“I Love a Man in Uniform”, Gang of Four

This way: I Love a Man in Uniform

This from Songs of the Free, the third studio album by Gang of Four, released in 1982.

Gang of Four are an English post-punk band, formed in 1976 in Leeds. The original members were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. There have been many different line-ups including, among other notable musicians, Sara Lee, Gail Ann Dorsey, and Mark Heaney. After a brief lull in the 1980s, different constellations of the band recorded two studio albums in the 1990s. Between 2004 and 2006 the original line-up was reunited; Gill toured using the name between 2012 and his death in 2020. In 2021, the band announced that King, Burnham, and Lee would be reuniting for a tour in 2022 with David Pajo on guitar.

The band played a stripped-down mix of punk rock, funk and dub, with a lyrical emphasis on the social and political ills of society. Gang of Four are widely considered one of the leading bands of the late 1970s/early 1980s post-punk movement. Their debut album, Entertainment!, was ranked by Rolling Stone as the fifth greatest punk album of all time and at number 483 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2004, the album was listed by Pitchfork Media as the 8th best album of the 1970s and, in 2020, by Pop Matters as "Best Post Punk album ever".

[Spotify] I Love a Man in Uniform

“Underwater Moonlight”, The Soft Boys

This way: Underwater Moonlight

The Soft Boys were an English rock band led by Robyn Hitchcock primarily during the 1970s, whose initially old-fashioned music style of psychedelic/folk-rock became part of the neo-psychedelia scene with the release of Underwater Moonlight.

The band formed in 1976 in Cambridge, England as Dennis and the Experts comprising Robyn Hitchcock (guitar), Rob Lamb (half-brother of radio host and author Charlie Gillett) guitar, Andy Metcalfe (bass), and Morris Windsor (drums). Alan Davies replaced Lamb after only four gigs late in 1976, and Kimberley Rew eventually replaced Davies. Matthew Seligman replaced Metcalfe in 1979. 

The band broke up in 1981 after Underwater Moonlight. Rew formed the more mainstream pop group Katrina and the Waves, while Hitchcock went on to a prolific career with a similar whimsical, surrealistic style, forming Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians in 1984 with fellow Soft Boys Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalfe, who went on to tour and record for ten years. 

[Spotify] Underwater Moonlight

“Graveyard Shift”, Uncle Tupelo

This way: Graveyard Shift

Here's an album that started a movement. Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country music group from Belleville, Illinois, active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their previous band, The Primitives, left to attend college. The trio recorded three albums for Rockville Records, before signing with Sire Records and expanding to a five-piece. Shortly after the release of the band's major label debut album Anodyne, Farrar announced his decision to leave the band due to a soured relationship with his co-songwriter Tweedy. Uncle Tupelo split on May 1, 1994, after completing a farewell tour. Following the breakup, Farrar formed Son Volt with Heidorn, while the remaining members continued as Wilco.

Although Uncle Tupelo broke up before it achieved commercial success, the band is renowned for its impact on the alternative country music scene. The group's first album, No Depression, became a byword for the genre and was widely influential. Uncle Tupelo's sound was unlike popular country music of the time, drawing inspiration from styles as diverse as the hardcore punk of The Minutemen and the country instrumentation and harmony of the Carter Family and Hank Williams. Farrar and Tweedy's lyrics frequently referred to Middle America and the working class of Belleville. They also do a killer version of Now I wanna Be your dog.

[Spotify] Graveyard Shift

[Live 1989] Graveyard Shift

“Because You're Frightened”, Magazine

This way: Because You're Frightened

Magazine were an English rock band formed in 1977 in Manchester in England by singer Howard Devoto and guitarist John McGeoch. After leaving the punk group Buzzcocks in early 1977, Devoto decided to create a more progressive and less "traditional" rock band. The original lineup of Magazine was composed of Devoto, McGeoch, Barry Adamson on bass, Bob Dickinson on keyboards and Martin Jackson on drums.

Their debut album Real Life (1978) was critically acclaimed and was one of the first post-punk albums. After releasing two other albums, Secondhand Daylight and The Correct Use of Soap, McGeoch left the band in 1980 to join Siouxsie and the Banshees. Magazine released another studio album and disbanded in 1981. 

They reunited in 2009 for a UK tour with Noko on guitar. Magazine released an album of new material, No Thyself, in October 2011, followed by a short UK tour.

Magazine and their original guitarist McGeoch have been cited as an influence by bands and musicians such as the Smiths, Radiohead and John Frusciante. This from 1980.

[Spotify] Because You're Frightened

“Idiot Proof”, Telehealth

This way: Idiot Proof

Great new band. Telehealth is an unpredictable pop band with heavy nods to minimal synth, egg-punk, new wave, art rock, glam, and krautrock. Get yer Devo on. This band is from Seattle.

[Spotify] Idiot Proof

“Computer World”, Kraftwerk—NPA

This way: Computer World

Near Perfect Album

You can really post any song from this album here. This record is that good. Kraftwerk are nothing if not perfectionists. The formula is simple, yet you still have to write great songs, and Kraftwek excels at this. Actually they probably have 3 LPs that will make this list. Kraftwerk is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre. The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. Wolfgang Flür joined the band in 1974 and Karl Bartos in 1975, expanding the band to a quartet. This album from1981.

[Spotify] Computer World

[Spotify, album] Computer World-LP 

“We are all Prostitutes”, The Pop Group, Mark Stewart RIP

This way: We are all Prostitutes

Here is a record that everyone (i knew) had back in the day. Nothing else quite like it. The Pop Group are an English rock band formed in Bristol in 1977 by vocalist Mark Stewart, guitarist John Waddington, bassist Simon Underwood, guitarist/saxophonist Gareth Sager, and drummer Bruce Smith. Their work in the late 1970s crossed diverse musical influences including punk, dub, funk, and free jazz with radical politics, helping to pioneer post-punk music.

The group released two albums, Y (1979) and For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? (1980), and the singles "She Is Beyond Good and Evil" and "We Are All Prostitutes" (both 1979), then split in 1981. Its members worked on a variety of subsequent projects, including New Age Steppers and Rip Rig + Panic. In 2010, the band reunited, touring and releasing new material. 

[Spotify] We are all Prostitutes

“Golden Age”, Lives of Angels

This way: Golden Age

Here is a great band I just stumbled on. Lives of Angels was the brainchild of Gerald O’Connell from London, England. In 1974 he worked at CBS studios mastering recordings from tape to disc. During the early and mid seventies Gerald worked on the startup of the Virgin label, and also met most of the leading figures in German electronic/rock music. People like Klaus Schulze, Amon Duul II, The Can, Manuel Gottsching, Edgar Froese and so on. Their music was obviously years ahead of its time and he was quite inspired by it. By the end of the 70s Gerald was playing in bands. In 1977 he joined his first band Mystery Plane, led by school mate Mark Harvey and later joined by his soon-to-be wife Catherine. Due to a lack of resources it was impossible to do the kind of music that was in his head. So he built his own studio. Gerald branched off in 1980 forming Lives of Angels as an outlet for his own compositions. He recorded, produced and played all of the instruments on “Elevator to Eden” between 1981 and 1983, using a primitive set up of drum machines, one keyboard, guitar and a tape echo. 

[Spotify] Golden Age

“The Stallion Pt. 3”, Ween

This way: The Stallion Pt. 3

Pure Guava is the third studio album and major label debut by American rock band Ween, released on November 10, 1992 by Elektra Records. The album features one of Ween's most well-known songs, "Push th' Little Daisies". The song was also released as a single on August Records in 1993, including both the album and radio edit versions of the song (the latter replacing the word "shit" with a sample of Prince squealing from "Alphabet St."), as well as the tracks "Ode to Rene", "I Smoke Some Grass (Really Really High)" and "Mango Woman"; "Puerto Rican Power" replaces "I Smoke Some Grass" on some editions. 

I have heard that after recording songs Ween plays them back at different speeds to see which sounds best. Nailed it here.

To see the sign of thine self as throughout the ages of time

Things you thought weren't going to climb the mountain

[Spotify] The Stallion Pt. 3

“Hey”, Butthole Surfers

This way: Hey

Butthole Surfers is an American rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas, by singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second drummer from 1983 to 1985, 1986 to 1989, and 2009. The band has also employed a variety of bass players, most notably Jeff Pinkus. 

Emerging from the 1980s hardcore punk scene, Butthole Surfers quickly became known for their chaotic live shows, black comedy, and a sound that incorporated elements of psychedelia, noise rock, and punk as well as their use of sound manipulation and tape editing.   

  

Although they were respected by their peers and attracted a devoted fanbase, Butthole Surfers had little commercial success until 1996's Electriclarryland. The album contained the hit single "Pepper", which climbed to number one on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart that year.

[Spotify] Hey

“She Cracked”, The Modern Lovers—NPA

This way: She Cracked

Near Perfect Album

As near perfect albums go, this one is way up there, hard not to pick it as the best of NPAs. You can write a whole novel about the recording and re-recording of the songs on this record. The Modern Lovers is the debut studio album by American rock band the Modern Lovers. It was released on Beserkley Records in 1976, although, bar "Hospital" (recorded in 1971), the original tracks had been recorded in 1972. Six of the original tracks were produced by John Cale. The album has been featured three times on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. 

Original LP tracks (a lot of extra add-ins out there that are not part of the original release).

Side one

"Roadrunner" – 4:04

"Astral Plane" – 3:00

"Old World" – 4:00

"Pablo Picasso" – 4:15

Side two

"She Cracked" – 2:53

"Hospital" – 5:31 (September 1971)

"Someone I Care About" – 3:37

"Girl Friend" – 3:51 (A&M sessions, April 1972)

"Modern World" – 3:40 (A&M sessions, April 1972)

[Spotify] She Cracked

[Spotify, album] The Modern Lovers-LP  

“Work for Food”, Dramarama

This way: Work for Food

Dramarama is an American, New Jersey–based alternative rock/power pop band, who later moved to Los Angeles. The band was formed in New Jersey in 1982 and disbanded in 1994. The band formally reunited in 2003 following an appearance on VH1's Bands Reunited.

Since 1996, an evolving lineup of the band, always fronted by singer/songwriter John Easdale, has been performing in one incarnation or another (initially billed as Easdale solo but usually joined by former Dramarama bandmates), and from then until 2003 played occasional shows in Los Angeles as well as in New Jersey. However, amid renewed interest since the episode on Bands Reunited in January 2004 and a large-scale appearance at KROQ-FM's annual Inland Invasion festival concert (attended by more than 78,000 fans) in September 2003, Dramarama then toured nationally and released a full-length CD titled Everybody Dies on October 25, 2005. Fifteen years later, they released the album Color TV. Nicky Hopkins – Piano, Benmont Tench – Piano/Keyboards, Clem Burke (worlds greatest)– Drums. 

[Spotify] Work for Food

“Windowpane”, Mystic 100's

This way: Windowpane

Once upon a time there was a ragged psych-punk band from Olympia called Milk Music. When we last heard from them six years ago, they’d just released an album called Mystic 100’s. They’ve since adopted Mystic 100’s as their new band name — the ol’ Mount Eerie, the ol’ Magnolia Electric Co. — and are finally back with news of a new album.

[Spotify] Windowpane

“Tenth Planet”, Solid Space

This way: Tenth Planet

Solid Space was a short-lived British minimal wave band, formed in 1980 by Matthew 'Maf' Vosburgh and Dan Goldstein. Vosburgh and Goldstein, who met at age 11, were previously involved in 1970s new wave band Exhibit A and formed a record label, Irrelevant Wombat Records, at age 14. The band's music and lyrics were heavily indebted to science fiction, in particular the television series Doctor Who.

The band spent the next couple of years after their formation recording, with contributions from Jonathan "Jon Winegum" Weinreich. The band's only release that featured all of their material, titled Space Museum, was released on cassette in 1982 through In Phaze Records. Following its release, Solid Space disbanded and their members drifted into obscurity. 

Despite staying underground, the band was influential in the development of minimal wave and other related electronic music genres, influencing acts such as In Trance 95.

[Spotify] Tenth Planet

“Hick in the Movie”, Nip Drivers

This way: Hick in the Movie

Should we still like an old 80s band called the Nip Drivers? I give humor a pass, but this is also a hearty embrace of bad taste all around which was a hall mark for the band. So says the white guy. I saw them play a few times out in LA. And they were the perfect blend of car-crash rock. Could hardly get thru the set. The first time I saw them the bass player took her bass and put it back in the case and left midway thru the 3rd song. Band did not blink. The Nip Drivers were an American punk rock band formed in 1980 in Torrance, California. The band was the brainchild of lead singer Mike Webber, and for a time included guitarist Kurt Schellenbach, Janus Jones on bass, and Nick Passiglia on drums, though the lineup at any given time was fluid. They played fast hardcore punk, often infused with humor and a total lack of political correctness. In addition to their own compositions, they recorded sometimes improbable covers of pop hits such as Olivia Newton-John’s “Have You Never Been Mellow,” Duran Duran's "Rio," and Sweet’s “Fox on the Run”. The last is heard on the soundtrack of the 1984 film Desperate Teenage Lovedolls. The band also made a cameo appearance in the 1985 film Echo Park starring Susan Dey. 

In 2001 Mike emerged with the last Nip Drivers line up. He used his other band Marc Spitz Freestyle, as his back up band. The other members included Jula Bell on bass and b.u.vox, Greg Cameron (SWA, October Faction) on drums, and Dave Wakefield (Sukia) on guitar. Mike Webber died on November 11, 2006. 

[Spotify] Hick in the Movie

[Spotify also] Elephant Man

“The Busy Girl Buys Beauty”, Billy Bragg

This way: The Busy Girl Buys Beauty

Billy Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is heavily centred on bringing about change and involving the younger generation in activist causes.  

Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy is Billy Bragg's first album, released in 1983. All songs on the original album consisted of Bragg singing to his electric guitar accompaniment.

The original album played at 45 rpm rather than the more usual 33⅓ rpm, contained only seven songs and lasted for only 15 minutes and 57 seconds. However, rather than being classified as an EP, it qualified for the UK Albums Chart and reached number 30 in January 1984.

[Spotify] The Busy Girl Buys Beauty

“Credit in the Straight World”, Young Marble Giants-Colossal Youth—NPA

This way: Credit in the Straight World

Near Perfect Album

Colossal Youth is the only studio album by Welsh post-punk band Young Marble Giants, released in February 1980 on Rough Trade Records. Young Marble Giants were offered the opportunity to record the album after Rough Trade heard just two songs by the band on the local Cardiff music compilation Is the War Over?

Young Marble Giants emerged from the remains of the band True Wheel (named after a song by Brian Eno from his 1974 LP Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). Alison Statton (vocals), Philip Moxham (bass) and his brother Stuart (guitar and main songwriter), formed Young Marble Giants in 1979, when they were all barely in their twenties. Quickly snapped up by the prestigious Rough Trade label, the band recorded Colossal Youth over the course of five days in a tiny studio in North Wales. 

[Spotify] Credit in the Straight World

[Spotify, album] Colossal Youth

“Interlude no 2/Bill Lee”, Warren Zevon

This way: Interlude no2/Bill Lee

I absolutely love this baseball themed song from Warren Zevon, mostly because it has hardly anything to do with baseball. It is about a mostly obscure pitcher named Bill Lee, who did not follow the typical athletes playbook. On the record the song is pared with Interlude No. 2, and I have stuck them together here as they must be listened to together and you can't really achieve that on spotify . . . 

Short and sweet, play ball (go Mets!)

[Spotify] Eh

“Tough Luck”, Sneaks

This way: Tough Lucks

Eva Moolchan, better known as Sneaks, is an American spoken word and post-punk musician from Washington, D. C. According to NME's Jordan Bassett, "she favours short, sharp, effortlessly cool compositions that worm their way into your consciousness without breaking a sweat." 

Moolchan was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. She formed the band Shitstains with Katie Alice Greer, in which Moolchan sang and played guitar and Greer played drums. Moolchan went on to participate in Blood, a noise music project, and the Young Trynas, in which she played bass. She then began her solo career as "Sneaks" while attending the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Her solo debut recording was the cassette Sneaks, originally released in 2014 on the independent Sister Polygon Records imprint. In 2015, Sneaks was reissued by the French record label Danger Records as an LP under the title Gymnastics. She then signed with Merge Records, which reissued Gymnastics again in 2016. Her second studio album, It's a Myth, was released on Merge in March 2017. It was followed by Highway Hypnosis, which was released in January 2019, also on Merge. Highway Hypnosis was produced by Carlos Hernandez, Tony Seltzer, and Tewadaj Eva Moolchan.

[Spotify] Tough Luck

“Up Song”, Black Country New Road

This way: Up Song

Black Country, New Road (commonly abbreviated to BCNR or BC,NR) are an English rock band formed in Cambridgeshire in 2018, consisting of Tyler Hyde (vocals, bass), Lewis Evans (vocals, flute, saxophone), May Kershaw (vocals, keys), Georgia Ellery (violin, backing vocals), Charlie Wayne (drums, backing vocals) and Luke Mark (guitar, backing vocals). The band's first two albums featured guitarist and lead vocalist Isaac Wood, who left the band in 2022. 

The band gained initial attention through debut singles "Athens, France" and "Sunglasses" in 2019, which combined features of experimental rock and punk and rock, drawing comparisons to bands such as Slint and contemporaries Black Midi. Their debut album For the First Time, released in 2021, received widespread critical acclaim, was nominated for the Mercury Prize and reached No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart. Four days before the release of their 2022 second album Ants from Up There, Wood left the band, citing mental health struggles.[6] The album received further critical acclaim and commercial success, debuting at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the departure of Wood, the band immediately began work on new material, with Hyde, Evans and Kershaw sharing lead vocal duties. After touring throughout 2022, the band released the concert film Live at Bush Hall, in February 2023, featuring their new songs.

[Spotify] Up Song

“The Vertical Children”, Laurie Anderson

This way: The Vertical Children

Laurie Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, focusing particularly on language, technology, and visual imagery. She became more widely known outside the art world when her single "O Superman" reached number two on the UK singles chart in 1981. Her debut album Big Science was released the following year. She also starred in and directed the 1986 concert film Home of the Brave. 

Anderson is a pioneer in electronic music and has invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and performance art shows. In 1977, she created a tape-bow violin that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head in the bridge. In the late 1990s, she collaborated with Interval Research to develop an instrument she called a "talking stick," a six-foot-long (1.8 m) baton-like MIDI controller that can access and replicate sounds. Anderson met singer-songwriter Lou Reed in 1992, and she was married to him from April 2008 until his death in 2013.

[Spotify] The Vertical Children

“Radios in Motion”, XTC

This way: Radios in Motion

XTC were an English rock band formed in Swindon in 1972. Fronted by songwriters Andy Partridge (guitars, vocals) and Colin Moulding (bass, vocals), the band gained popularity during the rise of punk and new wave in the 1970s, later playing in a variety of styles that ranged from angular guitar riffs to elaborately arranged pop. Partly because the group did not fit into contemporary trends, they achieved only sporadic commercial success in the UK and US, but attracted a considerable cult following. They have since been recognised for their influence on post-punk, Britpop and later power pop acts.

Partridge and Moulding first met in the early 1970s and subsequently formed a glam outfit with drummer Terry Chambers. The band's name and line-up changed frequently, and it was not until 1975 that the band was known as XTC. In 1977, the group debuted on Virgin Records and were subsequently noted for their energetic live performances and their refusal to play conventional punk rock, instead synthesising influences from ska, 1960s pop, dub music and avant-garde. The single "Making Plans for Nigel" (1979) marked their commercial breakthrough and heralded the reverberating drum sound associated with 1980s popular music.ft moved to Portland, where he started writing his solo debut album.

[Spotify] Radios in Motion

“Free Money”, Patti Smith-Horses—NPA

This way: Free Money

Near Perfect Album

Horses is the debut studio album by American musician Patti Smith. It was released on November 10, 1975 by Arista Records. A fixture of the mid-1970s underground rock music scene in New York City, Smith signed to Arista in 1975 and recorded Horses with her band at Electric Lady Studios in August and September of that year. She enlisted former Velvet Underground member John Cale to produce the album.

The music on Horses was informed by the minimalist aesthetic of the punk rock genre, then in its formative years. Smith and her band composed the album's songs using simple chord progressions, while also breaking from punk tradition in their propensity for improvisation and embrace of ideas from avant-garde and other musical styles. Smith's lyrics on Horses were alternately rooted in her own personal experiences, particularly with her family, and in more fantastical imagery. The album also features adaptations of the rock standards "Gloria" and "Land of a Thousand Dances".  

[Spotify] Free Money

[Spotify, album] Horses

“Eye Know”, De La Soul

This way: Eye Know

De La Soul is an American hip hop group formed in 1988 in the Amityville area of Long Island, New York. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres. Kelvin "Posdnuos" Mercer, David "Trugoy the Dove" Jolicoeur, and Vincent "Maseo" Mason formed the group in high school and caught the attention of producer Prince Paul with a demo tape of the song "Plug Tunin'". 

With its playful wordplay, innovative sampling, and witty skits, the group's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), has been called "a hip hop masterpiece". It remains their biggest commercial success, though subsequent albums have continued to receive acclaim. De La Soul is the second-longest-standing Native Tongues group, after the Jungle Brothers. In 2006, the group won a Grammy for their collaboration with Gorillaz on their single "Feel Good Inc."

This track from 1989.

[Spotify] Eye Know

[Peg] Peg