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

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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."

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 18 August 2023 17:15 (ten months ago) link

jesus, its the Cheers dude...

scott seward, Friday, 18 August 2023 17:39 (ten months ago) link

did these all come from a single collection?

out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Friday, 18 August 2023 17:40 (ten months ago) link

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.

scott seward, Friday, 18 August 2023 17:42 (ten months ago) link

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.

scott seward, Friday, 18 August 2023 17:44 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Friday, 18 August 2023 17:47 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Friday, 18 August 2023 18:06 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Friday, 18 August 2023 18:16 (ten months ago) link

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

Zwischenfall - “Flucht”

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

brimstead, Friday, 18 August 2023 18:24 (ten months ago) link

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.

dan selzer, Saturday, 19 August 2023 05:29 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 13:28 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 13:44 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 14:01 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 14:14 (ten months ago) link

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.

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 14:46 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 15:46 (ten months ago) link

some real peak 80s fashion on these covers

out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 19 August 2023 15:48 (ten months ago) link

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.

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 15:59 (ten months ago) link

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.

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 16:00 (ten months ago) link

(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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 16:04 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 16:17 (ten months ago) link

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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 16:38 (ten months ago) link

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.

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 16:58 (ten months ago) link

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.

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 17:42 (ten months ago) link

we have a winner!

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

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 17:45 (ten months ago) link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Mallouk

Thus Sang Freud, Saturday, 19 August 2023 18:15 (ten months ago) link

damn, that is some story! who knew?

scott seward, Saturday, 19 August 2023 18:34 (ten months ago) link

that's amazing, ty

out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Saturday, 19 August 2023 18:37 (ten months ago) link

"That's great, you get a biopic, and I'm a god damn amalgam."

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 19 August 2023 21:08 (ten months ago) link

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.

― scott seward, Friday, August 18, 2023 12:07 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Hey Scott! Have you checked out Old Lunch's Cheesy '80s Songs About Heart and Soul and Overcoming and Winning and Givin' it All That You Got (RIYL Action Movies and Training Montages and Cocaine) ? Device's Hanging on a Heart Attack is one of the first songs posted in there. It seems like a topic that might overlap with your interests.

peace, man, Monday, 21 August 2023 17:10 (ten months ago) link

ooh no i will check that thread out.

scott seward, Monday, 21 August 2023 18:58 (ten months ago) link

running around today and haven't had a chance to jam any soft rock gems but i did dig this out today and play it. it's a winner!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynCU3KhNlvs

scott seward, Monday, 21 August 2023 20:32 (ten months ago) link

i'm glad i discovered that i'm a Zulus fan two days ago because i found their bob-mould produced CD today and i wouldn't have looked at it twice three days ago! that's called scottchronicity.

scott seward, Monday, 21 August 2023 23:05 (ten months ago) link

this is the part where they invent the white stripes! okay maybe not but still...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfiRbz4OS4E

scott seward, Monday, 21 August 2023 23:35 (ten months ago) link

The version of The Sports' Don't Throw Stones cobbled from the Australian album of that name and Reckless, their debut, has an official US release date in October 1979, but I never saw it 'til '80, so I'll push it in, because it's that good. They were compared to overseas (only?) tourmates Graham Parker & The Rumour, but the guy's voice could get rougher than Parker's (my buddy Richard Riegel interviewed them for Creem when they came to Cincinnati and I think slipped in an apt reference to his vocal hero, Eric Burdon). They could also a be bit slicker and more succinct than The Rumour---a little New Wave, well kind of---and I really liked that combination. Got some American airplay, at least in Collegetown, with "Don't Throw Stones" and "Who Listens To The Radio."

dow, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 03:53 (ten months ago) link

i like The Sports. sports. yachts. motors. its all good.

i'm listening to that 1989 xymox album. i loved 4ad clan of xymox and for some reason i didn't think i would like this album based on one single i heard. but it's cool! i dig it. very shiny. but still with the goth undercurrent. ready for the dancefloor.

scott seward, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 17:13 (ten months ago) link

in my head i hear “80s” and “Sports” and obv just go

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_(Huey_Lewis_and_the_News_album)#/media/File%3AHuey_Lewis_and_the_News_-_Sports.png

i listened to this as long as i could do. album is in a middle place, but i grew up long enough in that place, and all my choices at least at the time, tho modest, were to oppose it, lol.

aeronimo is mad againe (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 04:11 (ten months ago) link

We drove all night
Through the semi-dark light, and then we found them
With their metal music
And their ice-blue Chevy's all around them
Perfecting the look that destroys
The American boys

With their adolescence
And their daddy's futures and their tight pants
With their innuendo
At the girls' gym locker and the school dance
Who's making that star-spangled noise?
The American boys

And they go
Bop, bop
Bop-a-dee-doo-da-da-ay, ay
All through the night
Bop, bop
Bop-a-dee-doo-da-da-ay, ay
All through the night

https://i.discogs.com/w6FlfcmA5MaLBzR4bvfZvEKEvGHA6xwlNC6xZw0p5Cs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:482/w:500/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEwMjgx/NjEtMTQ0NTkyODE4/OS0zNjg5LmpwZWc.jpeg

scott seward, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:17 (ten months ago) link

1982 u.s. release of an album put out in canada in 1980. "so you learn from computers" is about the future. its not bad. too late-70s rock in parts though. they even have dominic troiano playing some session guitar. dominic troiano is not new wave!

https://i.discogs.com/U2jZbaiFI-Jk2sdsPSfTFQeqZe--0Drczs3xFQxV2lM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:413/w:414/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMxMTA4/NzUtMTQ3MTYwOTIx/Ni0yNjMyLmpwZWc.jpeg

scott seward, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 16:22 (ten months ago) link

keeping this! snowy canadian new wave. for fans of ultravox and also fans of ultravox.

https://i.discogs.com/7l4k9I8KvgQMClwR8GLSa_JRciplKD5wJEWWvgxfMUQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTUyNzEy/OTUtMTUyMjI3MTI0/OS04OTY0LmpwZWc.jpeg

scott seward, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 17:40 (ten months ago) link

I forgot I owned this album, found it the other day. My local Adult Album Alternative station used to play it a bit, must have been why I picked it up. Very Eurythmics-y.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEuKgzOy6RE

Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable POST (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 17:49 (ten months ago) link

i will make a note of rebel heels. chances are i will come across it.

somehow i ended up playing Woodentops. a 1986 fave of mine but not a group that traveled through time with me. they sound exactly as they used to. paying attention now to the songs that i skipped over or didn't pay attention to in favor of the college radio hits.

there were albums back then that i would buy for one song and if it was on side one i might never make it to side two. hey, i was a kid.

scott seward, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 18:15 (ten months ago) link

yikes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_xomVVeD5c

scott seward, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 19:35 (ten months ago) link

i can't believe i'm still listening to the woodentops. with a brief rest for stevie's clanky clunky thing. listening to that 1988 woodentops album that i've never heard. who was still listening to the woodentops in 1988? not me, brother. its not bad! but i had surfa rosa and public enemy and every other legendary rapper and metallica and spirit of eden (found the import right at sound of market after it came out i was so happy) and south of heaven and strictly business and my fave album of the year follow the leader. but woodentops? not when i could go down the street and see the feelies at chestnut cabaret right after only life came out! i mean we all have priorities. found blue bell knoll at sound of market too. didn't have to walk all the way down to tower on south street.

scott seward, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 19:44 (ten months ago) link


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