Strange and/or Beautiful music I've just discovered

Wow.

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Recorded in 1979 but may as well have been 1965 - has band ever been more retro? I'd never heard of them....

@hingehead,

Civil Twighlight's Trouble has just come up on random - still hear U2, but with elements of Pearl Jam's circa 'Jeremy'/'Alive' not bad at all. Would be great to wallow in if I was more callow. Just did some research - they formed in Cape Town South Africa.

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@hingehead,

I liked them, hinge.
Who are they?

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@msolga,

The blurb for the debut album that track came from on allmusic.com says:

Quote:

In 1979, various punk and new wave bands were engaging in 1960s worship -- everyone from the Ramones to Blondie to the B-52s was putting their own spin on 1960s music, whether it was British Invasion rock, surf rock or the girl-group sound. But while those artists were combining something old with something new, the Inmates were retro all the way. New wavers and punks might have appreciated the rawness of First Offense, the Inmates' debut album of 1979, but this LP is neither punk nor new wave. Usually sounding like it could have been recorded around 1964-66 instead of in 1979, First Offense is an unapologetic throwback to the British Invasion rock of the early Rolling Stones (we're talking Brian Jones-era Stones!), the Kinks and the Who. The British band doesn't get into psychedelic rock at all, and its preference is for the more bluesy and R&B-influenced recordings that those rockers made in the 1960s. From covers of the Standells' "Dirty Water" and the Pretty Things' "Midnight to Six Man" to remakes of Arthur Conley's "Love Got Me" and Don Covay's "Three Time Loser," First Offense is about as derivative as it gets. But it's also rockin' and highly infectious -- even when you're thinking about how ultra-derivative the music is, you'll find yourself patting your foot and singing along. First Offense is retro in the good sense.

Their wikipedia entry isn't much more informative, none of the members have separate entries.

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@hingehead,

Thanks, hinge.
Interesting concept: retro new wave! Smile

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@msolga,

Yeah, shouldn't it be called 'Old Wave'? I recently discovered the term 'No Wave' too - although I'd known the artists I hadn't realised that was the label.

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@hingehead,

Ha. Old wave.
But so much of the various varieties of "new wave" music were derivative. (Apart from Elvis Costello & possibly a few others. In my view, anyway.)
This was just older wave than most! Wink

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@msolga,

At the time I thought new wave was particularly distinctive in that it didn't conform to conventional lyrical themes or forms, and that the music had a certain 'angular' flavour that made it decidedly not 'contemporary pop/rock'.

Basically the sort of stuff you heard on Double J in the late 70s. B-52s, XTC, Talking Heads,OMD, The Cure. It seemed at the time that punk had suicide-bombed the rock dinosaurs, and only weird mutants were coming out to fill the new evolutionary niches created by the death of corporate rock and soulless disco.

Of course eventually it turned out that 'we have so much variety we have none' to quote myself.

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@hingehead,

Quote:

Of course eventually it turned out that 'we have so much variety we have none' to quote myself.

Yes, You could say that, I guess.

All the same, it was pretty fresh & exciting & vibrant at the time.

In Melbourne (where community radio was big) TripleR ruled. That's where I picked up most of my musical enthusiasms at the time. I still have a soft spot for the Sports/Stephen Cummings to this day. Smile

Anyway, hinge, onto your next strange & beautiful musical discovery ...

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A kind of oddity. I call this sort of stuff around 1969/1971 baroque pop.

Blackfeather do the original first, I wouldn't have thought at the time that it was an Australian compostion, but it was. Fraternity do the cover second - notable for having Bon Scott sing and play flute.

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Don't you love when something you never expected coincides so completely with your particular depression?

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Something a tad more popular and modern. I like the video. And the sentiment to a point.

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A not unremarkable piece of post grunge electronic goth rock, but fascinating to me because this is the band that Shirley Manson of Garbage used to front, and listening to it you can see that move wasn't much of a stretch to Garbage's first album. But what I find even more fascinating is that the band Angelfish features members of Goodbye Mr Mckenzie - whom shirley manson did backing vocal for occasionally with some keyboards thrown in - I own some Goodbye Mckenzie vinyl and I had never realised Shirley Manson was involved. What a tiny world rock can be.

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Lovely bit of sultry retro trip hop - never heard of them, I wonder what the rest of the album is like...

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Another little weird treasure from the JWZ mixtape series. 2 Bit Pie with a spookily dark bit of alt dance techno - very much wearing depeche mode badges (and the singer must have listened to a bit of PJ Harvey too ie 'big fish little fish swimming in the water)

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Great crunchy avantgarde from Sweden swinging wildly from alt metal, to classical to jazz, great stuff, really clever, intricate, fun - would love to see them live!

Pretty sure the Butcher's Ballroom album is available free and legal on a CC licence.

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This just popped up from a Chess Records compilation I've had for ages but rarely gets a spin.

The interesting bit to me is if you are the least bit familiar with Led Zepellin's first album be prepared to hear where Robert Plant stole his vocal chops from. Amazing.

Strange and/or Beautiful music I've just discovered

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