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

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

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

damn, that is some story! who knew?

that's amazing, ty

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

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.

ooh no i will check that thread out.

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

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.

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

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

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."

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.

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.

https://i.discogs.com/2oa64h3rB109lOXksssyFblCNZAIF8zNCc6v_rwD_94/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:571/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY4MDk2/MzAtMTUwODg5MzE1/MS0zODE3LmpwZWc.jpeg

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

not essential!

https://i.discogs.com/6pw7CeekAE-JUYueV5D8_Fw8p4CmInEdinJlAWF9M5s/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:594/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE0ODA1/MjMtMTUwOTY2NjYy/OS05NTk2LmpwZWc.jpeg

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

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

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

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.

yikes...

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

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.

speaking of 1988 i wrote this on facebook and then i took it down but i will leave it here forever. sorry this has turned into my blog! feel free to post all you want. i will totally listen to stuff. i'm good at it. anyway, this is all about listening to the "jump in the river" remix with karen finley on it and sinead but also about how formative 1988 as a year was for me:

I first heard The Lion And The Cobra in the winter of 1987 at my friend Liz Buckingham's house in Connecticut. She also played Diamanda Galas's Saint Of The Pit and that record also blew my mind. It was a religious experience all around. These strong and sure and fiery female voices telling me that there were all these worlds that I had no idea about. And almost daring me to try harder to make my own reality more magical and strong. Thank you Liz! I turned her on to Slayer and Crass when we were kids so fair is fair. Jim Roberto was there! I think we might have all slept in the same bed that night. It was cold. True story: I've slept in a bed with Jim Roberto more than once. I think the last time was when he opened up for Elastica at the Khyber Pass with St. Johnny when they were supporting their new album on Geffen. Those Geffen guys were assholes! Are they Mafia or something? I will never ever sign to that label no matter what and that's a promise. St. Johnny rocked the house that night. Elastica's tour bus took up half the block. Either me or my pal Lance bought this single in 1988. We couldn't fucking believe it! Karen Fucking Finley! Lance and I saw The Constant State Of Desire in 1988 at the Painted Bride in Philly and we thought we were going to DIE of sheer exhilaration. Or maybe a panic attack! Not unlike how we felt when we went to see Robert Maplethorpe at UPenn for his The Perfect Moment show also in 1988. Something was happening! Punk wasn't dead! People were dying all over Philly and art was trying to keep up with the anger all around us. And Sinead's collab with MC Lyte in 1988? And Lyte's 1988 masterpiece Lyte As A Rock! Ahhh! It was all so much beauty. An embarrassment of brilliant women. Art was keeping me alive back then. I clutched at it like a lifeline. Thank you so much, Sinead. I love you so much. Thank you for loving and respecting Hip Hop. I am so sorry that this world can be so cruel. You made it less so. You really did. I will listen to your voice until I die.

Keep it up Scott - love this thread. Ya turned me on to Larry Gatlin's Rain Rainbow once upon a time so, there's bound to be a fun discovery here! Forgot all about the Woodentops! The Zulu sounded good!

cheers. the first song on Rain Rainbow makes me swoon. so beautiful. the whole thing is great.

i remember getting a record, like ep length, called well well well by woodentops while living in boston, when it dropped. ohhh man, so great. then giant happened, and i really liked it tho it was a bit of a tone change, and not quite as good to me. then it was "what ever happened to woodentops?" basically. fuck i wish i had that woodentops vinyl anymore.

that was my experience pretty much. bought the EP and the album and then just forgot about them.

i do remember them having a resurgence during the whole balearic craze of the early 2000s. i think. maybe even here i remember that? tim f. would know.

so far so pleasant. with st. elmo's fire saxophone. but even that sounds pleasant. i like skipper's voice. skipper wise of wink! and windows fame, of course.

https://i.discogs.com/XETpoztvO5D3OR-8SGyt0V0oRQryoKYFVjJJRXobG5g/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:522/w:516/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQzNDg0/MjItMTM2MjQ0MzQw/Ny00NjkyLmpwZWc.jpeg

skipper should have stayed in the mellow zone. the uptempo stuff on his album really ruins the vibe. oh well. he had the right idea with this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Hf5GdB6R4

best song i've heard in a while. courtesy of the double album entitled *Revolutions Per Minute (The Art Record)* from 1982.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p230fgtXcUc

both of the 80s woodentops albums/eps and various remixes were put onto a 3cd set a few years back.
my vinyl of GIANT is a truly dreadful 80s pressing, so was good to hear it properly.

wow, this Snapper EP on Flying Nun. You guys never told me! so cool. motorik in 1988. "Buddy" is now my new theme song.

SO GOOD

I quite like 'Skeletons' but 'Go Home' is a better Stevie Embraces Digital (and House - the bass sound kinda anticipates Larry Heard wonderfully) endeavour imo.

the video they made for buddy is a classic, very south island

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhyIV-XLgPo

the funny thing is: it's 9:20 am and i might not be the only person in new england blasting gorilla biscuits and pricing journey records.

don't worry their album came out in 1989 otherwise i wouldn't mention it. i used to see them live when i was a youth of today.

australian new wave. i dig it. i guess this band was around since the 70s but this album is from 1988. i don't know who i would compare them to...

https://i.discogs.com/cUTimiGFBRZsME1tVYu1ld22748eaDtbI9xq-zfVx3A/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:568/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI1Nzky/MDUtMTUyMDIzNTk5/NS04MjMwLmpwZWc.jpeg

actually you know what some of it reminds me of? roky in the 80s with some punky band behind him. like the aliens album. which is cool. why did i ever sell my copy of the evil one? oh well.

oh also: i listened to Monsters by Meat Puppets for the first time yesterday. that's a weird one. "touchdown king" is the one song i really liked probably because it reminded me of up on the sun or something from that era.

(i think after the godhead that is up on the sun i bought the next three things when they came out mirage/huevos/out my way and just never listened to them much. i really wanted to like them as much as up on the sun so bad. but it didn't happen. so, by 1989, i was on another planet. with rakim. and special ed.)