The 1980 Listening Post - Metro - Future Imperfect

 Metro - Future Imperfect

#119

1980 Housekeeping

Metro

Future Imperfect

Genre: Gary Numan if he’s less depressed and on a lot more cocaine. Or is Sparks wrote songs that weren’t just a chorus based on a title. 

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

The Promise

America in My Head

I like it when a band sounds like it’s name. Like a futuristic travel tube (the spacey kind like the ones in Space:1999) the music has a trajectory. It’s consumed with New Wave Purpose. But, we also get to hear the impact of the embrace of digital instruments, the ones that tons of bands will follow into the stratosphere of success and legacy. This is somewhere between The Cars and A Flock of Seagulls but it’s less interested in mining simple retro rock formulas ala the former and desperate to move the medium forward toward the latter. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/america-in-my-head/296789508

The 1980 Listening Post - The Elevators - Frontline

The Elevators - Frontline 

#217

1980 Housekeeping

The Elevators

Frontline

Genre: Power Pop-New Wave 

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Girlfriend’s Girlfriend

Friends

Here we have another in a long series of skinny tie new wave/power pop bands. This one made available by a blogger named Spavid over at Willfully Obscure. I had no idea he made it available again after I requested. Honestly, I didn’t know people were still blogging. Heaven knows I basically gave that up once Facebook took up that space, which is a shame because it was so liberating. Like having your own little magazine. At one point I was trying to operate 3-5 blogs at the same time. That was dumb. I recently went back and looked at the early pages of one. It was a bunch of pics and videos of my kids that I had forgotten. That was cool.

My son managed to somehow look me up on the webz and find the blog I wrote about him being in the NICU when he was born. THAT was a conversation. He’s 9. Inquisitive little bastard. 

This album is absolutely not terrible. It’s littered with forgettable angular New Wave programmers. The kind of stuff you would hear wayyyyy left of the dial at 1 AM on a Tuesday. Unhateable. But not really all that adorable. It hews closer to Greg Kihn/Tommy Tutone than the really delicious PP bands of the era. Considering they are from just outside Boston it’s no surprise how much like The Cars “Tropical Fish” & “Lies” sound, the latter you could tell me it was a Cars song and I would have no reason to not believe you. 

Some of the tracks can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+elevators+frontlne

The 1980 Listening Post - Teenage Head - Frantic City

Teenage Head - Frantic City 

#231

By Rob Slater

Teenage Head 

Frantic City. 

Genre: Brian Setzer gets punked before he starts. 

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Rob's Rating: (First time through 3) [Second 3.5] Kind of inclined to give it 4 out of 5. 

Rob’s Highlights: 

Infected 

Take It

Let's Shake

Fun, rockabilly, only sorta punk, a several playlist worthy songs. Great if you need to get energized, the first side is great, second side is okay. 1. "Wild One" - Requisite eighties cover. Probably unnecessary, but fun. 2. "Somethin' on My Mind" is a nice mellow 50s dish almost like an Elvis song, complete with a sax, but the lyrics are pretty wicked. 3. "Total Love" Getting a little more back to upbeat and an original. Great harmonies and country twang guitars. 4. "Let's Shake" was their biggest hit off this record. It's great rockabilly. 5. "Infected" First actual punk song. “Where do I go to get infected?” More 'great' lyrics. 6. "Those Things You Do" – Like Total Love 7. "Somethin' Else" - Requisite eighties cover #2. Cochran did it better. Still fun, but... 8. "Take It” This one grew on me. 9. "Brand New Cadillac" - Requisite eighties cover #3. Check out the history of this song. Vince Taylor wrote it, covered by The Clash, Mott the Hoople, Van Morrison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_New_Cadillac 10. "Disgusteen" And it is disgustin'! Very punk. The last two went down hill for me. But I would listen to the first 8 regularly.

https://open.spotify.com/album/5soiz3DIvGJa3iX8HvOm72?si=N7mXzC5sSi2-eT_hEEe04Q

The 1980 Listening Post - Harry Nilsson - Flash Harry

 Harry Nilsson - Flash Harry

#88

1980 Housekeeping

Harry Nilsson

Flash Harry

Genre: “How did Randy Newman make it big and not me!?!?!?”

2 out of 5

When I was at day camp as a child the older, more mature kids (they were 10) would talk about a show they all loved called “Monty Python”. I would ask them who Monty Python was and they would laugh at me and walk away, never explaining. 

Although my entreaties to learn were met with disdain it didn’t take long, though, for me to figure it out. But my education came in the form of the movies. PBS, of all places, would run Holy Grail as part of their fundraising campaigns. 

In college, still a novice in the form of Python (although well educated on their import, through my obsessive readings about Saturday Night Live’s beginnings…Lorne was a huge fan) I had still not seen the television show. And my college roommate instead turned me on to Fawlty Towers, turning me into a Basil Fawlty fan. 

I did eventually become versed enough that when I was hired to act in a commercial opposite John Cleese and was tasked with playing, off camera, the Argument Sketch game with him, I knew what it was, how to play and also I sucked at it, hard. 

But I did get to play the motherfucking Argument Sketch game with John fucking Cleese and that is a life highlight. 

Last year my wife and I went to see Eric Idle speak at the local, newly renovated high school amphitheater (it’s like a 20 million dollar renovation) and, for our tickets, we received a copy of his book.

Like his show, I have only read parts of it. 

I guess you can say I’m a fair weather fan.

I barely have more than cursory knowledge of Harry Nilsson’s oeuvre, save his soundtrack for Popeye, which I adore and especially loved it’s partial inclusion in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love, a movie I saw for the Anderson aspect, not the Sandler inclusion. That’s another story. 

What is the point of all this?

Well, Idle is part of this album inasmuch as he co-wrote and performed the opening track and the album closer is by far his most famous song, one that he performed the night Beth and I saw him.

And, like this review, this album is a hodgepodge of moments and relationships, with stuff co-written by Lennon and Van Dyke Parks and Ringo Starr.

And much like this review it will bring you nothing in your life that wasn’t already there. 

And, now that you are at the end of it, you can go back about your life as though it never happened.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/flash-harry/1443526542

The 1980 Listening Post - Human Sexual Response - Fig. 14

 Human Sexual Response - Fig. 14

#180

Human Sexual Response

Fig. 14

Genre: New Wave

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Guardian Angel

Jackie Onassis

What Does Sex Mean to Me

Requisite 80’s cover: “Cool Jerk”. I love the nerdy, hiccupy version of this song even more than the original. 

Spooky action at a distance. 

Have you heard of it? 

Quantum Entanglement. 

I have a theory about it so, here goes. I’ll make it short. 

When my daughter died in 2006 something interesting happened. As we were in the midst of sitting shiva, my first post-college roommate, a man I hadn’t spoken to (or even about) in 16 years, suddenly reached out and called me to see how I was. He had some life news he wanted to share and I told him about Liz. He came to Shiva and that was the first contact he and I had in over a decade and a half. 

Just a coincidence, though, right?

I didn’t think so. And the reason is because when Liz died I received, also seemingly out of the blue, an email from a woman who meant quite a bit to me as a youth. She and I hadn’t really spoken to each other in about 7 years or so and even then it was cursory. The most meaningful exchanges being when we were both in our teens to early 20s. My affection for her was not entirely reciprocated but it was deep, for me. She influenced the way I saw the world. She was confusing, magical, funny, spiritual and unlike anyone I’d ever met before. One of those people. 

Her email was of the “I was thinking about you” sort. And, as I said, it seemed to come out of the blue. 

I believe in Quantum Entanglement. I believe in it because it’s science and it’s proven. When two particles become entangled they develop a physical relationship. One spins while the other does not. You can take the spinning one and separate it from its twin, move it to an island 100 miles away or take it to the moon and when it stops spinning, the other one will start. 

How do particles become entangled? I think the emotional quotient of the relationship has something to do with it. 

So, when my particles were spinning, my friend’s were not. And then, my daughter died. And I believe that my particles stopped spinning (or started, depending on their state). And that caused the spinning of particles in my roommate or the girl. 

Hence the outreach. 

I’ve been thinking about Quantum Entanglement lately because we are all in a heightened state of emotion right now, being quarantined and I had reached out to the woman to see if she was interested in reviewing the record that she lent me when I was 16, which was, among The Incredibly Shrinking Dickies and Gary Numan’s Telekon, Human Sexual Response’s Fig. 14. After all, that was a really important experience for me. She basically formed the musical taste of my mid teens with those records. Perhaps she had some insights as to why they were important. 

So, I reached out. She didn’t respond. 

I let it go for a while, until I looked at the spreadsheet and realized that the album was coming up for review and I hadn’t assigned it to anyone. 

I asked again if she was interested, perhaps she just missed the message. 

This morning, around 5 AM I had a dream about her. The content isn’t important, but it was personal. It wasn’t fantastical. It was almost purely conversation. And walking. It was a gentle dream. It was calm. It was comfortable. 

I awoke and thought to myself, “self, if Quantum Entanglement is a thing, I bet you that while you were dreaming of her, she responded to that message.” I reached over, picked up my phone and, lo and behold, at the precise time I was dreaming about her, she wrote to me on facebook, politely declining to do the review as her life is incredibly busy and she didn’t think she would have the time. 

It’s impossible for me to be dispassionate about this record. I am entangled with it. And with the person who lent it to me. It has remained a singularly indelible moment for me. And, as life would have it, when I did finally make contact with her about the record, and asked why it was important enough to lend it to me, she had little recollection of the band or the album at all. 

Life is irony. And wonderful. And weird. 

And so is this record. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/fig-15/121697220

The 1980 Listening Post - Fictions - Fictions

 Fictions - Fictions

1980 Housekeeping

Fictions

Fictions

Genre: Skinny Ties and Sax

2.5 out of 5

And then there was Fictions. There are some bands that hit the New Wave angles hard with taut pop songs like Fingerprintz and The Jags and then there are disciples of Elvis who miss the mark slightly enough to be relegated to the dustbin of the bins that you find under the shelves at Amoeba. No one ever buys it. It just sits there and, even though it’s just $2, you pass on it. There’s better stuff out there. 

This album is basically a battle between Guitarist WS Sherman’ energetic tunes on Side Two and Bassist Greg Stephens more New Wavy stuff on Side One and neither come out winners.

This is 2nd rate Cars (“Shuffle”) and nothing really gets far above that. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/fictions/1359085797

The 1980 Listening Post - Henry Paul Band - Feel the Heat

 Henry Paul Band - Feel the Heat

#85

1980 Housekeeping

Henry Paul Band

Feel the Heat

Genre: Generic “Southern” Rock Goes Pop!

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Turn It Up

I am using the term “Southern Rock” loosely. I mean, I *guess* this falls in the Molly Hatchet, Skynrd, Allman Bros family but it’s sort of not, either. Ok, I mean, the players know how to play their instruments but the songs are just excuses for each of them to take 8 bars and go to town. “Whiskey Talkin’” is the most evident and egregious example. It’s a couple verses, repeat the phrase “It’s just the whiskey talkin’”  and play a bunch of solos. 

If it isn’t like that, then it’s just one anonymously mediocre song after another. But, the truth is, they are all like that. 

(I did sort of like the generic beer-fest rocker “Turn It Up”.)

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/henry-paul-band/322074457

The 1980 Listening Post - Rick Derringer - Face to Face

 Rick Derringer - Face to Face

#82

1980 Housekeeping

Rick Derringer

Face to Face

Genre: Not as good as Rick Springfield

2.25 out of 5

Requisite 80s cover:

“My, My, Hey, Hey” by Neil Young. This is a love version which exists to show Rick’s noodle chops. He manages to suck the life out of a song that was already kind of wilted to begin with.

Rick Derringer is, like, the 80s anti-Butch Walker. Walker puts out his own albums and they don’t really do that well and no one really cares but the songs are good and when he writes with others he can craft some super hits. 

Rick writes really crappy albums but somehow was able to elevate Weird Al Yankovic into a hitmaker. 

How’s that for a reach?

These songs sound like Rick Springfield rejects. Really terrible attempts at power pop (“Runaway”), at southern rock (You’ll Get Yours”) and a better craftsman like Jim Steinman could make “Burn the Midnight Oil” into something but Rick can’t.

There’s a live version of “Jump, Jump, Jump” here and when Rick says, “I wonder is there anybody here?” the audience cheers and I refuse to believe that many people ever collected in the same place to hear Rick Derringer do anything.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/face-to-face-expanded-edition/1479109517

The 1980 Listening Post - The Jags - Evening Standards

 The Jags - Evening Standards

#84

1980 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

The Jags

Evening Standards

Genre: WHY DOESN’T THIS STREAM??????

5 out of 5

Highlights:

Back of My Hand

Desert Island Discs

Woman’s World

She’s So Considerate

Little Boy Lost

Single Vision

Evening Standard

(Should I stop? Is there a bad track on this thing????)

Party Games

Tune Into Heaven

The Last Picture Show

The Tourist

That’s the whole record. Not a bad track on it. A matter of the genre. 

From the Costello school of the uncool this band could be the template for The Oneders in “That Thing You Do”. 

I have few words. These guys would have been superrich if the style was in vogue at the time of the Brill Building and they provided songs for other acts. 

This is delicious Power Pop. Does it sound like other Power Pop of the era? Yes. But that don’t make it not good. When this form is at the height of it’s powers it’s amazing. That’s this album. 

Holy hell, these guys can write and play.It’s like discovering Fingerprintz and Dirty Looks for the first time. Is there a faux reggae tune? Of course! There has to be! It’s skinny tie New Wave! Every album’s got one of those. This one is “Woman’s World” and it’s stellar. Do I care that “Little Boy Lost” sounds like Elvis Costello? Nope. He doesn’t own that sound. Do we get this if not for him? I don’t know. There’s a line from the 60s through Elvis into the kettle of Power Pop. This is a ladle full. 

I’m actually angry that this is not available in any other form. 

The 1980 Listening Post - The Heaters - Energy Transfer

 The Heaters - Energy Transfer

#363

1980 Housekeeping

The Heaters

Energy Transfer

Genre: Rock

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Stand Your Ground (https://open.spotify.com/track/4ug2AlDsDwpP8WbcwlWAdH?si=UZHgoKQfS1WfUlvF56HN2A)

Requisite 80s cover: A sped up pub band version of “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?"

The Capitol release of a Blondie-as-Bar-Band is a weakly produced joint. 

The singer’s voice is similar to Ellen Foley. And the piano driven Steinman style tracks presented me with an opportunity to ponder what Bat Out of Hell might have sounded if the backup singers took lead. 

The songs aren’t anywhere as good as Jim’s but in that wheelhouse. 

You can hear the title track on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/track/4bRx5FyuB2aSoOPGiir8FD?si=8yDIZOtfSRysAXD3eoxFrA

The album version is better, clearer. But it’s not worth going through the hassle to get it, IMO. 

Once again, this is not available anywhere except on my computer. Some of the tracks are on Spotify. If you like what you hear, stick to the official “Lost” album.