Shot Black & White - Life of Crime 12" (1987)

This is yet another one of those things that I bought thinking it was a ska record. Shot Black & White has a full-length album called "Understand" that was posted on Tone and Wave HERE which was entirely ska so it was natural to assume that the EP they released a year prior would also be ska, but nope, no ska at all on this one.

A - Life of Crime
B - Beautiful


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Wet Picnic - Balls Up EP (1982)

1 Cocktailed Sky
2 She Don't Care
3 Are You in Touch?
4 Tensions
5 He Believes

Listen to "Are You In Touch?"


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va You Pick One - A Michigan Sampler 7" (1984)

A1 - Angry Red Planet - Make Me Laugh
A2 - Enforcers - Rude Girl
A3 - GCMS - Burnout
B1 - The Fury - Guild of Pain
B2 - GCMS - The Group Song
B3 - Private Angst - Act Normal

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Vegimite Reggae

A - Too Many Years
B - Love is Gone

Trendy Ex-Hippies (1987)
1 Send it Out
2 Open the Door
3 Way Away
4 Rude Boy Rude Girl
5 For Love
6 Faces
7 Fat Girl
8 Illusions
9 I Need You
10 Latin Lover

*Stairway to Heaven

I posted the album on Tone and Wave many years ago. I knew the song Rude Boy Rude Girl so I was expecting a ska album. I was wrong. With a name like "Vegimite REGGAE" most people would assume they'd play a bit of reggae on occasion but that's not the case. Like Johnny Rivers' "L.A. Reggae" album which had no reggae at all. I was disappointed with it but I already knew what I was getting myself into when I got the single so I was less judgemental and I actually like the single quite a bit.

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The Pin Baskets - Fifteen Minutes with Betty Betz (1986)

This band was from the Netherlands and their ska single "30,000 Rabbits" was posted several years ago on Tone and Wave.
This album has no ska on it - just straightforward post punk/power-pop.
I included the single with this download as well as two live tracks from a compilation called "Punk Live in Brouwershoek".

1 Duchna
2 Call it Pride
3 All the Scars and Trophies
4 Instant Wisdom
5 Love is Hollow Eye
6 Ressurection
7 Never the Same
8 Fifteen Seconds with Betty Betz

A - 30,000 Rabbits
B - Glad to be Different

*Does it Matter?
*Hate and Fear


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Ace and the Eights - Explosion 7" (1979)

This is a band from the Bay Area in California. They had two live tracks on the "Alive! Rock City" compilation but I am pretty sure this is their only studio release. I included both tracks from the compilation in this download.

A - Explosion
B - Face in the Fire
* - Dead End
* - Touch of Style

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Sugar Ray's Flying Fortress - Bim Bam Baby (1996)

1 All Night Long
2 Mr. Blues is coming to Town
3 Jukebox
4 We'll be Together Again
5 The Frim Fram Sauce
6 Bei Mir Bist Du Shon
7 Take the 'A' Train
8 Oh Marie
9 Bim Bam Baby
10 Don't Go, Don't Go
11 Dark Eyes
12 You Got Me Reelin' and Rockin'

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The Safe - Pleasure Grooves (1987)

This is a rock/new wave band and this may be the only thing they released.

This record is notable for me because it is the first record I bought with my first paycheck from my current job many years ago. It was sold on eBay as a ska record but there is no ska on here. There is a slight ska/island influence on a couple songs but only very slight.
The song "Untrue Untrue" should have been a best-selling single.

Listen to "Untrue Untrue"

1 Untrue Untrue
2 Banana Men
3 Genie
4 Father Marconi
5 The Natural
6 It's an Illusion

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Slapstick - When a Man Loves a Woman 7" (1981)

A - When a Man Loves a Woman
B - Move On

This is a cover of the Percy Sledge classic but it's so completely reworked that only the lyrics give it away. It's a disco/new wave version with intermittent glockenspiel and sax. Very original sound.  For fans of early Oingo Boingo and Lene Lovich.

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The Units - Japan 7" (1979)

A - Japan
B - I Am Sorry

Female fronted post punk/new wave. Guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. No keyboards, horns, or synth.

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