In 1983, Hilary Blake, a 33 year old from Los Angeles released a 4 track 12-inch single called KINETIC. That song got some airplay on WLIR , but it was the B-side that truely made fans long for more Hilary. DROP YOUR PANTS has that catchy Yaz -like synthpop , but was SOO much sexier than anything Alison Moyet would ever sing about. As far as I know, she never released anything else. She was once asked [...]
Released on Sire Records in 1982: "NOWHERE GIRL" is just one of those classic songs that just take you back to a more innocent time. Remember the beginning of the 80's... we had a President that would just say the darndest things ("We Begin Bombing in 5 minutes") and many people hated him and thought he was stupid. Turns out he was just senile.... NOTHING like the way it is today. Like I said...it was just a more innocent time. .....Anyway...Nowhere Girl made the Top 10 in many European [...]
I am proud to have known, ate, hung out with, and made music with at least a few of the ever changing line up of THE SCOFFLAWS. They started out in the mid-1980's in Huntington, Long Island . They were first called the "New Bohemians" but then some sucky band in Texas bought the name from them ( DAMN YOU EDIE BRICKELL ) and in 1989 they changed their name to the Scofflaws. In my opinion the 3rd wave SKA revival in the late 1990's could not have HAPPENED without their incredibly tight, fun, popular live shows. [...]
Who ARE these people? As a child I used to frequent local record stores in and around Huntington Villiage , Long Island, where I grew up. Sometimes all it took for me to purchase a new 45 was an ineresting picture sleeve. I think this cover qualifies...There's Frank Sinatra, John Travolta, Elvis Costello and Marlon Brando...IN THE SAME BAND? I don't care WHAT it sounds like...I'm buying it. Lucky for me that the music was great as well.....a nice MADNESS style bit of English whimsy who's message is " Hey....My [...]
Perhaps this was an EXTREMELY local thing, but sometime in the late 70's/early 80's in New York in the afternoon channel 5 used to show " Popeye And Friends". It was a nice little collection of cartoons made God knows how long ago. ( We used to watch ANYTHING back in the 70's...cause we didn't have more than 5 choices of channels at the time......ah those were the days). The unique thing about this show was it's theme song.........It took me a couple of years to discover that the theme [...]
Kissing the Pink were just another New Wave synth-pop goup from the United Kingdom. Members included Nick Whitecross, John Hall, George Stewart, Josephine Wells, Pete Barnett, Sylvia Griffin, Steve Cusack, and Simon Aldridge. Their first single was "Don't Hide in the Shadows", made with Martin Hannett, but it wasn't until they dropped their first manager (celebrated in their song "Michael"), and signed with Magnet Records that they began to get any airplay. They recorded their first album in AIR studios with producer Colin Thurston, who had engineered David Bowie's Heroes and later worked with Duran Duran amongst others. Kissing the [...]
Vocalists Martin Brammer born in Seaham , County Durham and Paul Woods, plus multi- instrumentalist Dave Brewis formed the trio in 1982, after meeting in [...]
In 1984 Mitch Easter was already known throughout the world of alternative music as the producer of R.E.M.'s "Murmer" and "Reckoning". He had the credentials and was probably hoping HIS band would amount to more than just a " Half Hit" wonder. " Every Word Means No" was a fantastic bit of that jangly guitar sound that his friend in R.E.M. pioneered. And that song was great, but " BLUE LINE" was, to me, the better song and it should have been a hit. It wasn't, but that doesn't mean it should be forgotten. The song came from the album [...]
In the world of SKA, no band get's overlooked when speaking about the second wave more than BAD MANNERS. They kinda came too late to fully enjoy the 2-tone movement, and were too old to fully take advantage of the 3rd wave one. Too bad for them. They actually were one of the more lively bunch out there. being as they came to the party late, by the time they got a record deal in America, the Ska movement had died and New Wave was in full swing. They couldn't really DO New Wave well, but they gave it a [...]
THE DANSE SOCIETY are one of those overlooked bands. They had quite the " Goth" following, although they were more New Wave than Goth. HEAVEN IS WAITING was released in December 1983 by Arista .I consider it one of the all-time greatest New Wave/Goth songs ever recorded. The album contained a cover of the Rolling Stones classic " 2000 Light Years from Home ", also edited in 1984 as 12" single and as a limited edition double single. But I'm rather partial to " HOLD ON (TO WHAT YOU'VE GOT) " [...]
Made For T.V.'s " SO AFRAID OF THE RUSSIANS " (MP3) could ONLY come out of the early/mid 1980's. "They've got ships at sea/ Planes in the air/ Tanks on the border of Europe/ And spies everywhere." OK...well....first of all of COARSE we have SHIPS AT SEA. Where ELSE are we going to put them. This little ditty about paranoia was actually produced by John Cale!!! Stranger things have been linked to him, I'm [...]
What happened to these guys? They started out as a nice little post-punk funky kinda band and somehow morphed into a stadium rock act. My favourite period for INXS is definitely before Michael Hutchence had his Jim Morrison complex. SHABOOH SHOOBAH has to be one of my favourite records of the era, but THE SWING was their masterpiece, and their best song on that LP is " I SEND A MESSAGE"(MP3). Listen to this rare [...]
Remember when POP wasn't such a dirty word? When something could be catchy and stupid and stick in your head , yet still remain cool and sorta underground. The 80's were just a different time. Here's a little mindless catchy ness from a U.K. band known as THE QUICK: The Quick was a dance pop duo from England that consisted of vocalist Colin "Col" Campsie and bassist/keyboardist George McFarlane. Their greatest success in US came in 1981 when their song "Zulu" spent two weeks at #1 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. McFarlane and Campsie originally met in [...]
They were never going to be as cool as THE BEAT (or THE ENGLISH BEAT as they were known here in the US) But General Public still had a little bit of that 2-tone reggae beat. Especially the final track from their debute LP ALL THE RAGE. This is the special 12-inch mix of " GENERAL PUBLIC" 12-inch version (MP3). To me this kicks [...]
The Higsons have never had luck with timing. They signed to the influential 2nd-wave SKA lable 2-TONE just as that scene was dying and a new one emerging. The Higsons were neither SKA nor New Wave but something in between. Their most commercial song " Run Me Down " was a medium success in their native U.K. and a local hit on influential Long Island radio station WLIR. This here is the 12-inch version. RUN ME DOWN 12-INCH [...]
Derek Cornish has been one of Long Island's best kept secrets for over 24 years. He started recording bedroom demos in 1984. One such should have been classic is " Hallway Of Memories " . Primitive as this recording is , it was a springboard for what would be a long , strange trip down the road to obscurity. Recording songs in your studio apartment at 18 can only get you so far , but it wasn't long before he joined his first working band in 1988...... DREAMWORLD would become [...]
Hallway Of Memories
Avicii – Two Million
Yellow Magic Orchestra edit from Chrome Canyon
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
H&M Lookbook Mujer y Hombre Otoño 2012.
