The 1980 Listening Post - The Fools - Sold Out

 The Fools - Sold Out

February 1980

The Fools

Sold Out

Genre: Rock

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Night Out

Sold Out

Requisite 80s Cover: “I Won’t Grow Up”. You rarely hear a cover that fits a band quite so perfectly. 

The Fools’ debut opens with a Pop Rocker that’s relentless and from there…

It’s a slew of Power Pop rockers that play out like a concert set. 

It’s a thing in 1980: The shadow of The Knack before the hangover of the Knacklash. 

If these guys aren’t the spiritual predecessors of, say, Bowling for Soup, then it’s Nerf Herder. They write really well. They have a wicked senses of humor. They bring it. Tracks like “Mutual of Omaha” and “It’s a Night for Beautiful Girls” might not be classics but they make me want to see that band live. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/sold-out-heavy-mental/716333214

The 1980 Listening Post - Pure Prairie League - Firin' Up

Pure Prairie League - Firin' Up 

February 1 1980

Pure Prairie League

Firin’ Up

Genre: Country Rock

2.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Give It Up

Let Me Love You Tonight

As someone who doesn’t really care for country music I never sought out PPL. I have to wonder if we should even be covering this. I mean, we kind of have to, since we listened to their 1981 record. 

This all sounds like Eagles lite. But with less talons than Eagles have. 

This is the one with “Let Me Love You Tonight”. Which is…treacle. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/firin-up/1443625365

The 1980 Listening Post - Interview - Snakes and Lovers

 Interview - Snakes and Lovers

January 1980

Interview

Snakes & Lovers

Genre: Rock

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Hope It’s Me

This album is really interesting. It’s like a glam pop band decided to cover the Jam catalog and then write their own songs but it’s actually better than that. 

It’s like this band…was The Oneders. Smart songs, confidently sung, interesting but never crazy. 

It’s terrific. 

This is a very eclectic bunch of tunes written by guys who probably should have had more success. As strong as it starts, it runs out of steam. Sadly. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IQq-zels6Y5E7Nt2NsvYyd7cQIRXqkXu?usp=sharing

The 1980 Listening Post - The Motors - Tenement Steps

 The Motors - Tenement Steps 

January 1980 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

The Motors

Tenement Steps

Genre: New Wave

4.55 out of 5

Highlights:

Love and Loneliness

Metropolis

That’s What John Said

Here Comes the Hustler

This band is what gave us Bram Tchaikovsky but he was gone by the time this record came out and I’ve never even heard of them. This album sounds like what a rock band does when it adds keyboards to widen it’s sound, like Queen during The Game. 

Only Freddie and the boys could elevate even the most modest Power Pop and turn them into ear worms. 

This sound is just…big. These guys are going for epic bordering on Synth Rock. 

Merge Sparks with ELO and you get something like this. 

I like it better than what I’ve heard from Bram, tbh.

This is right up my alley.

This playlist is out of order, try to listen to “Modern Man” last. It’s the weakest track here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdVeZP7cmCI&list=PLlvn8uktX5LuqPfQLwsaMq4GT5AtOyHH3

The 1980 Listening Post - Sumner - Sumner

 Sumner - Sumner

January 1980

Sumner

Sumner

Genre: 80s Rock/New Wave

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Dynamite

No Time to Stop

Anyone know the singer/songwriter Weyes Blood? 

Probably not. It’s a generation or two removed for those of us. She’s pretty interesting.

And, until she was six, she had no idea that her dad was a touring musician with a record contract. 

And that dad is Sumner. Who has the same glam rock sensibilities as, say, Nick Gilder, without the androgynous voice or the catchy single. 

There’s something about rock music in 1980 that is unique. The experimentation hadn’t overwhelmed everybody and the hangover hadn’t set in as it would in 81. Listen to “Wishes” and you hear electric song writing that calls to mind the Cars. It’s not as good as anything on The Cars or Candy O but it’s better than Panorama. 

Jack Nitzsche produced this.  Or, in the case of the uber long side one closer, “Hot Night”, over produced it.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/sumner/898325035

The 1980 Listening Post - The Rockets - No Rockets

 The Rockets - No Ballads

January 7 1980 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

The Rockets

No Ballads

Genre: Rock, straight, no chaser. 

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Desire

Don’t Hold On

Takin’ It Back

Requisite 80s Cover: Lou Reed’s “Sally Can’t Dance”. Lou’s never sounded this good. 

As much as I love their follow up what I hear on this first Rockets record is a line from late 60s Paisley rock through the South, even though it might just be South Detroit, where a band that might have been a little tambourine heavy tossed all that shit, grew their hair long and doubled down on the Zeppelin Adulation. Even when they are Presley derivative (I Want You To Love Me, they still rock and I wanna play pool in the bar where they play. 

David Hood once played with these guys. His son is Patterson Hood, lead singer of Drive-By Truckers.

There are really good bones here. And you what else? 

No Ballads. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/no-ballads/417979570

The 1980 Listening Post - Glass Moon - Glass Moon

 Glass Moon - Glass Moon

#118

1980 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Glass Moon

Glass Moon

Genre: Prog-Rock from North Carolina

4.25 out of 5 

Highlights:

Killer at 25

Follow Me

(I Like) the Way You Play

The Dreamer

Requisite 80s cover: Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill”. I’m not sure if they were hoping to have a hit with it or if they really just loved it so much they wanted to record it. It’s (obviously) not as good as the original. And it takes away from the record. And it makes them sound too much like Supertramp.

I’m a sucker for a rock song that can pull off 3/4 and not sound like a waltz. “Killer at 25” is that song. Hooked me right in and didn’t let go. 

Part of the issue with Prog-Rock for me is that it so often can either be so self-indulgent that the naval gazing of musical accomplishment is so distracting and detracting that I can’t follow along. Other times it just ends up emulating a mid-70s, hippie culture inspired Broadway Musical.

When it does neither of those things, I think we can agree that it can be pretty terrific. This is one of those times. It’s almost like someone swirled some glam rock in a potpourri of progressive rock ambition and it worked. “The Dreamer” reminds me a lot of mid-70s Sparks. It’s in the Progressive/Glam world of “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us”. It’s nowhere as good as that song, I’m thinking more about the cheekiness and goofy Tiger Feet backing vocals. It’s close to bonkers.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/glass-moon/420304016

The 1980 Listening Post - Greg Kihn Band - Glass House Rock

 Greg Kihn Band - Glass House Rock

#338

by Rob Slater

Greg Kihn Band

Genre: Pop Rock

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Rob's Rating: 3 out of 5

Highlights:

Castaway

If you're like me, you don't know or remember a lot about Greg Kihn. "The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘em Like that Anymore” and “Jeopardy.” Love the first one; despise the second (Thanks, Weird Al!).

Wasn’t expecting much. The first track, Castaway, blew me away from the opening guitar! At 2:47 it is a perfect hard rock song. I bought it to download because it isn’t on any of his compilation albums.

Requisite 80s cover: The Yardbirds’s “For Your Love”

OMG. My new hero. Greg Kihn is literally, and literally rock’s Renaissance Man. Songwriter, guitarist, author, editor!

1. Castaway. 2:47 Awesome opening track. Lovely guitar.

2. Desire Me. Bluesy

3. Anna Belle Lee. Wow. Lovely.

4. Things to Come

5. Small Change. Yeah.

6. The Only Dance There Is

7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – Love the fact that he covered this Burt Bacharach/Hal David movie classic. FUN.

8. Serenade Her

9. Night After Night

10. For Your Love Nice. Polite.

Snag the highlight.

The 1980 Listening Post - Gary Myrick and the Figures - Gary Myrick and the Figures

 Gary Myrick and the Figures - Gary Myrick and the Figures

#87

1980 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Gary Myrick and the Figures

Gary Myrick and the Figures

Genre: New Wave Power Pop

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Living Disaster

Ever Since the World Began

She Talks in Stereo

Model

Meaningless

Edgy, dynamic, Power Pop rock that has more in common percussively with X than with the PPers of the day. And Myrick is a helluva player. 

For some reason I’ve always thought Myrick was a country guy. I don’t know why. This album is the Cars (sans synths), Joe Jackson, The Jam all wrapped up in a guy who I feel should have toured with Roxy Erickson. 

I get why this wasn’t a hit. The landscape was littered with Power Pop New Wavers at this point and, at some point people are gonna burn out. But, decades later, unearthing nuggets like this are a real treat. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/gary-myrick-and-the-figures-with-bonus-tracks/355032378

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