FWIW (and I know perhaps not much), one of those two band names is much better than the other…
― Day 1 fan (morrisp), Sunday, 21 May 2023 22:52 (ten months ago) link
yeah, i'm definitely team orange juice on this one.
― my beard exists more than i do. (Austin), Sunday, 21 May 2023 23:06 (ten months ago) link
Was wondering whether The Farmer's Boys might have come up. Glad to see they did. I particularly dig Whatever Is He Like? which is possibly at the shabbier end of all of this.
Might the The Monochrome Set be distant cousins?
Maybe even the young Momus? (Though I can't find a super-compelling illustration, song-wise, at this instant.)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Monday, 22 May 2023 05:56 (ten months ago) link
before his first solo record Momus was the singer in a band with the guitarist and the bassist from Josef K, which is totally this kind of sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV_G7B7rmm0
― he thinks it's chinese money (soref), Monday, 22 May 2023 09:01 (ten months ago) link
Always - The Turf Accountant's Dream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly4h6xUMZPk
― he thinks it's chinese money (soref), Monday, 22 May 2023 09:36 (ten months ago) link
On the subject of Momus, this sound was very popular in Japan, and even seems to have its own term there 'Neo Acoustic' or 'Neo Aco' for short. Flippers Guitar are the most popular example of a band that was very inspired by this sound (at least on their first two records)
― ClimbingThieves, Monday, 22 May 2023 12:48 (ten months ago) link
Not so distant I'd say.
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Monday, 22 May 2023 12:53 (ten months ago) link
Love that Always record. The Wild Swans - Revolutionary Spirit, April Showers - Abandon Ship, Vic Godard- Stop that good all prime examples of this type of thing
― cw, Monday, 22 May 2023 13:00 (ten months ago) link
stop that girl, even
― cw, Monday, 22 May 2023 13:01 (ten months ago) link
Wild Swans and April Showers both kind of cult acts in the Phillipines along with the likes of the Lotus Eaters and that band Ricky Gervais was in whose names escapes me. They seem to have a real soft spot for winsome jangly stuff. Have found a couple of copies of the April Showers record in the quid bins here and both went there for a fair bit of cash:
https://www.discogs.com/release/838848-April-Showers-Abandon-Ship
― rincton monkspoon (NickB), Monday, 22 May 2023 18:02 (ten months ago) link
Wow, will be looking out for that.
― Dan Worsley, Monday, 22 May 2023 18:50 (ten months ago) link
Yeah there's a few things like that around - virtually no-one in the UK gives a shit about it or knows what it is
― rincton monkspoon (NickB), Monday, 22 May 2023 18:57 (ten months ago) link
Do the La's fit here, and how good are they overall? I only know the US hit "There She Goes":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCfIJgVM6M
― dow, Monday, 22 May 2023 19:25 (ten months ago) link
The Wild Swans - Revolutionary Spirit
very classic jam! frustratingly not on spotify (in the us anyway). sire albums are there, though - and that stuff's not too bad either.
― my beard exists more than i do. (Austin), Monday, 22 May 2023 19:33 (ten months ago) link
re:Johnny Hates Jazz, their best song (Me and My Foolish Heart) ends with some truly dreamy jangle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDBRnq43wrY
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 22 May 2023 20:25 (ten months ago) link
RYM uses the term "neo-acoustic" to describe a lot of this stuff, based on a Japanese scene inspired by it which I know nothing about. It actually kind of annoys me but still.
Other unmentioned names: Virgin Dance, Marine Girls, the Jazz Butcher, early Del Amitri
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 22 May 2023 20:30 (ten months ago) link
land of my dreams - anna domino, my suitor - bertenholer, view from her room - weekend all dwell in this rarefied spot for me. Marden hill, Louis Phillipe (you mary you), Fire Engines, Monochrome set "Whats the matter boy" era subway sect and the singles either side. Early Microdisney (pink skinned man)? Things directly inspired by punk, but reaching back to an indistinct, urbane, almost pre rocknroll era in their language and imagery. I think i may be talking nonsense. Don't think the Las belong in here, or even bands like Felt or early shack, but the Pale Fountains kindof do I feel. Also very distinct from c86.
― cw, Monday, 22 May 2023 20:40 (ten months ago) link
Semi-related, but I always feel there is a cracking compilation to be made of quite world-weary alternative/guitar/whatever adult pop made in the early 90s by 30 somethings who were also in some way famous in the previous decade. It's not a very distinguished headcanon but some of its classics are:
Nick Heyward - KiteThe The - Slow Emotion ReplayJulian Cope - Fear Loves This PlaceWorld Party - Is It Like Today? Prefab Sprout - The Sound of CryingThe Beautiful South - Old Red Eyes Is BackXTC - The Ballad of Peter PumpkinheadRobyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - So You Think You're in LoveSqueeze - Some Fantastic PlaceJames - Born of Frustration (not famous in the 80s outside indie-land but it still fits)
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 22 May 2023 20:41 (ten months ago) link
Poly Styrene's 1981 solo album Translucence is really good and maybe fits the criteria for this thread
― he thinks it's chinese money (soref), Monday, 22 May 2023 20:43 (ten months ago) link
Yeah thats is a great and really surprising record. Was that talked about in the Polystrene documentary? I'd love to hear the story there.
― cw, Monday, 22 May 2023 20:55 (ten months ago) link
Those first two Aztec Camera singles on Postcard still sound remarkable, for a number of reasons: the much-quoted fact that Roddy Frame was 15 or 16 when he wrote and recorded the songs, but also because they sound like nothing else that was around at the time, as far as I can see. When so much post-punk guitar music was angular and abrasive, they were strumming acoustic guitars, but not in a folky way, not in a retro, 60s way. I still don't know who they sound like. The early Pale Fountains singles have a very similar sound, but came slightly later and I assume they were influenced by Az Cam rather than coincidently pursuing the same thing.
― fetter, Monday, 22 May 2023 21:09 (ten months ago) link
not a very distinguished headcanon but some of its classics are
Maybe also Edwyn Collins's hit, "A Girl Like You"?
― Day 1 fan (morrisp), Monday, 22 May 2023 21:26 (ten months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9cSn0wkltg
― dow, Monday, 22 May 2023 22:54 (ten months ago) link
Obvious choice, but
― dow, Monday, 22 May 2023 22:55 (ten months ago) link
Squeeze - Some Fantastic Place
The Some Fantastic Place album sounds like they'd been listening to REM with all the mandolins and ukuleles and what-not, I'd guess they were probably an influence on a few 80s artists who went in this direction? Crowded House maybe another model for someone from an 80s new wave band reinventing themselves as a tasteful adult guitar pop act, I don't think anything in that list was produced by Mitchell Froom, but it has that kind of sound - and he produced Mighty Like a Rose and Brutal Youth by Elvis Costello. I'd suggest Terry Hall's solo album Home from 1994 as well (and the Colourfield had one foot in that '80s jangly sophisticated pop sound', so maybe another example of the link between the two modes?)
― he thinks it's chinese money (soref), Tuesday, 23 May 2023 08:32 (ten months ago) link
This one's great: relevant to the thread, an interesting mix of Spandau Ballet wardrobe, horns that aren't ska, and a power-pop structure and momentum.
This song ("Nobody's Fool") just came on the Haircut 100 thing I'm listening to (Pelican West - 40th Anniversary) – and goddmamn, what a great single.
― Day 1 fan (morrisp), Tuesday, 23 May 2023 16:48 (ten months ago) link
(LOL, you can tell I rarely swear on here, I can't even spell curse words right)
quite world-weary/alternative
reminds me that discussions over on Roxy Music Live - S/D went in this direction when Roxy was coming back to tour last year:
Siren, Manifesto, and Avalon all worked for me as their idea of the new mainstream, para-everything else that was going on there, and with a mid-70s-as-hell toward and into early 80s, w/o seeming too trendy, just increasingly smoov,catchy, romantically pessimistic to new-married hopeful, reasonably committed to being good in the late night hotel bar-to-supermarket-to-drugstore. Not the creative peaks, but ageing or aging gracefully― dow, Thursday, September 15, 2022
― dow, Thursday, September 15, 2022
― dow, Tuesday, 23 May 2023 16:54 (ten months ago) link
the late night hotel bar-to-supermarket-to-drugstore.
― dow, Tuesday, 23 May 2023 16:57 (ten months ago) link
xps R.E.M. is a definite influence I'd say and in fact they could probably get onto the compilation themselves, even if that period was actually their commercial peak (it would be a bit like putting the Beatles on a toytown comp but it can be done). Crowded House, Costello and Terry Hall (I still haven't heard Home so I should do that) are great suggestions also
Re:Edwyn Collins I was thinking 'Make Me Feel Again' would work better. Also something from Nick Lowe's The Impossible Bird, Weller's Wild Wood and others I've forgotten.
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Tuesday, 23 May 2023 17:09 (ten months ago) link
quite world-weary alternative/guitar/whatever adult pop made in the early 90s by 30 somethings who were also in some way famous in the previous decade.
If being in Young Marble Giants counts as being in some way famous I would definitely put the Stuart Moxham and the Original Artists stuff in this category
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd-_Z3Z1CWY
tbh I love this album more than anything by YMG but I recognize that's an idiosyncracy
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 25 May 2023 20:23 (ten months ago) link
Since you're going there, I'll seize the opp to mention Alison Statton w Weekend and duet Devine and Statton, haven't heard Statton & Spike.
― dow, Thursday, 25 May 2023 20:57 (ten months ago) link
(she's also in there w Stuart and Original Artists is why I thought of it)
― dow, Thursday, 25 May 2023 20:59 (ten months ago) link
if we're talking about post-YMG stuff, then the Gist definitely need a mention:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc0SXW1fd6UThe Gist - Love at First Sight
― rincton monkspoon (NickB), Thursday, 25 May 2023 21:05 (ten months ago) link
Oh yeah, and Statton was on there too!
― dow, Thursday, 25 May 2023 21:11 (ten months ago) link
I totally should have given more quality time to The Gist.
Some days the Weekend album is the best popular music long-playing record I've ever heard. Fruity instrumental interludes and all lol. (Especially that issue with stray single sides and demos tacked on.)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 26 May 2023 02:32 (ten months ago) link
How about something from the third Martha & The Muffins album, This Is The Ice Age which I sometimes think is the most underrated album of the decade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T-z23yWHf4
― kitchen person, Friday, 26 May 2023 02:47 (ten months ago) link
Also a song by The Passions that isn't I'm In Love With A German Film Star.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ctM9g0_gI
― kitchen person, Friday, 26 May 2023 02:49 (ten months ago) link
Martha & The Muffins album, This Is The Ice Age
I spent the day at the cottage immortalized in "You Sold the Cottage" (before it was sold)
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 26 May 2023 02:51 (ten months ago) link
Apologies for spamming the thread, this one just popped into my head as well. My friend made a couple of compilations called The Lost 80s which were full of this kind of thing. Abandon Ship by April Showers took over my life last year and is the most I've ever spent on a 7" single. It's such a beautiful song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWoEYChr5AU
― kitchen person, Friday, 26 May 2023 02:54 (ten months ago) link
Now I see that April Showers have been mentioned on this thread a couple of times already. Glad to see some other fans here. Just catching up with the thread and checking out the songs I don't know. That Hey! Elastica single is fantastic.
― kitchen person, Friday, 26 May 2023 02:59 (ten months ago) link
kp- that passions song is a f'kn jam! i keep a "radio station" playlist on my spotify and that's been on it for the past month or so. they're one of my favorites for sure.
― my beard exists more than i do. (Austin), Friday, 26 May 2023 03:10 (ten months ago) link
Nice! I love the whole album, but that track in particular is so good. I feel like if that had been put out as a single after German Film Star they might have not been a one hit wonder.
― kitchen person, Friday, 26 May 2023 03:25 (ten months ago) link
This post-Josef K Paul Haig single is one of my faves, especially 'Soon':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkVCojnvHnc\
― nerve_pylon, Friday, 26 May 2023 18:11 (ten months ago) link
My friend made a couple of compilations called The Lost 80s which were full of this kind of thing.
Coincidentally was just going to say I feel like there’s a lot of this sort of thing on the Gary Crowley’s Lost ‘80s comps that came out a few years ago.
― early rejecter, Saturday, 27 May 2023 13:06 (ten months ago) link
the siddleys - my wet wednesday afternoon (1987)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXPD1S1BXPA
― brimstead, Sunday, 28 May 2023 02:24 (ten months ago) link
YES. That song threatens to make me weep for reasons I can't explain. I feel like the Siddeleys might be even more conspicuously related to the 'tradition' in question when the guitars are wispy and they add horns lol.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Sunday, 28 May 2023 06:07 (ten months ago) link
Fairground Attraction - "Perfect" (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txapREGWHp0
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Wednesday, 31 May 2023 21:28 (ten months ago) link
Speaking of Scots, how about Danny Wilson?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hqgC3W9GUI
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 31 May 2023 22:31 (ten months ago) link
Danny Wilson are great, some brilliant hidden gems on the first album
― ClimbingThieves, Sunday, 4 June 2023 19:45 (ten months ago) link
I think it's funny that the band members ended up mad that people thought they were a guy named Danny Wilson rather than a band. Like, what did you think would happen? But yeah, both albums are good.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 4 June 2023 19:56 (ten months ago) link
I gave my tape copy of Bebop Moptop, which I had purchased for 99¢, as a farewell gift to a guy I knew whose actual name was Danny Wilson; he was unusually grateful.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 6 June 2023 14:35 (ten months ago) link