and a radio appearance. Punk, industrial, pop, prog, and experimental, sometimes all at once. A Cab-Voltaire take on "Rebel Rebel." The Homosexuals with a drum machine. And so on.

Out on Whats Your Rupture. Home also to the Tronics and Parquet Courts.

http://whatsyourrupture.bigcartel.com/product/sunday-painters-in-my-dreams-lp-pre-order

So we now have hard copies of the Sunday Painters singles collection. Should start to show up in stores soon. Very exciting. There'll also be digital downloads from all the usual places. For those of you in Australia, your best bets will be R.I.P. Society/Repressed Records in Sydney, or Music Farmer's in Wollongong, though there may well be some other spots, too. By May we're hoping to get the band's two albums out.

Sounds great, let me know when they become available on CD or reasonably priced lossless.

Speaking of unheard post-punk bands (who have been heard with the help of Michael Train and myself!)...Happy Refugees are following up our reissue from a couple of years ago with a self-released newly recorded album, some new songs, some vintage unrecorded songs. Great stuff. A bit less edge than the old stuff, a bit more mature, but what do you expect? Great website here: http://www.happyrefugees.com/

been getting into the deep freeze mice reissue a bit, anyone else a fan?

No plans for any CDs, but I'll look into the possibilities for lossless. Still not sure what sites will have the record, so I'm not sure if it will be up on any that offer lossless. If I learn of one, I'll post it here. That said, it takes a superior set of ears and equipment to tell the difference between lossless and 320 kbps coding these days. I listen with mastering-quality AKG headphones and Focal monitors and can only occasionally notice the difference, and then only in direct A/B comparisons on a high decay.

I think most, if not all episodes of New Wave Theatre are on YouTube which feature a bunch of mysterious post-punk bands. (as well as other genres)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA70OzHvxP4

You can stream all the Sunday Painters singles here:

http://noisey.vice.com/en_au/blog/stream-the-of-the-sunday-painters-early-80s-diy-punk

here's some post-punk / diy spam. it's out in july. michael train did the audio restoration, there's an introduction written by dan selzer and i compiled it, so should be fairly ILM friendly spam.

Now That's What I Call DIY (Cult classics from the Post-Punk era 1978/82) - https://soundcloud.com/optimo-music/various-now-thats-what-i-call