DJ Paisley Babylon Mix: After The Punks Have Gone

Another DJ Paisley Babylon mix in a retro vein–this time it’s post-punk, new romantic, early industrial, even some Cramps thrown in for good measure. As varied and all-over-the-map the bands are, the sounds all work very well together. Who needs genres when you’ve got groove? Have a listen to AFTER THE PUNKS HAVE GONE–the DJ Paisley Babylon post-punk and beyond mix. It’s a solid hour of solid tunes by Polyrock, Fad Gadget, Blondie, PiL, Gang of Four, Adam and the Ants, plus many others.

If you like the mix and want to book DJ Paisley Babylon, by all means get in touch. Contact me by e-mail: jwallace (at) turntabling (dot) net or call (312) 504-1264.

This mix is posted here to promote my DJ work and the original artists. Please get in touch if you need to discuss licensing issues.

Ideola Tribal Opera LP

There’s a disproportionate amount of wretched, barf-inducing music by born-again maniacs decrying everything from being gay to a woman’s right to choose. But some of the people involved in American christianity aren’t like the psychopathic “follow us or die” nutjobs you see on television…and this gent was one of those good guys who don’t insist you drink the kool-aid.

Mark Heard had more criticism FOR the church and its self-appointed arbiters of goodness than anything else, so listening to his music isn’t the gag-fest you get when hearing albums by god-rockers Petra (who produced a great new-wave-for-jebus album if you can get past the rabid evangelistic spew) or the early intolerant albums by Steve Taylor (who also managed to plunk out a fabulous new wavey album side or two if you can overlook the narrowmindedness.)

Mark Heard had the coolness to be alt-country before there was such a thing, and he wavered back and forth between electric roof-raising and John Mellencamp-style introspection. But his album as Ideola was something else altogether.

As Ideola, Heard was an early adopter of sampling (1987!) and then-bizarre experiments in sampling used as electronic percussion (does banging on an old Chevy count as drumming? On this record it does.) This is a pop album with all the quirk of an XTC record with all the navel gazing lyrics of a record by The Church or a poppity-yet-sober-minded Elvis Costello.

Standout tracks on this include Watching the Ship Go Down, Hold Back Your Tears (Like You’ve Been Told) and Go Ask the Dead Man. I like this record for a variety of reasons–it’s got a lot of heart, it’s catchy as hell, and it pissed off the born again fundies who set themselves up as the arbiters of all that’s good in music–because this album dares to make you wanna (shudder) dance.

You can hardly find this damn thing EXCEPT on vinyl, usually in a discount bin for four or five bucks. It’s well worth it if you like funky, poppy experiments with a bit of philosophy thrown in. Get it for Watching the Ship Go Down alone, a nice moody little piece that has some Robin Hitchcockian overtones while invoking a bit of morose observational songwriting.

If Jesus were alive today, he’d be listening to this record. And trying to get Mark Mothersbaugh to record an album of standards with Trent Reznor. As for Mark Heard, he died of a heart condition in 1992 just as he was about to get his due via Bruce Cockburn’s True North label. A shame…

Introducing Bubblegum Records

Glasgow was my first exposure to Scotland, and I’ve loved it ever since. I’ve heard since visiting that it’s the Scot version of Limerick in Ireland, AKA “Stab City” but I never say anything remotely ugly in Glasgow. Besides, Belle and Sebastian are from there so it couldn’t possibly be all that bad, could it? 

But I digress–Glasgow is also home to the new, fun, and very cool record label Bubblegum Records.  This is a label worth watching. The first release by Bubblegum is from none other than Texas-based Hyperbubble, with a glorious five-song maxi single CD/download titled Better Set Your Phasers To Stun.

Transparency alert–the photography for the Hyperbubble CD is by none other than yours truly–I shot the band while on a recent trip to San Antonio. But this five-song release is a perfect new wave/synthpop confection. (It also features a vocal guest appearance by the great Helen Love. If you don’t know who she is, Helen’s the one who claims to listen ONLY to the Ramones.)

Listen to two of the great tracks from this five song maxi-single and get hooked.  The official release is June 8. ..three cheers to Bubblegum Records in Scotland and three more to Hyperbubble and Helen Love. RECOMMENDED.

Turntabling Records Presents GOOP “Synthetic Reasons”

From deepest Texas comes GOOP. The result of a toxic waste spill mixing with a nuclear radiation leak, GOOP presents a mutated new wave/punk sonic attack that calls directly back to early DEVO, Fad Gadget, and The Cars.

Goop’s first album is Synthetic Reasons, 11 absolutely mad tracks featuring the vocal stylings of Max Trash and Eddy Current, plus band mates Billy Lazer and Mick Quark. During the recording of Synthetic Reasons, Billy Lazer claimes to have played at least one note on every synthesizer ever made. The album is described as “new wave for the Goop Age” and will thrill any fan of old new wave or today’s new wave redux bands like Nancy Boy, The Prima Donnas, Epoxies or The Dials.

Turntabling Records is proud to present Goop’s Synthetic Reasons, soon to be available on iTunes, Amazon, Napster and elsewhere. It is now available for immediate download and look for additional information on the band, the music and the Texas indie scene coming soon to this space.

Track listing for Synthetic Reasons includes:

1.  Prom Night Overdose

2. Nuclear Xmas

3. Mutations

4.  Life

5. Wraparound Shades

6.  Do It

7. Negative Capability

8.  Space Voyage

9.  Quitting Time

10.  Styrofoam!

11.  Theme From Goop

Goop Synthetic Reasons is copyright 2009, Turntabling Records/Turntabling.net.

Vinyl Goldmine on Mi-Sex Castaway 7″

I was gratified to discover Vinyl Goldmine today whilst searching for information on the final album by New Zealand new wavers Mi Sex. Castaway was a single from the final Mi-Sex LP, “Where Do They Go?” according to Vinyl Goldmine.

It’s great to have discovered this excellent 80s synthpop/new wave lovin’ blog, but it hasn’t been updated since December. Please don’t tell me the well has run dry! I just found you!

Here’s hoping there is more to come, but Vinyl Goldmine does have a full year of posts to explore so I am pleased about that. If you are a fan of Mi-Sex, The Tourists, or are a Til Tuesday-loving hair casualty, this blog is definitey the thing. Pylon, Bow Wow Wow, The Sinceros…lots of fun here. Well done!

Back to Mi-Sex…here is the song that first put this great bunch on my radar all those years ago:

New Order Live from Pumped Full of Drugs

Many a New Order concertgoer has come home from the experience feeling that when it comes to live performances, Barney and co. suck shit through a straw. The live Pumped Full of Drugs video is an exception. New Order was shot by a professional video crew during a tour in Japan back in their heyday circa 1985. The band is in a pissy mood, nobody seems to want to be there, and Barney wavers in and out of tune…but I’ll be damned if this doesn’t WORK. A great show from a group known for their wretched performances on stage….at least in my experience. If you disagree, feel free to check out this collection of live New Order DVDs for sale. You go…enjoy.

Daniel Amos: Fearful Symmetry

When it comes to 80s music, there is NOTHING stranger than born again Christian new wave. Some artists in this genre were out-and-out hypocritical, writing albums with heavy gay bashing lyrics  AND songs complaining of discrimination against born-againers. Steve Taylor was the worst of this lot, singing out of both sides of his mouth with “Whatever Happened To Sin?” (“I heard the reverend say/gay/is probably normal in the good Lord’s sight…I’m no morality nut/but/the reverend may be a little confused”) and “Meat The Press” (A Christian can’t get equal time/unless he’s a loony/committing a crime”). To be fair, I’m guessing (hoping?) Taylor wishes he could take back the worst of his 80s excesses…

On the opposite side of the fence is the band responsible for the album cover pictured here. Daniel Amos never indulged in the sort of nonsense some of their contemporaries did in attacking “non-believers”. Quite the opposite, Daniel Amos reserved their poison pens for members of their own movement. Here is a band that took aim at televangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker long before it became popular to do so on daytime television back in the late 80s.

The real genius of Daniel Amos–especially this album, Fearful Symmetry–is edgy electronic pop combined with a literacy startling when compared to some of their contemporaries. Where you had some Christian new wavers singing about going to hell forever (The 77s, an on-again/off-again new wave outfit, were exceptionally embarassing in that regard.) Daniel Amos chose to write songs invoking William Blake and wondering where the hell all the technological marvels of the space age got off to. Check the DA album Vox Humana for the insanely catchy “It’s the 80s, Where’s Our Rocket Packs?”

Fearful Symmetry is one of the best Daniel Amos albums of their long and bizarre career–this is a band which started out playing Eagles-style country-rock crossover music and suddenly flipped out into new wave. The band’s transition can be compared to when the Beatles started taking drugs…suddenly you had a whole new attitude informing the same group of songwriters previously satisfied with writing soppy three-minuters.

Vinyl sellers take note–I would pay LARGE DOLLARS to own the vinyl for this album. There are three simply perfect new wave tracks on Fearful Symmetry; “The Pool”, “Sleep, Silent Child” and “Shadow Catcher”. Oddly enough, this is the record founder genius Terry Taylor takes issue with, calling it “art rock”. But truly this is one powerhouse of a record with those three songs alone. “Neverland Ballroom” is amusing, “Instruction Through Film” is a Thomas Dolby-esque exercise, and I can completely do without “Sudden Heaven”. But this record is damn fine. You don’t need to be a born-againer to enjoy this and there’s no overt bible banging going on here. The religious imagery is appropriate where used and restrained enough to be **gasp** subtle. In an era where groups such as Ressurection Band and a gent named Rick Cua were hollering at people to “submit to Jesus” in so many words at maximum volume, Daniel Amos is the very picture of tolerant restraint, combined with great synth riffs, inspired arrangements (pun not intended) and ethereal imagery.

Bippp: Obscure French New Wave

Born Bad Records released BIPPP in 2006. This is an enjoyable collection of French “synth wave” recorded between 1979 and 1985. The quality of these tracks is fairly consistent across the board both in the songwriting and recordings themselves. For a longtime fan of obscure new wave, this is a real treasure trove. You can practically taste the quaaludes.

“Ping Pong” by Act and “Touche pas mon Sexe” by Comix are standout tracks. Both are described in other circles as “Devo-esque”, which seems to be the favorite term used by reviewers who lack the imagination to describe these bouncy synth masterpieces any other way. Personally, I’d just say that they make you want to snort cocaine and bounce your cranium around like you had a bobble-head. The short version–if you like music that goes “boingy-boingy-dingy-dingy-blip-blop-bleep,” this is for you.

It certainly works for ME. Especially when they aren’t singing in English. I think that’s the best part of all…I prefer NOT to know what they are on about. It’s just more fun that way. Visit the BIPPP Myspace page to hear some tracks from this one. It’s distributed in the USA by Everloving Records, for which I thank them profusely.