Lost Alternative 80s: The Clean

May is New Zealand Music Month. Celebrated by some, condemned by others, ignored by the vast majority.

A marketing ruse. A worshipping of false gods. Something akin to the heralding of the world’s tallest pygmy.

Harsh? … perhaps, but it’s fair to say that with each passing year, beyond the music industry itself, more than a smattering of cynicism has started to creep in.

But it’s also about acknowledging some good things too … some very good things. For all of its flaws (of default and design), it does at least present us with an excuse to reflect on a body of work that was, for the most part, denied a pre-internet “rest of the world”.

On that note, one of my favourite Enzed bands of the 80s (and beyond), The Clean, embracing the lo-fi DIY ethic that made Flying Nun the “go to” label of the era … here’s ‘Anything Could Happen’ (from 1981).

What better way to conclude the Lost Alternative 80s series of posts.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Lost Alternative 80s: The Machinations

For the penultimate Lost Alternative 80s post, here’s The Machinations, another Oz band, and yet another track from the glorious year that was 1983. This one peaked just outside the Australian Top 20, but its dancefloor-friendly groove propelled it into the US club charts. For years I had great difficulty tracking down a decent vinyl version of this track ... um, probably because for years I thought it was called ‘Precious Way’ ... here’s ‘Pressure Sway’ ...

Lost Alternative 80s: The Models

There’s something distinctly 1983 about this clip from Oz rockers The Models. The perfect blend of innocence, arrogance, and no little amount of hairspray. Although ‘I Hear Motion’ wasn’t the band’s biggest hit (see 1985’s ‘Out of Mind, Out of Sight’) a version of it blew me away on the only occasion I saw the band live in 1983, and the infectious Stevie Wonder-esque keyboard riff has been lodged firmly in the cranium ever since. This clip features the band’s classic line-up, including the late James Freud on bass, and ex-Palmerstonian Barton Price on drums.

Lost Alternative 80s: The Fixx

Here’s ‘Red Skies', a slice of shameless pop from The Fixx, circa 1982, off the Shuttered Room album (the band’s debut) from that year. The Fixx were something of a curiosity in that unlike the vast majority of UK-based synthpop bands of the era, they were bigger in the USA than they were in their home country. The Fixx are still a going concern, and as recently as 2012 the band released studio album number ten, Beautiful Friction. The 1983 album Reach The Beach was probably the band’s most successful album commercially, but Shuttered Room was my own favourite.

Lost Alternative 80s: Wall of Voodoo

Emerging from the LA punk scene in the late Seventies, Wall of Voodoo hit a career peak in 1983 with the spaghetti-western inspired track ‘Mexican Radio’, which broke through to the US Billboard Top 100. The album it was lifted from, Call of The West, broke into the US Top 50, but none of the other five studio albums released by the band managed to attain such lofty commercial heights. ‘Mexican Radio’ briefly went “global”, charting higher in places like New Zealand and Canada than it did in the band’s home country, and it remains easily the most recognisable track of the band’s decade long career.

Lost Alternative 80s: Chaz Jankel

Chaz Jankel was probably best known as the keyboard player with Ian Dury’s Blockheads, but he did go on to enjoy some solo success and was a great talent in his own right. Not only is he credited with co-writing some of the best of the Blockheads’ output, he also became well established as a composer of film scores.

‘Questionnaire’ was a dancefloor-geared brass-tastic hit single from 1981 and arguably the highlight of his brief encounter with solo “fame”. This video was considered quite futuristic for its time and it received a lot of airplay during the early days of MTV.

Lost Alternative 80s: Department S

Department S were perhaps the classic example of a band whose flame flickered brightly but all too briefly on the back of one exceptional hit record. That record was ‘Is Vic There?’ and it peaked at number 22 on the UK singles chart in early 1981. ‘Is Vic There?’ was just one of those great “new wave” tracks that seemed to capture the mood of the times perfectly, with a great pop hook and a sense of real urgency about it. The band split up soon after that short-lived peak – without releasing an album – only to reform sans original lead singer Vaughan Toulouse (RIP) in 2007. Incredibly enough, this re-jigged line-up continue to perform live today. The video below captures snippets of the band’s only appearance on TOTP. I’m not quite sure what Toulouse thought he was doing with that mic though ...

Lost Alternative 80s: The Monochrome Set

If you’d asked me a few years ago to name one indie act from the early 80s that would surely resist all offers or any temptation to reform for the nostalgia circuit I’d have gone for The Monochrome Set. Without question. And I’d have been completely wrong. I was aware there had been a reformation in the Nineties and a one-off set at Cherry Red’s 30^th birthday bash in 2008, but I certainly wouldn’t have predicted yet more live gigging across the UK and Europe in 2011 and 2012.

I’d always (blindly) believed that this band was somehow above all of that, somehow pure in its 80s incarnation, almost the true definition of what it meant to be indie in its original form. Perhaps they were all of that and more ... and maybe they all just needed an ongoing outlet for their collective creativity – so who am I to judge?

One thing they can claim to be is hugely influential, with bands like The Smiths and Franz Ferdinand being the most notable disciples of a template that combined a quirky faux Sixties sound with a bunch of very clever – and often very funny – lyrics.

I once had a girlfriend who worshipped this otherwise almost forgotten band, and this track in particular was a regular backdrop to our lives together. I can still see her prancing around our damp little flat, glass of wine in one hand as she danced with her eyes closed, errantly spilling its contents as her hips swayed from side to side ... here’s the beautiful simplicity of The Monochrome Set with ‘Jet Set Junta’:

Lost Alternative 80s: Front 242

Belgian EBM/industrial music pioneers Front 242 are not exactly unknown in terms of “lost” Eighties bands, but they certainly never achieved a great deal of prominence within the mainstream. And compared to similar artists of the same ilk – say, the likes of Cabaret Voltaire and Ministry – Front 242 were largely under-appreciated by all but the most hardcore fans of the EBM “genre”.

This track, 'Masterhit (parts 1 & 2)', from 1987, represents the absolute pinnacle of Front 242’s output (for me) and the album it appeared on – Official Version – was probably the band’s finest moment.

I’ve selected this one because it was special for me on a personal level – it was, back then, as I recall it, the track I used for my first – very amateurish – attempt at sampling. In a laughable attempt to replicate the genius of Tackhead, armed only with very limited equipment, I layered some English football commentary atop of cut up segments of 'Masterhit' to “create” something rather, um, different. I think I still have a cassette tape copy of that ill-advised effort hidden away in a box somewhere at the foot of the wardrobe. There’s a very good reason it has remained in that box for so many years and I doubt I’ll be digging it out again anytime soon ...

Lost Alternative 80s: The Sound

In a similar vein to the series of recent posts on (lost) 80s Dance classics, I thought I’d do something similar with one of my other favourite genres – 80s indie/alt rock.

To start, this is from The Sound, one of the era’s best but most forgotten bands, a four-piece that released two truly great albums in the form of Jeopardy (1980) and From The Lion’s Mouth (1981). The Sound was essentially Adrian Borland and friends, and the band went on to have mixed success through the decade, the first two (aforementioned) albums taking pride of place in its otherwise limited discography. Vocalist/guitarist Borland was a troubled soul, and he wound up committing suicide in 1999, throwing himself in front of an oncoming train …

Here's a sample of The Sound firing on all cylinders ... 'Resistance' is off Jeopardy, and 'The Fire' is off From The Lion's Mouth: