It's about half instrumental and half songs with vocals. All but one song with vocals is in English.
It is what it is...because of course it is...what else could it be?
1 Warning
2 Jamaica Inn
3 Pay the Priest
4 Tension
5 Into Town
6 Albstadt-Rap
7 Dreams go in Opposites
8 Fresh Air
9 Beneath the Surface
10 You Better Run
...
When I say mod/power pop that is just the core of their sound. There is a prominent saxophone in most of their songs and their overall sound has blurred lines that fade into blues rock and new wave and even into the paisley underground scene that was popular in California at that time.
For being a demo tape every song is incredibly well-written and the sound quality is extremely professional. There's not a filler song on this tape. One would think that these guys had experience in songwriting, performing, and recording in a studio. Personally I think this band is made up of members of the San Diego band N-E-1.
The only foundation I have to propose that assumption is that they are from the same area, N-E-1 stopped recording around this time, they look like the same band, and the song "One Two Three" is a cover of N-E-1's song "1-2-3".
1 Willy the Elephant
2 Two People*
3 One Two Three
4 Precious Friend
5 Feed the Fire
6 The Possession
*If you have ever written a song in your life you have an appreciation for great songwriting. Listen to this song. You can learn something from it.
...
This CD compilation was released in 1989 and it is a compilation of Swedish punk/post-punk music from 1978 - 1981.
The first song "Solglasögon" by Docent Död is probably the most well-known but my favorite song on this comp is "Sextiofem" by Grisen Skriker.
...
The A-Side is a kindergarten-political song driven by bass guitar with lots of guitar effects throughout. The B-side is a great 77-style punk song.
A - Disarm
B - Destiny
1 City Nightmare
2 Jeanette
3 Smithers-Jones
4 Brain Train
5 'Cause Blue Notes are the Hepster's Style
6 Hopeless
A - Confusion
B - The Absentee
This one is different. This one has three songs I don't like but the rest are all gems.
Thin End of the Wedge plays a droning slow ballad with female vocals and annoying heavy metal guitar screeching in the background.
The Popes is a little too Danceteria-in-1986 for my taste. New romance dance music.
And It's a Tightrope sounds like three or four Bowie fans playing two or three different songs at the same time. It sounds like an unfinished song.
Now, despite the bad things I said about these bands, none of them are so terrible I have to skip them. I really can play this comp all the way through.
There are some really great moments on here. The first track by The Crack is a got' damn classic. It's from their 1989 album "In Search of..." and it's the best song on that record. That's not my opinion, that's a scientifically provable fact.
I originally got this record for the Andy Pandemonium song which isn't bad but I was happy to hear a Private I.D. song that I didn't have and the ska-inspired track by Southbound - whoever they are.
Suspicious Minds by Mézzoforte is not a cover of the oldies tune but it's a mellow post-punk song with appropriate 80s new wave keyboard and just a slight twist of goth. Bingo Erotica by The Creamies is an odd choice because these guys only released one single in their days (this song isn't on it) but they did record a few other songs and this one is not really one of their best. It's not bad but they have better. I'll post them someday. The 3X song is the most mature song on the record. Well-composed power-pop with an MTV-worthy chorus.* MTV from 1982 I mean.
1 The Crack - Don't You Ever Let Me Down
2 Mézzoforte - Suspicious Minds
3 Andy Pandemonium - Digital Alarm Clock
4 The Creamies - Bingo Erotica
5 Freestate - Solitary Visions
6 This End of the Wedge
7 Shoot the Moon - Strawberry Fields Will Never
8 The Popes - Pope Music
9 The Feel Wasted Ground
10 Southbound - Keep on Winding
11 3X - Echo of Guilt
12 Private I.D.
13 It's a Tightrope - So
*I'm not really trying to see how many hyphens I can put in one sentence. I will someday but today is not that day.
From Discogs: "Arbeit Mächt Frei" is this Cincinnati power punk band's second release,
following the cassette-only "Something For". The record was banned from
many retailers upon release, for it's provocative title as casual
shoppers in consumer record stores missed the connection between the
Nazi slogan, corporate America, and it's effects... The lead off track,
"Bomblast" is a bouncy, happy-sounding ska-tinged song about screwing
through a nuclear war to repopulate the earth, while the backing track
"Rules of Order" is a dark turn on fascism, consumer culture and peer
pressure, ironically predicting the effects of being banned (as this
record soon would be!).
While the original color design was
color, the release was black and white – copies sold at the release
party came with an 8-pack of crayons! A few color covers exist, but most
of these appeared more than 20 years later, as one-offs for the band
members."
A - BomBlast
B - Rules of Order
Henry's Final Dream - Indian Summer 7" (1980)
1 Indian Summer
2 Marketplace
3 Autumn
Henry's Final Dream - I Couldn't Jump 7" (1981)
1 I Couldn't Jump
2 If I Knew (What Love Was)
3 Wardrobe
This is a compilation cassette from Italy. It's a selection of bands who really didn't release anything outside of this compilation and this label didn't release anything but this tape.
A couple of bands had some success - Strike is probably the most successful but Madhouse also released a few things.
The other bands can only be heard on this compilation which can be described as post-punk/goth/metal with some hard rock (think early AC/DC) and even some minimal synth. I mean very minimal amateur synth.
I think the bands Shark Beat and Room 101 had some real potential (even though Shark Bite's song was a cover).
1 Purple Flashes - This is My Right
2 LTD - Watchout
3 The Strike - What'd You Say?
4 Pin Up - Euroamericans
5 Shark Beat - In the Midnight Hour
6 Sub Way - I Can't Wait
7 Madhouse - Madhouse
8 Overthrow Rags - Comunque Duri
9 Chain - Dead Garbage
10 Room 101 - Blood
11 Mabel Violet - Mabel Violet
12 Radio On - Radio On
13 Restless - Make Up
It's hard rocking / post punk / power pop. I don't know what to call it. Too punk for power pop. Not punk enough for punk. Certainly not ska. Lots of 'guitar wank' as I have heard it called.
A - Soldier
B - For Want of a Four-Letter Word
I included the ska 7" in the download. Now you have their entire discography. All four songs - as far as I know. If I'm wrong, please let me know.
This is a mod-with-horns band from Britain in the mid 80s. If you're a fan of Redskins you'll appreciate this band.
This is a very obscure tape that I know nothing about. I bought it off eBay many years ago and the seller told a bit about the band but I didn't retain any of that information except it was a tape that was given to Roddy Moreno. I don't know what his reaction to it was.
1 I Won't Give In
2 Underneath the Arches
3 War Hero
4 The Torch
"Tel Sutton, The Way's frontman/songwriter here... someone linked me to
the YouTube vid today, so, if you'd like, I can offer you something of
an 'upgrade' to flac, with no dropouts.
'The Way' originally formed
as a 'Mod Revival' band in December 1984, with the now well-respected
music author, Tony Beesley, on rhythm guitar. We had a great time,
particularly the night we played the Scarborough Scooter Rally (June
85), but Tony left November 85. This was because I'd wanted the stance
to become far more politicised (living in Mexborough, we'd been right in
the middle of the Miner's Strike) and Tony politely disagreed. I'd
become mates with The Redskins and when they split at the end of 86 I
was already trying to pick up the baton. I recruited three lads from the
best local Colliery bands.
'Strike To Win' was the first of three
E.P.s of original material we recorded between 86-88. A 3* review in
'Making Music', plus a full-page feature in the Morning Star newspaper,
led to a call from Phil 'Porky' Jupitus - then a GoDiscs A&R man -
which in turn led to Peter Jenner offering to help the band get gigs
down in London. The 'Official Dispute E.P.' (1987) followed, and after a
support slot with Attila The Stockbroker we seemed to become one of the
go-to bands for doing benefits. We were always out of pocket, but boy
did we have some laughs. We decided to go all out with the 'All Thy
Might E.P.' (1988), Angelic Upstarts' Mond Cowie producing... him
staying at my mum's and travelling back-and-forth to Fairview Studios
every day was gruelling but brilliantly educational. That tape got us
proper London management, and a step up; our most prestigious being with
Joe Strummer on the 'Rock Against The Rich' tour, New Model Army's
end-of-tour gig in Bradford, and the Mean Fiddler WITH Bradford (the
band - with a great feature review in The Independent). Headlining the
'National Anti-Apartheid Conference' at Sheffield Octagon, Nov87, was
the highlights. We were also on telly, twice!
Towards the end of
1988 we were joined by Tracie Young - fresh out of her Respond deal with
PW - and despite lots of interest - plus an appearance on Yorkshire
Television's 'Calendar' - attempts to get a label to back recording an
album fell through and we dissolved in Jan 1990.
The Way's
bassist, Jonathan White, stayed with me through the bands 'Speedway
Kick' (90-92) and 'The On' (92-94), before rejoining with The Way's
trombonist, Andy Cato, and going on to huge success with Groove Armada
(then Faithless; also replaced Barry Adamson in Magazine for the 'No
Thyself' comeback). We're all still good friends.
I'm currently
finishing my latest band, 'Dada Baba's debut album... possibly the best
thing I've done since my late-90s band, 'Electrascope' (which is
basically is, minus our lead guitarist), and it should be out later this
year.
Cheers for the interest, and for reading my post.
Tel."
Tel, if you read this, thank you for this background on the band. This is a hundred times more information than I was able to find anywhere online.
I am very interested in those other recordings. If you have them you may want to consider uploading them to Bandcamp. Make the music available and maybe make a few quid along the way. You won't get rich, of course, but you might get enough for a decent lunch out of it.
A1 - Who's That Girl
A2 - Liquor Lover
B1 - Fight! (We Got to Use what We Got to Get What We Want)
B2 - Boot Girl
This band here is an early example of how the sound of the Shangri-La's would shape the bands of the 80s.
This one record is all they recorded. It's 60's throwback with 80s new wave mixed in perfectly. Harmonizing female vocals with intermittent male vocals playing early 60's music with 80s instruments.
A - Boys Have Feelings Too
B - Be Careful
I listened to this record a few times before it dawned on me. This was an established talented band that could have made a good record but, in true punk rock fashion, they used this opportunity to say "fuck you" to the music industry instead. Including their own manager, producer, and record label.
It's said that there were only 200 copies of this record made. There was a time in my life that I thought I would never own a copy myself because of how rare and expensive it is.
I finally found a copy and the cover is in shameful condition. I honestly believe that someone pissed on it at some point in the last forty years or so.The record is not very good but I think it's all for good reason. This band could have been bigger but they were held back by the people that were supposed to make them big. They got screwed over. And they make that clear on this record.
For being as rare as it is there are ten copies for sale on Discogs as I write this. And they are cheaper that what I paid for my copy. And I bet most of them have never been saturated in urine.
I included two of the bands 7"s in this download to show what they really did sound like. They had 3 singles but both tracks from one of the singles is on the album so I didn't include that one.
The Method - Chances (1980)
1 Snippets (live)
2 Circular Dreams (live)
3 Making Do (live)
4 Taking Liberties (live)
5 Over, Under, Sideways, Down (live)
6 The Biz
7 Little Lazers
8 Normally Abnormal
9 Poem - The Method Owed
10 Chances
11 Making Music Play
__________________________________________________
The Method - Kings on the Corner 7" (1977)
A - Kings on the Corner
B - Dynamo
________________________________________________
The Method - Taking Liberties 7" (1980)
A - Taking Liberties
B - The Pink Panther
Not too far back in time I was listening to a compilation record called "From the City that Brought You...Absolutely Nothing" and I thought the stand-out song on that record was a song called "Pompeii" by a band called The Hi-Techs. I never heard of The Hi-Techs before then. I had no idea who they were. But, thanks to the awesome power of the internet and Discogs, I immediately found out that The Hi-Techs was a band that preceded my beloved Personal Effects and was made up of members of that band.
I had to find out what else they recorded and it amounts to this - two 7"s and the song from the comp.
I present to you here both 7"s, the song from the compilation, and the first EP by the new incarnation of the band called Personal Effects.
The Hi-Techs - Boogaloo Rendezvous 7" (1980)
A - Boogaloo Rendezvous
B - Subscriptions (are My Subscription)
The Hi-Techs - Screamin' You Head 7" (1981)
A - Screamin' You Head
B - A Woman's Revenge
The Hi-Techs - Pompeii (from the compilation)
Personal Effects - Personal Effects EP (1982)
1 So Hard
2 Magic (I've Been Waiting)
3 Low Riders
4 Love Never Thinks
5 Don't Wake Me
DOWNLOAD both Hi-Techs singles, the song from the comp, and the Personal Effects EP
Zzipp has a 7" that I really love so I was looking for anything else they may have recorded and I found this series. I bought the first volume but the seller sent me the second volume by mistake. I decided to keep it and I bought the first one later.
There are a few good moments but nothing too captivating in either one.
Meeting (1985)
1 Jamback Affair - Peachy
2 Jamback Affair -
3 Jamback Affair - The Party
4 Zzipp - You're Better Off with Me
5 Zzipp - Masochism
6 Zzipp - Groupie
7 Simplex Novum - Innerworlds
8 Simplex Novum - Scratches
9 Simplex Novum - Changing Times
10 Zenith - Division
11 Zenith - Thoughts
12 Zenith - Reminiscence
Meeting II (1986)
1 Between The Sheets - Quasimodo
2 Between The Sheets - Nobody's Born to Lose
3 Between The Sheets - Somewhere
4 Crystal Dark - Observer
5 Crystal Dark - Roman Insanity
6 Crystal Dark - Colorful Ambitions
7 Jane Kelly - Desires
8 Jane Kelly - Heartbreaker
9 Jane Kelly - Endless Dream
10 The Big Sleep - Blue Moon
11 The Big Sleep - Skies are Burning
12 The Big Sleep - Just Before the End
DOWNLOAD Meeting and Meeting II
