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

The 1986 Listening Post - Volcano Suns - All Night Lotus Party

Volcano Suns - All Night Lotus Party

#31/1198

1986 Housekeeping

Volcano Suns

All Night Lotus Party

Genre: Alternative

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Blown Stack

Walk Around

Sounds Like Bucks

Dot on the Map

The first Volcano Suns release was such a revelation that I don’t think it would be possible for these guys to top it. As much as I appreciate it, the whole thing sounds like a hangover from the first record. And, why not? The Bright Orange Years was SUCH an explosion of alternative goodness that the only thing left to possibly do would be wake up the next day and try to come up with something as good. 

Maybe that’s impossible. I still maintain that these guys are every bit as drunk as the ‘Mats but I like them a LOT better. They seem like they’d be more fun to get drunk with than Westerberg. 

I bet even Paul would agree.

Side One races by with electric energy but don’t discount Side Two which is more expansive, with just as many time shifts and explosions. 

Another excellent and completely surprising and nearly indescribable one from Volcano Suns. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/all-night-lotus-party/300872909

The 1986 Listening Post - Love and Money - All You Need Is...

Love and Money - All You Need Is...

#30/1197

1986 Housekeeping

Love and Money

All You Need Is…

Genre: Big 80s

2.25 out of 5

Friends Again was likable enough in 84. 3/4 of the band created this soul rock effort that is very antiquated and not all that toe-tappingly inspiring. 

Like weak Tears for Fears or Wham! there’s no surprises here. But I did waste 5 minutes listen to a faux-INXS piece of annoyance called “Cheeseburger” and I did that for you.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSKTbnWCj7I&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVBRumJHzeHAYxLlCtWxqTxN

The 1986 Listening Post - The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff

#28/1185

January 1986

The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Tuff Enuff

Genre: Boogie Rock

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

I Don’t Care

Speaking of ZZ Top….

This sounds like a roots rock band decided to mimic Top and aim for the charts. 

It worked. The single was ubiquitous. And dull as an unsharpened 50 year old butcher knife. 

After that, this is pretty middling Americana rock. A really good Beer Fest band, at best. 

We already have The Blasters. We don’t need another one, especially one that is nowhere near as good as the Alvin bros. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/5V9ZYrWIeMS8W5rvz7LeF4?si=aVGqFav_TTWU3Avf8ZdupQ

The 1986 Listening Post - The Accused - The Return of Martha Splatterhead

The Accused - The Return of Martha Splatterhead

#27/1184

January 1986

The Accused

The Return of Martha Splatterhead

Genre: Death Thrash

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Wrong Side of the Grave

Show No Mercy

Lonely Place

I must have missed the first Martha Splatterhead experience because now that she’s returned I’m just totally confused. Just kidding. The first Martha Splatterhead was an EP and we don’t do EPs here. 

Honestly, this is the kind of thing I would’ve seen in the store as a little kid and been too frightened to purchase and then, when older, I’d’ve seen a t-shirt for them and decided against it cuz I wasn’t that kid.

Full disclosure, if I liked this stuff when I got older I would definitely sport a Martha Splatterhead button.

This is hard thrash with a lot of screaming that is hardly sustainable for an entire career, let alone a record. And yet, when it hits, it does so with gusto.

It’s kind of great that this thing was able to exist in the first place. The 80s were such a time for music, it gets maligned as just synth pop and dance. it’s sooooooo much more. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiXFow-qoUo&list=PL906mN2jnd6o9vu-MVu9IvPPei_xNfaBV

The 1986 Listening Post - The Virgin Prunes - The Moon Looked Down and Laughed

The Virgin Prunes - The Moon Looked Down and Laughed

#26/1183

January 1986

The Virgin Prunes

The Moon Looked Down and Laughed

Genre: Pretentious Goth

1.75 out of 5

This is the death rattle of a genre dying. I don’t know anything about Virgin Prunes but this album tries so hard to sound like it’s notifying hard to be important and ominous and the voice of saddoes. I don’t know if I had any room for this in my life in 86. It’s a relic today.

This is the kind of stuff you get from a local off-off-off Broadway theater company that fancies itself “cutting edge” when really they just aren’t talented enough to pay on a bigger stage. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-moon-looked-down-and-laughed/1381611527

The 1986 Listening Post - Yo La Tengo - Ride the Tiger

Yo La Tengo - Ride the Tiger

#25/1182

January 1985

Yo La Tengo

Ride the Tiger

Genre: Indie

4.5 out of 5

Highlights:

The Cone of Silence

The Evil That Men Do

The Forest Green

Yo La Tengo. This is a band that named itself after the fact that the 1962 Mets had a Spanish speaking Venezuelan outfielder, Elio Chacon, who didn’t understand it when Richie Ashburn, the centerfielder, would yell “I have it!!!” and they would crash into each other. So, the team learned that “Yo La Tengo” meant the same thing. Except that Frank Howard, the right fielder wasn’t there for that meeting that day and when Ashburn ran after a fly ball and yelled “Yo la tengo!!” Howard crashed into him. 

“What the hell is ‘Yellow tango’???”

I’ve known that baseball anecdote my whole life. And I knew that there was a band that named itself after that anecdote. 

But I never heard them

Until now.

This is so “Indie” I’m surprised Soulseek didn’t have a sub-group in the Indie section devoted to it.

I mean, they kind of invented the genre with this, no?

Well, no. Cuz Violent Femmes did that a few years earlier. But this is in that vein. 

This album is so adorable I want to give it a hug. It should probably get a 4.25 but I’m bumping it up for how happy it made me to hear it. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/ride-the-tiger/1023393241

The 1986 Listening Post - Marilyn Martin - Marilyn Martin

Marilyn Martin - Marilyn Martin

#24/1181

January 1986

Marilyn Martin

Marilyn Martin

Genre: Pop (Not Rock)

2 out of 5

Highlights:

Body and the Beat

Night Moves

Rock is so heavily dominated by men that, in the past, I was accused of not focusing enough on female led bands or solo artists. I maintained, at the time, that the percentages dictated what I chose to review but maybe I was biased. It was a long time ago and I don’t have connection to that thought process anymore. 

That can’t happen in this project because the list determines what’s covered and the list is what’s released. 

Personally I can’t wait until we get into the 90s/00s and we get to cover a LOT more bands that were made up almost entirely of women. All Girl Summer Fun Band, Donora, cub, just to name a quick few. 

With Pat Benatar going soft rock and then trying to come back and Linda Ronstadt retreating to the 40s, it’s left to the Bonnie Tylers and Joan Jetts and Kim Caries to try to find that sweet spot of radio play and edge. 

Marilyn seems to get that. Like she’s picked up where 1982 Benatar left off. 

This album starts off with crunch and heft and says that she’s totally up to the task. 

You can guess where we are headed after that, though, right?

Bad pop masquerading as pop rock and headed straight for the bargain bin. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/marilyn-martin/413916572

The 1986 Listening Post - Tony MacApline - Edge of Insanity

Tony MacApline - Edge of Insanity

#23/1180

January 1986

Tony MacAlpine

Edge of Insanity

Genre: Instrumental Finger Noodling Showcase

2.25 out of 5

Is it Yngwie Malmsteen?!? No! Just a secondary facsimile. 

It’s noodletastic and pentatoniriffic! And if you wanna sit through 40 minutes of that, put the top down and stay as far away from me as you can cuz your air guitar antics are gonna cause an accident. 

This vacillates between proficiency and garbage and hews too close to the garbage for much of the time. Toward the end, on “The taker”, Tony busts out his keyboard talents which come out of the blue in the middle of the song and then hits the ivories on Chopin’s Prelude 16 and, seriously, I’d rather he just do that all the time. Cuz it’s some big time Spinal Tap shit that it’s immediately followed by epic stadium instru-rock.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/edge-of-insanity/1050244012

The 1986 Listening Post - The Steppes - Drop of the Creature

The Steppes - Drop of the Creature

#22/1179

January 1986

The Steppes

Drop of the Creature

Genre: Paisley Psychedelic

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

A Play on Wordsworth

Make Us Bleed

And then, just as I figured, with the pop-over of The Bangles, that Paisley was finally dead, here comes a psychedelic band that didn’t get the memo. 

Of most interest to me is that Brett Gurewitz, owner of Epitaph, from Bad Religion, is the engineer here. 

Other than that, it’s 18 years too late but sounds exactly how it should have in 1968.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/drop-of-the-creature/1457875112