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

Yeah, me too.

Hey, Scott — for posterity, whyn’t you name the bands/songs you’re linking so if someone happens to search, say, RINF, they’ll find this thread?

okay! Here is a blatant example of Cure worship from 1988.

THE ESSENCE - LOLLIPOP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqnT0cDMHJk

early single from Q which would become SSQ from which Stacey Q would be born.

Q - "Playback"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Bzr-Lqjms

Stacey's old bandmate from the Q days gets her back for one more new wave rodeo with this track from a Jon St. James solo album. Stacey on syth. Guitar legend Allan Holdsworth and Freestyle legend Stacey Q would never appear on the same album again.

Jon St. James - "Down Time"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qefzd1jZ_kw

I can only vouch for the U.S. version because that's the one I have - original U.K. and Euro versions have completely different track orders - but the 2nd album by The Quick REALLY holds up well. It sounds excellent in 2023. I usually think of them as a singles act and I get their 12-inches in all the time and nobody cares about them. I don't know how big they were in Europe. I don't think I've even SEEN their 3rd and 4th albums. Anyway, this is a near-dollar bin record in the states and its well worth owning.

https://i.discogs.com/QVTkyc9nDefCyHKq-SLm_n2LB-KGmLxnuhSlGJvaz70/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:596/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMyNDEz/Mi0xNjExODc2NjA4/LTkyNzguanBlZw.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/rhToR8WfXAq1DK3p_TKKJP4IMsP8SJsQ0Ohq8w3InfE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIzMDY5/NDA4LTE2NTEzNTQ2/MzAtNzcwOC5qcGVn.jpeg

The Quick - "Twisted"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFk6c6eJ7kY

It's ironic given their name that if you put the music of Japan, early Ultravox, and Duran Duran into a computer, the AI would give you back Pseudo Echo! Listening to their debut now and its pretty boring but that production is tops! Sounds like a million bucks. The U.S. version takes away the original cover and title of their Autumnal Park but leaves the music and track-list the same.

Pseudo Echo - "From The Shore"

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

The 12" of One Light In A Blackout by the Quick goes for decent money, pretty popular with djs of a certain type

this is so good. ambient fusion helicopter electro dreamscape music.

The Beepers - "Theme From Blue Thunder (Dance Version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUD-0PQQvk

whoah Japan should sue.

Never heard anything that early but they had a bunch of MTV video hits and I always hated them. Always seemed like poseurs though relistening to their version of Funkytown and it's a lot more fun than I remember. The songs that are earlier than I remember and dancier than I remember aren't as bad as I remember but this son Over Tomorrow from 1988...you would not think that was a Japan-aping new wave funk band. Weirdly I can't find the video that used to always be on 120 minutes that I really hated. It's possible I'm thinking of a different band.

AH! I was thinking of Flesh for Lulu.

Pseudo Echo have a song called Destination Unknown, which is not nearly as good as Missing Persons masterpiece of the same name.

my high school friend Kari was the only person I knew who liked Flesh For Lulu and she later ended up in a Sharknado movie so buyer beware.

yeah, i was surprised by the lushness of that first Psuedo Echo LP but the songs aren't really there. i'm all for anyone taking Japan or Visage or anyone and remaking them in their own image.

my question is why there are so many of these records. did they give them away with every purchase? was he the original Pete Yorn?

https://i.discogs.com/t5x0DC9NQfq8_tg_T_5AiI2FNtvcGBc05UOmWqNfJvk/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:599/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE4OTM4/NzctMTI1MDk4NTU5/MC5qcGVn.jpeg

this kinda "blows" my mind. 2021! it looks like they have 10 albums overall. plus, lots of Dr. Robert solo albums. curious/not curious.

https://i.discogs.com/ZabY1h4ZyTbZ0PiZXGOF_kpVVtT6uZsuzh8Fc-Kkjtk/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIyNjcy/OTEzLTE2NDg0NTky/MDgtOTE2Mi5qcGVn.jpeg

"No Commotion" from the Bob Wiseman album, *Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle In Her Dream*. Bob was in Blue Rodeo. it's a weird record. including this track so that Mary Margaret O'Hara completists know that she appears on the album.

Bob Wiseman - "No Commotion"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY43nfWhbkw

Dr Robert seems like one of the good guys to me, and I love lots of the Blow Monkeys earlier stuff. Still one of my favourite songs ever that no-one else seems to know...

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

^ quite similar to some Jazz Butcher stuff in hindsight

i used to play that album a lot but i haven't heard it since the 80s!

this thread just keeps giving. i thought i was at least aware of random shit, but no. now i can just read and be amused be amazed and be humbled. ay don’t stop

Actually saying the term random makes it sound dismissive and no way so anyway just keep going

it’s funny, since this thread was started I’ve been spotting lots of suspect looking faux new wave lps in the bins that would fit this thread, it’s in the air

not kidding about Tuesday’s knight’s denim jacket

Bob Wiseman! That record was huge for me in the late 80s/early 90s. It still gets me, although I’m sure it’s 99% Pavlovian — hard for me to pick out a song & say “See? Genius!” It’s pretty crunchy (in the granola sense) but also extremely idiosyncratic in a way that appeals to me; the bluntness is a feature, not a bug.

I bought a copy off Discogs a while back to scratch a nostalgic itch. Scott, pls list your copy just to undermine the attempted gouge of the one copy for sale — I despise this seller; if he’s got the only copy of something he always puts astronomical prices on it. (At this writing, the most this record has sold for is $20, and MOCmusic has a copy listed for $150, the prick)

i do enjoy undercutting obscene price gouging on discogs.

<3

Me too: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/13847905?ev=rb

this is so bad. nice guitar solo but who cares when a song is this bad. oh how the mighty have fallen. verlaine/lloyd solo records are SO hard to sell. even for peanuts. i never listen to them. i feel bad for television fans who have to force themselves to like this stuff. not as bad as i feel for rabid Who fans who feel the need to own solo roger daltrey albums. but i still feel pretty bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfYEWnnR6Dc

Tom first 4 or 5 solo LPs are all great!

Richard's solo albums never did him justice, the live album "Real Time" is where it's at.

Daltrey at least had cool album covers.

Agree verlaine has v good solo stuff. That lloyd is a fuckton 8+ mins of not a actual song

Only really knew Kingdom Come but after he died I went on a solo Tom Verlaine deep dive and many of those records are fantastic. Especially the disco not disco oddity of Days on the Mountain which I loved so much I had to get the 12” as well as the LP.

i'd probably like verlaine albums more now that i'm so old and boring. it happens all the time to me now. i just don't remember any of it being that exciting. i've played them though! daltrey on the other hand...

I've got that Lloyd album! Bought as a Television fanboy, yes. Tried hard to like it, in vain. Now it's on the shelves sandwiched between Lightning Bolt and Nils Lofgren.

This is a very fun thread. Feel like this is appropriate - my coworkers partner is a journalist/DJ who briefly had a music TV show here in the 90s. He's still on the radio and has done a bunch of compilations of "lost 80s" songs. You can see a tracklisting if you scroll down here: https://www.retrotogo.com/2019/02/cd-vinyl-gary-crowleys-lost-80s-box-set.html. Might have some listening ideas!

He DJs a lost 80s dance night every few months which is also v fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yn-fPmfp0I

Reunion - We Can Get It Back (1980)

Hopeful and relaxing short story from Kalamazoo MI

i like that. saer, i didn't know that you were you! nice to see you.

i would like to point out that out of the dozens of A&M 25th anniversary CDs put out in 1987 this is the only one with a cover like this.

https://i.discogs.com/5SylNRzcbf3pAxPJM6wilFJjRXnBhe8fhRwLxUfnvaM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTY2MDc3/Mi0xMzY2NjUxOTY1/LTM5NDcuanBlZw.jpeg

“We can’t afford Hipgnosis for this disc, but apparently these Hipgneissis guys do good work.”

hahaha

LP cover is much nicer

https://i.discogs.com/RzzjC1ryiFq-mi2A4XjVes531aW-svga6eHSoYx3TIo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE5NTA4/MDEtMTMzMzAyMzg2/MS5qcGVn.jpeg

i do like it better bigger like that. its still pretty wack though! and i love supertramp.

this has grown on me. that child-like nostalgia that a lot of power pop has can be draining to me sometimes but this is just so homespun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_LY4yNQEUk

such a weird single. hugh cornwell must have been really drunk when they made this. it just sounds wrong to me for some reason. but i like it. like it's slower than it should be? i dunno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OplnPhhT7xQ

fun. just fun. on Pasta Records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjHdo3w_Em8

Moral Support - Insanity

Found this in a dollar bin recently. There’s jamz in them thar bins! Still! Sometimes….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQX2Vx6ilzw

that's a cool record. that sound they got is really something else. i have to go to canadian dollar bins to find one.

Just pulled out this Jerry Dale McFadden Stand and Cast a Shadow album I don't remember ever picking up or even hearing, but I would buy anything that looked like rockabilly circa 1990. It's got Duane Eddy on guitar. On a Nashville indie or private press. He went on to be in the Mavericks. Plopping it on, I did not expect to hear Peter Ivers style helium vocals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7Dc1icUig8

This High Fashion album from '82 is really good

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

^ fantastic record! but not very easy to find in the UK, took me ages to get that. Well worth the search though

The Alfie Silas s/t also took me a similarly long time to find but just listen to this very underappreciated beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI4hy0UJzlM

oooh I thought of some great forgotten 80s shit. reminded by High Fashion that there was a great band called Fashion:

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

This is my favorite song they did...soooo good