You Should Hear This: 1985

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:38 am

Let's do this again.

PopTodd · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:20 pm

When I think 1985, the first thing that I think of is the double-shot of monster rock that the Huskers laid out that year. Amazing to think that this one band could put out TWO such records in a 12-month period. The only other band that I can think of that did the same was The Beatles.

The first of the 2 records -- New Day Rising -- is about as perfect as punk gets. The opening salvo, whose only lyrics are the name of the album repeated over and over, is one of the great album openers of all time, IMO. After that, there are hints at the more-melodic direction that the band is heading, especially in the Grant songs like "Books About UFOs" and "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill." Still, Bob's songs are moving that way too, if a little more-carefully.

Then, Flip Your Wig, was just about a full-blown punk/pop record, but with more emphasis on the punk aspect. Still, again, the title track is gorgeous in its own fuzzed-out way. And even Bob was embracing his more-melodic side with songs like "Makes No Sense at All" and "Hate Paper Doll."

These are probably my 2 favorite Husker records, and yes that does include the (overlong) "masterpiece" Zen Arcade.

thisotherkingdom · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:25 pm

This should be good. I only have five albums on my hard drive from 1985 and Todd just named two of them.

Stone · **Joined:** Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:27 am **Posts:** 1562

This was the year I really got into "alternative" and punk music, so there's a ton I could say, but we'll start with these:

Stone · **Joined:** Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:27 am **Posts:** 1562

thisotherkingdom Wrote:

This should be good. I only have five albums on my hard drive from 1985 and Todd just named two of them.

Wow. Do you have Tim, Meat Is Murder, 3-Way Tie (for last), Hounds of Love, or Rain Dogs?

Radcliffe · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:16 pm

Danny & Dusty The Lost Weekend

Recorded during a 3 day drinking binge, the Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn and Green On Red's Dan Stuart brought along members of their own bands as well as 3/4 of the Long Ryders for this unexpectedly awesome one-off (actually, I just learned they reconvened for a 2nd album in 2007 - tracking it down right now). This album came when Dan Stuart was at the top of his game - Green on Red also released Gas Food Lodging and No Free Lunch this same year - and he felt audacious enough that the D&D cover of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" included an extra verse he wrote himself (and claimed was better than anything Dylan ever wrote).

AMG Wrote:

For years, legend had it that this "Paisley Underground" supersession — starring Dan Stuart from Green on Red and Steve Wynn from the Dream Syndicate, with three-quarters of the Long Ryders joining members of the two above-mentioned groups as the backing band — was recorded in a mere three days over a long weekend in 1985. In his liner notes to the 1996 CD reissue, Wynn sets the record straight; actually, the basic tracks were cut in a single beer-fueled recording session (lasting a whopping 36 hours), with the guys calling it quits on Saturday night in order to give themselves Sunday to recover. Fortunately, their muses appear to have been knocking 'em back right alongside them; The Lost Weekend is often sloppy, but just as frequently inspired, with Stuart and Wynn throwing their best Dylan-gone-goofy wordplay at each other, and the players (especially Chris Cacavas on piano and Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy on guitars) generating a good and greasy faux-country groove that sounds like a well-oiled honky tonk band having some left-of-center fun before last call. Most of the cuts are played for a laugh, or at least a smirk (most notably "The Word Is Out" and "Song for the Dreamers"), but "Miracle Mile" and "Down to the Bone" prove that the darker sides of Stuart and Wynn's musical personas could still cut through the boozy haze, and "Send Me a Postcard" is a lovably wobbly buddy number that makes the guys sound like a post-modern Waylon and Willie. For the most part, The Lost Weekend is studiedly non-serious, but for sheer entertainment value it's stood the test of time better than much of Steve Wynn and Dan Stuart's official product from the period; it's wiry roots rock that's low on pretension and high on good times. Or cheap beer.

Not my link:

Code:

http://www.multiupload.com/CDFQZB5E3V

shmoo · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:24 pm

Thanks for doing these again, Drinky!

Stone already mentioned it, but the first album I thought of for this year is:

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

Probably my favorite Waits album.

thisotherkingdom · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:34 pm

Stone Wrote:

thisotherkingdom Wrote:

This should be good. I only have five albums on my hard drive from 1985 and Todd just named two of them.

Wow. Do you have Tim, Meat Is Murder, 3-Way Tie (for last), Hounds of Love, or Rain Dogs?

Only Tim out of those.

Radcliffe · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:37 pm

Slow - Against the Glass (ep)

I've pimped these guys many times before. For the uninitiated, Slow was one of the greatest, most chaotic bands to ever stalk the Earth. They're also quite possibly ground zero for what would later be known as grunge, but I'm sure the band themselves would sneer in disgust at such an accusation. But the fact is back in '85 there really wasn't much else that sounded like them. This was punk rock, played with the genre's typical fuck you attitude, but Slow extended that fuck you to include punk itself by simultaneously embracing rock 'n' roll past while pushing the envelope into the future and the needle deep into the red.

Not my link:

Code:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IMUJXO46

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:42 pm

thisotherkingdom Wrote:

Stone Wrote:

thisotherkingdom Wrote:

This should be good. I only have five albums on my hard drive from 1985 and Todd just named two of them.

Wow. Do you have Tim, Meat Is Murder, 3-Way Tie (for last), Hounds of Love, or Rain Dogs?

Only Tim out of those.

I don't have a whole lot from this year myself. Of those mentioned, I have all but Hounds of Love, and Rain Dogs is my favorite album of the year.

I actually don't like those particular Minutemen, Replacements*, or Smiths albums that much.

*This is an old opinion that I should probably revise, but I still don't like the 'Mats very much in general.

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

1985 was a huge year for a young billy g

Meat is Murder
Head on the Door
First B.A.D. album
Tim
REM - Fables
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good

Most of those albums just haven't aged that well. Tim is the exception.

Best albums to my ears not yet pimped:

Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - Easy Pieces
The Dentists

I'll also throw some love out to a couple reggae albums:

Brigadeer Jerry - Jamaica Jamaica
Gregory Isaacs - Private Beach Party

nobody · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:10 pm

3-Way Tie is great, as is New Day Rising.

Also Jesus & Mary Chain: Psychocandy, My favorite Pogues: Run, Sodomy & the Lash, LL Cool J: Radio, RUN DMC's King of Rock. Los Lobos: Will the Wolf Survive, Jason & the Scorchers: Lost and Found, Green on Red: No Free Lunch, Yellowman: King Yellowman. Lots of great stuff, really.

For something truly weird, the recently re-issued Jon Wayne: Texas Funeral from 1985 is pretty interesting.

Rick Derris · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:14 pm

I love both of those Husker albums and I'm a big fan of them but they might be the worst "shuffle" band ever. As in media player shuffle.

When I listen to them in the context of an album I can hear the nuances from song to song even though they're usually working within a pretty specific sonic palate. You can hear all the different melodies and stuff going on from song to song and see how great they were.

But, in the context of shuffle, they usually sound all thin and tinny when compared to whatever came before or after it.

Maybe thin and tinny isn't the right description but I think you get my drift. Maybe it's that drum sound.

Rick Derris · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:16 pm

Also, there are days when Fables is my favorite REM record.

nobody · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:16 pm

New Day Rising is thin and tinny sounding. A better mix on that one would be amazing. The vinyl does sound better than the CD though.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:37 pm

A few months ago (because of these threads, probably) I started going through on RYM and making lists for each year that I have stuff. Like I said, I don't have much from 1985, but this is my Top 10:

1. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
2. Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun
3. Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
4. The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
5. Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians - Fegmania!
6. Camper Van Beethoven - Telephone Free Landslide Victory
7. The Cure - Head on the Door
8. Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising
9. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
10. New Order - Low-Life

There's nothing there that I'd really want to post at length about although I do like them all a lot. Well, the New Order album is just there to kind of round it out and make it a Top 10 instead of a Top 9, and I don't know if I really like it any more than Flip Your Wig (which I like a lot less than New Day Rising).

Radcliffe, thanks for posting that Slow EP. I've actually been getting into some scuzzy '80s rock lately and have been listening to early Butthole Surfers, The Birthday Party (and early Bad Seeds), post-Generic Flipper, and Big Black and a few other things. This seems like it would fit in pretty well although it's obviously a little more rock'n roll, and it does seem kinda proto-grunge. I like those two Youtube clips, anyway.

And I was kind of expecting you to post about the first Giant Sand album. I remember liking it from way back when I went through their whole discography, but I still haven't gotten around to revisiting it. (This is not a request for a link. I'm pretty sure I already have it on my machine at home, and I think I might just by the recent reissue.)

Stone · **Joined:** Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:27 am **Posts:** 1562

Yeah DW, but New Day Rising still could use remastering (even for the vinyl).

nobody · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:42 pm

Oh yeah, I agree. Just saying, it's at least a bit better that way than on the CDs.

Or just fire one up, crank over the bass and blast the volume...sounds just about right like that if I recall correctly.

Dick Meatwood · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:46 pm

I do have New Day Rising and Zen Arcade on vinyl (both are in print, I believe), and yeah, not that much better than the CDs/digital versions. That's just kind of how they sound.

mcaputo · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:53 pm

Yes to Tim, Rain Dogs & Lost Weekend.

billy g · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm **Posts:** 9020

Not sure how I forgot Mars Needs Guitars and that Pogues album. I think Waterboys - This is the Sea was '85 too.

I also was a big fan of Fetchin' Bones - Cabin Flounder back in the day. I think Radcliffe was too. It's not the sort of thing I have a great desire to listen to or pimp now though.

hey look · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:09 pm

glad you continued this, drink.

I'll see if I have anything to contribute when I get home.

e-stone · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:17 pm

yes, thanks for continuing this Drinky. i don't think i have too much, but i will dive into '85 tomorrow.

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:23 pm

nobody Wrote:

Los Lobos: Will the Wolf Survive

This is probably my favorite album from this year and could easily be my favorite Los Lobos album.

I also agree with most of the other oft mentioned choices. Gotta add this one since it was highly influential on Young Yail Bloor:

Yail Bloor · **Posted:** Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:25 pm

Also, maybe not their best work, but Talking Heads' Little Creatures is a damn fine album.

You Should Hear This: 1985

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