New Wave for the New Week #93 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, on Twitter, or on the Facebook Fanpage. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]

Image via Wikipedia

If someone asked you to name the two or three most important and influential individuals in Punk Rock, what names would spring immediately to your mind?  Likely, the names Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious would be quickly mentioned; certainly people like Henry Rollins and Jello Biafra would be on the short list as well.  It always surprises me how far down on most peoples' lists you must go before you reach a name that I would argue belongs near the top of anyone's list of influential Punks: Ian MacKaye.  I was very pleased, then, when Tom R. submitted his NW4NW request and first on the list was Minor Threat.

Through Minor Threat, MacKaye and bandmates Jeff Nelson, Brian Baker and Lyle Preslar (later replaced by Steve Hansgen) did more to create and codify the sound that would become known as Hardcore than almost any other band working in the early days of the genre.  Through his self-run Dischord label, MacKaye took the DIY ethic of record release and distribution to higher levels.  Through his lyrics, MacKaye almost single-handedly (if unintentionally) spawned the no-drink no-drugs Straight Edge Hardcore subculture. Nearing 30 years since their break-up after only three years of active existence, Minor Threat remains one of the most historically significant and continually referenced bands of its time and genre.

Formed after MacKaye and Nelson left The Teen Idles, Minor Threat debuted in late 1980 by opening for fellow Washington, DC punks Bad Brains.  Bolstered by a high-energy, full throttle musical blast, MacKaye delivered blunt yet intelligent lyrics about the lives he and his friends were living at the time.  Minor Threat's songs were positive and motivational, urging the kids who were their audience to go DO something with their lives and not fall into the haze of violence and self-destruction that even today seems an all-too-common destination for disenfranchised youth.

In 1981, the band released two 7-inch EPs, Minor Threat and In My Eyes (later reissued together as a full 12-inch LP). Trouser Press describes the contents of those two records as well as I or anyone else could:

"The twelve selections effectively define [DC's] hardcore sound, with a powerhouse adrenalized rush and Ian MacKaye's explosive and articulate vocals. "Filler," "I Don't Wanna Hear It" and "Minor Threat" are some of the classics of the genre; if you haven't heard them, you have never — repeat, never — heard Hardcore. [Two] of the most intense, ungodly-force-of-technology records ever launched."

Minor Threat's lone album, 1983's Out Of Step, slows the tempest by about a half-step (without losing any of the intensity).  The title cut is a re-recording of a track from the In My Eyes EP, and begins to show MacKaye's own disillusionment with the scene he was integral in helping create, particular with regard to the Straight Edge movement.  In 2009, while speaking at Franklin and Marshall College here in Lancaster, PA, MacKaye explained that he never intended his lyrics about abstaining from alcohol, drugs and sex to be a manifesto for anyone; he was simply singing about his own experience.  Unfortunately, a certain subset of those who came to identify themselves as Straight Edge became militant and belligerent, infamously knocking beers out of people's hands and threatening those who did not conform to the abstinent lifestyle.  MacKaye's disappointment in his words being used to justify such action was already clear on this record: this version of "Out Of Step" includes a spoken bridge in which MacKaye declares, "This is not a set of rules!"

Minor Threat would break-up in 1983, but MacKaye continued to be a major force in the independent music scene, especially in DC.  After participating in a number of one-off projects or sideline collaborations like Egg Hunt (with former bandmate Nelson) and Pailhead (with Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen), MacKaye formed another high-profile and highly revered band, Fugazi.  All of Minor Threat's recorded output was collected on one essential disc, Complete Discography. 

Here are two Minor Threat clips for your enjoyment. The first is an audio-only clip of "In My Eyes," followed by a collage of live footage as the bedding for the classic "Out Of Step." My thanks to Tom R. for this excellent request!
 

New Wave for the New Week #92 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, on Twitter, or on the Facebook Fanpage. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!] 

Cover of UltravoxFellow Phillies fan, radio buff and music junkie Ken Mueller, author of the Inkling Media blog which I have recommended in the past and continue to recommend for those of you with an interest in Social Media Marketing done the right way, offered a list of several first-string New Wave bands in his request.  It was tough to pick one on any other basis than the one I went with: whichever band he listed first, which just so happens to be one of the earliest of the "New Romantic" style bands as well as a band who, in their native UK, were regularly found in the upper reaches of the charts during the first half of the 1980s despite seeing very little commercial success here in the US.

The New Romantics shared a love the artier glitter bands of the 1970s and a strong desire to look and sound like either Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry or Thin White Duke-era David Bowie.  Ultravox! wore those same influences on their sleeves when they evolved from a mid-'70s combo called Tiger Lily in 1976, but also proudly carried forth the banner of the German krautrock bands such as Faust, Kraftwerk, and Neu! (from whom they borrowed the exclamation point which was originally part of the band's name).

In their earliest material (1977's self-titled debut and Ha!-Ha!-Ha!), Ultravox! found an uneasy balance between the Punk aesthetic ("Satday [sic] Night In The City Of The Dead") and New Wave themes of disconnection and alienation ("I Want To Be A Machine").  Ha!-Ha!-Ha! also contained the first step toward what would be come the more traditional Ultravox sound, the heavily atmospheric "Hiroshima Mon Amour."  People started to notice.

By the release of  1978's Systems of Romance, the band dropped the "!" and traded out their guitarist for a new model, and moved further down the electronic path they had begun to travel with "Hiroshima Mon Amour." Synthesizers were moving to the forefront, but they still didn't have the formula quite perfected.  Disappointing sales caused their label to drop them, all three LPs went out of print, and John Foxx walked away hoping to find success as a solo artist.

Enter Midge Ure, fresh from his stint in The Rich Kids, and at the time working with Ultravox co-founder Billy Currie and scenester Steve Strange in the studio-project band Visage.  With Ure taking over the frontman role and bringing with him enough pop sensibility to deliver the goods and a large enough and demanding enough presence to lead the band in that poppier direction, Ultravox reappeared in 1980 with the stunning Vienna.  Boasting it's title track, "Passing Strangers," and "Sleepwalk" among its tracks, Vienna's highly polished orchestral sound found that winning formula that Foxx's version of the band never could.  The album scampered up the UK charts to reach #3; the singles all charted well, with "Vienna" turning out to be the band's biggest-selling single ever, just missing the #1 spot.

Three more albums in this new style followed quickly: Rage In Eden, Quartet, and Lament spawned more UK chart-toppers such as "Reap The Wild Wind" and "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes," but their UK success just did not translate in America.  (In fact, the biggest success Midge Ure would see here was in co-writing Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with Bob Geldof.)

1986's U-Vox LP was a huge, bland disappointment, despite it's obvious grab for US airplay. Now it was Ure's turn to jump ship in favor of a solo career, but this time there would be no replacement.  The band officially called it quits in 1987.  Billy Currie attempted to revive the Ultravox name in 1992 with no other original members; that project failed miserably.  The classic Midge Ure-era lineup reformed in 2008 and continues to perform.

To fill Mr. Mueller's request, I offer two Ultravox clips: the first, a performance of the still-stunning "Hiroshima Mon Amor" with John Foxx fronting the band; second, a personal favorite of mine from the Midge Ure-era, "Passing Strangers."  Thank you, Ken, for your request!

New Wave for the New Week #91 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, on Twitter, or on the Facebook Fanpage. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]

Jon Paulette is a fellow veteran of the college radio DJ life.  Over the years, Jon and I have introduced one another to many, many cool bands and helped each other build substantial collections of obscure vinyl.  Jon was one of the first to pipe up with a request this year; in fact, he had a short list of suggestions (as many of you have), and from those I chose to feature a one-"hit" band whose big single remains one of my favorite songs of the era, The Humans.

You won't find a ton of information about The Humans online.  They were here and gone in a flash, part of that early-'80s Southern California New Wave scene that spawned many like-minded and equally ill-fated bands.  What can be culled is this: the core of the band (Sterling Storm, Eric Gies and John Anderson) had been making music together for almost 15 years when they added a drummer and became The Mysterious People in 1976.  By 1979 they had signed with Miles Copeland's I.R.S. Records, renamed themselves The Humans, and released an odd-format debut record, Play.  Play was a 4-song 7-inch housed in a heavy gatefold sleeve with a lyric book and sold as a "Mini LP."  Among it's tracks are a soaring cover of the surf-classic "Pipeline," a stab at pseudo-reggae with an Elvis Costello sound-alike vocal ("Tracy"), an iffy title track, and one amazing work of New Wave genius, an outstanding ode to modern life: "I Live In The City"

With it's rat-a-tat sung-spoken vocals, driving keyboard riffs and hiccup-y melody, "I Live In The City" is a nifty three-minute encapsulation of the 1979 SoCal New Wave sound.  Storm's geeky delivery is perfect for the occasionally shoehorned-in lyrics (listen to him cram the couplet "You ask me what I'm going to do with my life/You act as if I have a choice" into the second verse).  All in all, it remains one of the classics of the New Wave era.

The Humans were back in the record racks in 1981 with a proper full-length album, Happy Hour, which never quite lives up to the promise of the Play EP.  That said, it's not a bad record by any means.  The lead single, "Get You Tonight" is the high point, though, of a record that is pretty much just this side of innocuous.

Both Humans records are long out of print, but worth searching out (especially Play).  Here, then, is the video for their one great moment in the sun, "I Live In The City."  My thanks to Jon for this request!

Road Stories: The Zeros in Baltimore 10/30/10

When I wrote up the NW4NW entry for The Zeros a couple weeks ago, I had no idea they were touring - much less that they were actually going to be here on the East Coast for the first time in almost thirty years!  A friend on Facebook sent me a message saying they were going to be in Philadelphia, and would I be interested in going to see them?  Unfortunately, that show turned out to be scheduled for Wednesday night (10/27), and while there was a time that I could do the three-hour round trip to see a band in Philly, get back home at 2:30 AM-ish and still be up and at 'em for work at 7:00 AM the next morning, well...let's just say that was a few years ago.

So I was very psyched to find out that The Zeros would be sticking around this part of the country through the weekend, playing in Baltimore on Saturday and Washington, DC on Sunday.  I found some friends who were up for the Baltimore run, and started putting plans together.

Normally, a show in Baltimore means a visit to The Ottobar on North Howard Street -  a fine place to see a band (I've seen The Vibrators, The Business, and Jello Biafra there among others), but, as my friends and I have long joked, it's in a neighborhood that looks like it came straight off the cover of The Exploited's Troops of Tomorrow LP. According to The Zeros' MySpace page, however, they weren't gong to be at The Ottobar, but rather at a place none of us had heard of, The Golden West Cafe.  Further, the show time was given as 11:00 PM - 11:30 PM.  OK, that was a head-scratcher...a half-hour show that late at night? WTF?

A little more research online uncovered that there would be an opening band, The Fishnet Stalkers, who we had seen before and thought were really good - another plus for the show.  Also, doors were to open at 10:00 PM - another head-scratcher.  What, were the doors gong to open as The Fishnet Stalkers began playing, they do a 15-minute set, then change over for The Zeros to play half an hour and everyone go home?  Things seemed more bizarre when we went to look up the venue - their website, as it turns out, is under construction.  But there was an email address, so I wrote to ask if this show was for real or not.  Hate to drive 1:45 down to Baltimore to find no show.

Neal at The Golden West  was quick to reply: "THIS SHOW IS A GO!" With his invitation extended to come on down and his confirmation that doors were at 10:00 and cover was $10.00, we were still left wondering a few things.  Why so late a start? And only half an hour? Again, WTF?  So I took a chance and wrote a quick note to Javier Escovedo of The Zeros through his Facebook page - and lo and behold he wrote back as well, saying they usually play for at least an hour, and come on down.

So we headed down to Baltimore on Saturday night, having no idea what we were going to find when we got there.  I can tell you this: we all agreed we were so glad we decided to go!

We got into Baltimore around 8:00-ish and found the place.  This was not a club in the midst of Troops-of-Tomorrow-Land, but rather a brightly lit cafe on West 36th Street in a fairly busy little two or three block strip of coffee houses, yoga studios, pizza places, artsy-crafty stores, etc.  In many ways, it reminded me of the neighborhood in which we found The Note in West Chester, PA,  when we saw Gorevette and The Donnas earlier in the year.  We knew we had time to kill, so we walked around looking for a place to eat. Ducked briefly into a little hole-in-the-wall record shop, the name of which escapes me now (didn't find anything to pick up there anyway), and finally found ourselves standing in front of The Golden West itself.  After briefly checking out the menu, we decided we may as well just eat there.

If you are in Baltimore for any reason, The Golden West is a must-visit.  There is a dining room in the front and a bar in the back, and both were pretty full when we walked in (always a good sign).  We were seated quickly, and I immediately knew I liked the place: the menus are housed in old record album covers, and the walls are covered with all sorts of old toys, tchotchkes, and - by our table anyway - paint-by-numbers-kit renderings of The Last Supper.  Everything on the menu is made fresh each day, and I mean EVERYTHING.  We were offered chips and guacamole to start, and out came a plate of homemade potato chips and freshly made guacamole. The choices are healthy and varied: wraps, burgers, burritos, salads, soups - and they offer vegetarian and vegan options if that's your thing as well.  The staff is friendly and welcoming, and take great pride in describing the whole Golden West experience.  I went with the bison burger and sweet-potato fries, which were wonderful.

At about 9:30, the change-over began.  Half of the front dining room would become the "stage" area, and that meant tables had to be broken down and moved and equipment had to be brought in and set up.  Soundproof blankets had to be hung in the store-front windows.  Bands coming in the front door had to be welcomed and attended to. All this had to be done with a full crowd still milling about, and it was all done by, as far as I could see, two people:  one red-headed guy and one brunette girl.  Red seemed to be in charge of the place, but Brunette was simply a whirlwind.  She had brought us our chips, she greeted the bands as they showed up, she was tending bar when we went up for beers later, she was busing tables throughout the night - she was non-stop motion, causing us to joke that she was the only person who actually worked there!

As it turned out, there were two opening bands and a DJ scheduled before The Zeros.  DJ El Suprimo began spinning the records as the changeover continued, and when an early choice was a full side of The Angry Samoans' Back From Samoa LP, I knew we were in for some fun.  Sick Weapons began their set close to 11:00-ish.  I've mentioned before that I tend not to pay close attention to first bands, as the past has taught me that they are often not that good.  Sick Weapons are probably a better band than this show hinted at - musically they were tight, but the sound was too loud and too trebly. As a result, the female lead vocals, which were of the screech-and-holler school anyway, were somewhat distorted and hard to listen to. Eh, maybe I'm just getting old.  They played with enthusiasm and had a supportive crowd, so what do I know?

This was our second time seeing The Fishnet Stalkers, as I mentioned before, and they sounded even crisper and more polished than they had the last time.  It seemed to us that there had been a line-up change (the bass player looked different to me), but I wouldn't bet the house on it.  Nonetheless, their set was fantastic.  Comparisons in style to The Chesterfield Kings or New York Dolls mixed with a dollop of Cheap Trick-ish mugging for the crowd would not be entirely out of place.  Definitely a band to search out and see - and look for bigger things from in the future.

It was almost 12:45 when The Zeros finally took the stage, ripping into a killer version of "Pipeline" to kick off their set.  Over the course of the next hour, they played just about everything you could wish to hear from The Zeros: "Don't Push Me Around," "Handgrenade Heart," "Wild Weekend," "Wimp," "Beat Your Heart Out" and more.  This was almost the full original band, too: Javier Escovedo, Hector Penalosa and Baba Chenelle.  Only Robert Lopez wasn't there - Javier's brother Mario filled in on guitar. ("El Vez is busy with El Vez," as Javier informed the crowd.)

The crowd was small, but very much into the band.  It being Halloween weekend, there were many there in costume, which added to the overall atmosphere of the night.  It was kind of neat to see clowns and zombies and werewolves and Snooki and The Situation bopping along with a crowd of younger kids and old fogies like me, and The Zeros played the kind of rock and roll that you just have to move to. In fact, the brunette who seemed to be doing every job in the place even stopped working long enough to grab a friend and dance along as The Zeros ran through a scorching cover of "Psychotic Reaction" - even on her break she was constant motion!

After an hour The Zeros said goodnight, but the crowd wasn't about to let them go.  So they came back out for a three-song encore of covers including "Little Latin Lupe Lu" and Johnny Thunders' "Chatterbox." Afterward, the band was very gracious in hanging out with the folks who stuck around, both to sign records and just talk.  They seemed pleased that everyone had had such a great time, and really seemed to have fun themselves.

All in all, what began looking like an iffy proposition at best turned out to be one of the best shows I've been to in some time. Who'd ever think that in 2010, I'd get a chance to see The Zeros? My only regret is that I have no pics of the show - so if you are reading this and you were at the Baltimore show Saturday night and have pics, please post 'em on our Facebook Fanpage!

New Wave for the New Week #90 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, on Twitter, or on the Facebook Fanpage. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]

Some facts about today's NW4NW band, requested by my brother Marcus to begin NW4NW All Request Month:

1. They've had as many as five band members...and as few as one.
2. Their music runs from moody synthpop to energetic dance to message-driven protest - and they've done a full album of Hank Williams covers.
3. They have as many fully recorded albums that have remained unreleased as they have had released.
4. Their first album was not credited to the band until it was reissued three years later; their second album was never officially released. Their third album, then, is considered their debut LP.
5. When their founding musician placed ads to recruit like-minded bandmates, he listed musical influences including The Velvet Underground, Syd Barret, The Residents and Throbbing Gristle.

That founding musician was a fledgling singer/songwriter by the name of Matt Johnson, and the band that he eventually created would be known as The The.  Johnson is a highly creative and remarkably productive artist who has, over the years, used The The not only as a vehicle to present his musical ideas, but as a visual medium of expression as well (two films have been made involving the band).  While he has enlisted the help of many greatly talented people over the years (Lloyd Cole, Neneh Cherry and David Johansen, among myriad others), Johnson has always been the driving and controlling force behind the band.

Beginning as duo with synth player/tape manipulation artist Keith Laws in May of 1979, The The began performing live and recording some experimental tracks. Within a year they added a drummer and bass player, and by 1981 had their first single out, "Controversial Subject." All four members were credited on the single, but in reality it had only been Johnson and Laws in the studio. They soon found themselves a duo again.

Laws was finding less available time to devote to The The, as his focus was on completing school. Around this time, the album Burning Blue Soul appeared.  Because Johnson had recorded all of the vocals and instruments himself, the label credited the album solely to Matt Johnson.  But Laws wasn't completely gone yet - he and Johnson recorded another single as The The, and Johnson argued that Soul was, in fact, a The The record.  (Upon it's reissue in 1983, Burning Blue Soul was finally credited to The The.)

The duo recorded an album's worth of material for a proper The The debut, which was slated to be titled The Pornography of Despair, but they were unhappy with the results and never took it to the mixing stage.  Laws went his own way, and Johnson cobbled together a collection of introspective, mid-tempo synth tunes which would become the "official" The The debut, Soul Mining. Containing cuts like "Uncertain Smile" and "This Is The Day," the album staked out The The's turf among the synthpop bands of the early '80s - a turf that Johnson would almost immediately abandon.

Three years after Soul Mining, Johnson was back with Infected.  This time around, he wasn't the moody synth guy.  Infected was much heavier and harder, bringing to mind a more commercially-minded Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell.  The title track became something of an underground/college radio hit, and everyone wondered what Matt Johnson would pull out of his bag of tricks next.

Well, how about making The The a "supergroup" of sorts? Recruiting David Palmer (who had played drums in the band ABC), James Eller (a bass player who had recorded with Julian Cope, among others), and Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Johnson now had a full band and set about recording what would be the high-water mark for The The, 1988's Mind Bomb.  A stunning work that boasts "Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)" and "The Beat(en) Generation" as highlights, it is an album not to be missed.

Adding a keyboard player, making The The a quintet, a period of touring followed Mind Bomb. In fact, it would be 1993 before the band's next album, Dusk, appeared. It's lead single, "Dogs Of Lust," was well received, but not much else memorable came from its grooves.  After Dusk, Marr and Eller left the band, and the remaining members took one of the most unexpected steps in any band's history: Hanky Panky was released in 1995, and consisted of eleven covers of Hank Williams songs.  Five years later, Johnson was back again with an entirely new line-up, and released NakedSelf, which is, to date, the final The The album.  However, as long as there is Matt Johnson, there will be The The.

So, to fill the first request of 2010's NW4NW All Request Month, here are two classics from The The. First, the clip for "This Is The Day" from The The's days as a one-man-show; then, The The as a full band featured in a fan-made clip for "Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)"  Thank you, Marcus, for your request!

The Request Lines Are Now Open!

Last year, I turned the month of November over to you guys to pick which bands/artists you most wanted to see featured in our NW4NW posts.  All Request Month turned out to be a pretty popular idea, so I figured why not do it again this year?

Ta-da!

November will once again be "All Request Month" in the NW4NW series. Beginning next Monday, November 1, and continuing through Monday, December 1, 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.  Or, if you like, you can make your request over on our Facebook Fanpage, or on our TwitterPage.

So, I turn it over to you guys - for the month of November, New Wave for the New Week is in your hands! And, just as last year, if the response is as great, you won't be getting just one NW4NW entry per week - I'll post one every day if have to to meet the demand!

Below is a full list of every band/artist that has been featured since the NW4NW series began in March of '09, so that you can see if the band you want has already been featured.  Only one band has ever been repeated.

I'm looking forward to your requests, and will fill them on a first-come, first served basis. Ready? GO!

999	Joe "King" Carrasco	The Rockats
A Tribe of Toffs	Josie Cotton	The Saints
The B-52's	Killing Joke	The Slits
Bad Brains	Klark Kent	Slow Children
Belfegore	Lene Lovich	Specimen
Blancmange	Malcolm McLaren	Split Enz
Blotto	Marilyn	The Stranglers
Bruce Woolley & the Camera Club	Maurice & the Clichés	Strawberry Switchblade
Burning Sensations	Medium Medium	The Surf Punks
Catholic Girls	The Members	Swell Maps
Classix Nouveaux	Mental As Anything	Swingers
Cristina	The Mo-Dettes	The Teardrop Explodes
The dB's	The Monochrome Set	The Three O'Clock
Devo	The Nails	Throwing Muses
The Diodes	New Musik	Tom Waits
Divinyls	Nick Cave	Torch Song
EBN-OZN	The Nits	The Tubes
Flash & the Pan	Oingo Boingo	Tuxedomoon
Foetus	Paul Collins/The Nerves	UK Subs
Freur	Pixies	Undertones/Pogues
Fuzzbox	Plasmatics	Virgin Prunes
Holly & the Italians	Plastic Bertrand	Wall of Voodoo
Horizontal Brian	Plastics (2)	Willy DeVille/Mink DeVille
Human League	Polyrock	X
Icehouse	Pressure Boys	X-Ray Spex
Inca Babies	Protex	XTC
Insect Surfers	Pylon	X-Teens
The Jags	The Quick	Yello
Jim Carroll	Rich Kids	The Zeros

New Wave for the New Week #89

The first part of the 1980's saw two important musical movements happening in and around Germany, both of which were loud, sharp, coarse and minimalistic.  If you preferred your music on the noisy, heavily percussive side, there was the Industrial scene.  Bands like Einsturzende Neubauten, Test Dept., Laibach and Young Gods created an awesome racket banging on metal pipes, crashing cement blocks and using chainsaws as instruments.  For those who wished at least a semblance of melodic structure to be present, there was a subgenre that came to be referred to as Neue Deutsche Welle (often abbreviated as NDW; literally, "German New Wave").  NDW bands such as Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF), Der Plan and Xmal Deutschland rarely strayed from the minimalistic, percussion-based style of their Industrial counterparts, but they chose to stick with more traditional instruments - with a heavy reliance on the synthesizer.  However, while the New Romantics in the UK and the American Synthpop bands coaxed bright, sunny, plinky sounds from their electronic keyboards, the NDW bands found the darker, harsher side.

One of the best examples of the NDW sound was a trio from Dusseldorf who called themselves Belfegore.  Meikel Clauss, Charley T. Charles and Walter Jaeger released their self-produced and self-distributed debut album A Dog Is Born in 1983.  Though pressed in limited quantities, the album became a highly sought-after import in the UK.  The all-German lyrics in near-monotone and cold, impersonal synthesizer lines snaking through each track appealed greatly to the Goth scene; the music was heavy enough for the Punks to accept; the New Wave clubs were happy to program the music for its danceability.  Long out of print, the album is an NDW classic.

A pair of 7-inch EPs appeared soon after. Nacht In Sodom and In Roma continued in the same vein, although moving towards an even heavier, closer sound.  Jaeger was on his way out of the band, soon to be replaced by Raoul Walton, and Belfegore caught the ear of Elektra Records, who signed them by year's end.

1984 saw the release of the band's only internationally distributed album, Belfegore.  Boasting a fuller, more polished sound and Clauss's best vocals yet (in English this time around!), the album is simply majestic.  Cuts like "Questions," "Comic With Rats Now," and "Wake Up With Sirens" are moody, trance-like and stunning, but the crown jewel here is the single "All That I Wanted," which became a fairly big underground hit and remains the song for which the band is best remembered.

None of Belfegore's material remains in print, and the world still awaits a proper CD reissue of either album.  In the meantime, both LPs and both EPs turn up with fair regularity on eBay (although if you want A Dog Is Born be prepared to shell out plenty!) and Belfegore can be had reasonably cheaply on Amazon.com as well.  All are recommended.

To give you a taste of Belfegore's sound, this week's clip is the video for "All That I Wanted." Enjoy!

Goodbye, Ari

Cover of Ari Up
Sad news to report: Arianne Foster, better known as Ari Up, lead singer of The Slits, passed away yesterday at the all-too-young age of 48.

Ari was also step-daughter to Johnny Rotten, who, along with Ari's mother Nora, posted the following brief message on his website yesterday:

Arianna RIP

John and Nora have asked us to let everyone know that Nora's daughter Arianna (aka Ari-Up) died today (Wednesday, October 20th) after a serious illness. She will be sadly missed.

Everyone at JohnLydon.com and PiLofficial.Com would like to pass on their heartfelt condolences to John, Nora and family.

Rest in Peace.

The Slits were featured in the NW4NW series this past February; you can read more about Ari and her band there.   In her honor, here is the video for The Slits' "Instant Hit" (for some reason, mistitled as "So Tough" on this clip).

R.I.P. Ari.

New Wave for the New Week #88

As we head into the homestretch of 2010, I've already begun the process of compiling my list of the best records of the year.  I had to chuckle when I realized that one of the leading contenders for the top spot on my list of the finest records of 2010 was actually 30 years old!

Protex came together in Belfast in 1977 as part of the same Irish Punk scene that spawned Rudi, The X-Dreamysts. The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers, among many others.  At first calling themselves Protex Blue (after the The Clash song), they went to the truncated version of the name early on.  In short order, they caught the attention of Polydor Records, and found themselves in the recording studio.

As was the case with many of the UK Punk bands of the time, Protex was essentially a singles band. Their first vinyl offering was 1978's "Don't Ring Me Up" b/w "Just Want (Your Attention)" & "Listening In." The band earned a spot supporting the then-touring Boomtown Rats on the strength of the single, and in January of 1979 found themselves in the States performing before an appreciative New York City crowd.

Their would go on to record three more singles, "I Can't Cope," "I Can Only Dream," and 1980's "A Place in Your Heart," which may have been the finest of the batch.  That year, they also recorded their first album, Strange Obsessions. It is here that the waters get murky: everyone agrees that both the band and the label were unhappy with  the first version of the album, and the official story says the project was shelved.  However, dyed-in-the-wool record collectors insist the album saw release in Holland, and as a result, Strange Obsessions has appeared on collectors' want-lists for years, becoming one of the "holy grails" of Punk/New Wave vinyl.

Protex disbanded in 1981, officially leaving behind a legacy of four outstanding singles, and unofficially driving record collectors batty.  This year, the folks at Sing-Sing Records licensed the album tracks and Strange Obsessions finally saw the light of day.  Containing all of the officially released tracks found on their four singles, the album also includes a few tracks that appeared on various compilation albums and other tracks that were recorded but never released.  The sound is sharp, spiky and shimmering.  The Clash is an obvious influence, but so is the '60s British Invasion sound.  Protex played a poppy brand of Punk Rock not far removed from The Undertones, The Buzzcocks and Generation X.  Not a bad track can be found on the album, which suffers only from a somewhat trebly mix - I cannot recommend the album highly enough! (You can purchase the vinyl directly from the label using the link above, or download the album digitally at Amazon.com.)

This week's clips include Protex performing "A Place in Your Heart" before a New York City crowd on St. Patrick's Day, 1980, and an audio-only clip of their debut, "Don't Ring Me Up." Enjoy!

New Wave for the New Week #87

The Zeros only released three singles during their brief first life as part of the early West Coast Punk scene, but what incredible singles they were!

Formed in Chula Vista, CA, in 1976, The Zeros were Javier Escovedo on vocals and guitar, Robert Lopez on guitar, Hector Penalosa on bass and Baba Chenelle on drums, all of whom were still in high school when the band's first single hit the racks in 1977. "Don't Push Me Around" b/w "Wimp" was issued by Bomp! records, and The Zeros began playing the LA circuit with bands like The Germs, The Weirdos and The Plugz. Peter Case of The Nerves (and later, The Plimsouls) was an early supporter of the band and helped to promote their music.

The Zeros' brand of Punk Rock fell toward the skinny-tie mod/power-pop end of the spectrum. Escovedo had a natural talent for writing catchy songs, and despite their youth (or, more likely, because of it) they played with an assured energy and enthusiasm usually found in road-weary veterans of the club scene.

With a slight change in line-up (Penalosa replaced with Guy Lopez, Robert Lopez leaving and reducing the band to a trio), The Zeros released a second single in 1978. "Beat Your Heart Out" has become a true classic of the genre, having been covered by numerous bands including The Muffs and, most recently, Gorevette.

A third single, "Getting Nowhere Fast," followed, but - as often happens when high school bands grow up - The Zeros soon went their separate ways. They hardly faded into obscurity, however. Those three singles became highly sought-after artifacts of the first wave of LA-based Punk, and a decade after The Zeros disbanded, Bomp! compiled all three plus a number of unreleased tracks into one handy CD, Don't Push Me Around. Giving the world a sense of what a Zeros album might have been like back then, the CD is a blast from start to finish and captures the band's energy very well.

Continued nostalgia brought The Zeroes back together in the early/mid 1990's. This reunited version of the band recorded two albums: Right Now (1992) and Knocking Me Dead (1994). Both are well worth picking up. The Zeroes continue to play live shows before appreciative audiences to this day.

This week's clip was one I stumbled upon recently - footage of the band on local TV in San Diego just after the first single was released. They lip-sync both songs and then Javier gives an aw-shucks interview revealing that the band got the gig because Robert Lopez's father happened to be the floor manager. Hey, however you can get your music heard, right? It's fairly rare footage, and not the greatest quality, but the songs are excellent and well worth sharing. Enjoy!