From the ashes of London neo-soulsters the Q-Tips emerged Paul Young, whose smoky voice, singing a mixture of classics and originals, quickly put him in the British, and later, American charts. The choice of songs on No Parlez ranges from the prudent (“Love of the Common People,” “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home),”…
The Cavedogs know their psyche-power-pop and, on Joyrides for Shut-Ins, they turn up with multi-tracked Rickenbackers blazing. Producer Ed Stasium (and others who worked on the previously released singles included here) gives the trio a BIG sound; while quotes from summer-of-love sources (Move, Floyd, Beatles and Monkees to name but a few) abound you’ll also…
Los Angeles’ Code Blue may be best remembered for the fact that its first album was released encased in a blue plastic bag; the group, which actually had talent, fell victim to the post-Knack backlash against Angelino power pop. The brainchild of original Motels guitarist Dean Chamberlain, Code Blue came together after the first version…
Best known now as the host of a long-running music show on British television, the flamboyant pianist — a cigar-chomping hustler able to energize even the most blasé audience — provided much of the zest on Squeeze’s first three albums. For his solo debut, Jools adopted a less contemporary stance, playing old-fashioned bar-room romps with…
Keyboardist Andrews was Joe Jackson’s bandmate in Arms & Legs during the latter’s formative years in Portsmouth, England. Funnily enough, shortly after Jackson’s initial success, Andrews wound up on the same label, playing a not terribly dissimilar style of music; unfortunately for him, he’s not Jackson’s equal as a singer or songwriter. Some may find…
This Nottingham quartet, which played powerful bass-heavy funk, debuted with a single in ’78, appeared on a compilation album in ’79 and signed with Cherry Red in 1980. Their eponymous EP is one of the best (not to mention earliest) modern Brit-funk records, featuring two versions of the hypnotic “Hungry, So Angry,” the tension-filled “Further…
Bradford’s Ian H. is a talented chap. He writes better-than-average melodic pop-rock songs (mostly about life and love in northern England), his lyrics display a wit and verbal ability worthy of Elvis Costello and he sings them in a way that’ll remind you a lot of Morrissey (Bradford comes from a Manchester suburb, not the…
Wisconsin’s E*I*E*I*O is an “American Music” band in the tradition of Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Blasters. Like those two bands, their sound is an amalgam of rock’n’roll, rockabilly, country, blues and folk. They’ve also got a strong singer with an unmistakably individual voice in Steve Summers, two good songwriters (Summers and bassist Richard Szeluga)…
This New York trio played a bouncy brand of dance rock rooted in chintzy ’60s Farfisa organ pop and spooky horror- movie soundtrack music. The group first gained recognition in 1979 with a homemade single that featured a stripped- down version of Bowie’s “TVC 15,” which they re-recorded for their first LP. After a number…
One of Boston’s leading local bands of the mid-’70s, Reddy Teddy preceded, by a couple of years, most of the groups that would coalesce into a scene around the Rat, the club that served as Boston’s first indie-rock epicenter. Their sole album, released by a Cambridge indie, is well-produced, aggressive pre-punk rock’n’roll that sounds at…
It took the Mighty Lemon Drops (initially the Sherbert Monsters) three albums to fully outgrow its original fixation on Echo and the Bunnymen. While hardly a disqualifying attribute in itself, the sonic resemblance initially made it hard to take the enjoyable young quartet from Wolverhampton seriously. Happy Head offers the neo-psychedelia of early Echo played…
Early new wave rumblings from below the Mason-Dixon line: Richmond, Virginia’s SBT filled their independent 12-inch with four energetic, two-minute Yardbirds/Kinks-influenced pop songs. Unfortunately, they run between four and six minutes each. The band’s combination of power and finesse is impressive, though, as is their sense of humor on the best track, “Rocker’s Night Out…
Those old enough to remember Donovan’s late-’60s albums, on which he combined strains of folk, rock, blues and wispy jazz with sincere, unpretentious singing, have a good reference point for Martin Stephenson and the Daintees. Hailing from a small town outside of Newcastle (which he reputedly never left until he was 27), singer/guitarist Stephenson is…
The Dictators’ Andy Shernoff may have produced the only LP by New York’s Alter Boys, but the group’s roots seem closer to two other great erstwhile Gotham bands — Television and the Velvet Underground. The two guitarists seem promising enough, but they often seem held back by the relatively stiff rhythm section; the band sounds…
Hailing from Spam-town (Austin, Minnesota, home of Hormel), the Gear Daddies serve up slices of Americana Norman Rockwell forgot to paint. The low-budget Let’s Go Scare Al showcases singer-guitarist Martin Zellar’s somber, country-tinged songs. (Although guitarist Randy Broughten often plays pedal steel and a snippet of a Bob Wills tune finds its uncredited way in,…
Remember Dr. Feelgood? How ’bout Eddie and the Hot Rods? Well, if the white-hot pre-punk R&B/rock’n’roll of those two bands means anything to you, chances are you’ll love the early Godfathers — formed by London brothers Peter (vocals) and Chris (bass/vocals) Coyne, initially as the Syd Presley Experience — to death. Not coincidentally, the late…
On Boom Crash Opera’s debut album, the Melbourne, Australia quintet plays heavy drum-driven dance-oriented rock much in the manner of INXS, but with just enough angst and bombast to live up to their name. Wide-screen sound characterizes the crisply produced (in part by Jimmy Iovine) Crazy Times, even though many of the numbers are pushed…
One of the first bands on Philadelphia’s new wave club scene to sign with a major label, the A’s made their reputation through an energetic stage show which featured singer Richard Bush’s Jerry Lewis-like antics. On the group’s first album, Bush shows an equal aptitude for playing the comedian (“Teenage Jerk Off,” an affectionately tongue-in-cheek…
It’s not surprising that this stylish rock dilettante — whose ’70s dabblings included excursions into R&B, funk, reggae and Little Feat-backed rock’n’roll — should catch up with post-punk in the ’80s. What is remarkable is that on Clues he manages to come up with two tracks as sublime as “Johnny and Mary” and “Looking for…
One of the brightest lights of new American pop psychedelia, LA’s Salvation Army debuted with an album that was liable to inspire young bands all around the world to join in the fun. The trio’s melodies have the ethereal quality of a young Syd Barrett; the music is a blend of all the most colorful…
