The 1986 Listening Post - D-A-D - Call of the Wild

D-A-D - Call of the Wild

#41/1208

February 6 1986

D-A-D

Call of the Wild

Genre: Cowpunk

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Call of the Wild

Marlboro Man

Jackie O

Trucker

I think this band is actually called Disneyland After Dark. 

It’s a Danish band

That plays a nascent form of American music called “Cowpunk”. 

Like, they are earlier progenitors of this form. Sure, it’s been around for a short while but..did it get to Denmark? 

It’s like if Adam Ant or Wall of Voodoo listened to “Ghost Riders in the Sky” and scrapped all other ideas in favor of Country and played it in small clubs in the valley.

These guys take themselves about as seriously as Jon Wayne but their sense of humor is more refined as is their adulation for the form. “Marlboro Man” is an example of this while “Counting the Cattle” sounds like an audition song for Dr. Demento. And the weirdness of “Jacki O” and the disco-country “Trucker” speak to the times. The 80s were weird, man, 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/call-of-the-wild/268228774

The 1986 Listening Post - Janet Jackson - Control

Janet Jackson - Control

#40/1207

February 4 1986

Janet Jackson

Control

Genre: New Jack Swing

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Nasty

What Have You Done For Me Lately

Yes. We are covering this record. For the same reason that we do Madonna. And Run-DMC. And Beastie Boys. And, probably Public Enemy. Some albums are too important to the era and had too much of an impact to ignore. (But I will ardently resist any Paula Abdul records)

Consider these slight detours. But, not really.

To me, Janet Jackson was the kid on Different Strokes and in the Fame TV show. And, since this was coming at a time when my musical snobbery wouldn’t allow for dance music I was only cursorily aware of it. 

While I think the opening track is sort of boring and repetitive and more of a showcase for production it’s important to set the tone for what this record is, which is a breakaway. From the shadow of her brother and the iron fist of her father. It could just as easily be called “Emancipation” and probably would have in the Aughts.

And this is exemplified by the pure ownership of self of “Nasty”, a track that is not only rifftastic but Janet’s sultry, knowing Prince-like vocals are probably the sexiest stuff of its kind to this point in the 80s. And it should be remade for the current climate. Damn, things just don’t change, do they.

As for the rest of it? It’s not that it’s “dated” per se. It’s that the beats and arrangements are so repetitive that it really has no place other than the dance floor, where I bet it killed. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/control/1440831636

The 1986 Listening Post - The Firm - Mean Business

The Firm - Mean Business

#39/1206

February 3 1986

The Firm

Mean Business

Genre: Rock

1.75 out of 5

What is it about production on Jimmy Page albums? So much of it comes across as muddy to me. Like there’s too many guitars doubling each other and then Paul Rodgers’ vocals are deep in the mud mix. 

The echo is distracting. It should all be so much cleaner but, everything really just sounds like an excuse for Jimmy to play and have something to sell.

I allllllmost hit the ff button during “Cadillac”. I can’t because of the nature of the project but, ugh, that is one truly ugly piece of excess. 

Look I never really cared for Zeppelin. (Don’t get me started. At least Greta Van Fleet just wanted to SOUND like Zep, not rip off everyone they admired and never pay royalties…but I repeat myself). And Paul Rodgers earned my enmity for that deplorable Queen project. 

This is bloated and bad. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/mean-business/1086423144

The 1986 Listening Post - Grave Digger - War Games

Grave Digger - War Games

#38/1205

February 1 1986

Grave Digger

War Games

Genre: Speed Metal

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Keep On Rockin’

I’ve heard way too much Grave Digger so I was not looking forward to this one. You know what? It opens with a ton of promise. In fact, I have to admit that I have a special affinity for “Fire In Your Eyes” since I obviously, having never heard it, stole the rhythm riff for my band’s song “Babbling Brooke”. And I loved that song…so…well done, Grave Digger! ;)

Digger has decided to go the full Priest/DC model and they are actually better for it. 

This is a perfectly acceptable speed metal record. But the balladry…guys…you can’t actually, y’know…sing. Don’t.

Lord help me, I actually don’t hate a Grave Digger record.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/war-games/795176512

The 1986 Listening Post - Tim Finn - Big Canoe

Tim Finn - Big Canoe

#37/1204

1986 Housekeeping

Tim Finn

Big Canoe

Genre: Rock

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Spiritual Hunger

No Thunder No Fire No Rain

So…Tim Finn wrote this, right? Cuz this is the most listenable Tim’s been in forever. I’m struck by just how much this sounds like Crowded House, not as catchy but the tempos and intentions are so similar. 

I know we are going to get to Neil’s big breakthrough album in a couple months and I kind of wish we had put these back to back. 

All of these songs sound like they were picked up by a scavenging Tim hanging around the studio waiting for Neil to fall asleep so he could grab songs that weren’t going to make it. 

(I hate Tim Finn as longtime LP members know. I truly believe he is responsible for every bad thing Split Enz ever did and it was the best thing Neil ever did when he went on his own)

That said, this is a perfectly fine record. One that sounds like Robert Palmer and Neil Finn got together one weekend and wrote a bunch of songs they would never record. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/big-canoe/723416046

The 1986 Listening Post - Mood Six - A Matter of...!

Mood Six - A Matter of...!

#36/1203

1986 Housekeeping

Mood Six

A Matter Of…!

Genre: Psychedelic Mod

4 out of 5

Highlights:

A Matter Of

What Have You Ever Done

Far Away

I liked this one so much more than the previous Mood Six record and, like that one, I think there are some great hipster bands in the aughts who took off from this sound and made some great records (followed by terrible ones).

Like that last one, this is found on the compilation Cutting Edge Retro and, taken as a whole the comp probably rates higher than the individual spins. 

I took some shit for pointing out the anachronism of albums like this before but, look, when Nightmare Of You took this sound and updated it in 2005 it sounded like a fresh take. This album, like The Steppes record, doesn’t do anything new to it. It’s just slavish devotion to a style that we’ve all moved on from. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/cutting-edge-a-mood-six-anthology/277852362

The 1986 Listening Post - Game Theory - The Big Shot Chronicles

Game Theory - The Big Shot Chronicles

#35/1202

1986 Housekeeping

Game Theory

The Big Shot Chronicles

Genre: Power Pop

4.5 out of 5 

Highlights:

Here It Is Tomorrow

Where You Going Northern

Erica’s Word

Regneisraen

Never Mind

I was blown away by the first Game Theory album. When that came out, all of the band save for Scott Miller, were jettisoned or left and the new band recorded this one, with Mitch Easter at the helm. 

It’s even more spacey and experimental than the last one, bending the ideas of Power Pop into a Pre-Jellyfish form. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-big-shot-chronicles/1154726995

The 1986 Listening Post - Giant Sand - Ballad of a Thin Line Man

Giant Sand - Ballad of a Thin Line Man

#34/1201

1986 Housekeeping

Giant Sand

Ballad of a Thin Line Man

Genre: Dust Bowl Rock

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Thin Line Man

Body of Water

It feels just yesterday we heard the Giant Sand debut. It kind of was since the albums don’t have release dates, just years, they end up in the “Housekeeping” column and this time the sophomore album came up today. 

Once again, this is such an assured record, just like the last one. Dark and sonically epic I am shocked that I never heard of Giant Sand until this project. 

Giant Sand has more in common with Queens of the Stone Age than with virtually any band we think of as “80s”. It could be released in the mid 00s and sound of its time. 

It’s not as great as the first one, but that happens so often I’m used to it. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/ballad-of-a-thin-line-man-25th-anniversary-edition/1232693092

The 1986 Listening Post - Gang Green - Another Wasted Night

Gang Green - Another Wasted Night

#33/1200

1986 Housekeeping

Gang Green

Another Wasted Night

Genre: Punk

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Another Wasted Night

Alcohol

19th Hole

Eight Ball

Tonight We Rock

This is straight up punk descended from the Stooges (with Motorhead as a spiritual cousin) with just enough rhythm to actual count as nearly melodic at times. 

Their cover of “Voices Carry” are as ramshackle punk as it should be and renders the original null. 

This is just straight up good punk. I wish I had it when I was a kid. But I bet my parents would have been glad that I didn’t.

I decided to listen to the whole release instead of trying to figure out how to put it in order (it was easier where I was). I’m glad I did. The covers are a hoot.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/another-wasted-night/321145756

The 1986 Listening Post - Agitpop - Back at the Plain of Jars

Agitpop - Back at the Plain of Jars

#32/1199

1986 Housekeeping

Agitpop

Back at the Plain of Jars

Genre: Punk/Alternative

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Statement From a Dead Passerby

What Am I to You?

Funky Town

The Message From the Tundra

What Is It About

Punk in the 80s either goes full on thrash or makes that hard left turn into Bad Brains/Minutemen territory. Never succumbing to the obnoxious temptations of RHCP’s faux sexy ideas, instead Agitpop holds on to the political aesthetic while embracing all that the bass and drums can offer. 

We need bands like Agitpop in the 21st Century. Where are they?

This is the kind of music that comes out of a lower east side club at 1 in the morning when most people have gone home and there’s just 4 people left and the band is really just playing for themselves because they have to. They just have to. 

(The album is nestled in this collection. Tracks 1-14 and 28)

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-comm3-sessions/1097285157