New Wave for the New Week #36 BONUS ENTRY! BY REQUEST!

[All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries will be based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests coming in, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun! If you wish to make a request, you may do so either in the comments section of this post, or on Twitter by tweeting your request to @berutt. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]

Virgin Prunes via last.fm

NW4NW All Request Month continues with the first non-Twitter request, courtesy of my brother Marcus. His request also is the first entry in the entire NW4NW series that ventures into the Goth subgenre; in fact, in making his request he points out that "kids these days have NO IDEA what Gothic is until they've experienced these guys," and i daresay I am in full agreement. This ain't The Cure, kiddos...

A group of kids growing up together in 1970s Ireland formed an insular gang of sorts, and gave each other new identities - nicknames by which they would forever be called. Eventually, they all found themselves drawn to musical expression, and from their clan two bands were formed: one band would go on to worldwide fame and global pop-chart domination while the other...well, the other is the band we feature here.

"The Other" is also a pretty good place to start in trying to describe The Virgin Prunes. Going by their adopted names Gavin Friday, Guggi, Dave-Id, Dik, Strongman and Pod (and later involving the equally oddly-monikered Haa-Lacka Binttii and a male drummer/guitarist calling himself Mary), The Virgin Prunes began performing around Dublin in 1977. Their approach was a wildly unconventional mix of performance art, noise, imagery, music and shock theater. Their purposeful blurring of the lines of melody, vulgarity and gender sent many away from their early shows with heads reeling and stomachs churned. By the time the released their first recorded work in 1980, a self-produced single called "Twenty Tens (I've Been Smoking All Night)," their reputation was set as confrontationalist performers. The single was more listenable than most expected, but definitely difficult sonic territory (think of a rougher version of Metal Box-era Public Image Ltd.) Given their name, their sound, and their style, The Virgin Prunes were not going to be a mainstream band by anyone's definition!

A follow up single, "In The Greylight," followed in similar fashion. A bit more structured, it was still far enough out there as to be pretty much inaccessible to anyone not already accepting of their quirkiness. In 1981, the first attempt to capture the live performance aspect of the band in a recording resulted in what one reviewer likened to "a party in Hell." The four-part A New Form of Beauty series (initially released as four separate recordings on 7", 10" and 12" vinyl and a cassette, respectively, then combined as whole for a double LP released in Italy) built on a tense counterpoint between bizarre/ugly and charming/beautiful. Even their quickly growing cult following had difficulty sitting through the whole thing.

Commissioned by the French L'Invitation au Suicide label to create a work based around the theme of insanity, The Virgin Prunes delivered Heresie in early 1982. A boxed set containing two 10" records and half a dozen or so booklets with unsettling prose and imagery that would have shaken Salvador Dali, Heresie is a masterpiece. The first record finds the band making a horrific racket, playing out the roles of lunatics escaped from the asylum and finding themselves in a recording studio, culminating in the majestic and frightening "Rhetoric" and interspersed with childlike sing-songy vignettes and an odd recurring flute; the second record finds the band performing five of their more straightforward songs live in front of a Parisian audience. Stunning, and again difficult, but highly recommended.

Later that same year, The Virgin Prunes released their first formal LP, ...If I Die, I Die. In some ways, it's hard to believe this record came from the same band. It's downright danceable in places! This is The Virgin Prunes at their most accessible, with some of their most well-known songs found within it's grooves: "Baby Turns Blue," "Caucasian Walk," "Sweet Home Under White Clouds" and more. For anyone unfamiliar with the band, this is the place to start, even though it does not contain their biggest single, "Pagan Love Song."

"Pagan Love Song" was also released in 1982, and quickly became a dance club staple in Europe and among the hipper clubs in the US. The unsettling quirks that were the hallmarks of the band's sound are still there, though now buried deeply beneath a chugging bass line and wobbly guitar riff.

After their creative explosion in 1982, The Virgin Prunes began to falter. A second album, Sons Find Devils, was worked on but never released; a collection of rare tracks called Over The Rainbow appeared in 1985; a year later their final studio album, The Moon Looked Down And Laughed, was pretty much panned by even their most ardent fans. A remarkably good live album, The Hidden Lie, was issued in 1987, and The Virgin Prunes were no more. Gavin Friday has since released several solo works in a very non-Virgin Prunes vein, heavily influenced by cabaret music in the tradition of Kurt Weill.

Oh, that other band that was formed from the same group of Irish kids? Well, two of them kept their nicknames as well: one was the brother of Virgin Prunes guitarist Dik, who was given the name The Edge; the other was initially given the name Bono Vox, but he shortened it to just Bono. You may have heard of them. They're called U2.

Marc, I thank you for this request - a great call! For your listening and viewing pleasure, this week's NW4NW is a live clip of The Virgin Prunes performing "Pagan Love Song." Additionally, for those of you feeling particularly adventurous, I'm including the full seven-and-a-half minute "Rhetoric" clip. Enjoy!

"We Will Be Back"

Image by Brian Wilson Photography via Flickr

Those of you who know me well know that this is a tough day, on two counts. First, it's the first of the roughly 100 days between the end of one baseball season and the next year's spring training. Win or lose, it's a down time for me. I can watch and enjoy other sports on a certain level, but I don't care about them the way I care about baseball; there are no teams or players that I love or hate the way there are in baseball; the ability to armchair-manage, to argue strategy, to revel in the intricate detail of the statistical minutiae and grand history of the game just is not there in any other sport. People who don't "get" baseball or dismiss it as boring are missing out on an unparalleled joy!

But this year, there is a second reason today is a tough one. The Repeat (capital "R") didn't happen. The debt was not repaid. The Philadelphia Phillies - my Philadelphia Phillies - lost the World Series.

First of all, congratulations to the New York Yankees. They and their fans are celebrating their 27th World Series victory in the history of their franchise. They came to the Fall Classic this year determined and driven, and they played like champs. Though I cannot stand A-Rod or Jeter, I have to tip my cap to their team.

But do note my wording: I didn't say the Yankees won the Series; I said the Phillies lost it. The Phils' two victories, both with Cliff Lee on the mound, were played the way the Phillies played all year: like a team destined for glory, but realizing they better not slack off lest that glory be snatched from them. But for the other four games, the Phils played like a team that could barely be bothered to show up. They were sluggish and unexcited. Their defense was questionable (how can third base be left unmanned on a ninth inning play at the Major League level, much less in the World Series?), their pitching was unreliable (Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge, who both dominated last year's World Series, were horrible in their respective outings this time around), and their offense seemed to be stepping into the batter's box without bats. It was excruciatingly hard to watch, and almost a blessing to see it finally end.

The Phillies are still my team, and though I may be critical of how they played in this Series, I gotta say the past few years taken as a whole have been a fun ride: three straight NL East Championships, two consecutive National League Pennants and their first World Series Victory in nearly three decades (and only their second World Series win EVER) is not too shabby a run. This team has a lot to be proud of. They have surpassed the legendary late-seventies Phillies of Schmidt, Luzinski, Bowa, Boone, Carlton and McGraw. They have already been more successful than any other Phillies team in history, and the team is still young! The core players - Utley, Rollins, Howard, Werth, Victorino - all have prime years ahead of them. The veterans like Ibanez and Lee have at least one or two good seasons left in them. And Charlie Manuel may be the best manager the club has ever had; at the very least, he knows how to motivate this particular team. This run is not over yet!

So, yes, it's a tough day today, but it's not a sad one. In his post-game press conference last night, Manuel said, "I'll tell you something, we will be back. As MacArthur said, I guess, we will be back." I have no doubt they will, and I'll be cheering them along the whole way. And I hope the Yankees will be back, too, for the rematch, and so we can finally repay the debt of the 1950 Series - and maybe make up for this year's as well.

New Wave for the New Week #35 BONUS ENTRY! BY REQUEST!

[All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries will be based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests coming in, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun! If you wish to make a request, you may do so either in the comments section of this post, or on Twitter by tweeting your request to @berutt. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]

Our second entry for NW4NW All Request Month comes to us via Michael Esposito (@esposimi), who chimed in on a Twitter music discussion recently with a link to the song "Straight Lines" by the band New Musik.

The American music industry never really did quite figure out how to market all of the new artists and new sounds bubbling up from the underground in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sure, some records found their way to the mainstream (Devo's "Whip It," Gary Numan's "Cars," The Vapors' "Turning Japanese," etc.), but despite their popularity, they were generally relegated to novelty one-hit status. In 1980, CBS Records came up with an innovative marketing campaign launched through their Epic label that, had it been better focused, might have been the perfect vehicle to liven up commercial tastes: a series of releases called NU-DISKS.

NU-DISKS were 10" records with fewer songs than an album, priced at $5.00 per record rather than the going price for full LPs at the time, which was in the $8.00 - $10.00 range. The theory was that people would be more likely to part with a fiver to try a band they hadn't yet heard on the radio than they would be to plunk down for a whole album. The odd size of the records, coupled with their futuristic neon graphics, would set them apart from the stale old formulaic albums stuffing the record racks. This would be CBS's outlet for their New Wave acts!

Unfortunately, CBS was not adept at defining "New Wave." Nina Hagen and Propaganda (the British power-pop band, not the more well-known German synth group) each released NU-DISKS - they certainly fit the bill. The best known of the NU-DISKS were The Clash's Black Market Clash and Cheap Trick's Found All The Parts. But then there were also NU-DISKS by glamster Gary Glitter and old British rockabilly fogie Shakin' Stevens - hardly "new" much less New Wave! After about a dozen releases, the NU-DISKS campaign collapsed.

One of the real gems of the NU-DISK series, though, was an unassuming four-song set from the South London band New Musik called Straight Lines. New Musik had recently released a full album, From A To B, and two singles from that album had made a small dent on the UK charts: "Straight Lines" and "Living By Numbers". Their NU-DISK combined those two singles with their respective b-sides into a handy little introduction to the band's sound.

That sound was rather indicative of frontman Tony Mansfield's day job as a record producer and sometime session musician. Fundamental pop song structures with odd little studio tweaks surfacing now and again to give a just slightly off-kilter feel was New Musik's approach, and while they may never have had huge success themselves, Mansfield would later take that formula into production work for other artists like Naked Eyes, Aztec Camera and After The Fire and see great chart success both here and abroad.

My favorite of the two singles New Musik released in 1980 is the second, "Living By Numbers." Thanks to Mike's request, it is the newest NW4NW entry! Enjoy:

New Wave for the New Week #34 BY REQUEST!

[All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries will be based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests coming in, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun! If you wish to make a request, you may do so either in the comments section of this post, or on Twitter by tweeting your request to @berutt. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]

Image via Wikipedia

Ken Mueller (@kmueller62 on Twitter) was, quite inadvertently, the impetus for NW4NW All Request Month when he provided me with a list of suggestions for NW4NW entries - some I already planned to write up, and some I hadn't thought of, but good choices all. I asked him to select the one he wanted to choose as his "official" request, but he could not decide between two of his favorites. I flipped a coin, and we now kick off NW4NW All Request Month with Ken's request, the wonderfully goofy Klark Kent...er, Klerk Kant...er, well, let's see if I can explain:

"Klerk Kant", as appears to be his name, first came into my life as he was sitting next to me on the Concorde flight from Washington, D.C., to London. Speaking in what he claimed to be his native Sanskrit, he explained that he had been in Washington testifying before a congressional committee on church politics. His expertise in this subject had been attained while studying in a Moslem seminary in India. He underlined his religiosity (he claimed to be a "Sufi", a kind of Islamic mystic that is rarely seen on the Indian sub-continent) by saying his noonday prayers in the aisle of the jet airplane, jostling the stewardesses as they were trying to serve lunch, and annoying the passengers with his shouts of "Which way is Mecca? Which way is Mecca? Which way is Mecca?" while shifting his body to accommodate to the turns in the direction of the aircraft.

Later, he confessed, in sub-standard broken English, that he was "a mere computer programmer", currently out of work but living on the sum of one million four hundred thousand dollars which he had won from I.B.M. in a successful suit against the company for stealing his "invention". He was most secretive about the invention ("Do you want me to sue you?" he asked coyly when I questioned him about it), but he adumbrated the notion that it had to do with capturing radio signals from distant galaxies, systematizing them through computer analysis, and reducing them to simple melodies which he played on the various instruments on which he is proficient.

So sayeth the liner notes to the debut album by the artist known as Klark Kent, Music Madness From the Kinetic Kid, released on the I.R.S. label in 1980. Consisting of eight cuts of hyperkinetic lightweight New Wave bubblegum, the 10" record was pressed on green vinyl and released in a 12" sleeve die-cut to the shape of the letter K. Well, wait, I need to clarify: the album was released in the US and the UK by Klark Kent; in Japan, it was released with the artist credit going to Klerk Kant, as a full 12" record in a non-die-cut sleeve, and with two additional songs added. Seems there were some copyright issues to be dodged in Tokyo...

A single, "Don't Care," had appeared two years earlier and quickly shot up the UK charts, peaking at #28 there. Almost nothing beyond the bizarre bio retold in the album's liner notes was known about this Klark Kent/Klerk Kant fellow when he was invited onto the BBC's Top of the Pops program to lip-synch his hit, which he did in an odd green mask, supported by a band of masked mates. "You're probably wondering why I'm wearing this mask," he intoned toward the end of the performance. "Well, because underneath the mask, the true identity is revealed!" Indeed, something seemed awfully familiar about this guy...just what was going on here?

Further mucking up the waters, the I.R.S. label released a wonderful compilation album of their own artists, I.R.S.'s Greatest Hits Vols. II & III, which included two songs from this mysterious persona: one of which, "Office Girls," was only available on the Klerk Kant version of the Music Madness From the Kinetic Kid album but was now being credited to Klark Kent; the other, "Thrills," was on the original Klark Kent version but was now being credited to Klerk Kant - both variations of the name on the same compilation! No other artist had more than one track on the two-record set, so the label was clearly indicating that Klark Kent and Klerk Kant were not the same, even though they obviously were.

Of course, it was all hooey. The names, the bio, the supposed confusion and mystery - all a big loony joke perpetrated by Stewart Copeland, drummer for The Police. Looking for an outlet for songs he had written that didn't fit the ever more pretentious Sting's view of what The Police were as a band, Copeland created the whole Klark Kent identity with his brother, Miles Copeland, who just happened to be the head of I.R.S. Records. Word got out (was intentionally leaked?) that Mr. Kent was Mr. Copeland in disguise, and a second single, "Too Kool to Kalypso," which was not found on any version of the album, began getting all sorts of airplay. A third single, "Away from Home," was released, this one from the LP, but the goof was over. Or was it?

In 1995, all of the original Klark Kent/Klerk Kant tracks were compiled into a retrospective CD, Kollected Works, which nowadays goes for a pretty penny if you can find it. Around the same time, a new Klark Kent recording appeared, a Christmas song called "Yo Ho Ho." Will Copeland ever revive the Klark Kent name again? Who knows?

In the meantime, enjoy the first in a string of requested entries to the New Wave for the New Week series, Klark Kent performing "Don't Care" on Top of the Pops. My great thanks to Ken for this excellent request!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Yes, I know, it's actually tomorrow, but in my neighborhood Trick or Treat Night is tonight, so here's an eerie little ditty from Landscape to put you in the Halloween-y mood. And who knows? More ghoulish delights may appear here tomorrow....MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Now Taking Requests...

Over on Twitter (where you can follow me at @berutt, if you like), I was recently given a handful of suggestions for future New Wave for the New Week entries. Some band names that were tossed around I have already written up and are sitting in my drafts folder as we speak, but others were mentioned that made me say "Great suggestion!"

I've decided to expand a bit upon that Twitter conversation. November will be "All Request Month" in the NW4NW series. Beginning next Monday, November 2, and continuing through Monday, November 30, I will be posting NW4NW entries about the artists YOU ask for! Please post your requests in the comments section below - tell me the artist you want to request, a specific song if you like, and a screen name I can use in the post to credit you for your suggestion.

You can review all of the past NW4NW entries here.

So, I turn it over to you guys - for the month of November, New Wave for the New Week is in your hands! November has five Mondays, but if response is strong enough, I will consider doing additional NW4NW posts throughout each week.

New Wave for the New Week #33

Image via Wikipedia

Despite a remarkable pedigree - being associated with American minimalist composer Philip Glass, who performed on and co-produced both of their albums - Polyrock never quite got passed the level of "historical footnote" in the history of the New Wave scene.

Formed in late-70s New York City by the Robertson brothers, Billy and Tommy, Polyrock created a fidgety, phobic, but nonetheless almost ethereal sound clearly influenced by Glass's own sparse, rigidly patterned compositions. Billy Robinson's vocals fell somewhere between Ric Ocasek and David Byrne, causing many to immediately liken the band to a more severe version of The Cars or Talking Heads. As such, they were often dismissed as derivative, when in fact the music they were making was quite cutting edge for the time.

This week's NW4NW entry is the clip for Polyrock's "Romantic Me" single, from 1980. The David Byrne comparisons come to the forefront here, both in sound and look, but pay attention to the odd burbles and scrapes going on in the music. The melody loops endlessly, wavering ever so slightly each time around the cycle to create a sound that is alienating and yet satisfying. Enjoy!

20,000 Pies in the Face: Soupy Sales (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009)

Image by John McNab via Flickr

Soupy Sales passed away on Thursday.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, Sales was known as one of those "do anything for a laugh" comedians. Unlike many who traded in the over-animated goofball ad-lib slapstick style and relied on being loud and clownish enough to cover for weak material, Soupy was a genuinely funny person. Yes, he was responsible for, by his own count, over 20,000 pies thrown in peoples' faces over the years (most often, Soupy himself being the recipient!), but if you only focused on the zany, broad physical shtick he was doing, you missed a lot of wit in the one-liners he'd throw out there: "You show me a giant rooster chasing a member of Parliament, and I'll show you a Chicken Catch A Tory!"

Whether hosting his own shows (Lunch with Soupy in 1965-66; the brief comeback New Soupy Sales Show in 1978) or appearing as a guest panelist on numerous game shows throughout the 1970s (including a steady gig on the panel of What's My Line? in the early part of the decade), Soupy brought his insane world to every corner of television. His high-energy craziness was not for everyone's tastes, but those who got it often found themselves literally doubled over in tears laughing.

The characters he created and interacted with on his shows were legendary: Pookie the Lion and Hippy the Hippo, puppets with whom he would interact through a giant picture window on the set of his show, often pantomiming along to records; and his "dogs" White Fang and Black Tooth, who were only ever seen as giant white or black paws, respectively, and who communicated in hysterical growls and grunts which Soupy would translate.

Soupy had been having health issues in recent years, and was in hospice care in New York when he passed at age 83.

RIP, Soupy. The world is now a little less funny, and a little less silly.

Oops - There Goes Another Rubber Tree Plant!

The Phillies have won their second consecutive National League Championship by defeating the Dodgers 10-4 in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series, winning the series 4 games to 1. This is the second year in a row the Phillies have beaten the Dodgers for that title, repaying a 30-year old debt: the Dodgers had taken two straight NLCS titles from the Phils in 1977-78.

Now, it's on to the World Series against the winner of the American League Championship Series, which the Yankees currently lead 3 games to 1. The Phillies are looking to become the first National League team to repeat as World Series winners since the Cincinnati Reds in 1975-76.

Personally, I'd like to see them play the Yankees. The Phillies and Yankees met in the World Series in 1950; the Yankees won in a 4-game sweep. That's a 59-year-old debt that just might get repaid this year as well!

Let's go Phillies!

New Wave for the New Week #32

Image via Wikipedia

Like so many of the New Wave acts who became big crossover pop stars, The Human League had actually been around for several years before achieving international chart success with 1981's million-selling "Don't You Want Me?" single. Although that song essentially set the template for mainstream synthopop to come, (can you imagine Men Without Hats existing without having heard that dun-dun-d'dundun keyboard riff?), it had taken Phil Oakey three years of studio noodling, tape manipulations, and electronic experimentation, as well as a complete overhaul of the band's lineup, to find that sound.

And, like so many of the New Wave acts who became big crossover pop stars, The Human League managed a few more enjoyable tunes before succumbing to the Music Industry's demand for another massive hit single and sliding into MOR pop schmaltz (remember their last hit, "Human"?)

Their early work remains fascinating, and at times difficult to listen to. Beginning as a rather somber trio of Oakey, Martin Ware and Ian Marsh, they created a claustrophobic, Kraftwerk-inspired drone out of early synthesizers and processed recordings looped endlessly on tape machines. They were a studio-only band for a long time, as their electronic din was difficult to recreate live with no overdubs; in fact, their first single hit the shelves before the band ever performed in front of a crowd.

This version of the League delivered two full albums before disintegrating amid creative differences, with Ware and Marsh splitting off to form Heaven 17, leaving Oakey to remake The Human League into a more radio-friendly product. While Heaven 17 had their UK hits and achieved minor airplay here in the States, it was Oakey's revised League who found the magic sound that led them to global success.

While I've always been a fan of The Human League, I've grown particularly fond of their early work over the years. This week's NW4NW entry is the earliest incarnation of the band performing their first single, "Being Boiled," on UK television in 1978. Enjoy!