The 1980 Listening Post - Falcon - Walk Into the Mirror

 1980 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

by Brian Kushnir

Falcon

Walk Into The Mirror

Genre: Proggy Power Pop

Rating: 4 out of 5

Highlights:

Los Alvarez

Thinking About You

Walk into the Mirror

Dance Dance Dance

1982

Listen to the Marc Maron WTF interview with Daniel Lanois when you get a chance. He talks about all sorts of interesting legendary producer things including his origin story recording local musicians in his Grant Avenue studio in Hamilton, Ontario.

“Walk Into The Mirror” was recorded at Grant Avenue and before Eno delivered U2 and punched his ticket Dan Lanois was engineering stuff like this and it is pretty sweet and unexpected. Kudos to the Listening Post Sleuths who will stop at nothing including spelunking to unearth all the records, including digging up this one in the Museum of Canadian Music, where apparently I need to be spending more of my free time.

Falcon is a project of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist virtuoso Glen Foster. He cruises effortlessly from genre to genre (proggy new wave, rockabilly swing, surf, country, space-fi rock, etc...) keeping everything tight and earnest.

For me there’s a lot to cheer about here. Something different around each corner. Great singing and vocal harmonies throughout. There’s brilliance in the playing all over the place in all different musical styles from metal, blues, flamenco, pedal steel, with lots of tasty licks and interesting things happening when listening on headphones from flute, claves, and a distorted Hammond B3, and found sounds.

“Los Alvarez” opens side 2 and is about as perfect an homage to Jackson Browne and the Eagles as you could write and record, even more impressive is that it comes from a guy from Hamilton Ontario which is closer to the Northern Lights than ‘The Border.’

Soon after releasing this Glen Foster decamped for the Canadian west where he spent years working in a music store selling, teaching, and repairing instruments, releasing 9 original albums and all the while continuing to play live around Vancouver in pubs and beyond. Sounds like a good life.

http://www.citizenfreak.com/titles/278432-falcon-walk-into-the-mirror

The 1980 Listening Post - Drastic Measures - Drastic Measures

 1980 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

by Robert Sliger 

Drastic Measures

Drastic Measures

Genre: Art Pop

Rating: 4 out of 5

Highlights:

Flowers

TNT ("Don't play with TNT. Play with meeeee!")

The Teddy Bear Song (yes, THAT teddy bear song!)

I can see why this Toronto, Canada-based band never made it to the big time. Too odd for mainstream radio and way too musical theater for first-and-new wavers. 

And that’s a shame. 

At turns psychedelic, vaudeville, and post-punk (before that was a thing), this is an unexpected treat. Hooky enough to grab the ear and strange enough to keep us guessing what’s coming next, I was constantly engaged during it’s short (36 minute) run time. This is the anarchic playfulness of XTC combined with the oddball charisma of the Sparks brothers.

Singer Tony Malone’s delivers his offbeat lyrics and melodies with a lively combination of Bryan Ferry’s effete croon and Stan Ridgeway’s snarky enthusiasm. There’s also a touch of Donovan and a healthy shake of what would become the Dukes of Stratosphere in both the writing and performance. 

This is a weird, bouncy, joyfully outsider record that sold dismally (7000 unit, according to Michael Panontin on Canuckistanmusic.com. Also in his writeup is this quote from Malone: "I told a young friend once that I wished I'd been born twenty years later, and he said, 'Everyone is writing weird pop songs now - you'd be huge!'. We were hacking out a path that others could follow. But it was lonely and everyone's dreams got dashed.” A prescient comment, for sure. Cake, Weezer, 

Seek this one out, guys. Open-minded listeners will find unexpected surprises in every tune: odd key changes, thoughtfully arranged with unique appropriations of instruments, and a  winking silliness in the lyrics. The quartet’s gung-ho delivery and total commitment of purpose makes this one hell of a sleeper. Don’t sleep on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX5zw-Wm7XQ

The 1980 Listening Post - Clive Langer & the Boxes - Splash

 July 1980

by Paul Zickler

Clive Langer & The Boxes

Splash

Genre: Ska / New Wave

Rating: 4 out of 5

Highlights: 

Hope and Glory

Best Dressed Man

Half as Nice

Splash (A Tear Goes Rolling Down)

Had a Nice Night

Clive Langer produced some of your favorite records with his partner Alan Winstanley: One Step Beyond, Too-Rye-Ay, Punch the Clock, Flood, Bona Drag. He co-wrote Shipbuilding! Apparently he was also a musician who occasionally made records for himself. Splash is one of those records.

On the first half of the LP, the basic sound is straight ahead 2 tone ska, minus the horns. Heavy use of keyboards and bass, with Langer’s guitar a bit further down in the mix. Elvis Costello produced two of the tracks. Neat. Couldn’t find any info on which ones, but I’d lean toward Hope and Glory as one of them. An uptempo Watching the Detectives verse gives way to a Tommy Tutone-ish chorus. The instrumental break features literal bells and whistles. The lyrics seem suitably dark for an EC joint. 

Clive’s voice sounds a bit like Ray Davies.  He lacks Ray’s songwriting skill, but who doesn’t? Best Dressed Man does sound like it could be a Kinks song if the Kinks hired Bedford and Woodgate from Madness as their rhythm section. There's even some cool harmonica. Unfortunately, Clive also lacks Ray’s singing ability, such as it is. Luckily the other blokes do quite a bit of singing on several tracks. And there’s no lack of enthusiasm in songs like Half As Nice, with its “la la la la / la la la la / la la la la / la la la” chorus. Honestly I was reminded of the Banana Splits theme, if not in melody, at least in joie de vivre. Turns out it's a cover of a '60's tune by a band called Amen Corner (thanks Tom), which makes it even cooler, really. Now that I'm listening to it again, I'm very much reminded of the production on my favorite They Might Be Giants album, Flood, which Langer would co-produce ten years later. Yay!

Side two features a bit more experimentation and a bit less head bobbing. The title track, Splash (a Tear Goes Rolling Down), with its big beat, wiry guitar solo, and sorrowful lyrics makes for a great change of pace. Less effective is a somewhat mordant cover of the Stones’ It’s All Over Now, although it does show off some fancy production tricks. There’s fun new wave noodling followed by a racing bass line on Take You Down, but it’s not much of a song in the end. Burning Money and First Thing in the Morning similarly contain fun moments but rely too much on Langer’s vocals to work well. The closing song, Had a Nice Night, descends from celebrating an evening to bemoaning a missed opportunity, then fades out before the 2 minute mark with some ominous piano over a thumping beat. 

I don’t know why Mr. Langer has performed so infrequently over the many years of his career. He's obviously capable of writing, arranging, playing and (sort of) singing. Maybe this album wasn’t the success he imagined it would be? Anyway, I enjoyed most of it.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/64KW70piaprw0BygfHlYAp?si=8708864ab8cc4d3d

The 1981 Listening Post - Hilly Michaels - Lumia

 #680

1981 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Hilly Michaels

Lumia

Genre: He’s the drummer for Sparks, for Christ’s sake.

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Look at That Face

Our Love Will Last Forever

I’ve Got No Right To Love You

Reach for the Vitamins

“Look at That Face” is goofy fun that calls to mind the marriage of Sparks and Bob Geldof. And that fucking works. Now, toss some Jim Steinman in there and you got one helluva bonkers record. 

When I’ve run out of things to say, I look to other people to find the words for me. In this case it’s Dave Thompson in Allmusic who writes: “another potpourri of manic pop bubblegum, shot through with some of the most adventurously idiosyncratic songwriting of the age”

Damn. That’s perfect. 

I don’t know Hilly’s first record but if it’s as bonkers and delicious as this I want it. 

The majestic ballad that is a highlight of Side One, “I’ve Got No Right To Love You”, really should have been a hit for…I dunno…Celine Dion or someone. It’s got Diane Warren’s stamp on it, why not Hilly?

Hey! GE Smith played guitar on Hilly’s previous one! Sadly, not here. Here it’s Rick Derringer. 

I would have played the shit out of this with Roger Taylor’s Fun in Space and thought, well, that’s a pretty good year for drummers!

It’s only available as a Google Drive download, folks. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K7HzpQo0twK6n950yb3VBOCC2zLbLYE8?usp=sharing

The 1980 Listening Post - rainbow Red Oxidizer - Recorded Lies

 Reviewed by Tom Mott / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1980 Rainbow Red Oxidizer Recorded Lies Genre: Garage Rock'N'Roll Rating: 4.05 out of 5 Highlights: Recorded Lies Wild Beast Planet Ruler Limo To The Gig Play With Fire ---------------------------------------------- Gary "Magic" Marker - Bass Guitar Ed Cassidy - Drums Leon Rubinhold - Lead Guitar Mars Bonfire - Lead Guitar Rainbow Red Oxidizer - Lead Vocals ----------------------------------------------- These dudes put the "dig" in "pedigree." Marker was in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band orbit. Cassidy was the drummer (and prime mover with stepson Randy California) in Spirit. Mars Bonfire wrote Born To Be Wild. Leon Rubinhold was in The Outlaw Blues Band, whose song “Deep Gully” was sampled by Cypress Hill (“When the Shit Goes Down”). Deep Gully needs to be listened to by everyone all the way through at least once in their life. Rainbow Red Oxidizer was a KBLA boss radio DJ and pals with Sky Saxon and was in a couple of post-Seeds bands with him. This sounds like a bunch of guys who grew up on L.A. doo-wop and garage rock; cut their teeth in top-shelf psychedelic rock bands; listened to a couple of punk/new-wave albums; nodded "oh yeah, we got this" and had a couple cases of beer delivered to the studio where they recorded it live. Rough, raw, new wave garage rock, Jim Carrolling its way into the space Iggy should've been in in 1980. Riffs that would do Roky "Two-Headed Dog" Erickson proud. The good parts of solo Lou Reed mixed with Spizz "Where's Captain Kirk" Energi. Half originals, half covers [1] of 60s garage and beat classics. Do You Love Me is a loving doo-wop send-up. The shout out to "Elliot" in Wooly Bully would be Elliot Ingber. I wish the covers were mixed better -- the shredding guitar tends to be the highlight on those. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED in all its rowdy, beer-soaked glory. ********** 1. Except they're not all covers! "Rawhide" and "Hard Day's Night" are both wolves-in-sheeps-clothing originals. And "Play With Fire" and "Hard Day's Night" land somewhere between covers and hijackings (détournements) as if they're faking their way into creating new songs.

The 1980 Listening Post - PM - 1:PM

 1980 Housekeeping

By Stephen Romone Lewis

PM

1:PM

Genre: New-Wave?

Rating: 4.2 out of 5

Highlights:

Madeline

Children of the Air Age

It’s like prog-rock drum God, Carl Palmer, fused Asia with The Cars. New-wave interpreted by super-competent musicians. More harmonies and soaring, intricate solos than The Cars. More riffs and singalong choruses than Asia. Songs are more complex than 80’s pop or metal, but they aren’t prog. Short and catchy. 

After Emerson Lake and Palmer broke up in ‘79, Carl Palmer may have had his heart set on some sweet, pop chart cash or maybe he just wanted a break from pretension. He put this band together by auditioning. He ended up with a bunch of names I don’t recognize: Barry Finnerty, John Nitzinger, Todd Cochran, Erik Scott. Playing is tight. Production is worse than what Carl will get accustomed to with Asia but better than almost anything else released in 1980.

Every Palmer fan must hear this at least once. I loved every single song. Some of the lyrics were cliche or dumb but that never bothers me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DcsZ4RKyog&list=PLcEHCtrzoig286U0K0nlsni9f0EJRTKLz

The 1980 Listening Post - The Stray Trolleys - Barricades and Angels

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1980 The Stray Trolleys Barricades and Angels Genre: New Pop/Power Wave Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Highlights: The Secret Dreams Of A Kitchen Porter A Bluebeat Kid Gunslinger Flamingo Road This is Martin Newell. Before he would become The Cleaners from Venus, a project I have found to be hit and miss, and after he left some other band I will never listen to, he made this album, a collection of memorable and sparkling post-sixties retro-pop. It fits in perfectly with the players of the time and I don’t know why he couldn’t get out of the shadows here, because it’s filled with great stuff that could sit alongside Nick Lowe and Graham Parker. Listen to that New Wave Reggae riff on “Ten Million Years” and tell me that it isn’t as good as anything Costello was doing at the time. What is there to say here? Sometimes an album is just chock full of well made songs that, when you drop the needle, you just let it play out and flip it over and keep on rolling.

The 1980 Listening Post - Psychotic Pineapple - Where's the Party?

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1980 Psycotic Pineapple Where's The Party? Genre: Psycho Garage Pop Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Highlights: Hang On For Your Life The Devil Has Work for Idle Hands The Saw She’s Boss Alex Carlin is the force behind this, apparently. It’s rare that a band sounds EXACTLY like their name. This is sweet but tart psycho-music. The kind that The Cramps could never make. Carlin was a part time player in The Rubinoos. But I’ve never heard of him. However, that means nothing since I only listened to their early stuff and then again when a friend of mine joined their band for a short time in 2010. I see that Tommy from that band co-wrote a bunch of these tracks. In many ways better than his primary band’s stuff. Some of this is just effing crazy. “The Saw” is terrifying and “Headcheese” is nauseatingly funny. (I can’t highlight it, but I do adore it) This album is a blast. It has no place in the world and that makes it even more delightful.

The Beths - Expert in A Dying Field

 The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field       

Label: Carpark

After two fantastic Indie Rock records I was simultaneously excited to get my copy (early from pre-order) of the new one by my new favourite band and terrified that I wouldn't like it as much as the first, judging it harshly against hype and the previous two.

Jump Rope Gazers and Future Me Hates Me have been on constant rotation here since I heard them. One great track after another (even though I SWEAR my copy of JRG is warped at the end of each side. But Beth's voice doesn't sound wavery like the instruments so...damn you, interesting production!) has had me extolling this band like a crazed fanboy. 

Did I try to go see them an hour away the day after I came back from an East Coast work trip? Yes. Did I fall asleep way before the concert so there was no way I would make it? Also, yes. Did I purchase tickets to their upcoming spring show? Hell yes. 

Fanboy. 

And then I heard Expert's singles. And I was absolutely sure I would love this one, too. And I did. Not right away. That's because I had to do the weighing of this record against the previous two, which played like discoveries, having zero build up. And then, on listen 3, I got it. I was able to let it stand on it's own instead of in the shadow of those two terrific records. It's another in a series of gems by Beth Stokes and her merry band of New Zealanders. 

The very concept of a relationship having come to an end and the participants being "experts" on each other and matching that to the coldness of said relationship being a "field" that is "dying" is brilliant. It's poetry the likes of which we rarely get in music these days. Sure we get the forlorn. We get the brokenhearted. But we don't get the kind of wordplay that calls to mind a field where romance could blossom also being a workplace where you have overstayed your time. 

It calls to mind the dual uses of the word "Whatever" in that song from the debut and makes me hate my own writing. But that's okay. I've always hated my own writing. 

And I can always sing along to Beth. 

Grade: A

Packaging Grade: A

    The gatefold is packed with Polaroid photos of the band in various stages of work on the record. The lyrics are printed on the other side of a giant poster of that...fish. And my copy is the early order Spring Green from Carpark and it's lovely. 

A Side: Expert in a Dying Field, Knees Deep, Silence is Golden, 2AM

Blind Sides: Best Left, The Passing Rain, I Told You That I Was Afraid

Local Drags - Keep Me Glued

 Local Drags - Keep Me Glued 

I don't recall the moment when I discovered that there was a plethora of Power Pop made in America but only available from labels overseas. I mean, sure, I've always known that there have been scads of US artists that never get nationwide distribution but this was the first time as I reentered the vinyl world, that I learned about just how MUCH there was. 

I think the throughline starts with a Facebook page about Power Pop. The playlist in one particular post led me to a series of bands and singles that perked me up. Lovebreakers. The Yum Yums. Radio Days. And more. 

Searching for those records, the latter two being on Screaming Apple records took me to The Machine Shop Rocks, an American distributor and that brought me to a page where Local Drags lived. Or sold. 

And, when I finally pulled the order trigger, I made sure to order those records because the entire MO of my vinyl journey was to support smaller artists. I mean, the Taylor Swifts of the world don't need my money (Yes, I bought Midnights....dammit) but the Lannie Durbins of the world? He could use my $20. 

Like the Starter Jackets project Lannie is involved with, these records are filled to their short running time brim with 2 minute razor sharp pop rockers that, 40 years ago, would have seen them move to a larger label and try to make it in the era of skinny ties and weird Nielsen guitars. 

My main complaint? I've already stated it and I will again when the other records of his come up: 23 minutes is not an album. It could be called a "mini-album" but, then, who would spend full ticket price for that, right? 

The music, however, is another story. Because no song wears out their welcome, the album is a breeze. The guitars are crunchy, the choruses work, the understated vocals never pushing too far into RAWK. This follows the Power Pop motif laid out by the likes of The Raspberries, albeit, Local Drags' music is edgier. 

Grade: A-

Packaging Grade: C (No inner sleeve, no notes, no lyrics, but the Chemical Lake Blue platter is gorgeous)

A Sides: Springfield Discount Cemetary, Cash Bar, Keep Me Glued

Blind Sides: Give a Shit Anyway, Ghost Runner