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

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.

i love some tight ass nervous ants in your pants new wave vibes, this is doing it nicely

that's really funny someone thought it would be popular

i still can't get over how much i like that album by The Thought. Dutch group. its so cool. unfortunately, it has one of those generic "weird" 80s covers that is terrible. i would reissue it with a better cover. after hearing the album for the first time i totally remembered seeing the video for their cover of "eight miles high" on MTV! it impressed me back then in 1985 because the video was of someone on an acid trip and you didn't see that every day on MTV.

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

given yr of release that polyrock is pretty next level

Really like 'your dragging feet' off that polyrock album, bit of a dreamy one. Still hoping to bump into a copy in the wild here but i must be going to the wrong shops

one of my friends in high school bought that The Thought album in a thrift store and hung it on his wall, we were hoping it would sound weirder than it did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0auOoDmnmrI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5KnBSG46uU
Dole - Rumroad (from 'The Speed of Hope', PIAS 1986)

^ bought this Belgian postpunk album for cheap today, mainly drawn by the words 'Produced by Adrian Borland' (!!!) on the hype sticker. really liking this song in particular, but it's all pretty decent. sounds a lot like Sad Lovers & Giants or someone of that ilk. anyone else know them?

(also bought an EP by The Dance which it turns out i already had at home, think they're connected somehow to Polyrock who we were talking about just a few posts up? they were also the band that played on that amazing Chandra record iirc)

shoutout to polyrock. 'romantic me' is very classic. both of those albums are great new wave.

People from both The Dance and Polyrock were originally in Model Citizens, who had a great John Cale produced single in 79 and finally got a full comp last year.

cheers dan! this sounds great tbh, fun band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFku3zHNtUo

oops thats very shitty sound quality, this is better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch3CeUynEsA

Polyrock had 2 tracks on that Blitz comp that came out in 81. $2.99 and people kind of laughed it off, but a good comp. First place I ever heard Sparks, also had great tracks from Bow Wow Wow and Slow Children. And this from Landscape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY1lIBAMP7E

Misses the remit of this thread by a few months, but always loved The Rumour's Frogs Sprouts Clogs and Krauts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY57S7G1dwM

Model Citizens Shift the Blame single was ubiquitous for a long time. I think I've owned like 4 copies.

holy shit, i did not know that there was actually a band member named brinsley schwarz, also i did not know this rumour was that rumour.

I see Turkey Bones & The Wild Dogs were mentioned up thread. I think they were doing their own thing with a number of previous references but seemed to take their own tack. There were definite Birthday Party connections, Scott and Piece apparently made a habit of going to BP shows grabbing the mic and singing "Danger Zone in the heart of Missouri" and they were captured on the beginning of Drunk On The Pope's Blood doing so. That has lead to some resources listing the song as a BP one. I hear a lot less Cramps, do hear Beefheart and Creedence and a few other things.
I was really hoping somebody would do a reissue preferably all their extant studio recordings maybe plus some Groovy Chainsaws stuff plus a load of live material. They supposedly filmed all their shows so I wonder if audio from that would have been good enough quality.
Story was that the band never rehearsed they just filmed every show, watched them collectively and tried to change what they didn't like. I really don't know the degree of truth to that. Does seem like it's a good story though and there apparently were a LOAD of videos.
I saw them a load of times in the Hope & Anchor and elsewhere. Did get to Buffalo Mansions the house that Scott and a few others lived in a few times too.
Scott went on to do sound for a lot of bands around London throughout the late 80s and 90s. He died a couple of years ago so I don't know if the videotapes survive. Somebody edited some footage and stuck it up on youtube a few years ago anyway. Piece who had been the singer in the Fuckpigs who had been the band the Wild Dogs came out of though they had Razzle who went onto Hanoi Rocks on drums. Scott had played guitar at that point, the 2 swapped roles for the new band. Piece went on to play guitar with the Weather Prophets, Pete Astor's band. Not sure what he went onto after that, but he's now dead too. Several years prior to Scott.
Did enjoy that band so would love a compi.

picked this one up at lunchtime...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymoSK3eumb0
Perfect Vision - This Hook (from 'Our Broken Crown', 1984)

band describe themselves as 'like depeche mode but with guitars', i'd never heard of them before but i quite like it. think they were from cambridge, uk

nice. they need the reissue treatment. a cassette-only debut album!

kinda wonder why they didn't get scooped up by a label during the new romantic gold rush. they coulda been contenders.

listening to this norwegian label comp from 1984 and the vibe is soooooo cool. frosty even. but just the way the tracks are sequenced/chosen makes this such a great vinyl LP experience. and it sounds great too. some of the stuff was licensed from elsewhere (like eyeless in gaza, etc). but its definitely an all killer no filler label sampler. and it ends with Popol Vuh! there is a copy for 6 bucks on discogs so its not like anyone is really looking for it. but its one of the best things i've heard in weeks.

https://i.discogs.com/5RgPmURXrySUzgdIbIrF9HD0vlOju1TbmY4FvDc_XNc/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:597/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMwMTUx/OC0xNjEwMDIwMzQ2/LTg5OTUuanBlZw.jpeg

my fave song on the comp. so beautiful. someone should cover it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktaEY9BOgyo

and THIS. new favorite song much? you could do a great doom metal version of this song. that chorus is made for heavy guitars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G5V3f4wETc

meanwhile, De Press were already on their 3rd album by the time they made that song. i wouldn't mind having a 1980-1983 CD comp.

also meanwhile, how is De Press not the best name for a goth rock band ever!? i think it might be.

also had a lot of fun playing this last night. originally put out by ashwin in 1986 on his own label and then picked up by Shanachie and put out again in 1988. would deejay this song anywhere. the frippertronics on this song just an added bonus to an already great thing.

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

they were big in england but i only know hot gossip because i used to watch the kenny everett video show late at night when i was a kid. and they were kenny's dancers/singers. anyway, this song is cool and produced by Heaven 17 at the very peak of their awesomeness. and Heaven 17/BEF were VERY awesome. the 12-inch has the instrumental which is key.

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

In 1980 Dominique Wood, Mark Tyme, Lorraine Whitmarsh, Carol Fletcher, Lyndsey Ward, Donna Fielding, Lee Black, left to set up Sponooch.

https://i.discogs.com/9EFGmISp9WfR_y9e9jf_V2PFiLpVOWqESdUqNmhitIo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:370/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTIwMjA2/NC0xMjY0MzE1MTEy/LmpwZWc.jpeg

most groups wouldn't recover if SEVEN of their members left, but Hot Gossip soldiered on.

1979 so not thread-appropriate but i think i have found my very favorite hot gossip spin-off of all time in the 20th century....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx20qVIX5dI

did bucks fizz have any decent songs? or any good remixes/dub versions/night mixes? i just bypass their albums when i get them in. another group that never made it here. i mean i'm sure they have some pleasant abba-esque numbers just wondering if they had a secret cool b-side-only burner.

https://i.discogs.com/UKWOFQxXtBuI5sWmGmC1z78QK_6t7C2hRYpks8tRHEQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTE3MjQw/OC0xNDY1MDY0ODY5/LTY2OTYuanBlZw.jpeg

amazing photo of them! yeah they do have some pleasant tunes (i think there's a general agreement that 'my camera never lies' is their best), but haven't heard anything like you're asking about. i know they did do a cover of the romantics 'talking in your sleep' (which is obviously fucking great) but they completely murder it to death, its awful. interesting question though!

you might find more luck with the thompson twins who have a whole bunch of secret weird shit, like the cassette version of 'into the gap' has a whole raft of weird dubs on side 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6fU6Ol_rHw

i'm definitely down with the thompson twins from 1981 to 1984. they did have that first weird post-punk album too.