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The Rain Parade's Emergency Third Rail Power Trip... okay, so I've finally found a Paisley Underground album that I think is amazing. This was a fantastic record, and could have easily been an indie release in any decade since. Unfortunately, The Rain Parade doesn't have a huge catalogue of work, so I may have to settle for this gem alone, but definitely the best of its genre in '83.

The Cure's Japanese Whispers... I've never been a huge Cure fan. I mean, I like them enough to listen to their records, but they strike me as the kind of band that attract fanatics and I don't find them that appealing. If I'm being honest, Robert Smith annoys me a bit. I used to have a co-worker from the UK who'd give me endless shit for liking Morrisey and the daffodil in his back pocket, and Smith is kind of like that for me. This record did nothing to change my opinion on any of that. Some decent tunes, though. 

Big Boys' Lullabies Help the Brain Grow... This sounded more like punk rock/funk than hardcore to me, but not a bad record. 

Peter Tosh's Mamma Africa... fairly standard Peter Tosh album. Nothing remarkable about it. An easy listen if that counts for anything.

Billy Idol's Rebel Yell... Rebel Yell is a great song. Nothing else on this LP compares to Rebel Yell, however the rest of the tracks are extremely interesting considering Billy Idol was being positioned as a guy with high commercial appeal. I imagine that if you bought this record in '83 and listened to it until you wore it out that you would love the other tracks on this LP in the way that only a true fan of any album does.

Yello's You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess... LOVE the album name, love the painting of the gorilla on the LP cover, and that's about it... European synthpop. Probably sounded good in the clubs, who knows.

Ramones' Subterranean Jungle... I really wanted to come out all guns blazing about what an underrated record this, but the truth is it's not very good. A couple of catchy tunes but highly mediocre by Ramones standards.

The S.O.S Band's On the Rise... I'm a big S.O.S Band fan, and think Take Your Time (Do it Right) is just about the best song ever, but this LP has one great song on it (Just Be Good to Me) and a bunch of filler. 

Hellhammer's Death Fiend... I felt like this was the weakest of the Hellhammer demos. Rough production and the songs didn't feel shaped yet. 

Sparks' In Outer Space... So, because it's the early 80s, there are a lot of great 70s acts producing lesser works, not only because creativity has a short shelf life, but because the music business had changed so dramatically in such a short span of time. This could easily be written off as an inferior Sparks record, but I thought it was a perfectly enjoyable slice of new wave synthpop. Certainly not worth getting your knickers in a twist over.

Black Uhuru's The Dub Factor... Black Uhuru released two LPs in 1983, a roots reggae album, Anthem, and this dub record. I'll give you two guesses as to which I liked better. You got it.

The Dickies' Stukas Over Disneyland... this was something of a comeback record for The Dickies and a very good LP. I particularly liked the song about having a hunchback girlfriend.

G.I.S.M.'s Detestation... now here's a record I haven't listened to in a while. I was surprised by how metal this sounded. It almost sounded like a thrashcore record at times. Very few things are as cool as Japanese hardcore even if G.I.S.M are a bit immature at times.

Teena Marie's Robbery... Teena Marie hanging in there with her version of contemporary r&b. A nice record but nothing earth shaking. 

The Comes' No Side... Japanese hardcore record with a screeching female vocalist. How can this not rule?

The F.U.'s My America... Now this is what I call a hardcore record... About 15 minutes long and punchy as heck. Excellent.

Depeche Mode's Construction Time Again... this almost comes across as a concept album. I love Everything Counts in Small Amounts (one of my favorite songs of '83), but a grew a little tired of Dave Gahan singing about saving the earth. 

The Triffids' Treeless Plain... I'm not sure if people overseas realize how strong the Australian and New Zealand music scenes were during this era. That said, there's always a tinge of cultural cringe when you hear an Australasian band trying to sound like they're The Fall. I know I shouldn't feel that way but it's hard to shrug that feeling, especially when the band is from Perth of all places. BUT, this is an excellent record and David McComb seems like a fine songwriter, so cultural cringe be damned. Check this out if you're curious. 

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Fuck, I love the Comes. Somehow I don't have My America, though I do have Kill for Christ. Should have just held out for that LP with one on each side. It's funny that you say Lullabies is less hardcore because it felt to me that they got more hardcore as they went. Stuff like "Brickwall", for example. In a similar comparison I just got Bedtime for Democracy by the Dead Kennedys, their last album, in the other day on vinyl and it is definitely them playing the same thrash as the kids, albeit with their own instrumental tweaks. I'd rather a band go more generic hardcore than generic rock like SSD or Discharge (well, that stuff is terrible in a level all its own). 

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1983!

The Flesh Eaters' A Hard Act to Follow... The Flesh Eaters were an LA punk band that added an element of Hollywood to their music. The Hollywood fringes, that is. Totally up my alley.

Nick Lowe's The Abominable Showman... not a highly regarded Nick Lowe album, and a questionable album title, but the songs were pleasant. This is the type of album I would have ignored in the past because it's not rated highly enough, but this little project of mine has forced me rethink things a bit and try to appreciate where various artists were at at the time.

Pistones' Persecución... Spanish mix of new wave and power pop. Very pleasant and enjoyable.

Pagans' Pagans... The Pagans were an on again, off again punk rock band from Cleveland that released this raw, lo-fi garage punk gem in '83 and not much else. They're the kind of bands that bands you like cover. If you're into punk, especially from this era, I would add this to your collection.

Loudon Wainwright III's Fame and Wealth... this was the album where Wainwright transitioned from more of a rock sound to a stripped back, wiry singer-songwriter folksinger (with a little help from Richard Thompson along the way.)  Not all of the songs worked for me, but the ones that did were excellent, and there is no way that this is the 830-something best album of 1983 like rym is trying to tell me.

Freeez' Gonna Get You... I.O.U. is such a banger of a track. I could easily convince myself that it's the best song of 1983. The rest of the album's not bad, either, if you can tolerate a bunch of whiny Englishmen trying to record a funk album. There was a genre coined called BritFunk, which just sounds wrong.

Gwen Guthrie's Portrait... the post-disco landscape of 1983 wasn't a great time for black female recording artists, which is one of the many travesties of the disco backlash, but they were still working and occasionally getting a Larry Levan remix that was popular in the clubs. This is a perfectly solid example of a working artist's record from '83. Gets the thumbs up from me.

Toxoplasma's Toxoplasma... German street punk. Worth a listen to hear what an angry group of German kids sounds like in 1983. 

The Milkshakes' After School Session and In Germany... The Milkshakes is such an innocent sounding name for a band until you hear them make a racket. At first, I was surprised that there was a garage rock band trying to play a Merseybeat style, but considering there were a ton of rockabilly acts at the time I guess it's no surprise that there would be a Merseybeat group too. Fun stuff, more so if you like early Beatles.

Hunters & Collectors' The Fireman's Curse... Hunters & Collectors were a great Australian band. One of the first bands that come to mind when I think of Australian music, actually. This was their second album, and like a lot of the film and music from Australian in the late 70s and early 80s, it is surprising dark. Must be all that isolation from the rest of the world. 

Rick James' Cold Blooded... If you're expecting this to be Street Songs, you'll be disappointed, but if you're expecting anything to be Street Songs, you'll be disappointed. This is a perfectly OK Rick James album with some okay songs and a couple of really good ones. U Bring the Freak Out is a good 'un. 

Mary Jane Girls' Mary Jane Girls... speaking of Rick James, it's his protegees. James wrote and produced the entire thing, and it's probably the closest he came to being a Prince level producer. The singles are excellent, especially All Night Long, and the rest of the album is fun as well.

Yumi Matsutoya's Voyager and Reincarnation... Yumi Matsutoya is an incredibly talented and prolific Japanese singer-songwriter with a highly idiosyntric voice. Many of you will be familiar with her songs from Kiki's Delivery Service, which used her 70s work for the opening and closing themes. She is mistakenly referred to as a city pop artist by some enthusiastic Western fans, but she was much more than that and an incredibly successful artist in Japan. Voyager is close to pure city pop, which is perhaps where the misunderstanding comes from, but it's a phase she was going through, perhaps tapping into the zeitgeist a bit. Reincarnation is closer to her older style will still trying to push the boundaries. 

Yutaka Ozaki's Seventeen's Map... A friend introduced me to Yutaka Ozaki many years ago and his dramatic, soul-wrenching live performances turned my world upside down for a bit. He never came close to capturing that on record, which is hardly surprising since the record company was looking to cash in on his good looks, but the songwriting is there and all of the material he used for those extraordinary live performances. 

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Speaking of 80's music. Pat Benatar is trending on Twitter today for bad but funny reasons. Bad: She got namedropped by Ted Cruz. Funny: It's because he said that Dems wouldn't impeach the president if there was video of him murdering kids in a devil suit, under a full moon, and singing Pat Benatar.

 

which leads to two questions, mostly on the phrasing order. Is it Joe Biden dressed as the devil, or is it the kids. Same for the singing Pat Benatar. If the kids in the devil suit were singing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", I think Joe has a chance to skate on the grounds of provocation.

 

Edited by SirFozzie
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On 6/13/2023 at 7:08 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

1983!


The Milkshakes' After School Session and In Germany... The Milkshakes is such an innocent sounding name for a band until you hear them make a racket. At first, I was surprised that there was a garage rock band trying to play a Merseybeat style, but considering there were a ton of rockabilly acts at the time I guess it's no surprise that there would be a Merseybeat group too. Fun stuff, more so if you like early Beatles.
 

One of the most influential garage rock bands, along with Thee Headcoats. Billy Childish is a master of raw, stripped-down, British Invasion sounds crossed with some of the American frat rock fuzz.

And speaking of garage rock, since you mentioned The Pagans I can immediately think of at least 2 mid-90s garage rock covers of Six and Change.

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1983 will never end.

Basa Basa's Homowo: High Music Life... this was originally released in Nigeria in 1979 and re-released in the Netherlands in 1983. It mixes traditional African music and electronic dance music, and it's a bit of a gem really. I'm biased (as in if it comes from Nigeria, it must be good), but this was really good.

Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) and Touch... now we're getting into the territory of music my parents listened to all of the time when I was a kid. My mother was besotted with Annie Lenox (I'm sure someone told her she looked like Annie Lenox or some shit. I think she even tried to have the same haircut at one point.) Did you know the Eurythmics released two albums in 1983? I did not know that. Even as a kid, I realized Sweet Dreams, the song, sounded different from everything else on the radio. It's overplayed at this point, but you've got to appreciate the experimentation. Here Comes the Rain Again is also a great song, perhaps even better than Sweet Dreams. If they'd merged these records into a single album they might have had a classic New Wave record, but musically the records are fairly cutting edge for pop music, and Lenox has a strong presence. 

Yazoo's You and Me Both... this is the type of record where if you haven't got a sympathetic ear towards synth-pop you'd probably dismiss as generic 80s music, and let's face it, this type of music is easy to parody along with the hair, makeup and fashion from the era. Fortunately, I love me some synthesizers. This didn't reach great heights, but it was catchy and fun. And it reminded me that Alison Moyet existed. Now there's someone I haven't thought about since the 80s ended. 

The Glove's Blue Sunshine... okay, so this is a side project by Robert Smith of The Cure and Steve Severin of Siouxsie and The Banshees. You may have heard of those groups. Naturally, there a lot of people who cream their pants at the idea of these guys working together, which inevitably leads to disappointment when it's not the greatest record of all-time. I'm here to tell you that it's perfectly listenable. Just don't expect greatness and you won't be disappointed.

Men at Work's Cargo... y'know, I've never listened to a Men at Work record before. Now that I've righted that wrong, I can honestly say this was a lot of fun. It's hard to make quirky, humorous records and not wear out your welcome, but these guys were talented and excellent musicians, so that helps.

XTC's Mummer... this was kind of a weird, in-between, transitional album for XTC. It's the kind of record that people will either view as not as good as XTC's other records or massively underrated. I liked it a lot. It doesn't have a lot of standout tracks, but it was steady throughout.

Ministry's With Sympathy... If you didn't know that Ministry started off as synthpop new wave band in the early 80s, you're in for a shock. It's almost like finding out that Dre was in a boy band. I'm sure this gets down voted by people because it's not remotely the same as future Ministry records, but they were a decent New Wave band all things considered and it's not a bad record. I don't think you could sell many Ministry fans on that argument, though. 

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Yaz is so perfect as Vince Clarke's transition project between Depeche Mode and Erasure. He gets to be as cheesy as he wants with his synths because he has this incredible alto northern soul frontwoman just bringing it on vocals. "Only You" is such a lovely ballad.

Honestly, there is some comparison to The Eurythmics, similar vocal presence and range. Here Comes the Rain Again is criminally underrated, there is such a mood and tension throughout.

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I heard that fucking Dua Lipa Elton John song in Target this morning and my god is it a pile of shit.  Mash up 2-3 Elton hooks but then don't do the "payoff" of each hook, leaving the listener blueballed.  It feels like a song created by AI.  Not to mention Dua Lipa is one of these younger pop music products whose producers create them to just be essentially jukeboxes anyway.  They just make music that either wholesale rips off old, popular stuff (like that one girl who totally ripped off INXS' "Need You Tonight") or sounds vaguely like something you remember from your younger days.  Bruno Mars is another one, just a corny motherfucker who makes songs that sound like other old hits, like those times he ripped off The Police and Morris Day.  My god it's all garbage.  Thank you for reading.

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On 6/26/2023 at 12:00 PM, JLowe said:

Yaz is so perfect as Vince Clarke's transition project between Depeche Mode and Erasure. He gets to be as cheesy as he wants with his synths because he has this incredible alto northern soul frontwoman just bringing it on vocals. "Only You" is such a lovely ballad.

Honestly, there is some comparison to The Eurythmics, similar vocal presence and range. Here Comes the Rain Again is criminally underrated, there is such a mood and tension throughout.

Erasure is a top top top tier band for me. I like Depeche Mode and Yaz but I love love love Erasure. My college was 90 minutes from where I was living. My mom's best friend lived in a nearby town. This brother-and-sister who lived next door to her went to my same college. I met the brother (Rick) a few times on campus but our conversations were all awkward and weird. I hadn't met the sister (Lucia) yet. My dad couldn't drive me back to campus for some reason after fall break my freshman year. I had to beg them for a ride. It was so awkward at first and I could tell they thought I was the weirdest person alive. But then Lucia put on Erasure and I started belting out A Little Respect (no idea how I knew that song) and we became really great friends immediately from that moment on. Never was too close with Rick but he was a good dude.

We went to a small Catholic University where like 75% of the students were white kids from Philly-area Catholic high schools and mostly boneheads/normies. Lucia was the first out gay person I was ever friends with (and maybe even the first out gay person I met) and through her I became friends with our school's (self-named) "lesbian posse" and the one or two gay men in the group. That was such an awesome experience to expand my horizons beyond my general friend base of "white kids into punk and indie and drinking 40s." 

One moment in college that I laugh about now -- the Indigo Girls were scheduled to play our Spring Fling one year at an outdoor show on our soccer field. The lesbian posse was so incredibly excited for the show but then we had a few days of rain and they had to cancel. There were so many tears shed at the Food Court when the news broke. That day just screams out like a perfect scene if you wanted to go back in time and explain what 1997 was like to people who didn't get to experience it.

(That and the time I went to a Squirrel Nut Zippers concert with a girl I had a crush on, except she didn't realize I was looking at it as a date, and then I had an awkward run-in with her a few days later after she was making out with this guy named "Tony Phatsacks" because his name was Tony, he was slightly overweight and wore a hat made of hemp that said "you cannot smoke thiz hat" and enjoyed blunts. And then I saw them on a date together rollerblading around campus, and I realized that my crush was misguided.)

I haven't seen Lucia in years. I randomly ran into her a few years ago and we exchanged numbers to hang out but never happened. I have to track her down. She's the best. 

I saw Erasure a few years ago and they were incredible. One of the best concerts I've ever seen. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm back with a new computer.

Xmal Deutschland's Fetisch... Xmal Deutschland were a German post-punk band that leaned heavily into gothic rock. Not dazzlingly original, but not half band either. The female vocalist reminded me of someone but I couldn't quite pin down who I was thinking of. It was a very 80s sounding vocal at any rate.

The Lords of the New Church's Is Nothing Sacred? This was another post-punk act that veered into gothic rock. One of the most fascinating aspects of 1983 music is the different forms that punk is splintering into. The Lords of the New Church formed out of the ashes of the punk band, The Dead Boys, and there style morphed to the point where you have synths on this record and strong new wave leanings. Punk wasn't dead in 1983, but it was barely recognizable from its 70s heyday. 

Wang Chung's Points on the Curve... Not sure how a London new wave band ends up calling itself Wang Chung, but needless to say, this is not a Chinese pop record. It's a fairly decent new wave album, to be honest. Lost in the shuffle of '83, but rock solid.

Wire Train's In a Chamber... Now this was a pleasant surprise. I had been complaining that the jangle pop I was listening to didn't live up to the likes of The Smiths, The Go-Betweens, or early R.E.M, but this was the best jangle pop record I've listened to thus far. If I had a third thumb, it would be three thumbs up.

Gary Numan's Warriors... Man, people hate this album. I don't care enough about early Numan to muster that sort of reaction. For my money, it was perfectly listenable. It didn't distinguish itself from a ton of the other music being released in '83, but you would think it was a crime against humanity the way some people go on about it. You try remaining commercially viable in 1983 buckaroo.

The Golden Palominos' The Golden Palominos... this was a no wave record. It doesn't take a genius to understand why the no wave movement started, but beneath all the experimental shit, there's actually some pretty decent funk rock and jazz rock on this record, which my ears naturally gravitated to over the more art enthused stuff.

10,000 Maniacs' Secrets of the I Ching... this was an honest to goodness indie pop effort in 1983. It had a little bit of everything in terms of stylistic attributes, but it was mostly engaging pop music led by Natalie Merchant, who went on to have a distinguished solo career in the 90s. 

Altered Images' Bite... another female driven band with the extra wrinkle of a Glasgow band putting a bit of synth polish on their sound. Bit of a forgotten band it seems. Worth rediscovering, if you ask me, as they have some nice tracks and the vocalist knocks it out of the park. 

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Shriekback's Care... Shriekback was a post-punk/new wave band formed by ex-members of Gang of Four and XTC. Pretty good pedigree there. Decent record with a minor club hit in the song Lined Up. 

Divinyls' Desperate... if the name Divinyls sounds familiar to you, you may be thinking of that song about touching yourself. Like many one hit wonders, this Aussie pub rock act had a couple of solid albums under their belt before their hit. This is a solid fusion of pop rock, new wave and power pop. 

The Comsat Angels' Land... 1983 is littered with albums that are considered the beginning of the end of a lot of late 70s acts. This Comsat Angels record is a perfect example. They had three successful albums under their belt prior to this record and a lot of people point to this as the record where they started to drop off. But I say bollocks to that. If you're listening to this in the context of a hundred or more other albums from '83, it's a perfectly good record. A bit poppier, perhaps, but get over yourself and dance a bit.

Freur's Doot-Doot... Massively underrated Welsh band that doesn't get enough love. You may be familiar with the title track as it gets used in soundtracks every now and again. The band should have been at the forefront of the New Romantic movement but didn't sell enough. They eventually morphed into the electronic music group Underworld, who were prominent in my era. This is the type of LP that the cool kids rediscover. 

Sonic Youth's Confusion Is Sex... early Sonic Youth record. Noisy. They didn't quite have the melody and structure of their later records. It's amazing to think that within a few short years they'd become one of the most important groups of the alt-rock movement.

Heaven 17's The Luxury Gap... Ooh, listen to those synthesizers and drum machines! Heaven 17 was started by two guys who broke away from The Human League. They struggled to make an impact at the first, but the singles on this LP did well with two UK top 10 hits. Their objective here was to mix soul music with electronic music, which may sound like an affront to soul music, but most r&b acts had been doing the same thing in the States since the end of disco. I was down with this LP.

A Flock of Seagulls' Listen... I really liked this record. I really like A Flock of Seagulls. Yes, it's not as good as their first record, but it's more Flock of Seagulls, so go ahead and inject it directly into my veins.

Adam Ant's Strip... Here's another record people hate. I get it if you were an Adam and the Ants fan, or if you liked his first solo LP, but to me it was goofy fun. Some bizarre songs, but quirky and enjoyable. He sure does wanna get naked, though.

Thompson Twins' Quick Step & Side Kick... now here's a record that time forgot. This was a top 5 record in the UK but barely cracked the top 40 in the US, which I guess accounts for the fact that it's largely slept on these days despite being a major synthpop/new romantic LP. Very good record. A lot of people find the musicianship in synthpop questionable. The cream of the crop speaks against that.

Gene Loves Jezebel's Promise... Post-punk/Gothic Rock that grew on me with repeat listens. There's a bit of glam rock in there too. This was a keeper.

China Crisis' Working With Fire and Steel: Possible Pop Songs Volume Two... this is one of those records that gets criticized for sounding "so 80s" like there's something wrong with that. My only criticism is that the record label were desperately trying to cash in on similar acts' success. The music video for Tragedy and Mystery swipes liberally from Depeche Mode. Other than that, it's pleasant stuff. 

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I have spent much of the last 20 years loathing the song "Mr. Brightside" every time it comes on, and God has it come on a lot, because it won't go the fuck away.

But, finding out it's based on a true story and that his girlfriend at the time has to hear it absofuckinglutely everywhere after stepping out on him is like the world's biggest example of poetic justice, so, I dunno, maybe I was a little wrong.

...Nah.

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3 hours ago, Casey said:

Anti-Flag appear to have broken up due to rape accusations against Justin Sane.

I saw they broke up but can't find any article saying why. Given the way everything went down I have no reason not to believe that was in fact the reason.

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41 minutes ago, sabremike said:

I saw they broke up but can't find any article saying why. Given the way everything went down I have no reason not to believe that was in fact the reason.

Kristina Sarhadi on her Enough. podcast is what a lot of people in the punk scene are pointing to. No names are mentioned, not even the name of the band, but there’s a lot of context clues. Especially given that this episode dropped and soon after, Anti-Flag have gone dark everywhere on the web and seemingly are done out of nowhere.

This was only a handful of hours ago, it’s still early. I suspect some articles, maybe a statement, will be released Thursday or something.

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