Music General Music Discussion Catch-All

[Curt McGirt]

I had a hard time getting into both Necros and the Offenders despite my love of '80s hardcore. Necros I finally came around on and snagged Conquest on vinyl (they later turned into a pre-grunge band; Tangled Up might be an interesting listen but I've never heard it, need to rectify that). The Offenders are pretty metal-tinged and feature Mikey on bass who also played for DRI and other bands before his untimely passing. If I've heard We Must Rebel I can't recall but I've attempted to get into Endless Struggle a couple times and it never quite takes. Maybe time for another try? 

EDIT: Hmmm. I wouldn't call Tangled Up "pre-grunge" though I thought that's what it was supposed to be. More than anything it's a hard rock (I'd stop short of saying metal) crossover record, midpaced with some faster songs intersperced. 

EDIT II: WHOA, this Offenders RIPS. MDC were definitely a huge influence on them. I'm gonna listen to Endless again after this and if it's anywhere near as good I'm snagging the double LP they did of these for cheap via Armageddon Label. 

EDIT III: Minus the title track, which was midpaced and meandering attempted metal, Endless Struggle rules. What is really cool/funny is they close out the album with a cover of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3bjMtqpGBw&ab_channel=iluvflorenceballard

Edited August 11, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[JLowe]

I saw the Offenders do a reunion in 2002, it was pretty good stuff although not quite to the level of 80s hardcore I loved.

edit: here's one song

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by JLowe

[Curt McGirt]

Ha, whoever's singing along has no clue which lyrics go where. I don't think the actual singer does either! 

Also, got the comp from Havoc Records because the Providence locals wanted 11 fuckin' dollars for shipping. I'd rather give it to Felix anyway, he rules.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[ohtani's jacket]

VIA Tallas' Perfektan dan za banana ribe... Serbian new wave pop rock! This was another short-lived act. Very poppy. I liked it. 

Mark Shreeve's Assassin... progressive electronic music. I'm not sure I like electronic music enough to be into progressive electronic music, but I'll try anything once.

Alceu Valenca's Anjo avesso... MPB. I went through a phase where I listened to a ton of MPB, but I'm not sure I ever listened to anything by Valenca. This isn't the best place to start as I don't think any of the 70s Brazilian artists were producing their best work in the early 80s, but the production featured an interesting mixes of instruments and sounds, and Valenca has a strong voice. 

Sugar Minott's Dancehall Showcase Vol 2... I have a hard time vibing with dub, and grew up about as far away from Jamaican dance hall culture as you can possibly get, but damn this was groovy. Sugar Minot, ladies and gentlemen.

Vault's No More Escape... alright, Dutch heavy metal! This was basically NWOBHM but a ton of fun. 

Preview's Preview... Holy crap, I have been teleported back to the 80s. This was a bit of an AOR gem. Could have easily spawned a few movie soundtracks. Every cut sounded like a movie montage. The production was so pure that there's no way you could ever parody it. 

The Suburbs' Love is the Law... this was fucking great. What the hell is this doing languishing at #943 on the RYM charts? Gimme a break. The title track is going on heavy rotation. Wait, it's got a music video too! Brilliant. I hope they have this at karaoke.

Imperiet's Rasera... Swedish post-punk. This rocked pretty hard. I can imagine some people not liking the horns and other arrangements, but I loved the up-tempo vibe.

Giuni Russo's Vox... Russo was an Italian singer doing the whole new wave/art pop deal. I always dig hearing other country's versions of what was popular in the charts at the time. Fun record. 

Barış Manço & Kurtalan Ekspres' Estağfurullah... Ne Haddimize! this was Anatolian rock. Surprisingly funky. I could imagine hearing this at a Turkish restaurant and thinking it sounds good. 

Jun Fukamachi's Digital Trip Queen Emeraldas Synthesizer Fantasy... this was experimental electronic music that *I think* were unused tracks from the Leji Matsumoto anime, Queen Emeraldas. I could be wrong about that, but in any regard it's pretty stuff. 

Die Doraus und die Marinas' Die Doraus und die Marinas geben offenherzige Antworten auf brennende Fragen... god, what a title. This was the German version of new wave called Neue Deutsche Welle mixed with a liberal dose of synthpop. Worked for me. 
 

[Curt McGirt]

Can't find that goddamn Vault on Soulseek, but it's great. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hESAuD8_2oE&ab_channel=JohnnySmith

[zendragon]

On 8/8/2023 at 3:53 PM, Brian Fowler said:

Similar to what I was saying a couple weeks back about Larry Nassar, I never want to celebrate a person being stabbed, but it's damn hard to feel sorry for Ian Watkins, who was apparently held hostage in a prison cell, beaten, and stabbed repeatedly Saturday. Police yesterday said, contrary to initial reports, his injuries are not life threatening, but it sounds like three prisoners really did a number on him.

(If you aren't familiar with Watkins and why he is in prison, Google cautiously because it's sick and depraved stuff.)

If there's one dude you can say had it coming....

[ohtani's jacket]

The Vietnam Veterans' On the Right Track Now... this was extremely cool. The Vietnam Veterans were a French psychedelic band with a great garage rock sound. Loved their cover of Roky Erickson's I Walked with a Zombie. 

Rat Attack's Rat Attack... this was fun. These guys were out of Honolulu? Hawaii's the last place I'd think as the stamping ground for a metal band. Loved the album cover. Loved the duel lead guitars. 

Martin Briley's One Night with a Stranger... this was the most AOR-sounding record ever, but I knew that heading into it. This is one of those records where the album cover appealed to me. Perfectly fine LP if you like this type of music.

Sergio Sampaio's Sinceramente... this was a nice record. A solid set of songs by Brazilian singer-songwriter, Sergio Sampaio, a musician whom often worked with Raul Sexias. He was one of those artists who like to cross genres, so you get a mix of different sounds on this record. Sampaio also has a nice voice. 

Modern Art's Oriental Towers... this was downbeat, minimal wave, minimal synth post-punk. Kind of the opposite of the upbeat stuff I like from '83. Naturally, I preferred the more synth heavy tracks, but overall this was decent. This was a project of Gary Ramon, and wasn't a real band in the sense that they didn't play live gigs. Ramon ended up forming a band called Sun Dial, which played live, but I'm not familiar with them.

Manufaktura's Зал ожидания -- I'm always up for something new and today it was Russian pop rock. Not the first genre that springs to mind when you think of Russian music, but a nice record. I enjoyed it a lot. 

Jah Shaka's Fire and Brimstone... I must be coming around on dub as this was another record I thoroughly enjoyed. I read this described as "menacing" and that's a good way to put it. 

Nei Lisboa's Pra viajar no cosmos não precisa gasolina... the 80s weren't the heyday for MPB but this is a gem of an album. Libosa looks like he stepped out of a Godard film on the album cover and gives us a steady supply of piano and pop rock. Good stuff.

Earthshaker's Earthshaker... I've listened to this countless times before, but it still rocks, and you can hear the influence on the Japanese metal bands that followed. 

[JLSigman]

Former Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell is receiving hospice care treatment at home, a representative confirmed to CBS News Sunday. 

 

I'd only seen a TMZ post, and I trust them about as far as I could throw one of their neckbeard fans, but this is from CBS.

[Cobra Commander]

listening to a bunch of Johnny Cash today (20th anniversary of his death) and anybody unaware of the origin of the insult "egg-sucking" post-Terry Funk clearly didn't hear "Dirty Old Egg-Suckin Dog" from "At Folsom Prison"

[odessasteps]

 

[Zimbra]

Surprisingly, Las Vegas police made an arrest in Tupac Shakur's murder today.  Unsurprisingly it was the guy who has been saying for years that he was the driver and his cousin was the triggerman.

He's also alleged that P Diddy put out the hit so interesting to see how that shakes out.

[Curt McGirt]

...he never goes to jail because he's establishment-level rich now? 

[zendragon]

wonder what the statue of limitations on such a thing is?

[odessasteps]

Murder, conspiracy to commit murder or voluntary manslaughter usually don’t have a statue of limitations.

[ohtani's jacket]

NRBQ's Grooves in Orbit... Pretty chill pop-rock from this Miami outfit. This type of music was so far removed from what was popular in 1983 to the point that it may be deliberately retro, or perhaps it's genuinely authentic. In any event, if you like traditional 50s rock 'n roll, it's worth checking out.

Nagamatzu's Shatter Days... this is a mix of Minimal Synth and Darkwave. I'm more of an up-tempo, "Just Can't Get Enough" sort of guy, but I'm slowly starting to appreciate this type of music even if it does drone on a bit. You can hear the influence of Joy Division in this type of record. 

Crystalized Movements' Mind Disaster... this was a lo-fi garage punk record. Cool sketch on the cover. Not gonna hail this as some lost masterpiece, but it was an interesting record and you can't beat that. 

Knutsen & Ludvigsen's Juba Juba... Knutsen and Ludvigsen were a Norway duo who made children's music. Not being able to understand the language, this sounds like quirky pop rock to my ears. I'd probably feel silly listening to it if I knew what they were singing about... or maybe not. 

James Ingram's It's Your Night... this was exactly what you'd expect a 1983 James Ingram album to sound like, complete with the exact production you'd expect from a 1983 contemporary R&B album, which I guess is exactly what his fans wanted. There is a dose of synth funk on the record, which is more appealing to me than 1983 R&B, though I have a hard time believing Ingram is the party animal he says he is. Fans of 60s and 70s R&B should look elsewhere. 

Dogs' Legendary Lovers... French power pop! This definitely gets cool points. The Dogs is a great name for a band. I liked this a lot. Will definitely check out their back catalogue when I get through the thousand other records from 1983. 

Satan Jokers' Les fils du metal... I'm not going to pretend I know anything about the history of French heavy metal, but I will say this was a decent take on NWOBHM with screaming, high-pitched vocals and hard rock style guitar playing. Fun record.

Twice a Man's The Sound of a Goat in a Room... starts off very dark and atmospheric. There are times I'm not sure whether I like the sound of a goat in my room. Switches gears constantly, however, as though trying to prove a point that synthpop and darkwave can co-exist on the same record, even within the same song. Interesting.

Gabinete Caligari's Que Dios reparta suerte... this rocked. It's a steady dose of Spanish post-punk psychobilly. Maybe not as crazy as you'd expect from that description, but I was down with this. 

Aggression's Don't Be Mistaken... not bad! I was expecting a hardcore record, but it sounded more like skater music. Then I discovered it's called Nerdcore, which is perfect. Seemed ahead of its time. I have plenty of buddies who would have happily listened to this in the 90s. 

The System's Logic... Interesting record. Kind of a low key synth pop cut. There were clearly better synth pop LPs in 1983, but I liked it. 
 

[Curt McGirt]

Agression (one G) is actually Nardcore, being from Oxnard, CA. From Wiki:

Spoiler

Nardcore is a hardcore punk movement that originated in the Oxnard suburbs of Silver Strand Beach and Port Hueneme.[4] Early bands of the nardcore scene include Agression, Dr. Know, False Confession, Ill Repute, Habeas Corpus, Stalag 13, RKL and Scared Straight.[5][6]

Around 1977, the first group in the area was a Moorpark band called the Rotters, emulating the new sounds of English punk rock. After playing a few parties for high school age audiences, Agression latched onto the style. The younger, future members of Dr. Know and Ill Repute were in the audiences saying "Oh, we can do that."[7]

The first venues to regularly host punk shows in the Oxnard area were Casa Tropical (a Quonset hut at the Oxnard Airport), Town and Country (Port Hueneme), Skate Palace (Port Hueneme), and Casa de la Raza (Santa Barbara).[8]

The local Skate Scene played heavily in the scene, many people riding in backyard half pipes or breaking into backyards with empty pools to skate. "We were all skaters before we were punkers," said Brandon Cruz, singer for several Nardcore bands.[7]

There was and still is a strong sense of unity and community among the generations of Nardcore bands. Some unity came from the coverage by a local publication called 60 Miles North, which began in 1983 initially as a xeroxed flyer for an Alley Cats concert in nearby Camarillo.[9] Ill Repute singer John Phaneuf says "Goldenvoice played a big role in getting the Oxnard scene big in L.A."[10]

Much of the early promotion of nardcore was due to Mystic Records, in Hollywood, California, and its founder Doug Moody, and promotion director, Mark Wilkins. Mystic launched many bands onto vinyl which helped them form relationships with the music industry.[7]

Nardcore origins[edit]

By combining the words "Oxnard" and "hardcore",[11] the name is a reference to the Oxnard, California hardcore punk scene.[12][13][14] Brandon Cruz credits Dr. Know guitarist Ismael Hernandez as the originator of the term.[7] This coastal suburban community, sixty miles north-west of Los Angeles, California, was the spawning ground for many hardcore punk bands of the early 1980s and became a hotbed for punk and skate bands. Their collective sound became known as "Nardcore."[15][16] Nardcore was popularized by the bands themselves, with a little help from Mystic records, Doug Moody and Mystic Promotion Director Mystic Mark Wilkins over a series of Vinyl Releases in the early 1980s.[17] Nardcore tends to have a lot of the same characteristics as skate punk; however, it has a sound closer to traditional hardcore punk. A congealing of the style was the eponymous compilation LP release in 1984.[18]

Punk music was Exploited, Discharge. The bands coming from England, and the bands that copied them were punk bands. The stuff we were producing was an original form of Californian music, thrash, or skateboard punk. It originated here.

— Doug Moody[7]

So, you're pretty much right anyway. RKL were an enormous influence on NOFX. I haven't heard of a lot of the bands but dig Dr. Know, mostly from their Slayer cover of this, which in its original version is just as vicious. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfUm2G4-RWg&ab_channel=NekroMonty

Doug Moody and Mystic Records was notorious as a ripoff label and I think he still cranks out those comps of his. Reading that Wiki, it looks like he wrote most of it.

Satan Jokers is yet another French '80s metal band I've yet to hear. Getting quite familiar by now! Sortilege re-releases impending, btw...

Edited October 8, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[ohtani's jacket]

Nardcore, nerdcore... I blame my failing eyesight!

[ohtani's jacket]

Stains' Stains... this one left a big impression on me. I've already listened to it three times. The Stains were a hardcore band from East LA. They recorded this LP in '81, but it wasn't released until '83. I suspect the fact that it was recorded a few years before is why the music sounds like it's bursting out of the gates. Unfortunately, they didn't record anything else, but I believe there's some live stuff available.

Highway Chile's Storybook Heroes... Highway Chile are a Dutch Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band. This was a pretty standard record for the era. It's perfectly listenable, but nothing that's going to make your hair stand on end. 

Siniestro Total's Siniestro Total II (El regreso)... neat Spanish punk record. "Siniestro Total" means your car is a write-off. That's cool! The tracks are 2 minutes or less, which I love. I'll definitely check out their other records on the strength of this.

Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band's Bloodlines... this has to be the best country record from '83. I can't think of anything else that comes close. Outlaw country was pretty much dead by '83, but Terry Allen was still kicking and screaming. 

Nikki Sudden's Bible Belt... Nice. I liked this a lot. I've listened to The Swell Maps before but never delved into Nikki Sudden's solo career. Solid songwriting. Gets the thumbs up from me.

Dougie MacLean's Craigie Dhu... Scottish folk music isn't really my thing. At least not on LP. If I listened to it  live, I'm sure I'd have a better appreciation for it. I'm sure this is a lovely LP if you're a fan. 

Hitomi Tohyama's Next Door... feel that city pop. I wasn't awed by the production on this, but she had a pretty voice. I felt like I was in a karaoke music video from 1983, so there's that. 

The Square's Rainbow... this was so much fun! This was a Japanese jazz fusion record that's basically city pop. Man did this bop. Fun times. 

The Enid's Aerie Faerie Nonsense... So, The Enid were a British Prog Rock group that hit the scene around the same time as punk rock and did their own punk take on classical music by playing it with keyboards and guitars. They failed to find an audience and EMI scrapped this 1977 LP from their catalogue. The band were frustrated with the record being unavailable so they re-recorded it and reissued it in '83. It's okay. Like everything, I'm sure it has its fans.

Models' The Pleasure of Your Company... not bad! It always amuses me when you see Kiwi and Aussie bands doing the whole New Wave thing with the hair and the suits, but hey, there's nothing that says you have to be British to be the real thing, is there? These guys supported Bowie, so he must have thought they were all right, and he was a man of impeccable taste.

Kauko Royhka's Onnenpaiva... Finnish pop rock. Pretty cool. Apparently, this guy has a strong rep in Finland, especially as a lyricist. That part is lost on me, but everything else jelled. 

James White' Flaming Demonics... apparently, this is a lesser album from James White. If that's the case then I want to hear his better stuff as I thought it was a ton of fun. Great album cover as well. 

Sexual Harassment's I Need a Freak... I had to check this out. I was hoping it would be an underrated synth funk album, but nope. The title track is okay, but not good enough to play on heavy rotation. 

[Curt McGirt]

The Stains record is one of those where Greg Ginn needs to be threatened with cutting his fingers off one-by-one until he re-releases it. Which he never will, the bastard. RIP to their guitarist who died a couple months back.

[odessasteps]

These are some shiny suits. 

 

[Cobra Commander]

I haven’t listened to “Guts” by Olivia Rodrigo all the way through but I’ve heard some songs off of it and there’s some stuff that could stick around. There’s a 7-5 split between songs with an Explicit label on Spotify and songs without an Explicit label. Not sure how that ratio compares to most super-popular pop music. Especially among female artists.

I don’t know if any of the down tempo songs will get to be a single. I guess the unofficial goals for a second album after a breakthrough first album involve doing enough different that the second doesn’t seem like a repeat of the first but not doing too much different.

I haven’t checked to see if Olivia’s being accused of any intentional or accidental plagiarism this time around. But obviously music written/recorded with your 19 differs a little from music written/recorded when you’re 17.

”Teenage Dream” was a song that seems like a good outro for being 20 when the song is released. The Nirvana lyric “Teenage angst has paid off well / Now I'm bored and old” comes to mind.

[ohtani's jacket]

Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Egypt 80 Band's Perambulator -- you can't go wrong with some Fela Kuti and this is no exception. Funky, funky afrobeat. Good times.

Lo Ta-yu's Master of the Future -- I know next-to-nothing about Mandopop, so this was exciting to hear. I have no basis for comparison, but I'm always interested to hear singer-songwriters from other cultures and I dug the overall feeling and atmosphere of this record. 

K. Yoshimatu's Commercial Romanticists -- this was a total surprise. It was a cassette tape packed with lovely, melodic minimal wave songs. This guy was releasing tapes throughout '83 and now I feel obliged to track them all down. This was a big hit with me.

Anthony Braxton's Four Compositions (Quartet) 1983 -- I haven't listened to a lot of jazz from '83, or the 80s in general for that matter, and avant-garde stuff isn't my go-to jazz, but this wasn't a particularly difficult record to listen to. It didn't immediately make me want to listen to every other album the artist recorded like great jazz does but it was fine.

Hamlet Gonashvili's Georgian Folk Songs -- that title is my own translation so don't quote me on it. Hamlet Gonashvili was a big deal in Georgia. He sang traditional Georgian folk songs and was dubbed the voice of Georgia. He died at the height of his fame falling out of an apple tree. This was cultural if nothing else. 

Riistetyt's Skitsofrenia -- this kicked ass! Finnish crust punk! Loved it!

Ronald Shannon Jackson's Barbeque Dog -- weird title for a weird jazz fusion album. Not much else to say really.

Pistones' Persecución -- I may have written about this before. I'm losing track of all these records. This is so peppy and upbeat. Fantastic Spanish power-pop.

Mick Milk's Songs for Citizens -- I'll say this for Mick Milk, he was a happy chap. This manic electro stuff with a Devo feel to it. Okay if you like that sort of thing.

Nihilistics' Nihilistics -- these boys were angry. This is some guttural hardcore punk right here. Good stuff if you wanna get revved up. 

[Curt McGirt]

Because I have to, here is Riistetyt's Valtion Vankina (released the year prior but they put out an English version in '83, so I'm counting it). '80s Finnish hardcore is the greatest music ever. There are about a thousand bands in the subgenre and not a one of them is bad. Grab a copy of Killed by Finnish Hardcore, Russia Bombs Finland, Yalta Hi-Life, any album from Terveet Kadet... I could go on and on. There are still killer bands like Kohti Tuoha coming out with stuff up there too (and don't get me started on Finnish death metal. I don't know what they put in the water up in Sweden and Finland but the best hardcore and death metal bands come from those two countries). 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m-O9ArbnYDbEBCI66ZeGNxj0_4CjNAYoc

[Greggulator]

On 10/18/2023 at 4:38 AM, Cobra Commander said:

I haven’t listened to “Guts” by Olivia Rodrigo all the way through but I’ve heard some songs off of it and there’s some stuff that could stick around. There’s a 7-5 split between songs with an Explicit label on Spotify and songs without an Explicit label. Not sure how that ratio compares to most super-popular pop music. Especially among female artists.

I don’t know if any of the down tempo songs will get to be a single. I guess the unofficial goals for a second album after a breakthrough first album involve doing enough different that the second doesn’t seem like a repeat of the first but not doing too much different.

I haven’t checked to see if Olivia’s being accused of any intentional or accidental plagiarism this time around. But obviously music written/recorded with your 19 differs a little from music written/recorded when you’re 17.

”Teenage Dream” was a song that seems like a good outro for being 20 when the song is released. The Nirvana lyric “Teenage angst has paid off well / Now I'm bored and old” comes to mind.

Came on here to see if anyone else dug her. I am not hip to the plagiarism charges. But man so many of the songs off the new album are absolutely wild in terms of the music and production. And in terms of teeny bop lyrics her stuff hits in a way no one else really ever has. 

Also: A photo is floating around my Facebook feed of her hanging out with The Breeders! 

She rules so much. National treasure.

[Cobra Commander]

back in 2003, Mandy Moore did a covers album which had covers of XTC, The Waterboys, Todd Rundgren, Carole King, Elton John, Joan Armatrading, Cat Stevens, Blondie, Joe Jackson, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, and John Hiatt.  Some of the covers were very ambitious and didn't quite hit. Coincidentally this was Mandy Moore's last album on Epic (I don't think this was a "release music to get out of my deal" album").

Just typing that because one could only imagine the sort of "music recorded before I was born" that would end up getting recorded if Olivia Rodrigo recorded a covers album.

In other words: "which L7 song would she cover and why would it be 'Shitlist"?"