1980s Modern Rock #2 Hits

"Love Song" vs "Regina"

I do an awesome karaoke version of "I Want That Man."

Wow. the B.A.D. is kinda meh but the rest range from good to awesome.

"Carolyn's Fingers," "Love Song" or "Regina."

Thanks for doing this -- I would've done them year by year if I knew they'd be so popular.

Voted "Madonna of the Wasps," but so many of these are just great -- "Love Song," "Regina," "Between Something and Nothing," "Eardrum Buzz."

"Good Thing" vs. "Madonna of the Wasps"

no prob LimbsKing, always fun to read through these modern rock polls.

Voted for Ocean Blue. I actually dig pretty much all of these except for "Carolyn's Fingers" and the Ziggy track (which I've never heard, YouTubing now)

"Carolyn's Fingers" grew on me. Hadn't heard it before I put that old poll together.

I'll admit to being put off at first by the vocals on "Carolyn's Fingers" (note that at that point the only Elizabeth Fraser recording I had heard was her guest spot on "Teardrop"), though once you get past that it's actually a pretty good song

a ringer vote for "eardrum buzz" over here, i have always loved that song to an irrational level

without that there, i could have easily have gone regina, love son, madonna of the wasps or killing jar. id rather get drowned in puke than hear "fire woman" again.

i feel like i gotta vote for my bff robyn, and Madonna was the most gorgeous of his major label singles, but i have a sneaking feeling eardrum buzz might be my favorite song on this list.

Haha the vocals on "Carolyn's Fingers" are the BEST part of it for me, but yeah I guess they can be unusual if you're not familiar with CT. The song itself is great, very shimmery and summery. It's easily one of their poppiest moments, but I had no idea it made it so high in the charts. (x-post)

Fire Woman.

noooooooooo

Jon - I agree with your sentiments but still voted for Wire. ;-)

which version of "Eardrum Buzz" hit #2?

man got takeout the other night and 'madonna of the wasps' was playing, sounded GREAT and totally sent me back. queen elvis gets slighted generally and apparently isn't even in print but god i loved that album, the first robyn hitchcock album i got to experience in real time and anticipate before it came out, soundtrack to that summer along w/ raw like sushi, keep on movin', disintegration, prince's batman soundtrack.

voted for that obv but i do have some fondness for 'good thing', great song on its own but i can remember going to science camp and and the b-side 'social security' being 'our song' (i had the cassingle). ridiculously hilarious to think back on how so much seemed to happen during that camp, weird little dramas and intense relationship cycles, all over the course of two weeks maybe? i can remember one of the last nights there was a talent show and me and two bros did 'performance art' where i read allen ginsberg's kral majales, one dude just played the end of the beatles 'i want you (she's so heavy)' on his boombox held up to a mic ffwding and rewinding at random, and another dude would go into the crowd w/ a balloon, pop it at some point, and then come back to the stage and get another balloon and repeat the cycle. i don't know why they let us do that. i can remember making 'plans' w/ that girl at the dance - we'd go to college together (in five years)! we'd live on a houseboat! - and slowdancing to some fine young cannibals b-side in clemson, south carolina. listening to it for the first time in nearly twenty five years it's slight as fuck, tossed off pastiche. children are stupid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJ7NCopOt0

Perspex Island was my first Hitchcock ("So You Think You're In Love") but I loved it enough to send me backwards to Globe of Frogs and Queen Elvis, which I recognize now are R.E.M.-with-bugs. But I played "Autumn Sea" an awful light.

Am I correct in saying "Madonna of the Wasps" was an honest to god college hit besides a "modern rock" hit?

yeah he owned college radio for a couple of years there, modern rock radio had alot more crossover back and forth between the two formats pre-nirvana. for the early goldrush years there was still some crossover - pavement, sebadoh, liz phair could score hits but it felt more flukish and vaguely subversive, it wasn't the normal model whereas when the labels used college radio as a farm league where the next u2/rem/peter gabriel might emerge the hope was something might blow up on college radio -> crosses over quickly to modern rock radio (if a plausible/palatable enough act - you don't see any galaxie 500 or bongwater up there and while hip-hop was very big on college radio it never really crossed over to modern rock radio) -> maybe you get lucky and it crosses over to top 40, hello fine young cannibals and go figure the cure.

I guess CMJ is the only place to get data on the big-nessof Peter Gabriel, P-Furs (can't omit them), Echo, Siouxsie, the Replacements, et al before 1991.

More accurate to say REM were RH/Soft Boys without bugs, surely? Buck guests all over those records because he looked up to RH so much!

It's a real shame those a&m albums are in limbo, especially Queen Elvis which is the one of the four that really sounds like big label money well spent. Except those moments when Andy Metcalfe goes too far with the ecstatic overplaying ("Knife" almost makes me think of Primus in a bad way). "Wax Doll" and "One Long Pair of Eyes" are all time.

Are any of the old CMJ playlists/charts online?

A couple of issues from the late '90s are on Google Books but the only pre-1998 chart which turns up after a couple of searches is this "Top Cuts" chart from 1991:

http://www.starcityscene.com/HistPhotos/CMJ.jpg

which version of "Eardrum Buzz" hit #2?

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 13, 2014 12:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If I'm not mistaken it was the 12" version (as featured in the music video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3fLn4FYWH0

Cool list.

Bummer. I prefer the version on the MTV "120 Minutes" comp with the growls and fly noises and distorto-bass.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Well, "Fire Woman" won as expected but it's a nice surprise to see Robyn tied with it for first place. Plus, every song managed to get a vote!