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

just wanted a spot to bring up/talk about/mention any 80s listening you are doing and i would especially love to know about things you are listening to that are new to you. that is most of my 80s listening now other than the obligatory walks down sad dad lane with the usual lot of hit paraders. there is SO MUCH that i haven't heard in just about every genre imaginable and i kinda love the endlessness of it all. i will end long before i hear all the things i want to hear. which is as it should be.
would also love any reappraisals of things that you may have written off or ignored in the past.
but talk about whatever you want. its a free country lol. but i would love thoughts! as opposed to just pictures of covers.

anyway, this thread will be here. the 34737382th 80s thread. i know decades are kinda phony baloney in a lot of ways but for some reason i have always decided to go along with society when thinking about art and time. ten years makes sense to my brain. i grew up in the 70s and 80s and i'm always going to be fascinated with those years.

RIGHT NOW i am listening to Hee Haw's wriggl EP from 1989. listening to this you would never know that the 90s were about to happen. very 80s brit indie jangle with art school delivery. their address is in Edinburgh. sounds more early 80s. i dig it! i've never heard of them. they had two cassettes and this vinyl EP. vocals will give you a Go-Betweens feel.

this is them next to a tunnel that goes into the 90s and they are scared of it!

https://i.discogs.com/E0bXhKjv20spT9h7gEhWGf3Sy3SzmkBSH05ZNJSlpfM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:444/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTEyMzY5/MzEtMTQzMDU4NTAw/My03NDU1LmpwZWc.jpeg

(also: anything can be forgotten. so feel free to talk about something you forgot about and heard for the first time in a long time.)

(or i can just blab forever about shit nobody listens to. does anyone on ilx keep a listening diary of some sort? i don't know why i haven't done it. would be cool to have a chronological record of what i was hearing. but that does sound like more work and i have so much work already.)

I was recently checking out Slow Children; kind of interesting duo that I wasn't previously aware of. Their 2016 "reunion" album (the only one actually streaming) sounded surprisingly vital, though I only listened to a few tracks.

(the '80s stuff is on YouTube)

I am very excited that the Corbett vs Dempsey label is doing an archival deep dive into the work of Dredd Foole & the Din, one of my favorite largely unknown 80s bands. It started out as Dredd Foole with Mission Of Burma as his backing band, though they only released a single as that lineup. A later version put out an absolutely incredible album, Take Off Your Skin, which it seems is gonna be the final volume in this series.

Vol. 1 - Songs In Heat https://corbettvsdempsey.bandcamp.com/album/songs-in-heat

Vol. 2 - We Will Fall https://corbettvsdempsey.bandcamp.com/album/we-will-fall

This is the first track from Take Off Your Skin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Fn1GY3Ygw

I bought the CD to Songs in Heat - that album smokes

been listening to this absolutely great never-before-released album by lost Bloomington Indiana band The Veritables

https://theveritables.bandcamp.com/album/the-veritables

recorded summer 1986

pretty sure they played in the basement of my rental punk house that summer

I also highly recommend this modern reissue of David Myers' (later Arcane Device, still later David Lee Myers) great mid-80s cassette releases

https://davidleemyers.bandcamp.com/album/1986

oh and this Amos & Sara reissue (1983)

https://emotional-response-recs.bandcamp.com/album/go-home-soldier

Hal McGee is a total hero for preserving the Psychodrama and Girls On Fire tapes

https://cassetteartclassics.bandcamp.com/album/300-days-of-sodom-enhanced
https://cassetteartclassics.bandcamp.com/album/i-think-about-jackson-pollock

basically this thread was made for me, ty scott

raging, passionate proto-emo-punk anyone?

https://hated-numero.bandcamp.com/album/the-best-piece-of-shit-vol-3

idk how I feel about Ken Clinger listing other people's records under his own label/artist name, but his site also has lots of fab 80's analog synth tape stuff by Lauri Paisley, Don Slepian, etc

https://anvilcreations.bandcamp.com/album/womr-concert-1988
https://anvilcreations.bandcamp.com/album/real-to-reel

(see also all the I.E.M.A. Group Tape compilations on his site there)

is this the best of the many pseudonymous Nocturnal Emissions releases? I think so

https://nocturnalemissions.bandcamp.com/album/rpm-33-bpm-111-113

"the Corbett vs Dempsey label is doing an archival deep dive into the work of Dredd Foole & the Din..."

Dan is a friend of mine! I love him so much. And his wife too. they are both great. I saw them in July at Byron Coley's big summer shindig. I also bought all of Dan's EDM/Techno/Glitch CDs during the pandemic when he was moving house. That was fucking insane. I am STILL listening to it all. but i can't talk about that here. it's all 90s stuff he got when he was working at Forced Exposure. also Roger Miller lives up the road from me. It's good to have Din friends.

this sounded huge to me this week. her only album. i think even reissues are hard to find. it's friggin' amazing. produced by roy ayers. 1981. oof. i just love it. i only wish you guys could hear it loud on my stereo. the original sells for $300 and i am stating for the record that it is worth every penny. uh, not that i paid that for it. her voice is so cool. sometimes i hear minnie riperton in it. sometimes i hear my hero corey daye. but its all her really. and quite a performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER7NilM3vlI

i brought this up on another thread but i had one of those real "how have i never heard this before!!!" moments last week. such a cool album. now i need the other two they made. i only knew that single "I'm In Love With A German Film Star".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8mNY8qx_sk

just discovered BOGSHED last week and now I have a whole nother slew of weird 80s bands to dig into

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

xp YES see also Jackdaw Crowbar, Dog Faced Hermans, Dawson, etc

omg this thread--- Because not like there are so many Dredd records ever, here's another, from my '05 Voice round-up of outriders:

New England's Dredd Foole (Dan Ireton) used to lead a tribe called the Din,
which sometimes included emissaries from Boston noise kings Mission of Burma. As
presented by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Forced Exposure's Byron Coley, the
Foole, armed now only with mostly non-noisy vocals and solo guitar, does indeed
fight A Long Losing Battle With Eloquence and Intimance (sic), and listeners
win. He's the bard of the barred and scarred, the ones who pay the toll and the
troll.
(Ain't Sorry.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeZs0puN3xM

I just saw a documentary about the Blitz club on a flight yesterday, and it reminded to go back and listen to Rexy again (obscure one-off from two Blitz kids):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX3Cj1v-AYE

there must have been a time when i knew that Graham Gouldman of progpop legends 10CC had a duo called WAX with american soft pop legend Andrew Gold, right? and that they made THREE(!!!) albums in the 80s. right? i have no memory of this. listening to their first album Magnetic Heaven from 1986. very Mike & The Mechanics with maybe a smidge more era-appropriate clanking drum machines and synth blurbs. not so terrible. Graham Gouldman is some sort of hero. ooooooh, an old-fashioned 10cc-style guitar break. don't know if i would listen again. i've heard other 80s stuff by 10cc people and they must have gone nuts with the new tech but i can't help but think about how GODLY (get it?) the production on 70s 10cc was. i mean, beyond godly. it was the creme of the crop. (did you catch that last part?) RAK Studios must have just got an upgrade of shiny new bells and whistles in 1986. but it sorta turns into mush. maybe i need an 80s-to-Analog converter for my stereo. my poor Marantz doesn't know what do with these chiming plastic synth washes.
man, my sister played the hell out of that second andrew gold album back in the 70s. i liked looking at the cover. i liked busy room covers.

apparently i'm going mousse hunting this morning. listening to Lodgic's 1985 album Nomadic Sands. you get lyrics about nuclear destruction by the second song so i am in the right place. the production is already way better than on the Wax album courtesy of Steve Porcaro. i would listen to this album again! good vibes. there is also air. and room to breathe. i guess all my 80s r&b listening (and synth-pop listening) has made me really prize minimalism when it comes to 80s synths and gadgets. (i mean really when you get right down to it there is no reason on god's green earth to listen to a Wax album when there is so much goodness you could be listening to just on the Solar label alone. but someone has to do the heavy lifting.)
hats off to Lodgic! you could be an r&b fan or an aor fan and maybe like this. a little sad that the better harmonies and melodies are on this album and not the graham Goldman album!

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

i thought it might be a bridge too far to play the one and only album by Shy Talk from 1985 but they are standing on nomadic sand on the cover so i had to! and i'm enjoying it. maybe i have a fever. i dunno. sounds good to me in a kevin bacon movie soundtrack kinda way. their single could have been in Quicksilver for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfCDXCdS1aQ

Shy Talk were never on an 80s soundtrack (which is baffling and i hope they fired their manager) but they were included on this cassette pop comp from Indonesia.

https://i.discogs.com/hk-MsV9-3lrULMzfpPXwBj6I4lOmwKmQkgHolGeZQe4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:395/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE1NDQy/MjYzLTE1OTE1OTAy/MzEtMTIyNi5qcGVn.jpeg

Scored a stack of forgotten 70s & 80s records in great condition for $1 each. They’re generally a cornucopia of mediocrity but a few stand out & will be getting a closer listen. First in mind is Ken Lockie’s The Impossible, which has at least one killer track, “Dance House”, a kind of industrial-lite post-disco stomper.

listening to Gus & The New Breed right now. Gus had two albums on the mighty Nemperor label. i know i have played the first one but i have no memory of it. this 2nd album from 1983 has some good hard rockin' power-poppin' bar bandin' fun. pay no more than $2. i guarantee that if he had made this album in 1985 it would have been wall to wall synths. "He Was So Humble" is the most hard rocking track.

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

Years ago I picked up a 1985 album by a Canadian band called Condition, Mumbo Jumbo, based on the cover (sharkskin suits, evening gown) and the covers (Cole Porter, The Cadets, and a Lil Green number "Knockin' Myself Out.") Chanteuse plays combo organ, there's sax, drums, and lots of exotica bongo banging. Her voice is a little strident.

https://i.discogs.com/vyN0aJS6--0AaocyMCaQiVoEf115c0yhD6ptrp-xVdg/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:450/w:465/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIzMjMw/NDYtMTI4MjIzODAz/Ni5qcGVn.jpeg

This thread prompted me to search youtube and to my amazement there is a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbVrwFTa6kY

"Scored a stack of forgotten 70s & 80s records in great condition for $1 each."

this is a big reason for this thread. the inspiration really. i bought the motherlode of 80s stuff. so much stuff. so fun too!

Mock me if you will but I'm quite a fan of this ludicrous 1983 piece of sub-Queen nonsense from Northern Ireland's Cruella de Ville, just playing it for the first time since it came out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYHq-ajJdC0

yikes, that's some crazy stuff! the cruella. i would never mock anyone's 80s love for anything.

i'm playing Cameo's Machismo album for the first time ever and i did not know that there is a Miles Davis jazz jam at the end of side one! nobody told me. there is some great horn action in general courtesy of the brecker brothers and maceo and kenny garrett.

If you need further confirmation that I'm the Lenny Williams aka kid Seville that played guitar on the machismo album you can contact Sammy merendino he put me in touch with cameo he was their drummer on numerous album's for them he can be reached at Sammy meredino.com or(212)9**-35**,I'm from Philadelphia, you have a album of mine and a picture of me I am the artist kid Seville so please change that it's not cool when someone takes credit for something that you've done even if it's a mistake but this can be rectified thank you Lenny Williams aka kid Seville, Leonard j Williams

discogs needs to get on that. notice how i covered the phone number. i don't want any of you guys calling sammy meredino and pranking him.

Hard to know what counts as "unknown" to ILM, but I've never met another person who knows and loves this whiny country song.

The Rave-Ups, Radio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn4M0HvuxGs

i like it! its sad. i love songs about radio. or when people say the word radio over and over. i remember the rave-ups of course because they were lumped in with all the other alt country rock people but i never listened to them.

Cameo's Machismo album is really ambitious! it's impressive. sounds great too.

are there fans of early soup dragons...i'm a little scared of this 1986 EP i have in front of me. Edinburgh address. i wonder if they were friends with Hee Haw up above there.

listening to the one and only album by The Gyrlz from 1988 on Capitol which sounds pretty much like you would think a girl group with involvement from Teddy Riley and Al B. Sure! would sound like. it's right up my nujak alley. i'm thinking of starting a tape label that is just chopped & screwed new jack r&b records from the 80s and 90s. #milliondollaridea

https://i.discogs.com/HRJDF4RP9P7tkXyiec6fHfGzhap55NIOJTDp-DS2HyU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:360/w:395/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9BLTI5NDg0/OS0xNDU5NTM5MjU0/LTUwMTguanBlZw.jpeg

i haven't played it yet but i can't stop staring at this cover...

https://i.discogs.com/0VoiD6SljduZo7UWEUsmmn1L7B65_SL-3l1S_50RFm8/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:487/w:500/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI0MTk1/MTYtMTI4MzA2NzIy/NC5qcGVn.jpeg

this gyrlz album is really solid! both sides.

love!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJh0wyWsjHU

Listening to Richard Strange's live debut solo album The Live Rise Of Richard Strange from 1980. it's cool. he was Kid Strange from my fave band Doctors of Madness. i've never heard his solo stuff. and you know how i love a live debut album. obviously remixed later but it originated live from Hurrah in NYC. i never got to go to Hurrah. its stripped down stuff compared to the proggy bombast of DoM. as befitting the times. still very vocal-forward and quirky. if you like the records that nash the slash did apart from the band FM then you would like this. that's pretty specific but pretty accurate too. this is more straightforward than nash's stuff though.

in case anyone might be interested. this was my pandemic project. i kinda got obsessed by the book VOLUME: International Discography Of The New Wave from 1980 and decided to make a playlist for the book. It took me...two years? more? Who knows. It was pandemic time, baby! Time wasn't really a thing. Anyway, it was really hard because that book was a mess. Lots of detective work. But fun too. I learned a lot and heard even more. Not totally applicable to this thread but in the spirit of this thread. this link should work.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE1-7P1reTFh-exzT4SJc8A6fHI1msnJo

very cool Minutemen-adjacent band on New Alliance, never heard of them until just now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcIBOoxFYK4

You Can't Hide Your Love From Me is a big early 80s post-disco/proto-house Larry Levan fave classic. He was in the uk jazz funk group Hi-Tension.

right, its a known quantity. especially in the u.k. but just in case someone here hasn't heard it...gotta spread the love. its such a fine single.

https://i.discogs.com/MLgDfVDJEObj09s-TC-w1JluiBA15gB7jz7k5-MDIeI/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE1NjU1/OTktMTQ0NTYyMjE2/NS0zMjg0LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/8SPMwHbzJHchPIvPQbnDQgjdIbUN1whbXx54UDcNS1w/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTIwMzk3/NTUtMTQ0NTYyMzMx/Ny03MTcxLmpwZWc.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/XPGt4I72dLErI2yBEF_O386EWmbbMA3m_eLee1CzF6I/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQzMTc3/OC0xNDQ1NjI0MDU0/LTk4NTguanBlZw.jpeg

my three fave nu disk covers. the clash and cheap trick always get all the nu disk love.

not really a welcoming to the 80s. more of a farewell to the 70s. in 1980.

this single sells for $$. if it were a five dollar single i would totally keep it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ct2kenLOk

i get to keep this though...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF3THvsbEy8

smooth moves

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

random belgian tunes i have loved...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GN8Goz3jbw

PAUL MORLEY'S SISTER ON VOCODER VOX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89fvemLgnQ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rZDlPD1qDs

i dig this. its the b-side to their single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mod9ob_SdJE

actually, its the b-side to the single that I HAVE, "Tears Idle Tears". from 1984. but "Lucifer's Friend" was the A-SIDE to their 1982 debut single. to make things more complicated.

Vision had a total of nine tracks across six singles but i don't think anyone has ever compiled them. not even the Japanese! don't know why they never got an album deal back then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CIqKYw80XI

oh wait they had a 7-inch EP too as Spiral Visions in 1982. to make things more complicated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoba1JMKJbs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD3zmhToEoc

Only new Lucifer's Friends as an A-side, first as a 7" somebody leant me and I kept but forgot about, then as a 12" I bought and played a bunch in my new wave/italo type DJ sets, especially during 1 halloween, though it's one of those songs I think is gonna kill everybody and ends up having little impact.

KNEW

A Vision LP? That's a job for Dark Entries if I've ever seen one.

certainly enough good material along with that 1982 EP.

the guitarist for B-Movie played on that original 1982 "Lucifer's Friend" single.

and speaking of using your best stuff later, the excellent and undying "nowhere girl" came out on a small label EP by B-Movie and then released in its more famous version later in 1982. the original version is way more DIY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q45DwGKFzWA

Dug this one out of my stacks last night. Steve Almaas’ band between Suicide Commandos and Beat Rodeo, Crackers only release was this 4 song ep in 1980. Produced by Mitch Easter and recommended if you dig Let’s Active.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrG8x5JVY_0

this album needs more love. Stranger To Stranger. Casting Shadows. 1984.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02i7F5B6MZ8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMHYhWUnGW4

i don't think i put them on here before? i did a search.

one of those rare bands that put out a post-punk debut in 1984 and then put out another album way way WAY later in another sonic universe in 1989.

loving this today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01selqSHnw

Excellent! There was a great Method Actors reissue some years back, our Dan S put it out!

Thanks, yeah, was happy to work on that. The later full band stuff is cool too including a KILLER version of All Tomorrow's Parties, but even Vic from the band considers the original duo stuff the main thing. He's continued to record and release acoustic songwriter type stuff that is really wonderful, even if not quite the angst-ridden post-punk skronk of the Method Actors:

https://soundcloud.com/user-270051212

Kind of a georgia-bred nick drake?

Around the time of the reissue I saw him play a solo set in NYC just before he moved back south, it was fantastic.

Just want to thank dan and scott for giving me rad shit to listen to last night

np.

here's the all tomorrow's parties:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEbffx1XOQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEbffx1XOQ

well I don't know why that's not working. Skip to 33:02

Stranger To Stranger update: their 1989 album is pretty cool! it could have sounded like The Alarm or latter-day Simple Minds, two avenues for old post-punk groups in the late 80s, but they had very obviously been influenced by the mighty Chameleons so all is cool. anyone interested in postpunk though needs to hear their 1984 album. you will like it.

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

the first Anorexia single "Rapist In The Park" came out in 1980 and is known in punk collector and KBD and john peel circles but i don't think i had ever heard their 1982 single where they add more X Ray Sax and Post-Punk action to their music. I dig it. 4-song 7-inch EP. all cool. then they broke up and most of the band became Johnny 7 for one single. also nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v65xETp5exo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NhrH0IE8_o

Scott! Did you ever watch Tatort Schimanski (80s german tv for people who don’t know). Some of the background music is great and like stuff in this thread… it also has songs that are … different from that, but also very 80s.

no i haven't but i am already impressed by the picture quality on this youtube upload. wow, so that's the original Tatort, huh. and now i see it is on MHz which i have at home. i like the latter-day Tatorts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzjN6g-82jU

in other developments, i have become a late in life fan of patsy kensit rock! i never listened to this stuff and i should have. as a freestyle fan i feel a little dumb because the remixes are totally cool and i know i get those promo singles all the time. ah well, better late than never.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm5zuxfVrMU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi8XSJWz1R4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOY-93cQgHk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpag59x2bgc

wait i meant to post this remix...........

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

patsy was all about the 80s being married to jim kerr AND my hero from Haysi Fantayzee AND the guy from big audio dynamite whose name i never remember. the guy who wasn't don letts or a clash and who looked like an 80s magazine model. being married to the oasis guy was just a mid-life crisis.

no i haven't but i am already impressed by the picture quality on this youtube upload. wow, so that's the original Tatort, huh. and now i see it is on MHz which i have at home. i like the latter-day Tatorts.

📹

lol @ "lite neubauten"

I just bought the album Untitled by Slap at a store in Oakland. So good !

It’s uhhh noise / industrial from Miami ca 1984

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0vNsm0Ib6E

^^^ sounds terrific.

Eighth Wonder's "I'm Not Scared" is the best freestyle song Pet Shop Boys ever wrote imo

Slap were good! perfect for this thread.

i have a few of those eighth wonder 12”s, great stuff

this is my favopurite eighth wonder tune, so dreamy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7oGlIunxTQ
Eighth Wonder - Will You Remember

https://i.discogs.com/Nf4SviBmgBGKB8siFFAMzlBhDPWWNhC-ElLC7nn4Blw/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:387/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMwNjU2/NTc4LTE3MTU1MDQz/MTktNDczNi5qcGVn.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/RGiT_JuSFHypD1Xsky5RrsBkeyRm8QAgFRqZp5yc0tU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:382/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMwNjU2/NTc4LTE3MTU1MDQz/MTgtODQxNC5qcGVn.jpeg

I just bought the album Untitled by Slap at a store in Oakland. So good !

Moving Records

did that just open?? i’m not infrequently around that block but never noticed it