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

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.

loving these. got the "dirty" 12-inch and it is going into my battle box for when i have to battle all other sucker DJs. there is a local group here called Boy Harsher and they are very popular and I could see them covering one of these. Boy Harsher playing in my basement one of the best shows I put on over the years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swKs2TsuIw0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukh8il7kEs0

finally found the time to catch up with this whole thing. great work scott and crew! <3

this is my humble offering to the thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui_2WQZLlQg
Recipe - Waterglide (1984)

heck, have a bonus - don't really know who this guy was but it's like a one man OMD-meets-New Order:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQcObrAQ5Qk
Tony Martin – Barriers (1984)

^ costs a quid in the UK btw and don't worry, there's an instrumental version on the b-side

ooh i dig Recipe. its a warm synth bath. makes me curious about their other stuff.

> ooh i dig Recipe. its a warm synth bath. makes me curious about their other stuff

the first album (skinny dipping) is GREAT! more of the same, really good pop songs, they remind me a bit of the post-YMG band The Gist. one of the two people involved is Douglas Benford who is a longterm fixture in the london improv weirdo scene, mostly famously(?) under the name Si-{cut}.db

^ when i say famous, i just mean he's probably been giving Wire magazine sub-editors a migraine for years with that moniker

breaking out this one again - julian marshall's project after marshall-hain split up (M-H had a hit with 'dancing in the city' if you remember that). some big name steely dan-related session guys playing on it (rick derringer on guitar iirc?), songs are sharp art pop with great vocals. think that any lurking laura groves fans here would love it. might have been moderately successful in the US but it didn't do shit here and it took me ages to find a copy in the wild:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEHn7Tw-AD8
Eye To Eye - Progress Ahead (1982)

oh man eye to eye are pretty common here and i must confess i don't listen to them but now i will! i don't know why i had it in my head that i didn't need to listen to them. brains are funny that way. i know i have some vinyl at the store.

Man i am listening to The Passage for the first time in a long time and they are just as weird as ever! For All And None. what a record. they totally made art rock. they could have been called Art Bears. they liked art. i remember first hearing them and thinking i was gonna get something completely different. i don't know what. more Cherry Red cute or jangly or something? I have no idea. but The Passage aren't cute. I feel like close listening is rewarded. They really go places.

https://i.discogs.com/7-6hlv3P91x5wXOauyV0oVxir6LUrXrLsgQqngvdAX4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:590/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTg0NDcz/MS0xMTY0Njc5OTg0/LmpwZWc.jpeg

Def a range of sound. Never quite cherry red twee but an evolution from the fall diy post punk poppier new wave through some minimal art rock post punk stuff. XOYO prob the hit?

The Passage always seemed like a band (was it just 1 dude at first?) who had read a lot about music but had never actually heard any music, so were just guessing what it actually sounded like

hip rebels is my favourite passage tune atm, its very fad gadgety:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWqlT14e1g

huh i don't recall em but i def hear the fall postpunk minimal artrock named above. it's pretty nice imo.

The Fall connection is direct, they were founded by Tony Friel who formed the Fall but left after the first single and appeared on the first two Passage singles, which were on Object Music, one of Manchesters other indie labels. But this belongs in the forgotten 70s thread.

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

I think after Friel left it was Dick Witts vehicle. Interesting history with the Manchester Musicians Collective and Object Music connections, as well as the Fall.

they can be confounding. and not afraid to be unlikable. which i respect. they could have just thrown off some hot post-punk basslines and disaffected mumble rants and called it a day but the later records are weirder than that and i think that's why they sometimes (inadvertently? or on purpose? i'd have to read some retrospective interview with one of the members) remind of of some Rock in Opposition people. i think this is especially true of the Degenerates album.

"Witts had trained as a classical percussionist and briefly played with the prestigious Hallé Orchestra; he was also a founder member of the Manchester Musicians' Collective."

seems like it would be an interesting history to write about. maybe someone already has. at the very least i should check and see if there is a good interview with dick witts.

really long interview as a google doc if you scroll down his page:

https://richardwitts.com/selected-papers-and-talks/