The Brains - Electronic Eden

After months of fruitless searching for a rip of the Brains' second album, Electronic Eden (Mercury, 1981), I discovered I still have my vinyl copy, so I've ripped it myself and present it here for your enjoyment. From Atlanta, Georgia, the Brains are best known for their song "Money Changes Everything," which appeared on their first album in 1980 and was made famous by Cyndi Lauper's cover version in 1983. The Brains played solid new wave rock, with a lyrical quirkiness and intelligence (courtesy of lead singer Tom Gray) that gave them more new wave credibility than many of the North American "new wave" bands at the time that were actually AOR bands with a bit of a new wave sheen (e.g. Loverboy, Huey Lewis and the News). There is a lost masterpiece on this album: "Heart in the Street" is an impassioned anthem to the diminished dreams that come with growing up. Stylistically it prefigures the sound of Collective Soul, a band that would spring from the Atlanta area ten years later and achieve much greater success. "Collision" is a rather macabre song about a girlfriend's not-quite recovery from a car accident. The full track list is:

01 Dream Life
02 One In A Million
03 Hypnotized
04 No Tears Tonight
05 Eyes Of Ice
06 Asphalt Wonderland
07 Little Girl Gone
08 Ambush
09 Heart In The Street
10 House Of Cards
11 Collision

For a more in-depth look at the band and its history, see R. Smith's excellent blog post. (Short version: after being dropped from Mercury Records, they released the Dancing Under Streetlights EP on the independent Landslide label in 1982, underwent some personnel changes, then broke up. A couple members joined the Georgia Satellites. Tom Gray now leads the blues/roots band Delta Moon.) Electronic Eden was produced by Steve Lillywhite (as was their first album) and engineered by Mark Richardson, and contains lots of that gated snare sound that was all the rage in those days. Get the kind-of-noisy vinyl rip here or here.

House of Schock

Of the three members of the Go-Gos to release solo albums, drummer Gina Schock was the last, her House of Shock album appearing in 1988. Although it's technically not a solo album, as "House of Schock" is the name of the partnership between Schock (drums, vocals) and Vance De Generes (bass, backing vocals, brother of Ellen). Then backing up House of Schock is "The House Band" of Chrissy Shefts (all guitars, backing vocals), Steven Fisher (drums--I guess Gina didn't play all the drums), and Jim Biggs (keyboards, backing vocals). The album leads off with the sublime single "Middle of Nowhere"; I was going to post the video here, but it seems to have disappeared from the web. Nothing else on the album rises to the same level, but Schock makes it clear that she is by far the rockingest of the Go-Gos. The full track list is:

01 Middle Of Nowhere
02 Just To Dream
03 Walk In My Sleep
04 Love In Return
05 Where Love Goes
06 Never Be Enough
07 This Time
08 Seems Like Forever
09 The World Goes Round
10 Walk Away

The CD format of this album must have had a very small run, as it's now a collector's item fetching upwards of $50. If you would like a vinyl rip @192kps to listen to while you save up for a CD, get it here or here.

Various Artists - Live at the 101: Club Sandwich

Here is Club Sandwich from 1981, the third and final (for now, at least) vinyl rip from 101 Records' series of budget-priced live compilations. All the songs were recorded at the 101 Club in St. John's Hill, Clapham. The previous two LPs posted here each had two or three bands that went on to greater fame. On Club Sandwich, though, only one band broke through: The Fix added another X to their name to become chart-toppers The Fixx. The song included here, "The Strain", appears on some versions of their Shuttered Room album. The full Club Sandwich track list is as follows:

01 Repro Central - Ring-a-ding
02 The Fix - The Strain
03 Rock Salmon and the Pomme Fritts - Fast Cars
04 Victims of Pleasure - Slaves To Fashion
05 Nautyculture - Someday Sunday
06 Rainbow Remipeds - Tropical Milk
07 Rank Amateurs - Games Up
08 The Edukators - Electric
09 Daddy Yum Yum - Mind Over Matter
10 The Mistakes - Jukebox
11 Malchix - Demons of Light and Sound
12 Repro Central - God Don't Bleed

After The Fixx, the Rainbow Remipeds produced the largest catalog of the rest of the bands here, though mostly as simply The Remipeds. They had a horn section and played the melange of rock, funk, jazz, dub, and Latin music commonly known as "postpunk" and most often associated with Pigbag. The Remipeds don't quite have Pigbag's wit and energy, and their calypso accents in "Tropical Milk" are in questionable taste, but if you like the genre then you shouldn't miss them. They reissued their only album, The Tahiti Syndrome, in 2005 with bonus tracks. Check the album webpage for samples of all songs, and be sure to check out the opener, their signature tune "Hawaii Five-O." The Remipeds MySpace page has loads of videos which could keep you busy for half an hour or so. Rock Salmon and the Pommes Fritts and Daddy Yum Yum both contribute decent rockabilly tracks (the later featuring an accordion). I can't find any information on Rock Salmon, but Daddy Yum Yum left a bit more of a trail. A Brighton band, percussionist Willi Kerr describes their music as "thrash skiffle." Kerr and Dave Simner are now members of the "Old Time, Hillbilly and Hellfire Gospel" band The Curst Sons. Repro Central got two tracks on the album, though they are not noticeably better than the other nine bands. Rank Amateurs sound more than a bit like the Police, and the rest of the bands play competent new wave that is good for a listen but not particularly memorable. If nothing else, Club Sandwich is a fantastic time capsule, a snapshot of the bread-and-butter of new wave as opposed to the most popular stuff that is remembered today. Get the vinyl rip here or here.

(I thought for a long time that was Jim Skafish on the cover, but according to the fine print on the back it's Rick Mann.)

Various Artists - Live at the 101: Band'its at 10 O'Clock

Here is another album from 101 Records via Polydor, documenting live performances at Clapham Junction's 101 Club. Also from 1980, the track listing on this one is:

01 The Scene - All People Go Mad
02 The Hit Men - She's All Mine
03 The V.I.P.'s - Causing Complications
04 The Piranhas - Yap Yap Yap
05 Real To Real - White Man Reggae
06 Holly and the Italians - Chapel of Love
07 Electric Eels - Thoroughly Modern
08 Jane Kennaway & Strange Behaviour - Catch Cool
09 Thompson Twins - Squares and Triangles
10 Huang Chung - Baby I'm Hu-Man
11 Comsat Angels - Independence Day
12 Wasted Youth - Jealousy

I have determined that The Scene is an early name for the band Giants, who released "All People Go Mad" as a single in 1982. Giants featured guitaris/songwriter Gordon Reaney and singer Paul Cox. The Hit Men soon consolidated their name to The Hitmen, the first band on Ben Watkins' road to fame. The Hitmen's two albums are also available on this blog (with "She's All Mine" appearing on the first); see here. The V.I.P.'s formed at Warwick University in 1978; lead singer Jed Dmochowski left in 1980 to pursue a solo career, the rest of the band forming Mood Six. See below for a vintage video of "Causing Complications." The Piranhas went on to some success, with their song "Tom Hark" becoming an enduring football anthem (I am told). Real To Real included a pre-Depeche Mode Alan Wilder. Holly Beth Vincent/Holly and the Italians had a couple alternative hits with "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" and "Dangerously." I can't find any information on the Electric Eels (they are definitely not the 70s punk band from Ohio); the "Thoroughly Modern" songwriting credits are for Methane Wernick and Mad Molecule, which I am pretty sure are aliases. They are obviously big fans of Eno-era Roxy Music, and their musical chops are far above most of the other bands included here. Jane Kennaway put out a couple singles and has a band now called A Different Kind of Honey. The Thompson Twins really date-stamp this record with a live version of their single "Squares and Triangles" and its repeated chorus of "one-nine-eight-o," bearing little resemblance to their later hit material. Wang Chung appear as Huang Chung; Sheffield's Comsat Angels put in a version of "Independence Day," a song they later recorded for two different studio albums; and Wasted Youth's "Jealousy" sounds like a twisted remake of "Crimson and Clover." Get the vinyl rip here or here.


I've got one more Live at the 101 comp to rip and share, then it's on to other things.

Various Artists - Live at the 101: Warts'n'All

Here is one of a series of live albums released in the early 80s by the house label (via Polydor) of the 101 Club in St. John's Hill, Clapham. Each of the albums contained tracks by several up-and-coming bands recorded live at the club and was released at a budget price in a rough cardstock sleeve with tabloid-style graphics. From 1980, this compilation includes:

01 Album Intro
02 Thompson Twins - Physics & Chemistry
03 Thompson Twins - Slave Trade
04 Jane Kennaway & Strange Behaviour - Atmospheres of England
05 Philip Gayle - Hermaphrodite
06 Deaf Aids - Heroes
07 Local Heroes SW9 - Competition
08 Local Heroes SW9 - Stabbed in the Heart Again
09 Deaf Aids - Bristol Stomp
10 Jane Kennaway & Strange Behaviour - Scratching at the Surface
11 Philip Gayle - The Ambassadors
12 The Mechanics - If I Make My Own Bed
13 The Mechanics - Higher & Higher

Unless you have heard these early Thompson Twins tracks before, chances are you won't recognize them as the same band who performed "Doctor, Doctor", "Love On Your Side", or even "In the Name of Love"; they sound like a punk-influenced new wave band! David Bowie-ish singer Philip Gayle later achieved some chart success as Philip Jap with his Trevor Horn-produced single "Save Us" (and the Tony Mansfield-produced "Total Erasure"); his lone solo album is quite good and is available on the Off the Record blog. The third and final act on this record to have managed to put out an album is Local Heroes SW9, whose members included Kevin Armstrong (later of the Passions) and sometime Thompson Twin Matthew Seligman. Jane Kennaway put out a couple singles and appears to have a band now called A Different Kind of Honey; Deaf Aids also released just two singles; and I can find no mention of the Mechanics other than on this album. They are more bluesy than the rest of the bands, but work up a nice groove on the original "If I Make My Own Bed" and then encourage an audience singalong in the cover of "Higher and Higher." The only information I have on the band members is that the songwriting credit is for Terry Quinn.

About the rip: the pressing is not great: there is noticeable surface noise and an above-average amount of clicks and pops. I removed as many as I could, but some remain. Also, the sound quality on side 2 suffers from the 29-minute playing time; levels (and general sound quality) are lower than on side 1. I have normalized the levels, but the quality is what it is. It's no worse than FM radio, at least. New links: Get the vinyl rip here or here. More Live at the 101 albums to come.

Onyx - Call of the Wild and Jet Set singles

Last July I posted a rip of a 1982 cassette by Onyx, an obscure Boston-area New Wave band. Their two 45s had long eluded me, but last week a generous reader provided me rips of them. (Thanks, Martin!) They are:

• Call of the Wild b/w S.O.S.
• Jet Set b/w Saturn 09

"S.O.S." and "Jet Set" appear on the cassette as well, but these vinyl rips obviously have better sound quality. "Call of the Wild" and "Saturn 09" round out the Onyx canon with more of the same sweet blend of minimal electronics and heavy basslines. Martin has also provided nice scans of the sleeves. The back cover of "Jet Set" contains the most information about the band I have yet seen: production and copyright credits are for Judd Stone and vocals are by "Beveur." The songs were recorded and mixed the The Loft in Boston and engineered by M.J. Klein. Web searches have turned up no more information on these people; does anyone out there know of them and their pre- and post-Onyx endeavors?

Get the vinyl rips here or here.

Various Artists - 8 Essential Attitudes

For this entry we remain in Baltimore but go back a few years to 1985 for the Frantic Records sampler album 8 Essential Attitudes. The album cover depicts a can of "Cream of Baltimore" being poured onto a turntable: do not do this! It will ruin your turntable! Fortunately the package contains a solid vinyl LP which is perfectly suited to playing on a turntable. The "8 Essential Attitudes" are eight indie bands from the Baltimore area:

1. Red Tape - I Know
2. exibit A - yippi-i-o
3. Beyond Words - On the Moon
4. Thee Katatonix - Ordinary Sunday
5. The View - Only Water
6. Mission - When Thunder Comes
7. Off the Wall - She's All Mine
8. Clever Lines - After the Snow Melts

The most accomplished band here is Off the Wall, but their big-band rockabilly style is decidedly out of place. Red Tape lean toward an AOR sound, Thee Katatonix are the closest thing to punk rock here, Mission have a gothic vibe belied by their preppy appearance, exibit A have an indie-twee sound, Clever Lines go for the grand sound of UK acts like Duran Duran and Simple Minds, and Beyond Words and The View play middle-of-the-road new wave pop. Not as diverse as the gathering on the Merkin Seedy Sampler, but it's a smaller, earlier sample. Get the vinyl rip here or here. (I'm trying out flyupload with the second link; from what I've seen it has no waiting period and does allow download managers. Please let me know if there are any problems with it.)

Isolation Ward - Absent Heart

Thank goodness for the Internet and its volunteers who fill in information about mysterious records I've owned for years but know virtually nothing about. One such record is the "Absent Heart" 12" by Isolation Ward. Here is the Wikipedia entry for Isolation Ward (as of Dec. 2. 2008):

Isolation Ward is a New Wave/Experimental band from Brussels, Belgium. Founding members are Jean Pierre Everaerts (Bass), Stephane Willocq (Guitar), Thierry Heyndericks (Keyboards, Vocals, Trumpet), and Etienne Vernaeve (Drums). Contributing vocals/guitar included, Nathalie Bourlard (Vocals), Anne Kinna(Nanou) (Vocals: Lamina Christus), Sylvie Honnay (Vocals: Absent Heart, A Request), Niki Mono (Vocals: only for the last concert), Eric Vanhoutte(Guitar), and Jerry WX (Guitar). Formed in 1980, the band released Lamina Christus on 7" Vinyl in 1982(Issued through Radical Records, France Crepuscule Section Francaise/Radical RAD 008 ) and Absent Heart on 12 " Vinyl in 1983 on the Les Disques du Crepuscule label. Both of these releases were produced by Gilles Martin and Peter Principle. The band disbanded in 1983. Isolation Ward's final recordings, Point De Départ and Point Final were released on the Présence label in 1984.

"Lamina Christus" reappears as the third track (of three) on the Absent Heart 12", and it's no wonder they re-used it as it is their strongest song. Like many Crepuscule releases, the sound falls somewhere between Factory gloom and 4A.D. gothicism. Get the Absent Heart vinyl rip here or here.

Billy Sheets' Undercover - Weekend In Dubrovnik

On This Record!

A MOSQUE IN THE ETHIOPIAN OUTBACK beams a message clear to the Pomona Freeway...

A BASS-PLAYING VAMPIRE stalks his prey in the heart of the Carpathians...

BOSNIAN YOUTHS BENT ON REVENGE besiege the ancient bathing houses of Dubrovnik...

BELEAGUERED TEEN-AGERS pursue masochistic sports... while

A ROVING MINISTER puts aside the cloth for matters of the heart!

So reads the copy on the back cover of this batch of six amusing songs from singer, keyboardist, and accordionist Billy Sheets and his band, produced by Devo's Bob Mothersbaugh and released in 1982 on Big Clock Records. The joke is played out in full on the first track, "Skanking in the Trailerpark," a hybrid of ska and eastern European folk styles. The European vein continues with "Gypsy Camp," and then comes the highlight of the record, the superb faux-spy-movie instrumental "Weekend In Dubrovnik." Side two's three songs ("Skating On Thin Ice," "Love That Lasts," "Downtown B.B.Q. (Shakin' It)") are in a more conventional party-rock mode, a la Joe King Carrasco and the Crowns. The full band line-up is:

• Billy Sheets: lead vocal, accordion, keyboards, harmonica
• Kent State: guitar, tambourine, vocals
• Ricardo de Mayo: bass, keyboards, accordion, vocals
• Sammy "Vic" Flores: drums (side A), vocals
• Gajate: percussion
• Alan Lyle: drums (side B)

Nothing astounding here, just a good solid slice of American new wave with a novelty bent. Get the vinyl rip here or here.

Various Artists - I'd Rather Be In Philadelphia

I'd Rather Be In Philadelphia, released by Burn Potential Records in 1983, is the best compilaion of early-80's Philly-area indie new wave there is. It contains early tracks by Bunnydrums, Pretty Poison, Book of Love, and Executive Slacks, all of whom would go on to greater success. Those familiar with Book of Love's synth-pop records for Sire ("You Make Me Feel So Good", "I Touch Roses") will be interested to hear the stripped-down instrumentation and production of "Henna." Pretty Poison on "Secrets" is not recognizable as the same band who later churned out that ubiquitous 80's hit "Catch Me (I'm Falling)." (See here for their self-released EP Laced.) Also present on this compilation are Philly's own No Wave band, the Stickmen. Articles on No Wave always focus on the New York scene--James Chance, Eight Eyed Spy--but the Stickmen could skronk with the best of them, and faster, too. (Wayside Music has released a CD of all the Stickmen's recorded output.) The full track list is:

01 Bunnydrums - Sleeping
02 Pretty Poison - Secrets
03 Sensory Fix - Last Match
04 Impossible Years - Flower Girl
05 Mother May I - When Children Play
06 Book of Love - Henna
07 Red Buckets - Something Else Again
07 Stickmen - Duraflame Dog
09 Girls Downstairs - Steam Rises Off the Jungle Floor
10 Executive Slacks - Sexual Witchcraft

A note on the recordings: this has to be the worst pressing I have ever heard. Usually I don't do wholesale click removal for fear of losing actual music; I just do spot removals of egregious clicks and pops. But this record has a substrate of clicks and pops all the way through; the record itself has tiny bumps all over it. So in this case I did run the whole thing through Audacity's click remover, and it sounds much better, but still far from perfect. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who has this album whether theirs is as noisy as mine. Don't let the pops and clicks keep you from checking out this trove of rare regional new wave, though: get the vinyl rip here or here. Update 2/11/2012: My DF link is still up, but there's a better rip available at Systems of Romance.

Ballistic Kisses - Wet Moment

New York-based Ballistic Kisses released two albums: Total Access in 1982 (available at Mutant Sounds), and Wet Moment in 1983, both on the quirkily-named UK label Don't Fall Off The Mountain. Trouser Press doesn't think much of this one:

Wet Moment is a tedious cross between the B-52's and Gang of Four: minimal melodies, propulsive rhythms and bleak vocals. It's easy to believe freaked-out tunes like "Emotional Ice" and "Everything Leaks," but how alienated do you really want to feel?

But it's really better than that. True, there are not many melodies to speak of, and no real hooks to linger in your mind, but if you just like the sound of 80s minimal synthpop then there's plenty here to enjoy. There's so much, in fact, that it wouldn't all fit on a single record: the 54 minutes of music was spread out over a 33rpm 8-song LP and a 45rpm 3-song 12". The band lineup is:

• Michael Hrynyk: keyboards, vocals
• Richard McClusky: percussions, vocals
• Michael Parker: vocals
• Jeff Freund: guitars, vocals

There's some pretty cool bass guitar on several of the songs, too, which I presume is one of the "guitars" credited to Jeff Freund. Get the Wet Moment vinyl rip here or here.

Exposure - Wild!

Here's a fairly obscure album from the 80s: Wild! by Exposure, Statik STAT LP 19, 1984. Of the nine bands named Exposure at discogs.com, this is the ninth, and at the time I'm writing, this album is not listed on their page. Exposure was a multiracial five-man band that played the kind of new-wave-tinged mainstream rock that was so successful for bands like INXS and The Fixx. Members were:

• Ashton Liburd: voice
• Boy: guitar synthesizer
• Tony Doyle: lead guitar
• Paul Gold: bass guitars and voice
• Ed Butler: drums and heavy percussion

None of these fellows seem to have many credits after Exposure; any info on their later careers is welcome. "Edge" on side 2 (track 8) could have been a hit, I think, but for the most part Exposure was stuck between genres, neither traditional enough nor quirky enough to really break through. Maybe not distinctive enough, either, although still pleasant enough to listen to. Get the vinyl rip here or here.

Onyx - four-song cassette, 1982

One of the great lost bands of the new wave era is Boston-area Onyx, unmentioned in any online music guide, unrepresented in the online music marketplace but for a single 7" 45 of "Call of the Wild" b/w "S.O.S." on GEMM (as of this writing). Between 1981 and 1983 they released just two singles and a four-song cassette that included two songs from the single releases, all on their own Nu-Age label. They sound like a three-piece: acoustic drums (sometimes phase-shifted), a heavy electric bass that serves as the lead instrument, and keyboards that create a spacey atmosphere; the overall effect is of a more beat-heavy Krautrock. The female vocalist does not sing, but whispers or recites a narrative over the driving instrumental backing. "S.O.S." is particularly infectious:



Presented here is a rip of the cassette, the full track listing being:

1. S.O.S.


2. Robot World


3. Jet Set


4. Planet X

Total playing time is about 23 minutes. I don't have the actual cassette handy, so the picture above is just a reconstruction; there was no cover art. Update 9/3/08: I found the tape! The actual cassette is now pictured above.

Update 3/7/09: The two Onyx 45's are now posted here.

Update 1/6/11: see comments for new links.

The Men - Matrix of Compassion

Here is the followup to my post of The Men's first record, Herminutics. Its six songs were all very inspired funk-leaning postpunk. To repeat the basic information from the first post:

Men were a Chicago punk/industrial band from the early 80s, sharing or featuring
ex-members of the more popular band The Mentally Ill. Founded by Snat 5 Records head Art MacQuilkin, they released a 12" in 1981. (The Chicago Punk Database)

That 12" would be Herminutics; they followed it up in 1982 with a full-length album, Matrix of Compassion, which finds them either stretching out or dicking around; it seems to be a little bit of both. About half the songs retain the weird, ACR-ish funk groove from the first record, but in between there is the noir jazz narrative "Sorry," the long blues piss-take "Dead Blue," the straight-up punk rocker "Nutron Baby," and a few slabs of pure weirdness. The band lineup on this record is essentially the same as on the first, but with more details:

Sven Herman: guitars, melodies, and piano
Reggie Mars McFadden: guitars, melodies, and synthesizer
Arthur E. MacQuilkin III: guitar, melodies, and vocals
John Sterling Santee: sax, melodies, percussion

also..
Amy Fischer: vocals on "Remain"
Steve George: drums

The album packaging is interesting in itself: instead of a sleeve it's a cardstock envelope (like Section 25's Always Now) with a square hole cut in the front to expose the record label. All in all it's a great relic of the creative side of the early 80s; get the vinyl rip here or here (new links 1/3/2010). (If you have any information on later musical projects of The Men or its members, please let me know in the comments.)

The Hitmen - Torn Together

The Hitmen's second album, Torn Together (1981), is a big step forward from the first. The songwriting is more distinctive, the arrangements are more imaginative, and the production is a lot punchier (courtesy of Rhett Davies this time). The album's best song, the opener "Bates Motel," was actually written by the drummer, Mike Gaffey, one of three songs that he wrote or co-wrote. There's an excellent fan review of Torn Together here. This would be the last release from The Hitmen; get it here or here. Ben Watkins would appear as a guest vocalist on guitarist Pete Glenister's next project, Gates by the studio concoction "New Asia" (1982). That postpunk masterpiece is available on Mutant Sounds.

The Hitmen - Aim for the Feet

From way back in 1980, here are the first released recordings of Ben Watkins, as far as I know, as the lead singer and secondary guitarist of The Hitmen (not the Australian band). This first album, Aim for the Feet, was released on Urgent Records, a division of Columbia (in the U.S., at least, where my copy of the album comes from). Let's first take a look at the promo sheet for the album (click image for full size and readable text):

Sounds great, doesn't it? Who wouldn't want to listen to an album produced by Rocky Burnett's producer? They needn't have worried about being buried in platinum: unfortunately it's rather generic-sounding New Wave, and barely New Wave at that. There are a few hummable tunes, but overall it's pretty ho-hum. Still, it's essential listening for the Ben Watkins completist. Get it here or here. The second Hitmen album, coming soon, is a great improvement.

New Models - Sight and Sound

Boston-based new wave band New Models released one single ("Permanent Vacation") and a five-song EP, Sight and Sound (PVC Records, 1983). I've never managed to find a copy of the single, but I've had the EP for twenty-odd years. The band was led by Casey Lindstrom (guitar, vocals, synthesizer, songwriting) and also included Steven Thurber (synthesizer, machines, vocals) and Michael Johnson (drums). Lindstrom was already a veteran of the Boston club scene, having previously been a member of The Jets, Easy Action, and others. (There are some fun pics of those early years on his sister's website, Boston Groupie News.) He would later be part of Ric Ocasek's touring band, and then went on to form punk/metal band Shake the Faith. But in 1983 "new wave" was the order of the day, and Sight and Sound is a competent stab at it. The hooks are undeniable, and while the whole thing threatens to slip into AOR cliché at any moment, it never quite does. The overall sound bears a strong resemblance to John Foxx-era Ultravox (especially Systems of Romance), though Lindstrom can't touch Foxx's visionary lyrics. Get it here or here.

Update (4/1): I found mp3's of "Permanent Vacation" on two blogs:
Reckless Country Soul
Killed By Death Records

Growing Up Different: A+B=C

After the (first) breakup of Maryland AOR faves Face Dancer, Billy Trainor and Scott McGinn teamed up with D.J. Long to form the synth-based new wave band Growing Up Different. They recorded one EP, A+B=C; there's no date on it but I think it's 1983. Here it is.

Pretty Poison: Laced

Philadelphia band Pretty Poison were solidly "new wave" before they went mainstream with "Nighttime" and "Catch Me I'm Falling." Here is their 1983 4-song EP, Laced, on their own Svengali label. I've added a bonus track, "Secrets," from the Philly sampler LP I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia on Burn Potential Records, also from 1983. (I'll have that whole album up eventually, with bands including Book of Love, Bunnydrums, and Executive Slacks. Watch this space!)


Laced
Jade Starling on MySpace