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

Elliot Sharp told me that that cover was a printers mistake and it was supposed to be bigger. The other early Zoar compilation Peripheral Vision has some killer stuff. Especially V-Effect.

i own peripheral vision on vinyl. it's awesome. now i have both comps! don't think they were ever put on CD. probably too hard with that many people.

28th Day - "Pages Turn"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU62z6efOCQ

And a twofer from the great Boston-area band The Flies' Get Wise album (1984).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzWWRLYbGlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzhkcgEGNWk

i'm surprised that i don't see more flies records around here. you'd think they'd be everywhere like ultimate spinach and november group records. vocally they are getting into that michelob cowboy territory but i like the guitars. who was the big boston cowboy band...not the long ryders. shucks, i should know this.

i'll have to check out that whole 28th day album. i like it. i never really listened to barbara manning. i still have a terrible barbara manning memory. bunnybrains were waiting to go on at CBGB at a matador records new music seminar showcase during the height of grunge and i swear she played until two in the morning. bunnybrains were last. it was so hot. i thought i was gonna die. i guess they figured have bunnybrains last and everyone can just go home after barbara manning. hahaha! probably not far from the truth. but she played like a springsteen-length set.
i don't hold it against her. play until someone tells you to stop. that's my motto. it isn't really. my motto.
to make worlds smaller her guitarist that night lives here in town and i had to give him an earful about that time. he's a nice guy.

del fuegos?

I have a November Group 12". I always remember Trouser Press' critique: "unnervingly more suited to marching than dancing or listening."

november group were cool. and probably underrated because they were from here and not austria or something. but hey you can buy their records for a dollar and they are lotsa fun. i think a lot of people think the big underrated boston band was the proletariat. too weird for punk too punk for...you get the idea.

yes, del fuegos!

i saw my pal chuck warner this july! speaking of forgotten boston bands. i still enjoy listening to those throbbing lobster comps he put out in the 80s. (not to mention his invaluable service to mankind since the 80s what with all the diy madness he has put out there and also thank you chuck for the homosexuals collection. i actually do thank him for it every time i see him.)

https://i.discogs.com/ildA-mG3ap-3XNoKqb0G25Lpq9thUJlgZw0jDY9NOFE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:588/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE1NDc3/ODctMTY0NzkwNTcy/NS04NzU5LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/ehuNh8A_gYtAYl1kla1mkIXfUNcw2_jRNv0a04wXmUY/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:564/w:567/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMzODAz/MzItMTMyODE4NjY1/Ny5naWY.jpeg

one of my fave forgotten boston bands is Ground Zero. there was an italian comp of their 2 7-inch EPs that nobody ever saw in 2013 but no domestic reissue. they were also outside the punk/new wave world of that time. more artpsychpunk.

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

Chuck Warner was a HUGE influence on my listening (and BUYING) habits.

^ Ground Zero totally sounds like Chrome circa Meet you in the subway. Pretty cool!

Oh those Throbbing Lobster comps were such a big deal to me and my friends as a Boston area teens. Someone's second cousin was in the Neighborhoods. Someone's brother was smart enough for Andover and knew the Del Fuegos. Good bands, local bands! We could hardly see them in person 'cause most of the gigs were 21+. The hardcore bands, yes. But the rock bands got considerable airplay on WBCN and the college stations. I never got to see The Blackjacks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VukDgwI3uQI

I met Chuck at the WFMU record fairs. At that point while KBD record collecting was getting super expensive nobody was really looking into the DIY stuff like he was, both US and UK. The Homework and Messthetics comps, which grew out of the types of mixtapes people'd make just to show what they were selling, were so crucial and killer. I bought stuff like Homosexuals and Desperate Bicycles from him, and helped out a bit on the Homsexuals CD he put out, and he was always a guiding hand and help with the Acute releases.

he is so awesome. he had a terrible fire a few years back that destroyed a lot of his archives and it is the saddest thing. but nobody was hurt and he is doing good and its always so nice to see him.

French label Closer Records put this comp out in 1984 and i did a double-take until i found out that there was in fact a French Bad Brains. #youlearnsomethingneweveryday

https://i.discogs.com/EYGOZp_FGVs-zsXD7GP-xtZh0Fxx4DrenRKWwwIi61o/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:589/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEwOTUw/NDItMTU5NTQ1MTcy/Mi04MTI1LmpwZWc.jpeg

i like this! never heard them. are they from new zealand? australia? a homestead release that i don't remember seeing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JrtwOcuh6I

i'm actually going to see an australian rock act tonight! they are called dippers and they have a new record on goner records. i'd never heard them before but my friend chris is putting the show on and maria wanted to go. the stuff i've heard sounds good and also like the 80s.

I love noise unit.

might have to get this shirt actually
https://shop.waxtrax.com/product/noise-unit-logo-t-shirt-new-wax-trax-only

if you guys like 80s indie pop you would like that dippers band i saw tonight. listen to their record on Goner. they were a duo with drum machine. sounded good. i think they used to be called Thighmaster! that's like a band name from a Whiney thread.

oh but get this. the show was outside this old industrial building complex in north adams. Belltower Records is there and the people who own it are very nice and i enjoy seeing them and if you like weird 80s stuff they have good stuff. i got a reissue of Pink Turns Blue's Meta album from 1988. i got a nice cheap copy of my skin covers my body by happy flowers because i always buy it when i see it. i got a reissue of epic garden music by sad lovers and giants, their debut from 1982. and i got LPs by rolling blackouts c.f. and the aislers set because they remind me of the 80s. haha, kidding. a little. its a reissue of the aislers set how i learned to write backwards which i think i have on cd but not vinyl. i wrote a review of it for the village voice newspaper. that paper is now defunct.
anyway, i would have bought more (also got Total's Beyond The Rim LP from 1993 on Majora), but then i remembered that i owned a record store and i still have mounds of haircut music to listen to.

this is what modern english buys in my store. damn hippies!

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/379983173_10161337645880908_2848704052332469288_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=49d041&_nc_ohc=t-dKU3tFyDIAX8nJyKi&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfAW-BujToqbu0zOFIFK-G8BIvRVxUFxXydq4AIY0Qx5qg&oe=650A9004

Did you just recognize him, or was he walking around the store humming "Life in the Gladhouse"?

he chatted with maria. maria is going to see them tonight two doors down from our store. and he's a record person. mick conroy.

synth-pop Bauhaus you are my new master!

https://i.discogs.com/YcXA7AnzXqE0GfbQVu9FGEBcJoeLCBjPw6e0gzab13U/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:589/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMyMjcz/Ny0xMTYyMjQ0NzIz/LmpwZWc.jpeg

The guy who started the Touch label put that record out in 1981. Mike Harding.

Really cool band. Some stuff on Glass as well. Awesome label, arty/psychedelic post-punk type stuff.

most famously spacemen 3. lots of stuff i haven't heard as well. and those membranes and jazz butcher records that i avoid for some reason? i don't know why. i just always have.

here's a tape for you. that i haven't heard. but i could youtube i suppose.

https://i.discogs.com/2YUJ0lNQsmofFtW9AAht4_lKdRS3KfJFaNAf4mzYwpI/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:450/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMwMTAy/MDEtMTYwMDgwOTc5/MC00MjQ2LmpwZWc.jpeg

gotta love this early one. 1981. i'm gonna find it in a box. i just know it. maybe.

https://i.discogs.com/g0KMnTd4PKm9YbS04Xykbgp0hxvGeCDYeYCy680oL1Q/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI5NzI5/Ni0xNDUxODQ1MTEz/LTUwNTkuanBlZw.jpeg

Kevin Harrison's really cool too. A range of stuff, some more electronic and experimental, some poppier, and this balearic disco tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhLszxTDq44

and my copy of Mayo Thompson's Corky's Debt to his Father is a Glass reissue.

Jazz Butcher on Glass = classic
Jazz Butcher on Creation = not so much

so good! 1986 but sounds a little earlier than that. like 83 or 84. they have such a great blend of quirky synths and sharp post-punk guitar and bass. and what a bass! more of a talker than a singer if that's a turn-off. my copy is a u.k. press on Ink, the subsidiary of Red Flame, those heroes who shared the beauty and joy of Severed Heads with the world and showed us that anything was possible if we looped enough. a young Omar Santana was listening to that call of action. okay, he probably wasn't. but you never know he might have been! he did later in life help redefine and turbocharge American hardcore techno so who is to say he isn't a Severed Heads superfan? though he was probably already cutting shit up around the time that Clifford Darling came out and when you have the Latin Rascals and Chep Nunez and Kurtis Mantronik around as inspiration and mentors you are already learning the skills required to reach heaven without ever leaving Queens.
anyway, Scattered Order put out a record LAST YEAR. so if you like this record you have 40 years of superfandom of your own to get going with. their first single came out in 1981. and i first heard of them yesterday. when i picked this record up.

https://i.discogs.com/1kjH11YqwOhQfS3TGPcAANtiftZp6nM5xnP59C19xYo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:563/w:591/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTgyOTE5/NC0xMzQxODQ3NjE5/LTk5NDMuanBlZw.jpeg

good band, I have a Vinyl On Demand box with them on it

Medium Medium's "Hungry, So Angry" is such a thing of beauty. Jesus. I wish I had written it and I am very rarely jealous of songwriters. Because why would i be i don't write songs. But I wish I had written that one.

One of the best albums I've listened to since starting this thread is by someone who I've already been knocked out by since starting this thread. The Passions! I just didn't know. I'm so sorry. I vaguely remembered "I'm In Love With A German Film Star" and nothing else. But sheesh Thirty Thousand Feet Over China is just such an amazing record. I don't think I thought it would sound so homemade or so spacy and dubby. So many cool guitars. Drone-y guitars! and that singer could be from a Sarah Records band. Very D.I.Y. and some punk vibes vocally. Anyway, I love it. I should have been listening to it forever. People need to tell me these things. also, the vinyl sounds so cool. I can't vouch for digital.

https://i.discogs.com/N-oMYDkMnSbxanDWlES_EqiNTN8iYakMddk0JqehPQI/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:599/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU1NTM5/OC0xNTI4NTc3OTcz/LTE1NzQuanBlZw.jpeg

i love this song so much. throwing muses could have covered this. tanya could have sung it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nntoQMUsX28

Great great great album! Their earlier more postpunky album doesn’t have the same impact.

Yo that Passions album is pretty damn amazing, I've never listened to it before. It is very accessible but actually pretty sonically interesting post punk imo. I'm hearing mp3 (and failing at acquiring), it sounds very good. The arrangements are kinda open and spacious and clear. Man I like that one, I had never even heard German Film Star tmk. Thx yet again Scott I'm getting a good education in spaces I thought I knew. That Schleimer K, same same.

"interesting post punk pop" is what i meant to type.

cool, i'm glad you listened to it! it's a wonderful album.

I listened to that album a lot around 2005-2008, thank you for reminding me of it. "Small Stones" is hitting the spot.

"Thirty Thousand Feet Over China" scratches the same itch for me as Alvvays or maybe even Life Without Buildings -- the hooks aren't super obvious at first, but the melancholy vibes kept me kept me coming back, until it wormed its way into my subconscious, and then it finally clicked that I've loved it all along.

Anyway, given the response on that one, The Passions probably weren't underloved.

Does anyone know if Sanctuary (the next album) is worth seeking out?

speaking of "velveteen" it makes the cut on this indie top 20 cd88 comp that i just pulled out of a box.

https://i.discogs.com/j6H52yepYIJqwZmUfVPTS76PN64FxqzmYDLfCL9QZ5k/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:434/w:569/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTUyMjQ2/NS0xMTg1NDQ5NTEx/LmpwZWc.jpeg

Those Beechwood indie comps were pretty good, kinda the way I was able to hear a lot of British bands for the first time.

not forgotten, but when was the last time you listened to a damned album? hmmmmm...???

listening to a 1982 u.k. reissue of the black album with the totally black cover. i love that cover. kinda like how i got a 1986 reissue of agnostic front's victim in pain recently which also has a completely black cover instead of the original sad and scary cover.

best thing about this copy is it still has the poster! the damned were so cool. here's the poster:

https://i.discogs.com/2VpDG7SeGGUom724Fna8Yhs9NwCoyiWwpazt9Kr6gWw/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:434/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQ4NDkw/MjktMTYxNjY2OTAw/NS0yOTA4LmpwZWc.jpeg

OMG, I need a big frame! This came in a Go-Betweens promo LP. My spirit animal and life coach Linda Manz and the Go-Betweens. A match made in heaven!

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/380938141_10161467144832137_2003333596725731574_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=49d041&_nc_ohc=iZW5kuIWKh4AX8cCfHz&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AfD0bTjEooB_yRSp-pRyhDbNv9LGe-O-7weCDy1WaKNUeQ&oe=650FCF5D

Pee Wee!

keeping this. or at least bringing it home for further research. its insane. i don't know how to describe it really. it sort of belongs on Lovely Music, Ltd. Red Grooms cover!

https://www.discogs.com/release/5749114-Kenward-Elmslie-Palais-Bimbo-Lounge-Show

https://i.discogs.com/PdbNzTI5l16B5d4U9-vaom9MzgyPybHIRziB2o835to/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:300/w:298/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTU3NDkx/MTQtMTQwNTMwNDEy/NC0zNjExLmpwZWc.jpeg

I listen to that Damned album all the time. The Black Album and Strawberries are a great combo.