a mid-summer's cool new Wave collection

It's 100 degrees outside....too hot for even the beach. Kinda makes me long for the cool icy mid-October Halloween weather. Hope these rare-ish New Wave tunes will take you there


MODERN ENGLIGH - Life In The Gladhouse
MEDIUM MEDIUM - So Hungry So Angry
GARY NUMAN - Are Friend's Electric (Renegade Soundwave mix)
Peter Murphy - Blind Sublime 12"
APB - When I Feel This Way 12"
BELOUIS SOME - Imagination 12"
MEN WITHOUT HATS - I Like

Shriekback

Shriekback is not an easy band to classify. They borrowed heavily from funk but had a very different agenda; their music was more suited for contemplation than for parties. They combined synthesizers and drum machines with throbbing bass lines and unorthodox vocals to evoke a primordial world where the line between human and animal was blurred. The title of their fourth album, Big Night Music, might be the most succinct summation of their work: Shriekback's music was always an appropriate soundtrack for life in the dark, but with the emphasis on the possibilities rather than the dangers. Though often haunting, it was not gothic and harbored strains of pop and dance that rose to the surface from time to time. Still, however accessible they became, Shriekback cultivated an air of mystery that made them hard to pin down. Further complicating any evaluation of their career is the fact that they never made an impact in the states. They came close with the classic "Big Night Music" but these guys were never really made for the MTV generation. When they TRIED to conform, with 1989's GO BANG...well....the less said about THAT album, the better.
One of my favourite songs is from the Arista 1984 album Jam Science. "Mercy Dash" sounds like it should belong on Ministry's "With Sympathy"...and I'm just wondering if that album was on Barry's turntable at the time......hmmmm

There's no shortage of Shriekback classics to choose from. "Nemesis", the 12" mix of coarse, begins with Marlin Brando's voice from Apocolypse Now. How many other songs start out like THAT?.....um....none...I think.

Finally....the BIG NIGHT MUSIC album is truely a unrecognized classic. Here's the first track, but I think all of them are worth a listen.

MERCY DASH

NEMESIS (12" MIX)

BLACK LIGHT TRAP

Hey! I found a new project

Guess I got caught by the "making videos for Youtube" bug.

First off I decided to make a video for a song I wrote and recorded in 2004 called " The Game Of Lies". I used Little Rascals footage cause....um....actually for no reason at all.....but it looks kinda cool so I used it.......


GAME OF LIES


Then I decided to do one for " Everybody Looks Like You ", which I recorded with my first working band "Dreamworld" back in 1988. So I guess 20 years isn't too long to wait for a video.....

EVERYBODY LOOKS LIKE YOU
But best of all I think is this video for a song I recorded and wrote in 1996 called " Lullabye"...using footage from an old Casper The Friendly Ghost cartoon.....
LULLABYE


If anyone's interested the MP3's are at the bottom of the page....in the first blog I posted