This was a great idea for a mix - makes me want to totally rip off your idea. I was *
cough26
cough* in '86, and had some proto-Obnersnob attitudes about a lot of these bands at the time. Turns out I still do.
1.
Public Image Ltd - The Order of Death
It makes sense that this would've been used on
Miami Vice. Very dramatic and atmospheric, full of both dread and big drums and, ultimately, something of an empty gesture. Kinda the pastel blazer in PIL's wardrobe.
2.
DOA - War
Now this takes me back. I remember this was released on the
War On 45 8 song mini album. I think a friend of mine bought it the same day as the debut by Culture Club of all things.
3.
Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio
It has always struck me as strange that this song became any kind of hit. It's so quirky that it probably would've been better, for everything except Stan Ridgeway's bank account, if it had just turned into one of those "lost" classics that could be resurrected on the soundtrack of some present day flick like
Garden State.
4.
Echo and the Bunnymen - Bring on the Dancing Horses (extended)
Yeh. I was already too old and way too much of a music and film snob to see any merit in John Hughes movies. The production on this song is the SOUND of those movies. A wash of mellow melody and those big echoing drums. Still, this is one of the better latter-day Echo & The Bunnymen singles (and, sheesh, it turns out that my concept of time in relation to bands has become fairly ridiculous - I really do consider 1986 or whatever it was to be "latter-day" Echo
).
5.
Dead Milkmen - Bitchin' Camaro
I thought this was pretty funny at the time, but that extended improv opening doesn't even approach comedy anymore. I wonder how songs like "Serrated Edge" and "Big Lizard In My Backyard" have stood the test of time?
6.
The Cure - Killing an Arab
I guess Robert Smith wanted everyone to know he read Albert Camus. I wish he would've come up with a melody for this song instead of the ersatz sitar approximation. Probably my least favorite song on the
Boys Don't Cry release.
7.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11
Oddly enough, this is the first time I've ever heard Sigue Sigue Sputnik. I read a lot about them at the time - this was the band formed by Generation X's Tony James, after all, and I liked Generation X enough. But I remember in an interview, James said that he hired his bandmates based solely on the fact they were skinny. "You can teach someone to play an instrument," he said. "But you can't
teach them to be skinny."
8.
The Vandals - Urban Struggles
Another first for me. What year was this? Sounds a lot like a bunch of the cowpunk stuff I was grooving to - Tex and the Horseheads, Screamin' Sirens, etal. - kinda surprises me I never bought a Vandals album.
9.
The Lazy Cowgirls - Rock of Gibraltar
I really like the Cowgirls but I can see how others would find it pretty blase. They're sort of a glorified bar band that refuses to play any requests and attacks everything at the same tempo and volume. But that's kinda their strength as well. Best served with liquor, in other words.
10.
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Never Understand
Goddammit, did people ever look at you funny when you threw this on the turntable back in '86. Sounds like a dentist's drill boring into enamel while somewhere in the distance an Engelbert Humperdink song is playing. Dunno why it works, but it works.
11.
Ramones - I Want You Around
Within the Ramones I've always preferred Joey's romanticism to Johnny or Dee Dee's more aggressive bamalama - and this is a song that I always seem to forget about - so this is a great addition to the mix.
12.
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Cities in Dust
I gave up on Siouxsie and the Banshees after
The Scream, when it became clear they weren't going to follow the dirty punk direction of songs like "Carcass" and instead were gonna be a bunch of semi-professional hacks. This is nothing egregiously bad, but just doesn't interest me anymore these days then it did back then.
13.
Guadalcanal Diary - Trail of Tears
I can hear why everyone is comparing this to the Barenaked Ladies, but that just proves the Barenaked Ladies aren't totally rotten. Good, dramatic jangle-fests are always welcome.
14.
The Neighborhoods - No Place Like Home
I'm a newbie to the Neighborhoods, and they remind me of a whole bunch of 2nd tier "alternative" 80s bands. That is, they're good enough to have been somebody's favorite band, but overall it's kind of a "had to be there" sorta thang. But I might still become a convert.
15.
Models - Big on Love
Are these the Aussie Models (who put out the
Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Foxtrot album) or a different set of Models entirely? Doesn't sound like the Aussies, but it DOES sound like that Noo Wave dancing with the arms flapping from side to side, Courtenay Cox style.
16.
The Smiths - Frankly Mr. Shankly
I really wanted to like the Smiths back in '83. The reviews of the time made it sound so good (ie: Rolling Stone emphasized the "literate lyrics and razor sharp riffs"). The reviews failed to point out that Morrissey's voice sounded like a calf with its hind leg caught in barbed wire.
17.
New Order - This Time of Night
Another one for the Siouxsie/Echo & the Bunnymen/Models noo wave dance set. Not my thing back in the day. Still not my thing.
18.
Psychedelic Furs - President Gas
I liked Richard Butler's voice, which always struck me as a refinement on Johnny Rotten's yowl. But after their debut, they seemed to get incrementally worse with every release. "Danger" was a good track off this album, as I recall.
19.
Let's Active - Waters Part
This is my favorite Let's Active song, so good stuff on including it on the mix! I went through my Mitch Easter phase around the same time as my Don Dixon phase - figuring eventually both of them would put out something undeniably classic. My, as they say, bad - neither of them ever seemed to pull it all together. Good producers, though.
20.
Tones on Tail - Christian Says
I remember disliking Tones On Tail when they first appeared, lumping them in with all the other trend-hopping Brit bands of the day - but I've come around to appreciate them. You'd think I'd subsequently learn a lesson about knee-jerk prejudices coloring my perception - and maybe I have (but I'm keeping that a secret). Goddamn that drum sound anyway.
21.
The Plimsouls - Inch by Inch
I was playing some Plimsouls to my wife the other day, and telling her how back in '83 I got in a HUGE argument with a short-term girlfriend because she insisted that the Plimsouls were punk. She became a psychologist. If I ever meet her again I'm gonna start that argument up right where we left off, as if no time at all had elapsed, and see if she can find
that mental affliction in her textbooks.
GREAT MIX! Like I said, I love the concept - and out of the 21 tracks I own NONE of them on CD. That's good as gold, Jerry, GOLD.
4/5
