eli@uw-june.UUCP (07/05/83)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- e=ep, s=single, i=import Chocolate Watchband--Best Of--Rhino Dave Edmunds--Information--Columbia Fleshtones--Hexbreaker!--IRS s Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five--New York New York--Sugarhill Los Illegals--Internal Exile--A & M Minutemen--What Makes A Man Start Fires?--SST i Jim Page--This Move Is For Real--Nacksving Standells--Best Of--Rhino Talking Heads--Speaking In Tongues--Sire Elvis Presley--I Was The One--RCA The Replacements--Hootenanny--Twin Tone Teenage Heads--Tornado--MCA (Various Artists)--Starstruck Soundtrack--A & M ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chocolate Watchband--Best Of--Rhino Thank God someone out there is digging into the archives! Rhino strikes again with a reissue/collection of one of the 60's for- gotten greats. Garage-psychedelic rock at its best. Dave Edmunds--Information--Columbia After having this LP in my possesion for a number of weeks, and having had plenty of chances to play it, I've decided that this may rank as the most disappointing album of 1983. Jeff Lynne should be stuffed inside a cello (a small one) for his overproduced waste of Edmunds' talents, and Edmunds himself should be slapped around a bit for allowing it to happen. Maybe we could send notes to Edmunds and Lowe, allegedly signed by the other, and... Fleshtones--Hexbreaker!--IRS The Fleshtones are back! The liner notes on Hexbreaker! freely proclaim influences of 60's garage bands (Standells et. al.) and the music inside does them justice. This is one hell of a FUN record -- and that's something I can say about very few new releases. Buy it. Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five--New York New York--Sugarhill The latest rap-lament from the gang that legitimized the form for radio (or at least for cross-over New Music radio). Conditions in The Big Apple have not picked up too much, giving the GM and his FF plenty to complain about. As a musical form I find this very interesting, but as enjoyable music it's extremely de- pressing. Los Illegals--Internal Exile--A & M A Chicano band from LA's barrio. Wave-esque rock'n'roll played with alot of force and some lryical ingenuity. Not the catchiest of records, but certainly worth a listen. Minutemen--What Makes A Man Start Fires?--SST Ouch! With all of the syntho-drabness around lately I've found that I >need< to listen to hardcore (or just plain hard-rock) more and more. Luckily there are bands like The Minutemen... artistic bands with a sense of humor and an ability to pull out all of the stops. Although they no longer keep true to their original con- cept (all songs under one-minute in length), they're now able to write songs that sustain for a minute-twenty, or even two-minutes. This is another must buy. Jim Page--This Move Is For Real--Nacksving I used to see Jim Page performing his Dylanesque folk songs on the streets of Berkeley. As I understand it he is from Seattle, where he also built quite a reputation as a street performer. However, he never seemed to be able to move beyond this in the USA, and so now he spends alot of his time abroad, especially in Sweden where he is apparently very popular. This LP was recorded in Sweden with an electric backing band, and is probably rather difficult to find. Socially relevant lyrics with a folk-rock-pop backing make this well worth the look. (The title by the way refers to the fact that our actor turned president may be finding the job a bit more difficult than expected, since there are no cue cards...) Standells--Best Of--Rhino Rhino Rhino Rhino! Another 60's garage-rock band finds the light of day! This LP contains a few things that are not on the German import Standells collection, so serious Standells collectors should take a look, as well as those of you who are just starting to launch "forward into the past." Talking Heads--Speaking In Tongues--Sire Hmmmmm... Everyone's proclaiming this a masterpiece, so it's almost hard to make up your own mind. I don't find this as immediately impressioning (not likely a word, but...) as the pop-minimalism of "Talking Heads '77" or as hook filled as the commerically oriented "More Songs About Buildings and Food." I guess the band's ideas and my listening preferences started to split into different directions. Some of "Fear of Music" caught my ear, but not in the same way as the first two LPs. This new one is yet another step forward for Byrne and Co., but again I'm not sure if I'm on the same path. The quirkiness that worked so well on their first LP seems a bit heavy-handed on the new one, the pounding rhythms a bit too punchy. "Burning Down the House" is an immensely compelling dance-tune, and other cuts are also quite listenable, but all in all it doesn't strike me as a classic. It sounds like alot of form without a huge amount of substance. Elvis Presley--I Was The One--RCA Yet another reissue from the Elvis archives of RCA. This one is mostly rockabilly. Nothing new, but not a bad collection. Teenage Heads--Tornado--MCA This band, out of Canada, had a rockin' import a year or so ago, featuring the swingin' tune "Let's go to Hawaii" (not to be con- fused with The Young Canadians "Hawaii"). Shortly thereafter they appeared as a "punk" band in the punksploitation film "Class of 1984" (see this horrid film at all costs!). And now they've got an Ep out domestically that, unfortunately, shows them to be a barely competent ROCK band (you have to say that with a rather ferocious tone in your voice "RRRAAAAAHHHHHK"). The first cut on the second side sound remarkably similar to The Ramones, which is good for lots of phone calls when played on the radio. Don't bother with this one. (Various Artists)--Starstruck Soundtrack--A & M This is the soundtrack from an Australian new wave dance romance comedy. The film itself was rather disappointing to me (I know, write about that in net.movies), but the soundtrack is quite another story. It didn't really strike me while watching the film, but listening to the LP a few days later I realized how good the sound- track is. The "stars" of the LP are two (or three) cuts by The Swingers (remembered for their hit "Counting The Beat"). But there are also many good cuts by the film's female lead Jo Kennedy. All in all a fine disc of upbeat pop almost showtunes.
eli@uw-june.UUCP (07/05/83)
Relay-Version:version B 2.10 5/3/83; site wjh12.UUCP Posting-Version:version B 2.10 5/3/83; site uw-june Path:wjh12!genrad!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!uw-june!eli Message-ID:<495@uw-june> Date:Tue, 5-Jul-83 16:58:40 EDT Organization:U. Washington, Computer Sci ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- e=ep, s=single, i=import Chocolate Watchband--Best Of--Rhino Dave Edmunds--Information--Columbia Fleshtones--Hexbreaker!--IRS s Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five--New York New York--Sugarhill Los Illegals--Internal Exile--A & M Minutemen--What Makes A Man Start Fires?--SST i Jim Page--This Move Is For Real--Nacksving Standells--Best Of--Rhino Talking Heads--Speaking In Tongues--Sire Elvis Presley--I Was The One--RCA The Replacements--Hootenanny--Twin Tone Teenage Heads--Tornado--MCA (Various Artists)--Starstruck Soundtrack--A & M ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chocolate Watchband--Best Of--Rhino Thank God someone out there is digging into the archives! Rhino strikes again with a reissue/collection of one of the 60's for- gotten greats. Garage-psychedelic rock at its best. Dave Edmunds--Information--Columbia After having this LP in my possesion for a number of weeks, and having had plenty of chances to play it, I've decided that this may rank as the most disappointing album of 1983. Jeff Lynne should be stuffed inside a cello (a small one) for his overproduced waste of Edmunds' talents, and Edmunds himself should be slapped around a bit for allowing it to happen. Maybe we could send notes to Edmunds and Lowe, allegedly signed by the other, and... Fleshtones--Hexbreaker!--IRS The Fleshtones are back! The liner notes on Hexbreaker! freely proclaim influences of 60's garage bands (Standells et. al.) and the music inside does them justice. This is one hell of a FUN record -- and that's something I can say about very few new releases. Buy it. Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five--New York New York--Sugarhill The latest rap-lament from the gang that legitimized the form for radio (or at least for cross-over New Music radio). Conditions in The Big Apple have not picked up too much, giving the GM and his FF plenty to complain about. As a musical form I find this very interesting, but as enjoyable music it's extremely de- pressing. Los Illegals--Internal Exile--A & M A Chicano band from LA's barrio. Wave-esque rock'n'roll played with alot of force and some lryical ingenuity. Not the catchiest of records, but certainly worth a listen. Minutemen--What Makes A Man Start Fires?--SST Ouch! With all of the syntho-drabness around lately I've found that I >need< to listen to hardcore (or just plain hard-rock) more and more. Luckily there are bands like The Minutemen... artistic bands with a sense of humor and an ability to pull out all of the stops. Although they no longer keep true to their original con- cept (all songs under one-minute in length), they're now able to write songs that sustain for a minute-twenty, or even two-minutes. This is another must buy. Jim Page--This Move Is For Real--Nacksving I used to see Jim Page performing his Dylanesque folk songs on the streets of Berkeley. As I understand it he is from Seattle, where he also built quite a reputation as a street performer. However, he never seemed to be able to move beyond this in the USA, and so now he spends alot of his time abroad, especially in Sweden where he is apparently very popular. This LP was recorded in Sweden with an electric backing band, and is probably rather difficult to find. Socially relevant lyrics with a folk-rock-pop backing make this well worth the look. (The title by the way refers to the fact that our actor turned president may be finding the job a bit more difficult than expected, since there are no cue cards...) Standells--Best Of--Rhino Rhino Rhino Rhino! Another 60's garage-rock band finds the light of day! This LP contains a few things that are not on the German import Standells collection, so serious Standells collectors should take a look, as well as those of you who are just starting to launch "forward into the past." Talking Heads--Speaking In Tongues--Sire Hmmmmm... Everyone's proclaiming this a masterpiece, so it's almost hard to make up your own mind. I don't find this as immediately impressioning (not likely a word, but...) as the pop-minimalism of "Talking Heads '77" or as hook filled as the commerically oriented "More Songs About Buildings and Food." I guess the band's ideas and my listening preferences started to split into different directions. Some of "Fear of Music" caught my ear, but not in the same way as the first two LPs. This new one is yet another step forward for Byrne and Co., but again I'm not sure if I'm on the same path. The quirkiness that worked so well on their first LP seems a bit heavy-handed on the new one, the pounding rhythms a bit too punchy. "Burning Down the House" is an immensely compelling dance-tune, and other cuts are also quite listenable, but all in all it doesn't strike me as a classic. It sounds like alot of form without a huge amount of substance. Elvis Presley--I Was The One--RCA Yet another reissue from the Elvis archives of RCA. This one is mostly rockabilly. Nothing new, but not a bad collection. Teenage Heads--Tornado--MCA This band, out of Canada, had a rockin' import a year or so ago, featuring the swingin' tune "Let's go to Hawaii" (not to be con- fused with The Young Canadians "Hawaii"). Shortly thereafter they appeared as a "punk" band in the punksploitation film "Class of 1984" (see this horrid film at all costs!). And now they've got an Ep out domestically that, unfortunately, shows them to be a barely competent ROCK band (you have to say that with a rather ferocious tone in your voice "RRRAAAAAHHHHHK"). The first cut on the second side sound remarkably similar to The Ramones, which is good for lots of phone calls when played on the radio. Don't bother with this one. (Various Artists)--Starstruck Soundtrack--A & M This is the soundtrack from an Australian new wave dance romance comedy. The film itself was rather disappointing to me (I know, write about that in net.movies), but the soundtrack is quite another story. It didn't really strike me while watching the film, but listening to the LP a few days later I realized how good the sound- track is. The "stars" of the LP are two (or three) cuts by The Swingers (remembered for their hit "Counting The Beat"). But there are also many good cuts by the film's female lead Jo Kennedy. All in all a fine disc of upbeat pop almost showtunes.