"That's What I Was Going to Say" - 5 new articles
New Wave for the New Week #41 BONUS ENTRY! BY REQUEST![All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries are based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests received, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun!]
 NW4NW All Request Month continues with our first "repeat performance." When Tom Quinn submitted his request for The Plastics, I replied that it was a fantastic choice! So good of a choice, in fact, that I had already done an entry on them - in fact, they were the very first entry in the series! So, I gave Tom the choice - either he could pick another band, or we'd make them not only the first band covered in the series, but also the first band repeated in the series.
"Go ahead and replay the Plastics." Tom wrote. "They are worthy." Indeed they are, Tom. Indeed they are! No need to rewrite background info - you can read the original post here, or check out their MySpace page . Instead, here's a variety of Plastics clips to enjoy, including "Copy," "Good," and "Peace": Now then, didn't they make you smile? Thanks, Tom, for a great request! (By the way, Tom makes some music himself, as one half of The Mud Pie Sun. Check out their site and their music, especially their cover of X-Ray Spex's classic "Germ Free Adolescents" - great stuff!)  New Wave for the New Week #40 BONUS ENTRY! BY REQUEST![All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries are based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests received, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun!]
A fresh blast of musical ideas came out of Boston in the mid-1980s via Charles Thompson IV's band. Along with his University of Massachusetts Amherst roommate, Joey Santiago, Charles began writing songs and creating a band who would become one of the most influential acts on the blossoming college rock/indie scene of the late '80s and early '90s. Charles changed his name to Black Francis, and he and Joey posted an ad looking to hire a bass player who enjoyed both Peter, Paul & Mary and Hüsker Dü. Exactly one person responded to the ad, and even though Kim Deal showed up without a bass guitar (and had never played one before), she was in the band. The addition of drummer David Lovering completed the group, who initially called themselves Pixies in Panoply. Soon enough, the name was shortened to The Pixies, and before long Francis' choppy, shrieking, aggressive music and Deal's poppier-yet-still-askew melodies were gaining a lot of interest. An initial salvo of three records between 1987 and 1989, Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, and Doolittle, traced the bands ascension to underground icon status. Juxtaposing loud-and-scratchy with soft-and-gentle years before Nirvana smelled the teen spirit, their sound was startling different from just about everyone else making records at the time. Indeed, Kurt Cobain cited The Pixies as a strong influence on Nirvana's sound; it's hard to imagine much of the 1990s grunge/alternative sound existing without the first three Pixies' records having been recorded. The Pixies continued on into the '90s themselves, but the working relationship between Francis and Deal soured quickly. Both began exploring side projects: Black Francis underwent another name change, becoming Frank Black and releasing some excellent solo records; Kim Deal formed The Breeders with her sister Kelley Deal and Tanya Donnelly of The Throwing Muses and recorded some fantastic material. But they frankly just didn't like each other very much, and the fractures showed on subsequent Pixies records. In 1993, Francis dissolved the band. Because their rabid fan base demanded it, The Pixies reunited around 2005 and played intermittently over the next two or three years before splintering again, having not recorded any new material. Jay's specific request was for one of The Pixies finest songs, the wonderful "Where Is My Mind?" from the must-have Surfer Rosa album. Not only a great song, "Where Is My Mind?" is also an excellent representation of the The Pixies basic sound: electric and acoustic guitars clashing in a scratchy melody, Black Francis howling out alienated image-heavy lyrics, Kim Deal keeping whole thing from careening off into an atonal mess. And so, I present it here as the current NW4NW All Request Month entry. Thank you for this pick, Jay - good choice! ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d8e7ca70-c283-4556-978d-aac25f679f24)  New Wave for the New Week #39 BY REQUEST![All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries will be based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests coming in, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun! If you wish to make a request, you may do so either in the comments section of this post, or on Twitter by tweeting your request to @berutt. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]
It was in 1969 that John Waldo Waybill changed his name to Fee and began assembling a troupe of musicians/performers to create the band that would become The Tubes. With as much focus on their stage show as there was on their music, The Tubes took a little bit from Alice Cooper, a little bit from the emerging UK Glam scene, a little bit from the New York city underground, and created something that was always interesting if somewhat uneven in quality. Over the years since their debut album was released in 1975, The Tubes have hit some incredible highs, but have also bottomed out more than once with crap that should probably have been left in recording studio waste basket. Still, when they were on the mark, few bands could touch them. Their first splash was the epic six-and-a-half minute single from their self-titled debut album, "White Punks On Dope." A searing parody of the mid-70s rich suburban rock-n-roll kid, it's an awesome record for its time - one of the last gasps of clever rock and roll before the disco malaise set in. Over the second half of the 1970s, The Tubes released three more studio albums, a live album, and a thoroughly unnecessary "best of" - unnecessarily because beyond "White Punks On Dope" and 1979's stab at radio acceptance, "Prime Time," the rest of their output ranged from poor to mediocre. By 1981 they found a new record label (Capitol), and had tapped into the New Wave market. They released The Completion Backward Principle, which contains their finest moments: "Sushi Girl" and "Talk To Ya Later" remain staples of New Wave retrospective compilations to this day, and with good reason - both are great songs filled with witty lyrics and classic pop hooks. The album also saw the first Tubes visit to the American Top 40, with the ballad "Don't Want To Wait Anymore" reaching #35. Two years later The Tubes would have their biggest hit, 1983's "She's A Beauty," which cracked the American Top Ten. Reverting more to their '70s foundation, but with a clear '80s sound, the song guaranteed The Tubes a permanent slot on classic rock formatted radio playlists for eternity. A follow-up album bombed miserably, and The Tubes called it a day. Patrick specifically asked for the "She's A Beauty" video, and so I am happy to provide it here as the current entry in NW4NW All Request Month - thank you for your request! I'm also including the video for the wonderful "Talk To Ya Later," my favorite Tubes song by far: ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=677044b0-5e8b-444a-b2f3-a27b1323581f)  New Wave for the New Week #38 BONUS ENTRY! BY REQUEST![All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries will be based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests coming in, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun! If you wish to make a request, you may do so either in the comments section of this post, or on Twitter by tweeting your request to @berutt. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]
Nancy Foltz can, and she made it her request for NW4NW All Request Month! Nancy was a fellow DJ on our college radio station (WDCE, University of Richmond. ) She wrote, "I was trying to think of something quintessentially new wave (as opposed to an 80s tune that's more dear to my heart)..." She managed to to choose a song that scores on both counts - well done! Yes, I said she chose a song, not an artist, because in this case, the two are inextricably linked. Rosen and Liben collaborated on one album in support of their massive hit song, and although a follow-up single was released, it went nowhere. No, these guys were simply one-hit wonders, but oh what a hit! Would it help if I flipped the names around? Ned Liben and Robert Rosen. Still can't name the band? How about if I write it as their names would be listed on the songwriting credit? Liben/Rosen. Not yet? Well, do what they did. Drop the leading consonants from their names and phoneticize the remainder using three letters each: EBN-OZN. Remember them? Well, even if the name doesn't ring a bell, if you were anywhere near a radio in the summer of 1984, you know their song: "AEIOU Sometimes Y." A slinky mish-mash of synthesizer bloops, vocal processing, and danceteria rhythms, the song's insidiously catchy playground-rhyme chorus connected with seemingly everyone that year. It was one of those records that came out of nowhere to conquer the world, even though it sounded like nothing else to make the charts before or since. Robert Rosen's affected spoken-word vocals tell the story of a date with an "incredible looking Swedish girl" that just doesn't end up well (culminating in the most wonderful usage of the word "Damn!" in music history), while an intertwined lesson about global languages hints at the miscommunication that must have caused the disaster. Brilliant. As the song raced up the charts, EBN-OZN released a full album, Feeling Cavalier, which will go down in history as the first American album to be recorded completely on a computer. Armed with noting but synthesizers, they created an album that strived to be too many things at once: they flirted with hip-hop, they enlisted mambo legend Tito Puente to play drums on one song, they unnecessarily covered "Rockin' Robin." Resultantly, the album is frustratingly unfocused. The larger problem, though, was underscored by the follow-up single, "Bag Lady (I Wonder)" - they really only had one great song in them, and everything else they did was simply awful. (One exception: the Devo-esque "I Want Cash.") Thankfully, they didn't take another crack at it. After that one album, they went their separate ways. Robert Rosen changed his name officially to Robert Ozn, formed a club band called Dada Nada (the less said about them, the better), and then got involved in the movie business as a screenwriter and producer. Ned Liben went into record production, working most notably with Scritti Politti. Liben passed away in 1998 after suffering a heart-attack. But, as EBN-OZN, they had their one shining moment, and thanks to Nancy's request, they are the current entry in the NW4NW series. Enjoy the video for "AEIOU Sometimes Y": ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d0ad9db7-1174-4101-873e-f65cc214ee04)  New Wave for the New Week #37 BY REQUEST![All throughout the month of November, all NW4NW entries will be based on requests made by you, dear readers. Because of the amount of requests coming in, there will often be more than one entry per week during this month - I recommend signing up for email alerts on the left-hand side of the screen so that you don't miss any of the fun! If you wish to make a request, you may do so either in the comments section of this post, or on Twitter by tweeting your request to @berutt. Don't be shy - tell me what band you want to see featured!]
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