late 70s new wave classic rock

I don't want to get too much into the 80s, sonically things start to get more gated-drums and synthesized everything plus too much plate reverb as the decade goes on (which is not to say any of those things are bad, just not what I'm looking for). The sound that really interests me is where you can hear fairly traditional rock bands trying to grapple with/incorporate new technology and synth sounds but they haven't fully gone over yet. Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight and Dream Police also fit here...

1st B-52s album?

Bob Welch's The Other One from 1979 is kinda like this, especially "Straight Up".

^ Add the album Man Overboard to that, also from 1979.

ooh lovin Straight Up yes

Peter Gabriel 2
Broken English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYEm76840Yo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VOJDr-WiZs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y4f7LL338o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNAuGs-JM98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUPFQBNDEs

Well, yeah.

I knew that post was going to happen

too 80s sounding

Sorry. (Although do check out those Walsh clips, his New Wave stuff is batshit)

ZZ Top's El Loco don't get mentioned enough...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYlFMAl1bI0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JozJ3FCZqc8

the one ZZ Top album I've never owned, weirdly

yeah that's a good example, decent album too

pretty much everything on the Stiff Records Akron complilation

http://akronness.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/akroncomp1.jpg?w=497

also Drastic Plastic, the last album by Bill Nelson's pre-Red Noise band Be Bop Deluxe. 'Panic In The World' is particularly Cars-esque

is Ma Me O Beach by Joan Armatrading the right kind of thing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o3EevV0dB0

Todd Rundgren's late 70s albums with Utopia should be considered here—there was a time between full prog and full new wave when they pretty adeptly straddled the fence.

I think this may be one of my favourite genres of music

This might work for you: they were a pretty big deal in Mpls/St. Paul, unknown elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n67RxunBNMw

The Shirts
Skafish, though there is not much Skafish stuff on the internet

every time I listen to it , I think the first Skafish record is my favourite album

http://rymimg.com/lk/f/a/28b362cb09b564c2c1398856995b69ea/1711232.jpg

lol that Joan Armitrading track totally works but yeah that was not a name I was expecting to pop up here

Gary Numan/Tubeway Army obviously on this tip as well

Late 70s albums by Horslips (Short Stories..., The Man Who...)

Also, the first few Arista albums by The Kinks are the definition of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmJ-VWPDM4

(I may be lumping more power pop in with my new wave, though.)

sort of feel like The Motels are the most perfect example of this thing

Yeah, not a bad call.

first Motel album at least

I was just thinking The Motels too

lots of Stiff records related stuff is this kind of stuff, i think?

English Boys / Working Girls era Deaf School

http://youtu.be/ujylEBjZOlU

Clive Langer and the Boxes:

http://youtu.be/ISSH8wX1ECE

Head East--Never Been Any Reason fits this perfectly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkWa96pBkw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V88yyayq6AY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-2gFO1uUc

Men At Work's first couple of records perhaps?

Tuff Darts

Oh and maybe some early/mid period Nits records would suit.

Oh man, Sniff'nThe Tears totally.

Doll by Doll were maybe too much their own thing, but I guess some of their music might fit here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSajH3ijMgQ

The Brains - Money Changes Everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWbp3w2eqM

beat me to it!

'82, but may be what you're looking for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRI_02EOsyI

Also in searching for that I found an NJ cover band from 1983:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXKsIFLfB64

This is 80s, but it still fits. Translator--Everywhere That I'm Not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEwwc1Vovkk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XdaYYQZesY

Hawkwind had always been synth-y, but this was like they decided to be Sparks for 3 1/2 minutes

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

Looking at that clip makes me wish Marc Bolan had lived long enough to have gone full New Wave.

I don't know how new wave Mad Love was in the long run, but Ronstadt absolutely nailed "Party Girl."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxJib9v0buk

Wait, "Never Been Any Reason" was number TWO FREAKING HUNDRED in the classic rock poll??? That's wrong by an order of magnitude.

(1981 technically)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-rEVVAw3-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVpSoj-kHEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m17rt_xo9x0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0xwSp1HVRE

it's from the early 80s but what about greg kihn's break up song?

so was Trans the apex or nadir of this stuff?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om2Lt94Ltw4

Arlyn Gale. Kinda dumb song/video & maybe not classic rock enough, but look at this fuckin guy. Also Omar Hakim is on drums!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkVW-y1pbME

^^^ love that, thanks!

https://youtu.be/kskwZW9iQNM

The Allies were also responsible for "Emma Peel", in my Top 10 tracks of the '80s. Great local band.

Oops. Contemporaries with the same name, but not the same band.

Reviving because I am slowly working my way through this phase of classic rock and am compiling a playlist. So any fresh suggestions would be appreciated!

Started my day with this album...and check out this video. So punque! Why did French TV have all the fun?

https://youtu.be/O62larcuPeg

https://imageevent.com/halpen/1977montypunk

‘Driver’s Seat’ by Sniff n’ the Tears, little too polished for punk, bit too edgy for classic rock. No surprise PTA used it on Boogie Nights when things started going south.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpo_BO5vFII

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B0hmevx1R8

1980, but Alice Cooper - "Clones (We're All)" is classic

‘Driver’s Seat’ by Sniff n’ the Tears, little too polished for punk, bit too edgy for classic rock. No surprise PTA used it on Boogie Nights when things started going south.

Dug out the Pretty Things 1980 reunion LP (and cheapie bin perennial) Cross Talk. Quite Costello-y, Post-Pub Rock. Phil May even affects a tongue in cheek Sting accent at one point.

1980: X-Teens

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

Now spinning Phil Lynott's Solo In Soho, a good bit of which fits in here.

Carolyne Mas? His first three albums were in an album haul given to me. Surprised that I still remembered "Stillsane," which only made it to #71 in the States, but turns out it was Top 10 in Toronto (the follow-up, "Quote Goodbye Quote" was a hit here too). I suspect she has completely vanished from playlists by now. She's 65 and keeps a homepage.

https://carolynemas.com/

"Her first three albums..."

Okay, Shaun Cassidy has zero rock cred...but I had no idea about his bit w Todd Rundgren.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgT98lU7aws

...really caught on to the new wave "paranoid man" theme going around at the time.

Is he trying to sound like Iggy Pop?

(ctrl+f "the only ones" zero results)

hrmph.

yeah I like that Shaun album it’s cool!!

think utopia plays on it?

My friend does a '80s Rock video TwitchStream every Saturday night. Tonight my socks were knocked off by Heart's 1980 B-52's move "Break" (see what they did there?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygM6rQebOoM

Not sure if the promo vid is up. It's a cheapie performance clip on a white set with Nancy rocking some tight tartan trousers.

I think this thread is mainly looking for power pop bands that embraced synths. Only thing I can really suggest is the band 20/20 and their self titled debut album.

There was another thread strictly about Classic Rock bands and their New Wave moves, but this thread's been revived more often.

There were a couple of really good examples of what this thread was really about in that TwitchStream; I'll DM my friend to see what they were, as I didn't take good enough notes.

This is waaay too late, but HOLY FUCK at this Devo/B-52's move by...Styx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx2xB4CJj5U

More early Oingo Boingo than B-52s IMO. Terrible either way.

I forget that Oingo covered a lot of the same junk culture territory the B's did.

Of course the song is terrible, but of all the dinosaur bands to go out the New Wave window, was not expecting STYX to commit so fully (was one of their final singles before the first breakup, a studio bait track on a double live set).

of all the dinosaur bands to go out the New Wave window, was not expecting STYX to commit so fully

It's kind of amazing the other four guys didn't just back Dennis DeYoung into a corner and beat his ass whenever he brought one of these stupid faux-Broadway ideas in.

“Music Time” is my all-time favorite “sorry bout the last album!” single

There's a couple of songs on the Woman Love LP (1980) by Burton Cummings that fit this: "Feels All Wrong" and maybe "Mile a Second". The rest is the typical ballads and 50s style rockers.
In my defence, I found this record in a box on the street with no cover.

1983, but still, how many of Mitch’s contemporaries could cover Prince this well?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJOy8oT20qs

xhuxk's essay pertains:

https://accidentalevolution.wordpress.com/2021/06/11/150-best-albums-of-1979/

I have an obsession with this genre / period...and had forgotten all about this! Not an obscurity - I remember this from the radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK4zm7SLvbk

That's great, sounds as if La Düsseldorf is his backing band!

It's most probably Midge Ure?

Yep, Midge Ure. Wikipedia also says this was used as the TOTP theme song for 5 years:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Pearl_(song)

1984, but...NEW WAVE RONNIE MILSAP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiim9sVWWXA

Herve is that you?

Belated thanks for that Ronnie Milsap video, unbelievably, wonderfully, over-the-top 80s.

Yes, everything about it is deeply of its moment. If it was indeed the first country video played on MTV, they checked every single box for a veteran act’s makeover.

Good faux-Cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVrILDo5CZg

Clocks: "She Looks Alot Like You", 1982

Not quite 1970s (1980) and never played on classic rock stations afaik, but I've always had a soft spot for Gary Myrick's "She Talks in Stereo." I saw him back then for like a dollar for some low-admission record label promotion night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKhmK_sD2uo