PUNK: THE COMPILATION (Which of these tracks is the most UNpunk?)

Which comedy program did this sketch air on?

Lot of options here tbh (all of them, actually), but I think Quarterflash is maybe the most striking inclusion.

I wonder if they considered the cross-marketing possibilities of, say, retitling this comp COUNTRY and airing a commercial on TNN with two hayseeds in a cornfield talking about their love for Huey Lewis and Escape Club.

I frankly can't get my head around the idea that someone at Warner actually tried to market this as PUNK. I'm not even a holier than thou purist or anything, but I guess "New Wave" was a poison phrase by the early 90s (and even that would've been something of a misnomer).

wkiw the chick in the ad, though.

at least chipmunk punk had a crass cover didn't they?

Voting Erasure for being the most disco of this new wave, disco being the opposite of punk obvs

I do remember, as a kid in the 80s, this pop culture conception of 'punkness' as this frizzy/purple-haired, Cyndi Lauper-y kind of thing

went with Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over. some of these at least have this kind of jerky rhythm that some people might have associated with punk/new-wave-ness at one point

Yeah, it was between that and Harden My Heart for me. Went with the latter just for its saxophone hook.

Went with the latter just for its saxophone hook.

It's like the perpendicular universe version of X-Ray Spex.

Lol @ 'perpendicular universe' version. That's awesome.

I think that the first Quarterflash LP is one of xhuxk's favorite punk albums.

Songs by Tubes and Greg Kihn effortlessly conjure the type of 80s schlock that new wave tragically gave way to, but obv nobody epitomized sucking in the 80d like Huey Lewis...

That this exists further justifies the destruction of the major labels.

Actually, this may be at least about punk in the way Xgau conceives of Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter:

Although only Shane MacGowan, David Byrne, and Debbie & Iggy have ever been identified professionally with punk, only the Jungle Brothers--whose suave rap, unlike Neneh Cherry's gauche one, ignores Cole Porter altogether--would exist as we know them without it. From U2 to K.D. Lang to Sinead O'Connor, from Tom Waits to Salif Keita to the Neville Brothers, they've all built their market shares in fissures of taste and heightened expectation that punk opened up...

So one way to determine the most unpunk of the above is to determine which of them would have existed without punk. Nick Lowe maybe although one could argue that punk shaped "Cruel To Be Kind" as much as anything here. Greg Kihn and Tommy Tutone? I don't know. Was power pop its own self-sustaining/life-giving tributary? Quarterflash seems the best bet. Did xhuxk really call them punk? They seem to epitomize his theory that Fleetwood Mac influenced just as many bands as The Sex Pistols did.

In any event, fascinating commercial. Thanks for posting it, JF!

disco being the opposite of punk obvs

Sarcasm doesn't travels well across the interwebs.

"Don't Dream It's Over" for least stylistically punk* vs Huey Lewis for least ideologically punk vs Culture Club as the moment when the biggest wave of nausea hit me during the commercial (ok, this one is an entirely personal reaction)

extra bonus points for picking the Human League's least punk track

* maybe Split Enz is a get-out-of-jail-free card for Crowded House's punk credentials, in which case, Nick Lowe?

Did xhuxk really call them punk?

Nope. I did include their debut in top 10 list that got published in a Spin "alternative" guide once, though.

his theory that Fleetwood Mac influenced just as many bands as The Sex Pistols did.

Not really what I said, either -- more like "bands being influenced by Fleetwood Mac is at least as interesting as bands being influenced by the Pistols." Or something like that. And Quarterflash definitely had a lot of Fleetwood Mac in them.

I've got no problem with anybody voting for them here, regardless; I might even pick them myself, if I voted, even though they're one of my favorite bands on the list. Most punk band on the list, though (give or take Devo) is probably the one who did "White Punks On Dope."

This reminds me a bit of Pink Panther Punk, which features kiddified versions of songs (ostensibly covered by the Pink Panther and Inspector Closeau) by punk luminaries such as Pink Floyd, Billy Joel, and Michael McDonald. It's Chipmunk Punk with about 100% less trying.

xp At any rate, Quaterflash seem like the band on the list who had the least chance of ever having been marketed as "new wave" (or, in the case of later bands like Crowded House, Escape Club, Love & Rockets, Erasure, "modern rock" or whatever.) Greg Kihn might come close, but he came up on the proto-new-wave Beserkley label with Jonathan Richman etc., which probably counts for something, and his sound maybe got more new wave in the '80s anyway. (Plus, powerpop had obvious new wave connections -- and right, that includes Tommy Tutone, whose name sounded kind of new wave anyway, and so did their hit, which was pretty herky-jerky.)

INXS "modern rock" too obviously. (And actually, I have no idea how Escape Club were marketed, come to think of it. But it seems like they could have been considered modern rock, by somebody. They did come from England.)

Huey Lewis gets a new wave pass because (1) his old band backed up Elvis Costello's first album; (2) he covered Dave Edmunds on Sports; and (3) his first couple albums with the News have their Boomtown Rats-like moments (and they even seemed to be trying to look Rats-like on the cover of their first one)

That Quarterflash song is just one layer of major label intrusion over like Patti Smith and Pretenders. Like I could see Richard Hell covering it after "Love Comes in Spurts"

This is def that Crowded House song

That late-80s upbeat "modern rock" that's one foot in new wave and one foot in AOR is probably my favorite era of pop music: INXS, Escape Club, Information Society, Terrence Trent Darby, late Squeeze, Bangles, Johnny Hates Jazz...

Midnight Oil etc

What does "one layer of major label intrusion over like Patti Smith and Pretenders" mean?

Quarterflash rock

xpost, like Patti Smith and the Pretenders took the major labels money, but Quaterflash probably listened to the major labels advice on how to make records?

The whole Quarterflash/xhuxk thing was just a joke. But I was thinking about polling xhuxk's alternative guide top 10 some time. The video for 'Harden My Heart' is a central to the early-80s pop-modernist canon inside my thin mind...

On un-punk sound alone I'd vote for "Karma Chameleon" (maybe George gets a pass on sexual politics).

"Don't Dream It's Over" is my second. It's basically a hair metal or AOR ballad done beautifully right.

I guess "New Wave" was a poison phrase by the early 90s (and even that would've been something of a misnomer).

but the first eighties comps and eighties-themed nights were already going as early as '92!

Wow, I can't believe that commercial is real! What were they thinking?? The wigs, the phony banter, the sexism (the woman basically just says 'Yeah!' to whatever the guy says), and nary an actual punk song on the album.

Voted 'I Need a New Drug' only because Huey Lewis and the News strike me as the least 'punk' of all the artists. He even had a song called 'Hip to be Square', whose message is almost the antithesis of punk. But really any song on this album would qualify.

well you could argue that from its title inversion to the music that "Hip to Be Square" is purest Guy Debord.

lol

You can draw a pretty short line from UK post-punk to "Karma Chameleon"

can we just agree all these songs are awesome but Huey Lewis

I was gonna say the same thing, except I like Huey Lewis too.

Huey Lewis was my first concert, on the sports tour, went with my mom. I thought I was cool.

Little did you know you were punking it up out there.

i think i was wearing a blue mesh sleeveless shirt

disco being the opposite of punk obvs

I thought prog was the opposite of punk.....

Nick Lowe and Billy Idol about the only ones here that have even some connection with punk rock.

I'll vote for Toni Basil, though Huey Lewis (which also has a sax hook) is a close 2nd.

And yes, for me at least, Rumours is more subversive than Never Mind the Bollocks, though i only *wish* it was as influential...

Billy Idol is probably most A-to-B punk tied artist here, but Love and Rockets and Madness at least came from something adjacent to the scene. idg the Nick Lowe thing.

http://i.imgur.com/7WOj5.gif

Patti Smith and the Pretenders took the major labels money, but Quaterflash probably listened to the major labels advice on how to make records?

Pat Benatar the obvious missing link in this equation (though she applies way more to Q-flash's followup hit "Find Another Fool" than to the one above.)

Nick Lowe and Billy Idol about the only ones here that have even some connection with punk rock.
Billy Idol is probably most A-to-B punk tied artist here, but Love and Rockets and Madness at least came from something adjacent

Again -- Why not Devo? (Not arguing; just curious if some people really think they had no link to punk.)

wonder if Robert Palmer deserves a mention

Devo, true. Those pre-first album recordings that were compiled at some point in the 90s were pretty punky, but would anyone outside of Ohio locals have heard them at the time they were made?

Robert Palmer has roots ore in prog jazz rock than punk, coming from the Alan Bown.

not that he's punk exactly -- he's a fellow traveler. "Johnny and Mary" or "Looking For Clues" woulda made sense on this comp though

Nick Lowe's punk credentials mainly from producing Elvis Costello and The Damned

I've been hunting to the full tracklist to see what's missing from the list, but to no avail.

to

Haha same here. I keep getting this thread.

xxpost

Also from being the main force behind the proto-punk, pub rock Brinsley Schwarz.

Oh cmon Devo is totally punk

Our House... The Musical

I mean, what

man there's a lotta goth ass motherfuckers went and covered "here comes the rain again" let me tell you & also a Swedish act doing it as a bossa which I rather enjoyed however as an enthusiast of distinct vocal styles I feel this one will be hard to beat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTu1f4qpYUc

you guys, this fucking musical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xCqKZqbqyM&feature=relmfu

oh fuck no that's the wrong one, my bad you guys, Just Joe is cool w/me this is what you want. attn djp this guy's timing will really tickle the hell out of you

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

and yeah that musical - I mean - trying to play "it must be love" for depth requires either gigantic balls or a naivete so total as to defy imagination

I am a fan of Just Joe, aka "Steroid Daughtry"

I am also a fan of Elephat Records before even hearing a note

lolling out loud at Ugly Barrow - good demonstration of why punk bands don't have fiddlers in them

oh my god

oh my god, for real

he is what we in bizness "feeling it"

er, what we in the bizness CALL "feeling it"

this performance has killed my ability to type coherently

I want to play this over and over and over

shit's inspiring

Sister Paul is seriously my new favorite band, you guys.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, April 30, 2012 12:47 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― Choc. Clusterman (contenderizer), Monday, April 30, 2012 8:54 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

guys I've pretty much drawn blanks on the rest & it's five a.m. & I got something to do at 8 so I better try and catch 2 hours

carry on you punx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vjc-lMpPns

sister paul goes in on bay city rollers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBVJNFw7sls&list=UUNyvZOVaUZ4NbyXc_J9L1iw&index=3&feature=plcp

otm:

Sister Paul comprise a male bassist singing in soprano and a female drummer in alto. They sing all songs together playing the each instrument in the heavy groove. The words written by Susumu have a queer and unstable feeling. In spite of the sound they make is full of decadance, violence and insanity, some audiences laugh, others shed tears surrounding all happy atomosphere in the end.

^ ^ ^ 2:10 --> 2:19 is beyond awesome!

love how the drummer is never not going ALL IN

sister paul discography and mail order

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol, i figured that i want a new drug would take it, for whatever reason, but maybe that one doesn't mean much to UK folks. it's certainly more "hard edged" than don't dream it's over, an honorable victor.

of the runners-up, i'm sort of surprised that jeopardy came in above the likes of of human and chains of love, but it's only by one vote, so fair play.

i voted for Kihn but in retrospect i would've voted for Escape Club because those guys seem the least likely to have even heard a punk band

We didn't discuss "Don't Dream It's Over" enough -- one of my unfuckwithable jams. Love everything about it.

i always figured that jeopardy was about as punk as some girls, which is to say kinda

and alfred otm

tbh i probably know the weird al version of "jeopardy" better than the original, it was just kind of a kneejerk vote

I didn't vote in this--love the commercial--but, as a couple of people suggested, the answer is so obviously Quarterflash to me. Not that I hate "Harden My Heart"--there's a song on their first LP, "Love Should Be So Kind," I like a lot--but some of these are attached to punk by a thread one millimeter thick, either via the song or the artist's family tree or the way they were marketed, and some are attached by a thread three millimeters thick, but Quarterflash has no connection whatsoever that I can see. I guess the idea of hardening your heart is a punk sentiment, but I'm not sure it's worth a distant finish behind bands with clear new wave affiliations.

mr. narrator, quarterflash is pat benatar to me, so sort of weirdly punk by association

^ to the tune of "history lesson part ii"

lol

I noticed the resemblance to Pat Benatar too when I looked at the video. Mind you, Justin Bieber sometimes looks like Darby Crash to me.

I could see that actually.

bieber/crash

bieby pyn

Franz Biebercrash: the punishment begins.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MuhwxTZs8M8/SZW8pE3mdZI/AAAAAAAAAMA/jI8iU7rYw3Y/s400/displayimage.jpg

i'm thinking that westwood promotions put this out via warner/time-life or warner special products, but discogs' warner special products entry doesn't mention it.

Yeah, you can see the Warner "W" logo on the cds in the commercial. It's become my mission to find a real world copy of this fucker.

^ saw that, but then decided it was maybe just a warner-like westwood logo, dunno

it would probably belong somewhere on this page:

http://www.bsnpubs.com/warner/wsp/wsp4500.html

Everlasting Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZfxyhG12y8

"Do you recognize this dance? It's called The Shag"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lSFDVhcD1g

Senior Prom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVsrcl55fmU

the Totally '90s comp contendo referred to upthread is actually comparably peculiar.

Tracklisting:

1. Unbelievable - EMF
2. The Only Living Boy In New Cross - Carter
3. Real Real Real - Jesus Jones
4. Sleeping Satellite - Tasmin Archer
5. Mr. Wendall - Arrested Development
6. Trouble - Shampoo
7. Well Did You Evah - Deborah Harry & Iggy Pop
8. Rubberband Girl - Kate Bush
9. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Robert Palmer & UB40
10. It Should Have Been Me - Adeva
11. Live Your Life Be Free - Belinda Carlisle
12. Outstanding - Kenny Thomas
13. I Like To Move It - Reel II Real
14. Independence - Lulu
15. Careful - Horse
16. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice

I don't know, that is way more 90s than PUNK is punk

yeah but it's like three or four no-brainers buffering a whole lot of pretty counterintuitive picks

that's three or four more than the PUNK compilation has!

I guess the idea of hardening your heart is a punk sentiment, but I'm not sure it's worth a distant finish behind bands with clear new wave affiliations.

at a guess, Quarterflash may have lost votes by being the only one on this list to be completely unknown in Europe?

that 90s comp looks like it came free with 10 purchases of a soft drink in early 1994, so I guess it is pretty 90s

Sorry for bumping such an old post, but, I have been searching for this for at least 5-6 years. I think I finally solved the mystery last night. Rather than bore you with all the details, I'll just refer you to the Reddit post where I explain the full story: https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/3o3ens/minor_mystery_solved_90s_punk_cd_commercial/

The bolded titles are the songs not in the commercial (10), the other 26 match up with the known track listing featured in the commercial.

-----

80's Retro (Warner Special Products OPCD-3536) (discog info here: https://musicbrainz.org/release/43b18d5a-f488-4880-bac1-b8335c64a43c)

CD 1
1 - Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
2 - Who Can It Be Now? - Men At Work
3 - Voices Carry - Til Tuesday
4 - Our House - Madness
5 - One Thing Leads To Another - The Fixx
6 - Rock Lobster - The B-52s
7 - What You Need - INXS
8 - And We Danced - The Hooters
9 - She Blinded Me With Science - Thomas Dolby
10 - I Want A New Drug - Huey Lewis & The News
11 - Whip It - DEVO
12 - Talking In Your Sleep - The Romantics
13 - Be Near Me - ABC
14 - She's A Beauty - The Tubes
15 - Human - The Human League
16 - Send Me An Angel - Real Life
17 - Harden My Heart - Quarterflash
18 - Eyes Without A Face - Billy Idol

CD 2
1 - Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
2 - Stray Cat Strut - Stray Cats
3 - So Alive - Love and Rockets
4 - Video Killed The Radio Star - The Buggles
5 - Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
6 - Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House
7 - Someday, Someway - Marshall Crenshaw
8 - Jeopardy - Greg Kihn Band
9 - Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
10 - My Sharona - The Knack
11 - 867-5309 (Jenny) - Tommy Tutone
12 - Chains of Love - Erasure
13 - I Ran (So Far Away) - A Flock of Seagulls
14 - Wild Wild West - The Escape Club
15 - Mickey - Toni Basil
16 - Precious To Me - Phil Seymour
17 - You Might Think - The Cars
18 - Here Comes The Rain Again - Eurythmics