Forgotten 80s

Other forgotten 80s bands (maybe best so ...)
HooDoo Gurus, Bell Jar, Salem 66,

Depends how easily you forget ....

xp

Screaming Blue Me-fucking-ssiahs
fuck-fucking yeah.

where the f-ck are they now?

i loved them like brotheers aged 13.

Also, HooDoo Gurus. Hell yeah. I just realized Mars Needs Guitars is an album I own/ed on all formats.

Had no idea that Jazz Butcher stuff was worth anything, I see quite a lot around here in the bargain bins. Woo-hoo, Ebay here I come... Of the Butch I have, 'Southern Mark Smith' is the song for me.

I *love* some early Blue Aeroplanes stuff. I'd recommend most things up to Swagger when they started trying a bit too hard for my tastes and some of the guitars got a bit bombastic. Must've been the stadiums they were playing with REM. Angelo in particular had a sound not unlike Charlie Burchill in later Simple Minds (he turned up again on Massive Attack's Mezzanine). Maybe they turned things around again after that, but I never stuck around to find out. Anyhow, they were pretty good pals of the Jazz Butcher.

In a similar sort of vein (and I daren't wander too far off the path or else I'll be here forever), also look for stuff by the Bodines ('Therese'!), What Does Anything Mean Basically by the Chameleons, the first Wolfhounds album (Unknown Ripples From A Pebble)... maybe the June Brides too.

Anything by the Chameleons is worth looking for, for that matter.

lost to the ether. luke vibert is the only person i've heard mention it on some site somewhere.
m.

yes.
yes.
NOOOOOO. Actually, their first album, Hang Ten (when they were basically trying to be the Buzzcocks) is alright. After that....yipe.

"Just One Solution" by the Lime Spiders is a classic single!

no argument here. but they were a pretty good fake buzzcocks for a short while.

The "dreadfulness" in question didn't set in until later on, if you ask me.

I'm kind of late with this, but a bunch of early (=great) Jazz Butcher stuff was reissued not long ago on Vinyl Japan. I'd be surprised if it was already out of print again, but you never know...

the whole Pal Judy record is great. see also Snatch.

In no order...
1."All That I Wanted", Belfegore
2."Bears", Zebra
3."Geraldine I Need Money More Than I Need You", Classic Ruins
4."Unbearable", The Wonder Stuff
5."Good To Be The King", Janitors

And I finally tracked down my own copy of Bloody Nonsense by The Jazz Butcher on vinyl. Drink. The Devil is My Friend. Caroline Wheelers Birthday Present. Damn I love that album!

Mccarthy are utterly fabulous leftist pop whimsy featuring Tim Gane.

Alex has already mentioned Stump. "Buffalo" is a king hell classic, but anything they done is worth hearing - Beefheartesque, definitely, but with their own unique charms.

Bogshed made a brilliant racket but seem to be pretty hard to find nowadays, maybe we just don't have any decent record stores round here. Likewise Big Flame, who, if I remember rightly, would best be described as a chippy Brit fIREHOSE. Which is obviously a Good Thing.

I loved the Shop Assistants too, but they're prob'ly a bit twee for some tastes. Let's face it, as far as the UK is concerned, Indie was OVER by 1990, replaced by a bunch of brown leather jacket bands for 6th Formers to feel superior along to.

I like the feelies first record (and am well under 34). I've been meaning to tape the other ones. They are pricey.

Please elaborate!

Here's a few more random things from the top of my head:
The Lotus Eaters, Comsat Angels, Sal Solo - "San Damiano", B-Movie - "Nowhere Girl", The Big Supreme - "Don't Walk", Secession, Go-Betweens, China Crisis...

"Her Head's Revolving" by the Three O'Clock
"Erica's Word" by Game Theory
"The High Road" by the Feelies (someone mentioned them above, yes I know)
"No.9" by the Suburbs
"Sk8 Sk8 Sk8" by the Slammin' Watusis

Fetchin' Bones, Slickee Boys,...

Ah, the Godfathers were highly entertaining live, I remember that.

Is Moonhead better than The Ruby Sea.

Probably can't mention often enough that The Good Earth is currently available on CD from twin/tone at a reasonable price. www.twintone.com. So is the Yung Wu album.

Does anyone have any stuff by alrn? I have only heard "Sex War" off Homework #9.

Alternate Learning (ALRN) had one album and one single. The album is pretty good, about equal in quality to early Game Theory. Sex War is actually one of the lesser tracks. I posted most of the lp on my blog a while back...there should be mp3s floating around.

Oh, and the Pogues comparisons always ("always") bandied about are rubbish.

1.  The Sights, "So Much For Everlasting Love" -- Insanely catchy, hook-filled rock New Wave. The way this song begins lets you know you're in for something REALLY good. Mmmm. Too bad I don't know anything about them! I'm kinda hoping there's someone out there who can inform me better.

2.  The Expression, "Nothing Changes" -- Like Psychedelic Furs lite, but better than that might lead one to believe. The singing is very nonchalant, which is cool. I could do with more casting-off like that, vs. overpassionate delivery.

3.  The Swingers, "It Ain't What You Dance, It's The Way You Dance It" -- MY GOD do I love singing along with this song. It's crazy and enjoyable and LOTS of fun to listen to. Such a shame it's not, like, one of the most popular songs of the '80s.

4.  Smash Palace, "Living On The Borderline" -- It sounds SO very mid '80s, but that's one of the beauty points about that song to me! Because it sounds like it belonged in 1985. Oh, and hook after hook after hook after hook. The chorus -- "Ohh ooh whoa whoa, ohh ooh whoa whoa, life with you is so unkind, ohh ooh whoa whoa, ohh ooh whoa whoa, living on the borderline" -- one of the most memorable. The video is also enjoyably mid '80s. It's sorta the epitome of every yuppie-based fantasy I had as a small child, when I daydreamed about being 25, living in a beautiful condo, driving a Buick Park Avenue, and working in a glittery office building.

5.  Industry, "Still Of The Night" -- Sometimes incredibly OTT, but other times, damn. Makes my heart beat a thousand beats per minute when I hear it, because it's THAT exciting. Obv people know them from "State Of The Nation", but I love this one more.

6.  Nash The Slash, "Dance After Curfew" -- One of those synthpop songs that sounds WAY ahead of its time, IMHO. One of those blueprints for the electroclash movement of a few years back, but oddly enough sounds more CURRENT than that.

7.  Scars, "All About You" -- Wonderful early '80s rock-based New Wave confection that brings a smile to my face every time I hear it. The singing in this song is SO perfect. SO perfect. It's not aiming for much, but -- okay, when the harmonies kick in, it's like rock candy, and the lead singer's style works really well with the guitar-centric music. And... *sighs* That's it, really. Can't say more.

8.  Trees, "Wildwood" -- Really moody, intense, subtle synthrock songs, which is really impressive when you consider that Trees = just one musician guy doing his thing. Plus, the sound effects add to the trance-inducing quality of the song. Really. Once I finish hearing this song, I feel as though I've emerged from a very pleasant dream.

Damn do I love these songs.

*begins to listen to every single one of these wonderful gems*

xpost -- No way, Alex! You liked Nash The Slash? Dude, that's pretty amazing (and kinda surprising to me, too). What else from them do you recommend?

http://www.nashtheslash.com/images/albums/normal.jpg

...which I procured via a fleeting boyfriend of my mother's who was renouncing all of his vinyl in favor of these newfangled thingamajigs called "compact discs", made out of super-sturdy space-age polymers. Despite being slightly creepy and a coke-head, this guy actually had some amazing records that he was nonchalantly parting with....unloading them on me in a vain and largelly unsuccessful attempt to win my trust. In any case, of the slabs of vinyl therein, I pulled out this little gem from his Nashness. I'd seen his bandaged visage before, but had no idea what to expect. To this day, it sounds like nothing else I can name.

I used to use the opening track, "Normal", as my outgoing answering machine greeting (with no explanation), which prompted months of angry responses ("whatever that noisy shit is you have on your answering machine is, it's giving me a fucking headache, you asshole!")

(On a side note -- man, your mom picked some doozies, huh? But thank God for this particular one giving you all that vinyl! Yes, CDs are great, and yes, they're huge now, but there's something about the act of playing a real "record" that's... well, so amazing.)

My nomination is Zeus B. Held's production project, Fashion, who had a minor hit with 'Move On', a drop dead cool track.

http://www.connollyco.com/discography/fashion/fabrique.jpg

http://www.nashtheslash.com/

*reminds self to go to GEMM for acquisition of album*

Another totally forgotten thing, or never known about...my friend brought over a record called Brain Waves or something, a comp, that featured Zeus B. Held, under his own name or not, can't remember, covering Fool on the Hill w/ vocoded vocals. It's great.

The Monroes: Sunday People
The Monroes: Arabian Night
Matchstick Sun: We Seem To Vanish
Little Eden: April Nights
Little Eden: Time For Laughter
Beranek: It's So Strong

The Monroes are Norwegian?!?! The same group who did "What Do All The People Know?" You're kidding!! Dude. The things one learns. *laughs* And, yeah, a-ha are the group most people would think of when they think of Norwegian groups, I would think. Nothing wrong with that, though; they did one of my absolute favorite movie themes evah, i.e. "The Living Daylights", and their Hunting High & Low album was one of my teenaged favorites.

Other rare-ish New Wave tracks to remember and love: Beargarden, "A Seaside Song"; Bolland, "Overture/You're In The Army Now" (covered by, of all groups, Status Quo); and Combo Audio, "Romanticide".

Also:
DFX2: Emotion (sounds like Some Girls era Stones)
Translator: Everywhere That I'm Not (also mentioned earlier in this thread, great song about John Lennon)

Alex is cool, I got Nash the Slash "children of the night" at a garage sale.

Are these all considered too well-known to mention, or are they truly forgotten?

And they're among my absolute favourite albums ever.

http://www.monotremata.com/skull/disc/ramleh_disc.html

power electronics, sludge metal, improv noise etc

There was a period in the 90s where the music got REALLY weird and intense and interesting, the 1995 release Be Careful What You Wish For is kind of insane and sounds like nothing else ever maybe.

There's also a pretty good solo Gary Mundy album on Freek under the name Blind Alley.

From the Skullflower discographies page:

BREATHLESS

Ramleh guitarist Gary Mundy has, concurrently with Ramleh and his other skronk projects, played in the UK pop/darkwave band Breathless since the early eighties. They have an extensive discography that I'm not going to get into here; check the link for more details. WARNING ACHTUNG FNORD: Breathless sounds absolutely nothing like Ramleh or Skullflower, so be forewarned if you go out investigating the discs....

There were two different Monroes. The Monroes that I am speaking of sounded very much like a more pop oriented Madness.

Would we consider Loop as apropo to this thread?

Kampec Dolores!

Just last night, I was listening to some stray Danielle Dax tracks, and found myself wondering what happened there. She fit between Kate Bush and the Sugarcubes, more confrontational than Bush, but more compositional than Bjork. Seems like she'd still be a sex symbol among the art-art-art crowd, but she's just faded away. Into interior design work, apparently.

I used to own her 1991 album Blast the Human Flower (the one with the cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows"). Unmemorable.

That's because it sucked. Everything else she did is classic - go find the 2 disc comp.

MR ODD YOU RULE YOU TRYNA HUM LONG TO THE PSEAERT 2< YRS?

Taking Sides: Lene Lovich vs Danielle Dax

I was just rocking out to "Bed Caves" today.

Northumberland's janglepoppers The Nivens - 'Yesterday' was their iNDIECHART tOP 10 HIT but they had loads of great tunes all collected on 'From a Northumbrian mining village comes the sound of summer'. Much better than the tunes on CD86.

http://www.thenivens.co.uk/history.htm

Listen Mr. Odd, Alfred.

Put better:

Alfred, listen to Mr. Odd.

Green, pop/punk/soul band from Chicago, on the cover of CMJ a few times, Ira Robbins tried to do a Jon Landau/Springsteen-style review in Spin (ended with "the greening of America starts here"), ferocious live shows, untouchable singer/songwriter in Jeff Lescher. Put out 6 albums and 3 EPs from 1984 through 2001, and supposedly there's a new one in the works.

Link plz Bob - they must be pretty nigh on unsearchable.

Thanks for the Nivens mention, Geordie. I don't remember them and feel like I should! I will check them out.

MR ODD YOU RULE YOU TRYNA HUM LONG TO THE PSEAERT 2< YRS?

Ummmm, what?

As for the opening post of this thread, I'm clearly a huge Jazz Butcher fan. Max Eider's two solo albums are also gold (one from the 80s, one from a few years back).

LOVE Jazz Butcher. Also, I just re-remembered the pseudo-jazz-indie subset, including but not limited to Big Sound Authority, Carmel, Yargo, and Big Heat

I have a Jazz Butcher EP that I think was an Aus special, the "Shirley McLaine" ep that has that, and "She's on Drugs" and some other tracks. "She's on Drugs" is an awesome song.

Man so much of whats listed above I loved! Wolfhounds, early Soup Dragons, all that fun indiebuzz.

Anyone remember Head of David? Did they do anything apart from "Dustbowl", that album was pretty intense, though at the time I was really not-into metal so maybe it'd be more standard metal than I remember.

Link plz Bob - they must be pretty nigh on unsearchable.

Whoops, sorry. Here's their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/groupgreen

Almost completely forgotten 80s band: Red Guitars. Brilliant debut and early singles, then the singer left and it wasn't the same band. Search the song "Good Technology".

Homestead Records Comp, Human Music:

Doomsday - Verlaines
He Is God - Big Dipper
Alive Again - Live Skull
Naked Wife - Honor Role
I'm Like You - Urinals
Standing At The Crossroads - Great Plains
Charmed Life - Half Japanese
Red Barn (Live) - Salem 66
I'm In Heaven Now - American Music Club
Coming Through - The Pastels
Aberration - Nice Strong Arm
Flesh-Colored House - Bastro
Quest - Phantom Tollbooth
Gravity - Tall Dwarfs
Ultravixen - Volcano Suns
Stanley - Antietam
I Wish I Was Adopted - Happy Flowers
Party In My Heart - The Chills
Somebody's Baby - Yo La Tengo
Two-Week Vacation - The Embarrassment
Oddity (Live) - The Clean
Do It - Death Of Samantha

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre400/e402/e40237cffzd.jpg

Live Skull - Positraction (Caroline, 1989)

reminds me of a slightly darker Sonic Youth's EVOL

I keep reading about the crappy sound of prime SST, fidelity-wise. But they're freakin' Steely Dan compared to most Homestead releases. I was pretty enamored of Nice Strong Arm in the day, but the last time I put on Reality Bath most of it didn't hold up. But "Truth Comes Around" still does.

Around 84 or 5 there was a huddle of bands who were a wee bit too post-punk to be dancable, a wee bit too 'industrial' to be commercial or get cross-over success.

Hula, Chakk, 400 Blows are names that most come to mind, obviously they had strong pre-cursors - ACR, post-Yashar Cab V, 23 Skidoo circa Coup, even The Pop Group etc...

I did wonder for a short while these bands would actually gel into a coherent and interesting genre of their own, but I think I was delusional.... shame, I was so looking forward to claiming that 'get the habit' was a tipping point and telling adoring incredulous youngsters that I bought no one leaves the fevercar the day it come out.

Actually I do tell youngsters this - all the time, but they aren't adoring and the incredulity is mainly about me not taking the hint that they aren't interested.

Hula and especially Chakk are anything but forgotten in the this house.
Chakks early pre-MCA Records 12" singles were (and still are) absolutely amazing. totally fucking brilliant.
the album may have blowed the big one, but for Out of the Flesh, and Timebomb 12"s alone their records will always be close to hand.
i'm amazed this band have yet to be given the reissue treatement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bvPaON4waM

^ fucking tune

Mentioned it in the Weezer thread, but this song rules:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1F0KasHeM

From this interview from last year (!):

Jeff Oliphant: I remember Gary and Bill bringing in a 4-track demo of Klaus to rehearsal one cold evening. The demo was very simple and catchy. The song sounded like an anthem. In my mind, I could hear audiences in massive arenas belting out the chorus.

Maybe a couple of obvious choices, but

David J, Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh

David + David, Boomtown