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

Hawkes would not release another solo album for 25 years. His second solo album, though also instrumental, was very different in sound than this, his first: The Beatles Uke (2005) featured Hawkes playing instrumental versions of Beatles songs on the ukulele.

this greg hawkes is awesome

it's so good, I love it

"Voyage Into Space" is a secret DJ weapon of mine

I picked up the Greg Hawkes in a used bin in the late 80s, thought it was too cheesy and quickly exchanged it. I'm way more into this kinda stuff now than I was then though, it's sounding great to me today.

whoah. Surprised this doesn't come up more. Never even heard of it. Tagged in discogs as experimental, synth-pop, minimal, so obviously some people think about it in those contexts. I'll def pick it up.

dan it's right up your alley I think, a minor lost classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmCjf-OO2w8

that is a weird record, here’s what I had to say about it in 2016

http://www.discogs.com/Workdub-Workdub/release/3529191

this is supposedly from 1989, really weird kind of homebrewed sounding crap instrumental stuff.. could be corporate muzak but the sampling just sounds "off" sometimes. i'm not convinced it's NOT a joke (i.e. some recently made garageband thing).. it would've sounded weird in 1989, but it sounds weird in a different kind of way in 2016.

a few years ago Dark Entries reissued this really nice scottish new wave disco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38ElF_MExm0

A few weeks ago I found a later single which I had to pick up because it's produced by Rico Conning of the Lines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj82UW-7lxs

I recently discovered River City People who just sneak into this thread by virtue of their début single being released in 1989 although their two albums both came out in the 1990s. Lovely, chiming folk rock that should appeal to fans of 10,000 Maniacs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwGHp6e_f6s

i know that scratch acid were big birthday party fans but i forgot about inca babies. they must have totally fallen for them too. kinda the same thing really. (i am a teen scratch acid fan. was never much of a birthday party fan except for the stooges cover on the live split with lydia lunch. i used to play that song a lot because i didn't have the stooges record to listen to!)

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

all the ranting young men. so many ranters in the 80s. blame Mark E. i guess.

(related to ranters: i was totally loving this vic godard/subway sect comp i got recently and i hadn't heard that stuff in literally decades and now all i can think is that half of the diy brit tape music dudes must have picked up guitars after hearing those two 1978 singles. nobody's scared and ambition. they're so fucking great and they totally give you the feeling of: hey, i could do this! not exactly a VU revelation maybe but they must have been a revelation for some people!)

love that inca babies, never heard of them

i didn't realize subway sect predated stuff like television personalities by a few years

yeah second on both ums comments, that was neat

subway sect predate everybody except for the pistols, damned and clash. post-punk starts there!

and HUGE acknowledged influence on all things scottish post-punk.

Absolutely, which is why Alan Horne issued Vic Godard's End of the Surrey People LP on his revived Postcard label in 1993.

you can really hear the wool sweaters on that early subway sect stuff. Vic Godard is a really great pop star name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keCuStj9Ld4

xp it is and somewhere out there in indieland is vic picard making bad in in in jokes that feel inevitable only to him

1983/1984. ohio U.S.A. art-rock/post-punk. cool EP.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htUNo0nG2aE

apparently some relation to these people?
Bands That Time Forgot: Wolverton Brothers

do i need to listen to The Band of Holy Joy? guess they were 80s and 90s. and maybe beyond. never heard them. they have a lot of stuff. i have their 1990 rough trade album here. and probably other stuff.

I recall them sounding like a Weimar Republic-era version of the Pogues, if that helps

uhhh...hmmmm...

This is the song I remember

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

only the first tapes and EP are any good imho

I like those Junta songs. Lead guy went on to a band called Redmath, which is good gloomy dance rock but not as experimental and not as interesting to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-juN-E8V7k

Two words. Red Math. Mea culpa.

Tried playing Band of Holy Joy's Manic, Magic, Majestic the other day, as I remembered the Pogues comparison with McGowan's death. Only song I liked was the one that made me get the record, heard first on a Melody Maker comp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_QOSQUNE8o

i know that scratch acid were big birthday party fans but i forgot about inca babies.

the other two Birthday Party worship acts out at the time, who I've never heard anybody mention but me were Anorexic Dread and Turkey Bones & the Wild Dogs. This was the Anorexic Dread 12" I had:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T01Dzktyzxw

and here's the only somewhat less forgotten Turkey Bones & the Wild Dogs, who are biting the Cramps as hard as the BP to be fair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Ryhm2cx8w

they cover all the bases...

https://i.discogs.com/IbCkaQmxNT4GipUnU5lAlWNHzLoHoIiXu_G1QcN6YBA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:581/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTgyODA0/NjEtMTU4NTMzNTI3/Ni04OTQ2LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/3rUyUMgHTxdqEfihS0eO-u91czENlkn9Fu9y-FUnMGs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:581/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTgyODA0/NjEtMTU4NTMzNTMy/MC03NzI1LmpwZWc.jpeg

i'm not ashamed to admit that i still listen to the first Easterhouse album. well, maybe a little ashamed...

#nostalgia

Easterhouse was the first promo I was ever assigned. Gave them a good review, of course. I still listen to it!

My roommate, who also signed up to write reviews for the college newspaper got a less forgotten/unknown/unloved assignment: Licensed to Ill and Yo Bum Rush the Show.

that’s an awesome assignment in 2005 tho.

Squeeze's 70s bass player made a cool album in 1980. the bass is cool on it in that 70s Squeeze way but its the synths that rule on this record.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SsXt6I7Xrg

That's a nice find (especially since it presumably turned up in western mass)
Maybe he should've teamed up with Klark Kent for some kind of 1980 new wave sidemen supergroup

Yeah, I dig those tracks. I’ve never seen that LP in the wild.

same! sent me down the oval records rabbit hole which turned up some vaguely familiar new wave obscurities i've never got round to listening too. who knew that martyn bates of eyes in gaza was once in a band (the reluctant stereotypes) with paul king of king fame?

jesus my frozen fingers aren't typing too well! eyeless in gaza ffs

this is great tbh, huge this heat vibes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyUqXsDqDrU
Reluctant Stereotypes - The Lull

somehow after that they got signed by WEA and morphed into quite a shitty-sounding ska band

The lone album by The Secret was on Oval. Not on YouTube but this track is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hiu3IJO9R0

was kinda hoping that was a 999 cover, oh well

this is great tbh, huge this heat vibes:

Reluctant Stereotypes - The Lull

somehow after that they got signed by WEA and morphed into quite a shitty-sounding ska band

Also reminds me of that Edward Gorey album Robert Wyatt sang on (Michael Mantler?)

goddamn...Polyrock - s/t album from 1980, tense arty new wave produced by an obscure modern composer named Philip Glass

i am in love

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

they spent soooooooooooooooo much money on that album. publicity-wise. so many ads. for so long. someone really wanted it to go big. there are still so many promos of it across the country. they must have pressed a million promo copies.
but, heck yeah, if you are a Feelies or Love Tractor fan, then you will definitely like that first album a ton.