Hey resident popists, why no love for bands like China Crisis, Pale Fountains, etc.?

I can't find any decent threads for either of these bands (not even a single thread for the Pale Fountains). It's good, smart pop music with a slightly left of the dial bend. Is there something awful associated with them in their home countries? In the US one is non-existent and the other is your usual obscuro British indie band.

I will also fight to the death for Steely Dan, so that's my stance on the issue.

burt youre needed on the ilx alums of 2008 thread

Got it.

i support this

See? This thread's more barren than my sex life.

Lord knows ILM needed another Steely Dan defender.

Forget about Steely Dan, I'm talkin these other guys here

I love China Crisis, but remember posting about them on another thread. Pale Fountains always kindof went in one ear and out the other (though I have a friend who will kill me for saying that).

Don't know a whole lot about the Pale Fountains, but China Crisis were awfully wet weren't they? Actually, I didn't mind 'Wishful Thinking' at the time in a wistful-synth-poppish way, but 'Black Man Ray'... bloomin 'eck...

I reckon the best wimpy Liverpool band around at that time were the Lotus Eaters:

Such a great great song.

Damn, does this link work?

Shack are a favorite of mine, yet I've never bothered to check out more than a track or two by Pale Fountains. I sort of expect it to be like Shack but with less suitable production values. But someday I will have to see if this is actually the case. I think I've put all my energy meanwhile into unsuccessfully trying to find the Michael Head and The Strands album.

All those bands seem to be in the same vein ... wimpy and effete with a desire to create the smoothest, sweetest indie pop for god knows why. Their attempts can be pretty enjoyable, but it's weird how they fell into complete and utter non-existence. At least these bands tried to do something else, even if the results are unpalatable to most.

At least you can admire their courage to make this music... I can't imagine it was ever popular? The twee bands later on are basically just your typical scenester trash with a cute affectation; these guys, on the other hand, made some truly wussy music.

Yeah, I have no idea where these bands got the urge to make that sort of music from. It's a bit like Haircut 100 meets OMD at a neutering clinic. Also, shaved-off sideburns like so, and pleated trousers with shirts tucked in like so. Leather flying jackets, nice shiny shoes.

Maybe the look was a Chariots of Fire/Brideshead Revisited sort of thing?

Pale Fountains had horrid 80s production. Stick with Shack.

Hmmm, I think this thread answered its own question.

More Liverpool contemporaries:

I heard that Driving Away from Home Song ... it's on a compilation of the least cool 80s music I've ever heard. It's good stuff, but man, a butter knife cuts better.

Nice TOTP Lotus Eaters track up there. I didn't realize Peter Coyle was the singer of Lotus Eaters, but I recall buying his first double LP solo album circa...'88 called "A Slap In The Face For The Public Taste". It probably should have been pared down to a single LP, but he came up with some pretty neat and quirky ideas on that and it didn't really sound like Lotus Eaters. Hell, I wish I still had it.

It's Immaterial always come across so gimmicky & slick to me. I don't like them at all.

I saw China Crisis in 2002. I like what I know of them.

I love 'the first picture of you'.

I have never knowingly heard Pale Fountains.

much prefer shack to pale fountains but that's not to say their records aren't good.. 'unless' is surely one of mick head's top five songs (though i'm recently led to believe that the very underrated john head had the more significant part in its writing)

'Thank You', by The Pale Fountains is great, wannabe Bacharach pop. A lost 60s nugget which would really benefit from Scott Walker or Tom Jones belting it out.

I can't hear 'First Picture of You' without casting my mind back to that blazing hot summer of 1983.

and yeah the production has its flaws but it's no worse than the major label orange juice stuff, which isn't so bad either

You woulda thought the Pale Fountains would've been revived during that 90s lounge lizard shit. God 90s hipsters were weird.

I saw China Crisis in 2002. I like what I know of them

Yeah, I think they're still gigging to this day. I saw them in 1984! That makes me sound so very ancient, but I was quite young at the time.

It took me a full minute to figure out that The Residents have nothing to do with China Crisis.

LOL! And thank goodness for that!

Heard this today on my drive home, so great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o500c0EhvDw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o500c0EhvDw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RPPPZBChzo

such pureness.
a great year for being lighthearted geniuses... the more is the bitterness knowing the fate of chris.

fun fact: both these bands are on that Bob Stanley/Pete Wiggs Tears Of Technology comp

I absolutely love Shack, but the 80s production really put me off the Pale Fountains.

Does Lloyd Cole and the Commotions count as this kind of band?

From Across The Kitchen Table is very Rattlesnakesy, yes. Influence of Postcard I guess.

Rattlesnakes was great, so I might give The Pale Fountains another go then.

liner notes in that Stanley comp mention Pale Fountains were Bacharach fanboys who had a synth pop sound kinda imposed on them and it does make sense to listen to the synth lines like they're 60's easy listening horns