I Have Never Heard These Bands That Start With The Letter S

The Skunks from Texas did "Earthquake Shake" (which is on Bloodstains Across Texas, by far the best Bloodstains comp!) and then changed their sound to new wave/power pop - this is off the original list but never mind. I have their power pop album, it's not that good really unfortunately.

7 Seconds I think were (slightly) underrated - hardcore fans hated them because they sold out and went pop in the late 80s (where pop means sounding a bit like Dag Nasty/Descendents) - their early stuff is good old school hardcore.

7 Seconds = "Walk Together, Rock Together" -- hand-wringingly sincere hardcore punk, for those who needed a daily dose of an alternative Kumbaya. And a version of "99 Red Balloons" that makes you want to listen to the entire Nena album in its place.

Yes, "Walk Together, Rock Together" is all those things. Like I said, their early stuff as collected on the "Alt.Music.Hardcore" CD and the "Old School" CD or even the "The Crew" CD is all worth listening to.

Spdfgh

Now there was a great band. Sort of a cross between Splodgenessabounds and Showaddywaddy.

Yes, you're quite right. Somwhere between Shut Up You Cunt and Who Gives A Fuck.

Spdfgh sold millions of records so obviously someone gives a fuck, sister.

I saw Max Splodge the other day!

Godammit i hate rapidshare

i loved 7 seconds. especially the first 7-inch with i hate sports on it. but i still hold on to my copy of the crew. they lost me with new wind, their crossover attempt. we in connecticut took pride in one member of the band wearing a violent children t-shirt on the cover of walk together rock together. (which i also liked despite the nena cover)

"Snopek - is this Violent Femmes keyboardist Sigmund Snopek III? If so he had an ok-ish line in keyboardy prog a la early Utopia."

his band The Bloomsbury People made one of my all-time fave early 70's psych records. you can get it on cd now:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/bloomsbury

and his later-70's power/pop/prog stuff is neat too.

Shox Lumania were very Klaus Nomi-influenced, led by a an artist named Lari Shox. Lenny Kaye's wife was in the band. If there was any sort of New Romantic movement in New York, they were it. I think part of their act was to pretend that they were from some obscure Eastern European country called Lumania.

I'm pretty sure Shox Lumania were actually purporting to be from some undersea country analogous to Atlantis. It was a sci fi concept for sure. I got a great deal of enjoyment out of that cassette. Always wanted to know more about them. Glad to find those video links!

The Secrets were comprised of former members of the band, The Brats

Though I could be wrong, I'm pretty sure The Secrets from Scott's list is The Secrets* (with the asterisk), whose self titled album from 1982 is #81 on John Borack's Top 200 Power Pop albums book. It was reissued in 2000. Here are some details:

* Missouri-based group
* Band's first single in late 70s was "It's Your Heart Tonight" on Titan Records
* Only full-length album was issued in Canada only
* Album was co-produced by former Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch

Sid Rumpo - is it just me or has anyone else just conjured up a mental image of Sid James as "The Rumpo Kid" in Carry On Cowboy???

Savage Grace -- from Ann Arbor, they were in the second wave of 60s Dee-troit sound along w/Brownsville Station. did two -- or maybe three? -- albums on Warner Brothers. don't think they're on CD. sound pretty eclectic judging from the five songs I've streamed on my computer. prog and country influences though 1 track, "Come On Down" delivers the motor city mojo thanks to guitarist Al Jacquez.

Seatrain -- folk/jazz/flute hybrid with former members of Blues project.

Sadat X -- Brand Nubian were brazen anti-semites who ended up getting bounced from Elektra for hassling their (Jewish) publicist. Rolling Stone once quoted -- approvingly! or at least neutrally -- some pretty disgusting christ-killer lyric of theirs in a record review. just thought i'd share that.

What I wrote about 707 (from George's list) on Rolling Metal last year:

707 Greatest Hits Live (GB Music) -- Liking this a lot, too. Know nothing about the band. New Rolling Stone Record Guide (blue 1983 edition) dismisses them as "second-rate Toto." Jasper and Oliver's International Enyclopedia of Heavy Metal raves about their "classic heavy-pomp sound with brutal drumming" and says their second album (apparently called 2nd Album!) went top 20 in the U.S., in 1981, and then they got Angel's bassist Felix Robinson. I thought Martin Popoff might be a fan, but realized I was confusing them with 54-40, whoever they are (Canadians, apparently) by mistake.
Anyway, the live album shows they did indeed make truly catchy hard-pop rock with plenty of smart pomp in the arrangements. Closest of maybe just laziest comparison I can think of would be Prism. But the first cut, "Live With the Girl," is a total ringer for "On Top Of the World" Cheap Trick. Some Babys and early Loverboy in there too. Most brutal (and funkiest) drums are in "Millionaire," one of the two heaviest cuts along with the Zep-like (or okay, I dunno, Fastway-like? Paris-like?) "Pressure Drop" (which is not a Toots and the Maytals cover.) Every other cut sinks its hooks in real quick. "Rockin is Easy" might be a protest against protest songs, but I might have heard its words wrong (defintely stuff in there about people wasting time seeking gainful employment and keeping up with the Joneses, and not knowing about the state of the nation and foreign relations, so let's just rock easy instead okay?)
-- xhuxk, Sunday, May 27, 2007 6:37 PM (9 months ago)

special ed - eighties hiphop. i only know his I'm The Magnificant, but in a version with a completely different beat than the one on youtube.

sleeze beez - glam-y dutch hardrock from the late eighties/early nineties

If you've ever seen a late-night commercial for a CD comp of the greatest power ballads then you've heard Canadian one-hit wonder Sheriff and their song "When I'm With You" ...

That song was a hit TWICE up here! First time in '83, later in '88. There was some weird kinda epidemic in 1988-89, with three different songs ("Red Red Wine" and "Send Me An Angel" being the others) all being rereleased & charting higher than their first go-round 3-5 years previous. Weird...

Suburban Studs - original 76 punks who did one good single: "Questions". It had a sax on it, which was awfully daring for the times. The follow-up was called "I Hate School" and was awful.

I wonder if this band got their name from the scene between Janice Rule and Burt Lancaster in "The Swimmer".

The version of the Sports' Don't Throw Stones is actually a composite of the same-titled Australian release with some tracks from the preceding album, their first---so it goes from more of a pub rock, rootsy, even rockabilly (and other 50s) sound, updated to and from the mid-70s, since they picked it up on the late 70s, from Graham Parker & The Rumor (with whom they toured), transitioning smoothly to the hookier newer tracks---so it's kind of like Graham Parker & The Attractions: Stephen Cummings' voice was deeper than Costello's, raspy around the edges, like Parker's, also not as nasal as EC, but sill kind of, so Parker plus early Richard Butler. A somewhat strict sound, not pompous, but no BS young schoolteacher or coach, with crisp combo incl. versatile guitarist, good LP! I've still got it somewhere.

The Stiff-to-Arista version is what I'm talking about.