Tag: 1980
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The Robert Cray Band, Who’s Been Talkin’, 1980 on Tomato
Debut album from Robert Cray and band (Curtis Salgado, Richard Cousins, and Dave Olson). Tomato was a NY based indie label started in the late 70s by Kevin Eggers, who also released albums by Albert King, Townes Van Zandt, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and John Cage (among others). My copy—via Antone’s Records in Austin TX—is an original…
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Bauhaus, In The Flat Field, 1980 on 4AD
Debut album from Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, David Jay, and Kevin Haskins aka Bauhaus. Bauhaus and its many spinoffs (Tones on Tail, Love and Rockets, Dali’s Car) are among my favorite musical lineages. They’d released “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” as a single in 1979 on Small Wonder records, but this debut came out on 4AD which…
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X, Los Angeles, 1980 on Slash
Debut LP from John Doe, Exene Cervenka, DJ Bonebrake and Billy Zoom. Produced (as were the next three X albums) by The Door’s keyboardist Ray Manzarek. I was just mentioning Slash! records earlier this week – “Los Angeles” was a cut on the Slash! sampler Early Sessions and that was my intro to the band.…
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The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta, 1980 on A&M
Third album in the brilliant opening set of LPs from Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Andy Summers. Side one opens with “Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” “Driven To Tears,” and “When The World is Running Down, You Make The Best of What’s Still Around” – what a sequence! There’s such a tight and interesting rhythm…
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The Brains, The Brains, 1980 on Mercury
Self-titled debut album from Atlanta’s The Brains, including a song later made famous by Cyndi Lauper, “Money Changes Everything.” The Brains would only go on to one more full length LP, Electronic Eden. Both were produced by Steve Lillywhite. Various members went on to play in other Atlanta bands, including the Georgia Satellites. Tom Gray…
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Blues Brothers, Made in America, 1980 on Atlantic
The Blues Brothers’ second album, released the same year the film came out (1980). Lots of folks are surprised (I was) that the Blues Brothers pre-existed the film – they performed on Saturday Night Live in April 1978 and put out Briefcase Full of Blues that same year. The band on this release includes, in…
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Fleshtones, Up Front, 1980 on I.R.S. Records
First EP Fleshtones issued, before the release of Roman Gods. Fleshtones were Bill Milhizer, Jan Marek Pakulski, Keith Streng, and Peter Zaremba. Miles Copeland signed them to IRS Records, and got them on Urgh! A Music War. Zaremba may be better known to some as the host of I.R.S. Records Presents the Cutting Edge on…
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Ry Cooder, Borderline, 1980 on Warner Bros.
Cooder’s 9th studio solo LP, with John Hiatt, Jim Keltner, Jesse Harms, George Pierre, Bobby King, Willie Green Jr., Reggie McBride, and Tim Drummond. Produced by Cooder with Leslie Morris. Personally I don’t quite love this one as much as 1978’s Jazz, but it is a really sold album including a cover of John Hiatt’s…
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Steely Dan, Katy Lied, 1975 on ABC Records
Walter Becker and Donald Fagen on the fourth full length studio album from Steely Dan. This was the first album after the departure of Skunk Baxter and Jim Hodder and the shift into studio albums with session musicians. (One of the session musicians here is Michael MacDonald providing backing vocals.) Apparently Becker and Fagen were…
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The Clash, Sandanista!, 1980 on CBS Records
The Clash’s fourth album, released in 1980 on CBS Records, distributed by Epic in the US. Sprawling, six-sided 3xLP collection that truly is all over the map, including a cover of Mose Allison’s “Look Here.” The FSLN catalog number on the labels is a nod to Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, the name of the…
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The Romantics, The Romantics, 1980 on Nemperor / Epic
“What I like about you, you hold me tight / tell me I’m the only one / wanna come over tonight” The Romantics were a Detroit power-pop / new wave band formed in the late 70s: Wally Palmer, Rich Cole, Mike Skill, and Jimmy Marinos. “That’s What I Like About You” made a top 50…
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Various Artists, Big Hits of Mid-America Volume Three, 1980 on Twin/Tone
Technically the first version of this 2xLP set came out in 1979, but my pressing is from 1980. Twin/Tone was concerned about the Yipes’ track “The Ballad Of Roy Orbison” for legal reasons (copyright clearance) and replaced it with “Specialization” by the New Psychenauts. “SPECIALIZATION” (side four, track two) was recorded at Blackberry Way in…
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The Cure, Boys Don’t Cry, 1980 on PVC/Fiction
Fiction was the UK label, PVC the US label (a sublabel of Passport Records). This was really a compilation album for the US market, drawing eight tracks from Three Imaginary Boys (their UK debut) supplemented with five other tracks from that era. It’s been reissued multiple times with different track order this is the same…
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The Suburbs, In Combo, 1980 on Twin/Tone
The debut album from Minneapolis band The Suburbs. Twin/Tone’s catalog (in 1984) described it thusly: Inspired, frenetic, sometimes absurb, the Suburbs’ debut LP is a rocker. Considerably more raw and flippant than their latter efforts. In Combo documents phase one. New York Rocker said that the Suburbs “alternate btween clenched teeth acid boogie and cartoon…
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Herb Ellis, At Montreux, 1980 on Concord Jazz (CJ-116)
Recorded live by Mountain Studios at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland July 1979. With: Produced by Carl Jefferson, who founded Concord Records (as well as the Concord Summer Festival in Concord CA) and sold it in 1994. My copy via Beverly Coin & Jewel.
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Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel (aka Peter Gabriel III, or Melt), 1980 on Mercury
The third in the series of self-titled releases Gabriel put out between 1977 and 1982, Melt features lots of complex synthesizer and percussion work, with guests like Robert Fripp and Genesis bandmate Phil Collins. Kate Bush adds backing vocals on No Self Control and Games Without Frontiers. No, he’s not singing “she’s so popular” –…
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Archie James Cavanaugh, Black and White Raven, 1980 on Black and White Raven, Inc.
Self-released in 1980 but reissued by the Numero Group, Black and White Raven mixes Yacht Rock, Disco, and Gospel with some flavor of Cavanaugh’s native Tlingit heritage. Lots of the musicians here were part of Redbone, an LA band made up of Mexican American and Native American members. This was a Secretly Society issue on…
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Null and Void, Happiness and Contempt, 1980 on M.A.O. Records.
Null and Void were a self-described “early 80s SoCal synth wave band.” This was their debut EP, recorded at Devon Sound – it’s been reissued by Medical Records along with Montage Morte, their second LP from 1982. This may have been MAO Records’ first releases – catalog number MAO 1001 and 1980 release suggests so.…