The 1980 Listening Post - Fischer-Z - Deaf for a Living

Fischer-Z - Deaf for a Living

#4 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

January 4 1980

Fischer-Z

Going Deaf for a Living

Genre: New Wave

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Room Service

So Long

Pick Up/Slip Up

Crank

Limbo

When I was a kid I had a friend who argued with me about what, exactly, “New Wave” was. He maintained that it required three instruments, guitar, bass and drums and that was it. 

Of course, it only took “umm…The Cars?” to dispel that notion. But it did open up the debate: What is “New Wave”? I have always said it was like that other obsession…you know it when you hear it. 

I have been of the mindset that New Wave, classic New Wave, the stuff like “Ca Plane Pour Moi” and early Cars and The Buggles and early Gary Numan, is minimalist, often mid-tempo and, droll while also being exciting. Like Power Pop, it’s a genre that defies description but you know it when you hear it. 

This is that. With tinges of Reggae. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/going-deaf-for-a-living/697226984

The 1980 Listening Post - The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy

The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy

#3

January 3 1980

The Jim Carroll Band

Catholic Boy

Genre: Better than Lou Reed

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Three Sisters

Nothing is True

People Who Died

It’s Too Late

When I first came to Los Angeles I got a job at Book Soup. I was a terrible employee and that was the pre-eminent bookstore in town. I just hated…working. And, really, what’s working in a bookstore anyway? Showing people where books are, making sure they don’t steal, offer suggestions and sit at the cash register. 

I never knew where anything was, I was stealing myself, I was nowhere near read enough to make the suggestions I was making but boy could I sit on my ass and take cash!

The Basketball Diaries was a big one at Book Soup. We always had it in stock and all the young wannabes would buy it. Or steal. Or read it in the store. I did none of those. I was just aware of it. 

And I was aware that Carroll decided one day to just be a rock star. 

Unlike Lou Reed, who has the same singing ability as Jim, Carroll brings energy and crunch to his punk and his poetry. And his words are stellar. To be honest, Reed has many more records to have filled so its possible that the early works are where he shines but that torch has, by this time, been passed to Jim. 

And while Lou has “Walk on the Wild Side”, Jim has “People Who Died”, which is the 80s flip side. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/catholic-boy/1476457132

The 1980 Listening Post - Eric Carmen - Tonight You're Mine

Eric Carmen - Tonight You're Mine

#2

Reviewed by Tami Fitzkoff

January 1 1980

Eric Carmen

Tonight You’re Mine

Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5

Tami’s Rating: 0.5 out of 5

Genre: Music for Incels

By Tami Fitzkoff

First let me say, I tried to look past the cover art for this record which looks like “Me Too” evidence.  Then I listened to the music. Carmen’s lyrics are equivalent to ear waterboarding.  Actual lyrics in his songs, “Mama says baby loves shortenin' bread But baby loves bein' with me instead” or this doozy “Took her out and told her I loved her Then she put my hand in her pants.”  There’s so much more awfulness, but I just cannot go down that road again.  Look, Eric Carmen is a good musician.  That’s the only positive thing I can say about him.  His album is a mishmash of other peoples musical styles, which he plays and “steals” from very well, like Chucky Berry, The Who (particularly their Eminence Front song) and Billy Joel. 

If there’s one tune on the album that’s bearable, I guess it would be “It Hurts Too Much”— which should have been the title of the album.  If I didn’t know it, I would have thought I was listening to Meatloaf singing a song that pays homage to Billy Joel’s “Say Goodbye To Hollywood”, which was Billy Joel’s homage to Spector’s wall of sound.  Am I trying to show-off my musical knowledge?  You bet your ass. Seriously though, the song is slightly catchy, but Carmen literally lifts the beat, the piano AND the saxophone directly from Billy Joel’s song.  I believe this was before sampling.  Honestly, I am an admitted fan of some cheesy music, but this goes down as one of the worst albums ever.  It could be a soundtrack for Incels.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0iz5EuAi5uGviUHzbUOTBp?si=4a-YAe9XRUCW9N4oGh7eYw

The 1980 Listening Post - Pam Windo & the Shades - It

Pam Windo & the Shades - It

 #1          LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

January 1 1980

Pam Windo & the Shades

It

Genre: New Wave (Classic style. You know, with Saxohones)

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:
Just to Stay Alive

Gimme Gimme

What Kind of Magic

Time You Changed Your Ways

Think Romeo Void and Plastic Bertrand, herky jerky angles and just the right amount of speed. 

Think the Waitresses but with a lead singer who studied with Fred Shneider

Look, I can’t even tell if this is a good record. It’s just right in my wheelhouse. I loved this sparse, simple New Wave sound and, dammit, I miss it. They could have toured with the Rezillos. Maybe the ARE the Rezillos. Sometimes Pam sounds like a German Thumbalina Guglielmo and I already love Thumbalina so this just more to love.

I sure missed this one. Would have pogo’d to it. Definitely. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/it/286660096

The 1986 Listening Post - Love Tractor - This Ain't No Outer Space Ship

Love Tractor - This Ain't No Outer Space Ship

#613

1986 Housekeeping

Love Tractor

This Ain’t No Outer Space Ship

Genre: Jangle Rock

3.25 out of 5

Highlights
Cartoon Kiddies

Small Town

Out of the whirlwind of Athens comes this band that sounds like they should have been on everyone’s turntable who loved Pylon and REM. I mean just listen to that hippy dippy angular goofballness of the opening track. They all drank from the same damned well. You could pick up one guitarist and shove him in a different band.I never saw Athens, Ga, Inside Out. If I had I would know these guys, they were in it. Along with Kilkenney Cats and Dream So Real, etc. The cream really rose in the mid 80s and REM wasn’t able to take pretty much anyone in their wake. 

This one is not really an exception. But it does sound like all of the other bands, especially on “Party Train” which is their version of a B-52s meets REM song.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/this-aint-no-outer-space-ship/584119164

The 1986 Listening Post - The Parachute Club - Small Victories

The Parachute Club - Small Victories

#612

1986 Housekeeping

The Parachute Club

Small Victories

Genre: The only time anything with John Oates name was considered “New Wave” and that’s not correct anyway

2.25 out of 5

Daniel Lanois used to be this band’s producer. On this record it’s John Oates. And it sounds like what you would get from John Oates as your producer. So, it’s mostly white boy R&B and not even as good as the lesser of H&O. 

It’s like no one got the message that the Thompson Twins style was out of vogue. 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKSpPuAaFS0&list=PLlvn8uktX5LvvBjRIlE7r2BjeOIe_I2oz  (Mising 2 tracks - The Journey and Waves)

The 1986 Listening Post - Dreams So Real - Father's House

Dreams So Real - Father's House

#611

1986 Housekeeping

Dreams So Real

Father’s House

Genre: The xerox of a xerox of a xerox of REM

3.25 out of 5

With this record I think we start to answer some of my questions about the REM effect. Here’s another record produced by Peter Buck in 86 and, well, it’s just not great. I’ve heard much better of this style. Instead of turning himself into a hit making machine ala Jack Antonoff post fun./Bleachers, Buck just isn’t very attuned to what makes his own band a success. And that makes me wonder: How important were Berry and Mills to REM’s success? Surely, once Berry left and Stipe became the driving creative force, they started to have a half life of interest per album until we got to their nadir in the 00s. 

This record suggests to me that Buck was okay and as an arpeggiating guitarist he was really something, but without the other three, I’m not sure he gets out of Athens. 

“Drifting Away” is a good example of getting close to REM, immediately followed bu a woeful example of the same thing in “The Tower”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz6KTdbPbNI

The 1986 Listening Post - The Jean Paul Sartre Experience - Love Songs

The Jean Paul Sartre Experience - Love Songs

#610 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

1986 Housekeeping

The Jean Paul Sartre Experience

Love Songs

Genre: The 60s just never fucking end, do they?

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Let That Good Thing Grow

I Like Rain

Even though I studied a bit of Sartre in college, my main takeaway from him comes from my fear of heights. I am terrified of balconies. They can be chin high and I am still deathly afraid. Someone once told me that it was Sartre who said that it’s because we have the knowledge that we can hurl ourselves over the edge. And that’s why I have the irrational fear. My fear extends to step ladders. Standing on stools. Climbing trees.

But this fear manifested a few years after my pre-adolescence. Since I had a tree fort when I was kid. Really, it was a plank of plywood I mounted in a tree so I could sit in it and read. Which i did every once in a while. Mostly science fiction novels. And, really, those were just Star Trek episode novelizations. 

I was 9. 

If my son did the same thing today i would think he’s a fool and going to break his neck.

What the hell was my mother doing, anyway?

This album is a lava lamp at a bong fueled orgy where you think you are having sex with members of The Velvet Underground but it’s a cover band and the Lou Reed lookalike is really a Joe Dallesandro clone with less charisma and you wake up wondering how that is even possible. 

Oh, and this album was really neat. If it came out 15 years later it would be heralded as an Indie work of art and they would play the Silver Lake Lounge every Sunday Night in rep. 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5lZWi8i10lffzApck2xFBK?si=i8tKJbdkS6CjsTuVUaZ1PA

The 1986 Listening Post - The Axemen - Three Virgins, Three Versions, Three Visions

The Axemen - Three Virgins, Three Versions, Three Visions

#609

1986 Housekeeping

The Axemen

Three Virgins, Three Versions, Three Visions

Genre: I hate this

1.25 out of 5

Well, here we are, I thought we were done with 1986 and all of a sudden a couple more albums got added to the tail end and I looked this up as it was playing and I was agog. Surely this collection of 22 songs was a compilation, no? A pair of records stitched together as a retrospective or something.

Nope. It’s a double album but a New Zealand group that sound like a band that has a back story like they are a bunch of friends who liked to bash out music but, secretly, they murdered one of their girlfriends or boyfriends or something but no one missed him or her so they just kept making music that sounds like it wants to be as good as Charles Manson’s stuff but just…isn’t.

There are 4 sides of ramshackle drunken melodiocrity that sounds like it was recorded in the outback on someone’s shitty 4 track recorder and then buried it in the sand and resurrected it just so Sheffield would find it and make me listen to it. 

Stuff like “Creaky Back Stairs” just make this seem like a bunch of bored high schoolers with access to recording equipment. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/three-virgins/432250670

The 1986 Listening Post - The Queen Annes - Something Quick

The Queen Annes - Something Quick

#608

1986 Housekeeping

The Queen Annes

Something Quick

Genre: 1967, baby!

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

You Got Me Running

Give ‘Em the Right Look

If You Could Only See Me Now

The Queen Annes play exactly the kind of trippy psychedelia pop rock that you expect from a band called The Queen Annes. Ascots and brocade jackets, Beatles harmonicas and shagariffic tunes. That they came out of Seattle is…weird. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/something-quick-1980-1985/819518957

The 1986 Listening Post - Beat Rodeo - Home in the Heart of the Beat

Beat Rodeo - Home in the Heart of the Beat

#607

1986 Housekeeping

Beat Rodeo

Home in the Heart of the Beat

Genre: Roots Rock

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Twin Hometowns

Home in the Heart of the Beat

Song for an Angry Young Man

It’s Been Too Long

The good stuff here is really good. And the rest of it is pretty pedestrian. This is a perfect case of stuff that belongs on a playlist, toss the rest. A lot of it sounds like an attempt to emulate Nick Lowe, when it’s on point. And it hits that mark more than I would have expected. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/home-in-the-heart-of-the-beat/716385679

The 1986 Listening Post - The Meteors - Sewertime Blues

The Meteors - Sewertime Blues

#606

1986 Housekeeping

The Meteors

Sewertime Blues

Genre: Pyschobilly

2.75 out of 5

Requisite 80s cover:

Jan and Dean’s “Surf City”. It’s really not a good version at all. It sounds like if Blotto put on accents and covered this. 

More of the same from the Rockabilly Aussies. Personally, I’d rather put on a Reverend Horton Heat record than this or even a Stray Cats record. It’s not awful but it’s not anything worth paying import prices for. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/sewertime-blues-and-dont-touch-the-bang-bang-fruit/1496340576

The 1986 Listening Post - Sneaky Feelings - Sentimental Education

Sneaky Feelings - Sentimental Education

#605

1986 Housekeeping

Sneaky Feelings

Sentimental Education

Genre: Dunedin Sound

3.75

Highlights:

Walk to the Square

The sound from Dunedin in New Zealand is simple. Jangly, minimal, melodic, it often reminds me of the late 60s psychedelic sound. This one sure does. How far off from ? and the Mysterians or Strawberry Alarm Clock is this? If you like this particularly gentle rock, Sneaky Feelings do it perfectly. It doesn’t change the world and, really, it’s 20 years out of time, but it’s aight. 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovojQp-llI&list=PLlvn8uktX5Ls7FiA1ih_GWSwv-k9fIBKb  (Missing 4 tracks - I'm Not Going To Let Her Bring Me Down, Now, It's So Easy and Backroom)

The 1986 Listening Post - Good Question - Thin Disguise

Good Question - Thin Disguise

#604

July 3 1986

Good Question

Thin Disguise

3.75 out of 5 

Highlights:

The Naked Eye of Love

Somewhere between the soft blue eyed rock of Hall & Oates and the (too) clear vocals of Steven Page and the style of Ben Folds is Good Question, a band that if asked to choose, would easily say “McCartney” over “Lennon”.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/thin-disguise/1182793253

The 1986 Listening Post - The Zimmermen - Rivers of Corn

The Zimmermen - Rivers of Corn

#603 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

July 1 1986

The Zimmermen 

Rivers of Corn

Genre: Paisley from Down Under

4.75 out of 5 (Hard for me to say what stops me from giving it a 5)

Highlights:

Don’t Go to Sydney

I’m Happy

Get Off the Phone

Ordinary Man

AC/DC

Rick Springield

Nick Cave

Split Enz

Midnight Oil

INXS

and…The Zimmermen? 

This album is straight out of 1969 with it’s Byrds-like Paisley Revival sound, they don’t break any new ground but they write a bunch of pretty darned good songs. 

The kind of record you put on when you want to listen to The Stones or REM but are bored with their songs and just wanna hear something like it. 

Just a fantastic collection of songs.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/rivers-of-corn-feat-john-dowler/1383556707

The 1986 Listening Post - Martha and the Muffins - The World is a Ball

Martha and the Muffins - The World is a Ball

#602

May 1986

Martha and the Muffins

The World is a Ball

Genre: New Wave

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Only You

You know what I was thinking of while listening to this? Mates of State. What happened to them? They sort of popped in out of nowhere, took the mantle of elder states people married Indie Pop Rockers and then I never heard of them again. 

Martha and her husband, whom she met while in the band, are the band at this point. 

And, like MofS, they were New Wave stalwarts and then…gone. 

This album is cute. Sometimes it seems to be trying to be pop Kate Bush “Only You” and I appreciate that. Sometimes it’s just hypnotic New Wave Dance Pop. I’m ok with that.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-world-is-a-ball-30th-anniversary-edition/1205594207

The 1986 Listening Post - Zoogz Rift - Island of Living Puke

Zoogz Rift - Island of Living Puke

#601 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

1986 Housekeeping

Zoogz Rift

Island of Living Puke

Genre: WTF?

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Rediscover Downtown Paterson

Island of Living Puke

The Breather

Everything Zappa thought he was but was not Zoogz Rift is. This is my first experience with them but I enjoyed it more than almost everything Zappa has ever put out. 

Hailing from Paterson New Jersey, Zoogz went on to become a wrestler and then died of Diabetes. 

By the third track it’s obvious that Robert Pawlikowski knows his way around a song but honestly doesn’t seem to give a shit about selling records. He’s an original and I think we were all lucky to have lived in the same universe as him, if even for a short spell. 

He’s like the Kenny Shopsin of Rock music. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/island-of-living-puke/1339240636

The 1986 Listening Post - Alternative Radio - First Night

Alternative Radio - First Night

#600

1986 Housekeeping

Alternative Radio

First Night

Genre: Pop Rock

4 out of 5 

Highlights:

First Night

Concertina Ballerina

Valley of Evergreen

Whatever we all think of when we think of “Alternative Radio” is not this. This is Synth-Pop. Bee Gees pop smithing. Lush New Wave. English power Pop. Think latter day Sparks. Nothing really sounds like anything else on the record as one track gives way to another neatly crafted pop tune.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/first-night/270151281

The 1986 Listening Post - Crimson Glory - Crimson Glory

Crimson Glory - Crimson Glory

#599

1986 Housekeeping

Crimson Glory

Crimson Glory

Genre: Hammer On/Hammer Off Dual Guitar Shrieky Metal

1.75 out of 5

Look, this is the exact kind of stuff that Spinal Tap was mocking. “Dragon Lady”? “Azrael”? “Valhalla”? It’s like these bands exist to provide soundtracks to handheld videoed fight simulations at Rea Fair. Everyone moves at half speed and the swords never really make contact so the music has to compensate for that and it all just gets sillier and sillier. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/4DpUKNOF7K8U8xyNw8A7cV?si=lixk1YH9QL2G7YVHGoAXzw

The 1986 Listening Post - Digger - Stronger Than Ever

Digger - Stronger Than Ever

#598

1986 Housekeeping

Digger

Stronger Than Ever

Genre: Metal

1.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Lay It On

Grave Digger dropped the Grave part, put a T-1000 Donald Fuck on their cover, made themselves sound as much like Kiss as possible and made a record that they have never reissued on CD or in any form and is just as terrible as all the ones with Grave in the name.

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

The 1986 Listening Post - Kim Carnes - Light House

Kim Carnes - Light House

#597

1986 Housekeeping

Kim Carnes

Light House

Genre: Radio Friendly MOR

2.5 out of 5

Somewhere between the radio signals of C&W radio and an all 80s Springsteen station, lies this record. It’s very competent and all. I can easily forget that I heard this record. The best track here, the only one with any real sense of life, “Only Lonely Llove” is the one written by the team that wrote “Bette Davis Eyes”. But I’m not gonna highlight it cuz that will mean I might have to hear it again and I’m not living my life that long. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/light-house/1443411428