we listen so fast: forgotten/unkown/unloved 80s we are listening to.

I have tried with the units before because Hugh Jones

White door yessssss

it's official. the first Strange Advance album is UNDERRATED. maybe not in canada. i wouldn't know. they don't put a bar band new wave rock song on the album until track 10! and its the only song with Bob Rock playing rock guitar. everything before that any new wave band would have been happy to have a single. for the most part. good job, gang!

🖼

John Robb's book Death To Trad Rock was a great source for mid 80s UK alternative bands like a UK equivalent of Michael Azzerad's This Band Could Be Your Life or something.
Most off the leftfield bands that were on the same circuit as the Membranes that Robb himself fronted.
Just saw some talk about a few bands I think are in it upthread.

I confused the Units with the Staff

https://www.discogs.com/master/510426-The-Staff-Out-Of-Bounds

Annette is prime UK acid from Simon Topping of A Certain Ratio and Quando Quango and the Haciendas Mike Pickering as T Coy. Think there was even a Derrick May mix.

oh ok maybe gerald just produced it. i was scanning quickly. because i scan so quick. though JUST having him produce your acid house in 1988 would be enough for most people.

i'm taking a let's active break to start my listening day. let's active who are neither forgotten nor obscure. and who i have been listening to year in and year out since 1983. been listening to oh ok since 1983 as well come to think of it.

https://i.discogs.com/Z9479GhyXkANCyNEc9IVofY3wnD1EzBjewK0iIWwP5I/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:450/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTI1Njk3/NC0xMjc5ODk4NjY1/LmpwZWc.jpeg

i tried to listen to the first Ph.D. album but i really can't take the singer's voice. one of those rare cases where a voice just completely drives me up a wall immediately. sorry, Ph.D.! (more of a prog voice than a new wave voice....)

https://i.discogs.com/A-wJODiQLyruik1W8pdgJUI_tPUMGSrzlUyig0WW4s0/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:463/w:466/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM0OTg0/MDAtMTMzMjc4ODcz/MC5qcGVn.jpeg

the things i do for science...

https://i.discogs.com/3J3YrsVHfe8cAt4iESbUhEX1P9EfEOGxQ7ANo-4PHmM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:598/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQwMzU4/MDEtMTYzNTkzMjI4/Mi0zMDUzLmpwZWc.jpeg

the sheer tonnage of denim in the 80s...

the cotton fields must have been running 24/7.

jesus, "girl in the ghetto"...why, cry before dawn, why...??

Another familiar face from the unbought-even-at-£1 second-hand racks in London (and probably the rest of the UK)!

Were they Irish?

i blame bono so hard.

one thing i will say about U2 and Alarm wannabes - and did they give some sort of government stipend if you started one of these bands in the u.k.? - is that usually the singers can actually sing. so, a good voice at least something to hang onto.

yeah, they are irish. they just added some pipes to their ghetto song!

of course they have a song called "flags". they must have been bummed that there was already a band called Flag.

its official. i will listen to anything.

https://i.discogs.com/kbniNvHnF0LIaMtQIAXwRN4PF_pOEn4WfIq0XLanRf0/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU2ODI0/OS0xNDc1MjM0MjI1/LTI4OTUuanBlZw.jpeg

the little "80s" doodads and sounds added to his joe walsh music is just so dumb.

i had to take that abysmal don felder thing off. and that's coming from me! i have a very high tolerance for mediocrity. i feel like i need to hear the one and only Device album. feels weird that i've never played it. its a pretty common dollar bin item. holly knight was such an integral part of u.s. pop in the 80s and it feels wrong to go any further without playing it. she wrote or co-wrote "love is a battlefield", "the best", AND the grandaddy of all and cornerstone of 80s american DJing "obsession". and probably a ton more i can't think of. plus, she was tight with mike chapman. and he produced the Device album and i am a big fan of his. playing now.

https://i.discogs.com/-aLfob6Wq8FVqt0s1LAN3d01CeByCRyYoDjTGO9JQRU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:454/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTEyOTg0/My0xMzM3MzEyNTI4/LTY3MzkuanBlZw.jpeg

man, mike chapman should have recorded every aor album in the 80s. sounds like a dream. if you dream of los angeles and sunglasses. its obvious that they wanted every song to be a possible single. they really went for it.

oh you want another Device recommendation from youtube:

@mile0931
2 years ago
Of my collection of 2000 CD’s and 300 pieces of vinyl, I have 10 “essential” releases locked in a fire proof safe. This CD is among those 10. Absolutely STELLAR album!

sad there is no holly knight thread on ilm. she wrote "never"! one of my fave heart songs. not to mention "the warrior". the carole king of the 80s! kinda.

She was all over the map. She wrote "Better Be Good to Me," and the forgettable KISS number "I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock & Roll."

i'm going in...

https://i.discogs.com/e9Q20a-pHy8gT7Me2Kj_IRmfXn0b4B4Sb4uDpbjWrY4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:579/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM2ODIw/MjYtMTQzOTk1NTcz/Ny0yNjM1LmpwZWc.jpeg

jesus, its the Cheers dude...

did these all come from a single collection?

i mean he hadn't done the cheers theme yet but he was close. if you were a songwriter with any kinda hit you got your own record or even records(!!) just based on that. makes sense. the labels probably got a cut of anything that got used by someone later, no? so even if gary's album tanked (and they had to kinda know that it would) it could still pay dividends down the line. i don't really know how business works. but a lot of these no-name people littering bargain bins wrote hits for, like, glen campbell and people like that.

i bought a ton of records. but they weren't a collection per se. more of an amassment by someone who sells records. a lot haven't seen the light of day since the 90s. some are old store stock. from different stores. its a fun mix. if you are me.

this cheers guy's album is not unlike this album that i enjoy a lot from the 70s:

https://i.discogs.com/2cEVELmOeLneiX-DYEGo9F5k0P6wjdmBJONXWncdhOQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:596/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTYyMTI2/OTMtMTQxMzg1MzM0/OC03MjE1LmpwZWc.jpeg

i'm not going to play it but this is one of my fave kitaro covers. still can't believe that modern hepcats didn't start a kitaro cult. he still languishes in the bargain bins. so entertaining though!

https://i.discogs.com/JZjfh6BFDSPZRVddgk63m7DJbjpr-ttBRrW-A7Dyh_4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU0OTg3/NDgtMTUzNDAwMDM4/Ny03MjIyLmpwZWc.jpeg

i think i found my new favorite group. omg, they make my heart go boom. the production. the songs. oof. calgon take me away...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcex8QXJ2WI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihy280-8nGM

I don’t think this is forgotten but it’s new to me. Prime cyberphunk

Zwischenfall - “Flucht”

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

That was released on Fuzz Dance AND Crepuscule, and got reissued by Dark Entries, so not exactly a hit, but definitely has it's fans.

its very cool. be fun to play out as a dj. people might fall in love with you if you played that.

yes it was the zulus that was the human sexual response spin-off record. playing now. the guitars sound cool! first ever hearing this. don't tell all the boston people i know. also didn't know that they later made a record with bob mould producing.

https://i.discogs.com/KWkxkjFSVIwlcjzw0jc8lzRuYyP6aCOS3nplmsGb834/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:592/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI5MDQz/NjMtMTQ4NjA4MjQ2/NC05NzM3LmpwZWc.jpeg

"Can't Stop Having Fun" is an excellent song! love it.

listening to the bob mould album now. so good! i had no idea. rockin' stuff.

okay, its time for a new regime. gotta be canada again, right?

https://i.discogs.com/6vqciwROkt3N4kWg61VjdMO7_50dN12i4y0Cq4Kh4G4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQzMzU1/ODItMTM2MjA4NzY0/MS05NTY5LmpwZWc.jpeg

i was working and new regime kept playing and i kept meaning to take it off...not great. every song is a bland approximation of another band. they were INXS fans. and ABC fans. bleh.

Four-In-Legion. of "party in my pants" fame. wait, was that song famous? did they invent the party in my pants thing? oh lord...

(i kinda just want to hear their song "laser gun".)

https://i.discogs.com/C9WIbGofq4iAm2ZAtIykpf6SvA00yQEL_xDYHDezAfw/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:585/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQ3ODQ5/MjYtMTQ5NTg0MjE3/Ny02MDIwLmpwZWc.jpeg

some real peak 80s fashion on these covers

i would like the four-in legion record if it wasn't for that party in my pants song. they have the same obliviousness to cultural appropriation that modern romance did so they end up having a lot of fun with drums. and i like almost any fun with percussion album. persuasive bongos. bass drums in hi-fi. doesn't matter to me. fake latin drum records are the best.
but "laser gun" is their...hard rock song? sorta rocking.

i used to love that "belly of the whale" song. had that EP and never played another song on it. that would have been fake calypso or something. played it over and over. burning sensations. that was them. total bar band with an MTV hit.

(and needless to say i worshipped bow wow wow, adam & the ants, wide boy awake, etc. anyone who used that burundi beat. passion puppets. didn't matter who.)

this looks good. haven't read it. great pictures:

https://medium.com/loopandreplay/burundi-beat-the-ants-annabella-and-appropriation-258a804a2176

not gonna play the whole album but felt like i had to play this tune. its 1980! what's gonna happen?? there was a lot of 80s speculation going on at the dawn of the decade.

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

gonna listen to the whole Brilliant album. when was the last time someone did that? i am a Youth fan. i mean, duh, killing joke, but i think he was a good producer/collaborator. he made one of my fave bananarama albums that nobody listened to. i even listened to one of those techno albums he made with paul mccartney.

https://i.discogs.com/kyjSryHkQudF6U8tKKKvPb4wLCCIauKsELl7vviYdeA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:592/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQxNTY3/LTE0Mzg4OTI3MDgt/ODYxNC5qcGVn.jpeg

this is how a bar band turns into a new wave band. courtesy of a band called The Ravyns.

before duran duran:

https://i.discogs.com/Ne61PPwyPTGyZLoHE5e1MxCEOoEr5-cLYk1IV6Dczhs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:320/w:254/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTU2MzI1/NC0xMjk4NDg2NTMy/LmpwZWc.jpeg

after duran duran:

https://i.discogs.com/Zf1gKOeJVa89oDmO5lr410BEafIosCuYqTKPcJYrNxM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:316/w:310/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTU2MzI1/NC0xMjk4NDg2NTAz/LmpwZWc.jpeg

now i know why i've avoided the Brilliant album for so long. not great. as someone who worships at the temple of Colourbox, you sirs and madam, are no Colourbox.

i've been listening to these no-name waver and aor bands and it occurred to me that i've never actually listened to any of the bands who actually had name recognition who made the same kind of music. bourgeois tagg. curiousity killed the cat. johnny hates jazz. uh...glass tiger? there are a million of them. most of them have always looked really lame to me. but there might be another Device album to discover.

i have one of these! with the plinth. so swanky.

https://i.discogs.com/3fVrJWzUC48WmHCZQYebeZ32GJukPhrViFm1V9RyodQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:564/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE4MTEy/NTctMTYxNDUyNTUy/MC02MTA5LmpwZWc.jpeg

i'm keeping a devo single! i don't own any devo. it's a promo single for the song "baby doll" and it has edits by my lord and savior chep nunez. i don't think i could ever be a chep completist - he did too much - but i grab what i can.

we have a winner!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b5yUVGQwIQ