The 1985 Listening Post - St. Vitus - Hallow's Victim

St. Vitus - Hallow's Victim

#308/943

August 1985

St. Vitus

Hallow’s Victim

Genre: Heavy Metal

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

War is Our Destiny

White Stallions

Mystic Lady

I was sitting in the dentist’s chair, listening to Sound Opinions talk about their favorite stuff to come out of SXSW one year. They focused pretty hard on Black Mountain, a metal band in the early Sabbath mold out of Vancouver. I have to admit that I love that sound, despite every attempt to snottily dismiss it in my younger days.

This St. Vitus record reminds me of that. Sure, they love Sabbath, that was obvious on the first turgid record. But they really stepped up their game here. Almost make me wanna go back and revisit that first one to see if I missed anything.

Was anyone listening to this when I was in college? I’ve never heard of them before this project but, boy, do I love this one.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-walking-dead-hallows-victim/487816647

The 1985 Listening Post - Squeeze - Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti

Squeeze - Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti

#307/942

August 1985

Squeeze

Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti

Genre: Rock

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Last Time Forever

I wrote before about how my favorite Squeeze song, and perhaps one of my favorite songs of all time, was “In Quintessence”. A friend of a friend in college had decided that I was the living embodiment of this tune and I took that as a compliment at first, since no one had ever taken any interest in defining me in song. Until I learned that it was really an insult. Still didn’t matter. Still loved the song.

But that wasn’t my first introduction to Squeeze. That came from my cousin who had Argybargy. (She also had The Fine Art of Surfacing, so obviously she had great taste) Her name is Michelle and we liked to think that they were singing “Pulling Mussels for Michelle”. 

Later, my younger brother had the collection of singles, 45s and Under, which might be the most perfect collection of tracks ever put on vinyl to represent a band. 

So, of course, I had to get me some Squeeze. And being a completist I started with a cassette of U.K. Squeeze. 

Which was awful.

So terrible in fact that I didn’t return to Squeeze for many many years. I didn’t even own a copy of East Side Story until I was 33, only to realize after purchasing it that I already knew every song on it because, and I don’t know who owned it, the cassette was played in my family’s store during a summer. I didn’t put it on but play it did. 

I thought Sweets from a Stranger was mediocre and Difford & Tilbrook worse. They did not recover with this one.  For every okay track “Last Time Forever” there’s a tonnage of bad (looking at you, “I Learnt How to Pray”).

https://music.apple.com/us/album/cosi-fan-tutti-frutti/1443410908

The 1985 Listening Post - Saga - Behaviour

Saga - Behaviour

#305/940

August 1985

Saga

Behaviour

Genre: SynthPop

3.25 our of 5

I always thought of Saga as a second tier Genesis. They were proggy but not all that terribly interesting to me. And then, like Genesis, they pared down that prog sound for something more consumer/radio friendly. And in that, they were, too, second tier. It’s all here, though. Big keyboards, epic vocals, tight arrangements, well performed stuff. It’s just not all that exciting. 

I was able to play 6 games of Sorry with my 8 year old while this was on. It was like Muzak for people from the 80s. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/behaviour/1451316449

The 1985 Listening Post - Stormtroopers of Death - Speak English or Die

Stormtroopers of Death - Speak English or Die

#304/939

August 30 1985

Stormtroopers of Death

Speak English or Die

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Milano Mash

What’s That Noise

Freddy Krueger

Milk

The ballad of Jimi Hendrix

Is this the first known use of the term “mosh”? On the song, “Milano Mosh”. I’ve never heard it before. Did S.O.D. coin it? 

I dunno. 

This is pretty hardcore punk but the guitars with their high end slashing remind me of…The Offspring. Like, in about a decade this sound is going to be refined and popularized. 

This is what I was hoping Anthrax would sound like. But I guess it does cuz Scott Ian is the driving force here as well. And much of this record is just a bunch of guys (who happened to be melding Metal and Hardcore together for the first time, you know, like ya do) having a fucking laugh in a studio and, to be honest, some of it is hilarious. Everything D.O.A.’s last wasn’t.

Ha! Something else I didn’t know! From Wikipedia entry on “Mosh”:

“By the mid-1980s, the term was appearing in print with its current spelling. By the time thrash metal band Anthrax used the term in their song "Caught in a Mosh” ,(1987, btw-Allen), the word was already a mainstay of hardcore and thrash scenes. Scott Ian and Charlie Benante of Anthrax and S.O.D. have both been credited with the term originating from Vinnie Stigma of the New York hardcore band Agnostic Front. Through the mainstream success of bands like Anthrax, Stormtroopers of Death, and multiple thrash metal bands in the late 1980's the term came into the popular vernacular.”

I guess it was.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/speak-english-or-die-30th-anniversary-edition/1048071857

The 1985 Listening Post - The Cure - The Head on the Door

The Cure - The Head on the Door

#303/938

August 26 1985

The Cure

The Head on the Door

Genre: Alternative 

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

In Between Days

The Blood

Six Different Ways

Push

Close to Me

For some reason my roommate Eli had access to a four track recording device. I don’t recall why. And maybe it wasn’t even him. Although I think it was. And into it we recorded some terrible version of, I think, “Killing an Arab”. Is this right? Maybe. It was fun. I remember that.

There was a girl, her name was Allison. I think it was. She was in my acting class. She liked me. I think. Her father was an executive at Atari. Or Coleco. Or Intellivision. One of them. She was very goth. Or she wanted to be. She came to my dorm one night when no one was around, rifled through my roommate’s records and put on The Cure’s “Let’s Go to Bed”. We did. It was…not great. But that’s on me.

I was driving through the Maine roads on a summer night. The girl I had a desperate crush on was with me. She turned me on to a lot of music. She was more than an influence. I wanted to impress her. I put on The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds. “It sounds like Duran Duran”, she said. I was crushed. 

There are other stories like this. 

The girl who I met after my divorce, who hated how I drove but liked my daughter, since she had a daughter and she adored the Cure. I called a friend who was on Mad TV and got her passes to the show. 

The roommate who tried to beat the crap out of me cuz I was talking about his excellent record collection. He owned the aforementioned Cure single but also The Glove. 

The only CD my soon-to-be-wife’s mother had on hand when I met her was Standing on a Beach: The Singles.

The Cure pops in and out of my life all the time. 

And, yet, I never really dove in. 

This is the first time I’ve heard The Head On the Door. 

It won’t be the last. 

This is spectacular. Yes, it’s poppy as hell. And I don’t mind in the least. It’s Day-Glo and Guyliner and Capezio shoes and parachute pants and I love the shit out of it.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-head-on-the-door/282971465

The 1985 Listening Post - Kid Creole & the Coconuts - In Praise of Older Women...and Other Crimes

Kid Creole & the Coconuts - In Praise of Older Women...and Other Crimes

#302/937

August 25 1985

Kid Creole & the Coconuts

In Praise of Older Women…and Other Crimes

Genre: Dance Rock/New Wave

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Endicott

Particul’y Int’rested

(Darlin’ You Can) Take Me

My exposure to Kid Creole was when Jean Doumanian took over Saturday Night Live after Lorne Michaels left and she programmed interesting musical guests. Actors? Nope (looking at you, Denny Dillon and Charles Rocket). Writers? Hells no. “I’m in the Army and I’m gay, but that don’t mean I swish and sway!” from an actual sketch when the show returned. 

At the time I was an SNL apologist. My friend Jeff and I were tasked with reviewing it for the High School newspaper. We praised it. We should have been removed from the newspaper upon handing that review in. 

But, because I was said apologist, anything they did was ok by me at the time. When Kid Creole was a musical guest I figured he must be excellent and cool.

Maybe he was. I didn’t really follow up on him. 

Until this project. 

And this might sound really stupid but…is he like a more accessible R&B Frank Zappa? I mean, he’s got obvious chops, so much so that he probably could perform or write in any style and not break a sweat. It’s almost like he knows he’s better than the style, cuz he’s better than any style, really. 

I liked this a bit better than I have some of their stuff in the past. (Yes, even “Animal Cop”)

https://music.apple.com/us/album/in-praise-of-older-women-and-other-crimes/285717737

The 1985 Listening Post - Kick Axe - Welcome to the Club

Kick Axe - Welcome to the Club

#301/936

August 22 1985

Kick Axe

Welcome to the Club

Genre: Glam Metal

3.7 5 out of 5

Highlights:

Comin’ After You

Make Your Move

It’s all about “Make Your Move”. That’s the track for me that makes me wonder why not Kick Axe? Why Motley Crue? Because that song IS a Motley Crue song, through and through and, actually, it’s better than most of what they come up with. Maybe it’s because it’s not as faux-dangerous. I mean, it’s pretty bubble gum glam. Give Bay City Rollers some steroids and a lot more time in the studio and that’s what they might come up with.

This follow up to that surprise debut album isn’t as surprising or cutting. I don’t know the story behind it but I can see loving the first one, being first in line for this one and then experiencing gross disappointment. 

As soon as I would have heard the Side One closer ballad “Never Let Go”, I might’ve just flipped the damned thing over and never come back to it. It’s no “Home Sweet Home”. They find the old Kick Axe energy & sound on “Too Loud…Too Old” and a bit on “Feel the Power” but there’s no need for their epic Band Aid sounding stadium version of “With a Little Help From My Friends”. It’s bombastic in a way that I’ve not come to expect from Canadians. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/welcome-to-the-club/1123845671

The 1985 Listening Post - John Cougar Mellencamp - Scarecrow

John Cougar Mellencamp - Scarecrow

#300/935

August 5 1985

John Cougar Mellencamp

Scarecrow

Genre: Heartland Rock

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Rain On the Scarecrow

Small Town

Minutes to Memories

Lonely Ol’ Night

Rumbleseat

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

After a loooooong string of garbage something must’ve happened to John Mellencamp. I’m sure someone’s written a book about it, or maybe he did. I’m too lazy to look it up. 

I really liked Uh Huh. 

Scarecrow is different. It’s like watching some boring documentaries in high school about glassblowers (I did) and then turning on Ken Burns’ The Civil War.

Scarecrow is richer. That’s probably Don Gehman’s doing. But it’s also nostalgic and immediate. It’s wistful with punch. It picks up where Springsteen left off. While the Boss was writing about loss, so is Mellencamp. Only, his songs feel like he wants to do something about it. 

I never gave John the time of day. Even though, every single hit of his I like. “Peaceful World” from 15+ years later is a song that gets me every time. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/scarecrow/1440760003

The 1985 Listening Post - Malice - In the Beginning

Malice - In The Beginning

#299/934

August 19 1985

Malice

In the Beginning

Genre: Power Metal

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Hell Rider

In a dying genre, if you don’t do something interesting or have the songs to back up the noodle chops you end up sounding like Malice. 

I’m sure the record company tried to shoehorn them into MTV rotation but, there’s nothing here that Holland doesn’t do infinitely better. This sounds like the worst that Sabbath could come up with. Never Say Die, anyone?

What I mean is, the pieces are all there but nothing comes together and the songs are all by the numbers. Shrieking singer? Check. Chukka Chukka guitar? Yep. Soaring epics about overcoming some kind of mythological adversity? Yeah. 

Is Allen asleep? 

Yes. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/in-the-beginning/265614600

The 1985 Listening Post - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Freaky Styley

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Freaky Styley

#298/933

August 16 1985

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Freaky Styley

Genre: Funk Rock

2 out of 5

Remember that story about the New Video manager who had seen RHCP and come to the store the next day in ecstasy and awe? 

I think it was this album that they were touring.

If they didn’t play naked with just socks on would anyone have given a shit about them after these first two records? I don’t know. It’s ugly and not fun. I sat through “Brothers Cup” (an interpolation of “We’ve Got the Funk”) so you didn’t have to. 

But here’s the question I have now: 

U2, while putting out their first album in 1980, were rehearsing and playing in the late 70s. Is there ANY other band that came out of the 80s that is still around today? I mean, they just put out a record a couple years ago. Who else has that track record? One that suggests relevance, that could headline Coachella tomorrow and sell out? Anyone?

I ask this because I think of RHCP as a 90s breakthru band but they were putting out rekkids in the mid-80s. I think they are the only one.

Says something, I think

https://music.apple.com/us/album/freaky-styley/1440873689