Where is the love for all these bands from my vinyl 12-inch "S" shelf who have rarely if ever been mentioned on ILM?

I'm sure this is known is ILM circles, but Sensational used to be Torture, the guy partly behind Jungle Brothers "Crazy Wizdom Masters".

A current fave: Shalamar's 'Take that to the Bank'

One of last years most played: Skatt Bros' 'Walk the Night'

2nd Gen

VERY underrated album for Mute. The single Either/Or is one of my fave "PLAY IT LOUD, ALWAYS" songs. Kevin Martin only wishes that every post-2000 Techno Animal song sounded like this.

Seduction

"You're My One and Only True Love" is one of my fave singles ever. Civilles and Cole at their best.

Sensational

One of my fave hip-hop artists. We need more minimal, lo-fi hip-hop. On "Showtime", Dizzee Rascal approached Sensational's style on tracks like "Everywhere". This made me very happy.

The Shirley and Company album is entertaining for how much it tries to milk out of "Shame, Shame, Shame." Do you have the version with the badly drawn picture on the cover of Shirley waggling her finger at Richard Nixon?

Strawbs were an early Sandy Denny band, but have generally never done much for me. I think they're playing in NYC in a week or so!

Santa Esmeralda are way, way over-the-top disco--both of their first two albums are based around heavily orchestrated 15-minute disco versions of songs by the Animals. They go downhill after that, but sort of in a good way. I own too many records by them.

And I only know that one John Stewart song that he did with Stevie Nicks, but I love his voice.

Yep -- wait, did they change the cover later? If so, that sucks!

My favorite Santa Esemalda album (of the four I own) may well be *Beauty*, which is their sort of Gomez Adams goth-disco concept album one. But yeah, they were totally amazing covering songs by the Animals and other garage-rock types.

I fucking LOVE both "Major Tom (Coming Home)" and "The Different Story".

Sue Saad and the Next -- Very New Wave, very chic. Someone in the band played a lot of saxaphone.

Stories -- Ian Lloyd-fronted New York band that had a minor hit, "Brother Louie," and which was more hard rock and less soulful than the single let on.

Strawbs -- I bought their records because RxGau didn't like them much. They did a drinking song about being in a union -- probably written by Hudson-Ford -- that is totally uncharacteristic of their sound but which I liked a lot. "Grave New World" was produced by Tony Visconti, is probably my favorite. After that, they sort of got Renaissance disease.

Spagna -> Another Italian pop star, no? Wasn't Call Me her biggest hit? Seem to recall so.

Shocking Blue -> everyone here should known them. ;-) Banarama covered one of their songs, no? Or was SB's Venus also a cover? I can't recall.

The Singing Nun -> Another Belgian singer (see also Telex). Sadly she commited suicide, I think some lesbian relationship went wrong or something. Sad. Dominique was abig hit. There's a bio out.

As in "M"? I have the Ryuichi Sakamoto/David Sylvian "Forbidden Colours" 12".. but I think this must be a very different collab.

>>>Sequence

Probably the second best of the first generation of Sugarhill Records artists, second to, well, The Sugarhill Gang. They have only one good song: "And You Know That". Probably the first rock 'n roll all-girl rap song ever. Skip, Doug, and LeBlanc were really grinding on their guitar, bass, and drums on that one, respectively. Everything about this song is amazing. The rappings about the astrological signs.. baked goods.. all of it. The long version breaks into a more discoey thing talking about something on a sesame seed bun, but then gets back into that aggressive funky bridge and EXTENDS it. Amazing amazing song.

The song later was released by the West Street Mob under the name "Another Mutha For Ya", which was essentially the newly(?) recorded instrumental version of "And You Know That". Very different than "Breakdance - Electric Boogie", which was a complete departure for the West Street Mob, despite it being a cornerstone tune in hip-hop culture.

>>>halamar

Sigh. They are one of those bands on Solar records (also home to the Whispers, Midnight Star, and Lakeside at the time) who I should revisit. They probably have at least two good tunes somewhere.

>>>Shocking Blue

Worst song: "Venus". Sadly their most heard song in its original form. The Bananarama cover vastly improved it.

Best song: "Love Buzz". Sadly their most heard song via Nirvana. But their best song ever. I love Nirvana, but their cover did the original no justice. DJing the original "Love Buzz" will always turn heads in crowds. It has a great breakbeat and repeating sitar stab; and the desperation in the vocals are in your face.

At Home is a great, great album over all.. "Love Buzz" is the peak on that album, however.

He's a bona fide classic for his work in the Hot Band, of course, but I first became aware of him as a member of J.D. Crowe and the New South during the time they were morphing from bluegrass into a pop-country band with more of an emphasis on great songs than great playing (though they loads of that, too -- here's a candidate for that "most talented band" thread). I was not much of a folkie during those punk rock years, and seeing that band did a lot to bring me around.

Then he had a few years of real Nashville superstardom, with a bluegrass-based, ultra-polished sound that always seemed a little square compared to Reba & John Anderson and the other stuff was big at the time. Hits like "Don't Cheat In Our Hometown" and "Highway 40 Blues" sounded bright and brilliant on the radio, though, and the albums had their delights, too. And if you ever get to see him live, the boy can pick anything with strings until it cries uncle.

Oh, and he recorded for that OTHER Sugarhill records, and married one of them White girls.

I vehemently disagree with this! What about "Monster Jam" and "Funk You Up" (for starters)? In fact, I'm not sure they had any *bad* songs!

>Ryuchi Sakamoto featuring Robin Scott//As in "M"?<

Yep, the *Left Handed Dream* album, from 1981

And Sabrina and Spagna are indeed both Italians, buxom and otherwise.... (Italian disco, for sure; whether they are Italodisco per se' is something the Italodisco experts on here can decide.)

I have a couple of Sister Ray albums, To Spite My Face and Random Violence, both are a pretty spunky take on Stoogified garage rock, maybe reminiscent of the Original Sins or the Celibate Rifles. And like those two bands, they avoided a lot of the whimsical flapdoodle that a lot of their more foppish contemporaries indulged in, definite emphasis on the grubby side of things. Hmmm, good to way fucking great.

Anyhow, the two records I got both came out on the Resonance label, who I think were based in Holland or somewhere and were on a bit of a mission in the late 80s to give some exposure to a bunch of lesser known US groups. I had a Psycho Daisies LP that was okay, and a couple by Viv Akauldren that were superb. Who else was there? Cant think. Senator Flux perhaps, but I never did hear them.

Well, I don't actively dislike *any* Sequence I've heard. I'd buy the 12"s for "Monster Jam" and "Funk You Up" if they weren't close to $10 each. Whereas I'd easily pay MORE than $10 for a nice copy of "And You Know That" if I didn't already own it.

I don't have the Sugarhill CD box set, but I just don't remember those other Sequence songs leaving as good an impression as "And You Know That" did. the "no other good songs" comment was hyperbole, admittedly.

>Ryuchi Sakamoto featuring Robin Scott//As in "M"?<
Yep, the *Left Handed Dream* album, from 1981

Dear lord, I need to hear this.

And Sabrina and Spagna are indeed both Italians, buxom and otherwise.... (Italian disco, for sure; whether they are Italodisco per se' is something the Italodisco experts on here can decide.)

Makes sense. I'd call it "Italo-disco" for the obvious literal reason... if the purists/revisionists shoot me for it, then I'll just wear my special vest I got when I visited "a KOM-PYOO-TER fairy-LEND!"

xp

> I'd buy the 12"s for "Monster Jam" and "Funk You Up" if they weren't close to $10 each. <

You should start searching more dollar bins, like I do!

Crossing swords with Chris Stigliano - oh my!

George Brigman not comparable to the Original Sins. Too rawk.

Ha ha, you mean like that Soundgarden "Hunted Down"/"Nothing To Say" 45, from 1986 or so? Was that on Subpop? I think I got rid of that one, along with the Green River test pressings that Bruce Pavitt used to send me (and GR's own non-Subpop colored vinyl Dead Boys cover 45, which pretended on its label to be produced by Joe Perry), not to mention those self-released White Zombie 45s from back when Rob Zombie still called himself Rob Straker, way back in 1990. Had I kept them for just another year, I would possibly be a wealthy man by now.

>Crossing swords with Chris Stigliano - oh my! <

Are you kidding? He hated me, for being a sellout to the Stooges-rock cause. Used to insult me in almost every issue of *Pfudd* and *Black to Comm* (or whatever he called it) he put out, back in the late '80s, after constantly quoting me in the earlier issues. That I liked Poison and A Flock of Seagulls really freaked him out, I think!

Even more impressive as they were from Manchester I believe, lead singer Marcel King was only 16 at the time of recording. He went on to release a single (Reach for love) on Factory in 1985, produced by Bernard Sumner. Apparently it came about after New Order manager Rob Gretton found him sleeping homeless in the back of a car. If someone could Yousendit would make my day. Sadly he died in 1995 of a brain haemmorhage aged only 37. Fantastic singer, sad that he never went on to greater things.

http://www.londonlee.com/blog/mp3s/Sad%20Sweet%20Dreamer.mp3

Yeah, I know. I've got the "React" 12", too, and "Coming From Another Place" on a 7-inch. How come nobody ever talks about those? There was a John Leland interview with Strafe in *Spin* back then that referred to an album, but I've never seen a copy. I wonder if it ever came out.

Well actually...my Sweet Sensation was a Latin freestyle bubblesalsa trio from New York. Best song, c. 1988 or so: "Take It While It's Hot." Great first album; less great later stuff (probably with a different lineup.) I don't think I've ever heard that British soul song, but Joel Whitburn says it went to #14 in 1975, so I must have, at least once or twice, right?

Classic.

Also, what was the deal with "Major Tom"? What did Bowie think when he heard it?

Ryuchi Sakamoto featuring Robin Scott: And also Adrian Belew, whose picture is on the cover of some versions. Scott is listed as co-producer, but did none of the writing or performing; the one song with English lyrics was, in fact, the work of Sakamoto's wife, Akiko Yanno. The general sound is in the same vein as "Gentlemen Prefer Polaroids"-period Japan: Synths, frame drums, intermingled Western and Asian instrumentation. I do remember there being a difference between the U.S. version issued on Epic and the CD I have (which is on Alfa), so there may be audible Scott if you have the LP.

Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs: Was there anything other than "Wooly Bully"? Did there need to be?

Sanford-Townsend Band: "Smoke from a Distant Fire" was pretty good country rock, more Dead than Eagles. That's about it though.

Santa Esmeralda: I found the music to be fairly assembly-line, but I always loved their cover art.

Saxon: Not especially adventurous Brit Metal circa the New Wave thereof. Better than Helloween, but not in the class of Maiden.

Gunter Schuller New England Conservatory Country Fiddle Band: As one who briefly believed in the Third Stream thing, I've always tried to respect Schuller. But this was even more embarrassing than the ragtime cash-in he had during the brief Scott Joplin craze.

Seduction: Not as seductive as Expose, although they did give MTV a memorable bit of eye-candy in Idalis.

Sequence: Lady rappers on Sugar Hill, right? Did to P-Funk what "Rapper's Delight" did to Chic.

Shalamar: Loved the Motown medley.

Dee Dee Sharp: Of Dick and Dee-Dee fame, right? R&B fluff, from what I recall.

Sheila and B. Devotion: If it's the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edward-produced album, it's aces. Otherwise not.

Shinehead: Was the great dancehall crossover hope for an album or so. Great material, especially on the first album.

Shirley and Company: Produced by Sylvia Robinson, and powered by the best Miami Funk groove this side of "Rock Your Baby."

Ricky Skaggs: Generally, the more bluegrass the better with this guy.

Snap: Who, as it turned out, didn't actually have the power.

Sniff 'N' the Tears: Not as good as the Records, although definitely in the same vein.

The Stylistics: Great R&B harmony group, best known for "Betcha By Golly Wow." Early '70s work is solid; after about '75 it becomes fans-only.

Rachel Sweet: Stiff's Sweetheart of the Akron sound, which was funny because she probably would have been more at home on Berserkely.

Sylvia (the soul-to-rap one): Prefer "Pillow Talk" to "I Am the Queen."

Sadly, they had more power than Chill Rob G, who warned us early that is was "gettin' kinda hectic."

http://www.manhunt.com/reviews/html/632.html

"Smoke From a Distant Fire" was more pop-soul, really.

And "Brother Louie" was more than a minor hit!

So which Gary Stewart records do you have, Chuck? Great, near-completely unhinged honky tonk.

http://www.ucpzone.com/45king/info.html

"Later that year, the 45 King produced Flavor Unit member Chill Rob G's debut album, "Ride the Rhythm." His label, Wild Pitch, was between Tuff City and Tommy Boy in terms of distribution. Chill Rob G got the exposure, but his big hit, the remix of "Let the Words Flow" called "The Power," was outright stolen by the dance group Snap, and Chill Rob never was able to break through."

> Sam the Sham: Plenty, actually. "<

Damn straight. "Little Red Riding Hood"!, too! And "Ju Ju Hand"! And much, much more. Great version of "Haunted House." But as JD suggested, after "Wooly Bully" it almost doesn't MATTER if they did anything else.

>Saxon: Not especially adventurous Brit Metal circa the New Wave thereof. Better than Helloween, but not in the class of Maiden.<

Way better than Maiden, actually. And also closer to Status Quo than to either of those bands. Heavy biker boogie, not Eurodrama kitsch.

>Dee Dee Sharp: Of Dick and Dee-Dee fame, right? R&B fluff, from what I recall.<

Nah, wrong Dee Dee. That one was Sperling. Sharp did the mashed potato, then put gravy on it three months later. Not fluffy unless you count fluffing the potatoes before they're cooked.

>Sheila and B. Devotion: If it's the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edward-produced album, it's aces.<

It is.

Null & void
without substance or content
You need to show your speech
Stop the nonsense
Because the words ever-risin'
Start surprisin' some
Who thought I was just another hum-drum
I'll take a page
write a phrase then rephrase it
Treat it like a national flag and upraise it
So that a nation of people can feel proud
About a brother who speaks out real loud

DER-da
da da
DER-DER-DER-da
da da

I'VE GOT THE POWER!!!

Or Motorhead, maybe even (though George should yell if I'm wrong).

Obviously weren't as world famous as Maiden but I can easily remember liking more Saxon song which puts me in a minority, I reckon. Maiden was Saxon-like, or vice versa, for about one album, the first, and then made a swift departure from the tone.

Me too.

Yeah, the one I have (and love) is *Unity* from 1988, his major label debut. Later stuff seemed not nearly as lovely and catchy. But wasn't that technically his second album? I vaguely remember an earlier indie thing called *Rough and Rugged* or something like that, but AMG isn't listing it, and I may never have seen it, so maybe I dreamt it.

Incidentally Sisters of Mercy recorded a cover of their Emma.

Shinehead has a cameo appearance on the great Playgroup album. Time for a follow up surely.

And you didn't have in your "S" collection anything by Samson, who were tied with Maiden, Saxon and Def Leppard at the front of the pack for about ten minutes.

Without Bruce Bruce getting seen in Samson, maybe Maiden would have come a cropper. Anyway, he stayed around for Samson's best album, "Shock Tactics," definitely worth your time and ear damage. Very much in the high energy Brit biker rock domain inhabited by Saxon. Samson had a great shtick with Thunderstick, the drummer, who wore balaclava-like things hiding his face. Always wanted to perform with his drum riser in a steel cage.

"Head On" by Samson has the perfect heavy metal album cover but the contents aren't so hot. Rickety-sounding garage metal although they did turn in one instrumental that would wind up pilfered or borrowed or taken back by Maiden.

No love for Slick's "Space Bass"? Sniff 'n The Tears "Drivers Seat"? Rachel Sweet's cover of "B-A-B-Y"?

Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble's "Breaking and Entering" is another top notch early 80s R&B groove. the last gasp of Philly soul.

The Singing Nun -- Jeannine Deckers, known as Souer Sourire. "Dominique" charted twice here in the 60s. I remember seeing her on The Ed Sullivan Show with my grandparents.

Strafe -- "Set It Off" from 1985 is a left-field dance classic. Hip hop meets synth pop, echoes of techno ten years before the fact.

Gary Stewart -- great honky tonk singer of the late 70s. "She's Acting Single (I'm Drinking Doubles)" Search for Out of Hand and Your Place or Mine LPs

John Stewart -- Bombs Away Dream Babies LP is slick southern California studio pop with some substance beneath the burned out surface. "Gold" was a hit, Stevie Nicks sings on it somewhere.

also the great J.D. Considine committed like three errors on the P thred, guess he's immune or sumthin. Anyway: Pink Fairies -- Mick Farran spelled MICK FARREN; Mick FARREN's 1st group was the DEVIANTS, NOT the PINK FAIRIES, FARREN never really being an official member of the later, better, FAIRIES. And, most importantly: PINK FAIRIES NOT "sloppy" pub-rock. Pub-rock? debatable. "Sloppy"? NO, not in the Larry Wallis incarnation of the group, anyway. That was trio smoke at it's richest. Seriously, JD, had you listened to a Pink Fairies record in the last, say, decade? I mean , if you had, fair enough. I'm enough of a fan to believe you. I'm just asking, that's all. This wasn't one of those shoot-from-the-hip internet things or anything was it?

Space as in Liverpool Britpop also rans or the French "Magic Fly" lot?

And if the "Tory" thing is any more audible, maybe it gets lost in translation.

As for having spelled Farren as "Ferren," that was a typo. Which I suppose counts as a mistake, but likely not in the same way.

Rick Wakeman was in the band for a brief period. Hudson-Ford provided some pop tunes -- "Part of the Union" and "Laydown" -- were probably part of that. It made Strawbs sound sort of like Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera, an odd glam band that had been the home of Hudson-Ford prior to Strawbs. When they left, The Strawbs got a lot more morose and prog. Tony Visconti's knob job on "Grave New World" used that to advantage. The records after that I don't like so much except "Burning For You," probably because it got quite a bit of airplay at a local FM station when I was in college.

Generally was not the kind of thing I liked because in its most serious moments, was definitely in go-to-sleep-now-it's-Renassaince-land.

"Mayday" by Sheila B. is a classic with one great backwards Nile R. guitar solo.

Huey Piano is canonical shit to my mind, I never fail to be uplifted by their stuff.

And I love Gary Stewart. The '90s CD comp "The Essential" might lean a bit too much on his later stuff produced by Chips Moman, but it's still fine. "Your Place or Mine" is the other classic original album on RCA. "You're Not the Woman You Used to Be" collects his Kapp singles from around '70 and is Gary in truck-driving mode with the great "Caffein, Nicotine, Benzedrine" and "The Snuff Queen" ("she oughta be on the back cover of a farmer's magazine"). I don't know of a better country song than his "Single Again." He's due the kind of reappraisal that Paycheck has gotten.

Swampp setup and financed World Class Wrecking Kru's label Kru Cut:

http://www.swampdogg.com/profile.htm

1985/87- Assembled the KRU-CUT label which was designed to exploit the World Class Wreckin' Cru distributed by Macola. Over 600,000 12" singles were sold through the combined sales of "Surgery", "Juice" and "Lovers Before Friends." The lp "World Class" sold over 200,000 units. Through the Wreckin' Cru, Swamp Dogg gave Dr. Dre, D.J. Yella and Easy-E, collectively known today as N.W.A. the chance to perfect their now indisputable craft.

We have him to thank for Dr. Dre and the aftermath in a sense.

So I guess I didn't dream about his pre-Unity album after all. (Unless they were the same album -- "Who the Cap Fit" was one of the best tracks on Unity, too! Did he repeat any other songs?)

Sylvia (pop/country): Big (only?) hit was "Nobody" in '82, which I used to confuse with a Melissa Manchester song from around the same time, for some reason.

Streetheart: Nondescript Canadian rockers (is there any other kind?) similar to Loverboy, with whom they shared a member or two. Nearly all of their (Canadian-only circa '79-82) hits were British Invasion covers (Stones, Them, Small Faces); best original may actually have been the power ballad "What Kind Of Love Is This?" Way too unhip for me to admit to a sentimental fondness (wish there was a good hits collection.)

You've heard April Wine's "You Could Have Been A Lady", xhuxk, right? That was a Top 10 single here in '72, a year before "Brother Louie", so it may have been one of the first (or THE first) Hot Chocolate covers. I suspect that HC were one of those Euro bands that were better known in Canada than in the USA (ala Boney M.)

revive

bump