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

Sometime within the last few years I saw a brand new video for a new shriekback and it was way better than I’d ever have expected. Some people just never lose it.

Simple Minds I thinks gets the interest in all their history and tries to recapture it a bit but it’s not quite there. I like a tiny bit of post Derek Forbes stuff but his leaving seems the turning point to me.

i like this. from the movie Wildcats. there is an actual LOL 80s video for the song but the long version is nice. i would play this if i was DJing an 80s night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d5-GUE4va8

i got a copy of the first Blackbird EP! in a random box of records. "Howl" sounds even better on vinyl than on the unsigned band CD comp i first heard it on. now i want the album on Scotti Brothers from 1992 which ALSO has "Howl" on it because why not nobody ever heard it and its a bitchin' song. in 1990 Fundamental put out a Blackbird comp that...you guessed it...also has "Howl" on it. the first side of the EP is so cool i haven't even gotten to the second side. lots of great guitar noise.

i won't post the "Howl" youtube again but you should listen to it! it's addictive to me.

https://i.discogs.com/OJj41mjCIT9Q1k04qUfjL4TWmFaf4biyCy6vBQ61kJc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI4ODQ2/ODYtMTUxODgwNDU1/NC0yNTkxLmpwZWc.jpeg

(they also put out their own album in 1989 after the EP and it does not have "Howl" on it. i'd like to get a copy of that too.)

This is one of my all time favorite deep dive tunes. It's not even the considered the good lineup of TSOL. I found this one doing radio back in college.

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

i had that album! i liked it a lot. i even liked that hokey song "how do". i bought it when it came out thinking it would be punkier of course. but i played it a bunch.

i just sold that first red rockers album - condition red, which is great and i was totally tempted to keep the copy - and they did that similar thing that t.s.o.l. did.
heck lots of punk bands did it. went cowpunk or poppunk or slower/gothier.

'October File' by Die Kreuzen is an example of that thing. I heard that before I heard the early hardcore.

This may be an ILX first mention, of this song, at any rate? A truly weird and good 80s Quebec band called The Box

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A3gcDg5M3M

Mock me if you will but I'm quite a fan of this ludicrous 1983 piece of sub-Queen nonsense from Northern Ireland's Cruella de Ville, just playing it for the first time since it came out ― the phantom flim-flammer (Matt #2), Monday, August 14, 2023

I absolutely ADORE Cruella de Ville. I wish they'd gone further - they had a Roy Wood-produced album in the can apparently. I'd love Cherry Red to pick that up, but maybe not enough people are aware of the band.

I can't not post China Doll, a singer from Birmingham who fused Kate Bush with italo disco and got... nowhere.
Great tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Tv0_ln4N0

Wow! that is really something. how have i never seen that? that is a gem.

i got a copy of the first Blackbird EP! in a random box of records. "Howl" sounds even better on vinyl than on the unsigned band CD comp i first heard it on. now i want the album on Scotti Brothers from 1992 which ALSO has "Howl" on it because why not nobody ever heard it and its a bitchin' song.

heck lots of punk bands did it. went cowpunk or poppunk or slower/gothier.

I love TSOL's Change Today?

were Blackbird any good live, elvis?

thank you so much for the offer of the rip but i probably wouldn't listen to it that way. i don't know why. i take things slow. i just ripped my first CD a month ago. i haven't even progressed to burning yet.

i'm imagining they were the kids of some hollywood guy who made music for commercials and they used their dad's studio to make their EP and LP. that's my imagination for you.

right now i'm listening to a 1987 EP by the band King Face and i only put it on because Ian MacKaye produced it. it's pretty terrible. and produced terribly at Inner Ear. maybe Inner Ear was just terrible. it was that guy's basement, right?
you can see the 90s coming in King Face and not in a good way.
Ian connection. the singer of King Face was in the band Sevens with Joe Lally.

SKOT'S TIP FOR THE DAY! buy this record. go get it on discogs. cost you like 10 bucks. get it before numero group or soul jazz or whoever gets their hands on it and the price skyrockets. its insane. homemade mix of soul/rock/dub/dance/whatever. sounds crazy. just gets crazier because they include an LP of dub versions that are even MORE bonkers. there is one track on youtube but it doesn't really do justice to how the record sounds.

https://i.discogs.com/4jRRhU8Hg39PiReFrk8lvbgFPylGIP5_18n1MwyJJfA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTc4ODY5/NTUtMTQ1NDcxNzcz/My02NjY4LmpwZWc.jpeg

what the heck i'll include it but you really need to hear the dub version which is a whole other animal. this record will do something to the wiring in your brain. its made...weird. the first track on the album "rita rita" is the most bizarre of the bunch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1dJxAmxS-8

private press. vinyl only. never reissued.

were Blackbird any good live, elvis?

...

i'm imagining they were the kids of some hollywood guy who made music for commercials and they used their dad's studio to make their EP and LP. that's my imagination for you.

OK, this has officially supplanted the Sly Stone thread as my favorite active thread on ILM.
(even though i know half the stuff getting boosted in secretly garbage)

XP - I think you mean Cowboy Nation (who actually played cowboy music), not Cowboy Mouth (who were great live, mostly because they had a sweaty, hyperactive singing drummer)

doh! yr right

Wow, there's actually some live recordings of them on YT. I think I was at this show...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd1GEgDDPmI

Abecedarians were a LA-based group of Factory Records fans - accomplishing their mission by getting Smiling Monarchs released as FAC 117 and an opening slot for New Order in 1985. I've always liked this one from '87

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

Following up on my 80-84 list upthread this is tracks from 85-89 that are new to me this decade but went into my year by year playlists with ease

Love And Rockets - Saudade
Scribble - Lowdown
Roger Doyle / Operating Theatre - Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In Its Mouth
Virginia Astley - A Summer Long Since Passed
Stephen Duffy - Dream Machine
The Cavaliers - It's A Beautiful Game
Helen - Zanzibar
Jasper Van Hof't's Pili Pili - Pili Pili (aka Hoomba Hoomba)
Harold Budd - Flowered Knife Shadows
Black Sabbath - Scarlet Pimpernel
Steven Jeffries, Mary Carewe & Donald Grieg - Evil At Play
Obywatel GC - Przyznaje sie do Winy
Geoffrey Landers - Say You'll Say So
F.O.E. - World Famous Techno Pop
Gigi Masin - Tears Of Clown
Cheryl Glasgow - Glued To The Spot
Yello, Billy Mackenzie - Moon On Ice
Quintus Project - Night Flight
Dionne - Come Get My Lovin'
Quiet Force - Listen To the Music
Severed Heads - All Saints Day
Reese - Just Want Another Chance
The Prince Of Dance Music, LB Bad - The New Age Of Faith
Emerson - Sending All My Love Out
Conroy Smith - Sugar Me
AC Marias - One Of Our Girls Has Gone Missing
Bulgarian Voices Angelite - Oi Mara

Jasper Van Hof't's Pili Pili - Pili Pili

@scott - this is lovely. i don't have a record player - otherwise I'd snap this up immediately

Didn't know that Jasper Van Hoft but seeing on youtube one poster lists it as "electronic-afro" and another "typhoonized" posted it sped up shows this definitely had an impact on the italian Cosmic scene.

this is a lovely Abecadians track that I think was on a later ep on Independent Project Records but also on more recent reissues of the expanded Eureka.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNvBZfm7KPY

i like that a lot. very nice.

had a wtf 80s moment at home yesterday. put on a copy of Metal Circus and when i put on the other side, well, i will let Discogs tell you:

"Side B contains songs from Side D of Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade"

surprise! but i am always up for some recurring dreams so i just went with it.

are there fans of early soup dragons...i'm a little scared of this 1986 EP i have in front of me. Edinburgh address. i wonder if they were friends with Hee Haw up above there.

is this a 4-track 7 inch? IIRC they stopped its release but the guy who ran the record company sold it by mail order to anyone who sent him the money.

lol to correct myself it's Jasper Van't Hof. Confident I will never make this mistake again again. Some confusion from Discogs as the 15m version was released as 'Hoomba Hoomba' BY Pili-Pili in '85 but shorter versions credited just to Jasper were released in '84 TITLED 'Pili-Pili'. Not sure why you would listen to the shorter versions tbh :)

i get to crank this before i open the store. my nrg is already hi-r.

https://i.discogs.com/MNqBU3fvMPCrOprWpg9fuJ24UvnB3U90fxsT1mZ-5SA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU3NDA5/NDYtMTQwMTM3NDk2/MC04Njg4LmpwZWc.jpeg

"is this a 4-track 7 inch?"

no, its a 12-inch.

https://i.discogs.com/2XnjcXtThmeq8epS66l3QmviL9yMYQnTQXXlh4Psre4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:597/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExNzUw/NDgtMTQ4Mjc3NjI3/NS02MzUyLmpwZWc.jpeg

Picked this one up on a whim recently partly on the strength of its cover, weird synthpop with rambling spoken word bits, the main guy went on to found Third Mind Records which would seem to be a good fit for this thread!

https://i.discogs.com/tDZ6TTBR6PexxPZGCf_f5qyJ2RjClpaM5Hbk4GMpyH8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:595/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTcyMDE3/LTEzMDU4OTQ2NTAu/anBlZw.jpeg

that looks cool! i love inscrutable covers.

i'm listening to danny elfman's stunt double right now. not bad!

https://i.discogs.com/Wrn7cMQvHsu2FxgL3AG0yWufPtX-JINimouPb-JQXQc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:596/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI4ODI4/OTEtMTMwNTcxMTQz/MS5qcGVn.jpeg

you guys have been so patient with all my archival aor lamecore record listening so here is a perfectly nice u.k. indiepop version of "pretty polly" by Jab for you. self-released on vinyl in 1988.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9waEX34GuJY

ever since i learned that i was SO WRONG about Love Tractor and discovered that their early records are fucking fantastic and sound like some sort of american Durutti Column or something i always check stuff on DB RECS in case i missed a gem that wasn't Pylon and am playing The Windbreakers - A Different Sort... from 1987 and...it is not a lost gem. its boring. like listening to The Connells or something boring like that.

Yeah, the most interesting thing about the windbreakers in their band name.
Maybe the other albums are more interesting, but "A Different Sort" is the only one I bought, and I don't think i managed to get through more than one complete listen to it. There was a time in my life when i probably would have made more effort, especially for sub-REM southern jangle pop.

I FUCKING LOVE THAT BUSHIDO ALBUM

the 12" prior to it and the LP after (Deliverance) are also good

regarding db records and atlanta music, Oh-OK is great, The Method Actors are great (enough for me to put it on CD) and Kevin Dunn's The Judgement of Paris well worth checking out.

i've been an Oh-OK fan since 1983! love them to death.

dan selzer are you a fan of those early love tractor records? i had no idea. nobody ever told me they were cool. i saw those records everywhere ever since they came out and i ignored them like i ignored big dipper and phantom tollbooth records. i don't know why. maybe it was the name? could have been. so great though. viva love tractor.

As far as DB Records goes I was a huge fan of the first Guadalcanal Diary album back in the day, but from a US perspective I guess they're about as cool as Big Country were in the UK? I liked the Zeitgeist album too, or at least that one song from it (Freight Train Rain). Fetchin Bones, not so much. And let's not mention The Coolies. You could pick all these LPS up in the second-hand shops in London for about 50p back then, I had tons of them.

everyone shouyld have this on their ipod:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JojJgMnu7lY

lol fetchin bones. i liked the song "stray" so somehow i ended up owning three of their albums and never playing anything but the song "stray". that album that "stray" is on is okay though. as far as their thing goes. i think don dixon is just supremely not cool.

I had the Don Dixon album too, loads of crap I only played once really. I blame The Bob magazine for recommending it all to me.

guitars that sounded really cool to me after not hearing the album for 20+ years: the first Christmas album, In Excelsior Dayglo.

i like The Bob for that one Robyn Hitchcock flexi they put out with the song "Surgery" on it. love that song. i put it on a lot of tapes.