The lost late eighties college rock interzone

all that horrible post simple minds crap. blah. 4000 bands that sounded like late simple minds and the alarm!

so much advertising money spent on stuff like the grapes of wrath and the christians and texas. it was a bleak time.

My interest wasn't really about why it's not being revived but why the tenor of that time in indie rock, the counter-cultural aspect and the seriousness of it, was lost and has remained lost.

it's good to hear confirmation of that -- for a long time i thought i just couldn't find anything i liked very much, and to hear that it was actually all pretty crappy is gratifying, somehow

For me the center of discourse of this interzone was OPtion Magazine.

― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, June 27, 2012 11:38 AM (3 minutes ago)

otm. read that thing like the bible. or, well, the reviews anyway...

x-post to Skot--But aren't you getting off topic slightly--you're talking about when the college rock bands signed with the majors and released less interesting stuff (and/or the major label bands slightly influenced by the college rock ones) but not the college rock stuff itself

is there really that much of a distinction to be made?

Expose >>> Hoodoo Gurus

is there really that much of a distinction to be made?

― some dude, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 11:47 AM (12 seconds ago)

Sure. Helios Creed and Live Skull were not about to get signed to a major label in 1987.

the counter-cultural aspect and the seriousness of it, was lost and has remained lost.

Irony wasn't invented until 1991

This isn't the first time this era's been called an interzone. Here's Tim F on The Lion and The Cobra.

live skull and helios were a hell of a lot more boring by 1987 though.

My interest wasn't really about why it's not being revived but why the tenor of that time in indie rock, the counter-cultural aspect and the seriousness of it, was lost and has remained lost.

― timellison, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 6:45 PM

You don't think some bands discussed on the Punk not indie thread or even Pitchfork 8.5 and up score rock bands think they're part of some sort of scene or something? Even with the internet and Spotify and smartphones and tv commercials

i mean if you take chrome into account.

Come to think of it, a lot of these labels perished with the music itself (DB, Enigma, Restless, C/Z, and so on).

i did love come. they were post-grunge though. some people got back on their horses post-grunge. didn't love thalia in live skull though.

Sorry that link doesn't work. It's in the poll for The Lion and the Cobra.

enigma put out so much shitty stuff too. even the non-major labels were the pits by 87.

My interest wasn't really about why it's not being revived but why the tenor of that time in indie rock, the counter-cultural aspect and the seriousness of it, was lost and has remained lost.

― timellison, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 11:45 AM (58 seconds ago)

honestly, i think the countercultural seriousness of that era was channeled into the mainstream by the likes of sonic youth and nirvana, and eventually came to something of a bad end. independence became an alternative, a style, and it quickly came to seem meaningless, its meaningless hypocrisy all the more galling for the countercultural pretenses it wore so proudly. 90s indie hung onto certain "college rock" musical approaches, developed them into something populist, but for the most part ditched the embarrassing politics along the way, and here we are.

Weird thing is I grew up in a small farm town, do I never really *heard* a lot of this stuff, but I read about it in odd rolling stone reviews or spin or option, or - especially - request magazine which you got free at musicland but was surprisingly good I thought

Really loved Thalia in Live Skull. Saw 'em twice and the guitars were incredible, plus they had a really powerful drummer.

Hmm does Eleventh Dream Day fit this?

If they do, then I'd also include Green, who kicked around the Chicago indie scene around the same time.

Like to this day I've never heard guadalcanal diary

Like to this day I've never heard guadalcanal diary

2x4 is nice. Check it out.

enigma put out so much shitty stuff too. even the non-major labels were the pits by 87.

― scott seward, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 11:53 AM (28 seconds ago)

strongly disagree w this. i could easily list 20 or 30 good-to-great records that came out of the college/indie hinterlands for every every year from 84 through 92.

honestly, i think the countercultural seriousness of that era was channeled into the mainstream by the likes of sonic youth and nirvana, and eventually came to something of a bad end. independence became an alternative, a style, and it quickly came to seem meaningless, its meaningless hypocrisy all the more galling for the countercultural pretenses it wore so proudly. 90s indie hung onto certain "college rock" musical approaches, developed them into something populist, but for the most part ditched the embarrassing politics along the way, and here we are.

I'm not just talking counter-cultural politics, though. I mean, I would agree with you there. But I'm talking more about counter-cultural aesthetics and lifestyle - like genuine bohemianism. That's what I miss.

but for the most part ditched the embarrassing politics along the way, and here we are.

Dude, songs about Central America will never get old.

would kill to have pdfs of every issue of OPtion...

end of the 80's the cool american labels were touch & go and amrep and sub pop and they were basically all preparing the world for grunge.

I'm not just talking counter-cultural politics, though. I mean, I would agree with you there. But I'm talking more about counter-cultural aesthetics and lifestyle - like genuine bohemianism. That's what I miss.

― timellison, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 1:56 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There are totally kids that still do that, like old victorian houses in bad neighborhoods with a couch on the porch and bands practicing in the basement...that never stopped, at least in minneapolis

"strongly disagree w this. i could easily list 20 or 30 good-to-great records that came out of the college/indie hinterlands for every every year from 84 through 92."

i didn't say there was NO good music coming out, but 1979 to 1984 there was something amazing coming out every five minutes. naming twenty good indie rock records for any given year isn't that hard. but it got harder as time went on!

2x4 is nice. Check it out.

walking in the shadow of the big man, too

caterwaul album

A friend reminded me about them just the other day, hadn't thought about them in 20 years. I really liked Pin & Web and they were great live.

Scott otm in that late 80s college rock was indeed a weird time for those of us who had been listening to the "new music" for a decade. It was kind of the tail end of the 'lets get in a van and tour rock clubs' era, or it was for me, and I think the attention shifted to whatever the major labels were signing and MTV was playing, much of which just wasn't good.

if you don't care about genre so much then it doesn't really matter. younger tim ellison should have been buying bohemian jungle brothers records. or one of the four zillion amazing bohemian house music singles that came out between 1987 and 1990.

There are totally kids that still do that, like old victorian houses in bad neighborhoods with a couch on the porch and bands practicing in the basement...that never stopped, at least in minneapolis

Yeah, I don't think it ever stopped either, but the late '80s were a time where college radio rock was a real vanguard for this that had a bit of a zeitgeist to it.

Ah, I was just a kid that liked rock music and I was busy enough!

"But I'm talking more about counter-cultural aesthetics and lifestyle - like genuine bohemianism. That's what I miss."

dude, come hang with us here in western mass. the best farm shares, weed, and basement noise scene on the east coast.

caterwaul album

A friend reminded me about them just the other day, hadn't thought about them in 20 years. I really liked Pin & Web and they were great live.

yeah I was a fan of that band, but that record in particular.

Dude, songs about Central America will never get old.

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 11:57 AM (4 minutes ago)

yeah, i meant the implicit cultural politics more than the protest songs. you know, "corporate rock still sucks" as an ethos, the naive but reassuring idea that by living a haphazard postcollegiate life and listening to weird music one might strike a blow against empire (or at least prepare to). m@tt's right that that kind of thing never really went away, but it did start to defend its isolation a bit more carefully in the wake of "alternative nation". noize, drones, etc.

i dunno still want to smash the empire, that hasn't died at all

i do, that is

the difference between firehose and the minutemen illustrates how college rock got earnest and dull in the late 80s

i knew people would say nice things about caterwaul. i just knew it.

sad but true xp

if you don't care about genre so much then it doesn't really matter. younger tim ellison should have been buying bohemian jungle brothers records. or one of the four zillion amazing bohemian house music singles that came out between 1987 and 1990.

― scott seward, Wednesday, June 27, 2012 12:04 PM (3 minutes ago)

i loved straight out the jungle and done by the forces of nature, but you've gotta leave something to catch up on later.

didn't a fair number of college rock bands turn toward hard rock or roots rock as the decade wore on? some convincingly like the meat puppets some not like the dream syndicate

I'm listening to Real Estate right now and it doesn't remind me of college radio 1986-1989 at all. I guess I can see it, in a Pandora "this song is in a minor key, features both electric and acoustic instruments, and is played at medium tempo" kind of way, but you'd never mistake it for something of that vintage. It's too sprightly.

Yeah, there was a lot to catch up on as it was! Like, I really remember buying No New York and Pere Ubu's Terminal Tower comp during these years and Can and the double album Swell Maps comp and it all kind of fit in with what was going on at the time.

^ bought all those albums between 85 and 92

Also, somebody mentioned the Connells upthread and indeed they stand as a very good exemplar of the kind of record that died unnoticed. Except I still stand by my decision to listen to 80s Connells records a lot. Their sound did survive into the early 1990s in the form of the Judybats' superb debut album, and for all I know, it's still hanging on in the college towns of the upper South. I sort of hope so!

And Palace of Swords Reversed!

some of my favorites of these types of bands are on the 80s edition of "poptopia." i don't know their full catalogs very well, but these are mostly good songs...
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fR_ULmpoM8I/Tt_4IbNirJI/AAAAAAAAUJk/g4MM-t6MtQk/s1600/Poptopia80s-Back.jpg

(excluding the romantics, utopia, the db's, marshall crenshaw and the bangles, i guess, because those were not really "college rock" bands.. i meant the bands besides those .. i dunno if the plimsouls count for this either but that one song is pretty amazing)

knew translator would be in there somewhere

Mo Better Booze Collapse

Haven't thought of Jason and the Scorchers in years. They played my Grad Night at Disneyland along with the Dazz Band, Krash, Matthew Wilder, Dwight Twilley and Sparks. Quite a lineup.

The mind reels at Sparks joining Dazz Band on stage for a version of "Let it Whip."

What a dream!

that really happened? Dazz Band, Krash, Matthew Wilder, Dwight Twilley and Sparks
?

Surprised that Blake Babies are nowhere to be found on this thread

Picked up a record collection the other day with a bunch of Interzone stuff in it: Fetchin Bones, ScreamingTribesmen, Concrete Blonde, Voice of the Beehive, Lava Hay, the deservedly maligned Hoodoo Gurus. Yeah, lots of that stuff hasn't aged well. It's been a fun nostalgia trip, though.

Deservedly maligned? Hoodoo Gurus are the only one of those bandsI still listen to regularly, and I owned/own many of them. I never get tired of Stoneage Romeos.

Yeah Hoodoo Gurus have aged way better than almost all of the bands from that time.

I think major label alternative from the period ends up being on odd grab bag that doesn't necessarily represent the whole scene very well.