Shoes - Tomorrow Night

Shoes - Tomorrow Night [1978]

More great non-hits and memories. Here's another slice of lo-fi power pop, this time with more of a garage/freakbeat influence. Shoes achieved a pretty incredible sound on this single considering it was a do it yourself in the basement job. The mellifluous vocals and crunchy driving guitars are perfect for each other like other stuff that's perfect for each other. 

Unsurprisingly when Shoes later signed to Electra Tomorrow Night was re-recorded, in a plush studio with a producer, for release during power pop's premier year of 1979 but it still failed to crack the top 40... Shoes are undoubtably the most legendary coulda-been group of the era. I mean these tunes just belong on the radio... 

Other Boys Do · The Toms

The Toms - Other Boys Do (1979)

Fuck yes! Bringing you all the olden days jams and non hits and memories. 

1979's the golden year for new wave power pop and the new wave of power pop innit. Other Boys Do is from the lo-fi cult classic album The Toms. Tom Marolda was the Ariel Pink of his era: He sang, played all the instruments and recorded the entire thing on his own in his New Jersey home, coming up with the most charming record of 1979 in the process. 

20/20 - Out Of My Head

20/20 - Nuclear Boy [1981]

Back again with 20/20 and this their second LP. They up the new wave ante here for a blistering guitar driven pop classic. Ace guitar, large harmonies and even larger bass and drums all delivered with great gusto. We're all nuclear boys living in a nuclear world. 

20/20 - Out Of My Head [1981]

Now for the other absolute banger from 20/20's Look Out record. It's got that bass line from The Supremes that's also been recycled by the likes of Iggy Pop, The Jam and er... Jet. This is the best usage though innit. Try not to dance around your lounge room to this one. These guys are right on the money with their youthful exuberance, enthusiastic harmonies and smokin' rhythm section. Hard to believe this wasn't a worldwide smash hit. 

1981 Baby!   

Phil Seymour - Precious To Me

Phil Seymour - Precious To Me [1981]

A song with a memory hidden in the deep recesses of my mind. 

I am sure I haven't heard this since 1981 when I was 9. When heard yesterday my mind went "Fuck yes I love this" Then I thought this must have been a hit here in Australia and yes indeed it was a number 6 smash that went gold. I even enjoyed the key change which had me thinking that it was probably Stock, Aitken and Waterman's overuse of this songwriting trick that made me averse to such things, actually this might be the greatest most affective key change in a pop song ever... anyway Phil Seymour played drums and bass in the Dwight Twilley Band and also contributed a guest appearance on the debut album by 20/20 featured in the previous post.

Precious To Me's got layers and layers of nostalgia, history, tradition and meaning. I think this is the greatest 80s rediscovery I've made this year. I just can't believe how fucking infectious this tune is. You can have your Badfingers and Big Stars, Phil Seymour's the real deal baby!

Yellow Pills · 20/20

[1979]

Yellow Pills is at that perfect intersection of power pop and new wave. Chucking an unruly and abrasive synth into a slice of pure melodic guitar pop  is a genius manoeuvre.  

20/20 - Sheri [1979]

Also it's hard to deny this hook laden anthem. Melodic. Energetic. Electric.

 

20/20 - Tell Me Why (Can't Understand You) [1979]

This one's more on the mid tempo tip. So Beatle-esque it reaches ELO-like proportions. The infectious stuttered "T-T-T-T-Tell Me Why" chorus is peak new wave gloriousness. Concluding with lengthy psych interlude that includes spacey bass, backwards guitars, synth, spooky backmasked vocals and an epic fade out.

It's Friday night, Rewind Baby!

Jungle Rot · George Brigman

Jungle Rot - George Brigman [1975]

I think I bought the Jungle Rot cd reissue cd in the 00s mainly because of this photo accompanying the review which caught my eye in a magazine. It pictured three young burnout dudes hanging out in an abandoned house in nowheresville USA during the mid 70s. 

If someone told you this opening title track was a Chrome demo from 1977 you'd believe them, with its fantastic acid fried fuzz guitars and snarling vocals. 

Most of the rest of the LP doesn't really follow this style. There's a couple of tunes in a similar vein but the rest is more low key, comprising throwback 60s garage, some blues and stoner psych noodling with hints of of Velvets circa 3rd LP, The Stooges, Blue Cheer, probably The Groundhogs... anyway, an eclectic curio it definitely is.

It's Misery - George Brigman [1975]

It's the creepy stoner fuzz jamz that this teenage three piece from Baltimore excel in though.

Modern Eon - Fiction Tales

[1981]

One of the great post-154 albums. If you like your post-punk nice and gloomy yet sometimes uplifting, the incredibly dreamy Fiction Tales LP is for you. Along with Alex Johnson's inventive idiosyncratic vocal style & melodies we get serious post-punk drummage, classic goth bass lines and an array stellar dreamlike guitar textures. Chuck in weird atmospheric sound fx, a bit of piano, synth waves and some sax on a coupla tracks and that's your lot. While similar smaller bands of the era, Chameleons, The Sound, Sad Lovers & Giants etc. now have huge cult followings this Liverpudlian group still seem to get overlooked surprisingly.   

Laura Branigan - Self Control

80s, 80s, 80s! 

More tunes about adult concerns with darkly glamorous themes. 

"I'm living in the forest of a dream"

When being sexy was all about hair in your eyes and wearing an off the shoulder oversized jumper sans pants.

Shonky dancing alert! The daggy Branigan shenanigans begin at the 1.48 minute mark.

I totally forgot this song existed, I don't reckon I've heard it since 1984. . . This tune is way better than I recall. The state of the art 80s pop production is fucking sensational. It's synth-y, it's funky, it's disco, it's rock... it's 1984 baby.

*Things I didn't know in 1984: 

Self Control had Harold Faltermeyer on the synth. 

The video was directed by William Friedkin. 

Laura Branigan had no Italian heritage whatsoever which is surprising... we probably all assumed she was half Italian as she did a whole bunch of covers of Italian pop songs including this one.  

Don Henley - The Boys Of Summer

Still love this... probably still the best song of the 80s since I bought the 7" in 1985. 

Your Love · The Outfield

[1986]

Your Love is like the Monopoly man's monocle. Did it even exist in the 80s? I don't recall this band at all. Not on any music video shows or in music magazines or in the record shops during the 80s. This song was not a hit here in Australia or any soundtracks that I I know. The Mrs who grew up in Wales was a Smash Hits reader, TOTP viewer and all round pop music fan also does not recall the song. Yet when I heard it the other day I sang along like I'd known it all my life. So I'm guessing it's just been played on radio since the 80s. Maybe it's just so generic that I could just predict the lyrics and where the melody would go. Who knows? 

Anyway this is a great little power pop tune that was a big hit in America and Europe. Interestingly Your Love became a gold record in the UK despite the fact it only ever made it to number 83 on the British charts. It's all rather mysterious. It's a non existent monocle of a song. 

"You can put these songs on while you're driving or play them at a high school dance. They makes you feel good." Said the Outfield dudes who were surprisingly from the East End in London and not heartland America. The only English band from the 80s that were so uncool they looked like they were either from Canadia or Australia. When wearing a singlet with a matching mullet in your film clip was heroic.

They outdid The Cars, Foreigner, Mr Mister and Bryan Adams at their own game and created THE anthem of the era. I'm pretty sure the world agrees with over a billion plays of Your Love on spotify and 800 million views on youtube of the music video.