Music General Music Discussion Catch-All

[Curt McGirt]

Holy shit, Ashbury sound like the Outlaws. 

[ohtani's jacket]

1983...

X's More Fun in the New World... technically, X are a punk band, but they cross over into any sorts of genres like power pop and rockabilly, and frankly, they're fun, they rock, and make me happy. Big tick for this record.

Ilegales's Ilegales... one of the best rock albums of 1983. Rock was in a tight spot in '83 with hard rock and AOR losing a ton of ground to punk and metal. Bands like Illegales were clever enough to embrace punk, post-punk, new wave, art punk, and still rock. 

The Ex's Tumult... straight out of the Netherlands, we have one of the best post-punk records of '83. Post-punk is one of those genres where you're really listening for something clever and brilliant to distinguish it from the multitude of other post-punk albums out there, and this delivered in spades. They released another record in '83 that paled in comparison. Probably not a great idea to release two albums in the same year unless you're a jazz musician. 

Krokus' Headhunter.. straight heavy metal, but gotta respect OGs that came up from their 70s hard rock roots and were part of the first wave of metal. Enjoyable record.

Loquillo y Trogloditas' El ritmo del garage... Another fun Spanish rock album. This one had more of a garage rock sound. Kudos to Spain for keeping good old fashioned rock alive in the early 80s. 

Bauhaus' Burning From the Inside... I was expecting this to be heavier than it was, but it was a lot peppier than you'd expect from a goth record. Almost like new wave goth music. Not bad!

The Robert Cray Band's Bad Influence... Super fun. Maybe I spoke too soon about those Spaniards. This was super enjoyable blues rock.

Cleaners From Venus's In the Golden Autumn.. this was okayish. I love jangle pop so much that I have super high expectations for it, which leads to a ton of disappointment when those expectations aren't met. 

ESG's Come Away With ESG... speaking of expectations, this completely blew mine away. I knew it was a dance punk album, but I didn't realize it would be quite so danceable. They were clearly influenced by James Brown and other funk acts, and the punk element really came from being part of the New York punk scene. This was a bit of a find for me, personally. Strong influence on hip hop and dance. 

Toshiki Kadomatsu's On the City Shore... soooo 80s. City pop meets yacht rock meets smooth jazz. Japan was still in the midst of its economic bubble and this was every yuppie's dream of a beach vacation somewhere in Okinawa or Guam. Nice record.

[supremebve]

On 5/13/2023 at 7:00 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Tears for Fears' The Hurting... I try to be open minded about music, but even I've got to admit I was looking at this thing and thinking "Aw, man, Tears for Fears?" But this was good... Really good. Mad World, and its remix, is a great single, but there are plenty of good album tracks too. Much more experimental than I was expecting. It must have sounded like it was from the future compared to 70s records. 

You expected this to suck?  Tears for Fears is fucking awesome.  Songs From the Big Chair is one of the best albums of the 80s, and they were always taking risks and trying new shit.  Of all the 1983 albums you have reviewed, this is the album I would have assumed was the best just based on the band.

[JLowe]

On 5/21/2023 at 7:02 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

1983...

X's More Fun in the New World... technically, X are a punk band, but they cross over into any sorts of genres like power pop and rockabilly, and frankly, they're fun, they rock, and make me happy. Big tick for this record.

Bauhaus' Burning From the Inside... I was expecting this to be heavier than it was, but it was a lot peppier than you'd expect from a goth record. Almost like new wave goth music. Not bad!


ESG's Come Away With ESG... speaking of expectations, this completely blew mine away. I knew it was a dance punk album, but I didn't realize it would be quite so danceable. They were clearly influenced by James Brown and other funk acts, and the punk element really came from being part of the New York punk scene. This was a bit of a find for me, personally. Strong influence on hip hop and dance. 

X: always had those rockabilly vibes, they were a major part of the LA punk scene but that scene had  a wide variety of styles and sounds. I recommend the book "We Got The Neutron Bomb"

Bauhaus: This was the album that led to their breakup, and really is more of a Tones on Tail or Love and Rockets album which explains the peppiness as Peter Murphy was always the broodiest of the group. Still, She's in Parties is my favorite Bauhaus song, it's 2 parts Bauhuas dark dance with lyrics about old Hollywood, and one part someone deciding to copy U-Roy and adding just a filthy dub breakdown at the end.

ESG: That record is so good and keeps gaining new life and new generations (particularly women musicians) discover it. I had heard of them back in the day but never heard the record until 2010, you really describe it well.

[ohtani's jacket]

8 hours ago, supremebve said:

You expected this to suck?  Tears for Fears is fucking awesome.  Songs From the Big Chair is one of the best albums of the 80s, and they were always taking risks and trying new shit.  Of all the 1983 albums you have reviewed, this is the album I would have assumed was the best just based on the band.

I don't think I'd ever listened to a Tears for Fears record before. If someone had mentioned Tears for Fears,I would immediately sang "Shout, shout, let it all out."

[ohtani's jacket]

Yep, 1983.

Marc & the Mambas's Torment and Toreros... this was a style of music called Dark Cabaret, which was almost like spoken word over the top of new wave, art pop. Some interesting songs, especially the up tempo tracks, but a wee bit difficult for yours truly.

The Three O'Clock's Sixteen Tambourines... this is a Paisley Underground record. I keep saying how much I love jangle pop yet I'm so picky about it. I was never that big on the 60s psychedelic sound,so I've never gotten too deep into Paisley stuff. In fact, I always mistake it for a Prince side project. The album was okay.

Black Flag's Everything Went Black... this was just okay? It felt like a comp tape of early pre-Rollins Black Fag material, including a shit ton of radio ads for Black Flag gigs. Cool vibe, but as a record it felt disjointed.

Cabaret Voltaire's The Crackdown... nice record! I struggle immensely with industrial, but add a little electronics to it and hey presto, you've got one of the more distinct sounding of the era. For a borderline synthpop, new wave act, this was very anti-pop. I dug it.

Dicks' Kill From the Heart... I love music, but I don't really know dick about it. What I do know is that one barometer for how much I enjoyed an album is whether I instantly want to hear more by that artist, and I definitely want more Dicks. 

Ritual's Widow... part of the fun of being an early 80s metal band had to be choosing the band name, then deciding on the album name and the cover art. I can only imagine these guys being a bunch of pimply-faced, greasy UK teenagers, getting high and spit balling the most metal ideas they. A lot of early metal & NWOBH blends together after a while, but this guys were going the whole occult route, which not that many UK bands did (from memory) and there tinges of doom metal here and there. Decent stuff.

Severed Heads' Since the Accident... industrial record. Huge struggle for me, but that's more on me as I should have known better than to listen to this. Sounded like something stuck in the dishing washing machine.

Asmus Tietchens' Litia... I'm not a big electronic guy, and was never that comfortable on the dance floor with that type of music, or on any kind of dance floor really, but this German electronic album was decent background music (is that a sin?)

The Fixx's Reach the Beach... Very good new wave album. This was solid the whole way through. The kind of album where if you get into the top new wave releases from this year and you're looking for more, this is the perfect tonic. 

Takanaka's Can I Sing? -- this album is a perfect example of why people enjoy city pop, as Takanaka blends jazz fusion into his pop tapestry and produces another hidden gem for western ears. 

Verbal Abuse's Just an American Band... this either sounds like a bunch of snotty-nosed American teenagers or an awesome hardcore LP. I vote for the latter. 



 

[supremebve]

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I don't think I'd ever listened to a Tears for Fears record before. If someone had mentioned Tears for Fears,I would immediately sang "Shout, shout, let it all out."

If you get tired of music from 1983, give "Shout" a listen.  Everything you say about "The Hurting" absolutely applies to "Shout," except they are better at it in 1985 than they were in 1983.  It's a great song, that is full of interesting percussion layering, and it is constantly evolving and growing.  The greatest thing about early 80s music is the expeirimentation that came along with the technological advances of the time.  A lot of 80s music doesn't hold up very well, because the experimentation didn't quite hit its mark.  It may have sounded good at the time, but sounds kind of rinky dink after time passed.  Tears for Fears' experiements all seemed to work, and their music holds up really well.  It helps that they were fucking great musicians, and while they embraced the technology, their musical chops kept everything in it's proper place.  They're one of the greatest bands of the 1980s, and "Shout" is one of the best songs of the 80s.   It's a song that you may not have heard lately, but if you give it a listen, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Oh and this year in music thing is great.  I actually tried to do something similar a while back, but I didn't write anything down.  I started in 1970 and tried to listen to every relevant R&B album.  I realized pretty soon that I probably should have started in 1965 or so, and that the idea of an album in the 70s was completely different than it is now.  Someone might drop 4 albums in the same year, and for the most part there is no unifying theme.  There just was no way for me to listen to all of the music and even remember what were my favorites, because it was just an overwhelming amount of very similar music.  I remember I went to the Motown Museum a while back, and they basically said they were an assembly line for music.  You don't really understand what that means until you listen to 4 albums from The Supremes and realize that Diana Ross isn't even in the group any more.  It was just an endless stream of good, but definitely not great songs from a group that only really existed as a name.  It's the opposite of the music I find interesting.  Diana Ross has a surprising number of absolute bangers that moved into a funkier more complex direction.  By the 1970s, The Supremes had run their course and were still pumping out 3 albums a year.  I say that to say this, I really need to figure out what relevant means before I try to listen to every relevant R&B album of all time.  

[JLowe]

yeah, Kill from the Heart is such a great record. Austin had them and the Big Boys, both doing variations of hardcore that was angry and political and personal, with big, charismatic, very gay lead singers. Dicks only did one other record, after they (or most of them) moved to San Francisco. Also a few singles. They did a few reunion shows in the 2000s and were still amazing.

Gary Floyd had a couple of later bands, Sister Double Happiness and Black Kali Ma, but neither were close to as good as The Dicks.

[JLowe]

11 hours ago, supremebve said:

If you get tired of music from 1983, give "Shout" a listen.  Everything you say about "The Hurting" absolutely applies to "Shout," except they are better at it in 1985 than they were in 1983.  It's a great song, that is full of interesting percussion layering, and it is constantly evolving and growing.  The greatest thing about early 80s music is the expeirimentation that came along with the technological advances of the time.  A lot of 80s music doesn't hold up very well, because the experimentation didn't quite hit its mark.  It may have sounded good at the time, but sounds kind of rinky dink after time passed.  Tears for Fears' experiements all seemed to work, and their music holds up really well.  It helps that they were fucking great musicians, and while they embraced the technology, their musical chops kept everything in it's proper place.  They're one of the greatest bands of the 1980s, and "Shout" is one of the best songs of the 80s.   It's a song that you may not have heard lately, but if you give it a listen, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Oh and this year in music thing is great.  I actually tried to do something similar a while back, but I didn't write anything down.  I started in 1970 and tried to listen to every relevant R&B album.  I realized pretty soon that I probably should have started in 1965 or so, and that the idea of an album in the 70s was completely different than it is now.  Someone might drop 4 albums in the same year, and for the most part there is no unifying theme.  There just was no way for me to listen to all of the music and even remember what were my favorites, because it was just an overwhelming amount of very similar music.  I remember I went to the Motown Museum a while back, and they basically said they were an assembly line for music.  You don't really understand what that means until you listen to 4 albums from The Supremes and realize that Diana Ross isn't even in the group any more.  It was just an endless stream of good, but definitely not great songs from a group that only really existed as a name.  It's the opposite of the music I find interesting.  Diana Ross has a surprising number of absolute bangers that moved into a funkier more complex direction.  By the 1970s, The Supremes had run their course and were still pumping out 3 albums a year.  I say that to say this, I really need to figure out what relevant means before I try to listen to every relevant R&B album of all time.  

IMO, 1970 (or scooch back a year to 1969) is actually a really good starting point for R&B/soul because some of the major artists, like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, are getting out of the Motown assembly line and finally have the freedom to do what they want. I mean, I love The Funk Brothers and there is no doubting the writing talent of Holland-Dozier-Holland and Smokey Robinson, but they're working from a formula and trying to live up to the Hitsville, U.S.A. moniker. They weren't making albums, they're releasing a couple of top-40 singles and then dumping them onto a record with a bunch of cover songs (although Stevie's early records are still great because, like Aretha, he will take a cover and make it his).

Around 1970, you get Stevie and Marvin free to record what they want. Aretha Franklin is just getting started with her classic run after leaving Columbia and signing with Atlantic. Curtis Mayfield is at the height of his genius.  Stax is loosening up some and you get Isaac Hayes. Then there's the Blaxploitation films, which have amazing soundtracks where artists like Hayes, Mayfield, Marvin, James Brown and Bobby Womack get to experiment with scores and instrumentals. All that, plus the rise of funk.

[Curt McGirt]

The Black Flag record was a stopgap release after they got in a legal battle with Unicorn Records that froze their ability to release anything new with the Black Flag name attached; the original print didn't feature any logo, just the garden shears drawing. I'd like to make some full compilations of specific singer tracklists and there probably are some out there, I know there's an all-Dez Damaged on Youtube. The only song not on another release is "I Don't Care" which is a wonderful chunk of Keith Morris gob. 

The Dicks. Man, the Dicks. On some days I could call them the best punk band ever. The Dicks were the flip side of the coin from the Big Boys: blues instead of funk and post-punk, virulently angry vs. inspiringly hopeful, Marxist Reds vs. anarchist skaters, relentlessly trashy and lo-fi rather than super tight/well-performed/solidly produced. They had some of the best anthems of the hardcore era and the biggest blues howl in Gary Floyd. When I picked up their Alternative Tentacles comp and heard "Saturday Night at the Bookstore" I completely fell in. Just like I did when I heard the Big Boys' Skinny Elvis comp! Go figure. Anyway, here's some more Dicks and the Big Boys album from '83 that you have to hear. 

Spoiler

the dicks - hate the police 7" - YouTube

Saturday Night At The Bookstore - YouTube

Dicks - I Hope You Get Drafted - YouTube

Big Boys - Lullabies Help The Brain Grow (1983) FULL ALBUM - YouTube

 

[Curt McGirt]

Re: Tears for Fears, I was watching the 30 for 30 about the '80s Mets the other night and they had a montage of Reagan "re-lighting" the Statue of Liberty's torch, random '80s footage, and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was playing over it. God what a song. 

EDIT: Aw man. My second favorite album ever was from '83 (December too! When I was born!) and I completely forgot. 

Spoiler

Manilla Road - Crystal Logic - 1983 (FULL ALBUM) - YouTube

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[supremebve]

1 hour ago, JLowe said:

IMO, 1970 (or scooch back a year to 1969) is actually a really good starting point for R&B/soul because some of the major artists, like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, are getting out of the Motown assembly line and finally have the freedom to do what they want. I mean, I love The Funk Brothers and there is no doubting the writing talent of Holland-Dozier-Holland and Smokey Robinson, but they're working from a formula and trying to live up to the Hitsville, U.S.A. moniker. They weren't making albums, they're releasing a couple of top-40 singles and then dumping them onto a record with a bunch of cover songs (although Stevie's early records are still great because, like Aretha, he will take a cover and make it his).

Around 1970, you get Stevie and Marvin free to record what they want. Aretha Franklin is just getting started with her classic run after leaving Columbia and signing with Atlantic. Curtis Mayfield is at the height of his genius.  Stax is loosening up some and you get Isaac Hayes. Then there's the Blaxploitation films, which have amazing soundtracks where artists like Hayes, Mayfield, Marvin, James Brown and Bobby Womack get to experiment with scores and instrumentals. All that, plus the rise of funk.

Everything you say here is exactly why I chose 1970, but it's also the reason why I felt like I needed to jump back to 1965 or so.  I feel like the Motown assembly line was instrumental in the artistic growth of both Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.  Stevie is someone who got really experimental with almost everything, but never really got too far away from basic song structure.  Stevie was able to be crazy creative while never really coloring outside of the lines.  My intention was to track the evolution of not just the music, but the artists who made the music.  Part of me wants to go back to Sam Cooke, because I feel like he's a foundational figure, but that makes me want to find the foudational figures and kind of build a R&B/Soul family tree.  I feel like James Brown, Sam Cooke, and The Isley Brothers are definitely bricks in the foundation, but then I start looking at people like Ray Charles, Ike Turner, and Etta James.  The more I think about it, the more bricks I find, and the less likely I'll actually start this project, lol.

[Curt McGirt]

After watching Hitsville, USA again recently I think you should probably already have a book deal in the wings if you're gonna try that. 

[supremebve]

5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

After watching Hitsville, USA again recently I think you should probably already have a book deal in the wings if you're gonna try that. 

Lol, my answer to the question, "what would you do with your time if you didn't have to work any more?," has always been I'd write the definitve history of modern(post-rock & roll ) black American music.  The crazy thing is I think I have enough time to write it, I just don't have time to do the years and years of research it would take before I start writing it.  

[ohtani's jacket]

83.

Mike Oldfield's Crises... so, Moonlight Shadow starts, and I'm like, "Hey, I know that song! That was Mike Oldfield!?" That song's a banger! Love the guitar solo. The rest of the album is great as well. It's a mix of art pop and prog but super accessible. I imagine there were fans of Oldfield's older stuff who hated this shit, but I'm down with radio friendly Mike Oldfield. 

The Durutti Column's Another Setting... this was okay. It was dreamy, ambient post-punk art pop (I really enjoyed stringing those words together!) Most of these records are first listens. I'm kinda listening for a song or two I like that makes me want to hear more from the artist. Plenty of the records deserve a second listen, but it's all about first impressions for now.

Johnny Thunders's Hurt Me... this was excellent. Acoustic folk punk from the New York Dolls and Heartbreakers' Johnny Thunder. I'm a big fan acoustic singer-songwriter types, and the fact that this is folk punk makes it all the better since punk and acoustic guitar don't immediately match. This could easily be an indy pop record from the 00s. 

The Nits' Omsk... The Nits are an art pop band from the Netherlands. I like a lot of their singles, but this didn't really come together as a unifying whole. 

George Clinton's You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish... there's always something to enjoy on a George Clinton record, even a minor one like this. We're getting further and further away from the heyday of Parliament and Funkadelic, but Clinton is still experimenting and producing interesting music. Half the appeal of P-funk, for me, is the clever word play, and I dug the lyrics on this.

High Power's High Power... French metal! This was awesome! Now I'll be honest, this could have had the worst lyrics in the history of metal and I'd be none the wiser, and there is an element of me that likes this because it's French, but screw it, it rocked and it was cool that it was in French.

The Fleshtones' Hexbreaker! -- garage rock with a touch of power pop and new wave, just to keep with the times. Highly enjoyable. 

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts' Album... this wasn't as highly regarded as some of the earlier stuff that Joan Jett had done, but that probably doesn't mean as much in 2023 as it did in 1983. If you like Joan Jett, this is more of the same and a record you should listen to.

Mink DeVille's Where Angels Fear to Tread... I love Mink DeVille, just like I love every band that came out of the CBGB scene, but I never got this far in their discography. This was, I wanna say, pretty close to the end stretch for those bands in terms of their peak, but a really good album from an awesome band. 

DeBarge's In a Special Way... this was one of the better contemporary soul/funk/r&b/boogie records of '83. The production sounds a bit dated at times, but they were trying to sell records. Trippy moment when the sample from I Ain't Mad at Cha drops.

Alan Vega's Saturn Strip... I didn't know that Alan Vega from Suicide had a solo career. I also didn't know that he recorded idiosyntric synth punk. He looks like Prince on the cover. This was cool. 

Martha and The Muffins · M+M's Danseparc... I'm not gonna lie, I totally listened to this because of the band's name. Didn't disappoint. Quirky post-punk new wave. I dug it a lot.

Gary Moore's Dirty Fingers... I liked this a lot. This was an older recording from Thin Lizzy's Gary Moore that was shelved in favor of something more radio friendly and released in Japan (back when Japan did that sort of thing.) Thank you, Japan! There's some cheesy, of-the-moment songs wailing about imminent nuclear war, but hey, people were legit scared. Mostly it's Moore playing the crap out of his instrument. Very cool.

Stray Cats' Rant n' Rave With the Stray Cats... rockabilly is a fun genre, and the Stray Cats are a fun band. i believe they're still playing (they recorded something for their 40th anniversary a few years back.) I guarantee that if you like this, you'll delve into their back catalogue. Super, super fun. 

[Curt McGirt]

On 5/25/2023 at 3:57 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

High Power's High Power... French metal!

Oh yeah! This is killer! Check out ADX and especially the wonderful Sortilege for some other great stuff in the same vein. 

ADX – Exécution (1985 Full Album) | Remastered 2021 Master Tapes - YouTube

Sortilège - Larmes De Héros (1986) • BEST SOUND QUALITY - YouTube

Edited May 27, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[ohtani's jacket]

Still in 1983...

Kano's Another Life... this is Italian disco with a touch of synth funk and synth pop. It's cheesy, and awesome.  Don't tell me you expected anything less.

V8's Luchando por el metal.. I love listening to metal from different countries, but I couldn't get into this Argentinian group. They weren't really heavy enough for my liking, and definitely not fast enough. More hard rock than metal (to my ears.)

The Creatures's Feast... I kept thinking this sounded like Siouxsie and the Banshees, and lo and behold, it was Siouxsie. The Creatures were a side project she did with her bandmate, Budgie. They almost had something with this record, but it wasn't as good as their Banshees output. They got close enough that I could see people championing the LP if they particularly like post-punk music, but personally, I'll chalk it up as an ambitious record that doesn't quite work.

Red Rider's Neruda... this was supposed to be new wave but it sounded more like heartland rock to me. Definitely didn't sound anything like the new wave that was coming out of the UK, New Zealand and Australia, or the New York club scene. It wasn't bad, but there was way too much guitarwork in it be new wave.

The Replacements' Hootenanny... The Replacements were about to become a much bigger deal over the next few years. In fact, I wouldn't disagree with anyone who argued they were the best band of the 80s. I can see that. But don't sleep on this early EP. It has all the energy and excitement of a great band that's on the cusp of breaking out. Great record.

Makoto Matsushita's Quiet Skies... this is such a beautiful record. Proof positive that city pop could be equal parts smooth pop and progressive rock. Highly recommended.

Mtume's Juicy Fruit... The Biggie sampled Juicy Fruit dominates this record, but I thought this was a really tight LP with a unified theme, and an excellent funk/soul album from an era where that type of music was dwindling. 

Shonen Knife's Burning Farm... early Shonen Knife record. They hadn't quite mastered their Ramones-style bubblegum pop yet, but Shonen Knife are a pure joy. I could lock myself in a roomful of Jonathan Richman and Shonen Knife records and be happy for the rest of my life. 

P-Funk All Stars' Urban Dancefloor Guerillas... cut and paste what I said about the George Clinton album. Same deal here, but I'm happy that this album exists. A lot of the time, I quit listening to an artist's discography because I reach the stage where their albums are no longer highly rated, but you miss out on a lot of good things when you do that, and in particular, you can hear here how this LP may not be groundbreaking but is a positive addition to the soul/funk catalogue from 1983.

Midnight Star's No Parking on the Dance Floor... the main track from this album is a really great synth funk song (one of my favorites from 1983.) The rest of the album was excellent as well. I have a soft spot for this era of funk -- Midnight Star, Lakeside, Dazz Band, Zapp, the S.O.S Band, etc. Some folks may not like the fact that they traded real instruments for synthesizers, but the real question is, does it make you wanna dance? And it does. 

J.J. Cale's #8... this is J.J. Cale doing his thing. It doesn't sound like he gives a shit about what's happening in the charts, and you've got to respect that. A little bit of blues, a little country, some folk... A musician's record. 

The Nomads' Where the Wolf Bane Blooms... Good Lord, this is awesome. Swedish garage punk! I absolutely loved this. This is why you go digging in the crates (metamorphically speaking -- doing it online is a shitty substitute.) Now I need to listen to everything these guys have ever done. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Sound President Odion Iruoje's Down to Earth... Nigerian Afro-funk. Won't change your life or anything, but pretty dang cool.

The Raincoats' Kitchen Tapes...  The Raincoats were an all-girl post punk band that Kurt Cobain made famous. Their first LP, in particular, is fantastic. This is a live album that's mostly acoustic. It's a bit of a mixed bag. Some songs work, and some are a bit weird. I don't think it adds a ton to The Raincoats experience, but ymmv.

Maanam's Night Patrol... I've always loved the Polish new wave band, Maanam, but I found this fairly unremarkable. Nothing to really sink my teeth (ears?) into.

King Kurt's Ooh Wallah Wallah… This was a UK psychobilly act that dabbled in a lot of different genres and covered a wide variety of songs. It was hard to tell at times whether they were taking the piss, but I'm gonna assume that there was genuine affection for the styles they were drawing from. Definitely a fun record. 

Neats' Neats.. This was a mix of psychedelic, Paisley Underground and post-punk, which on the surface sounds vaguely interesting, but this was decidedly mid-tempo and... average? Cool cover, though.

The System's Sweat... The System were Prince wannabes, but there are far worse things to be than a Prince wannabe. You're in My System is one of the great dance tracks of 1983, I can tell you that much.

Alien Sex Fiend's Who's Been Sleeping in My Brain??? -- this doesn't live up to the name of the band, or the name of the LP. Disappointing.

Tom Tom Club's Close to the Bone... Man, I love Tom Tom Club. People claim this doesn't live up to their first record, but they're ungrateful so and sos. Pleasure of Love is such an amazing song. This needs to be re-released instead of existing as a crappy vinyl rip.

[assfax]

The Fraternal Order Of The All – Greetings From Planet Love

 

Album blew me away.  Andrew Goldman doin' a Dukes of Stratosphear deal.  Heavy Beatles(Revolver), Beach Boys(Smile), Nilsson sound.  Way more California than the Dukes.  There's an awesome hybrid Byrds/Monkees deal.  Faux Doors song that could've been on Dr Demento.  King of Showbiz is a Wax song but fits in.  Kind of more Donald Fagen Nitefly sounding. Some of the Synth strings don't hold up to close scrutiny but the tunage is amazeballs.  I just used amazeballs and meant it.  Awesome Bob Dylan impersonation.

 

Best fake Beatle stuff I've heard since I found out about Emitt Rhodes.  Check him out if you like a real specific Pre-India McCartney era.  Namely Rubber Soul up to Lady Madonna area.  Last album is more like post-'94 Warren Zevon.  Very bitchy, very romantic.

 

Another great in the style of studio project was LEO Alpacas Orgling.  The only dude I recognize on it is Andy Sturmer from Jellyfish.  AMAZING ELO ripoff record.  Fucking nailed it.  For New World Record through Time fans.

[odessasteps]

Now that I saw someone compare Maid of Orleans to Mull of Kintyre, I can’t stop thinking about it. 

[ohtani's jacket]

More from '83...

Hellhammer's Triumph of Death.. another demo tape from the Swiss band, Hellhammer. There wasn't a lot of extreme metal being recorded in '83, so kids like Hellhammer had to turn to hardcore punk for inspiration. Poorly received at the time, their demos were later recognized as some of the earliest examples of black metal and became highly influential. Two of their members went on to form Celtic Frost. Pretty cool in retrospect.

Nile Rodgers' Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove... Nile Rodgers was in a tough spot in '83. The backlash against disco had crippled his career, and he was still transitioning into his role as a writer-producer. He disowned this album later on, claiming he was doped up and unsure about what he wanted to do musically, but Bowie liked it enough to have Rodgers produce Let's Dance. More interesting than good, but not a bad LP.

Johnny Thunders' In Cold Blood... they sure were putting out a lot of Johnny Thunder records in '83, including this cobbled together double album (a mix of studio and live recordings), but that's okay because I freakin' love Johnny Thunders and spent a couple of days with You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory stuck in my head. Quintessential rock and roller, died young and left behind a brilliant catalogue of music. Love all of his stuff.

Cybotron's Enter... important electro album. Bit of a mixed bag. I've never been a huge techno fan, so take my words with a grain of salt. Could be a classic LP for all I know.

Change's This is Your Time.. Change were kind of middle of the road as far as funk bands go, but they always produced highly quality boogie/synth funk records and this was no exception. Like many of the better r&b acts from this era, they were able to mix it up with male and female vocalists, and the songs get better with every spin. 

Pulp's It... it's crazy to think that Pulp were around in '83. This has its fans, but I found it to be largely forgettable. I don't know if Cocker was aping Morrisey, but it sounded that way to me and I found it annoying. 

Social Distortion's Mommy's Little Monster... this did nothing for me. I dunno why. It's been a long time since I've been on a punk kick, but I did love that Dicks album. I guess I don't really care about the things bands like Social Distortion are rallying against. 

Toy Dolls' Dig That Groove Baby... humor based punk is the worst punk if you ask me. 

Bow Wow Wow's When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going... I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. The opening track, Aphrodisiac, is such a great song and sets the tone for the rest of the LP. I love Annabella Lwin's vocals. Hard to believe she was 16 or 17 at the time and wrote all of the lyrics.

Husker Du's Everything Falls Apart... I absolutely love Husker Du's debut record. I don't know why this doesn't get more love. It kicks so much ass. 
 

[odessasteps]

15 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Bow Wow Wow's When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going

Is that the album with I Want Candy on it? 

[ohtani's jacket]

Nah, that was on an EP they released called The Last of the Mohicans.

[Curt McGirt]

Social D are about the poster boys for "Most Overrated Punk Band" (not counting pop-punk which is in a category all its own in that fashion). I think Mommy is a fine enough album, as is the later self-titled, but man in an era where hardcore was exploding minds (see: Husker Du) their throwback rock sound fit like a square peg in a round hole. This is pretty cold but perhaps Mike Ness should have done time earlier and then maybe the records would have had more merit coming out in the late '80s/early '90s when the sound was fresher... which in fact it was. These songs could have sat though and nobody would have been worse for wear. Funny, X could get away with it and they couldn't, but X were killer players and especially songwriters whereas Ness... 

The Death Fiend and Triumph of Death demos from Hellhammer are really raw and simplistic (strange argument to hear about Hellhammer!) but the Satanic Rites demo after them is practically album quality, both length, songwriting, and even production-wise. Then they did Apocalyptic Raids and that was WORSE sounding and played than the demos, haha! It was just always a shock to me to hear that demo after the EP and how much better it was. Triumph does have one of the coolest metal covers ever though. 

Always wanted me a shirt of that. Too creepy. (And hey, nothing against Apocalyptic Raids, it's essential. The backpatch with its demon-with-footlong-dick art is posted up on the wall behind me, after all.)

[ohtani's jacket]

1983...

Gary Moore's Victims of the Future... man, this was 80s sounding. There were a number of tracks that could have easily been in a movie soundtrack. I much prefer the grittier, less commercial Japan release from this year.

Crass' Yes Sir, I Will. -- noisy anarcho-punk. Lots of bitching about Thatcher's England. I've had my fill of bitching about Thatcher over the years, and to be honest, this was completely over the top.

Mariah's Utakata no Hibi... Mariah were a group of well-known Japanese studio musicians who formed a jazz-fusion group that dabbled in progressive rock and other genres. Here they go totally art-pop with an avantgarde mix of Japanese synth pop and Armenian folk songs. This is the kind of thing you'll either appreciate as an interesting LP or disregard as hipster crap. I can't see much middle ground myself.

Subhumans' The Day the Country Died... more anarcho-punk. I liked this better than the Crass album. It was recorded in 5 days and mostly plays off George Orwell's 1984. I'm not an anarchist, so the message here doesn't mean a lot to me. I'm in it for the music, and personally this wasn't hardcore enough to really excite me.

Randy Newman's Trouble in Paradise... this was a solid Randy Newman album. It was pretty much what you'd expect from him -- strong songs, clever song-writing, and witty lyrics. 

African Head Charge's Drastic Season... dub fans think this is amazing. I found it monotonous. Not my favorite genre of music.

The Barracudas' Mean Time... Now we're talking... garage rock with a mix of power pop and jangle pop... how could I not love this? Looking at the music landscape as a whole in '83, there was definitely room for revival acts to have a little fun with their music and The Barracudas are tops.

Los Abuelos de la Nada's Vasos y besos... Argentinian new wave, pop rock, yes please! I'm totally aware that I have an unfair bias towards this because it's Spanish and from another country, but I love it anyway. Lyrically it could be the shits, but musically it pricked up my ears.

Tracey Ullman's You Broke My Heart in 17 Places...  I'm old enough that i remember when Tracey Ullman was popular. I read a neat quote from Ullman about how she likes visiting record stores and finding her old LPs mixed in with far more famous records. She was going for a retro Girl Group vibe here, but she does a comedy bit on the version I listened to where she does different accents, which was a specialty of hers, and I swear she would have made a better punk rock vocalist than a Ronette.

Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock... this basically alternates between hip hop and African music. It was an important LP at the time of its release, as it helped spread both forms of music to a wider audience. I liked it, but I'd argue it's more famous than good.

Herbie Hancock's Future Shock... this album doesn't have a great rep. I don't know if that's because jazz fans hate it. It's not as bad as its rep suggests, although there's nothing on the record that matches the brilliance of Rockit. If it had been entirely scratch based and more of a turntablism LP, I probably would have liked it more, but Hancock was also embracing the emerging electro and synth funk scenes, and those tracks don't work as well.

Willie Nelson's Tougher Than Leather... Willie Nelson is a National Treasure and one of the greatest living American songwriters. He wrote this while he was in hospital with a collapsed lung and meditating on reincarnation. It's a followup album in a way to Red-Headed Stranger, just not as good. Basically, it's Willie Nelson, and if you can't find something to enjoy here, I don't know what to tell you.

Was (Was Not)'s Born to Laugh at Tornadoes... this didn't sound like any Was (Was Not) that I've heard. So weird. I listened to this a few times, and I began to appreciate how clever it was lyrically and dig some of the songs, like "Knocked Down, Made Small (Treated Like a Rubber Ball)" with its brilliant low budget music video, and "Zaz Turned Blue," an awesome cocktail jazz blues song that they get Mel Torme to sing. I think it's the guest vocalists that threw me off on the first listen, as they get a ton of people to sing on this, including Ozzy Osbourne, Marshall Crenshaw, and the Knacks' Doug Fieger. It's not really the art funk from their first LP, but art pop. Commercially unsuccessful, but I'm glad I gave this another shot because it gets more rewarding with each listen.

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by ohtani's jacket