Only Men Fall in Love

Home Service was a short-lived project by David Motion and David Fraser that bore several releases on their own label Crystal Groove Records as well as a 7" single of "Only Men Fall in Love" on the Beggars Banquet subsidiary Situation 2.

Alhtough Home Service didn't last long, Motion became enamored with the recording process during the Home Service project, and went on to become a successful producer, recruited to produce a number of bands including Strawberry Switchblade. He talks a bit about Home Service and his beginnings as a producer in an interview on the Strawberry Switchblade site. More recently he's scored films and produced a number of ditties for commercials - full bio on his music career here. And, you can listen to some of his current work on his Myspace. It's super interesting to me that someone behind such a leftfield track as OMFIL would go on to make music for mainstream commercials. But I guess a lot of musicians have that trajectory.

This is actually ripped from a 12" of OMFIL that US label Cachalot released in 1981. It's played pitched way down, beecause playing it at it's intended full 45 was WAY TOO FAST! I Can't believe it's that fast, and now understand why Andrew over at Lovefingers posted it at 33 a while back.

Home Service - Only Men Fall in Love
Home Service - O.M.F.I.L.

Bonerus - A whole shitload of Strawberry Switchblade demos, Peel Sessions, outtakes etc. available for download on the Strawberry Switchblade Site. Good stuff!!

The Queen

Ms. Lunch is the mistress of off-key insouciance. She sings like she's coming down off the Anna Nicole Smith cocktail (too soon?), and it's sloppy and lazy and perfect. From her 1980 debut Queen of Siam:

Lydia Lunch - Atomic Bongos
Lydia Lunch - Spooky

Atomic bongos is my jam du jour, and Spooky is a rendition of an old Classics IV song from 1967. Here is the original for comparison and contrastison:

Classics IV - Spooky

Way of the West

I don't know much about this Boston band Way of the West, and Google didn't help, but it's pretty good shit. I tracked this down after hearing "White Boys" sandwiched in between The Hawaiian Pups and Cluster by one of the DJs at The Echo. I think it was at an Ariel Pink show.  If you know anything about these dudes, do tell.

Here's a folder with all their singles and a few extras:

Don't Say That's Just For White Boys (1980)
Drum (1981)
See You Shake (1981)
City for Lovers (1984)
Feel the Steel (1984)

+DOWNLOAD

Y Pants

Y Pantssssss! I've mentioned before that I LOVE girl drummers - add Virginia Piersol of Y Pants to that list. Y Pants, part of the DIY No Wave stew, got started out on toy instruments (the toy piano of my childhood sounds JUST like the one they play), and threw the heaviosity of earlier punk and experimental acts into relief with their awesome softness. Creative girls, these ones, birthing surprises at every turn despite the super simplicity of their playing.

They recorded their first EP in 1980 with the legendary Glenn Branca, and released an LP, Beat It Down, in '82. Both releases are included on the 1998 CD release of their catalog issued by Periodic Document. Note the covers of songs by The Rolling Stones and Leslie Gore, as well as lyrics based on Emily Dickinson's I heard a fly buzz when I died. For an idea of just how radically they altered the originals I've included the original Leslie Gore recording of "That's The Way Boys Are" (1964) for comparison and constrastison.

Y Pants - Off The Hook (Rolling Stones cover)
Y Pants - Beat It Down
Y Pants - Love's A Disease
Y Pants - The Fly (words by Emily Dickinson)
Y Pants - The Code Of Life
Y Pants - That's The Way Boys Are (Leslie Gore Cover)

Lesley Gore - That's The Way Boys Are

Diagram Brothers

Diagram Brothers ('79-'82) were a high-concept postpunk group from Manchester made up of four science students who devised strict constricts for their songs and diagrammed the planned unfoldings of their studio sessions, interviews, shows, and record sleeves. Says bassist Andy Diagram (also trumpet player for Dislocation Dance):

"The music was made to a strict formula, or set of rules. All the guitar chords were based on discordant notes, all the beats were very simple rock or disco, and all the words were very straightforward and down to earth."

Diagram Brothers - We Are All Animals
Diagram Brothers - I Would Like To Live In Prison
Diagram Brothers - Bricks
Diagram Brothers - Discordo

The expanded "Some Marvels of Modern Science" can be downloaded in it's entirety for free over at Mutant Sounds, or purchased from Darla.

Family Fodder B-Sides

I just received some ebay-purchased Family Fodder 7", and they are the cutest little 7" ever. The singles are old favorites of mine, but the B-sides are new to me and are, like most of their stuff, totally great and fascinating.

Family Fodder - Savoir Faire (1980)
Family Fodder - Carnal Knowledge

Family Fodder - Film Music (1981)
Family Fodder - Room

Dalek I Love You

Dalek I Love You were a synth-pop band that formed in Liverpool in 1977. The name is the result of a band compromise, a combination of Dalek, the evil alien mutants from Dr. Who, and "Darling, I Love You." I'll butcher history by paraphrasing that in their few early years they shared and lost members to The Teardrop Explodes and OMD, and by the time they released their debut album Compass Kumpass (1980) they were a duo, Alan Gill and Dave Hughes.

For the release of the album, the sneaky petes at Phonogram shortened the band's name to Dalek i without even telling them. Compass did well in the UK, reaching #54 on the pop charts, but didn't receive a whif of attention elsewhere. NME writer Andy Gill reviewed the record upon its release:

"A prime example of living-room music construction, it features catchy,
interlinking little riffs over a plodding beat formed by combining
elements of both drums and drum-machines and Gill's calmly urgent
vocals. Ingeniously simple but infuriatingly infectious -- rather like
an adult Human League on speed -- "Freedom Fighters" is one of the
year's best singles so far, and from what I heard of their other
material, there's plenty more where that came from."

Dalek i - Destiny (Dalek I Love You)
Dalek i - Freedom Fighters
Dalek i - Mad
Dalek i - Good Times
Dalek i - Heat

And that was it for the initial period of the band. Get the exhaustive, unbutchered full story on Dalek I Love You here.

The Tapes on Vinyl

The Tapes were a dutch new wave band based out of Amsterdam, and that's all google wrote. In English at least. I did find some info on dutch-language sites, but it didn't lend itself nicely to translation in a crappy online translator. The one thing I garnered (and could have figured out by reading the album cover) is that their third and final album "On A Clear Day" (1981) was produced by John Leckie, who's production hand also grazed the likes of XTC, The Fall, PiL, Simple Minds, and Magazine.

I'm patting myself on the back - I finally checked my laziness for a second and figured out how to convert vinyl to MP3, so this here is fresh from vinyl. Still working out how to get a nice LOUD recording, and put an awful knick in "Good Riddance" (fuckfuckfuck) before I made some tweaks that resulted in a more tolerably pitched "Night After Night," so my apologies for the lowered volume. Anyhow, enjoy, and I'll be posting more rare-ish stuff that I only have on vinyl soon (with better volume hopefully).

The Tapes - Night After Night
The Tapes - Good Riddance

do the quango

Quando Quango was an early 80's electronic dance band formed by Hacienda DJ and Factory A&R man Mike Pickering and dutch siblings Hillegonda and Reinier Rietveld. Hillegonda does a better job than I could of describing the music:

"...Fela Kuti meets Kraftwerk somewhere between Manchester and Rotterdam, part of a new wave of post-punk electronica, with a whole lot of Mike Pickering's admirably broad knowledge of soul, disco, reggae and pop to stuff the gaps."

And Trouserpress says:

"Playing and production are uniformly sharp, but Quando Quango was best served by 12-inch dance mixes; an entire LP's worth becomes redundant and forgettable."

I totes agree. These two 12" singles rock, but some of their other stuff is a little chintsy.

Quando Quango - Love Tempo (12" mix) (1983)
Quando Quango - Atom Rock (12" mix) (1984)

For you winos

From the fertile valleys of Manchester, in some very pristine years for this locale, Dislocation Dance are a spritzy new wave outfit with a french pop bouquet and a post punk nose. Enjoyed best over a coastal drive or an upbeat cheese party, this spirited offering is free of harsh aftertastes and noisy elements. The flavors are clearly defined and in unique balance - crisp and tasty!

From mini-album Slip that Disc!, released by New Hormones in August 1981:

Dislocation Dance - Spare Concern
Dislocation Dance - We Can Work it Out (Beatles Cover)
Dislocation Dance - This Problem

From LP Music Music Music, released by New Hormones in October 1981:

Dislocation Dance - Meeting Mum and Dad
Dislocation Dance - Friendship
Dislocation Dance - Roof is Leaking

Taste it for yourself on the jam-packed LTM reissue of the above releases plus bonus singles, available for purchase from the fine folks over at Darla

New Year New Wave

Be Bop Deluxe get swept up in the New Wave and go electronic-ish on 1978's Drastic Plastic. I would like this more if it had less guitar solo, but frontman Bill Nelson was regarded as quite the guitarist at the time so I guess he's entitled to some soloing. Shit, I hate guitar solos, I can't believe I'm posting this as my first post of the New Year. Bah, just listen. "New Precision" sounds like talking heads, but Byrne and company would never have abided by all the soloing because they just get it.

Be Bop Deluxe - Electrical Language
Be Bop Deluxe - New Precision

P.S. that kind of sizzly fuzzy blown-out speaker sound that the drums and bass have is inherent in the actual recording, not due to a bady copy.

Are you ready for this?

Are you ready for a show of devotion? Shriekback channels Wham! on this jazzy little number from rom 1984's Jam Science:

Shriekback - Mercy Dash

sweet zounds

Zoundssss his wounds iswounds zwounds zounds. I guess I can see how slurring british drunks confessing their sins to one another in a dark bar could get "zounds" from the oath "his wounds." It's a stretch, but those cockney brits say some fucked up hot shit.

In the late 70's Zounds were squatters, punks, into anarchy but an intellectual strain of it a far cry from what your average pimply teenage anarchist idolizes these days. They were somehow linked to Crass, but weren't as noisy and in your face, favoring instead a more stripped-down, rigid sound. They recorded and mixed their only LP The Curse of Zounds (1980) in five days. It's a classic, and has been reissued with a spat of singles they released before the album proper, so buy it from Insound

Zounds - Cant Cheat Karma

No Words

This here gem is from Clan of Xymox's self-titled first album - ugly cover, beauteous song. So simple and pretty and New Order-like.

Clan of Xymox - No Words

Early Ants

This is my jam today, from Dirk Wears White Socks, the only LP from the original Adam and the Ants lineup. This album is obviously a favorite of mine, where I got the name for this blog etc. So yeah, it's great, Mr. Ant is all like contemplating creation and religion and the crazy animals he sees at the zoo.

Adam and the Ants - The Idea

"I could be religious - if they set the hymns to disco, like this..."

Buy it from Amazon

Totally Taco

Taco. So eighties. So bad that it's amazingly good. For all you haters, I give you Taco. Totes.

Taco - Livin' in my Dreamworld

You gotta love the irony of the most 80's dude you've ever heard hating on the 80s and wishing he was Cary Grant instead.

Buy it at MusicStack (or not)

Big in India

Last weekend when I was running around my apartment all crazy looking for a suitably dry white wine to throw in the fondue pot, my pal Tyler did me the favor of putting on a new record. He picked at random and on popped Boney M Night Flight to Venus, and all the kids wanted to know who it was

In the late 70's Boney M were like super-mega-ultra stars in Europe and the Soviet Union and Southeast Asia and all over the world really, but relatively unknown in the states. So while your average foreigner knows and loves Boney M (they are the featured act to wrap up this years International Film Festival of India), their kitschy retro-futuristic pan-continental discofunk is new territory for many. Some superfun tracks from Night Flight to Venus(1978):

Boney M - Night Flight to Venus
Boney M - Rasputin
Boney M - Painter Man
Boney M - By the Rivers of Babylon

Buy it from Amazon

Bonerus:

Boney M was put together in 1975 by German producer Frank Farian after his song "Baby do you Wanna Bump" became a hit in parts of Europe - he needed a group to present to the media and perform live etc, so rounded up some West Indian dancers and called them Boney M. Interestingly, this wasn't the only time this guy ghostwrote - he was also the mastermind behind the whole Milli Vanilli controversy. Can't really blame the guy - he presaged the wildly successful forumula that is a staple of (bad) pop music today - get talented people to write and record music for a marketable performer type who takes all the credit.

Boney M - Baby do you Wanna Bump

postcard artifact heart attack

I'm tired of scouring Limewire at strange hours of the night trying to find yet-to-be- pirated-by-me Josef K songs, so I was very smiley back in August when I heard that Domino was releasing an anthology of their bestest things titled "Entomology." Yay, on November 20 the shitty quality copy of "Radio Drill Time" I'll be sharing in a few lines will be upgraded to a bright shiny CD quality version. And how.

Here are some tracks:

Josef K - Radio Drill Time
Josef K - Crazy to Exist
Josef K - Fun 'n' Frenzy

Mm? They're all included on the album - buy it here.

Bonerus:

At the peak of it all frontman Paul Haig left the band to pursue solo projects, ending up a sort of bland synthpop cliche as seen on here on this track from his first album "Rhythm of Life" (for some strange reason I love the silly vaguely oriental riff in this song):

Paul Haig - Adoration

The Raincoats, girl drummers, life 2.0

I love girl drummers, espeically the ladies from ESG, Kleenex/Liliput, the Raincoats. These are my girls. They keep their drumming simple and sparse, rarely riding any noisy cymbals, rarely cluttering things up with overly-complicated and show-offy fills, never bound to the standard repertoire of mainstream manly drumming convention.

Palmolive from the raincoats is a perfect example - totally creative, totally crafty and homespun in feeling. The Raincoats remind me a bit of Delta 5, especially the staggered stiff vocal harmonies, but their sound is decidedly less muscular and polished. From their self-titled debut (1980):

The Raincoats - Adventures Close to Home
The Raincoats - No Side to Fall In

Early Simple Minds

From Real to Real Cacophony (1979):

Simple Minds - Factory
Simple Minds - Changeling



From Empires and Dance (1980):

Simple Minds - Travel
Simple Minds - Constantinople Line
Simple Minds - Thirty Frames a Second

Bonerus:

Simple Minds - Thirty Frames a Second (demo)

the moves moves makes me nervous

Sometimes no wave has too much no and not enough wave. For example, I prefer the more accessible work of James Chance to the noisy mess of DNA. It's probably better to assume that most no wave acts did it all, not restricting themselves to one style or genre or "wave," but rather producing accessible pleasant work as well as noisy challenging feedback puke - that breadth of output is what makes them no wave - but I still tend to put no wave groups into one of those two boxes.

I always thought Lydia Lunch belonged more to the DNA camp, full of noisy scary things, but "Lazy in Love"from her group 8-Eyed Spy had me thinking otherwise - until I listened to the rest of the album and some live stuff. Don't let the polished, tight, melodic bliss of this song fool you, the rest of the stuff is pure no wave abrasion. Obviously she's a woman of many talents.

8-Eyed Spy - Lazy in Love
8-Eyed Spy - Diddy Wah Diddy (Captain Beefheart cover)

Bonerus:

Awesome free no-wave mix + annotated tracklisting from the Optimo guys, and

Awesome no wave photo archive!!!

The Importance of Being Synthetic

Daniel Miller is best-known for his behind-the-scenes work as producer for early-period Depeche Mode, as well as his role as founder of experimental/industrial label Mute -- but he also released some excellent material as an artist in his own right.

As "The Normal,"  Miller used the sharp and piercing sounds of early electronic instruments to full effect on 1978's "Warm Leatherette," a futuristic noire whiplash inspired by J.G. Ballard's car-crash-fetish novel Crash. You've all heard the song - it's been covered by everyone and their mother (Grace Jones, Chicks on Speed, Vitalic etc). Here's the original.

The Normal - Warm Leatherette



Somewhat more obscure is his subsequent work as Silicon Teens, a completely fabricated group that he invented to take responsibility for Music for Parties, an album of electronic versions of 50's and 60's rock tunes. The covers are cutesy and fun, but the best tracks from the album are the three original songs - including this one with vocals by one-time Depeche Mode tour-manager Daryl Bamonte

Silicon Teens - Sun Flight

Bonus - video for Silicon Teens' version of "Memphis Tennesse"

In the Beginning there was Rhythm

If you've read here before it's no surprise that I like to remind people of the early work of bands who's success and fame have resulted in a generally singular idea or notion of said band at the expense of other facets. A perfect example, and one of my favorite bands (often a shock to people who know my tastes), is R.E.M., mostly their early work, especially their first album Murmur.

Before mainstream success, R.E.M. was THE bridge between punk/post-punk and alternative. Along with bands like the B-52's and Pylon they spawned a whole scene of early-80's Athens art-rock that helpfed fertilize alternative movements throughout the country. Taking the minimal rhythms of post-punk and adding lots of pretty guitar work and simple and unexpected melodies, Murmur is a far cry from R.E.M. as most people know them. If you recoil at the thought of "Everybody Hurts" balladry, give this a listen and allow me to prove myself right - this early shit is good.

R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe
R.E.M. - Pilgrimage
R.E.M. - Laughing
R.E.M. - Moral Kiosk

These waters once were clean

I recently saw Urgh! A Music War at the Egyptian, thanks to a heads up from Bret over at post-punk junk, and man was it fantastic. Klaus Nomi, thirty feet tall? Yes please. I highly recommend seeing it larger than life, but screenings don't appear to happen all that often, so do what you need to do to see it (your local indie video store maybe?). In honor of Urgh! here are some of the finer new-wave moments from the film, alongside the studio versions of said moments for comparison and contrastison.



After The Police's intro (Stewart Copeland's brother Miles produced Urgh!), Wall of Voodoo kick things off with crazy eyes and flesh-crawling blurbling bass and synths on "Back in Flesh."

Wall of Voodoo - Back in Flesh
Wall of Voodoo - Back in Flesh (URGH!)



Later on is Oingo Boingo doing "Ain't this the Life," a song so intricate and well-crafted it's no surprise it's the product of someone who aspired to more erudite forms of composition.

Oingo Boingo - Ain't this the Life
Oingo Boingo - Ain't this the Life (URGH!)

Bonerus - Gary Numan's performance of "Down in the Park" in Urgh! is a futuretastic neon-deco eye-feast that will change your life.

Gary Numan - Down in the Park

You can see most of the Urgh! performances on YouTube, but the quality is awful so beware, you might be underwhelmed. Once you've seen it big there's no turning back.

Let's skip the history lesson

I'm going to the Oregon Coast tomorrow morning, and this means quiet time with the family, long drives along the sea, and long sits in the "sun" room listening to my ipod while looking out at the inevitable rainy oregon sky. Houses in oregon shouldn't have sun rooms. Also: bonfires, hiking, biking, berry-picking, pie-making, tennis, boardgames, and lots of eating and drinking. Sound like some good old fashioned fun? It is. This is what the beach in front of our house looks like:



Whenever I go up there I end up with a lot of time on my hands. My mind slows down and thoughts that I haven't thought in a while linger back to my conscious mind. I mostly think about old people that are no longer in my life - old friends, old crushes, old enemies, people from my past in general. And I always end up listening to early OMD, it complements the vaguely sad never-again-will-that-happen feeling that old memories often bring. These two songs in particular from their self-titled debut LP with the beautiful Peter Saville designed sleeve:



OMD - Messages
OMD - Almost

Andy McCluskey's singing on "Almost" is amazing. The perfect song for dwelling on past lives.

I also usually end up listening to Soft Cell, who I could devote a whole weeks worth of posts about because they are one of my favorite acts ever. A few words about soft cell and my love affair with them. It started out with Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, I was SO surprised to discover that they weren't a one hit wonder and that they actually had an album full of good songs (frustration?! sex dwarf?!!) I would defend them to my friends - "they're not a one hit wonder, check this out!" - and sit back in satisfaction as I watched them helplessly jerk around to sex dwarf.



THEN....then I discovered that they weren't even a one-album wonder, as I secretly thought. The Art of Falling Apart is also fine, fine fine, home to my favorite Soft Cell song "Loving You, Hating Me." And now I love it all, every single song about the same tired subjects - pills, alcoholism, anonymous sex, blackmail, lies, and the narrowing of eyes. It's so godamn trite and I love every minute of it. Here are two of my favorites.

Soft Cell - Seedy Films
Soft Cell - Loving You, Hating Me

The relationship Marc Almond sings about in Loving You/Hating Me is pure gay truth. That's all, thanks for listening.

Purple Hearts all around...

I really wanted to post tonight and I'm tired, so I'm just gonna post without doing the requisite fact-checking. Kissing the Pink/KTP was (is?) an amazing collective of musicians loosely based around the Royal College of music in London who got together in the early 80's and turned their entire house into a giant installation art piece and recording studio. They had a bunch of equipment in the living room and they were super prolific, recording demo after demo after demo. The first album "Naked" is awesome, the kind of unexpected creative mishmash that makes other experimental synthpop and new wave bands seem one-dimensional. Naked was reissued in June, buy it here

Kissing the Pink - Frightened in France
Kissing the Pink - Big Man Restless
Kissing the Pink - Maybe This Day

You can download Naked in its entirety, as well as numerous demo versions of all its songs, as well as a bunch of other album material and demos and live material and pretty nearly their whole discography from KTP friend Jeff Grote's site

Grote says the demos, which I haven't had time to listen to, are even better than the polished studio versions. And this album stuff is pretty damn great so that makes me excited.

I love losers

The Monochrome Set did lose out on a piece of the pop prize. They could have been big, but they weren't, which sucks for them but makes writing about them now that much more gratifying. Actually I'm too lazy to write about them, so here's what Aidan Meritt had to say about them in Positive Vibrations, his now-defunct Robyn-Hitchcock-obsessed zine from the early nineties:

I spoke to Robyn Hitchcock in Leeds one cold October night and asked him why the Soft Boys never became pop stars; he replied that like the dBs, the Soft Boys were one of the great "loser bands". Regrettably, the Monochrome Set fall into the same category. So how do we define a "loser band"? The simplest definition is a band that did everything right musically, had the charisma to carry it all off, won critical acclaim but never made it pay. A band that, had they sold one more single, had one more song on the radio, bought one more round at some muso executive's local hostelry, would have hit the big time with the force of a skinhead's boot. The fate of the "loser band" is to see copyists laughing all the way to the bank whilst they take their instruments down to the pawn shop. The Monochrome Set got closer than most to stardom, but were doomed by being just that little bit too good to be snorting cocaine off a naked model's breasts. Their glamour and mystique were just that little bit too subtle to allow them entrance to Stringfellow's; instead they were stuck with the college circuit and the occasional heading of the bill at the Rock Garden. The occasional tearful eulogy in the music press is their only reward.

The Monochrome Set were the archetypal post-punk art-school band. Formed from the ashes of Adam and the Antz (note the spelling), they began with a brace of wiry, angular singles on Rough Trade between 1978 and 79 with the core of their line up being Andy Warren (bass), Lester Square (guitar) and the enigmatic Bid on lead vocals; his most memorable claim was that he was descended from Indian princes. He was handsome and stylish enough to carry it off. Virgin Records' Din-Disc subsidiary clearly saw their potential and by 1980 they were in the studio recording their debut album The Strange Boutique. What can I say in a few sentences to do justice to this record? How can I explain to the uninitiated the class that oozes from its every pore? If one can imagine a classy swinging London party, probably circa 1966, with Andy Warhol, Jane Fonda, the Aga Khan and Mary Quant in attendance. Visualise the luxuriant seating, the fancy cocktails, imagine how exclusive the entrance to that party is. That's what The Strange Boutique sounds like. The album grazed the lower reaches of the national chart and there must have been a feeling that one more album of a similar standard could have shot the Monochrome Set to stardom.

"Eine Symphonie" is a single they released before recording The Strange Boutique, followed by a live version of the title track from the debut that appeared on live album "Fin" in 1985 and again on its renamed incarnation "The Good Life" in 1992.

The Monochrome Set - Eine Symphonie des Grauens
The Monochrome Set - Strange Boutique (live)

In the late 70's and early 80's, The Homosexuals took the DIY-I-don't-give-a-fuck attitude of punk and carried it a step further by actually not giving a fuck. They totally isolated themselves from any sort of scene, purposely alienated themselves from less open-minded fans with their awesome choice of name, and winkingly deconstructed any bits of their music that bordered on pop or beauty or accessibility.

Core members Bruno, Anton, and Jim were amazingly prolific during the band's short existence (not surprising for chaps of the post-punk era), and almost everything they ever recorded as a band is included on the 3xCD Astral Glamour, released on Messthetics in 2004. Deciding which songs to post was difficult, as there is a huge range of styles encompassed here, but I'd say these tracks are among the more accessible for any new listeners. There are some beautiful moments in many of the songs, but they rarely fully indulge the listener by repeating the hooks and sweet riffs -- almost as if they think giving us what we want is some sort of creative compromise.

The Homosexuals - Hearts in Exile
The Homosexuals - You're Not Moving the Way That You're Supposed to
The Homosexuals - Collapsible You
The Homosexuals - Pamela

Buy it from Messthetics here

Bonus:



Jim was involved in several other experimental and sonically-haphazard projects during and after The Homosexuals. His band L Voag released an album The Way Out that contains the original version of "Kitchen" that Drew Daniels covered on the most recent Soft Pink Truth album.

L Voag - Kitchen



Another project of his was the Just Measurers, who recorded an album Flagellations

Just Measurers - Calling All Teenagers

Again, both of these tracks are among the most accessible found on either of these records. Both records can be donwloaded in their entirety (!) for free from Insect and Individual.

What's Cooler Than Being Cool

Consummate French coldwavers KaS Product are, well, ice cold.  They sing songs about cold people who are dead on the inside, they have frosty dentine ice breath, they dance in abandoned industrial factories, and they have the coolest hair all the damn time.

At their best, KaS Product sound like what Siouxsie and the Banshees might have if they had been produced by DAF. "So Young But So Cold," from their 1982 debut LP Try Out, has become something of a poster track for coldwave, and was the namesake of Tigersushi's 2004 coldwave compendium So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music 1977-1983.

Kas Product - So Young But So Cold

At their worst (which is kind of the best), singer Mona Soyoc's jazz-background-influenced histrionics overpower everything and land them in the realm of schmaltzy cabaret schtick. The raunchy little role playing bit she has with her, erm, pussy cat in "Pussy X" is exactly what I'm talking about. If you can stand this sort of thing, it's actually really amazing and hilarious.

Kas Product - Pussy X

See the hair in action below in the 1982 video for "Never Come Back." Electroclash kids eat your asymmetrical hearts out.

The Tomitas

It's 4th of July, America's birthday, day of beer and fire and meat and sweaty pride and, generally, bad music. Even if I did have any interesting songs about America or renditions of the spangly banner I wouldn't post them because that would be boring. Instead I'll play contrarian and take this day to celebrate two Japanese geniuses by the name of Tomita.



In 1996 Japanese super-producer Yann Tomita teamed up with squeaky j-pop fruits the Doopees. The result is 1996's insane "Doopee Time," which you can download in its entirety from WMFU's Beware of the Blog or buy from Amazon

Yann Tomita - How does it Feel



Isao Tomita, no relation to Yann Tomita, is a synth-buff and composer who pioneered the bridge between classical and electronic music along with other synth-heads like Ruth White and Wendy Carlos. But whereas White and Carlos took a color-by-number approach to translating classical pieces into electronic ones, Tomita amassed an aresnal of analog synths and twiddled knobs to create space-age interpretations of modern classics. No real instruments on earth even come close to Tomita's beauteous synthesizers. In 1974, this totally amazing version of Debussy's "Claire de Lune" made him famous in Japan and garnered him crossover success in the US. It's a masterpiece in its own right, I bet Debussy would have agreed.

Isao Tomita - Claire de Lune (Debussy)