Does anybody have an opinion about any of these obscure mid/late '80s British art-punk bands?

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They all sounded pretty good to me at the time, and I even wrote good things about some of them, but I don't have any records by any of them anymore, and I forget what they sounded like or if they were really any good or if I was stupid to sell all the records I had by them, so any help would be hugely appreciated. Here is the list:

Bogshed, Greenhouse of Terror, the Janitors, Meat Whiplash, the Folk Devils....um, there are more, but I forget them right now. (I'd say World Domination Enterprises, Head of David, the Nightingales, Big Flame, the Membranes, early Age of Chance before they covered Prince, and a few other ones, but I think those aren't *quite* as obscure. If you have any opinions about those bands you can say so too, though, I guess.) And I will let you know if I think of any other ones.

― chuck, Friday, 16 July 2004 17:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked World Domination Enterprises....sort've in a Cop Shoot Cop stylee. I have a friend who quite likes Head of David, but they never did much for me. Age of Chance? Never knew they did anything other than wear silly bike-wear and butcher overrated Prince tunes.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I mean Age of Chance circa their first two 7-inch singles, or at least circa "Bible of the Beats," which was sort of a post-Fall/Gang of Four/early-Mekons type thing as I recall (just like most of the other bands I named.)

― chuck, Friday, 16 July 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

If you want to reacquaint yourself with Bog-Shed, I just posted an MP3 of them at my site a few days ago--see http://www.lacunae.com/archives/000260.html .

― Douglas (Douglas), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks, Douglas!

Alex, it's possible you would have loved the Folk Devils, who I vaguely recall being some sort of cross between Killing Joke and the Fall. But maybe I'm completely wrong, which is why I'm asking...

― chuck, Friday, 16 July 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Douglas, I've been after a copy of "Morning Sir" for years. Thank you very, very much.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

the Meat Whiplash on creation?
noisy fuzzy pop fierceness
good, but if you've held on to your JAMC records, you're better off

― rentboy (rentboy), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

The Folk Devils were similar to The Three Johns, i remember than on John Peel back in 1985.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, I remember the name of ANOTHER band I meant to ask about, despite confusing them completely with Meat Whiplash in my head:

Slaughter Joe.

― chuck, Friday, 16 July 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I find this to be an iffy thing these types of bands from this era. Head Of David I was absolutely crazy about at the time (especially "Dust Bowl", or whatever the grey album was called), but I tried them again years later and...huh? World Domination Enterprises would be my fave of the bands mentioned, although it's hard to imagine me listening to them today. Bogshed never did much for me...what about A Witness? I at least bought their album, but it wasn't exactly earth shattering.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember loving Big Flame at the time. If my poor abused memory is correct, I'd describe them as being fIREHOSE-esque, but spikier. I've been trying to find any of their stuff for a long while, too.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i would argue that my answer could still pretty much stand
but i've honestly only heard the creation singles...
a quick google shows that rev-ola put out a comp of their stuff a few years back. may have to check it out, but honestly they never made much of an impression on me. more "song" based than meat whiplash, but less energetic iirc

― rentboy (rentboy), Friday, 16 July 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I think A Witness were wimpier than all those other ones, so I didn't like them as much, being a total wimpophobe when it came to indie music at the time due to my Detroit upbringing and all. But maybe I'm confusing them with 15 other bands whose names started with W.

― chuck, Friday, 16 July 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

There was actually a good Big Flame CD compilation a couple years ago, on Cherry Red Records I think. There was a good Nightingales comp, too. Both bands seemed (to me, anyway) way better than fIREHOSE, who I thought sucked. (Though they probably weren't half as good as the Minutmen circa *What Makes a Man Start Fires?*.)

― chuck, Friday, 16 July 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

There was actually a good Big Flame CD compilation a couple years ago, on Cherry Red Records I think.

It was on Drag City.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 16 July 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Well I just listened to the Bogshed clip, and although it was pleasant enough, I can't see how it's materially different than say...A Witness "Sharpened Sticks", so I find it curious that to you there is such a distinction, Chuck.

Glad to hear Big Flame stuff isn't totally lost to vinyl. Maybe I'll give them another go.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 16 July 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

that comp. CD is outta print.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 16 July 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got the Nightingales comp. It does indeed rock.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Friday, 16 July 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

But were the Nightingales really from the same era? I thought they were early 80's.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 16 July 2004 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

nightingales played from early 80s on, and are in fact back now with a new series of 7"s and some possible shows in the US. They grew out of the seminal punk/post-punk band the Prefects who are getting the Acute treatment shortly.

http://home.clara.net/kidd/nightingales.html

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 16 July 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the Slaughter Joe LP I have (All Around My Hobby Horse's Head). I bought it for the cover, Joe sitting on the floor with apparantly some fave LPs around him, Little Johnny Jewel, Sonic Youth and even the L.A. band Opal, among others and because one song was called "The Lonesome Death of Thurston Moore." And the fact it was 37 cents (Rhino Claremont rocks!) I still kick myself for not buying the other one when I saw it because "it's kind of expensive for used..." -- it was about $5, back in the 80s.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 16 July 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

any relationship to Slaughter, which was Joe Foster, I think, a single on Creation that's really brilliant, a song who's name I forget. Actually, I think the b-side was about Thurston Moore, so maybe I've answered my own question.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 16 July 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

The Cherry Red Nightingales CD comp was kind of an "odds and sods" deal. A best of comp (if there isn't one already that I don't know about) would be nice.

― Tim Ellison, Friday, 16 July 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

sort of cross between Killing Joke and the Fall.

That sounds entirely promising. Must check it out. Cheers, Chuck.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 16 July 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I posted an RFI about Slaughter Joe before and the name Foster rings a bell, so it's probably the same guy, but I really don't know anything more about him.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 16 July 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

my memory is all screwy about the details, but he was a main guy at Creation and Rev-Ola, I think.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 16 July 2004 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay so I'm trying the Folk Devils.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 16 July 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I gotta admit it's a terrible name for a band, though.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 16 July 2004 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

That Slaughter Joe record was reissued a few months ago on Rev-Ola, and holds up really well. It's actually better than I thought it was at the time...

― Iggy Bliss, Friday, 16 July 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

The Hobby Horse one or the other one?

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 16 July 2004 21:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I have a Janitors album, but I think that I was at least mildly disappointed with it compared to a single I have by them called (I think) "Good To Be The King".
I should dig it up. I think its in sector 17 in my music conservatory.

― peepee (peepee), Saturday, 17 July 2004 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it was both Joe Foster and Alan McGee who played on the Slaughter Joe records or at least I remember some of the songwriting credits on the records going to McGee. Slaughter released two albums, All Around My Hobby Horse's Head, which I seem to remember featuring a couple tracks from singles and maybe some new stuff. There both 12" and 7" single releases of "I'll Follow You Down" and "She's Out of Touch". The 12"s had two more songs than 45 releases. There was a comp album of the two 12"s plus a couple of tracks from the Hobby Horse album from 91 entitled Pied Piper of Feedback. But that's their extent discography that I'm aware of. There's a recent Revola issue of everything that was released on both the Hobby Horse album on Kaleidoscope and all both the singles on Creation. Indeed it is the same Joe Foster who co-founded Creation and now runs Revola. I wonder if the single you have Dan is something different. It's on the B-side of the S.Joe 12" She's So Out of Touch" and is the sole b-side of the 45 release of it. I don't own the 45 and haven't dug out the 12" in years but I remember the cover is just a picture of Joe and is credited to Slaughter and not Slaughter Joe or Joe Foster. I believe Foster was also in the Television Personalities at some point and maybe the side band, The Time or whatever they were called too but my memory of those years are failing me a bit. I haven't listened to the records since an ex-girlfriend of mine came back from Oberlin with a clutch of Slaughter Joe stuff and I dug some of the old records out then.

― dialecticbricks (dialecticbricks), Saturday, 17 July 2004 02:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember enjoying one of the Head of David albums, the Albini produced one Dust Bowl, I think. I've haven't heard it in a long time and it now resides in my basement and really isn't something I plan out pulling out in the near future. I was a sucker for all those skronky bands that came out of the C-86/Ron Johnson Records era. I couldn't believe it when Drag City issued a comp of Big Flame's stuff in the mid-nineties. I held my breath for reissues of some of the other RJ stuff like Jackdaw with Crowbar, The Shrubs and Stump or the Noseflutes but it was just wishful thinking.
I loved the first two Membranes albums, CrackHouse and Gift of Life and remember buying their album on Homestead though I don't know if honestly ever listened to it.
The Nightingales were fantastic and produced some brilliant songs like "Urban Ospreys", "Idiot Strength" and "Paraffin Brain". I dig out my Nightingales stuff about every six months or so and rarely tire of hearing them anew.

― dialecticbricks (dialecticbricks), Saturday, 17 July 2004 03:10 (twenty-one years ago)

The first two Head Of David albums are still grebt (LP and Dustbowl), the first is almost Swans-esque and has excursions into drone-rock on it, Dustbowl has them (as Albini referred to them) playing as Big Black Sabbath. But both of these pale into insignificance compared to the Peel sessions album 'White Elephant', which has probably all their best stuff on it (although from memory I don't think "108" is on it). The final, Daniel Miller produced album only has a couple of decent tracks on it though and someof it is absolute shite. I used to share the Peel sessions on slsk, let me check if I still am and if not I'll try and remember to put them up - but searching for 'Texas Metal White-Out' will find them.

There's a Membranes compilation that has absolutely everything on it, and sells for next to nothing. If I could find it, I'd tell you the title but I'm having what is politely referred to as cataloguing problems at the moment (that is, I can't find the CD I want when I look for it). You probably don't need anything other than 'Tatty Seaside Town' and 'Spike Milligan's Tape Recorder' though.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Saturday, 17 July 2004 06:37 (twenty-one years ago)

She's So Out of Touch is the single I have. I learned about this stuff from Dave Todarello who ran the Co-Op bookstore in Oberlin. He gave many records away to many people. Did you by any chance read this today:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1112

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Saturday, 17 July 2004 06:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Dustbowl has them (as Albini referred to them) playing as Big Black Sabbath

He also called them Motorhead of David in a thanks list; both gags make a certain sense. They never did a great album but Snake Domain, Roadkill, Bugged and How Primitive Are You? justify their existence. Also I got all three of their albums for a total of less than two pounds.

Similarly, I picked up the A Witness discography in a sale the other week for 99 pence. It's diverting but utterly of its time, which you can take whichever way you want. Communion put out their LP in the US, apparently.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Saturday, 17 July 2004 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Had no idea there was a Head of David Peel session album, or even anything after Dustbowl. This is really making me want to hear them again.

Noseflutes for the most part were very cool, although I confess I didn't actually hear them until the early 90's. Kindof like The Fall crossed with Cud or something. Odd, but engaging. I like the album "Several Young Men Ignite Hardboard Stump" (Reflex, '86) and have two other EP's, one of which wasn't so great.

― Bimble (bimble), Saturday, 17 July 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

>The Shrubs<

Oh yeah, I forgot about these guys; this was another band I meant to ask about at the beginning of this thread....

― chuck, Monday, 19 July 2004 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The Nightingales are now back and gigging again in both 'Gales and Prefects guises. The band I'm in played with the 'Gales last year (just before I joined!) and we're due to play with them again when R.Lloyd says the word.

Big Flame were OK - who else was on Ron Johnson?

Apart from the mighty 'Gales I don't think anyone on this thread was much good.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 19 July 2004 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i vaguely remember seeing Head of David at Reading in '88 or '89 along with The Butthole Surfers, Spacemen 3, The Wonder Stuff, Green on Red, The Pogues, Pop Will Eat Itself, Swans etc etc(I think it was the first Mean Fiddler non-metal version of the Festival...)

i think HOD were also involved with a very bizarre record I had with Dennis Hopper on the cover. It was mostly noise/ found sound and one whole side of maniacal laughter if I remember...

Can anyone remember what it was called? Have I got this completely wrong?

Anyway, with all this mid 80s talk it's only a matter of time before the Furious Pig revival...

Loki from:

An Idiot's guide to Dreaming

― Loki, Monday, 19 July 2004 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

MY NME C86 cassette lists the following groups on Ron Johnson:

Stump
A Witness
MacKenzies
The Shrubs

― Bimble (bimble), Monday, 19 July 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Telescopes before they turned all fluffy and ethereal.

― cs appleby (cs appleby), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 00:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Loki writes:

i think HOD were also involved with a very bizarre record I had with Dennis Hopper on the cover. It was mostly noise/ found sound and one whole side of maniacal laughter if I remember...

***

That would be H.O.D.I.C.A, The Shit Hits the Fans. Included an insert with a Bikerspeak Phrasebook.

― Jim Flannery, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 00:22 (twenty-one years ago)

a full Ron Johnson records discography can be found here
http://www.timewasting.net/ronj/ron.html

― dialecticbricks (dialecticbricks), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

WAH on that compilation of theirs (The First After Epiphany) there's A STUMP TRACK I DON'T HAVE!!!!

― OleM (OleM), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 12:53 (twenty-one years ago)

H.O.D.I.C.A.: from memory, the ICA hosted a 'rock week' in 1990, and after booking all the bands told them that EMI were behind it and they intended to put out an album of highlights. Given that this was at the height of EMI-phobia, rather than pull out HOD 'played' a set that was unwatchable through excessive use of dry ice and unlistenable since it only really comprised snippets of EMI acts (Pet Shop Boys is the one that sticks in my mind) played on a cheap, tinny cassette player, over speaker hiss in an attempt to make it unusable. About three minutes of it still appeared on the EMI compilation of the week, bizarrely.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Saw Head of David a few times, can't say I ever really got them though.

Only recently picked up a record by the Shrubs for a quid or two. Vaguely remember their noisy version of Phil Ochs' 'Another Age', but other than that, it's the first time I've ever listened to them. They sound like the missing link between Stump and Slovenly, with maybe a bit of the Wolfhounds propensity for kicking up a grubby racket. Not bad at all really. The singer, Nick Hobbs, turns out to have been in an early version of whatever the fuck begat Stump. Interesting to learn too that he was once the tour manager for Henry Cow, Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu, so he's a direct link back to a previous art-rock generation.

Anyhow my pick of the bunch were Preston's finest... the Dandelion Adventure.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I bought a Dandelion Adventure 12" the other day - the one with one longish track on one side and about seven on the other. It's good. They begat Donkey, who I never got round to hearing.

Stretchheads are better than everyone being mentioned on here, though. If they were around now they'd be lumped in w/ all the Blood Brothers, 31G type lot - BUT SCOTCH

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 14:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Dunno of Donkey, I'd moved away from the Lancs area scene by then. Some of DA also ended up in Cornershop, mefinks. Saw the Stretchies though, playing with errr... the Ex perhaps??? Were they something to do w/ Dawson? Wow, that was a long time ago.

Also have good memories of Fflaps, sort of a Welsh answer to Dog Faced Hermans.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I have the first two Fflaps albums, they've both got some pretty top moments on them. There's also a Welsh-language Slits cover of - I think - Love And Romance which I have on a DVD Ankst put out recently.

More esoteric still is Pop Negatif Wastad who were pals of the above up in Bangor kind of area, and did an EP with a Welsh-language cover of Big Black's Kerosene... if anyone else in this bitch knows about that I'll be confuzzled to say the least, mind

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Step on it Bogshed! Great album. The Folk Devils were alright, taped a few Peel sessions. The Janitors and Meat Whiplash were shit.

I used to WORSHIP Head of David (the Black Country's answer to Big Black!). Metal Texas Psychout... Pierced All Over... Newly Shaven Saint... the HODICA album is great, wall of noise type stuff with a FANTASTIC Dennis Hopper picture on the cover. BRING ME THE HEAD OF DAVID JONES... The ICA album was called The Shit Hits the Fans. Best album is either the first one or White Elephant. Of course unlike all the post-C86 cunts who got all shirty about the guitar solos, I was quite comfortable with the metal influences.

Similarly I used to worship the Membranes. Spike Milligan's tape recorder is still one of the 20 best rock singles ever made.
FABULOUS live, really nice people, I saw them a dozen times or more.

Age of Chance early stuff was OK -- especially the Peelers, like Morning After the Sixties ("Angry young men, angry young men, insurrection in the playpen... they discovered the twist and invented space..."). And there's nothing wrong whatsoever with their cover of Kiss. But the best period of AoC came later -- 1000 Years of Trouble is a quite magnificent record. Take It is a piledriving tune, there's a great Bomb Squad remix on the 12". Noise-tastic.

On a similar tip as some of the bands here -- Live Skull. Raise the Manifestation is wicked. Early acid, innit.

― paul "essex boy" meme, Monday, 26 July 2004 10:04 (twenty-one years ago)

seven years pass...

Best Youtube channel ever:

http://www.youtube.com/user/fuckonthecover/videos

― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 15 March 2012 20:58 (thirteen years ago)

^ does that person have a blog or something?

― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 15 March 2012 20:58 (thirteen years ago)

fuck me i have been looking for Kilgore Trout for at least a decade and there they are on Youtube??

― Kony Montana: "Say hello to my invisible friend" (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:07 (thirteen years ago)

It's got Hull's finest ~~The Watersons~~ Death By Milkfloat up there too.

― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:18 (thirteen years ago)

nah The Watersons are Hull's finest but DbM went close

just reminiscing with my brother about lost 80s Peel bands now

― Kony Montana: "Say hello to my invisible friend" (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:25 (thirteen years ago)

we're onto The Stupids now

― Kony Montana: "Say hello to my invisible friend" (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:30 (thirteen years ago)

i think HOD were also involved with a very bizarre record I had with Dennis Hopper on the cover. It was mostly noise/ found sound and one whole side of maniacal laughter if I remember...

Can anyone remember what it was called? Have I got this completely wrong?

ha, I have a copy of this. loved that first head of david record, didn't like dustbowl cause frankly albini was still trying to find his engineering feet at that point. guess I should track down that peel session, huh.

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:38 (thirteen years ago)

i always saw head of david as the band whose records you accidentally purchased when attempting to buy godflesh records

― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:46 (thirteen years ago)

rather than the stupids, can i talk about the three johns instead? hardly obscure in the UK, i gather, but very little known stateside, and seldom mentioned by anyone these days. frustratingly uneven, but great when they were on. regret never having seen them live.

― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:47 (thirteen years ago)

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/T/Three_Johns/three_johns_demonf.jpg

^ I was never all that much a fan of their actual albums, but this singles collection is 100% bangers - English White Boy Engineer, Windowlene, Death of the European, all so great. Saw them live once, it was them blasting through a version of Moonlight On Vermont that finally helped me to 'get' Beefheart as a teenager.

― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:58 (thirteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbyIP4PW004

― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 15 March 2012 21:59 (thirteen years ago)

awright! never seen that TV appearance. the studio version (with "pink-headed bug", my favorite 3J track):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_vi3EVPQ3k

agree completely that demonocracy is the place to start. they were best as a singles/EPs band, but i do so love "teenage nightingales to wax":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHSBO09VzRo

like happy bauhaus! supercruddly TV clip, but what the hell

― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Thursday, 15 March 2012 23:08 (thirteen years ago)

otoh, they have so much grebo to answer for

― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Thursday, 15 March 2012 23:13 (thirteen years ago)

Not sure how much they were an influence on anything really, but they seemed to me like the evolutionary link between Gang of Four and Big Black.

― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 15 March 2012 23:22 (thirteen years ago)

Three Johns deserve a proper reissue campaign!

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 15 March 2012 23:24 (thirteen years ago)

They're touring the UK apparently in a couple of months, maybe the revival starts here.

― Feebs K-Tel (NickB), Thursday, 15 March 2012 23:26 (thirteen years ago)

i always saw head of david as the band whose records you accidentally purchased when attempting to buy godflesh records

― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Thursday, March 15, 2012 5:46 PM (1 hour ago)

when I saw godflesh records I was like hey look, new band with that head of david guy in it

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Thursday, 15 March 2012 23:49 (thirteen years ago)

and they were both bands with "that guy who was in napalm death for a little while"

― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Friday, 16 March 2012 00:31 (thirteen years ago)

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