The Greatest Post-Punk Bands You Never Heard

These are 2 of my favourite songs ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r7ZxfrW-gE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNnYNHKJHTY

YOU YOU YOU YOOOO

at first i was thinking: 4.5 hours of music to d/l and listen to?! you have got to be kidding. but reading your blog post got me kinda excited at the chance to hear all this stuff in one place. hanx!

Got to admit it's odd to see New Musik in this list as they were never really considered post-punk here in the UK. I may end up voting for them, or the Factory bands, or The Blue Orchids. Tough choice.

Ones I have never heard:

And Also The Trees
Asylum Party
Breathless
Crispy Ambulance
For Against
Happy Refugees
Human Switchboard
The Individuals
Lives Of Angels
Lowlife
The Names
New Musik
Nyam Nyam
Opposition
Sad Lovers and Giants
The Sleepers
Social Climbers
Sort Sol
Trisomie 21

Yeah, looks like Liliput and Essential Logic are just as well known as, say Au Pairs. Oh well. Anyone who haven't heard the 1981 albums by Modern Eon and Opposition should at least check out those songs in the mix.

I would've voted Monoton, if it was the Monoton who did the monotonprodukt releases!

As it is, Kleenex and Pylon are my favourites of those listed, but since those are two of the biggest names on the list and I haven't heard many of the others, I may not be qualified to vote (apart from living up to the thread title).

odd to see New Musik in this list as they were never really considered post-punk here in the UK

Not in the States either, I don't think. They were basically a mid-level early synth-pop band, with at least one album and a 10-inch EP (a "nu-disk") on a major label. "Straight Lines" may have even got a little AOR airplay. It never would've occurred to me to call them post-punk.

Can't vote for the ones I've never heard (unless I'm missing something?) but will rep hard for Josef K. But also love Pylon, that first Virgin Prunes, like Crispy Ambulance and Stockholm Monsters. A lot on there I've never heard or heard of!

xp At the time, though, guess New Musik just would've been classified as "new wave." But not a particularly uncommercial kind. (New Trouser Press Record Guide, 1985: "'Straight Lines' -- preceding Gary Numan's 'Cars' -- nearly crossed over from the dance clubs to the mass market as an import.")

Virgin Prunes has to be one of the better known acts on this list. I've kind of forgotten what they sound like, however.

boycotting because no scientists

"you never heard" say you wrote something, presuming your audience never heard any of 'em so you're telling 'em now. Fine, but since can only vote for one, voted for Essential Logic just because they're alphabetically ahead of my other faves on here, Human Switchboard, Kleenex Liliput, and Pylon. Prob Delta 5 and some others as well, but I'm most familiar with the aforementioned groups, thanks to excellent, extensive reissues. Perfect Sound Forever's Jason Gross instigated both the EL and KL comps, plus the Delta 5 I haven't heard. All of these bands occasionally veer into arty blurs, but most of the time they cut a sharp set of (frequently female) profiles.

Would have been a tossup between Scientists and Desperate Bicycles, but
Pylon were pretty well-mentioned at least during the Athens Inside/Out era. I vaguely recall not especially disliking them.

The Pylon reissues are great, got all the singles-only added. too. Oh yeah, and those Individuals reissues a few years back were mostly better for their bonus tracks; "Fields" is still my fave track, Janet Wygal wailing from the trail, "I walk by your house"--amen, sister!

The Ike Yard collection is awesome too.

Just got a live set with Blue Orchids backing Nico in '82 from Dime last week. Sounds like a good set but I'm not sure how great the sound is.

Please, please: go listen to Feeding the Flame by Sad Lovers & Giants!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSK1lYHH_Ks

Yeah, part of the point of this is to encourage people to hear some of these bands for the first time before voting. Some can't be bothered which is fine. But it's 2013, so anyone who's interested and motivated should have easy access to any and all the bands.

On New Musik's From A to B (Straight Lines) (1980), they seemed to me just as much Factory/Joy Division acolytes as new wave synth poppers, but I probably shouldn't have included them, oh well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mTX83ekglM&feature=youtu.be

There's something about the Desperate Bicycles' "Smokescreen" that touches an Anglophiliac nerve like nothing else from the period. You have to go back to the '60s.

THere was also a Delta 5 live set upped to Dime earlier today. Been several post-punk things from around '82 put up over the last couple of days.

the answer to any poll with pylon is pylon

Now that I think about it more - obviously, there's '70s/'80s Anglophilia as well. But "Smokescreen" is like skiffle or something. It's also the song that makes me think, "This is the punk band who could write songs as good as Neil Innes or someone."

the wake aren't the greatest of all time or anything but they're basically the original wild nothing

My knowledge of this list is spotty at best but Josef K's Sorry For Laughing is great. Someone here alerted me to New Musik's '24 hours from culture' as a proto house tune. Sounds like a Nu Groove b-side.. Will check some more out of this list.. great thread.

it was new musik that had a hit in the uk with living by numbers right? thats the only song of theirs i think i've ever heard, so in my head they're in the same sort of slightly wacky synthpop ballpark as landscape, and even maybe m or the buggles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=creUlGjTJms

lives of angels came up on a similar thread the other day and they turned out to be a nice find. reminded me a bit of the clean or the bats or someone in places but with a nice android drum machine sound going on too

I picked up the digital release of the newish Ike Yard remix 12" featuring Regis and Monoton the other week but had never knowingly heard Ike Yard themselves until tonight. Pretty neat minimal electronic stuff, right up my alley. Thank you thread!

ike yard are a weird band and it boggles me a bit that they were putting out stuff thy did way back when

Man, need to hear more of these! The ones I have heard--Pylon, Josef K, Human Switchboard, Fire Engines, Section 25--are pretty rad

ctrl-f "wipers"

[not found]

:-(

are the wipers more well-known then pylon?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZjUgxgKqHs

I don't want to hijack the thread with more on New Musik but Nick is right in classing them alongside Buggles and M as studio boffins making proto-synth pop, a very 1979-80 thing to do. Certainly they are the only band on this list who I knew of at the time (I was 11 in 1980 and have a distinct memory of seeing them play "Luxury" on "Swapshop"). I'm sure there's an old thread about them on ILM, I can remember myself and Harvey Williams raving about them. Enough about them from me.

Three Wipers albums made the most recent ILM 80s poll so I figured they're pretty well known at least in these parts.

Wipers are definitely well-known. I haven't heard Pylon, I don't think - did they have standing over here or is it more of a US cult following?

ive heard 10 of these

fire engines / theoretical girls were of the first rank of post-punk

wipers had a big boost from cobain fandom amirite? just like the raincoats and the vaselines etc

Outside of Athens, Ga and surroundings, in the beginning Pylon was bigger in the UK than the US. This changed later, though.

Missed the inclusion of Theoretical Girls--yeah, they had their moments, although sometimes a bit too proggy for me--but going in a CBGB/loft/warehouse/dungeon mutation of live early 80s King Crimson, so not bad in that sense. And not always like that anyway though I like Branca's own albums better. emil.y, Pylon have their own good thread, and yeah they had their own standing, before they got grossed out by touring with U2 early on, and dropped out of the music business for a while. Their eventual reunion album was okay for a reunion album, then they were live-only, with no CD reissues until fairly recently. They were damn good, live or studio: the earthiest first rate post-punk band I've ever heard. Took their name from the title of Faulkner's boozedelic tale of rowdy barnstorming stunt pilots.

i don't know who I was thinking of, but when i said i liked Trisomie 21 upthread, i think i was probably getting them confused with someone else. just been trying to find good youtubes of them and they're all a bit lame. very euro cure with terrible singing, not really my thing. brainfartz.

only heard the lines fairly recently, had no idea before that the adult net's white night was a cover

one of my favourite songs, so a no brainer for me. Would have liked to see Durutti Column on the list though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyEeYSEPm0Y

might well have voted Theoretical Girls had they made the cut, Delta 5 prolly have the most consistent highs of the bands here I know. love Wipers but don't tend to think of them as a postpunk band as such

I don't want to hijack the thread with more on New Musik but Nick is right in classing them alongside Buggles and M as studio boffins making proto-synth pop

LEST ANYONE FORGET THE KORGIS.

My last tv appearance involved telling The Korgis their single was terrible.

It was called "Young and Russian", and it is.

i know it'll seem parochial but i'd go for the best of the australian bands above almost all of these. and i'm not talking about the ones i was in either. how about the primitive calculators, even.

Give us a list please! And comments.

The Sunday Painters!

On the "I'll give you my heart" box set, they talk about having a reunion and making a new album for Cherry Red. Did they ever get to do this?

(i.e. The Tights)

Those in Chicago might like to know that Reckless has a used copy of the Kill Rock Stars double CD reissue of poll co-winners Liliput for just $6.99. You already probably know but you can call and put it on hold or transfer from the Broadway store to downtown or Wicker Park.

The Flexible funding campaign for Post-Punk magazine ends Feb 27. $15 gets you their first issue plus a CD comp, $30 an issue + backer t-shirt and $75 a year sub + t-shirt, not much more than it would normally cost for getting a UK sub in the US anyway. I might do the amount where they post a profile and my top 5 post-punk albums.

http://www.indiegogo.com/post-punk

Dangit, I missed the deadline, got swamped at work and spaced. Looks like they didn't make it unfortunately. I just saw this comment on my site from Feb 7 from a Rob Cioffi:

Nice work, brilliant for the uninitiated!

A few things to add -

Sad Lovers And Giants: continue to stage a few shows per year and have been readying a new LP. They have self-released a new single in recent years (Himalaya/Happiness Is Fragile) and have included several new songs in their current set-lists. Singer Garce self-released his first solo EP in 2012. Tony McGuinness (guitars) is 1/3 of progressive trance global heavyweight Above & Beyond. The band is very active on Facebook and have a rabid, loyal following world-wide.

Modern Eon: I actually emailed LTM label head James Nice about releasing Fiction Tales for the very first time on CD (the only CD releases have been two widely circulated bootlegs, one Fiction Tales Plus , the other Peel Sessions & Live). The label investigated this and passed. Cherry Red may end up issuing this sometime down the road.

Breathless: hailed by Jack Rabid in the pages of Big Takeover, and ended up in several best of lists there.

Asylum Party: released 2 LPs, both were reissued as The Grey Years Vol. 1 (2-CD set) and The Grey Years Vol. 2 (2-CD set), both bolstered with singles, non-LP tracks and demos. Both sets can be ordered direct from their label, infrastition.com, and via Discogs.

And Also The Trees: several compilations can be great entry points. The best that is still in print is 1980-2005 but the best is From Horizon To Horizon (Singles 1983-92), which is long out of print.

Lowlife: their final LP, Gush, remains out of print. LTM will not be reissuing due to lack of bonus material.

Opposition: their entire back catalogue, remastered in digital form, is available from their website, http://www.theopposition.fr/ To my knowledge, these are unlikely to receive a physical release.

The following band should also be considered for this article:

Abecedarians

This brilliant Los Angeles post-punk band released their first single on the legendary Factory label and has opened for New Order when they toured Southern California. Their sound is similar to The Chameleons, etc and until 2012, their entire back catalogue remained out of print. Their magnificent debut album, Eureka, was finally released on CD via Pylon Records and can be ordered here http://pylonrecords.com/ in a several different formats.

Their are plans to reissue final LP, Resin, as well.

Despite their demos collection being released on the famed indie label, IPR, they never received recognition for their musical legacy and thus were the hidden jewel in the deepest of deep post-punk collections.

If you love any of the above bands, you must check them out...you will not be disappointed!

Those Asylum Party reissues are tempting, but are possibly more than $30USD each with shipping! Ugh. I was excited about the Opposition site but it looks like it's just streaming. They need to get their post-punk asses on Bandcamp. Abecedarians is interesting, though the only way to get the bonus CD of songs from their 1985-86 era is to buy the vinyl, which is a load of crap.

How can you tell what's on those Abecadarian releases? I have the IPR vinyl but never really dug it. All I want is Smiling Monarchs on vinyl.

forget it, I see the tracklisting on discogs

this stuff come with downloads? It's criminal if labels put out vinyl and not include a download code.

The Dark Entries and Medical Records releases are without downloads, unless I've been missing something. Extra work...

Speaking of Dark Entries, the reissue of The Thing from the Crypt compilation LP is very fine. Grab one. The Fall of Saigon 12" has its moments.

we'll have to talk to those folks. what are they doing without downloads.

FFS, offer a CD option of "The Thing From The Crypt"! Didn't it have a sequel too?

I support not releasing CDs. Gotta have downloads though! Ill bring it up at our next meeting.

Another Thing from the Crypt. Bands not quite as iconic, but still a good record. Don't think anyone will be reissuing it. Mutant Sounds had it up at one point, I think.

Posted this the other day in the Australian Post Punk thread, but that may be too narrow a demographic....

For my money, the greatest post-punk band that nobody's ever heard is a group from Wollongong Australia called the Sunday Painters. Three singles, two LPs, cassettes, and comp tracks. At work on a reissue, but thought I'd put a song on on Sound Cloud since Monday marked the thirty-year anniversary of one of their high points: the Sedition Festival, a three-day showcase of 22 bands, as well as assorted video artists, at the Trade Union Club. $10 for the lot….Other bands included the Scientists, Wet Taxi, Celibate Rifles. The Same, and Severed Heads.

The Painters played the opening night. Three and a half songs have survived from their set; two of which made it onto the Sedition—Go Broke cassette. This one, “In My Dreams,” did not, though it’s a monster, reworked into drum-machine form from its origins as a practice-room kraut jam outtake that made up the b-side of the band’s second single (Painting By Numbers, 1980, 250 copies). Like X covering PIL, with a New Order keyboard flourish.

Please feel free to share, to download, to play.

https://soundcloud.com/michael-train/in-my-dreams

Taught myself to play "Smokescreen" by the Desperate Bicycles and it only underscored how unusual it is. The guy sings straight through for three and a half minutes or however long it is and there are eight verses.

hey, thanks, that's pretty awesome! xpost

Thought I'd try it as a video (well, at least a photo montage):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NTISSJPyLw

Cool. I'm really proud of the iMovie Ken Burns video montage I made for Disco Zombies and Happy Refugees.

Crazy what you can do within ten minutes of opening iMovie for the first time, but wow do I now have respect for real video editors....

One year anniversary, here's a Spotify playlist finally! None of the early And Also The Trees, The Sound or Comsat Angels, but a good sampling of most of what I wrote about.

http://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/3RkhJjuRHTIamrXejVwa9H
spotify:user:1212496385:playlist:3RkhJjuRHTIamrXejVwa9H

50 Minute And Also The Trees documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgp8gwgjTPs&list=PL6B10D8ECB2D36111

90 Minute live show recorded September 28, 2013 at La Cave à Musique in Mâcon, Burgundy, France:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iOivHqNgpQ&list=FLvS7HOg0xXDKPhctmMyG1Qw

Documentary embedded (I hope?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgp8gwgjTPs&list=PL6B10D8ECB2D36111&feature=share

Tiny Desk Unit has never been mentioned on ILM? I stumbled across this video today and remembered the name, probably from New York Rocker. This kind of art/dance/drone/skronk would have been like catnip to me when this was new, but I'm finding it only mildly interesting in 2014. Great that these Hurrah videos are out there, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHHwKO9NvgU

Nice to see this topic active again. Reminds me that we've finally made some real headway with our Sunday Painters reissues. (The Painters were a Wollongong, Australia art punk band most active from 1980-86, putting out records on their own Terminal Records in minuscule runs.) We'll be collecting the band's three singles on one LP (see the link below), out in January, then doing the two albums by the end of spring. Each with digital downloads and bonus tracks drawn from live cassettes and a radio appearance. Punk, industrial, pop, prog, and experimental, sometimes all at once. A Cab-Voltaire take on "Rebel Rebel." The Homosexuals with a drum machine. And so on.

Out on Whats Your Rupture. Home also to the Tronics and Parquet Courts.

http://whatsyourrupture.bigcartel.com/product/sunday-painters-in-my-dreams-lp-pre-order

So we now have hard copies of the Sunday Painters singles collection. Should start to show up in stores soon. Very exciting. There'll also be digital downloads from all the usual places. For those of you in Australia, your best bets will be R.I.P. Society/Repressed Records in Sydney, or Music Farmer's in Wollongong, though there may well be some other spots, too. By May we're hoping to get the band's two albums out.

Sounds great, let me know when they become available on CD or reasonably priced lossless.

Speaking of unheard post-punk bands (who have been heard with the help of Michael Train and myself!)...Happy Refugees are following up our reissue from a couple of years ago with a self-released newly recorded album, some new songs, some vintage unrecorded songs. Great stuff. A bit less edge than the old stuff, a bit more mature, but what do you expect? Great website here: http://www.happyrefugees.com/

been getting into the deep freeze mice reissue a bit, anyone else a fan?

No plans for any CDs, but I'll look into the possibilities for lossless. Still not sure what sites will have the record, so I'm not sure if it will be up on any that offer lossless. If I learn of one, I'll post it here. That said, it takes a superior set of ears and equipment to tell the difference between lossless and 320 kbps coding these days. I listen with mastering-quality AKG headphones and Focal monitors and can only occasionally notice the difference, and then only in direct A/B comparisons on a high decay.

I think most, if not all episodes of New Wave Theatre are on YouTube which feature a bunch of mysterious post-punk bands. (as well as other genres)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA70OzHvxP4

You can stream all the Sunday Painters singles here:

http://noisey.vice.com/en_au/blog/stream-the-of-the-sunday-painters-early-80s-diy-punk

here's some post-punk / diy spam. it's out in july. michael train did the audio restoration, there's an introduction written by dan selzer and i compiled it, so should be fairly ILM friendly spam.

Now That's What I Call DIY (Cult classics from the Post-Punk era 1978/82) - https://soundcloud.com/optimo-music/various-now-thats-what-i-call