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

101ers - Joe Strummer plays R&B with his former band before the Clash

Right, that covers the easy ones...

The Outsets were Ivan Julian's post Voidoids band. His wife, Cynthia Sley of Bush Tetras, may have joined after awhile.

If you think that's bad, you should have heared his remake of 'flowers' in a Steps stylee that was the second choice...

this is not a recomendation

That is.

The Orchids had one album. It was awful, tuneless hard rock that wasn't even particularly hard.

Oil Tasters were an arty, noisy band with saxaphones, as I recall. The one album I had was great if you liked that stuff, terrible if you didn't like the style.

That was the Dead Kennedys. The Offs did 'Everyone's A Bigot', an uptempo ska-rock number about how "Blacks are bigots"... wonder what people made of it at the time...

Original Mirrors - I always linked them with Punishment Of Luxury, in the "lots of ads in the music press but no real interest outside of that" camp.

The Outcasts came out of the same Northern Ireland punk scene which spawned Stiff Little Fingers, the Undertones and Protex (whose "I Can't Cope" has been one of my regular earworms for 27 years and counting). Can't remember whether they were any good or not.
John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett - they had their odd moments. "Cor Baby That's Really Free" and "Beware Of The Flowers, I'm Sure They're Gonna Get You, Yeah" grew swiftly irritating, but I liked "Louisa On A Horse" a lot. Pete Townshend produced their debut album, didn't he?

101ers - Joe Strummer's pre-Clash pub band. I used to have a Chiswick I think compilation which included their "Keys to My Heart." Which was good. They were toward the tougher-rocking lunchbucket end of pub, kinda like the Count Bishops, though not THAT tough obviously

Orchids - Weren't they a Kim Fowley post-Runaways girl-rock thing, kinda like Venus and the Razorblades??

Original Mirrors - Name sounds familiar. I remember a drawing of somebody with big glasses (mirror shades?) on the album cover I think

John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett/John Otway - Collage artist, I think he put out cassetes which were often raved about in old *Op* isssues

1. Runaways
2. Venus & the Razor Blades
3. The Orchids -- the cover was the best thing about it, tastefully dressed young girls in pastels.

Dyan Diamond's post Venus & Razorblades solo album is occasionally great.

Oh, absolutely, and not just because I stood on my copy of it a couple of weeks ago and it only plays about four tracks all the way through now.

"Unholy Soul" and "Striving for the Lazy Perfection" have both been my favourite albums at one point. The latter in particular doesn't sound like a Sarah record at all, really. I was listening to them at 4am today, and they are the kind of band I wish I liked when they were around and I could find all their stuff in record shops. I was a couple of years too late.

I wonder if you can find the 101ers on cd? "Keys to Your Heart" is an awesome catchy song.

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

(At least I don't think I have. At least not much. Unless I'm wrong about a couple, but so what):

O'Bryan
The Ocean Blue
October Project
Old & In The Way
Jane Olivor
Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen
Nigel Olsson
Omar & The Howlers
Shaquille O'Neal
101 Strings
100 Proof Aged In Soul
Organized Konfusion
The Originals
Orion The Hunter
Orpheus
The Other Ones
Ozone

Sort of a short list, so a few notes:

Oaktown's 3-5-7, who didn't make the list, made some excellent rap videos. Here's one of them:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AH_XPxvvJGc

Carroll O'Connor did not make the list because, unlike Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen or Shaquille O'Neal, I heard him singing the theme song from All In The Family several million times. Don't remember ever hearing him sing anything else, though.

Oingo Boingo might have made the list if not for "Weird Science." I'm curious if people think they were ever really any good. I sort of think of them as a poor man's Devo, but I could be way off. I'm amazed they charted with 11 different albums.

O'Kaysions would have made the list if not for "Girl Watcher," which is a great song, though until a couple weeks ago I had no idea who did it. I'd always assumed it came from way earlier than 1968.

Oliver would have made the list if not for "Jean," which for some bizarre reason I will forever associate with the half-semester of fourth grade I spent at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic elementary in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, and with "Good Morning Starshine," which I will forever associate with Catholic quasi-hippie folk masses a few months later, though apparently it was the earlier of the two hits. I still have no real idea who Oliver was. (Closest fellow "O" act, probably: Ocean, who hit with "Put Your Hand In The Hand," another early '70s quasi-hippie folk mass classic, or at least an early '70s Jesus freak classic in general. I'm not sure if there are any websites that document which songs got sung at actual folk masses per se'.)

One Way, who I'm amazed charted with eight albums, would have made the list if not for "Cutie Pie," a great Detroit bubblegum funk near-hit from 1982.

Off Broadway and Robert Ellis Orral probably would have made the list, but I know I heard them before. I remember them both as being faux-powerpop wimps, though maybe the weren't as wimpy as I remember.

The Osborne Brothers would have made the list if not for their version of "Rocky Top," which I've got on K-Tel's excellent Country Kickers CD comp, which also contains Orral's "Boom (It Was Over)," come to think of it. Which isn't bad. So maybe I should check out his pre-country pop career someday.

Oxo would have made the list if not for "Whirly Girl," which is fine, though not nearly as good as Ish Ledesma's best songs with Foxy or Company B.

Omar & The Howlers -- roots rock band led by Omar, similar to George Thorogood only not nearly as successful. Had at least two albums on a major before settling in Rounder-type indie-land. Had one of them, might have been called "Wall of Pride."

Organized Konfusion are very much worth hearing.

Nigel Olsson -- drummer for Elton John. Also for Uriah Heep, briefly.

Shaquille O'Neal -- movie star, played Oliver in "Love Story." Ha-ha. Can you dig it?!!

Yeah, I know who Nigel Olsson was. We always thought he totally looked like a girl in the gatefold of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road when I was 13. Kind of creeped me out at the time, to be honest. Never heard any of his own records, though.

101 Proof Aged in Soul - OHW with "Somebody's Been Sleeping in My Bed," a post-Motown-HDH near-novelty.

Orpheus - a major favorite of mine, which means you'll hate them. Boston baroque-folk-pop band who scraped the bottom of the singles charts in '69 with "Can't Find the Time" and "Brown Arms in Houston." They could be a little corny lyrically but had great arrangement instincts, particularly on a cover of "Walk Away Renee" that they reduce to the first two lines of the refrain, delivered in a dramatic, very Association-like style.

One The Juggler! Good lord, that name takes me back. I used to see that in the record bins all the time. Never heard it, though.

One The Juggler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tgUOfhjVP4

In other words, um...they're not that great.

Orion The Hunter - more correctly Orion, for The Hunter had simply been the title of their first album - was a 1980s rock combo and offshoot of the popular band Boston. It featured former Boston members Barry Goudreau on guitars and future Boston lead vocalist Fran Cosmo. Orion released the album The Hunter in 1984 on Columbia Records, which yielded a hit single "So You Ran", featuring the sky-high vocals which prompted Cosmo's entrance to Boston in the early 90s.

Orion charted at #57 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart after its debut on 5/19/84. "So You Ran" managed to make the Top Ten on rock radio and was a mid-chart hit on mainstream pop radio.

Orion featured Bruce Smith on the bass and ex-Heart drummer Michael DeRosier. The album also included the late Brad Delp, former lead singer of Boston. Brad sang background vocals on numerous tracks. The influence of Goudreau's Boston sound is evident on the album.

(that's from Wikipedia, not me - all I remembered about them was the Boston connection).

O'Bryan - Electrofunky and functional 1980s R&B. You might know "Lovelite."

The Ocean Blue - Exceedingly pleasant alt pop featuring very, VERY pretty boys. Someone called them Echo of the Bunnymen (in Details?). "Drifting, Falling (Snoring)" was their hit. Saxman Steve Lau was gay. But the rest of the band were Jesus Crispies. So they ousted him. Lau found Kinetic. The band were dropped from Warner Bros. Nyah nyah! The band still exists, prolly in Xian rock mode.

Shaquille O'Neal - Xgau top tenned "Biological Didn't Bother." Good song about how crummy his dad was (Shaq's not Xgau's).

The Other Ones - Grateful Dead after Jerry. I liked The Strange Remain which I think is their only album.

Good song about how crummy his dad was (Shaq's not Xgau's)

hahahahaha

There were other Other Ones, too: Australians, I think, who nearly went Top 40 with "Holiday" in '87: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3DsfGffOdM

100 Proof Aged In Soul were an early signing to HDH's post-Motown Hot Wax labe;, along with Laura Lee and The Honey Cone. Someone gave me a vinyl copy of one of their albums about 10 years ago, along with a vinyl Laura Lee comp - but I pounced with such glee upon the Laura Lee that I never really got to grips with the 100 Proof. I really out to dig it out...

The Other Ones - Grateful Dead after Jerry

And Old & In The Way were apparently a Jerry bluegrass side project (c 1975), with David Grisman and Vassar Clements. I think I remember some Missouri hippies owning that LP when I was in college.

October Project

vaguely gothy, vaguely new-agey, vaguely adult-alternative, nyc alt-rockers early '90s, lots of stringy keybs, chick singer with a great voice, were signed to a major label for 30 or 40 seconds. did they really chart?

I haven't picked up an Xtian vibe from The Ocean Blue's later releases, they're more interested in attempting to retread past glories. Oh well, at least they had a glorious past to retrend. They nailed that early 90's pop vibe of shimmering guitars and rainy day emotion which UK bands like The Sundays and Trash Can Sinatras carried up the charts. Probably the best US example, though it didn't lead to much chart success.

100 Proof Aged In Soul are definitely worth digging out, while they weren't as immediately entertaining as Laura Lee or the Honey Cone they certainly had some punchy moments. A personal favourite was their topical "90 Day Freeze" which took Nixon's plea to hold steady wages/rents/etc and applied it to the cheating singer's lovelife.

Oingo Boingo might have made the list if not for "Weird Science." I'm curious if people think they were ever really any good. I sort of think of them as a poor man's Devo, but I could be way off. I'm amazed they charted with 11 different albums.

I think they were kind of a regional band. They had a rather dedicated fanbase in the LA area. Their annual Halloween shows were kind of a big deal - sold out large venues. I guess that was enough to keep them in the lower reaches of the album charts for a fairly long career. Maybe they were better live than on album - though I'll rep for scattered moments of brilliance. And I've never thought of them being like Devo before, though I guess there are some parallels.

I have still never heard these bands under "O" in Jasper & Oliver's International Enclyclopedia of Hard Rock & Heavy Metal

Oak
Oakley
Ocean
Octopus
Offenbach
Oklahoma
Omega
100% Proof
Opus
Original Crayons
Other Half
Oxym
Oz
William Oz
Ozz

Omega - Hungarian prog / hard rockers, huge in Hungary in the Communist era and pretty much unknown elsewhere. Haven't heard them for years but I remember a sub-Uriah Heep thing going on. They looked like the Bee Gees, and released an album called "Hall of Floaters In The Sky" (arf).

Opus - Austrian, sub-Supertramp, had a Europe-wide hit with "Life Is Life", which was subsequently covered by Laibach to devastating effect. I think moustaches were involved.

Opus - Austrian, sub-Supertramp, had a Europe-wide hit with "Life Is Life", which was subsequently covered by Laibach to devastating effect.

I actually preferred the Opus version!