Jambon Street - Epatite Virale 7" (1983)

Quirky 80s new wave rock with a bit of 50s-throwback saxophone. They were from Italy and both songs are sung in Italian. This might be the only thing they ever released.

Is it good? Is it bad? Who knows. But it is rare. That's what counts here.

A - Epatite Virale

B - Lettera

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Bleistift - Bleistift (1981)

There is a 7" record from the Netherlands released in 1980 called "17 to 7 on 33" which was 7 bands who paid for the release by paying per minute. There were two bands who had a song that was exactly 1 minute long and the other 5 bands had songs that were exactly 3 minutes each. So 17 minutes by 7 bands at 33 rpm.

I no longer have this record and I really don't remember what it sounds like but I remember I wasn't very impressed with any of the bands except for this one. Bleistift ('Pencil'). I kept their song "Looking Swell" and found out they had one album. I don't think the album maintained the same quality of that first song but it is what I was expecting.

New wave guitar rock. No keyboards or horns. Up-tempo but too mellow to be punk. Not gothic enough to be goth. Too much structure to be 'experimental' or 'art rock'.  A voice that takes some getting used to. You know, the kind of stuff I post on this blog.

I included "Looking Swell" with this download. 

1 Utang
2 Ambition
3 Mirrors
4 Wishing Having
5 Refuse to Wait
6 French Movie
7 Gun
8 Eyes of Children
9 Showroom
10 Reggae Sessie
* Looking Swell

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Quad Pi - Quad Pi 7" (1981)

A1 - In Near You
A2 - Dhicks
B1 - Mortville
B2 - Laugh Line

Hear "In Near You" HERE.

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Atila

Atila was a California band that was something between no-wave and anarcho-punk with influences from every genre. Dub, country, funk, disco, Middle Eastern folk music. It's all there. It's noisy. It's terrible but, at the same time, enjoyable.

Their first release from 1981 was a self-titled 5-track 7" that was re-released as "Rocker" with a different cover.

The second release from 1982 was a 4-track 7" simply titled "2" (pictured above).

They released their first album in 1983. It was called "International Sandwich" and it was more a study in different styles and sounds than a serious attempt at songwriting.

Then they released their final offering in 1985. It's an 8-track album that has some of their best stuff. It's called "Looking for Love".

They had three songs on compilations but all three are available on these four recordings here so I believe this is everything the band ever released.

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va 91X Local Heroes

This is a compilation of local bands from San Diego from 1984.

1 Glory House - You'll Always be There (The Reading)
2 D-Fendants - Empty Pockets
3 Laws of Motion - Massive Doses
4 Shades of May - Distant Memories
5 Mojo Nixon with Skid Roper - Ain't Got Nobody
6 Marty Eldridge - Purple Heart
7 The Neat - In a Daydream
8 Playground Slap - Pictures of Age
9 The Beat Farmers - Lost Weekend / Happy Boy (live)

I'm not a big Mojo Nixon / Skid Roper fan so I don't know a lot about them but I think this song is unique to this record. I know Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper released a lot of other music and the Beat Farmers were pretty prolific but few of the other bands did anything else which is a shame. Laws of Motion released a 12" EP called "Check it in the Mirror". Shades of May only ever released that one song but they later changed their name to Red Flag and they have been releasing music continuously since their first album in 1989. 
The Playground Slap released an EP which is included in this download.

1 I Felt the Wind Blow
2 Thirst
3 The Ocean
4 Blue Funk
5 There's Repetition

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Tune Out's Favorite Tunes of 2019

1 Black Mirror - Leather
2 Trauma Harness - Bat Barn
3 Growth Spurt - Bedroom
4 Dengue Fever - One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula
5 The Glow in the Dark Cabaret - Shine, Oh Boy, Shine
6 Warm Red - Yeah, Man
7 No Sabes - Terminal Strike
8 Alter De Fey - Elisa Lam
9 Clay Allison - Paul Says
10 Sun Dog - Surf in D Minor
11 Last Night - People's Lies
12 Cape Weather - Never Says
13 Negative Space - Eternal Rotation
14 The No-Counts - Sleep Forever
15 Gesture - Dignity
16 Plastic Mackeral - Blown Away
17 Sue and the Namies - Coke Bros.
18 Beach Towels - Stereo Girlfriend
19 Thee Dead Black Diddley - Lust
20 Endless Column - Catching Up
21 Conditioner Disco Group - It's Okay to be Alone
22 Sharkmuffin - Serpentina
23 Pig Frenzy - Consent = Creeps
24 French Vanilla - All the Time
25 Tame - Molars
26 Jack Oblivion - Lone Ranger of Love
27 Los Coejos - Yesterday
28 Goodnight Gunfight - Creepy

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Caught In The Act - Caught In The Act 12" EP (1984)

There are different kinds of 'new wave'. The most popular was the pop-styled keyboard-driven dance type.
This New York band is new wave but it's more of the "female punk vocals, distorted rock guitar, squeaky no-wave saxophone" variety. No keyboards and nothing to dance about. Not great, but really good.

1 Caught in the Act
2 My Imagination
3 Watch Out for that Dike Ike
4 Rat Race
5 Dance with Me
6 Into the Future

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The Subterraneans - Subterranean Observation (1981)

I recently did a post about The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet and it was mentioned that this band was suspected of being the band we're all looking for.

This band and album can confidently be marked off the list. This is not it.

The Subterraneans were a punk/post punk/ experimental new wave band. This is probably their only recording and even though I really like this sort of thing I think they could have practiced just a little bit more before recording it.
It was recorded "live in the studio" which may have been why they're falling a little short in my opinion. There are some creative moments and I think they would have been great live.

1 Empires Must Fall
2 The Observer
3 Overdose of Time
4 The Kind of Love I can Afford*
5 Sweet Spider Music
6 Having Fun in the City
7 Blame
8 Good Manners and Style
9 In the Wee Small Hours

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*Discogs has this as two separate songs but there are only 9 tracks on the tape, not ten.

The Naturals

The Naturals were an Australian post-punk/new wave/pop band who had a hit with the song Devil Smile. I'm not sure that they ever released anything aside from these two singles or what the members did outside of this band.

Imagine music inspired by Nick Cave (from that era) with a vocalist inspired by Bjork (from that era).

They made a video for Devil Smile.

The Naturals - Devil Smile 7" (1985)
A - Devil Smile
B - This is the One

The Naturals - On the Alert 7" (1985)
A - On the Alert
B - Flying Mattress

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Streetcar Eyes - Time After Time EP (1983)

Non-threatening new wave on this one. Professional sounding new wave rock with occasional saxophone. I'm all for positivity but this band was a little to cheery for my taste. Is bubblegum-new wave a thing?
The song "I'm in it for the Fun" is my favorite song on the record. It has a bit of a ska influence.

This band does not have much of an internet presence so I'll tell you a bit about them:

They were formed in California in July of 1983 by three members of a band called Third Raile
*Red Jenkins - vocals and guitar
*Lane Vallier - bass and vocals
*Jim Briggs - sax and vocals

The drummer Barry "Snoop" Smith was the new addition to the lineup.  He played previously in bands Scoundrels, Rage, and The Rings.

The band formed with the intention of doing something different than the same old club sounds that were popular in L.A. and San Diego and wanted to focus more on vocal harmonies and stripped-down instrumentation and less on synthesizers.

Their biggest claim to fame is having recorded the song "The Chicago Blitz" that was used in the early 80s as the theme song for the US Football league team The Chicago Blitz.

They didn't focus too much on cover songs and had written and played over 20 original songs. It's not known if any of the songs that are not on this EP were ever recorded in a studio.

Anyone But Me
Cause and Effect
Caveat Emptor
Closer
Get Back Too
Gypsy Border
I'm in it for the Fun
It's Over
Just What Raymond Needed
Our Mirror
Red Head Blues
Reputation
Save One for Me
Springtime
Streetcar Eyes
The Next Door
Time After Time
Time in the Hand
Want You
Whispers in the Night 

The four songs on this record are:
 
1 Time After Time
2 I'm in it for the Fun
3 Whispers in the Night
4 Closer

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