80's underground jangle-pop fans take note!

[ghost of miles]

the 2nd one is not nearly as good, but it did push me to purchase my first jazz cd (i've got some john coltrane on the stereo baby!), and the rest they say is history.

Yes! I remember listening to that record (agreed that it was a letdown after DAYS) and thinking, "Oh yeah, John Coltrane, he was some sort of very heavy jazz musician... have to check him out some day." What an anti-jazz snob I was in my late teens. Little did I know the man would take up nearly a whole shelf of my music collection some day.

[ghost of miles]

Another Coltrane quote surfaces in a later-era record by the Cowboy Junkies, a post-breakup song called "Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning":

And anyway I'd rather listen to Coltrane than go through all that s#@% again

Too true!

[kulu se mama]

ghost - me too. we must have been living in a parallel universe.

does anyone remember the big time record label. i saw husker du and christmas on the "warehouse" tour, and it was one of the best shows i have ever seen. christmas only put out 2 to 3 records. the first was killer, but the others did not hold up. the first was released by big time, and never made it to cd.

big time also had the lucy show. their 2nd made it to cd, but once again, the first one was better.

[ghost of miles]

I remember Christmas vaguely... I think my girlfriend at that time had the first two records, plus some early Wonderstuff... of course we're now getting into the late 80's/early 90's, or Pixies era as I like to think of it. Some of those bands showed up on an early Neil Young tribute called THE BRIDGE. I started getting into dreampop around then, but that's a whole different thread...

[kenny weir]

Blimey I love this stuff, but this thread also makes me a little sad coz I no longer own any of the discs.

Don't forget the Pandoras - better than the Bangles et al.

I also dug/dig Twight Twilley (second album), the Raspberries (any good compilation with Ecstasy, Cruisin' Music, Overnight Sensation), latter day Flamin' Groovies, the Plimsoulls (Valley Girl is a Top 10 movie for me), Big Star, Lone Ryders, the Shoes, the Records (with Will Birch from the Kursaal Flyers) and so many more.

Then there are the roots such as the Byrds and - blimey - the Beau Brummels and the Turtles.

Edited April 9, 2003 by kenny weir

[ghost of miles]

Kenny, I never heard the Shoes or the Records. Any recommendations on where to start & what's available? Even though I lived through that era, I know that a lot went under the radar...there was so much good underground pop coming out in the 80's that I inevitably missed out on some.

Another band I heard occasionally and really liked was the Go-Betweens. A friend of mine is an absolute fanatic and has just about everything they've ever laid down or burped onto disc. He & I were/are also big fans of Felt, a rather twee English pop band that had quite an influence on latter-day popsters Belle & Sebastian.

Edited April 9, 2003 by ghost of miles

[kenny weir]

GOM: The Records were from the UK, and their classic 1979 album Shades In Bed was, according to AMG, released in the US as The Records. AMG says a Virgin comp, Smashes Crashes and Near Misses, was released in 1988. They have a Barnes & Noble link for it: Records CD at Barnes & Noble

The Shoes were, I recall, just as good. AMG has an entry for them - Shoes at AMG - but lists no discs as being available.

Barnes & Noble has their great Tomorrow Night on this compilation: Power Pop Comp

Actually, that looks like a pretty cool album viz a viz the topic at hand!

Edited April 9, 2003 by kenny weir

[Peter Johnson]

This is a bizarrely-timed thread--I've been listening to a TON of this kind of stuff lately, most recently spinning all of my Dream Academy CD's. In a further pop-vein, I've recently ordered the final "Curiosity Killed the Cat" record (they were called "Curiosity" by then, released only in Japan) and a record by Richard Darbyshire (former lead singer of "Living in a Box," blue-eyed soul if I ever heard it). The other day I had all six Thompson Twins CDs in my shopping cart at half.com, and I had to say, "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, MAN!"

I don't know whether it's been the war on, general "heaviness" about, or what, but I've needed to just "tune in, turn on, and drop out" in a pop kind of way. Jazz hasn't been really "doing it" for me, and I'm doing my every five year return to the eighties thing, I guess. Sounds like I'm not alone!

Mingus still works though, and I WILL post my review soon...

Thank you, whoever started this great thread!

[ghost of miles]

Coming next in the Rhino Handmade Series:

Guadalcanal Diary - Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man

With roots in the Southern-gothic imagery of their Marietta, Georgia home, Guadalcanal Diary's jangly stew of garage rock, roots twang, and exotic rhythms encompassed global styles and expansive themes. This wasn't your parents' Southern rock.

Longtime friends Murray Attaway and Jeff Walls had played in various groups when they dreamed up a new band to play oddball covers, Civil War ballads, and original songs. Enlisting John Poe on drums and Attaway's then-girlfriend Rhett Crowe on bass, Emergency Broadcast System made their live debut in late 1981. With a name change to Guadalcanal Diary, they became part of an emerging Atlanta-area new-music scene home to The B-52's, The Fans, The Swimming Pool Q's, and, later, R.E.M.

After releasing their four-song Watusi Rodeo EP, Guadalcanal Diary signed with Danny Beard's seminal DB label. R.E.M. producer Don Dixon was hired for the record that would become Walking. Well received by critics and college radio upon its 1983 release, the album caught the ear of Elektra, who signed the band to a four-record contract (the re-release of Walking being the first of the four). This expanded and remastered Rhino Handmade release features Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man in its entirety, plus the Watusi Rodeo EP and the previously unreleased "Just An Excuse."

Walking In The Shadow Of The Big Man is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 2,500 copies. Get it at: www.rhinohandmade.com

[Jazzmoose]

Oh, man...bringing this thread back at this time with my current musical obsession was not cool, Ghost! This could push me over the edge...

[Simon Weil]

I really like the GoGos...esp Jane Wiedlin's lyrics.

Simon Weil

Edited October 31, 2003 by Simon Weil

[DrJ]

Wow, how did I miss this thread the first surge? Big fan of the jangly pop.

Some of the as far unmentioned but very worthy groups I remember fondly:

Salem 66 - band out of Boston, I think. Their LP A RIPPING SPIN (Homestead Records) was just that, what an incredible album.

What about Lloyd Cole and the Commotions? Hey RATTLESNAKES was fab, with the title track ("She looks like Eva Marie Saint/In 'On the Waterfront'") and "Perfect Skin" ("She's got cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin/And she's sexually enlightened by Cosmopolitan"). So was the unfairly maligned MAINSTREAM ("My Bag" captured the late 80's club esthetic better than just about any tune you want to dance to I can think of..."Spin, spin, whiskey and gin, I suffer for my art/Hey baby I got wild mushrooms growing in my yard/Fix me a quart of petrol and clams on the half shell/Feels like prohibition baby give me the hard sell/More, more, more, give me more more more/I'm your yes man, yes m'am, I'm your yes man..."). What a fantastic songwriter. Can't say I've kept up with his solo career as much, but DON'T GET WEIRD ON ME, BABY from quite a while back now was quite interesting.

And not necessarily a purely "jangly pop" band by any means, but let's not forget the great Throwing Muses (their self-titled 1986 LP on 4AD was a landmark).

Edited October 31, 2003 by DrJ

[ghost of miles]

EASY PIECES was my Lloyd Cole poison of choice, Tony. I saw him at the Vogue in Indpls. circa '91 and got drunk to his records a few times as well ("Why I Hate Country Music," anyone?).

Throwing Muses were a big influence on Arson Garden, a Bloomington band started by a friend of mine that met with some middling indie success before succumbing to bad label luck. I saw them open for R.E.M. on, good Lord, was it the GREEN tour? (Yes, yes, I was still following them at that point, but my heart belongs to the I.R.S. years.)

[DrJ]

Yes, it's interesting - for quite a period of time (really up through AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE) I felt REM had reached its creative peak in the later years, and AUTOMATIC is still a real landmark album for me. But with more distance, I think the first three albums hold up best, particularly the remarkable FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION album, where they reached a kind of a darkish jangly pop Zenith.

[Big Al]

Anybody here remember Dream Academy? They did "Life in a Northern Town".

How can I forget? I hear that song every time I go to the $%#$%#^% grocery store!!!! Hated that song when it came out, hate it even more now! "Ah hey ah ma ma aye ayoobie aye!!!"

But then, I have a real soft spot for the Bangles "If She Knew What She Wants."

[DrJ]

Big Al, that's a pretty cool tune, that Bangles song. Even better from the same album was their cover of Alex Chilton's "September Gurls." An appropriate song for the subject of discussion, since Chilton and Big Star in many ways INVENTED jangly pop, after all.

Ghost - had missed your Go Betweens reference above until just now. Another great band. TALLULAH, heaven.

Edited October 31, 2003 by DrJ

[BFrank]

speaking of dream syndicate, i still think that "days of wine and roses" is one of the best albums to come out of the 80's. period.

You got THAT right, Kulu! I love that album and keep meaning to get the CD.

I don't know how I missed this thread the first time around. Let's Active was a favorite of mine, too. I still have their first few albums on vinyl and even saw them once. I think they were an opening act.

BTW, The Bangles have a new one out. I'm not that big of a fan, but FWIW it is all the original members and is supposed to be pretty good.

[Aggie87]

Yes, it's interesting - for quite a period of time (really up through AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE) I felt REM had reached its creative peak in the later years, and AUTOMATIC is still a real landmark album for me. But with more distance, I think the first three albums hold up best, particularly the remarkable FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION album, where they reached a kind of a darkish jangly pop Zenith.

DrJ - I'm with ya on this. The early REM holds up much better for me than the Warner era stuff. Just listened to Dead Letter Office the other day - what a fun album that is, even if it's outtakes!

I think you're correct in both ways - REM hit their creative peak with Automatic (and for my personal tastes with New Adventures as well), but the early stuff is almost more enjoyable to listen to. Maybe it's just the memories of the early/mid 80s that it evokes for me...

Anyone picked up the new limited edition Warners-era compilation?

[Peter Johnson]

"Ah hey ah ma ma aye ayoobie aye!!!"

Hey, COME ON!!! I love the Dream Academy! What other pop group incorporated the english horn (convincingly)? Kate St. John, I love you!

(Can't believe I remember this kind of thing... )

[kulu se mama]

for some unknown reason rhino handmade is reissuing "walking in the shadow of the big man" limited edition 2500 copies.

collectors choice music has already reissued this with "jamboree" on 1 cd.

i believe the rhino cd might have 5 songs not on the original, but $20 for an ep and 1 bonus song seems a bit much.

[Eric]

Collectors' Choice has just reissued ANOTHER Lets Active lp, "Big Plans for Everybody". Actually, it has an 11/11 street date but you can buy it directly from them now. They also have "Every Dog" coming out at the same time, although I don't enjoy that one nearly as much as the first three.

Eric

[ghost of miles]

Just (finally, after meaning to buy it for a long time) picked up the CD reissue of Rain Parade's EMERGENCY THIRD RAIL POWER TRIP, which includes the EXPLOSIONS IN THE GLASS PALACE ep. While the influences are as overt as ever ("What She's Done to Your Mind" is straight out of the Byrds' 1965-66 catalogue), the songs hold up pretty well... glad I've got this one around the house again.

[Jazzmoose]

Just have to say that I love the search feature on this forum...I knew this thread was somewhere...

[ghost of miles]

But with more distance, I think the first three albums hold up best, particularly the remarkable FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION album, where they reached a kind of a darkish jangly pop Zenith.

Funny thing is that for a long time some band members allegedly looked down on FABLES (with Bill Berry, no "allegedly" about it--he once bluntly stated that "FABLES sucked"). I don't think they had a very good time recording the album, which may have influenced their earlier opinions about it. I really like it and enjoy Joe Boyd's production work, which I think is perfect for darker-atmosphere songs like "Feeling Gravitys Pull" and "Auctioneer."

[ghost of miles]

Apologies if I've posted this before--it's an article I wrote back in 2001 for the now-defunct Bloomington Independent about R.E.M's 1986 stay in Bloomington, where they recorded LIFES RICH PAGEANT:

R.E.Memory: R.E.M.'s Bloomington album