Wow- I had a camp counselor that did this tune for the lip sync contest. I never knew it was The Cramps- I though it was because he also did “Garbage Man”- it was freaky.

Busted drum heads make me cry inside.

I have the whole VHS, tell me if you’d like a D V D version. You have a good take on what the show was about.

I’d have to say Joy Division. Yes, they have some repute among the cognoscenti, but I think they were far more impressive in the few years they were together (and alive) than New Order (which the rest of the band went on to be after Ian Curtis killed himself in 1980).

Most people have probably heard Love Will Tear Us Apart, but that’s probably not their best, or at least their most impressive.

How about the meaty New Dawn Fades, the hypnotic Shadowplay, the grim baseline of Day of the Lords (recorded live and utterly shite sound), and of course the haunting beauty of Atmosphere (good sound quality), the film clip for which was recorded after Ian died.

Or there’s Bauhaus, famous for Bela Lugosi’s Dead that was used in The Hunger.

And speaking of Bauhaus, just found something odd: them doing Telegram Sam, the old T Rex hit.Weir-eird, with extra ‘eir’.

More funky stuff, since I can’t resist – 20th Century Boy (semi-glam rock-ette T Rex, showing that Marc Bolan was once a pot full of sex with sugar on top); Salamanda Palaganda (bizarre live hippy trippy T Rex); and In The Summertime, some classic Mungo Jerry (with piss-poor sound).

And if all those links work, then I’m due for sainthood.

Sodding buggery, I knew one of ’em would fall over. Here it is again…

Bauhaus doing Bela Lugosi’s Dead.

Bauhaus is the only band I can think of that consistently did covers that were better than the originals (Telegram Sam, Third Uncle, Ziggy).

I’m not sure I’ll accept any version of a David Bowie song being better than the original, but if it could be done by anyone, it could only be Bauhaus.

Lost Whatsits, great question. The Replacements? So many indyhipster accolades, so little mainstream recognition… How about X? Ditto on the lack of recognition. I was in college radio for a big chunk of the nineties, and I can think of so many bands that should have been bigger than they were. Buffalo Tom is one. Screaming Trees is a Seattle band that should have broken out much bigger than they did, but their sound didn’t fit too well in the ‘grunge’ pigeonhole, and they weren’t photogenic enough for the MTV crowd. Stop me before I get tedious… too late?

Mark Lanegan is great- Screaming Trees’ Dust was great. Gavin’s question is hard because it is so much harder for bands to be obscure these days yet somehow leaving a meaningful impression.

I think Clientele should be huge.

I have recently discovered Bad Brains, and I must ask, why was I not informed sooner?

The Sound? You have inspired me to dig through the vinyl collection and play “New Dark Age”, loudly, the way it was meant to be played.
Judging from the records that were played at parties, people who liked The Sound also liked Wall of Voodoo.

Lots of lost-whatsits but I was always partial to fIREHOSE (where Mike Watt went after the Minutemen).

All the bands I thought were underrated back in the 90s have been through the hipster fad reunite for the money they never got machine. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Jesus n Mary Chain, but I think the combine even found them. Head On is quite possibly the perfect track, tho.
It’s hard to call Mike Patton lost, at least from some perspectives, but his work doesn’t always attract the attention it deserves.
Bill Laswell was actually big for a little while in the 80s, Material too. There’s a good candidate. Laswell’s work has been the foundation of my listening diet for the last decade or so. It’s annoying because he’s prolific but without a label, and there have been some great goddamn albums done and stuck in the chute for 2 years now. And with Tonic gone nyc performances are going to be even rarer.

Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNvzT_yWg9Y

Booyah.

Does Fishbone count as a lost whatsit? To this day I don’t understand why the Chili Peppers got the golden ticket, but Fishbone didn’t.

Oh, did you know the Saints have reunited and are performing in Australia this weekend?

Chili Peppers suck (limp-dick pseudo funkster drug weasels) although Flea played bass for a while in one of the bands I’d recommend, FEAR, who played a gig w/ The Angry Samoans @ the late, lamented Camarillo State Wig House (1979, I think) Cramps-stylee. Can’t remember if that was filmed/taped or not. FEAR’s tune, “Let’s Have a War,” is, sadly, more relevant today than when it came out in 1980:
“There’s too many of us (4 or 8x)
Let’s have a war/So you can go die/Let’s have a war/We can all use the money/Let’s have a war/General Motors get fat like last time,” etc.
The Angry Samoans also, not as political, but those boys hated everyone & everything, including each other.
The Germs, one almost perfect album, though I suspect that was all they had in them.
And real roots reggae. (Palate cleanser after all the Hate Rock I love.) You North Americans are just too effin’ stupid to get it. (That’s why I hate you.)
P. S.: Nation of Sheep (Allman Bros. style, they lost one guy to a motorcycle accident, another to congenital heart problems & too much nose candy/Jack Daniel’s) so they went nowhere fast.
“Nation of Sheep/Nation of Sheep/The presidents on Tee Vee & he’s putting you to sleep/Nation of Sheep/Nation of Shit/You bought it @ the supermarket/Then you threw a fit,” blah blah blah…and a swell anti-Reagan number, among others. Yes, the greatest “popular” music ever came out of Los Angeles from about 1976-198?. (Or ’65-’93: Mothers/FZ) It all SUCKS now though!!! (World-wide. Not a band I wanted to see @ Up Earth last wknd.) Rule of thumb: Bands yes, single artists NO!!

Oh, The Dictators, too. As FEAR put it: “New York’s alright/If you’re a homosexual.” (Joke, kids, take no offense.)

Apparently all the hip kids stay up late and the old foggies have to wait until morning to spoil the vibe. But, I’m up and at work so here goes:
Todd Rundgren – Get past teh prog-rock pretensions and you run into some of the most interesting and original songs in rock. 2004’s Liars (this is God Said from that album) was an electronic masterpiece of anger and loss.
Any incarnation of the Finn Brothers (Split Enz, Crowded House, solo, etc…) – I’m thinking they only ever had one real hit, Don’t Dream It’s Over, which is almost pure sap. Unbelievable. Pop genius.
Bob Mould – Husker gets some recognition from the aging hipsters but seriously, Bob Mould could rock a wall of sound and then lay down a pop song that would melt the radio.
Sarge – Best pop-punk band I ever heard.

Currently lost but still could breakthrough:
Jason Faulkner – Another pop song genius lost to teh decade of grunge.
Carbon Leaf – It’s kind of odd when a straight up rock band seems to be unclassifable. Tight outfit that sounds as good live as recorded. You won’t find many bands having as much fun performing as these guys.

Who funk? We Funk!

Wazmo Nariz. Every once in a while “Things Aren’t Right” starts jumping around between my ears and I can’t get it to stop. This has been going on for 3 decades.

Unrest . In an ideal world, “Teenage Makeout Club” would’ve been a top 10 hit.

Big Star, of course.

Elliott Smith. He was just a fantastic songwriter.

Afghan Whigs. “Let Me Lie To You” and “Retarded”. such promise.

The Pretenders. Yes, they actually were pretty big, back in the day; and you can still hear Brass In Pocket any time of the day if you want to. But they were great beyond that one song. Their entire first album is fantastic, still – and half their 2nd, too. They should be ranked as a Great Band.

The Cramps, Black Flag, Big Black, Pussy Galore, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, and the Pixies – teh 80s, baby!

Great Cramps video. Are you sure that wasn’t shot at a CPAC gathering? I finally got to see them in 1997 at Irving Plaza; Ivy wore a completely see-thru body suit with flames stiched on here and there.

Well, FWIW, the ‘tenders are in the R&RHoF (I think)… not that that’s much of a measure of quality, but it does vaguely indicate mainstream acceptance.

The English Beat.

Among others.

For a 1950’s sorta lost whatsit, the ever-cynical, ever-hilarious Tom Lehrer.

Skafish?

Chicago avant-punker with painfully neurotic lyrics and a co-vocalist named Barbie (who looked like one too)

I’m not sure I understand exactly what makes a band/artist a Lost Whatsit, but I nominate Magazine.

Er, that was supposed to be this:

Oh, if only there were some way one could view a comment before submitting it. Perhaps a kind of clickable button-like object on the screen, permitting a “pre-viewing” of the comment, if you will. Ah, but such things are just pipe dreams, like the horseless carriage and the wireless telegraph.

Dammit. I quit.

I saw a Skafish live video on the late and lamented USA Network show Night Flight; the song was “Sign of the Cross”, I saw it at 3 am coming back from a band gig, I’ve never seen it again, and it has just stuck with me forever and ever. That guy is an absolute panic.

And I’ll go back to the 70’s for the forgotten band. Van De Graaf Generator. As unique a sound as you can imagine. I once saw Pete Hammill described in a magazine article as “Jesus of Angst.”

I’ll add a second band. “Gryphon,” once led in for the Yes on a tour. Rock and roll with krumhorns 🙂

“John Cougar” opened for The Kinks in 1978. Played screaming guitar and coaxed the audience to chant, “Fuck you John Cougar.” Don’t know whatever happened to that guy, but he was Hot.

Teh Sound is a great video! Thanxxkss!!
Check out Ikara Colt, of the early 2000s.

Why haven’t you gotten to this post yet:

http://www.blogsforbush.com/mt/archives/2007/07/democrats_hit_t.html

??

gjdodger, I’m pretty sure the Skafish clip you saw is from Urgh! A Music War: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urgh%21_A_Music_War

(Makes sense, ’cause they used to show it on NightFlight, like, twice a day.)

Not so lost anymore, I suppose, but The Modern Lovers practically originated the genre back when they were still a Lost Whatsit.

(And maybe they still are…there’s lots of post-1980 Jonathan Richman material on YouTube–also great IMO–but nearly nothing from the early Lovers.)

Much more recently, there are all the great indie pop/twee bands of the 1990s, like Cub and Heavenly.

javaphil mentioned Todd Rundgren – so I’ll recommend his band Utopia and the early Reagan years album “Swing to the Right'”. Synth-rock of the highest slambang order and an early warning of the coming GOP steamroller.

Bonuses: cover of O’jays’ “Money”; album cover based on news photo of religious hayseeds burning a pile of Beatle records.

Also:

Does anyone remember Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Gun Club? (Also Green on Red and Dream Syndicate from the same LA scene – circa 1984-86).

Erp.

The word “early” in consecutive sentences.

That prolly woulda slipped past me even if you had teh preview.

How about The Avengers?

Husker Du and the Minutemen. They cranked out one amazing album after another. Husker Du influenced an entire generation of pop-oriented indiesters, while among the younger (19-23 y.o.) punk kids I know, the Minutemen are regarded as gods.

In fact, almost the entire SST roster from the early 1980’s, with the exception of Sonic Youth and Black Flag, who have received their share of accolades.

A nomination for the greatest whatsit of the 1990’s – the Olympia, Washington, Kill Rock Stars band: Unwound.

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t say that while receiving their share of critics choices, the Mekons are still delivering top notch material, having evolved far from their DIY punk roots and are criminally underappreciated.

Some good stuff here, but as an old fart with a decidedly non-mainstream bent, I see some gaping whatsit omissions that must be championed. These bands (or whatever) were all hugely influential on me in my teens (say ’78-’83)

The Normal – Sure Daniel Miller got well known as a producer, but the single he put out as The Normal (TVOD b/w Warm Leatherette) was way ahead of it’s time.

Nash the Slash – I can’t even describe this one man band. His aesthetic is bizarrely cool and never duplicated (sort of invisible man meets phantom of the opera, but with synths). Check out the vids on YouTube.

Killing Joke – If you’ve never heard them, go buy “Laugh? I Nearly Bought One” RIGHT NOW. You will thank me later.

Wire – The three records (yes, they were actually records) “Pink Flags”, “Chairs Missing” and “154” were the perfect punk to post-punk transition.

The Residents – Every noise band owes them a debt of gratitude.

Throbbing Gristle – Every industrial band owes them… You get it.

Ah, the memories!

I liked a lot

of shitty

music

in the 80’s.

I must also second SV’s comments re: Bauhaus. Best. Covers. EVAH!

In the ’90s, in and around Tempe Arizona, the stars aligned and created the genre of Southwestern Outlaw Rock, a kind of Nirvana-meets-Steve-Earle sense that really spoke to those of us who lived a certain kind of life in a certain geographic location.

Roger fronted the Refreshments, Doug Hopkins had the brilliant, poignant Gin Blossoms while Steve Larson was making magic with Dead Hot Workshop. The big labels tried, sorta, but there didn’t seem to be a handy way to categorize and market this sound, and Roger was feuding with Mercury Records. Doug died, and the Workshop sort of fell apart.

So now we have the absolute cream of the southwestern outlaw rockers together as “Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers”. If they come to your town, do not miss the live show. It is an event, a revival, a spirit filling experience. And while the Refreshments “The Bottle and Fresh Horses” may be the ultimate classic, “Honkey Tonk Union” is magic in a Tequila bottle…

mikey

Bauhaus’ cover of Ziggy Stardust was pretty straightforward, but I always thought it was clever that they covered Telegram Sam like they were on speed, whereas T.Rex’s version sounds like Bolan was on ‘ludes. Very appropriate for the times. Also, it’s appropriate that Love & Rockets (Bauhaus minus Peter Murphy) scored their biggest hit with a cover, Ball of Confusion.

Always The Celibate Rifles for me.

they had: the best riffs, pretty much of any rock band ever.
the best guitar solos. certainly in the top ten all time guitar bands.
great lyrics and great politics, real top notch lefty-ness (particularly “Rainforest” from 1985)
and they were funny, “let’s get married” being a good example.

also, general trenchant observations viz ‘some kind of feeling’.

i would say they made 5 or maybe 6 of the great rock records of all time–the turgid miasma of existence, roman beach party being two examples.

and of course the fall, but they are in a different category entirely.

but for most obscure, i go with el grupo sexo, who put out one GREAT record in 1985 or so that seems to have dissappeared (along with dr. death records) into the ether. whoever stole my vinyl of that, may you burn in hell forever.

I was born, but not raised, in Napa, in Queen of the Valley Hospital. When I was still a young girl we drove by Napa State Hospital and I asked if that’s where I had been born. Oh, how my family laughed.

A few more ’80s whatsits.

The Birthday Party – Fine British noise

The Swans – Fine American noise

Fad Gadget – Arty British noise

Shriekback – High quality British dance featuring ex-Gang of Four bass player Dave Allen

Foetus (in all it’s myrid incarnations) – Industrial noise mayhem

The Salvation Army (later The Three O’Clock) – Californian neo-psychedelic

Punishment Of Luxury (maximum music snob points to anyone who knows this one. My undying gratitude if you can tell me the whereabouts of any digital media or downloadable versions of their material.)

Needless to say, my ’80s was different from most peoples’.

Punishment of Luxury is awesome, Bill. I’ve found some of their stuff on Acquisition.

You really can’t go wrong with the Meat Puppets, especially when it’s really hot out. I save their first few records for this time of year, while I’m driving around with the top down.

And to whomever mentioned Unrest upthread, I’ve been predicting for months that they’ll be one of those bands that new bands will cite as a major influence. Seems like a logical step for emo kids who didn’t know any better at first but then share a bill with a cooler band who turns them on to some old stuff, which they’ll name-drop in Spin magazine interviews, etc.

Must all the Lost Whatsits be indie rock bands and punk bands and post-rock bands? ‘Cause I’ve always found that shit dull as hell. So, music made by people outside the suburban wasteland:

Swamp Dogg – aka Little Jerry Williams, a journeyman soul producer/songwriter who produced a handful of minor hits by unknown soul singers took this canine psuedonymn in the early ’70s to create Sly Stone-inspired funk that addressed infidelity as a fact of life, drug use as a good thing, and the government as something to not be trusted. He’s bad-ass.

Tompall Glaser – the lost Outlaw. Ran around with Willie & Waylon and the boys back in the day, and before that he toured (with his brothers) with Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash. By himself, he cut some mean, nasty, beautiful hard-scrabble honky-tonk music that had a wistful ear for the past and a modern brain.

Arthur Alexander – He had the first big hit out of Muscle Shoals with “Anna (Go To Him)”, later covered by some pale white boys from Liverpool, and may’ve been the South’s first real acid causualty. When he kept his shit together, Alexander produced the finest synthesis of white country music and black soul ever heard. He put out a killer record called Lonely Like Me that would’ve tapped the whole “old black people we forgot about” market that was prevelent in the mid ’90s but, of course, he died just after it was released.

Doug Sahm – I don’t know why more hipsters don’t love Doug Sahm. I mean, hell, Uncle Tupelo even gave Sir Doug a mark of approval. Like Alexander, Doug and his Amigos Los Musicas blended soul and country and added in a little R&B, Texas swing blues, cojunto rock & roll and Doug’s own green hippie haze. It’s probably the hippie stuff.

Gary Stewart – The lost redneck avatar. A lot of soi-disant country fans – who came on board in ’93 or so – loathe folks like Hank Williams Jr. and David Allen Coe, partly because frat boys like ’em (and we can’t have that), but partly because, well, the whole redneck thing is a bit too real for ’em. Stewart doesn’t have the greek baggage but he pretty much pulled off the “Southern Rock-country” blend Bocephus kicked around.

Lee Dorsey – The best vocalist ever to come out of New Orleans. No one ever sang with as much joy as this cat. Find his Yes We Can LP. Got him sing Allen Toussaint tunes with the Meters as the house band and the Neville Brothers on back-up vocals. Why don’t you own this?

Thanks for the tip, Travis. I’ll check out that label.

Utopia – Ra, side 2- Singring and the Glass Guitar.

Pere Ubu – whatever happened?

Ultravox – Vienna
Mojo Nixon – Don Henley Must Die

Duros62,
Pere Ubu just played Harrisburg, PA!

Bill in OH: Killing Joke… The Residents…Throbbing Gristle

All great bands. I left Teh Residents and TG out of the running for “lost whatsits” because they (along with, say, Cpt. Beefheart and Mr. Bungle) have become de rigueur ultrahipster fare.

Pinko Punko said,
July 11, 2007 at 9:34
Mark Lanegan is great- Screaming Trees’ Dust was great.

Mark Lanegan is my all time favorite lyricist. I love his SST Screaming Trees work, his solo work, his Queens of the Stone Age contributions… Sigh… I get all swoony and fan girl over Mr. Lanegan.

They’ve already been mentioned and are not exactly unknown but Javaphil, here’s my favorite Husker Du wall of sound/beautiful pop song. It’s not as good as the live version on “Living End” but it’s still great.

And here’s the Minutemen for those of you who don’t know but should. And here’s another from them. Not as good a song but a great video.

On to teh Meat Puppets, Travis G.

From more recent times here’s some political hip hop for any centrists who hang out here. Y’all don’t really wanna ride the fence.

And let’s not forget female rockers. Here’s two I would consider stalking if I were the stalking type. PJ Harvey, PJ Harvey again and Cat Power.

mikey, good call on the Refreshments. I don’t think they ever visited the cold upper midwest, though, so I didn’t get to see them. Had to pull them up on the iPod.

kingubu said:
All great bands. I left Teh Residents and TG out of the running for “lost whatsits” because they (along with, say, Cpt. Beefheart and Mr. Bungle) have become de rigueur ultrahipster fare.

Yeah, I suppose it’s true that they technically aren’t lost whatsits due to said hipster cred, but they sure blew my mind when I was young and impressionable. Sorry if I stretched the definition a little too much, Gavin. Maybe Psychic TV, Chris and Cosey or Coil would have been better choices.

I do loves me some KJ though. And they’re still around!

I second Arthur Alexander (Rainbow Road is just about perfect),
Pere Ubu (“what happened” is chronic personnel turnover),
Meat Puppets (those stupid boys would drop acid and then go start their set and fucking kill – a fact I can appreciate both as someone who’s been paid to play for an audience and as someone who’s tripped his balls clean off more than a few times),
Lee Dorsey (good enough for MCA, good enough for you, by God!)
and Trees/Lanegan (at any other time and from any other city they’d have been immense – Buffalo Tom also got robbed due to not sounding like white boys with guitars were supposed to sound like right then.)

buffalo tom were robbed because they were another version of husker du, and husker du were already busy writing great songs and making no money.

bob mould has a blog, by the way. and he writes for the WWF (the world wrestling federation, and no, i’m not kidding)>

and upthread, someone mentioned “british” the birthday party–they were aussies, no?

as for aussies/NZ, a list:

first four midnight oil records
radio birdman
the celibate rifles (The best of the lot, i mean it!!)
the saints
the aints and ed kuepper solo
the seminal rats
the cosmic psychos
the go-betweens (twee, but whatever, still great)
and NZ of course had flying nun records
the clean
the chills
the batz (great great great band)

and some others i’m forgetting.

as for meat puppets–‘up on the sun’ remains one of my all time faves–since having a daughter it has taken on an additional layer of poignancy for me.

Bill in OH said,
The Birthday Party – Fine British noise

Are you trying to provoke Qetesh to violence? Robert Green is right, they were a fine Australian noise. Except when they overdid the drugs and turned into noise, period.
Nash the Slash — oh yes. He did a fine cover version of 19th Nervous Breakdown, with no end of screaming electric violin — it went well with cactus juice to provide the visuals.

Psychic TV ~ Sorry, any band that had multiple number one singles in the UK doesn’t count as ‘lost.’ Good call on pere ubu upstream. So lost I forgot about them. I would also mention Clockhammer. Their album Kleinfelter is a phenomenal thing.

Back when the intertubes first let us find anything we wanted no matter how obscure (ahem, keeping the conversation to just music and leaving alone my Tintin fetish) , I was fixated on two bands mainly Guadalcanal Diary abd the dBs. There’s good dbs stuff as they really were the most influential forgotten whatsits evah. Guadalcanal Diary are just great Southern Rock with smarts. Sort of what everyone who finds REM annoying would point toand say, see, it can be done. “Always Saturday” is the Stairway to Heaven-Bridge Over Troubled Water couldn’t be a better masterpiece if you altered one note. And it’s complete sarcasm.

guadalcanal diary did that great song about michael rockefeller, yes? twas genius, IIRC.

javaphil, the first Split Enz album (Mental Notes, note this is just song titles from Google) was absolute magic: sounded like a circus tent in some parts, dead tragic in others, pure pop in others. Marvellous, haunting, incredibly creative.

Sorry, Herr Doktor, Qetesh was sleeping the sleep of the just. So RG gets a pass on that, if only because he remembers Ed Kuepper (who? says everyone in the universe).

I used to have (may still have) a vinyl album of Kuepper when he was still with the Laughing Clowns (named after those sideshow clowns: you know, the ones that are a row of mouths, turning side to side, and you have to roll balls down their gullets or something?)

And how about some 70s-ish British ska? There’s The Specials, with Message To Rudy, and if you want some irresistably dance-inducing silliness, there’s Madness doing Night Boat To Cairo or Baggy Trousers or House Of Fun (cultural note: it’s about a boy trying to buy condoms). Their clips are a lot of fun, as is the music. I play their music a lot to perk me up (housework becomes a little easier if you can boogie while you work).

I’d have to say Joy Division. Yes, they have some repute among the cognoscenti, but I think they were far more impressive in the few years they were together (and alive) than New Order (which the rest of the band went on to be after Ian Curtis killed himself in 1980).

Qetesh: you are absolutely right, Joy Division was frikkin awesome. They were so Doom-y, I loved ’em when I discovered them, which unfortunately was like a decade after Curtis broke them up with his suicide.

buffalo tom were robbed because they were another version of husker du, and husker du were already busy writing great songs and making no money.

I liked them too (Buffalo Tom that is). Actually I think maybe I met them once, and they were really, really nice.

bob mould has a blog, by the way. and he writes for the WWF (the world wrestling federation, and no, i’m not kidding)>

Wow. Bob Mould, writing for the WWF? That dude is like, multi-multitalented. Not just a fantastic guitarist, and legendary frontman, but also a writer for the WWF.

to feathered narcoleptic and Duros62:
Swing to the Right had its moments for me (Lysistrata and One World) and its duds (Only Human). Utopia could never decide if they wanted to be pretentious for pretensions sake and thus be so over the top as to be cool again (See Singring and the exceedingly catchy but unbelievably overwrought Monument) or to just be a great, 3:03 pop band (Maybe I Could Change, Crybaby, Neck On Up, Lysistrata.) But I forgive them. They made some great music and weren’t afraid to fail.

To Lawnguylander:
That’s a great Husker song. Thanks for sharing. TBogg linked to a youtube vid of Husker Du performing on the Today show (Could You Be the One) a few months back. That was surreal and brilliant.

To Qetesh, my feline overlord:
See? This is why I knew I should submit and welcome my feline overlords. They have exceedingly great taste in music. Mental Notes is indeed magic as was the early 80s ska wave (was it the 3rd or 2nd wave? I can never remember.) Specials, The Beat, Madness (Just heard Baggy Trousers this morning on my iPod’s randomize my good songs playlist), Untouchables.

Two more to add to the list of lost greatness:
My Dad is Dead – garage rock at its most perfect: simple, melodic, jangly. Here is Nothing Special
Talk Talk – dismissed as an 80s synth band, these guys pushed way beyond what anyone else was doing and made some hauntingly beautiful music. Here is Life’s What You Make It

Ok, I’ll shut up now.

The guitarist from Guadalcanal Diary called me once at the record store I used to work at, asking to see if we had any of their albums on CD. They were out of print at the time (1993) and he didn’t have any copies of his own work.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have anything in stock.

Talk Talk’s whatsits status may be slipping after being used in an M&M commercial. Good for them though.

whoops, that was The The. well good for them too

Talk Talk’s whatsits status may be slipping after being used….
by Gwen Stefani.
I saw that M&M commercial and uploaded The The immediately. Forgot how good that was.
Utopia’s first album still can’t be beat. Back in the day of the 15 minute song.

Gotta say, though, I don’t know how I feel about great songs being used to pitch cars and such. The Jam selling Cadillacs? Come on, now. I know we’re their demographic, but really.

Cowboys International. I thought Ken Lockie was going to have a great career, instead he left the business.
You’re right about Bilibin. I found a copy of “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” in a used bookstore and my life changed right there.
The crowd at the mental hospital didn’t seem much worse that at CB’s or Max’s was.

Joan Armitrading?

Dirty Looks. A great one album garage rock band.
Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
Ian Drury & The Blockheads

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