wall of voodoo - mexican radio

I don't know that version, dude. YSI? hahahah

Christ almighty god I love You Tube:

Whole Call Of The West album is great.

Apparantly Primus was supposed to cover this for the secret track to Antipop, but couldn't get clearance.

xxposts

Some friend of mine bought that single for me for my birthday circa...1983? I'd just turned 12 years old, and I flipped my lid over that. I wasn't really sure I knew who did the song...I'd heard it on American Bandstand but I wasn't really sure who did that song yet and all of a sudden, someone handed me the single of it. I played it over and over and over and over and over.

What I remember most was that the drum sounds they had on that American Bandstand performance were like nothing else that had ever been heard before, a totally new sound.

>>the drum sounds they had...

The junkstore percussion of the late, great Joe Nanini, augmented by the Kalamazoo Rhythm Ace.

Great song, great album, great band.

I never cared much for call of the west aside from "mexican radio", dark continent is their finest album. still criminally out of print.

the index masters is great too, their cover of "ring of fire" can't be beat.

MINDMELD I am RIGHT NOW listening to their 'Ring Of Fire' cover on this new Optimo mix that Domino are putting out (and which is ace)!

I'll do it tomorrow, that seems like a pretty good idea to me!!!

Utterly brilliant reflection on his WoV time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTl_v7sFF78

man thst is beautiful

This has just made my crappy Monday at work 100x better. Thank you!

There's no dedicated Stan Ridgway thread. The man's released a truckload of great music. That tune is from "Snakebite", one of his best albums.

That tune was great; I stopped following his solo career for some reason but I do remember how gorgeous and amazing the song "Snaketrain" is

Wall of Voodoo's live appearance at the US festival is worth looking up on the usual video sites. That is some discordant and odd music to drop on a football stadium. You find the the full video and you will also get a Young Woz bonus guest spot. Heck of an array of now vintage Rolands and synths in the live setup too.

I might be wrong, but I think Andy Prieboy, Ridgeway's replacement, was the first music guy I ever interviewed (when Seven Days in Sammystown came out). I'd be interested in travelling back in time to hear how I convinced the editor this was a worthwhile idea.

Hm, look like my link above got lost:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUEzHQhydpo

I watched that US Festival footage last night, so amazing. I laughed out loud when Stan yells, "We're really boogieing now!" What a bunch of wiseacres.

His birth name is Stan Funsten??

there should be a thread for weirdass bands that somehow crank out pitch perfect, inscrutable singles. I really like this group but listening to every other song they have you'd never think they could write a pop song like this. only thing I can think of like it is maybe "Groove is in the Heart", I mean Deee-Lite weren't that weird but nowhere else on the album do you get the sense they could do a track like that

Giving it a listen this week, it is very wild in hindsight that not only did Celtic Frost cover this song but they lead off an album with the cover.

Lost Weekend is such a cool tune, it's sad in a way very few songs are, in that yes it's about the struggles of degenerate gamblers which ain't that uncommon a topic but it doesn't really romanticize them at all, in fact it kinda makes them seem like losers. and it really captures their desperation without really explicitly saying that. just all in the little details. also the music is pretty weird. the way that drum machine is programmed, it doesn't really play a steady beat, it kinda alternates time signatures a bit, though maybe I'm just miscounting. idk another song that evokes the same feeling as this one.

Stan's songs are full of people like that and the way he gives them depth is part of his appeal to me.

Definitely key to his work and art.

recently watched urgh! a music war and wall of voodoo's performance was one of my faves. i don't think i'd ever heard them before. where is a good place to start with them?

was thinking of throwing on 'dark continent' as that's the album "back in flesh" is on. is that the one? or should i start with the following album that has the big single on it?

are they always a cross between, like, cabaret voltaire and b-52s?

they're maybe a bit like Devo where the Hardcore stuff is more unique and has a rawer quality to it whereas Call of the West is like their Freedom of Choice, every song on it is pretty catchy and slick, though it doesn't really reduce their weirdness by much, if anything it's even stranger hearing music like this given a good production budget. its also a really strong set of songs so I'd go with that.

i will probably listen to both

Lost Weekend is fantastic, the Stan Ridgway solo track A Mission In Life ploughs a similar furrow and is an absolute sensation.

Stan's solo work makes for a hell of a dive -- this isn't all of it (none of the 80s major label albums) but it's worth spelunking:

https://stanridgway1.bandcamp.com/music

A long time fave (with thanks to Elvis Telecom, who alerted me to it thanks to our mutual friend Matt doing the design, IIRC) is this one, his honest to god take on crooner classics, done as a salute to his dad's own favorite music I seem to remember:

https://stanridgway1.bandcamp.com/album/the-way-i-feel-today

It's really a beaut.

Yeah, it's brilliant the way he sings those song in a straight ahead manner yet still fills them with his unique brand of weirdness.