Random 80's Wednesday

Hello and thanks for stopping by today. Something a bit different this week, and moving forwards also. I've been meaning to comment on the slow pace of updates recently. My fiancee and I recently took on the full time care of two boys, one aged 8 and the other just a year. With my daily commute, three dogs, and living in a small house, it's been difficult to find the time and space to set up and use my turntable. For one thing, everything has to be kept out of baby's reach! So, like the Imajinca single I just posted, I'll do a few here and there but for the time being I'm largely restricted to music I've already recorded or obtained digitally elsewhere. So bear with me.

I was researching an album I saw on Discogs.com when I came across a very interesting, but old blog, namely La Folie Du Jour. It's been inactive for four years but the breadth of music showcased was quite impressive. Anyone who puts a Screen 3 B-Side in a compilation is o.k. with me! Sadly all the links were expired, but it did inspire me to go look for some of the music mentioned, so I'll be posting some here as a tribute to a great blog. I'll also try to comment on the bands as I go.

Yeah Jazz - Julie And The Sealions (7" Single, 1984)

Yeah Jazz were from Uttoxeter and released a handful of cassettes and albums. You can buy some of them at Smalltown Records.

The Turquoise Swimming Pools - Burst Balloons (from the Zoo compilation To The Shores of Lake Placid, 1982)

The sort-of supergroup TSP were Troy Tate and David Balfe from Teardrop Explodes, and producer/engineer Hugh Jones.

Bamboo Zoo - Submarine (from Look! Listen! Consume!, 1981)

Bamboo Zoo were a Manchester post punk band. They have a Facebook page. They have also posted new music on Reverbnation.

What To Wear - The Robbery (from Casual But Smart EP, 1980)

The Procession - Secret Love For Dinosaurs (from Haunted By Memories, 1987)

In addition, several of the tracks I saw posted are now available through legal channels:

Shiny Two Shiny, a Liverpool synth band, had the bulk of their material reissued on the compilation When The Rain Stops, in 2014.

Eton Crop have their own Bandcamp page.

Matthew Young also has a Bandcamp page.

New Zealand band Front Lawn also have a Bandcamp page.

The Brotherhood of Lizards album Lizardland, with bonus tracks, is also available at Bandcamp. English pop whimsy at it's finest.

Rhapsody Ravings

Latest finds at CD Baby and Rhapsody (now Napster):

Another Dimension (mid-'80s synthpop)

Indians In Moscow (early '80s synthpop)

Brinkworth-Haines (late '80's pop)

More From Bandcamp

More Bandcamp discoveries worth your time...

Last week I bought the debut album by Cry No More, a band I had not heard of before but put out two major label albums in the late 80's. Good songs and a wonderful sense of humor, evidently.

https://crynomore.bandcamp.com/

Yesterday I held off buying an album on vinyl by Naked Prey on Frontier records. Timely, as they are also available through Bandcamp.

https://frontierrecords-nakedprey.bandcamp.com/

Lastly I have to recommend a recent release by 80's synth guru Thomas Leer. As you might expect, his album 1982 is a collection of tracks he produced around that time that did not get released. Not sure why, as the material was very strong. He was label hopping a bit if I recall before his major label debut LP Scale of Ten in 1985.

https://futurehistoric.bandcamp.com/album/1982

Rhapsody Ravings

Last week I mentioned a couple of artist links on Bandcamp; this week I'm going to list a few bands I have been enjoying on Rhapsody that also have downloads/physical CD releases at CD Baby. I mentioned a few years ago that my Rhapsody subscription was the best ten bucks I spent a month, and lately that's been the case even more than ever. Apparently Rhapsody is now going to be called Napster, but as long as the access to such a wide variety of music remains the same I don't really care either way.

One drawback of both Bandcamp and CD Baby is their search engines - CD Baby makes it difficult to find anything beyond best sellers, editor picks or new releases, and Bandcamp have a variety of tags but you can only filter by one of them at a time.

South London post-punk outfit The Opposition have been making their back catalog available for a while now. Of particular interest to me was the Lost Album - a collection of tracks released in the early 80's. You can buy their downloads direct at http://www.theopposition.fr/boutiquenglish.html
or find the aforementioned Lost Album at CD Baby here for $9.99. The CD is no longer available at the time of writing. Rhapsody has almost all their back catalog available for streaming at the moment. Good stuff!!

If you're into minimal synth style electronica or synthpop, cult NY band Perfect Jewish Couple might be to your liking. They recently released Time Capsule, a collection of carefully remastered 80's tunes. You can purchase the CD or download at CD Baby here or directly from their website at http://www.perfectjewishcouple.com - I think the price is the same either way. Again you can find this one on Rhapsody as well.

One post punk band I heartily recommend is an obscure California one. Back in 1987 The Broken Toys released a 7 track LP called The Cut of Memory. Despite a lot of interest and a good following they never released anything else. Fortunately the band came back together in 2012 for a reunion concert and also released a meticulous remastered version of the album with a host of extra tracks, all of a really high standard. I generally skip through a lot of tracks when I have Rhapsody on shuffle play, but their material is quite excellent. Similar to The Church, who I think they supported once, and they also have a Facebook page. You can find the album at CD Baby here or again Rhapsody has both this and the live reunion concert.

There's plenty more out there so I might make this a regular feature.

Link-O-Rama

Great to see Side Room Singles back up again, I discovered so many great records through this blog. Just a great concept too which appeals to my liking for randomness in music.

Well worth checking out.

Link-O-Rama

I've just been visiting 80's Vinyl Gems which is a new blog I have not seen before. Great posts featuring Black, Vicious Pink, John Foxx, etc., etc. Very nice!!

Actually it's been around for a couple of years, I guess I just have not been paying attention!

Link-O-Rama

Just a quick shout out to "Where This Kind of Music Happens", a new blog with a great roster of new wave and synthpop artists featured. Be sure to check it out!

Also if you like mooning over music magazines from the early '80's, then check out Brian's awesome Smash Hits archive.

From the indie pop scene I've been enjoying Consolation Prizes, with posts of bands like Friends Again, Jazzateers, The Go-Betweens and many more.

I'm noticing not only that there seem to be a lot more music blogs springing up, but most of them are being updated daily. Here's to discovering something new!

Welcome Back, Rene!

Just a quick note - I just discovered that Rene's wonderful blog Retro Wonderland is back. Lots of club hits and remixes. Welcome back, Rene....We missed you.

Link-O-Rama

The end of August is always a weird time for me. I split with my first wife over the August bank holiday weekend a few years back and then had my divorce finalized a year later almost to the day. This was also at the time when Princess Diana died and everyone was just in a state of shock anyway.

But time moves on, and I was very happy to realize that the end of August is also my blog anniversary and I can celebrate two years of holding court in cyberspace with nothing but a pair of Snoopy PJ's and a box of compact discs records.

Even though I moan and grumble a bit, I really do appreciate the long term bloggers I have made friends with over the last two years. Speaking of which, and PJ's as well, I was a bit stunned to notice that I have never bothered to link back to one of my longest serving contributors, the weirdly wonderful Barely Awake In Frog Pyjamas, so I am happy to correct that today. I also get to post a picture of a frog:

Without a doubt, that is the most self-satisfied amphibian I have ever seen. Perhaps a Princess was coming down the path at the time?

You would think with my vast store of musical knowledge I could come up with something better than this, but no, I am not going to post the-oh-so-obvious Peter Gabriel here.

Ed Kilbourne - Frog Kissing

The Divine Comedy - The Frog Princess

Also want to mention two other favorites - there's a lot of good stuff at Diggin' In The Vault right now and I'd also recommend RetroUniverse for a decent stroll down memory lane.

Link-O-Rama

It's always a pleasure to come across a band website that is comprehensive, well put together, and - most importantly - has lots of links to video clips, demos and B-Sides. For anyone who has even a passing interest in the Thrashing Doves, you will find all of the above, and more at www.thrashingdoves.co.uk. Well worth a visit. The audio section also includes some early tapes and the two singles by previous band The Climb, which I featured a few months ago here without realizing the connection.

I also just came across a comprehensive website dedicated to New Musik. A must visit for anyone interested in the quirky English synth genius of Tony Mansfield and pals.

Thanks for all your well-wishes by the way. Things progressed well so we are just going through the recovery phase. There will be a guest post by your truly at The Vinyl Villain later this month going into a little more detail. After a recent feature by Jon at The Vinyl District, I'm starting to feel quite popular! (Oh, except for the devastating news I received this week that I am no longer on Davy's blogroll!!! The Shame!!)

Link-O-Rama

Just thought I'd take a second to acknowledge a "fab" new blog find Fabrica 80. Proving that Brazil is home to much more than great footballers, Fabrica has recently posted on relatively obscure goth/rock/post punk bands such as President Reagan Is Clever, Pink Industry, Modern Eon and an unbelievable amount of Cure material. Well done!

Still Busy

I'm still too busy to put together a decent, well crafted entry. Never mind, this can be like the news snippets you get at the front of magazines - just enough to whet the appetite.

A few new blogs I want to mention. There's a nice mix of stuff at Nothing Better to Do, including recent posts on Red Box, The Christians, The Motels and some compilations. I spent January 20th in a state of heightened anticipation - everyone's favorite Mikey had a new album-oriented blog, and that is news indeed (inauguration? What inauguration?). Thanks to XOLondon who turned me on to Music On Vinyl. Recent posts, among many, many blinders, include Strawberry Switchblade, T'Pau, and "We Came To Dance" by Ultravox (i.e. only one of my favorite tracks from my favorite album, ever, ever, evah!) Let me also make mention again of two of the great friends of Mine For Life, McDoc who has just posted an awesome (12 minutes!) remix of Vitamin Z's "Burning Flame" at his blog, Evo-XR Remixes, and the awesome (and much happier on WordPress, apparently) Miss Parker AKA "Supertrump" who is listening to a lot of radio these days - and using words like "caniptions" thus shaming the rest of us into manifestations of globfracular intransigestinal wonderment.

I'm getting excited about three things at the mo. First, my six year old, Morgan, will be performing ballet and lyrical jazz in Nashville this weekend in a dance competition. Yours truly mixed all the music that our studio is using in our entries, and I am very proud of how it has turned out. I'll have to mention more about that later.

Secondly, for those of you who enjoyed my posts last year about the singles reviews from old pop magazines in the 80's, I'm glad to report that not only did I get my scanner fixed but I have also been acquiring a solid collection of scans from magazine collectors which will give me ample posting material for the rest of the year.

Thirdly, my new vinyl project continues to gather pace. I should have the turntable and software I want by the end of February, and I have at least twenty vinyl purchases to digitize. Roll on springtime!

The New Wave Discography

I've opened up my blog The New Wave Discography for public viewing. The idea of the blog is to produce a comprehensive collection of "new wave" era albums either that I have uploaded or that I have found. It's a no frills site designed for people who are looking for something specific. What I am planning to do is concentrate on including a variety of music here on Mine For Life, particularly individual tracks. My own personal experience is that it is much more rewarding to discover a long lost classic track and then go and find the associated album. Over time, I have collected digital versions of so many albums I have not got around to listening to, which seems to defeat the objective.

With that in mind, feel free to email me links to new wave albums that I can add to the discography. At this time, I'm not trying to include singles and EP's, or artwork, or anything. I'm also happy to make this a collaborative project if any other bloggers out there want to be able to access the site and add content.

I think everyone who loves music from the "new wave" era would appreciate a "one stop shop" for all the out of print material that is out there somewhere.

Albums that are in-print will not be included out of fairness to the artists involved.

Link-O-Rama Part Deux

According to Blogger, I have one follower. Thank you, mom!

The Late Greats is still going strong, which means two things - expect to find plenty of seasonal goodness over the next few weeks and there are still a lot of guilty pleasures out there!

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but Mine For Life has a mirror site at Multiply - it's not as pretty but if ever my content gets lost on Blogger, you can look for me over there.

So Frenchy is still around, and dedicated to new wave with a gothic (and gallic) twist and still has an eclectic and arty look.

Rave And Roll has posted a list of 136 classic new wave tunes and invites you to submit your top ten 80's tracks. Welcome back, MP!

Rene at Retro Wonderland has always spun amazing tunes. Like, for example, the awesome extended mix of "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes". Although it's not strictly music related, I would like to quote from a recent post of his, after some turbulent times:

I have to say to the haters and bigots of the world "Thank You" ....It was the haters that gave me the strength to hit the gym, work out 5 times a week and drop 115 grueling pounds. It has been the biggest accomplishment of my life. I have never been skinny much less physically fit...well, Now I can say I am. I went from a size 46 waist to a 32 and I can actually now climb a flight of stairs without wanting to pass out.

The hardest change we can make in our lives is within ourselves. Congratulations Rene for turning a negative into such a positive. I bet you look hot now!!

Just noticed the link from McDoc's Evo-XR Remixes - so go check him out too.

Here's a new one. I discovered The Upsetter 1969 while trawling for Amazulu remixes (as you do). Not only does he rightfully pay tribute to The Greatest Year Evah (TM) but if you are partial to a little ska/dub/reggae with an 80's flava and a typically idiosyncratic British worldview, he's your man! Here's a typical quote:

You know as I hurtle towards the second half of my life I'm becoming more reflective and I don't mean that I am slightly shinier than I was either. I've begun to think that I'm great which is true but also a complete turnaround from some years ago or even pretty recent history ..... I'm beginning to wonder what the hell I'm going to be doing with the rest of my life? I really can't see myself putting up with this Muppet at work without killing him ..... I mean if any of the rest of us were 'lending ourselves' money from the tills we would be gotten shot of right away with possibly a ride home in a white car with a blue light on it.

Link-O-Rama Part Une

It's been ages (about six weeks actually) since I last did a links post. This time I thought I would make an effort to revisit places I have mentioned in the past, as well as a couple of new ones, before degenerating into a stream of consciousness ramble about, well, whatever.

I've mentioned Scratchy Buckles before, albeit very briefly. An interesting blend of cartoons, modern sounds, and weird trivia, Scratchy manages to poke fun at us vinyl-obsessed raincoat wearing goofballs, at the same time as pointing out how endearing nostalgia can be. One of his recent posts features Rusty Goffe, who used to be the head Oompah Lumpah for Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka - who apparently released an album around the time with titles like "Ten Feet Tall" and "Scotch On The Rocks". Too early for a cover of Randy Newman's "Short People", sadly.

Sheerinertia's Engine, sadly, is no more, due no doubt to the intensely negative backlash certain popular bloggers have been subjected to in the last couple of months.

Island Monkey has now gone private, so I am unable to comment on what's going on there.

Rho-Xs is another one that is close to closure:

Hello, well all my reupdating seems to have attracted the real leeches that live off artists, i suppose you have to expect that this blog will be closed any day now..well i enjoyed sharing and as i said before was winding down Rho-Xs. Obviously the fact that i stay far away from new titles or the MP3 format technically doesnt matter. You can say goodbye at mail.nu /Rho-Xs if you feel like it...best of luck, Rho

On a brighter note, Little Hits is still going strong and just featured "Pure" by The Lightning Seeds - a perennial favorite of mine. And how about the video, while we're at it:



Another blog that's gone private is Cesar, previously a trove of early 90's stuff. Brent's Brave New Waves is long gone - anyone know if he's still doing anything?

Jacyk's 80>90 Music Memories has been inactive since August, after all his links went dead. Anyone noticing a trend here? I previously described Rockistory as "the most schizophrenic blog ever" and while it is still a massive mash up, at least it is still going strong. Recent posts include Mike Ness, Shocking Blue and Link Wray.

Saltyka is still producing posts the size of Asia, but his last post was over a month ago. Perhaps he got a job? Or he's researching something really, really sizeable. Like The Complete History of Every Rock Act in the World Ever, Except for Sue Pollard.

Sweeping The Nation is still, um, sweeping up, but deduct a point for titling your blogroll Every half-decent music-related blog in the world and then not mentioning the fabu (and still alive, at least) Mine For Life. Let justice be done! [UPDATE - I now have a link. Cheers!]

Worldvix, who I mentioned once, seems to have gone the way of Naughty Blogger (TM) and is busy posting all the recent releases you can think of. Without any prblems, apparently. So, like a Twilight Zone episode, it appears that posting a Secession 12" single from 1987 might be worse than oh, let's see, giving away the new Taylor Swift album. Make sense of that!

Saying Goodbye - And Hello

Probably my favorite new wave inspired music blog It Should Have Been A Hit has just shut down. I'm amazed how many posts the author Mikeyten managed to fire out in less than twelve months. The guy deserves a rest! I've discovered so much great music there, I will probably post a couple of compilations for the curious.

On the other hand, I've just discovered Hallway of Memories which is a great trawl through obscure 80's material, mostly rarer extended mixes. Very nice.

Link-O-Rama

I'm continuing to get a lot of pleasure out of SwapACD. Now, if only it could go international...

Rene at RetroWonderland managed to survive the hurricane in Texas, and responded by posting some fantastic floor-fillers. Included recently have been Blancmange, Hubert Kah, Berlin, Kate Bush, Spandau Ballet, Tasmin Archer, Tears For Fears - you get the idea. Excellent job, Rene!

Here's a new site for you. Digital Needle has a wide variety of music, recent posts include The Bluebells, Tones On Tail and Japan.

Just found out that Cherry Red Records have released a compilation of tracks by The Mood. Their most famous track is "Paris Is One Day Away" I believe and this was a particular favorite of Simon at Torchomatic.

Lots of good stuff at Castles In Space lately, including an album and single by Bradford - obscure indie pop at it's best!

Pick 'N' Mix

A few other random thoughts for the week.

I was at my daughter's dance class the other day when I heard a really amazing piece. I'm sure everyone else heard this a long time ago. But if you haven't, take a listen.



All the discussion about the merits of Sarah Palin here in the US reminded me of an observation the Right Honourable James Hacker made in Yes Prime Minister. For the record, I'm a Sun reader:



With previous posts mentioning Charlotte Martin covering "Just Like Heaven", Angie Hart covering "Pictures of You" and Kate York covering "Boys Don't Cry" I've been researching my own Cure Covers Compilation, for which I'm open to suggestions. Here's another one, Patchwork Grace covering "The Lovecats" and doing a great job. Apparently there is another Cure tribute being released next month for charity, which includes Bat For Lashes doing "A Forest".

I've just signed up for SwapaCD, which is a great idea I'm surprised I had not heard of before. For those of you in the US, basically it allows you to offer CD's to swap and make requests for new CD's that you want. Within a week I have offloaded about 20 discs I could not sell on eBay, and got new ones by Ringside, Gran Ronde and Paul Simon. It's like a huge virtual thrift store, with the only downside being that the waiting list for recent releases runs into double figures. Even so, well worth checking out. And be careful, it's quite addictive! If you do sign up, you can mention me as a referral, my user name is fiftypercent.

Here's some more stuff that has caught my ear lately:

JJ72 - It's A Sin
The Dandys - Dirty Weekend
Kent - If You Were Here

By the way, I'm having trouble embedding YouTube video, for some reason the screen keeps locking after playing for a couple of seconds. If this happens to you, I apologize - you should probably click through to the original YouTube post.

Nothing Serious (Just Blogging)

As regular blog readers will know, I've chosen to dedicate July to the music and pop culture of the 1990's. This has been a harder task than I thought - not because there isn't good material to be found, but because it is so diverse. Judging by my download streams, the most popular posts are albums from the early 80's, and generally if you like the new wave sound, you will like music from that era. But the 90's is so fragmented that an album that I like may have very limited appeal to others, so I have found it harder to balance stuff I like with stuff that people might be interested in or looking for.

The positive side is that if you do find something you connect with, then the availability is much better. Amazon has streams of 90's albums available through third party sellers for under a dollar. For example, I found a terrific album by the group SYN called A Matter Of Time, which cost about 90 cents and was still in the wrapper with the original Best Buy price tag of $11.99.

Random 90's Wednesday has been interesting to me because I have no idea until five minutes before posting what tracks I am going to put up. There's a lot of difference, sonically, between something from 1991 and 1998. But it's all stuff I like, and I'm enjoying putting it out there. I have to mention one track in particular. I featured it on my other blog Left A Bit and it had no hits, so I reposted it here. The track is a pop tune called "Anyway" by a power pop outfit called Poole. It wasn't a single and wasn't one of the tracks recommended for radio play on my promo CD, but I just think it's a fantastic song, so if you haven't checked it out yet, here it is again:

Poole - Anyway

BTW, my Fileden bandwidth got sucked up again. I'm not mad, because I'm pretty sure it was due to a glowing recommendation from Halfhearted Dude on his blog, so I appreciate the extra traffic. In the meantime, I'm using Mediafire.

You might notice some new links in my blogroll. Several site I have been following have become inactive, but while researching my 1990's material, several blogs appeared that cover the Britpop era very comprehensively. Now I came very late to the Britpop party, in 1996 just when the scene was starting to slow down. So I appreciate sites like Moody Places, that posts a myriad of CD singles from the early to mid 90's, and Dirk Wears White Socks, that does something similar but also throws in an album or two. My perennial favorite Box Set Go is another good source for "baggy" material, as is Madchester Rave On. Frankly, I have found so much unfamiliar material on these sites that it's going to take a while to absorb it all. I'm thinking I may produce some compilations of tracks that stood out to me.

Other more general sites I have added are the excellent Castles In Space and Echoes In The Wind, both well worth checking out.

Link-O-Rama

I'm always happy to report on the discovery of a good music blog. Today, I'd like to introduce Best Kept Secrets, which I discovered while googling an Immaculate Fools album. Let me put it this way: anyone who has the good taste to feature albums by Brotherhood of Lizards, The Silencers, Diesel Park West and The Caretaker Race in just the last couple of weeks clearly deserves your time and attention. You can also find The Indian Givers album Love Is A Lie, which I have never seen anywhere previously except, of course, on the fine blog you are now reading.