Tag Archives: 1983

967. call of the west

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“Wall of Voodoo at Vancouver’s Luv-A-Fair in 1983 remains one of the greatest live shows I’ve ever seen. I walked in knowing maybe two of their songs (including the Johnny Cash cover) and walked out a convert. But then lead guy Stan Ridgway quit, and though both he and the band would continue to release stuff, none of it would ever touch the electricity of what they had together. At least I still had the records, except they weren’t as good as the live item, with Call of the West a case in point. Whereas live it was an epic sort of west coast surf rawk film noir (with an Ennio Morricone edge), on record it was merely very good. Oh well.” (Philip Random)

WallofVoodoo-1983

998. blue water

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“As the story goes, when Keith Levene split Public Image Ltd, he had a few recent master recordings under his arm. Which is a good thing. Else we probably would never have heard the likes of Blue Water, which first showed up as a b-side in 1983. Deep and weird and exactly the kind of thing you wanted cranked to the nines on your ghetto blaster when the drugs were all kicking in and you had an abandoned industrial zone to explore, with a fog moving in from the harbour and twilight looming.” (Philip Random)

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1029. good technology

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The red part of the Red Guitars‘ moniker concerns more than just the colour of their stringed weapons. These guys were serious about their left-side politics which likely explains their overall lack of market penetration back in the 80s. You certainly can’t fault a song like Good Technology for lacking hooks, melody, overall sarcastic pop smarts.

1097. the last film

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Somewhere, there’s an alt-universe where Kissing The Pink stomped the world with their pop smart New Romantic stylings and insights. As is, they came, they had one minor hit in Britain (the song in question here), they failed to conquer. The upside being, we never got sick of them.

1109. talking to a stranger

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“Hunters + Collectors being band named after a song by Can but, truth be told, that connection did more to twig me to the enduring riches of Can than the other way around. Which isn’t to cast aspersions at Hunters + Collectors, particularly their first album, which managed to sound simultaneously Euro-cool and deeply, mysteriously, uniquely Australian – all those vast open spaces and way too many weird animals that can kill you.” (Philip Random)

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