The 1982 Listening Post - The 49 Americans - We Know Nonsense

 Reviewed by Tom Mott / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 The 49 Americans We Know Nonsense Genre: Faux-Naïf Avant Garde Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee Edible Liberty In 1985-86, hot on the heels of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, I was flipping through bins at Rhino Records and came across a mysterious 10" EP entitled "The Melody Four? Si Señor!" The Melody Four only had three members. That was my first clue. Quirky, funny liner notes. Someone playing euphonium. DIY album art. And best of all, a cover of "Brazil." What did I end up with? Amateurish singing, lovely bizarre free-jazz saxophones, and simple "lite latin rhythms" like you'd hear from a home organ entertainment system. I loved it. And in the pre-Internet world, it remained a beguiling mystery. Nobody else knew anything about it until I met an Icelandic artist in the mid-90s who exclaimed "NAY WHOA! How do you know The Melody Four? I thought I was the only one!" That 10" was my secret treasure. Still is. Over the years I would learn that the three principals -- Steve Beresford, Lol Coxhill, and Tony Coe -- all came out of the Canterbury Scene and the London Musicians' Collective. (For reference: imagine Fred Frith or Robert Fripp putting out an album of amateurish-yet-loving latin standards.) I've never heard anything else like it. Ever. Even *other* Melody Four albums don't measure up to "The Melody Four? Si Señor!" --------------------- Until now. The 49 Americans "We Know Nonsense." Amateurish singing. Simple songs with unexpected quirks and layers. Fun "Latin lite" rhythms. There's Steve Beresford with his euphonium. There's Lol Coxhill with his mellifluous, wandering saxophone lines. There's also some toy piano, a chorus of happy singers, Viv Albertine (The Slits), Vivien Goldman ("Launderette"), and a host of other names I don't recognize. It's a DIY supergroup! There's bossa nova, samba, doo wop, surf music, a mish-mosh of genres. I adore it. The lead female vocalist (I believe it's Etta Saunders) has an absolutely beguiling voice. (Track 3 "Edible") A couple attempts at describing the sound: 1. Some seasoned avant garde musicians heard Rip Rig + Panic's first album "God," thought "ehh, far too many notes" and said "hold my beer". 2. More Specials crossed with Young Marble Giants and Marine Girls. 3. A happy backyard family sing-along, except your family happens to include Brian Eno, Ornette Coleman, and the Teletubbies. I'm in love. Not just with the music, but the overall stance/politics: Make art! Have fun! Everyone has something to contribute! I just ordered the album. ------------------- P.S. Andrew "Giblet" Brenner, the main force behind this album, went on to be the story editor of Thomas & Friends (i.e. Thomas the Tank Engine) for 10 years. Lol Coxhill and Steve Beresford have both put out tons of recordings over the past 30 years that are worth dipping your toes in.

The 1982 Listening Post - Teenage Head - Some Kinda Fun

 Reviewed by Geo Rule / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 Teenage Head Some Kinda Fun Genre: Rockabilly With ‘80s ‘Tude Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: (umm, all of it) Kick-Ass Cover: “Some Kinda Fun” What, all it takes is a couple concert riots and a naughty sophomore kind of band name to get yourself labeled as “Punk” in Canada? Are they that nice up there? I guess so. Teenage Head was a Canadian group of the early ‘80s that did quite well north of the border, but as much as anything American parents hang-ups over the band name limited their US presence. They finally got an American label for the album after this one, but were forced to change their name for US purposes to “Teenage Heads” to mollify the parents of teenage daughters. Fun historical fact: The age of consent in Canada at the time was 14 (and would remain so until 2008), so by local standards while naughty, it wasn’t necessarily the kind of “San Quentin Quail” (to use a phrase from my California youth, where to this day the age of consent remains at 18) situation many Americans perceived. I know I’m not a Punk afficionado, but these guys can play their instruments quite well, the lead singer can sing, there’s little sign of politics, or general screw authority, here ... just the teenage holy trinity –sex, drugs (or more accurately, beer), and rock ‘n roll. Sure, this is the kind of music your parents were afraid you were listening to, but “Punk” I just don’t get. “Some Kinda Fun” (which I actually listened to first, before streaming the whole album) is a cover of a Chris Montez song from 1962. Chris’ first hit is one you’ll all remember, “Let’s Dance”. This was his second release, and was a minor hit. The Teenage Head version replaces the original organ melody with driving guitar, and yes, it kicks all kinda ass. Being introduced to Teenage Head through that song, certainly bent me –hard—towards an initial “Modern Eddie Cochran” kind of assessment. As I listened to the rest of the album in order, there wasn’t as much of that sensibility, tho it could be detected here and there ... until I got to “Don’t Toy With Me”, which if Jerry Lee Lewis and Eddie C. ever did a collab, that’s what it’d sound like. So I’ll stick with my assessment, yes there’s certainly modern elements here, and naughtier lyrics than one could have gotten away with in the early 60s, but at heart I’m still hearing modern rockabilly with the usual concerns –getting laid, and getting drunk. Punk, not so much. I loved, loved, loved this album, and now I’ll have to go back and listen to the first two as well.

The 1982 Listening Post - SPK (AKA Sozialistisches Patienten Kollektiv) - Leichenschrei

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 SPK (AKA Sozialistisches Patienten Kollektiv) Leichenschrei Genre: Industrial Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: Genetik Transmission Post - Mortem “I think industrial music should have stopped completely after SPK made ‘Leichenschrei’ because that was the ultimate, it was a brilliant album that nobody could make a better, more definitive work in industrial music.” - Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots. [1] With a title roughly translating to “Corpse Scream”, “Leichenschrei” is a deeply unsettling album, constructed out of abstract noise, pounding drums, metallic thumps, and occasional vocals and voice recordings which are more often than not indecipherable. The bits of recorded speech which can be made out more clearly are generally medical or sexual in nature, peppered with a sense of paranoia, and delivered with an almost clinical lack of emotion as if reading a journal entry for the sake of a court appearance. [2] The more emotive vocalizations are mostly incoherent; “Despair” features a brief duet between muffled male vocals and orgasmic female shrieks, while “Agony of the Plasma” is anchored by the rhythm of a looped scream. Heavy use of echo gives the album the feeling of being recorded in a cave or under water, and sparse use of synths and guitars round out the sound. What surprised me about “Leichenschrei” is how thoroughly composed it sounds. Little about it is conventionally musical, but the various elements are clearly assembled with an ear for thematic development. Unlike a lot of true industrial/noise music, the result feels neither arbitrary nor improvised. Unsurprisingly, founder Graeme Revell would go on to work as a soundtrack composer in the 90s; the roots are clear here, somewhat more structured and dramatic than the Eraserhead soundtrack but equally noisy. The more atmospheric material on the first side is especially affecting though. If I have a complaint, it does get a bit tedious towards the more savage second side – I would have appreciated an occasional change of tone or texture at some point before returning to the horror. Album closer “Maladia Europa (The European Sickness)" hints at this with a snippet of choral music before returning to the sonic onslaught, but it is too brief to provide true respite. Props to SPK for their consistency though. While I was trolling a bit with the Ka-spel quote (to be fair, this is lifted from the Wikipedia page for this album, so how could I not include it?), I do think this album is a high water mark for industrial music, reflected in my rating. Not the Nine Inch Nails / Nettwerk / Wax Trax blend of hardcore, goth and electro that passed as industrial music in the later 80s (a style which SPK transitioned to as early as 1984). But it ranks with the best of the original industrial sound heard in Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Einstürzende Neubauten. I didn’t call it out as a “discovery” – SPK was well known within a certain crowd – but as someone who was somewhat familiar with their glossier dance music and had only read about earlier work, it was certainly a pleasantly unpleasant revelation for me. Should others listen to it? It really depends on how strong one’s stomach is, how narrowly one defines “music”, and what one is looking for from an album. While I think the album “Leichenschrei” is artistically very successful, it’s not so much an album to enjoy as to experience. If I were to have listened to this in a non-committal way – “hmm, maybe I’ll listen to this now, I dunno…” I would probably be off of it within a minute. To appreciate this album, it’s better to simply commit a period of time – even 10 minutes for the faint of heart – close your eyes and really listen. Or just choose this as the soundtrack to your next Halloween haunted house display. (Putting it on for a dinner party would be out of the question unless you’re trying to shed some guests.) At any rate, it may appeal to people who are interested in the music of Throbbing Gristle, early Cabaret Voltaire, musique concrete, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. I heard enough new elements with each listen that I don’t regret the 40 minutes (times three) I gave to it, and would listen to it again someday, but it’s not the kind of album I would keep in heavy rotation. ********** 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichenschrei 2. As an example, one audible snippet of rather dryly intoned female speech includes the line, “The manager of the corporation tried to give me syphilis by wiping his cock on my sandwich.”

The 1982 Listening Post - Bow Wow - Warning From Stardust

 Reviewed by Matthew M Tracksler / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: September 1982 Bow Wow Warning From Stardust Genre: Hanso Steel Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: (all of them) (Special Guest Review!) What I wrote down while listening ... Kiss Should've sounded like this. How did I miss this? Keep picturing SLam but also a Joey Ramone/Mick Mars image. Lots of smoke and pyro in my mind. Still havent looked at what they look like. Every jam is a banger and ahead of its time in a sense. Sick solos. Song 4 starts with a SOLO! If Japan had a New Jersey section, this would be playing nonstop.

The 1982 Listening Post - Pink Flamingos (AKA Dave McArtney & The Pink Flamingos) - We Never Close

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 Pink Flamingos (AKA Dave McArtney & The Pink Flamingos) We Never Close Genre: NZ Pop Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Paul’s Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Paul's Highlights: Just Like In The Movies We Never Close Proserpine Allen's Additional Highlights: Voodoo Another band with a ubiquitous name, this iteration of The Pink Flamingos were fronted by Dave McArtney, a Kiwi pop craftsman and soundtrack composer whose first band, Hello Sailor, were a beloved on-again/off-again act in New Zealand for three decades. Pink Flamingos appears to have been Dave’s shot at the big time, as they signed with Polygram Australia and relocated to Sydney. Alas, superstardom was not forthcoming, and after three records, McArtney went home to Auckland, eventually teaching at the Music & Audio Institute of New Zealand for the last 10 years of his life. There are echoes of familiar late 70s pop here, but I hesitate to use any names, since the associations most of the Listening Post fam would make might not be very positive. Besides, any music from down under is going to have its own spin on things. Let’s try this: imagine an affable, clever Michael McDonald or a sincere, non-boring Rupert Holmes. Now add a dash of Costello/Brothers Finn creativity, a dollop of Beatles influence and you’ve got a potentially potent mix. Unfortunately the production mostly buries the guitars behind a sterile rhythm section and only occasionally lets the chunky piano and tasteful synth melodies emerge to carry the day. These are finely written pop tunes with inventive turns of phrase, sung quite nicely for the most part. There’s some weird panting/growling in “Voodoo,” and the ballad “Girl” stretches McArtney’s vocal skills a bit with its emotive chorus and plaintive high notes, but for the most part he knows his strengths and plays to them. “Just Like in the Movies” is a gem and probably should have been a hit beyond the southern hemisphere. The lovely “Proserpine” dives deeply into McArtney’s near-namesake, opening with Ticket to Ride drums, throwing in staccato piano chords, and panning multiple sound effects behind an international tale of lost love. The title track, “We Never Close” really could have fit on a Squeeze album, albeit with a different arrangement. I should also point out that, if you’re going to call your band Pink Flamingos, you’d damn well better write a song named “Divine.” And they did. The only major misstep is an odd ode to Pompeii called “Believe in the Ruins,” which alternates falsetto with off kilter guitar bursts and a near-Day Tripper riff, ending with a bit of indecipherable spoken narration. Points for experimentation, I guess. The last track, “Too Shy” tries to throw a bit of ska/two-tone rhythm in, but these musicians simply do not have it, and the heavy handed production doesn’t help. Nor does the fake Jamaican accent of the bridge. Still, the failed attempts at stepping out of their lane only reinforce how solid they were staying in that lane. Ultimately, Dave McArtney could have fit in somewhere on that long continuum from Buddy Holly through Ray Davies to Andy Partridge and Chris Stamey. Maybe in New Zealand he did. I just wish we had a better produced sample of what he and his bandmates were able to do. (Allen’s note: I am in measured agreement on this. New Zealand has been a treasure trove of excellent rock & new wave on this project. This is no exception. I imagine it’s as difficult to get to the US from NZ in 1982 as it was from Australia. Perhaps more so because we were able to hear Midnight Oil and Rick Springfield and AC/DC and Split Enz. But if you want to hear good Indie Rock from New Zealand from today I direct you to the excellent band The Beths whose first two records I really enjoyed and are releasing their third in September.)

The 1982 Listening Post - Bobb Trimble - Harvest of Dreams

 Reviewed by Tom Mott / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: December 16 1982 Bobb Trimble Harvest of Dreams Genre: Obscure Psychedelic Folk! Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Tom’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Highlights: (everything!) Bobb Trimble ... ? Huh. Never heard of him. PUT ON THE FIRST TRACK. DO IT! PLEASE! "Premonitions - The Fantasy" . . . Are you listening to it yet? PUT IT ON! . . . I am completely bonkers hooked. Strummy folk guitar, Harmonica, a synth whistling, high vocals. Reverb, echo, weirdness, mesmerizing beauty. It sounds like ... > Russel Mael as a folk singer > Demo tracks for the Millennium's "Begin" (1968) > A second lost album by Ted Lucas ("Ted Lucas" 1975) > A deep cut from T. Rex when they were still Tyrannasaurus Rex > A Big Star obscurity, if Chris Bell sang falsetto > An early Salvation Army/Three O'Clock demo > Klaatu, if Klaatu was a little fucked up > Thunderclap Newman on acid Track 2 "If Words Were All I Had" is a tad too medieval for my taste, but still lovely. Donovan sucking on helium. Track 3 "The World I Left Behind" is 1:18 of silence. On AllMusic, it's not silence but 2:58 of tape hiss. I'm giving him a pass here. Track 4 "Armour of the Shroud" starts with a tape recorder click, a recorded voice telling us if we want to make a call, please hang up and try again, followed by a busy signal. Guitars, layered spooky voices buried way in the background, maracas (an immediate +1 for me), and what sounds like a kids' xylophone. Dreamy. If we stop here, this album gets a 5. ------------------------------------- INTERLUDE/ASIDE #1: The MKL (Most Knowledgable Listeners) of who I am not, will know that Bobb Trimble released two albums in limited editions of 300 apiece, and had a backing band called The Kidds which included kids aged 11-14 years old--until their parents questioned why their kids were spending all their time making "weird" music with this adult. This is one of those holy grails of obscure psychedelic folk collectors. INTERLUDE/ASIDE #2: The OKL (Other Knowledgable Listeners) will connect the dots between this and later artists. Neutral Milk Hotel, Joanna Newsom -- accordingly to AllMusic. I don't know enough here. Elucidate! INTERLUDE/ASIDE #3: Thanks to modern streaming algorithms, I was very recently introduced to Ted Lucas's 1975 psychedelic folk album, and I love it. This is in that same "psychedelic folk" space that I didn't really know existed, but of course it does. Rule 34 applied to music. Too Dead-ish for some, but Lucas writes deceptively simple, pretty songs (think: Moondog as a folkie) and does some lovely self-harmonizing. Check it out! ------------------------------------- Track 4: Album still gets a 5. Track 5: Wait, wha-?? This is Track 1 repeated, but mixed slightly differently. The whistling synth is gone. It's a little less dense. Nearly identical though, like when the Stones give you the Glyn Johns alternate mix of a song. The song is good enough I'm happy to hear it again. Album still gets a 5. Track 6: Some kids talking. His backing band? Album still gets a 5. ------------------------------------- INTERLUDE/ASIDE #4: The album is beautiful. And unsettling. Drug music! ------------------------------------- Track 7: Still a strong song, but like too many Madness songs in a row, I'm slipping a twee bit ... until that whacked-out super-fuzzed guitar appears out of nowhere. Whoa! WTF! Brilliant! Track 8: The first outlier: A 2-minute blast of rough garage rock by his young bandmates. Overlaid with backwards-tracked instruments and backwards kids' voices. And star chimes. Shaggs-like live singing and thudding away at drums. ------------------------------------- INTERLUDE/ASIDE #5: Track 8 reminds me of my old band Legion of Rock Stars. We wore sound-blocking earphones and sang/played along to songs without being able to hear ourselves at all. Always out of key, and always in sync! ------------------------------------- Track 9: Back to the lovely, languid, sleep psychedelia. Track 10: The second outlier: a more agressive, angular song. At least for the first minute! And then back to psychedelic found sounds, maracas, echo, reverb, layered voices, and whistles. The Wrap-Up: I did not know this album existed. It's fantastic. It's going into heavy rotation over here. Accessible Psychedelic Sunshine Pop-Folk!

The 1982 Listening Post - Slow Children - Mad About Town

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 Slow Children Mad About Town Genre: New Wave Rating: 4.1 out of 5 Highlights: One More Trauma (on the original album but super creepy) Unplugging The Vacuum Vanessa Vacillating She’s Like America (apparently not on the original album) Slow Children is a duo: Pal Shazar (the girl) and Andrew Chinich (the guy). She mostly sings, he mostly speaks. I feel like this is a direction new wave could have taken if, say, Romeo Void and the Waitresses had hit number one instead of Duran Duran and the Human League. Instead, it took about 20 years for their influence to really hit, as indie bands like Imperial Teen and Mates of State picked up the new wave bounce and spiky lyrical flow and ran with it. (If you didn’t have hipster kids in your home in the early ‘00’s, you might have missed it, but new wave had a major moment, and I for one was all over it.) Spotify’s album opener, “She’s Like America,” sneaks in slowly with some snakey, clean power chords. There’s some rumbling reverb, a bit of high organ, human vox synth, playful bass. Everything I’ve described so far could be a B-52’s song, but they sound almost nothing like the B-52’s. It’s 3 minutes 30, but you’d swear it’s over in less than 2 minutes. Sinister and wonderful. Further research reveals it wasn’t the album opener after all. The actual first track was “One More Trauma,” a song you will not find on Spotify. “Don’t try to make me laugh / Don’t try to make me cry / Seems an eternity / Since you last entered me / I don’t think anything can erase that / And so you’ll walk away / I won’t remember this.” Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is a band that led off their 2nd album with a catchy number about being raped and blacking out. Not exactly a recipe for success in 1982, but bold as hell. The first single was “Vanessa Vacillating'' – infectious vocals over relentless electronic thrum and echoey snare, with tasteful synth horn bleeps here and there, and a jagged rhythm that invites you to at least nod along. Even produced by Jules Shear, it wasn’t a hit. The second single, “President Am I” got some MTV play on the strength of a cute video heavily featuring cute Pal Shazar wearing a cute hat and RayBans. I don’t remember it, but we didn’t get MTV until ‘83, so maybe it was gone by then. The album is front loaded and begins to go downhill with the slow burning “Suspense.” Still, there’s an electric buzz that runs through tracks like “Skill of a Caveman” and “Missing Missiles” that compensates for the lack of strong hooks. The lyrics are suitably dark, which you’d never know unless you actually listen closely. I get the feeling that’s the effect they were going for here. The closing track is “East Berlin by Rail.” Unfortunately it’s no “Riding on the Metro,” although it’s not for lack of trying. The keening guitar solo is a 15 second highlight. Maybe they were one John Hughes soundtrack away from glory, maybe they were slightly ahead of their time, or maybe they just never quite found the hooks needed to get on the charts and stay there. For me, they’re good enough to be a Listening Post Discovery, but your mileage may vary.

The 1982 Listening Post - The Virgin Prunes - ...If I Die, I Die

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: November 4 1982 The Virgin Prunes ...If I Die, I Die Genre: Dark Wave Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Highlights: Decline And Fall Sweethome Under White Clouds Theme For Thought You know what we forget? That The Edge has a brother. That that brother, Dik, was a founding member of U2, that he was edged out of the band (he he he) and that he would go on to form this post-rock experimental weirdness. Boy, that second track, “Decline and Fall” sounds a LOT like “Kokoku” by Laurie Anderson and I have to wonder if she was influenced by it/interpolated it. This is a haunting, gothic, dark and wet record that is also, bizarrely, campy and self knowing. Look at that single, “Baby Turns Blue”, which is actually the least successful track on the album. But it’s also the most campy and fun. On a record that seems, at first glance, to be whole heartedly against having fun of any kind.

The 1982 Listening Post - Toby Redd - A to Z

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 Toby Redd A To Z Genre: Power Pop Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Highlights: Can't Get A Job More Time Make It Up To You Melea Requisite 80s Cover: An unrecognizable “It Ain’t Me Babe” that proves that good songs are good songs are good songs. A tight power pop group from Detroit that boasts Pre-RHCP Chad Smith as the drummer. But not on this record, apparently. He would join on the next one. What’s happening here is a solid set of rockers with swagger and punch. Are they in the wrong timeline? Yes, definitely. But they got the riffs and the licks and I bet they threw a helluva party. The pair of quntuplet drum hits in the solo of “Make It Up To” made me wish that fucker streamed. I neeeeeeed that on a playlist.

The 1982 Listening Post - Toxic Reasons - Independence

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 Toxic Reasons Independence Genre: Hardcore Punk Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Highlights: Mercenary Noise Boys Ghost Town White Noise Requisite 80s cover: I love their version of “The Shape of Things to Come”. Not as much as the original, though. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think that was a song by a fictional band in the terrific ’68 cult film, Wild in the Streets. Toxic Reasons amp up the psychedelic craziness, more so than the prefab band for the movie and much much more than Paul Revere and the Raiders’ version. Me like! Listen to “Drunk and Disorderly” and tell me it doesn’t a) sound like they are yelling “Toy story!!” And b) that they don’t sound like a bunch of musicians who showed up to play songs but they are all wanted by either the law or by the big brothers/uncles/fathers of girls they’ve wronged and they promised a full set, so they are playing like they have to prove themselves but also get the fuck out of the joint as fast as possible. You could pretty much pick any track from this record as a highlight to represent the style. Toxic Reasons understand the assignment and dammit if Bruce Stuckey can shred. If you ever wanted to know what a Reggae song would sound like if Lemmy fronted The Clash, have no fear, “White Noise” is here for you. I wish the album was produced with a little less echo as I think it needs to be rawer. But, no matter. I’ll take it. It’s an adrenalin shot.

The 1980 Listening Post - Joey Wilson - Going Up

 1980 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Joey Wilson

Going Up

Genre: Forgotten New Wave/Power Pop

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

If You Don’t Want My Love

Taking Me Back

Underground

I Was a Fool

Out of Our World

Let’s connect Blondie to U2 and we will use the most arcane record we can find to do it. Cuz, I’m 100% sure there are a gazillion ways to “six degrees of Kevin Bacon”-ing those two bands. But we’re going to talk about this way so you you can mesmerize people at parties. 

And, by “mesmerize” I mean, “ensure that no one wants to invite you to more parties”. 

Or maybe they like this sort of thing.

Let’s dive in and talk about Going Up, the ONLY record by Local Philadelphia legend, Joey Wilson.

Joey Wilson was the first signing of a new label: Modern Records. 

Goldberg was obviously connected, since after this record flopped he concentrated on promoting his other business partner and put out a little record by Stevie Nicks called Bella Donna.

So, he was able to enlist a well known and suddenly out of work keyboardist-turned-producer to produce the record. One Jimmy Destri, late of the broken up Blondie. And Destri pulls out all the stops. 

Just as a side note…man, does he sound like Glenn Tilbrook. In every great way. 

The ominousness of The Brains on the opener, “If You Don’t Want My Love” sets this album squarely in the New Wave world. It’s glossy, and lush and dark and then gives way to a Billy Joel - meets Elvis Costello on the New Wave blacktop, “Taking Me Back”. 

Those two tracks bash into the showstopper  The broken-hearted ballad, the single, “Underground” which explodes with strings and horns and suggests the Billy Joel song that Billy never wrote. 

That brings us to “Hold On Girl”, which is where we get to talk about U2. And this is author assumption. Because I hear that song and it reminds me, from a production standpoint, of Steve Lillywhite. And The Edge. And I have to believe that it was this song that caught certain ears because after this record came out, and landed with a thud, Destri was invited to potentially produce u2’s War with Steve. They worked on three songs that have come out in various forms over the decades and, well, we all know that Destri didn’t end up being the producer on that, or any other, U2 album. But, because of THIS record, he got the shot to produce that one.  

The roots of 80s rock is in this thing. I hear not just the overproduction of Lillywhite but the song-stylings of Neil Finn. I would put Wilson next to anything Split Enz or Crowded House put out and you might think they were the same groups. Just without the incessant hooks that are needed to crack the charts. 

And the title track is a work of 80s Cars-esque majesty. But even they never really got this epic. 

What happened to Goldberg? He would manage Nirvana. 

And Wilson? He died of a heroin addiction at the age of 43. His lasting legacy is that you can buy this record for $2.75 in Mint condition on Discogs. 

Excuse me while I overpay for shipping….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va4P3zdvKFQ&list=PLlvn8uktX5LvbrTGop70Iu6HT7S1UaRUS

The 1982 Listening Post - The Bats (US) - How Pop Can You get?

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 The Bats (US) How Pop Can You Get? Genre: Power Pop Rating: 4.75 out of 5 Highlights: How Pop Can You Get? Not Easy For Me Mr. Peculiar Living In Alaska Not My Girl Anymore Hey Teen-Age Every Night Too Out / Bottom Of The Ninth Popgun (bonus track on the 2008 re-issue) There isn’t a bad track on here. True story: In my Covid haze I forgot to close out my audio recording app so everything funneled through it made this record sound awful. I was about to give it 4.5 stars based on that even though the production and mastering was so awful. My bad. I closed it out during the penultimate song and, lucky me, I got to listen to the entire thing again!!! Who the heck were The Bats? Well, I’m glad you asked. Before the soundtracks for the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson. Before producing Fiona Apple and Kanye. Before the stints at the Club Largo. This was Jon Brion’s band. And it’s a banger. It lies somewhere between Sparks and Jellyfish. With, yes, a little bit of The Tubes (“Every Night”). It’s like … an 80s Fountains of Wayne. Put this in the same box as Game Theory for me. Power Pop gems that no one heard or ever will hear. “Not My Girl Anymore” is the theme song to a sit-com that never happened. But, damn, it should. 10 years later this is the theme to some CW show. That is not a bad thing, btw. From the liner notes: “"Living In Alaska" and "Hey Teen-age" are early eight track sessions, some of our first. We had so much fun that it seemed that re-recording for the sake of higher tech would have been an anti climax. Pardon the hiss level.” This album is damned near perfect.

The 1982 Listening Post - Spoons - Arias & Symphonies

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 Spoons Arias & Symphonies Genre: Synth-Wave Rating: 4.75 out of 5 Highlights: Trade Winds Smiling In Winter One In Ten Words No Electrons No More Growing Up Arias & Symphonies Walk The Plank The opening salvo of “Trade Winds” and “Smiling in Winter” suggest that we are in for a synthesized treat. It has me wondering: how come we don’t talk about Spoons when we discuss 80s New Wave Synth Pop? This is easily as good, if not better than all the Depeche Mode I’ve heard from the era and it gives Upstairs at Eric’s a run for it’s money as well. Side One is relentless. I am imagining “No Electrons” played at an outdoor arena, with a light show mesmerizing 50,000 people and I want to go to there. I keep reading ratings that float this between a 3.5 and a 4 and, at the end of Side One, I am at a loss. So, let’s flip it over. The epic “Nova Heart” actually pales to the rest of what I’ve heard so far. And it’s the single. But, that don’t make it not good, as they say. This is one of the most fully realized spinners I’ve heard from a band whose previous album didn’t show signs of this grandiosity.

The 1982 Listening Post - Rank and File - Sundown

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: June 1982 Rank and File Sundown Genre: Alt-Country? Rating: 4.75 out of 5 Highlights: (Glad I'm) Not In Love Rank And File The Conductor Wore Black I Went Walking Lucky Day Coyote I have never heard of Rank and File. And that’s surprising because one would think considering how much I loved The Beat Farmers that this would have landed in my sphere somehow. But, then again, maybe not, since The Beat Farmers are still a couple years away, as is Mojo Nixon. But this is in that realm, yes? Even so, I loved X and dug The Knitters. How have I never heard of Rank and File? This is Alejandro Escovedo’s other band, The Nuns being the one we heard in 1980. And it’s just as good, albeit different. Is this alt-country? Is it Cow-Punk? I don’t know the difference in those sub-genres. Thing is, this is just like The Knitters except that Doe and Cervenka are amazing singers who don’t sound like they should be singing together, or even on their own and Escovedo and Chip Kinman, who approximates an in-tune Exene, sound amazing together. There is no doubt that these guys love Woody Guthrie but also that Springsteen heard this record when he pilfered some of the lyrics for “Land of Hope and Dreams”. I wonder if anyone ever noticed or just assumed he was cribbing Woody? This album is like hearing The Everly Brothers for the first time. (Because I’m hearing these guys for the first time, duh) and, while Rank and File harken back to that early era of Rock and Roll, they are taking it on a drive into the (at the time) present and creating something absolutely timeless. This album is damned near perfect.

The 1981 Listening Post - The Bings - Power Pop Planet

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1981 The Bings Power Pop Planet Genre: Power Pop Rating: 4 out of 5 Highlights: Please Please Please Oh No! Don’t Stop Dancing (I really love the whole thing) I’m not sure what’s more fun about music besides listening to it. Is it the sharing or the discovery? My experience with The Bings was an explosive combination of the two. One evening, as I was scrolling videos on a kids’ dancing/lip syncing app (yes, I know it’s become a lot more since then, but for the purposes of illustrating how the antediluvian managed to find each other, best to describe it thus) I happened upon a gentleman talking about his band, The Bings and their new CD, Power Pop Planet. Now, mind you, I had taken great pains and a whole lotta time convincing the algorithm to push me stuff I enjoyed: vinyl records, comedy and anything nontroversial. And here was Quint Randle, telling me about this record that had been unearthed thanks to quarantine, tapes that sat dormant and assumed recorded over many years since they were first used, 40 years ago. No, really, the tapes were sitting in a filing cabinet and they took them out, dusted them off and remixed everything. I didn’t scroll past, instead I listened. And then I followed the links down the rabbit hole. And one day I decided to reach out. Because in the age of social media, sometimes you just gotta say, “Hey, this is great!” I was now a fan. When I say that I ‘reached out’, I mean I just slid into his DMs and, with unearned authority, started offering advice. At first Quint was reticent, as he should have been. But, after a while we picked up a nice little relationship. I made some suggestions as to where to submit and I made some entrees, first sending the story to David Bash and then to SW Lauden and I suggested a couple blogs for Quint to submit this amazing discovery to. Enter Quint into the labrynthian yellow brick road of Power Pop. A place where the denizens write furiously about their favorite genre that is ill defined and fought over. First Faster and Louder got their hands on it and Lord Rutledge told his world about this amazing archeological relic on a Sunday night. Next, SW Lauden’s interview appeared in Ride the Lightning. And before you could say, Please Please Please, the band had been invited to play their very first show in 4 decades on David Bash’s estimable International Pop Overthrow. In the tradition of The Shivvers and Sorrows’ Love Too Late, the Power Pop world has been gifted another reminder of just why we loved the sound of guys in skinny ties writing tightly wound, melodic nuggets of pop that has power. I have it on good authority that The Bings’ Power Pop Planet will be getting a vinyl pressing from Bachelor Records. Did the video I made about them help? Did the fact that I tagged Bachelor records on that video and that Bachelor “liked” it help? It didn’t hurt. 😉

The 1981 Listening Post - The Muffs (AKA Money) - The Muffs (AKA Rainbow Album

 Reviewed by Tom Mott / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1981 The Muffs (AKA Money) The Muffs (AKA Rainbow Album) Genre: Chaotic Neutral Rating: 4 out of 5 Highlights: Starmaker (No Lip From) Punks It's Strange The Muffs burst forth like a pinball machine run amok, plugged into your quadraphonic sound system. Are they the evil band from a Sid & Marty Kroft TV Special? No, not evil. Bounty Hunters of rock. Like the altern-a-dude's slow awareness that bowling is more than an ironic posture it's legit fun, my astonished glee took several turns before acknowledging this masterpiece. Is this a kitsch masterpiece? Does pleasure care from whence it springs? Oh, self. I should have known just from the bitchin' hologram album cover. If The Cars were glam rock. If Styx was a pop band. If Utopia wasn't drenched in smug self-awareness. If the 90s Muffs name hadn't obliterated all previous Muffs. You're confused. Tom's putting us on. Shit, he's not even on FB anymore. Troll! Hear me out. Listen to "Shoot Me Rock and Roll" with the mental image that all of the Listening Posters are in a packed club. Aaron hitting every one of those gloriously perfect rototom fills. Brian effortlessly dialing up some chorused guitars. Jim grimacing as he dutifully plays the keyboard parts, but we know he secretly enjoys his solo spotlight in "Wake Up." And then Allen comes out in Bugaloo-inspired attire for "Off the Air," and the deal is sealed. We're all in, for every singalong chorus ("I-I-I-I don't take no lip from punks!") Chris, Thom, and Thom laughing no, no, no, this is terrible. Until they're given the task of art directing the whole affair, track down some lasers, and succumb to the magic. This is what the music on Jimmy Hotz "Beyond the Crystal Sea" should have sounded like. He aspired to laserium pomposity instead of wrangling together a two-bit E.L.O. Electric Mayhem Circus meant for small clubs in Ohio and Boston. Or the Tomorrowland Terrace. It ends with a rock instrumental of The Way We Were. We would have been giddy with excitement around the water cooler on Monday, preening over everyone who had missed the show. +10,000.

The 1981 Listening Post - Lucifer's Friend - Mean Machine

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: September 1981 Lucifer's Friend Mean Machine Genre: Metal Rating: 4 out of 5 Highlights: One Way Street To Heartbreak Fire And Rain Cool Hand Killer Bye Bye Sadie Lucifer’s Friend was a band made up of German musicians with a British lead singer, John Lawton. They released several hard rock albums, starting in 1970, but according to what I read, they “lost their way” musically after signing with Elektra in 1978, drifting into a funkier sound and away from their roots. Mean Machine marked a return to metal, albeit what sounds to me like a very commercially viable metal. Somehow, it failed to hit, and the band went silent for 13 years, before reuniting for one more album, which flopped even worse. Thing is, I’m not really a metal fan, but this is good stuff. I hear elements of Rainbow, Judas Priest, the usual NWOBHM suspects, but also Deep Purple, Van Halen, AC/DC, hell, even early Chicago. They’ve got a piano/organ player! Their songs are varied and complex! And maybe most importantly, John Lawton is a hell of a singer! The one and only year I played organized football, in the 8th grade, we had a coach who thought it would be cool to have us reenact the climactic scene from The Longest Yard, a silly Burt Reynolds movie none of us had seen, by making half of us chant “the Mean Machine” over and over while the other half pretended to be evil prison guards trying to stop our version of Burt from scoring the winning touchdown. I’m sure Coach Springer meant well, but I have always associated the phrase with that day, which was awkward and embarrassing. Just thought I’d throw that in for some local color. Now back to our record review, already in progress. My highlights may not be your highlights, especially if you’re an experienced metalhead. Album opener One Way Street To Heartbreak incorporates what feels like a super effective metal trope: call and response vocal section leading into a big repeated chorus, followed by a speeded up tempo and fadeout. Fire And Rain features a piano section slightly reminiscent of Starship’s Jane, but proceeds to shred any comparisons with an unexpected bridge and some big time vocal histrionics from Lawton. I really enjoyed Cool Hand Killer, a driving thumper that ends side one. The organ/guitar interplay in the last few minutes really worked well, and even the Eruption-style solo that precedes it (titled Mean Machine) didn’t distract from the actual song’s epic power. Bye Bye Sadie grabbed my ear with Chuck Berry riffs, held on with a melodically strong chorus, and sealed the deal with a tightly composed ending. I could find moments in every song that stand out. The truth is, they all ROCK (insert devil horns emoji here). It’s possible I’m just in a good mood today and genuine fans could criticize this record and explain why it failed to break out. Either way, I’m glad I got to review a metal album I actually liked. Pretty sweet deal.

The 1981 Listening Post - Grey-Star - Grey-Star

 Reviewed by Tom Mott / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1981 Grey-Star Grey-Star Genre: Duck Lip Nod Rock Rating: 4 out of 5 Highlights: Don't Go And Leave Me Guaranteed To Please As one of the two lead vocalists of Black Oak Arkansas, Ruby Starr commanded the stage like a carny's wet dream. A high compliment. Ruby Starr is a raw, gritty, firecracker. You hear the strut in her voice. She's in the venn diagram between Tina Turner and Stevie Nicks, grabbing the baton from Joplin[1] and running with it. Pipes that will shatter that mirror you won at the carnival with the Boston logo on it, and a vibrato like a Sawzall. Toured with Edgar Winter and Blackfoot. The Ruby Star Band performed as the opening act for Kansas, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and April Wine. She died too young from cancer. Criminally unknown. In the early 80s, she joined up with a band called Lucy Grey and they became Ruby Starr. The drummer's name is Mud Slide. What's his backstory? I bet he shit his pants. Track 1 features their male vocalist. He's a high-yuh reach-ing e-nun-cee-ay-tohrrrr, earning his degree from DVI (DeYoung Vocal Institute) with some extra Freddits under his belt. Dammit, this song is catchy. Track 2 is a cover of Piece of My Heart. Joplin comparisons are inevitable. Ruby doesn't rework the song, but how strong is she? DING-DING-DING the little lady rung the bell and just won a giant Pink Panther plushy. The band gives it some nice muscle and harmonies too. Track 3 is gritty, fun, sing-along rock'n'roll. Joan Jett, Suzy Quatro, ... Ruby Starr! Okay ... I LIKE THESE GUYS! This band is a great rock band! Side 2 (Track 6): Bring on the moody Planet P synths. Did you know Ruby Starr posed for Cream magazine in cutoffs, holding a whip? More hair on the top of her head than there is whipped cream on that Herb Alpert album cover. This is the track where I realized I was making duck lips while I type. Track 7: Q: Dad, what's a guitar with two necks called? A: An asshole machine! except these guys prove that joke wrong! They're ripping it up. Give 'em three necks, give 'em three necks more. Track 8: This obligatory power ballad is not embarrassing. Track 9: The male scrodeler gets to close things out. He's legit, but we're all here for Ruby. ********** 1. Janis, not Scott.

The 1981 Listening Post - EF Band - Last Laugh Is On You

 Reviewed by Rod Brogan / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1981 EF Band Last Laugh Is On You Genre: Heavy Metal Rating: 4 out of 5 Highlights: The Last Laugh Is On You Two former swedish prog rockers, bassist/vocalist Pär Ericsson and guitarist Bengt Fischer (the titular E&F), started this power trio, along with drummer Dag Eliason. Derek Lawrence, who had produced three Richie Blackmore era Deep Purple albums, oversaw Last Laugh, and he proves to have good rock and roll ears. This isn't the Mutt Lange wall of sound that took over the 80s in just a few short years, but the drums still sound robust and give an unusually heavy bottom to the sound for the time. The title track main riff is fast, furious, and a bit sleazy, and could quite nicely fit in the setlist of Live Like A Suicide early Guns N' Roses, when it was still Izzy Stradlin's band. What's remarkable is not how big the sound is for a trio, but how everywhere on the album you find something reminiscent of production and songwriting that came later. Hard Liqueur And Women could be the B side to Whitesnake's Slide It In. This album represents the beginning of 80s excess. Not just longer solos, but drum fills galore as the pocket gave way to fast beats. There's no room or space left in the music, every second is filled with playing. Who knew that in the coming decade, musicianship would become such an athletic endeavor? Possibly with some help from producer Lawrence, EF Band opened for Blackmore's Rainbow, and what a tour that must have been. E.F. Band had two more albums before calling it a day after 1985's One Night Stand. A shame, because this was terrific hard rock/proto 80s metal. E.F. disappeared, and David Coverdale recorded with Jimmy Page. The last laugh was on them.

The 1981 Listening Post - Bamboo Zoo - Look! Listen! Consume!

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1981 Bamboo Zoo Look! Listen! Consume! Genre: Post-Punk Rating: 4 out of 5 Highlights: Look! Listen! Consume! The Interminable Twang Grow/Strive/Fall Brave New Whirl Emerging Do The Archipelago “Look! Listen! Look! Listen! Look! Consume!” track one begins. Frantic tribal drumming, high pitched guitar with heavy tremolo, hypnotic bass line, chanting, singing, weird noises. It’s crazy ass post-punk, and I’m here for it. Bamboo Zoo was a Manchester band featuring former members of IQ Zero: Mick Duffy, Russ Entwistle, Joe Duffy and Gordon Holden. A song of theirs called Ghost Party got lots of airplay from John Peel. Both that single and this album became highly sought-after collector's items among post-punk fans. I get it. There’s a restrained tension and energy in songs like Grow/Strive/Fall and Brave New Whirl that’s pretty intoxicating. Lead singer Mick Duffy straddles the line between melodic and annoying with great skill. Chiming guitars alternate haunting and taunting the listener. Drums teeter on the edge of losing the beat, then pull it all together. And of course, since this is post-punk, bass anchors everything, although sometimes it’s notable for its absence, as on the minimalistic Wires and String: just one guitar with rhythmic sound effects, bell chimes, and the occasional floor tom thump. They dip into goth a bit on tracks like The Box and Aku-a-Calling, but there are also echoes of early R.E.M., Wire, and Pylon. The Interminable Twang feels like all of the above, plus a little Pere Ubu. You might be reminded of Talking Heads on the track Submarine (although the vocals drift too far toward annoying, the super creative instrumental work makes it worth hearing) or Emerging (there’s a Bush of Ghosts feel, but the whispering takes it in a slightly creepier direction - “these obsequious things / are killing you”). Well Done Earthling might give off the faintest whiff of Bowie, but the unpolished, DIY approach begs to differ. Do the Archipelago marries a Bow Wow Wow beat to some surf guitar and inscrutable lyrics. I would have loved to see what the preppy kids at my high school would have done had it been played at an after game dance on a Friday night. I’d like to think I would’ve pogoed my ass off, which I was tempted to do when I listened to it on a Tuesday night just now. Track twelve, The Beat to Eat, reprises the “Look! Listen! Consume!” chant, only this time in echoed, panned, effect drenched vocals, accompanied by primal drums, snatches of guitar and bass, and more weird sounds, finally ending with a repeated echo of “Consume!” over and over into a fadeout. The album cover makes bold claims: “The Dance to Chance! The Disc to Whisk!” It’s just a damn fine post-punk outing that scratches that itch over and over again on twelve tightly wound tunes. The YouTube link was missing a few tracks, so I did some digging in various online locales and managed to listen to them all. If it didn’t cost $35 or more to get a copy shipped from the UK, I’d consider picking one up. I quite like this record.