random old new wave you are loving

the cure's early labelmates the passions — "bachelor girls" (1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ctM9g0_gI

always felt like this was strikingly similar to pylon, which feels weird to me for some reason. brilliant track though.

This is probably on the furthest power pop edge of "new wave," but I never listened to Translator until this year and "Un-Alone" as been a recurring favorite in recent months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSNmJ7lEUXY

translator and 415 bands rule!

always really liked their smiths-esque kinda tunes. "no time like now" (1983):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEtVCNm-djg

I was playing Modern Eon the other day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92wCPfqyVbg

Just heard this on the radio on the way to work, and fuck it still slays, what a song. Several genres rolled into one, but new wave is one of them.

always liked this one - Australia, 1981, excellent bass sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0P0wZynzgg

This is a cool writeup of a brand new comp of obscure new-wave/proto-indie American bands:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/strum-and-thrum-american-indie-rock-feature

I'd only heard 2 of the 28 bands prior (Windbreakers, 28th Day).

Wow, this comp is GOOD. This is exactly the kind of music I liked in the mid to late 80s and even I've never heard of any of these bands -- OK, I've heard of the Sex Clark Five, and I don't even know if I ever heard that band at the time, it's just a name that sticks in one's mind once encountered.

Ha, that's awesome you're as into this as I am.

One of the bands I'd heard OF but never a note of their music is the last track by A New Personality: a Tampa band that opened for Duran Duran in the early 80s. The 2 main members went on to form noisy indie-pop Further (in LA), before breaking up and starting a bevy of bands like The Summer Hits, Beachwood Sparks, The Tyde, etc.

Haven't thought about the Windbreakers in ages. The song I remember from them is We Never Understand. Good tune but not new wave, more shading into americana territory.

Had no idea the Rademakers had been around that long before the Beachwood Sparks era out here in LA.

Terrific comp! Absolute Grey and Salem 66 were the two bands that I knew of and own records by. There's a short thread here that could use some more posts: Salem 66: S/D

That Strum & Thrum comp was also recently discussed in the rolling reissues thread, fyi

The clue is in the thread title. Loving this Random Hold LP from 1980:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di9A2w8Vsjk

That Strum & Thrum comp was also recently discussed in the rolling reissues thread, fyi

― down like 6:30 (morrisp), Friday, November 20, 2020 12:40 PM

yeah, i was excited for it but then got completely sidetracked when i found out about the pavement box set. i'm gonna get both now and i'm going to love every second of it, dammit!

pavement box set(?!)

I heard this song once on college radio circa 1982 or '83 and loved it and never heard it again but spent years looking for it in record stores. Finally found the EP it was from like 10 years later. By that time of course I'd built up the song in my head into something hard to live up to. But I still like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b2zGLZg4nI

(more than the music, it was the central lyrical image — "white gardens/no flowers/just white" — that stuck with me)

I have a copy of the North American issue of that Random Hold record, which combines single, EP and album tracks (but not the song you linked to). It seems they really wanted to release everything in a double LP package.

They're a strange hybrid of prog/AOR and post-punk/new wave; you can see why some at the time found them hard to swallow, but they deserved some more attention than they got.

pavement box set(?!)

― down like 6:30 (morrisp), Friday, November 20, 2020 2:53 PM

uhh, no sorry. PYLON. dunno where i got pavement from. i don't even like them.

Both bands are R.E.M.-adjacent.

I fell in love with this song "Soon" recently, a side project of Paul Haig from Josef K

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

thank you, rollie! that has lead me to this and i bought that schitt so fast!

finally got that paul haig in the mail and the second track was his cover of sly + the family stone! i haven't even gotten past that track yet and HELL YES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVMOIff3bDs

file that one under: things tailor made for austin.

Loving a bit of Maximum Joy at the moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs7ZiivWoOQ

I dig about 2/3s of that Paul Haig comp, the 2nd half of disc 2 leaves me cold though.

Agreed, Gerald. It's got some great stuff on it though. Kind of feel the same about Josef K, but they were easily more hit than miss.

Why did no one tell me about Au Pairs? They're wonderful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLUANT8ZPxU

"Headache for Michelle" (1981)

Hells yes! Brilliant Gang Of Four grooves with great lyrics. Do find the Peel Sessions if possible. And if you don't know them already, Delta 5 are cut from a similar cloth. But in the spirit of this thread, I must note these are post punk and not new wave

Heard this one recently on the radio, and couldn't believe I've never heard of these guys before:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3cvrCJwEn4
O Positive - Say Goodbye

Is 1985 too late to call it new wave?

Ahh, I wasn't intending to get too caught up on strict definitions. "Random old new wave" is whatever you think it is in this thread. Just looking for some solid punk/-inspired jams.

Which "Say Goodbye" qualifies as, thank you for sharing.☺

Also just put this one on, Gerald. Thanks for the rec!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIQ_U3I2bZY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciKTL9oKZrg

O Positive were a great Boston band from the 80s. They released an EP compilation which contains their best work though I have a soft spot for their debut LP, "Toyboattoyboattoyboat". Their second album was crap. Dave Herlihy became an entertainment lawyer, my mate's band worked with him.

Medium, Medium, from Nottingham, Au Pairs adjacent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnoGts-zT0A

Minnneapolis’ the Suburbs:

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

I listened to a bunch of Icelandic post-punk and New wave yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmxDfD0zepI

Also Spanish new wave.

This video should be classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i13SdFgMGME

Huh, I was pretty sure I was the only person left who remembered O Positive. Would love to buy that dj a drink.

Apparently that DJ been rocking that O Positive tune for 20 years.

WMBR is my go-to college station.

not sure if this exactly counts but it seems like something that would appear on a Living with Oblivion comp from an alternate timeline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ39VhVaiKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skNId-8g17A

From the explicitly B-52's-emulating side of new wave, it's The Cosmopolitans "Wild Moose Party"

Berlin - 'The Metro':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEZP22b82ks

the comsat angels — "the eye dance" (1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIGuj2APL84

best ever.

extemporaneous thoughts—
i hadn't quite figured out my asexuality yet when i first heard this song in the early 2000s. i just knew i preferred to hang out with women but not like that and that i was definitely not gay. throw in tons of other shit and i was afraid to talk to most people i didn't already know fairly well. enter this song. like most things from the coinciding album (sleep no more; very highly recommended if you don't know it), it's open to interpretation. i always just assumed it was meant to portray a narrator, who fancies a stranger in a public space, wanting to make an approach, but feeling unsure. it's intense and passionate. i get the vibe that he feels like he needs to explain himself before he even says hello — if he even decides to go through with it in the first place. felt very much like he had been reading my thoughts for the few years prior. the timelines don't match up, of course. foiled again.

Dumptruck: Going Nowhere

dumptruck —and especially for the country— is such a personal classic!

Xp Don't sleep on the Comsat Angels Peel Sessions! Some definitive versions there.

that's a fine point, gerald! the peel sessions are easily the highlights of their radio sessions album. even though the sleep no more are songs are missing the big studio sound they were able to get on the album, the performances are fairly intense. that whole period was pretty fruitful for them; loved reading about how meticulous the recording of the album was — i.e., recording drums at 3am via the open lift shaft in an otherwise empty studio.

Here is a REALLY obscure one:

Vivabeat’s “Blue Guitars”-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epIyP2-K9PA

Information on them is scant. Not many recordings, and I don’t think they really had a fixed lineup. Gorgeous tune. Love that bass

O _ O

that's. . . wow!

easy first listen love. thank you for posting.

discogs info + YES it's on streaming!

trouser press:

This one-hit (well, almost one) California guitar-plus-synthesizer sextet sounds like Sparks at half speed. On an otherwise duff album, their big number, “Man From China,” is a four-square dance track whose catchy hook is whistled for novelty effect.

lol ouch

and according to amg, they were loosely affiliated with peter gabriel but it's not really clear what the connection was. listening to the compilation now and the earlier stuff is definitely more 'stock new wave' sounding than "blue guitar" — which *really* sticks out. what an amazing song. it's vaguely go betweens-ish, with some b-52's "topaz" sprinkles on top. . . just whoa — big tune!

Wow, Vivabeat... I *think* I saw either them or one of Marina Del Rey's other bands opening up for the Andy Prieboy version of Wall Of Voodoo at the Anti Club in LA (I see Chas Grey from WoV is credited on the Vivabeat album). Marina Del Rey was in o.g. Masque punk band Backstage Pass with Holly Beth Vincent but that's about all I know of them.

big up to "blue guitars" again. one of my favorite songs of the year. cheers.

French gem
https://shop.bornbadrecords.net/track/toutes-les-nuits

HAVE YOU HEARD THE GOOD NEWS? :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI2A4kUgPE8

the wake - "talk about the past (12" mix)"

(yep, featuring a cameo from vini reilly!)

i do very much like the madchester lite that factory was also peddling-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax2pjApra6g
the railway children - 'brighter' (1986)

general thoughts on the railway children? i wasn't there at the time, but this one seems like it may have had dome steam behind it. they kind of sounded like an amalgamation of a few different manc bands - but a much more polite version of all of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcsoZiIm1C8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3gzRg-8qD8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x0fPZrPV3M

I love that first Railway Children album. Their second and third albums are diminishing returns, but "Reunion Wilderness" jangles hard.