General New Wave Talk

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bono_212

bono_212

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Genre threads seem to do pretty OK, and I have a few things I wanted to talk about, so why not test the waters:


Anyways, over the years I've slowly been making my way through the Rate Your Music top 100 New Wave albums and I have to say I am shocked by the amount of Eastern European/USSR stuff on here that's just fantastic. There's always an issue with language barrier and music (I want to sing along!) but I'm glad I've got past things like that and can start enjoying bands like:









Additionally, I'd also like to discuss my new-found fascination with The The.

Where's Khan?
 
iron yuppie said:
Is that the band Preoccupations formed out of? I did not know that. Public Strain is a great album.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they're not the *exact* same band, but that's where they came from. I just found out from Wiki that Women broke up because of an on-stage fight, so that's fun and very rock and roll:
https://pitchfork.com/news/40559-women-cancel-tour-after-clashing-onstage/

ETA: The actual break-up and not indefinite hiatus occurred after the death of Chris Reimer, which I completely forgot about that.
 
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Where the hell is djerdap and how has he not added to this thread already. The Eastern European slant is made for him.
 
I know, I almost think I should've started a thread just to talk about Eastern European New Wave, otherwise no one will know on face value what I was focusing on :lol:.
 
Like, 5 artists you would've heard of and 5 that are more obscure?

Or songs?

I don't know how to play these new-fangled games. Cobbler, help me.
 
Well in general I’m a fanboi of synthpop and new wave so I’m here for it.

I won’t pretend like I’m well professed with new wave though. Plus, the terms are generally thrown around and can mean many things.

So I’m curious to see if you can dish me out an interesting plate, maybe a handful of what you think people know and then complimentarily lesser known things.
 
For sure, I think the five best albums that kinda hit on the various sounds of the "genre" (cause let's be real, it's not really a genre) are something alone the lines of:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies (I prefer Low-Life)
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Tears for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair (Though I prefer The Hurting)
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model

I think that's a good smattering of the various subgenres of New Wave: Post punk, synthpop, pop/rock, more synthpop but more John Hughes'y, and Power pop respectively.

Five albums that I'd probably throw out for fun, that you *might* not be familiar with the artists, but I think you particularly may really enjoy:
The The - Soul Mining (Have I mentioned enough times I'm currently obsessed with this?)
The Jam - All Mod Cons (This would be in the top list if I'd done a list of ten albums instead of five, but Mod Revival was definitely a thing as well)
Japan - Tin Drum (Or Gentlemen Take Polaroids)
Ultravox - Vienna
and, I don't care if it maybe technically doesn't count: Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen

That's all off the top of my head. I'm probably overlooking some stuff, and I'd be curious to see what LeMel has to say, since he likes a completely different side of New Wave from me.
 
I have lots of thoughts here that I’ll share at a later date but got a lot on my plate rn but just wanted to say that PCL is one of the best albums ever when it comes to my tastes.
 
bono_212 said:
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
Click to expand...

I always wonder why he is classified as New Wave. The Sirius XM New Wave station also plays him a lot. He and The Smiths (whom the XM station also play a lot) both strike me as more traditionally-influenced than anything else.
 
This Year's Model is definitely new wave, as is Armed Forces. My Aim Is True has a more traditional pub rock thing going on. Fewer keyboards, bluesier chord progressions on that one.
 
bono_212 said:
For sure, I think the five best albums that kinda hit on the various sounds of the "genre" (cause let's be real, it's not really a genre) are something alone the lines of:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies (I prefer Low-Life)
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Tears for Fears - Songs From the Big Chair (Though I prefer The Hurting)
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model

I think that's a good smattering of the various subgenres of New Wave: Post punk, synthpop, pop/rock, more synthpop but more John Hughes'y, and Power pop respectively.
Click to expand...

As you say, "New Wave" has always been broadly defined. Here, you are defining post-punk as a part of new wave.

There's always been a school of thought that new wave leans more towards pop where post-punk leans more towards rock.

So by that definition, you might say that

Television
Pre-UF U2
The Cure
Pretenders
Echo & The Bunnymen

are more post-punk where stuff like

Annie Lennox/Eurythmics
Duran Duran
Early Depeche Mode(think Everything Counts, People Are People, Just Can't Get Enough, etc)
A-ha(at least Take On Me; can't honestly say I could name another song)
Culture Club
Gary Newman
Blondie like you said
I even feel like maybe some of Peter Gabriel's stuff from the 80s might fit here
etc

is more new wave

And then there's acts like The Police or Berlin-era Bowie that could maybe fit either one.

Are we considering all of this to fall under the broad umbrella of new wave?

---

As an aside, I'd never heard of Lady Plank, but that song you posted gave me big Brandon Flowers/Killers vibes, and it sent me down a wormhole of 2004 neo-post-punk-new-wave stuff for a couple hours last night - Hot Fuss, Franz Ferdinand's self-titled, Arcade Fire's Funeral, and Keane's Hopes & Fears. That was a moment.
 
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iron yuppie said:
I always wonder why he is classified as New Wave. The Sirius XM New Wave station also plays him a lot. He and The Smiths (whom the XM station also play a lot) both strike me as more traditionally-influenced than anything else.
Click to expand...

The term New Wave is wild, too me. Until Interference, I didn't realize that Post-Punk and all of the british Jangle acts were included as well. I definitely thought of it more as generic "80s music" basically all of the "Don't You (Forget About Me)" stuff.

I mean, at the end of the day, it's literally referring to a new wave of British music being popularized in the united states, and like the 60s, it's not even remotely close to one similar sound. And of course artists like Blondie, The Bangles, the GoGos and take your pick of whatever other LA acts aren't even British.

To me, New Wave is an easier way of saying, "80s music....but also late 70s music....but not metal."
 
bono_212 said:
I mean, at the end of the day, it's literally referring to a new wave of British music being popularized in the united states, and like the 60s, it's not even remotely close to one similar sound. And of course artists like Blondie, The Bangles, the GoGos and take your pick of whatever other LA acts aren't even British.

To me, New Wave is an easier way of saying, "80s music....but also late 70s music....but not metal."
Click to expand...

Er, not quite for the start (I was there for the whole thing in NYC).
.
It started with Punk in NYC - the original CBGB's Bands (who some also played at Max's Kansas City).
Television, The Patti Smith Group, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Richard Hell and The Void Oids, Blondie (think I got everyone)
Now the sound of these bands were often rather different from each other; but they were DIY simple sets of instruments, not all fancier upped like Progressive Rock.
Punk magazine, and not too long after New York Rocker we're published. The word began to get out!

They started to tour around in the USA, Britain, and Europe. Malcom McClarin in England I believe after seeing The Ramones decided to put together The Sex Pistols, while I believe The Clash formed more organically. Susie & The Banshees, and more.

I think the term New Wave might have been coined to 1) maybe soften the perhaps the "edginess" of the term Punk 2) the sound of bands after these initial ones maaaybe were a bit less raw than the Ramones, The Sex Pistols etc

We then had The B-52's, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Devo, Tears for Fears etc
There was "No Wave" Sonic Youth.
This started in the mid-70's and expanded through the '80's. Television influenced The Edge, Patti Smith took time to talk to a very young Larry Mullen Jr when they toured over there in Britain etc.

While I didn't know every song on many of those album listed (and none of the Eastern European ones) I knew most of the albums shown.
I had a big smile looking over it. :love:
From '74-'75 into the mid+ '80's was a great time to be a music fan! I had a :hyper: fantastic time - radio, vynil casettes, and live shows!!!
Not only then (going forward) the ?early - mid '00's was another big out pouring of talent.
 
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I really like Obywatel G.C. - Nie Pytaj O Polskę.

Kino - Kukushka has a The Unforgettable Fire vibe that I like. I've added both to my spotify playlists. thanks for sharing. :up:
 
For sure! Happy to.

I slowed down a bit on my project, once I listened to Talking Heads '77. Ended up listening through their entire discography. Gonna hit you all with the hot take: I'm not that big a fan of Speaking in Tongues. On the other side, Remain in Light moved up to a five for me. But that might be because I was listening to it while I was drunk on my birthday playing 20 year old video games.
 
The oddest thing clicked that song into place as one of my favorites of all time: It was used in the season premiere of my favorite season of (the mostly mediocre) Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and for some reason the way it was used just hit me in such a good way that I can't stop thinking about it to this day. I had already loved the song, but it kicked up another gear. Hard to explain.



Actually, it was the season premiere of the FOLLOWING season from my favorite season, but it was like a two-parter, so I sometimes forget that wasn't part of the season itself.
 
bono_212 said:
For sure! Happy to.

I slowed down a bit on my project, once I listened to Talking Heads '77. Ended up listening through their entire discography. Gonna hit you all with the hot take: I'm not that big a fan of Speaking in Tongues. On the other side, Remain in Light moved up to a five for me. But that might be because I was listening to it while I was drunk on my birthday playing 20 year old video games.
Click to expand...



Remain in Light never really clicked for me. I admire it more than I enjoy it.

Fear of Music and More Songs about Buildings and Food are my favorite. I adore “The Big Country” closing the latter.

Also: belated happy birthday!
 
bono_212 said:
Strike while the iron's hot, before I forget every song that isn't a single, again.
Click to expand...


In case it wasn't clear, I was referring to the podcast by the guys behind U Talkin' U2 2 Me and U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: Me, who are currently going through the entire Talking Heads discography.
 
gump said:
Remain in Light never really clicked for me. I admire it more than I enjoy it.

Fear of Music and More Songs about Buildings and Food are my favorite. I adore “The Big Country” closing the latter.

Also: belated happy birthday!
Click to expand...

Everything up to and including Remain in Light really does it for me. After, still really enjoying (I was surprised by how much I liked the last album), but not the same way. Though I was surprised to find I liked Little Creatures a lot more than I remembered.

lazarus said:
In case it wasn't clear, I was referring to the podcast by the guys behind U Talkin' U2 2 Me and U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: Me, who are currently going through the entire Talking Heads discography.
Click to expand...

Hah! I got the podcast name reference, but had no idea that's what they were currently doing. Weird coincidence, I've never listened to that podcast.
 
Once in A Lifetime is my fav, but I pretty much love that whole album.
I think my sis and I saw them do RIL at Forest Hill's Tennis Stadium.


Oh, there's the ?last song from "Fear of Music" called "The Overload".
I'm not sure if I listened to it more than once BUT it made me want to hide underthe bed forever!
I don't think a song has ever induced quite such fear & despondency in me!
So Warning! Do not listen at this time in particular!

A band I didn't see on the list (I could have them) was
China Crisis. Kind of underrated.
"It's Everything" "Working with Fire & Steel" "St Savior's Sq"
 
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