Bands nobody ever talks about anymore in the "America" chapter of the 1980 new wave guide I just bought for $2 off a seemingly homeless guy set up on the sidewalk of St Marks

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Subtracting the obvious ones everybody remembers leaves these (some of whom have been discussed on ILM before, but many of whom haven't):

pearl harbour and the explosions
the cretones
ellen foley
carolyn mas
the shirts
urban verbs
the durocs
the fools
phil rambow
steve forbert
the babys
d.l. byron
david werner
louise goffin
greg kihn band
the laughing dogs
sue saad
the atlantics

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

Oops, forgot these!

holly and the italians
spider
the orchids
dyan diamond
tommy rock
cobra

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 17:41 (twenty years ago)

I saw Greg Kihn on Hit Me Baby, One More Time. He looked content.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

the shirts
WNEW-FM was always pushing them back in the day. Their lead singer was Annie Golden, was that her name? Maybe she was also in some Broadway or, more likely, off-Broadway show.

pearl harbour and the explosions
Sometimes I had a hard time telling them from martha and the muffins. pearl went solo, did she not, with a cover of "Fujiyama Mama."

the laughing dogs
And what about the good rats? Did they ever break out of bar-banditry?

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

louise goffin
Didn't she play her mom in a movie?

greg kihn band
Surely people still remember greg kihn. After all, he was the subject of a Weird Al parody!

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

ellen foley
She sang backup on a Meatloaf record, no, was that her launching pad to fame?

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)

"steve forbert"

I think Mojo called Ryan Adams "An over-hyped Steve Forbert wannabe" once.

'louise goffin"

She's done some records with her mom, Carole King, I think. I do know that they sing "Where You Lead" as a duet for the theme for Gilmore Girls.

― Marxism Goes Better With Coke (Charles McCain), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:53 (twenty years ago)

sue saad
And her backing band, the Next. Zak Starkey's first band, I think (or first one anyone ever heard of)

holly and the italians
Damn shame they've been forgotten - both of their albums are full of sturdy pop-punk-new-wave that stands up easily with Beauty and The Beat. I've played "Baby Gets It All" at DJ nights and gotten good response.

spider
"New Romance (It's A Mystery)" - great song.

― mike a, Monday, 19 September 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

I'm a sucker for femme-vox new wave, so I own and still play recs by Pearl Harbor, Ellen Foley, Shirts, Holly, Dyan...

I have a Spider LP featuring Holly Knight; they did (the original?) version of "Better Be Good To Me," later covered by Tina Turner, but it isn't (and they weren't) very good.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Monday, 19 September 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)

I've got all three Shirts albums - my local college radio station played 'em to death. I THINK I still have my Pearl Harbour & The Explosions and Robin Lane & The Chartbusters LPs.

― mike a, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

I'm starting to channel the voice of Steve Forbert. He is singing the words "Grand Central Station, it wheels and it deals." He was a folksy, rootsy new Dylan type, I think. He has been eclipsed in my mind by Steve Earle.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

...uh, for the quite-similar Scandal.

― mike a, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:03 (twenty years ago)

Didn't we have a big holly the italians lovefest a few months ago?

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:03 (twenty years ago)

oops. here's the link I meant to post:

http://www.hollyknight.com/disco.html

Spider's lead singer wrote "The Warrior."

― mike a, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:03 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and we covered Forbert here:

The Steve Forbert Game

― mike a, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

Yes, Holly Vincent has been somewhat appreciated around here.

Here she is, sportin' a few more tats than she had in '81:

http://www.perrific.com/concerts/HollyVincent/hv2.html

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

well, that thread's not really ABOUT steve forbert (much)

― xhuxk, Monday, 19 September 2005 18:12 (twenty years ago)

holly and the italians were mentioned on this thread started by a well known figure TS: Robin Lane & The Chartbusters v. Pearl Harbour & The Explosions , although I think some posts at the end got deleted during the downtime.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:14 (twenty years ago)

Most of those bands were just *slightly* new wave takes on plain old rock music. I do have a soft spot for Ellen Foley's "Spirit Of St Louis," with many Strummer/Jones tunes and three Tymon Dogg (!) songs, plus backing from the Clash and many of the same extra people who played on "Sandinista!" - like Tymon Dogg and some of the Blockheads. Foley later went on to play "Billie" on "Night Court," before Markie Post took her spot w/ a name change.

The album is a failure, but kind of a gloriously odd one with some intriguing tunes.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

philip rambow was in the winkies! i have an album of theirs; it's not very good.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

Holy smokes, g00gle reminds me of long forgotten fact that Ellen Foley also sang on "Hitsville, UK"!

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Check out the Orchids and their bizarro outfits:

http://www.aurealm.com/covers/orc_lp1.jpg

Kim Fowley was involved with them but they sound nothing like the Runaways. More soft rock. The album stinxor.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

I guess louise goffin's only relationship to the Carole King movie is that she co-wrote a song for it with her dad.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

I have that Orchids LP, too. Jan was an old friend from her days in Minneapolis bands. Yeah, it's, um... not the greatest.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Monday, 19 September 2005 20:05 (twenty years ago)

I have the little known Holly Vincent/Joey Ramone 45 of "I Got You Babe".

― everything, Monday, 19 September 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

d.l. byron

i'm reasonably sure he's the only ex-member of uriah heep who ever cut a 12-inch single ("down in the boondocks") with billy joel's band.

the fools
the atlantics

ahh, sweet ol' boston mass. i had no idea people even talked about these two bands at the time. did they?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 19 September 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

If you will allow me to quote Jonathan Richman for a moment, fcc, not in New York.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

You better tell that girl to shut up
You better tell that girl I'm gonna beat her up
You better tell that girl, you better tell that girl, you better tell that gi-iiirl...

― babyalive (babyalive), Monday, 19 September 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

I think The Babys were John "Missing You" Waite's band. Classic Rock magazine reference them occasionally. If DL Byron is indeed the late David Byron, ex of Uriah Heep by that time, then he's British not American and SHOULD BE IN ANOTHER SECTION! Maybe THE BRITISH SECTION!

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Monday, 19 September 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

I think The Babys were John "Missing You" Waite's band.

Aye. Baby's keyboardist Jonathan Cain went on to Journey also.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 19 September 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

This thread is unkihntrollably silly: Greg Kihn: POX

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 19 September 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

carolyn mas

It's funny to see how many of these folks turn up when you just type in their name followed by dot.com. For example: carolynemas.com

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 19 September 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

dyan diamond

She was in Venus & The Razorblades and then got mixed up with Kim Fowley for her solo album. Mystical Beast has a lot more info on her

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 19 September 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

wait, did xhuxk buy a book about new wave? i didn't know that.

― fidel padillo, Monday, 19 September 2005 22:28 (twenty years ago)

Jeff Buckley (who I didn't like much) reminded me of Steve Forbert (who I also didn't like much.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

Urban Verbs are still whispered about. Washington DC new wave band, but new wave in the way Television were new wave, I think I've got a live show by them around here somewhere...

― Edward III (edward iii), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 03:10 (twenty years ago)

Orchids were a Kim Fowley project I believe. They had a great single called "If Boys Got Pregnant"

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 03:26 (twenty years ago)

d.l byron and david byron are two different people.

the fools actually put out a few good albums and/or EPs in garage-frat-rock/AOR/hard rock/dance rock sneakily disguised as new wave mode (i'd name them but they're at home), and even had a novelty hit or two: one was their talking heads parody "psycho chicken" (which was not even close to their best track).

i never thought of the babys (though i liked them) as remotely "new wave" at the time, though in retrospect they were totally powerpop (and great).

and yes, i did indeed buy a new wave book.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 11:44 (twenty years ago)

and oh yeah, steve forbert (who could at least be catchy) >> jeff buckley

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:13 (twenty years ago)

Catchy is right- that "Grand Central Station" line was catchy enough to stay with me for more than twenty years!

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

Chuck, does any of those books you bought about Bands No One Talks About Anymore mention Charlie?

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:25 (twenty years ago)

I only bought one book! But oddly enough, I also bought an album by Charlie at a Salvation Army in Montreal a couple months ago. It cost $1 Canadian, but I haven't listened to it yet. It had a scantily clad lounging girl on the cover, who I don't think was in the band. Weird, though - I was thinking they did that "So You Want to Be A Rock and Roll Star" update, called, um, whatever it was called...oh yeah, "Killer Cut," right? But bizarrely, that's not listed in the Joel Whitburn book I have. I can't believe that didn't go Top 40! I always get it mixed up in my head with "Pilot of the Airwaves" by Charlie Dore, which Whitburn says DID go top 40 (#13 in fact!). There IS a group called "Charlie" who apparently went #38 with "It's Inevitable" in 1983; is that the same band as the "Killer Cut" guys??

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:33 (twenty years ago)

It had a scantily clad lounging girl on the cover
Like Roxy Music, that was their trademark! I think they did do "Killer Cut" but I don't remember the other song. I remember an album track- or maybe it was even a single- that they used to play a lot on the radio called "Watching TV."

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

apparently they did both songs:

http://www.epinions.com/content_100258516612

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

Killer Cut

So you wanna be a rock and roll star
Well, times have changed, that's all I say
You still need an electric guitar
But most of all you need that radio radio play
All day, all day, play and play and play

So you think that your music's an art
And every song has something to say
I'll tell you now that your learning will start
When you listen real hard to that radio radio play
All day, all day, play and play and play

You gotta write one killer cut, the song is a pearl
You gotta write one killer cut to turn on the world

The short road to fame (if you don't mind the blame)
Is to steal the best bits from those top forty hits
Just keep it real short, and when the records are bought
You're a star

All the company men will remind you again and again
If you get things just right, it's success over night
If you listen and learn you'll have money to burn
You're a star

You gotta write one killer cut, the song is a pearl
You gotta write one killer cut to turn on the world

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:57 (twenty years ago)

CHARLIE DORE lyrics - "Pilot Of The Airwaves"

Pilot of the airwaves
Here is my request
You don't have to play it
But I hope you'll do your best
I've been listening to your show on the radio
And you seem like a friend to me

Or a record of your choice
I don't mind
I'd be happy just to hear your voice
Saying this is for the girl
Who didn't sign her name
Yes, she needs a dedication just the same

Late at night I'm still listening
Don't waste my time chasing sleep
People say I look weary
But that 's just the company I keep

Ooooh, you make the nighttime race
Ooooh, I don't need to see your face
You're sounding good (sounding good)
Sounding good to me

Pilot of the airwaves
Here is my request
You don't have to play it
But I hope you'll do your best
I've been listening to your show on the radio
And you seem like a friend to me

[Instrumental Interlude]

Late at night I'm still listening
Don't waste my time chasing sleep
People say I look weary
But that's just the company I keep

Ooooh, you make the nighttime race
Ooooh, I don't need to see your face
You're sounding good (sounding good)
Sounding good to me

Pilot of the airwaves
Here is my request
You don't have to play it
But I hope you'll do your best
I've been listening to your show on the radio
And you seem like a friend to me
(Oooooh, I been) listening to your show on the radio
And you seem like a friend to me

Oooooh-ooooh-oooooh
Oooooh-ooooh-oooooh
Oooooh-ooooh-oooooh
Play that song for me
Oooooh-ooooh-oooooh
Oh, won't you just play that song for me

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

"I've got all three Shirts albums"

I was thinking about The Shirts the other day after discovering some footage of them performing "Tell Me Your Plans" on the end of some DVD I bought on E-Bay.

They did three albums? I knew they'd done one, although the only stuff of theirs I've actually heard was on the Live At CBGB's album - and iirc they only got included on that at the last minute as a replacement for another band that was supposed to be on there (Blondie???) because that other band got signed and their new label refused to allow their recordings to be included on the album.... or something like that....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:09 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, three Shirts albums - The Shirts, Street Light Shine and Inner Sleeve. The last is my favorite. Hilly Kristal managed them. I wouldn't, like, consider them a great lost NYC band, but I still have a soft spot for them.

Oh man, "Pilot of The Airwaves." When I did an overnight radio show a couple years later and started hearing from insane women listeners, I remembered Charlie Dore.

― mike a, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

The CBGB website says that Annie Golden "is currently starring on Broadway in the musical The Full Monty."

I think that I read that the other Charlie song chuck mentioned was their swan song.

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

"Tell that girl to shut up" = eternally classic.

― Guayaquil (eephus), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

EVERY song on right to be italian is great.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

Weird! Had never heard of Holly & the Italians until recently when someone gave me a CD of random old NY band Alter Ego -- they covered "Tell that Girl" around the same time as Transvision Vamp ('80? '81?). Love the cover, I should look up the orig.

― Laurel, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

definitely get that album. it's near perfect from start to finish.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

Even Paul Schaeffer couldn't ruin it!

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

The Babys had something to do with "America?" Ha-ha. They were Brits. Fuck, one of their albums, about the best one, was called "Union Jacks" and the title song was about being corralled by the coppers, "Allo, allo, allo!"

― George the Animal Steele, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:34 (twenty years ago)

Was that song as good as the Long John Baldry song about the same topic?

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:35 (twenty years ago)

i remember being really bored by shirts albums a zillion years ago. i liked annie golden in hair though.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:42 (twenty years ago)

when i was 13 i went to a sale at my local library and some guy (jim stockman. he wrote his name on all his albums) had dumped his records there. it turned me on too so much. i got shirts, human switchboard, teenage jesus & the jerks, buzzcocks, tom robinson, and tubeway army records and a bunch more. i was already into the new wave and stuff, but some of it blew my little mind.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

Heh. I randomly stumbled onto a Pearl Harbor album that someone had uploaded about a week ago. It's OK, though it's dubbed from cassette and has that "wow-wow-wow" tape noise thing going on behind the whole album.
Oh, and a campus magazine screwed me out of money for a Louise Goffin review, and I still have the album sitting around here somewhere... (It's OK, I guess).

― js (honestengine), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 00:23 (twenty years ago)

Re Baldry and "Union Jacks," no idea. But "Union Jacks" was a kind of florid Ken Olsen-produced mini-rock opera kind of song, which seems to run totally counter to anything Baldry.

― George the Animal Steele, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

I just wanted to namecheck the Long John Baldry song because of the way the copper in the story pronounces "Boogie Woogie" - he says something about "some strange sort of Boodgie Woodgie music."

― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 01:23 (twenty years ago)

No doubt he was standing in front of Henry's Swing Club.

― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

I love these threads about '79/'80 "skinny-tie" major-label new wave music. I still have a soft spot for this era, and pick up albums by these type bands whenever I see them in the cheap bin. Some true finds along the way (like the Cretones), and some lame ducks (Alda Reserve, Chiclids, Atlantics), but it's still intriguing just the same.

Wasn't there another similar thread that had Chuck Eddy pontificating on all these middling bar bands who were forced to don skinny ties and narrow lapels and jump on the new wave bandwagon after the Knack took off? I'm looking for it, so if anybody knows the link, send it my way! I always thought it was funny how on the back cover of the Cretones' first LP (with "Real Love"), they placed the most fashionable members closest to the camera, while the one slightly overweight, most sloppily-dressed guy in the band is in the background, way out of focus? Don't tell me that was an accident.

There was one radio station in Chicago, WLUP (The Loop) that played all these power-pop bands to death. They put out two albums of local bands (vols. 1 & 2 of CHICAGO ROCKS), and sure enough, all the bands sounded like a cross between arena-rock and new wave because they cluelessly didn't know which way the trend was going.

What sparked this rush of "disco sucks" nostalgia? Well, I'm going to see Off Broadway and Pezband (two bands from that era) on Saturday night, and I was compelled to reread these Attack Of The Knack Clones threads...

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Thursday, 23 November 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

Where is the love for HOUNDS and STREETHEART and SHOOTING STAR and PRISM?

Doug & the Slugs Vs. Frankie & the Knockouts

― xhuxk (xheddy), Thursday, 23 November 2006 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

TS: Robin Lane & The Chartbusters v. Pearl Harbour & The Explosions

― xhuxk (xheddy), Thursday, 23 November 2006 19:25 (nineteen years ago)

thanks, chuck

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Thursday, 23 November 2006 19:42 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

When I posted this, it was just before the big board crashdown...

I did indeed go to see Off B'way and Pezband...they sounded great, but being from Chicago, at some point during both bands' sets they launched into these terrible blooze-rock medleys, as if they'd mutated into Pat Travers or somebody. Alex Chilton (Big Star) was a better soul man than Cliff Johnson (Off Broadway) or Mimi Betinis (Pezband) are blues, but as far as that other stuff, they nailed it.

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Monday, 22 January 2007 05:29 (nineteen years ago)

Holly Beth Vincent briefly toured as the Waitresses' lead singer when Patty Donahue dropped out for a while.

Speaking of NY New Wave--the Cosmopolitans, of "(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy" and "Wild Moose Party" fame, actually had a CD released last year. It's B-52riffic!

Annie Golden's porn name was Annie Sprinkle.

One of these may not be true.

― Hideous Lump (Hideous Lump), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 03:49 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

I do have a soft spot for Ellen Foley's "Spirit Of St Louis," with many Strummer/Jones tunes and three Tymon Dogg (!) songs, plus backing from the Clash and many of the same extra people who played on "Sandinista!" - like Tymon Dogg and some of the Blockheads.

Wow, finally heard this album, and it is beyond horrible -- unlistenable cabaret crap wall to wall, give or take maybe "M.P.H." on Side One and a really weak quasi-reggae track somewhere on Side Two. I was hoping for something to like, given all the interesting names involved. One of the worst albums I've ever paid $1 for, I think.

Even more disappointing than her '79 debut, which I wrote about here:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

― xhuxk, Sunday, 25 April 2010 21:16 (fifteen years ago)

only know some of these from:

http://www.poster-books.com/images/this-aint-no-disco-new-wave-album-covers.jpg

― max arrrrrgh, Sunday, 25 April 2010 21:30 (fifteen years ago)

That's a great book, by the way, bought it on remainder at the Ferry Terminal in SF

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 25 April 2010 22:42 (fifteen years ago)

Also, since I revived this, might as well mention that I've been talking about a lot of these bands around here the past couple years.

Cretones

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

The Fools

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

Steve Forbert

Rolling Country 2009 Thread

Greg Kihn Band

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

Laughing Dogs

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

Sue Saad & The Next

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

David Werner

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

― xhuxk, Monday, 26 April 2010 01:17 (fifteen years ago)

Oops, ignore that Cretones link; here's the right one:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

― xhuxk, Monday, 26 April 2010 01:20 (fifteen years ago)

Urban Verbs have been mentioned on a few threads; singer was the brother of Chris Frantz and Brian Eno produced their demo, were kind of a big draw in Washington, D.C. in the pre-hardcore days. an older guy i used to work with a few years ago had gone to their shows back in the day, and when he tracked down a copy of their first album he burned me a copy. not bad, not great either.

― surmudgeon (some dude), Monday, 26 April 2010 01:25 (fifteen years ago)

Wow, how the hell did I miss this thread?

Only thing to add that seems important at the moment is that there was apparently a 2nd Dyan Diamond album that never got released. I'd heard from the family of the guy who played guitar on the first one, who had the tapes and were trying to go about getting it released. Never heard anything after that (this was back in 2007). I'm pretty sure now that Dyan is (or was recently) an attorney for the ACLU.

Was just listening to Greg Kihn Band's Springsteen cover ("For You") yesterday...still sounds pretty good.

Tommy Rock played with Dyan Diamond and = Tommy Knight: http://www.myspace.com/tommyrocksongs

Saw a Shirts reunion in Brooklyn some years ago. Good natured and fun, but didn't make a big impression...

― dlp9001, Monday, 26 April 2010 03:08 (fifteen years ago)

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