I Have Never Heard These Bands That Start With The Letter C

I guess you'd know. That's not an 'oh, I'm not sure' one.

Chords were Jam-ish mod/new wave, worth a listen.

China White were Adolescents-ish LA punk, pretty generic I think.

wot? no CORTINAS thread?

Soon to be seen on a thread starting with a D.

Certain General -- droney gtr rock, NYC early 80s. Gigged and put out a split record w/Band of Outsiders. Don't sound like SY/Swans.

Chords - the Future Of Music for about two weeks at the end of 1979, if you read Sounds. Mod revivalists, linked also to the Purple Hearts and Secret Affair.

John Cooper Clarke - saw him at an open-air event at Alexandra Palace, late spring/early summer 1980, beautiful hot sunny day. As soon as he came on stage, it started to drizzle. As soon as he left, the sun came out again. Conceptually perfect!

(Later that day, Mark Stewart of The Pop Group brought a large colour framed photo of Leonid Brezhnev onto the stage, and announced "the next song is called For How Much Longer Must We Tolerate Mass Murder." The gig was a Communist party benefit! Wa-hey!)

Class Action - did the best ever version of "Weekend", vocals by Chris Wilshire (acapella later sampled by Todd Terry), at least one of the mixes by Larry Levan. "I can't take the heartbeat of you leaving me again...etc." Oh, you know the one. Perfect post-disco/pre-house club track, right up there with C-Bank "One More Shot".

Cortinas - seek the B-side to Fascist Dictator: "Television Families".

Cuban Heels - did a sweet little power-pop cover of "Downtown".

Cuddly Toys - originally called Raped, until Rough Trade banned their single on ideological grounds.

Pretty great pub rocky power pop type stuff...his Twin Town albums are recommended....SUPER CLASSIC TRACK: Track down Big Hits of Mid America Vol. 2 (the classic 2 record mpls new wave/punk comp)...His song Land of The Free on that (with Suicide Commandos backing him up) is KILLLLLLLLLLLEEERRR.

It might be on 45 too.

There were evidently two bands called Crackers. The Crackers I'm familiar with (led by Steve Almaas of Minneapolis' Suicide Commandos) released a Mitch Easter-produced EP, 'Sir Crackers," similar to the above-mentioned Hoboken pop. I like it.

HAHAHAHA!

choir invisible may have been la's first "new romantic" band. they may have worn makeup and featured danny benair from the quick on drums.

Funny you mention that - I saw Certain General & Swans at the Ukranian National Home back then. One of the highlights was Gira making up a song about some old guy wanting to shut the show down either due to length/volume while Swans kept on playing. I remember really liking the show as they were both very good, although for some reason I never picked up any CG albums.

Certain General - from new york. sort of like, um, the ordinairres! i have an EP by them at home, they were sorta proggy for new wavers

Cinecyde - from Detroit. Did not sound like Stooges, but may have tried to. May have had one black person in the band, but maybe not.

John Cooper Clarke - Brit poet type, often compared to the Streets

Cortinas - didn't they write all Ronstadt's new wave songs?

Couch Flambeau - old weirdo Creem Metal faves from Wisconsin, sounded somewhat MX-80 Sound like. Put out a real good best of last year

Cucumbers - Favorites of Robert Christgau, from, um, Hoboken or somewhere. May or may not have included a married couple. Bland pop.

Curtiss A - From Minnesota. That's all I know about the guy.

No, but close. That was Mark Goldberg of the Cretones, who also had a couple solo records after Ronstadt's "Mad Love." The Cretones were a poor man's Elvis Costello & the Attractions, rocked up for the American market.

Crawdaddys: early 80s garage-by-way-of-UK revivialists from San Diego who wish it could be 1964/1965 again.

Whoa! Often?

i'm assuming you mean count viglione, who has been part of the boston scene pretty much since the beginning of time. don't have a clue what he sounds like, but it appears you can find out that, and a lot more, here: http://therealcount.blogspot.com/

Cucumbers - Favorites of Robert Christgau, from, um, Hoboken or somewhere. May or may not have included a married couple. Bland pop.

jon and deena cucumber were indeed married. mostly bland pop, yes, with a very occasional nifty little pop song tossed in.

Curtiss A is a Minneapolis legend...he was basically like the Nick Lowe of the early Mpls punk scene, the classic popster that got to hang wit da punx....

and his band included slim dunlap, before slim went on to replace bob stinson in the replacements for no apparent reason.

Tougher-sounding than Nick Lowe. Frantic and powerful bluesy shouting -- "I Don't Want to Be President" was like being run over by a tank.

Seem to be multiple bands with this name but the one I remember was part of the southern California punk scene. Leaned toward fast, heavy rock, had an EP on Frontier. Kind of in the same boat as the Stains, a band that wound up on SST.

The other band that was formed when they did so was Simple Minds.

I have never heard these "C" bands from Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Albums 1955-1996 book:

(At least I don't think I have. At least not much):

Cactus World News
Tane Cain
Caldera
Camouflage
The Candymen
The Caravelles
Carman
Carnival
Ca$hflow
The Casinos
Cate Bros.
Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys
C-Bo
C.C.S.
Cella Dwellas
Celly Cel
Chanson
Charleston City All Stars
Chase
The Checkmates Ltd.
Chi-Ali
The Chimes
Chocolate Milk
Choir Of The Vienna Hofburgkapelle
The Christians
Les Claypool & The Holy Mackerel
Clear Light
Cold Chisel
The College Boyz
Coney Hatch
The Conscious Daughters
Contraband
The Corporation
The Countdown Dance Masters
The Counts
Crazy Otto
Creative Source
Crime Boss
The Critters
The Cuff Links
Curiosity Killed The Cat
Cymarian

Crime Boss

Good name. A+

Chase -- American horn band -- trumpets, actually -- which had a #1 single called "Get It On," prompting Marc Bolan to entitle his "Get it On" to "Bang a Gong" in the States. Named after leader and trumpet player Bill Chase. Half of the band died in some accident.

Cold Chisel -- Huge in Australia hard rock/pop rock band. Went nowhere in the States.

Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys: One-hit wonders who did "(When I Was Just a Little Boy My One and Only Joy) Was Listening to That Good Ol' Rock 'n' Roll." Produced by Jimi Hendrix.

Cold Chisel -- Huge in Australia hard rock/pop rock band. Went nowhere in the States.

I was actually surprised to learn they had an album that went to #171 in the States! (East, from 1981, on Elektra.) Maybe they got a tiny push here in the wake of Back In Black, or something.

Chanson - funky, forgettable disco with James Jamerson Jr. on bass. Best known for "Don't Hold Back"

Clear Light - Silly psych. Did an hilariously nutzoid version of Tom Paxton's "Mr. Blue." Lead singer Cliff DeYoung became an actor and starred as Brad Majors in Shock Treatment, the (amazing!) sequel The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The College Boyz - Hip-hop. I had one of their 12"s. It was dull. Didn't the Forest from the Trees dude produce them?

The Conscious Daughters - Grrrl gangstas. Boring

Curiosity Killed The Cat - Very VERY pretty Brit boys. Warhol was in their "Misfit" video. Check it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYhz6R5FV6M"> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYhz6R5FV6M

Oops! That second one works. They sound a bit like late Bronski Beat. The lead singer was one Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot! Yum!

Warhol might have directed that video. Not sure.

"Clear Light - Silly psych"

killer psych! one of my favorite two-drummer line-ups. catch them in the movie The President's Analyst if you dare. (sans cliff though)

Forest from the Trees

Forest FOR The Trees

come on, chuck, everyone knows the big critters hit!

http://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/media/blogs/rth/Critters.jpg

Guy on the right looks like Mr. Dieingly Nerd.

i put chocolate milk on an 80's mix that i made. feel free to download:

Tone Band - Germany Calling (Polydor - 1981)

M& H Band - Popcorn (Butter Mix) (Touch - 1988)

Micro Chip League - Communicate (Peking Walk) (AK Lawn - 1986)

Chocolate Milk - Video Queen (RCA - 1981)

Technique Niquee - Frattered (Zero Faute - 1986)

Panoramics - Estellita El Mix (Harbor Light - 198?)

Supertramp - Cannonball (Instrumental) (A&M - 1985)

The Mood - Don't Stop (RCA - 1982)

Baroque Bordello - Today (ALG - 1984)

Richard Romeo - Non Chalance (Ariola - 1984)

Opal - Ain't No Way (Dub Version - Killer Matos Mix) (Silver Cloud - 1983)

'Lectric Funk - Shanghaied (JDC - 1981)

Full Beat featuring Afroside & Jovanotti - Beat Bop To Bicycle (Full Time - 198?)

Slammin' The Rock - Say Yeah! (Warlock - 198?)

http://dutchtoenglish.com/skots%2080s%20rock%20box%20vol%201.mp3

The Caravelles

60s girl duo, had a handful of unremarkable girl group 45s and one incredible (and massively reverberated) folk single "hey mama you've been on my mind"

Cactus World News - Irish (?) rock band, had no doubt heard some Waterboys/Big Country/U2

The Chimes - Scottish soul band, had a big UK hit with a cover of 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'.

The Christians - socially conscious Liverpudlian pop/soul band, debut album was absolutely massive in UK (1.2 million+). Faded to obscurity very quickly once rave culture set in.

The Casinos

You may have heard this on oldies radio and thought it was from a decade earlier. "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" is a S-L-O-W dancer that sounded like it could have been Jimmy Beaumont & the Skyliners. No idea what else they recorded.

The Checkmates Ltd.

"Black Pearl," a great Phil Spector production from '69. Likewise, no idea what else they recorded, though lead singer Sonny Charles did chart a decade later with "Put It in a Magazine," which I've never heard.

The Cuff Links

Ron Dante (Archies), double- or triple-tracking himself on the perky "Tracy": When I'm with you, something ya do ... hello earworm. I don't think he even recorded anything else under this nom de disque.

Cactus World News were indeed Irish and were initially discovered by and given a lot of publicity (and a support slot on a a tour iirc) by Bono. First (?) single "Worlds Apart" was excellent in a big, bombastic U2 / Big Country / Simple Minds kind of way but the album failed to impress and their record label declined to release it's follow-up.

The Christians included Henry Priestman formerly of The Yachts and Its Immaterial.

The Christians - socially conscious Liverpudlian pop/soul band, debut album was absolutely massive in UK (1.2 million+).
Faded to obscurity very quickly once rave culture set in.

advert in new mojo indicates they have returned from obscurity to do some shows this year.

I suppose it's time for the 80's revival to make it to 1987. Will have to give it a listen again to see how well it stands up. It kind of was the last gasp of a certain strand in British music when it was released.

Album had lolworthy 12" 'remixes' - just extended versions but one of them decides to wow you with studio wizardry, i.e. a sample of an engineer saying "you can speeditup, you can slooowww ittt doooowwwnn, add echo-echo-echo"

I think it stands up pretty well though. But it took me ages to track it down on slsk.

The big singles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnW4AIkeIaY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2dDZKWdg2E

Cactus World News had some professional tie-in w/U2 IIRC and sounded like it. I lukewarmly reviewed their US debut in rolling $tone prob in 1986.

Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys were 50s revival band in the late 60s wh0se debut album was produced by Jimi Hendrix I believe.

C.C.S. were Alexis Korner's early 70s big band (the initials were short for The Collective Consciousness Society). Had several hits produced by Mickie Most. Best remembered now for "Tap Turns On The Water" and their great instrumental cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (used as the theme for BBC's Top Of The Pops for several years).

Cactus World News, indistuingishable from Zerra One and In Tua Nua as I recall. There was loads of this sub-U2 / Alarm / Big Country / Runrig bollocks around at the time, all absolutely horrible.

Tane Cain - didn't she end up marrying David Coverdale and appearing in Whitesnake promos, or am I confusing her with someone?

Les Claypool & The Holy Mackerel - this has to be dire. Not that I've heard (of) it.

Cold Chisel - Jimmy Barnes wasn't it? Hero to bogans worldwide, thanks to the suburban Australian diaspora.

Coney Hatch - crapola Canadian hard rockers, named after the Colney Hatch mental hospital in Friern Barnet, North London for some reason.

didn't she end up marrying David Coverdale and appearing in Whitesnake promos

That's Tawny Kitaen.