Just Missed My Top 200: Mobiles - Drowning In Berlin

Anna Maria and John Smithson's short-lived band Mobiles released only one album, 1982's Drowning In Berlin, before breaking up one year later. The title track reached #9 in the UK with it's eerie vocals and strange, paranoid video.

Follow-up single "Amour Amour" failed to crack the top 40, and it was all downhill from there. I did consider "Drowning In Berlin" for my Top 200, but ultimately it didn't make the cut.

Bonus! Here's "Fear", another great track by Mobiles.

 Be back next week with another song that almost made my list.

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #22: Killer Pussy - Teenage Enema Nurses In Bondage

This coming Sunday is April 1, so to celebrate April Fool’s Day we have a special edition of Awesome Song!  

Killer Pussy was a punk / new wave group out of Phoenix, Arizona that was more of a kitchy novelty act than a band.  They managed to put out a 4-track EP and then cobble together one album during their career, “Bikini Wax”, which is riddled with smutty songs, teenage humor & cheesy jokes.   Exhibiting a trashy punk aesthetic that by 1983 was already pretty well past its expiration date, Killer Pussy was briefly popular and actually got airplay on new wave radio at the time (albeit usually after midnight when censors were already asleep!).  Echoing other radical punky fringe bands like X-Ray Spex and the Plasmatics, Killer Pussy made up for lack of talent with outrageous lyrics & crazy antics.  That said, they could be lyrically clever at times, and were certainly entertaining!  Dr. Demento and Weird Al would be proud of them.

Their most well-known song is this week’s April Fool Awesome Song:  “Teenage Enema Nurses in Bondage”.   Enjoy …. and April Fools !

-WAS

Just Missed My Top 200: A-Ha - The Living Daylights

A-Ha took the #48 spot on my Top 200 with their only appearance, for the song "The Sun Always Shines On TV". Another song by the group I considered including on my list was their Bond theme, the title track from 1987's "The Living Daylights" starring Timothy Dalton as 007. The movie was a middling entry in the James Bond franchise, but the theme song by the Norwegian new wavers is definitely one of the best.

While the movie - and the song - can't quite compare to the magnificence that is 1985's Roger Moore-Duran Duran classic "A View To A Kill" (also starring erstwhile new waver Grace Jones who had a big hit with "Slave To The Rhythm" that same year), "The Living Daylights" is an awesome tune in its own right. 

A-Ha hit #5 in the UK - and a disappointing #103 in the US - with "The Living Daylights", a far cry from the #1 US/#2 UK "A View To A Kill" (still the only Bond theme to ever get the top spot in America). But who can compete with "Bon, Simon le Bon" & the Fab Five? Videos included below.

Be back next week with another great song that almost made my list.

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song Of The Week #21: Brian Ferry - Windswept

The hugely talented and influential Roxy Music started as an avant-garde art house band with Brian Eno involved…  so they were innovative and experimental, even glammy at times.  After Eno left Roxy became more traditionally rock/pop oriented with a dance club aesthetic, and then further matured to where they became almost a smooth, seductive AOR lounge act.  Their final album Avalon is loaded with great songs, including “Take a Chance With Me” which made #111 on Marc's Top 200.  That song was not the most well known song on the album - that accolade goes to “More Than This” - but the entire album is solid straight through, and I love listening to the whole thing in one go.  (Special note: Although “Avalon” was their last studio album, Roxy released a live EP from the Avalon tour called “The High Road” and a double-CD live set as well called “Heart Still Beating” - both of which are simply spectacular).

When Roxy Music broke up in 1983, lead singer Bryan Ferry went back to his solo career.  He had released solo albums before, and now that he had made a big name for himself (and made serious bank) with Roxy Music, he could afford to take his time as he segued back to a solo artist… and did so for 2 years, working on the album “Boys and Girls”.   When “Boys and Girls” came out in 1985 it re-established Bryan Ferry as a top star, hitting the Top 10 in Britain and generating 3 singles.  It’s smooth, seductive and utterly romantic songs burn long and slow like a candle.   Like Avalon, it is fantastic to listen to in one go … 38 minutes of pure bliss (preferably experienced in a bedroom with a partner, hint hint, wink wink).  

Also like Avalon, the most well-known track…. is not today’s Awesome Song!   "Slave To Love" was the first single off “Boys and Girls” and did very well on the charts and I like it very much.  But my current favorite off the album is the tune “Windswept” which has a flow that is dense, moody & atmospheric, a master example of style & class, just like the band Japan’s best work.  Particluarly love the interplay between guitars, basses, winds - romantic New Wave at it’s absolute finest. Enjoy!

-WAS

Bonus! The whole Boys & Girls album on vinyl:

Just Missed My Top 200: Alphaville - Universal Daddy

Here it is, the song Marian Gold refuses to play live anymore. The song that Alphaville is embarrassed of. The song they have disowned.

"Universal Daddy" was the second single off Afternoons In Utopia, the band's 1986 masterpiece. The poppiest single in their entire discography, it became a top 15 hit across Europe and reached #35 on the US dance chart. A success by any measure, right?

Alphavile disagrees. Calling the song "immature", frontman Marian Gold has blacklisted it from the band's concert setlist for the past several decades.

I actually like the song a lot and considered it for my Top 200, on which Alphaville took the #182 ("Big In Japan"), #112 ("Golden Feeling"), and #34 ("Jerusalem") spots. Despite the band's disavowal of the track - and its extremely cheesy video - "Universal Daddy" almost made it as their fourth entry.

Bonus! Here's "Ariana", from Alphaville's 1988 sales disaster The Breathtaking Blue, the album that almost ended their career.

After the one-two gutpunch of the failed pop turn ("Universal Daddy") and then the bomb that was The Breathtaking Blue, it's a wonder that Alphaville was able to right the ship with later songs like "Hurricane"...

..and the amazing "Elegy"...

I also like their version of "High School Confidential" much better than the original by Rough Trade.

Be back next week with another song that didn't quite make the list.

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song of the Week #20: Combo Audio - Romanticide

This week we go back to 1982 and dig deep into the “long-lost cache of awesome New Wave” to pull out a one-hit wonder that is the very essence of early 80s synthpop !

Combo Audio were an Illinois-based band that came and went in a very quick flash.  They released one EP in 1983 and were gone by 1984 despite touring extensively in the American midwest and even opening concerts for U2 & Talking Heads.  Their New Romantic yearnings, flagrant use of synths and melodious songcrafting had everyone listening absolutely convinced that they would be the ‘next big thing’.  Sadly it was not to be. But Combo Audio fortunately left us with one pure nugget of white-hot brilliance before they vanished forever - the song (and equally awesome video) that is …. “Romanticide” !  

Enjoy!

-WAS

Just Missed My Top 200: Pukka Orchestra - Listen To The Radio

The Pukka Orchestra formed in Toronto, Canada in late 1979.
Frontman Graeme Williamson and guitarist Neil Chapman blended post-punk and new wave elements in a quirky, unique mix.

Finally scoring a record deal in 1983, the band released their eponymous debut LP in early 1984. Leadoff single "Cherry Beach Express" got the attention of the alternative rock crowd, becoming favorite on shows like The New Music and City Limits in Canada.

Their second single, "Listen To The Radio" cracked the lower reaches of the Canadian Top 100 and remains my favorite Pukka Orchestra song.

It's difficult to explain the Pukka's style. Best way to do it is to play "Listen To The Radio". If you like it, you will like the rest of their music. If not, you won't!

Here's "Cherry Beach Express" as well.

Be back next week with another song that just missed my Top 200.

WAS's Awesome New Wave Song of the Week #19: The Flying Lizards - Sex Machine

The Flying Lizards were a collective of musicians who made bizarre original works and also “re-imagined” songs by others in their droll, mechanical, British-humoured avant garde style. Deconstruction at it’s finest, the Lizards took apart songs and then rebuilt them form the ground up, using instruments in odd disjointed ways and utilizing industrial machine samples, all overlaid with a cold, emotionless (yet oddly sexy) vocal.  “Money (It’s What I Want)” is their biggest hit and still is played today in movies and on 80s stations. 

My favorite track of their oeuvre, “Sex Machine”, is a rarely-heard track.  In 1984 they released an entire an album of covers called “Top Ten” and on it they covered this James Brown hit.  This one is particularly good because it is a clean, efficient, sparse and minimalist reading - the exact opposite of the emotional, soul-filled, sweaty original.  Genius!  

"Sex Machine" (and the Flying Lizards in general) are an acquired taste… 3:25 of "Sex Machine" is probably enough but if you’ve just got to have more, one of my favorite vinyl appreciation sites has re-mixes of six and eight minutes for you to immerse yourself in!  

Enjoy!
https://myvinyldreams.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/7358/

-WAS

Just Missed My Top 200: Japan - Visions Of China

Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge Japan fan. When it came time to create my Top 200, I pared the choices down to my four favorite Japan songs: "Ghosts" (#163), "Quiet Life" (#123), "I Second That Emotion" (#81), and "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" (#31). But that left some great songs, like "Halloween", "Life In Tokyo", "In Vogue", "Adolescent Sex", "All Tomorrow's Parties", and especially "Visions Of China" out in the cold. Let's fix that, starting now!

The second single off their 1981 Tin Drum LP, "Visions Of China" reached #32 on the UK chart, making the song one of Japan's biggest hits. With it's militaristic percussion and great vocals by David Sylvian, it's some damn good new wave music. "Visions Of China" just missed becoming the fifth Japan song included on my list.

Bonus! Here are "Adolescent Sex" & "In Vogue" as well!

 

Be back next week with another great song that almost made it.