New Wave Outpost Forum

by **Seona85** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:32 pm

Flaming Mussolinis were pretty decent, but never scored a big hit, despite My Cleopatra being extremely catchy. Hard Rain (who sound exactly the same) should have been a hit with 'Diamonds'.

by **hubcity** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:40 am

When I saw the thread title, I figured the top three would be Comsat Angels, The Chameleons and The Sound. Didn't disappoint.

That said, I believe The Comsat Angels and The Sound shared one disappointing disadvantage - their video appearances are uniformly mediocre. Of the videos I've seen:

- CsA's "Will You Stay Tonight" is an awful video. The band's clearly doing what they've been asked, but they haven't been asked to do much. Viz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zpQ3bnnLUI

Imagine if they'd stumbled into Tim Pope the way The Cure did? Or even the guy who put together this demo video for The Chameleons' "Up The Down Escalator" who wisely...and probably for budgetary reasons...didn't bother putting them on a hokey set and instead concentrated on showing them (miming well at) just playing their music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iwxkLByt68

- The Sound's appearances on TV are nearly always sabotaged with an awful sound mix. (Irony there? Sure.) Catch this one from Old Grey Whistle Test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb38SyLBZXw

The droning synth needed to be waaay lower in the mix. Everyone else is on their game, but the net result on the viewer is "jeez, who's on next?"

These three acts in particular really just couldn't catch a break.

As for Seona Dancing: I'm convinced that Ricky Gervais was satirizing the New Romantic movement. He just didn't know it yet. (Still love those damn records, though.)

-Sean
<a href="http://www.altrok.com">Altrok 90.5 HD2</a>
On your HD Radio, it's Modern Rock at The Jersey Shore!

by **tomman888** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:41 am

THE EXPRESSION
DOUG AND THE SLUGS
DALEK I LOVE YOU
POSITIVE NOISE
and too many more to list!!

by **toyah** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:55 am

thumbs up on the 45 Grave mention...

by **DougMash** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:02 am

The Suburbs
Screaming Blue Messiahs
Dancing Hoods
Guadalcanal Diary
Connells
The Chills
The Dentists
Blue Aeroplanes
Judybats
Nada Surf
The dB's
Lloyd Cole (in the US)
Housemartins (in the US)
APB (outside of New York, thanks to WLIR)

Sorry, I went a little past 5!

by **KYYX4ever** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:12 am

Good call on 45 Grave as well as Wire.

by **Seona85** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:34 am

They were surprisingly good. Macrae was pretty decent at the piano and Gervais' voice is a credit to his multi-talented persona. A lot of emotion in 'You're On My Side'. Wish they would release the demo tape

by **deevo0** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:46 pm

[quote][i]Originally posted by hubcity[/i]
<br>When I saw the thread title, I figured the top three would be Comsat Angels, The Chameleons and The Sound. Didn't disappoint.
[/quote]

Good predicting! Seems like there is support for CSA, Chameleons, The Sound, and Wire making the top 4, with #5 up for grabs.

wonder if 20/20 should be on this list. And Xymox? actually, I'm thinking more than these ... The Producers, a terribly underrated power pop band.

by **roc51** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 10:22 am

Two for the sophisticated songwriter wing:

Paul Haig
Squeeze (though they were regular chart visitors in the UK)

by **Frank_Chickens** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 6:15 pm

One more:

Single Bullet Theory: After their first single reaiched the lower end of the charts, the record label test pressed the second and despite it doing very well cut support for the band and left them stone dead.

by **q89747** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 9:54 am

Seems like Squeeze got a decent amount of attention, even over here in the States. It's still pretty easy to catch 'Mussels' or 'Tempted' on the radio.
I can't believe nobody's mentioned Sparks yet. Maybe they're not considered NW, or maybe they got exactly the fame they deserved. Well their overall output's kinda spotty, but they deserve congressional medals for LPs like Kimono and #1 in Heaven. I know they've gotten a decent amount of attention in the UK and Europe, but here in the States they're virtually unknown.

Website · by **thefxc** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 5:02 am

The Wolfgang Press. Not even the post-punk revival could draw any attention to them, even though any fan of dark, vaguely funky 80s bands would love them.

by **pellerman** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:06 am

The Comateens, especially the material from their 1981 self titled release. This album was a real gem of synthpop songs. Few artists have made albums in which most of the songs were really good, at least in my opinion, and this is definitely one of them.

The Wild Swans are another band that should have been more widely recognized. Their 1988 release "bringing home the ashes" had several great indie-new wave songs on it.

by **roc51** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:57 am

Ah yes, The Wild Swans, absolutely.

Also:

The Pale Saints
The Lotus Eaters
Shriekback
Modern Eon
Care
Au Pairs

by **pellerman** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:54 am

Southern Culture On The Skids
Television
Secret Service
Trashcan Sinatras
The Twins
Joe "King" Carrasco
Tonio K

New Wave Outpost Forum

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