Billboard Number One Modern Rock Hits 1988/1989

I love "Sowing the Seeds of Love" to death, especially the big psychedelic freak-out bridge that leads into the second "Time/To eat all your words" bridge

"Pictures of Matchstick Men" is a jam btw, & I think it's having broken big, more than other songs here, foreshadowed the one-hit-wonder funfest that was "alt" radio after the year punk broke a couple years later (& I mean that approvingly; those were good disposable days on the radio)(not that I'm calling CVB disposable, & at the time it was bizarre to see them break because for once ~I was there~)

of the songs on this list I remember, I don't think there's a single one I dislike

is "Pictures of Matchstick Men" a cover of the Quo song?

Yes.

I never knew it was a cover until about five years later when I was in an electronics store and someone was playing a live clip of Status Quo doing the song a million years ago on one of the tvs.

Nobody's gonna come right out and say they're voting for "Stand?" Fine, I'll do it. You know you all secretly love it.

I not so secretly love it, but this is a GREAT list and Stand isn't the best thing on it imo.

Can be Debbie Downer for a second and say that, aside from "So Alive" and "**** (Jungle Law)", the s/t Love and Rockets album is kind of terrible?

Motorcycle is pretty rad.

basically "No Big Deal" and "Motorcycle" are my platonic ideal of everything Love and Rockets should never, ever, EVER do, whereas Earth, Sun, Moon is them at their best

love and rockets never did much for me! I like "So Alive" and parts of Earth Sun Moon but overall they don't interest me as much as bauhaus or especially the godlike TONES ON TAIL

Bauhaus, L&R, Tones on Tail and Murphy solo all have some really great moments and some extremely dire moments. It's a very hot & cold group of musicians.

tru

except I think everything Tones on Tail ever did is amazing (but their discography is the most limited of those 4)

Probably slightly derailing the thread a little, but I've only heard Ash's solo albums. Are David J's any good?

you are asking me to rate my senior year of high school and I just can't do it. i will agree that "so alive" is crushed by "no new tale to tell" and add that "charlotte anne" is crushed by "my nation underground" so neither of these gets the nod.

the david j solo stuff I've heard is terrible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZlOErCDwc4

"So Alive" can hold its own with the rest of the L&R back catalogue IMO, it's just that the other songs on that album (except for "**** (Jungle Law)", which I think is one of their best songs) really, really cannot.

lol crut I was about to say "I'll Be Your Chauffeur" isn't bad

I have hazy memories of having seen that video, but didn't remember the song. Sounds like Go-Betweens.

Can be Debbie Downer for a second and say that, aside from "So Alive" and "**** (Jungle Law)", the s/t Love and Rockets album is kind of terrible?

so rong! Side A has three great noisy guitar tracks & then the Motorcycle coda track segues into at least three or four nice moody psych tracks in the second half (SA included). Then again, this is one of those records that I could never, ever view objectively b/c of the effect it had on me at my most impressionable (musically speaking, age 12-13 or so).

See, L&R never really did it for me, and even though I love the two B-52s tracks, no band occupied as much of my mind at the time as REM did, so of those two songs, I have to go with "Stand."

By the time Love and Rockets came out I had already decided Earth, Sun, Moon and Express were fucking amazing, so hearing it just sounded like L&R trying and failing to be JAMC

wow i love a few of these songs and hate a whole bunch of them

^^^ massive "Desire" fan

hahahah yeah no

"so alive" hit #3 on the pop charts, it was kinda huge. I distinctly recall being freaked out that the dudes from bauhaus were coming out of every radio in america. little did I know what the 90s had in store for me.

the jjjusten top 5:

U2 - "Desire" (5 weeks)
REM - "Stand" (2 weeks)
Lou Reed - "Dirty Blvd" (4 weeks)
Public Image Ltd. - "Disappointed" (1 week)
The B-52s - "Love Shack" (4 weeks)
Tears For Fears - "Sowing the Seeds of Love" (1 week)

Hm, "Peekaboo" is pretty cool.

voted Mayor of Simpleton and regretted it instantly. P-Furs, Reed, The Replacements and the motherfucking Love Shack all deserve it more. I even like that Siouxsie song.

Ha -- on the 1990 poll I don't think anyone admitted to remembering "I'll be Your Chauffeur."

hahahaha i swear i didnt look at DJP predictions until now but yeah pretty much dude kinda knows my tastes yall

LOVE:
Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Peek-A-Boo" (2 weeks)
The B-52s - "Channel Z" (3 weeks)
Camper Van Beethoven - "Pictures of Matchstick Men" (3 weeks)
The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Blues From A Gun" (3 weeks)

OK:
REM - "Orange Crush" (8 weeks)
Elvis Costello - "Veronica" (1 week)
XTC - "The Mayor of Simpleton" (5 weeks)
The Cure - "Fascination Street" (7 weeks)
Love and Rockets - "So Alive" (5 weeks)
Hoodoo Gurus - "Come Anytime" (3 weeks)
Ian McCulloch - "Proud to Fall" (4 weeks)

DONT CARE/BLAH:
Psychedelic Furs - "All That Money Wants" (3 weeks)
Tears For Fears - "Sowing the Seeds of Love" (1 week)

HATE:
U2 - "Desire" (5 weeks)
REM - "Stand" (2 weeks)
Lou Reed - "Dirty Blvd" (4 weeks)
The B-52s - "Love Shack" (4 weeks)
The Replacements - "I'll Be You" (1 week)
Public Image Ltd. - "Disappointed" (1 week)
Kate Bush - "Love and Anger" (3 weeks)

WORSE THAN I COULD HAVE IMAGINED:
Big Audio Dynamite - "Just Play Music!" (1 week)

NOWHERE ON YOUTUBE SO IDK:
Julian Cope - "Charlotte Anne" (1 week)

srsly tho holy shit i cant believe how fucking awful that big audio dynamite song is jesus christ

I find it difficult to believe a BAD song from that time period could be WORSE than I can imagine; I mean, I lived through "Rush".

no me too, look it up on youtube, its astounding!

what the hell is this

we are going to need a new emoticon to accurately capture my reaction to this

i know right?!?

what the fuck is happening in the middle of this fucking song

it's like they decided Starship was too tough and inaccessible for romcom soundtracks and they wanted to show them how you REALLY do it

oh just wait it keeps coming, right around the 3 minute mark it becomes particularly o_O

btw I have been trying very very hard to ignore the blatant trolling at the beginning of the thread but The Knife has fuck-all to do with "Peek-A-Boo"

phew, that made me feel a little better, only I still have listened to that awful awful song

xp: that's what prompted the Starship comment!

nest time somebody gets all the only band that matters about the clash im going to ludovico technique them with mick jones and his dance moves from this video

Alex in NYC (vassifer) wrote this on thread In defense of Big Audio Dynamite on board I Love Music on Apr 4, 2003

Love everything up through The Globe, but am thinking they should now change their moniker to Big Audio Mistake.

situation no win

I don't understand the series of decisions necessary in going from sounding like "E=MC2" to... that

like I guess I understand not wanting to sound like your old band, but if it's a choice between that and sounding like complete and utter shit...?

i srsly cant stop watching that video

This must've been the thing that caused BAD to split and BADII to form.