The 1981 Listening Post - Mink De Ville - Coup de Grace

 Mink De Ville - Coup de Grace

#510

By Brian San Marco

Mink DeVille

Coup De Grace

Genre: RnB.  Yup RnB.

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Brian’s Rating: 4 out of 5 

Highlights: 

Just Give Me One Good Reason

Maybe Tomorrow

Teardrops Must Fall

At first glance at the album cover, I thought I was in for a New Wave/early 80’s synth extravaganza.  But no.  Not even close.  Then I looked more closely.  Willy DeVille was more stray cat than Gary Newman.  I can’t believe I missed it on the cover.  Then I listened.  

What I got was surely unexpected.  This is old school RnB/Blues mixed with the intensity of Robert Palmer (70’s Palmer) and Bruce Springstein.  The product is a clean, slightly polished, tight sound.  Not quite as tight as Palmer, but way less raucous than Springstein.  Still, in many ways, I find that is could be popular music today save for the real instruments.  Speaking of which, this is a big band and features Sax in most songs.

This record flows nicely and has a good mix of styles that Mink DeVille always pulls off in their own way.  Yet the parallels and familiarity are infinite.  This record is not cerebral in anyway.  It’s not even ground breaking, but it’s interesting to listen to and sounds great which are always things I can get behind.  It’s a good record.

All that said, there is something truly remarkable about an RnB band being one of the house bands at CBGB during the punk craze.  This makes me want to listen more, because I know it’s honest and the scene would have ever accepted something pretentious.  Can you imagine seeing the Ramones and between them and the next act you have the fine RnB classics of Mink Deville?   I’m sure some of you can.  This to me earns them 4 stars.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2gYxwgqsQM4F3bT9k8Znld?si=rNlZTq7hSuSgs6kM2aogKg

The 1981 Listening Post - Triumph - Allied Forces

Triumph - Allied Forces

#467

By Brian San Marco

Triumph

Allied Forces

Genre: progressive-blues rock

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Brian’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Highlights: 

Fool for Your Love

Magic Power

Allied Forces

Fight the Good Fight

Ordinary Man

In terms of Canadian progressive rock power trios.  Triumph would be the OTHER progressive rock trio that we all know and love.  Yet, while comparisons to Rush are possible, their progressive styles present themselves in a very different manner.  Triumph allows for their more bluesy roots to come through and depending on the song, you could make comparisons to many other acts at the time like BTO, Boston, Dio, to name a few.  This is not to suggest they’re more diverse than Rush, but rather more palatable to the ordinary listener.  

THAT SAID, I love Triumph.  Since I can remember, I’ve had a fondness for the band and I was always glad to listen even though I could not name one of their songs.  Maybe it’s in the name.  Maybe it’s because of my fondness for progressive rock and that other Canadian trio.   When a Triumph song comes on, I always know it’s them.  The particular timbre of Rik Emmett’s voice was always pleasing to me along with the screaming guitar solos and licks.  

As I listen to them today, I can’t say that they’re entirely original and one of a kind, yet they are.  It’s Triumph.  It’s really good rock mixing in all the tedious motifs and ideas that we heard so much of in the 70’s, but in. a pleasing, original, progressive way.  Why am I so pleased by this?  I don’t know.  Maybe you can tell me.  It’s striking considering I have no specific memories.  I sort of recognize songs like “Fight the Good Fight”, but not really.  Yet, I love it and I’m nostalgic for it.  Every time I get to listen to it, I love. It.  Like an old friend.  It’s weird that I don’t pursue it more often.  Maybe that keeps it novel for me.

https://open.spotify.com/album/6IL1IMpqQoAH2SJpVj1BWn?si=G1ASUKJ0Tk2L3uPzW4_ATg

The 1981 Listening Post - Greg Kihn Band - RocKihnRoll

Greg Kihn Band - RocKihnRoll 

#289

By Brian San Marco

Greg Kihn Band

RocKihnRoll

Genre: Boy-band Pop Rock before it was a thing that sounded like a different thing

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Brian’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Highlights: 

Valerie

The Breakup Song

Womankind

Greg Kihn writes some songs that I like .  Ah ah a ah ah a ah ah ah

He also writes some that I don’t.  Ah ah a ah ah a ah ah ah

It all seems pretty ordinary to me, but it’s not.  It’s extraordinary.  In the era of the male pop-rock star, Greg Kihn is like the science geek who decided he could out-perform the studs: Rick Springfield, Billy Squier, and Bryan Adams to name a few.  These guys did it well, but Greg writes ALL his songs, with his band.  He is like the Joe Jackson of the Joe Jackson era.  Unfortunately for Greg, we have Joe Jackson and maybe Joe does it a little better? I can’t tell.  Maybe teenie-boppers had Greg posters on their walls next to Rick.  I don’t know. Probably not.  Dah Dah.  They just don’t write them like this anymore.

He finally achieves status with “The Break Up Song”, but then his nerd sensibilities poke through on songs like “Womankind”.  That word itself isn’t a word you use when you don’t want a second date.  But still, most of the tracks are at least a little catchy if not over simple relying on the words and melody, which can be quite trite at times. Ah ah a ah ah a ah ah ah

I’d definitely listen to this at a party that takes place at Ridgemont High while wishing I had Jesse’s Girl. Ah ah a ah ah a ah ah ah

https://open.spotify.com/album/3kTUIz5PEmQzn5WA1NGRoF?si=jKN_QCX6SPuN3KTV0NB01Q

The 1981 Listening Post - Teena Marie - It Must Be Magic

 Teena Marie - It Must Be Magic

#196

By Brian San Marco

May 14 1981

Teena Marie

It Must Be Magic

Genre: Post-disco Eighties pop

Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5 

Brian’s Rating: 2 out of 5 stars – Overcomplicated, like this review.

Highlights: ummm….

It Must be Magic

This is very interesting to me.  I remember Teen Maria from the mid-eighties pop hit “Lovergirl”.  It was a good polished Top 40 offering.  I was a kid, it’s what I knew.

Little did I know, Teena Marie had been on the scene for a while and 1981 once again proves to be a transitional period in music.  This album demonstrates that to a fault. 

Lost somewhere between disco and funk-pop, “It Must Be Magic” finds itself in an awkward situation and isn’t quite sure what it wants to be and where it wants to go. This seems clear to me not only in the overall record, but within each song as well.  From the simply trite, disconnected lyrics, to the really good, but disconnected band, to the poor vocal decisions of Teena herself.

To be clear, it’s not all bad.  The title track grooves and makes you want to move.  The band is top notch -- but then she sings.  Don’t get me wrong, she can SING, no doubt.  But the vocals on the recording seem disconnected from the rest of the band – hot in the mix as the lingo goes.  And here is the transition: funk pop music started to change with the introduction of keyboards and lifting the vocals above the mix, and here, intermeshed with a full funk band with the smokin’ bass and horns.  It just doesn’t mix well, in my view.  She would find her sound later in her career.

Track 2 “Revolution” is similar to the first, just not as good a song.

From there, record nose dives.  Complex where it doesn’t need to be, and empty where it needs a little more.  The trite “love” lyrics continue on and I don’t get Teena’s decision on vocal inflection and tone.  It’s weird.  It gets weirder and more with more ballads with funk, and live tracks?!  Add, preaching to audiences and self-aggrandizing.  Ugh!  Who’s responsible for this?

Teena Marie! Songwriter, arranger, producer.  She is responsible.  At least she hired a great band.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0ROB2BCrsG8kODFK5mxSf8?si=paVq-QN2S1uG0mwhOZaiFw

The 1981 Listening Post - Television Personalities - And Don't the Kids Just Love It

 Television Personalities - And Don't the Kids Just Love It

#35

By Brian San Marco

January 1981

Television Personalities

And Don’t the Kids Just Love It

Genre: 4 track punk pop

Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Brian’s Rating: 3.5/5 stars – for the simple songs and because it takes me back to garage days

Highlights: 

This Angry Silence

Geoffrey Ingram

Jackanory Stories

The Crying Room (an instrumental on a punk record?!)

For this review, I’ve decided not to research the band.  I wanted to be unjaded by finding out that these guys are super influential and responsible for something cool that I really liked.  This time, I’m gonna keep it as simple as this record.  Simple may be an understatement.

I’ve never heard of Television Personalities before this nor have I heard any of their music at all and I wonder if all their records sound like this. 

Remember back in the day when your band recorded a demo on a 4-track cassette?  The quality of cassettes (and one’s own mixing skills) notwithstanding, there is a basic awesomeness to this.  Essentially guitar – a Tele or Strat through a naturally overdriven Deluxe or Twin Amp, bass, and drums.  They probably didn’t even use all 4 tracks for most of this, yet it’s remarkably full and enjoyable.  At the same time, it’s hard to get past the overall sonically inferior record.  It’s raw, it’s messy, it’s subtle, and most importantly it’s simple.

Simply put, “simple” is a virtue.  Many great songs seem rather simple in design and approach.  The story is in the words and melody without further need for overly complicated guitar riffs and drum fills.  That is not to say the music is simple, but rather the understanding is simple and it’s simple to relate to – even if you don’t understand a word.  Songwriters have this gift, and in many ways, I am in awe.  

Television Personalities represent the beginnings of punk pop, and whether I or we know it or not, this sound influences generations.  Substitute the Strat/Deluxe with a Les Paul/Marshall.  Add a helping of drums and polish, you have Green Day.  I prefer this.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7n0jbzngXElnxdbQz2XibT?si=w8pnMNsWTQCvlvDqji_0CQ