“Change Your Mind”, Bully

This way: Change Your Mind

This girls has gotta great screech. Bully is the solo project of guitarist and singer Alicia Bognanno. The American rock band formed in 2013 in Nashville. They signed to Columbia Records label Startime International and released their first album Feels Like in 2015, then moved to Sub Pop to release Losing in 2017. Their third album Sugaregg was released on August 21, 2020. What initially began as a three-piece band is now a solo project with accompanying members. 

Bully was founded by Rosemount, Minnesota native Alicia Bognanno, who earned a degree from Middle Tennessee State University in audio recording before getting an internship at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studios in Chicago. She started recording demos of her own material before relocating to Nashville, Tennessee, where she worked as an engineer at Battle Tapes Recording and The Stone Fox venue. She formed the band with Stewart Copeland on drums (not to be confused with the drummer for The Police).

After self-releasing a limited cassette, the band's first single proper, "Milkman", was released in April 2014. They signed with Columbia Records label Startime International and released their debut album Feels Like in June 2015. 

[Spotify] Change Your Mind

“Pay Your Rates”, The Fall

This way: Pay Your Rates

Dan: The "rates" was the name given to the local taxes and charges paid for local government services and water. They were based, up to c1988, on the rental value of property.

Local councils would publish the rates and regular reminders for payment in local newspapers. I think it's quite likely that the lyric is based on the text of such an advertisement, or comment on such an advertisement, or else on posted rates demand. 

[Spotify] Pay Your Rates

“Submarine Bells”, The Chills

This way: Submarine Bells

The Chills are a New Zealand rock band that formed in Dunedin in 1980. The band is essentially the continuing project of singer/songwriter Martin Phillipps, who is the group's sole constant member. For a time in the 1990s, the act was billed as Martin Phillipps & The Chills. In the 1980s and 1990s, The Chills had some significant chart success in their homeland and were a cult band in other parts of the world as one of the earliest proponents of the Dunedin sound.   

Singer-songwriter Martin Phillipps formed The Chills in 1980 with his sister Rachel Phillipps on keyboards and Jane Dodd on bass after the demise of his punk band, The Same.[5] Also included in the initial lineup were guitarist Peter Gutteridge and drummer Alan Haig. Phillipps's earlier band, the Same, had formed in 1978 and performed alongside punk bands Toy Love and The Enemy.

The Chills were initially signed by Flying Nun Records and were one of the four bands recorded for the Dunedin Double EP in 1982. By this time, the band consisted of Martin Phillipps, Alan Haig, keyboard player Fraser Batts and bassist Terry Moore. One of the tracks recorded, "Kaleidoscope World", became a signature song for the band's early years.

[Spotify] Submarine Bells

“And You Drive Your Pretty Car”, Strawberry Zotz

This way: And You Drive Your Pretty Car

The Strawberry Zots are a psychedelic pop band from Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States.

1987: Zots Mach One (James Blond: Mark Andrews: Lead Vocals; Ron Blood: Bass & Vocals; Brad Clement: Keyboards & Vocals; Don Hill: Guitar, Vocals & Sax; Geno Jones: Drums; Ray Valdez: Guitar & Lead Vocals)

The Strawberry Zots are born as a show set performed by the band “James Blond.” 

Originally called GI Joe & The Strawberry Zots, the band featured the character G I Joe, a military vet who loved LSD and who had a propensity for flashbacks. The Band performed 60s bubble gum rock while GI Joe would drift in and out of this plane of consciousness sometimes curing up in a fetal position and emitting primal screams to the strains of the Monkees, Herman’s Hermits, or the Ohio Express — Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I’ve got Love in My Tummy, indeed. The Original GI Joe & The Strawberry Zots offended pretty much everyone.

The Strawberry Zots played music, as Don Hill would say, composed between Jan 1st 1960 and December 31st 1969; this, along with originals. 

  [Spotify, No!] 

“Heaven Tonight”, Cheap Trick-Heaven Tonight—NPA

This way: Heaven Tonight

Near Perfect Album

Of course the song Surrender is a masterpiece. Grand-slam. A no-doubter. But I can hear the LP beginning to end and find a lot to love. Heaven Tonight is Cheap Trick's third studio album, produced by Tom Werman and released in 1978. The album cover features lead singer Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson on the front, with Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos on the back. Pretty boys vs the weirdos. 

Heaven Tonight is considered Cheap Trick's best album by many fans and critics. While their debut album Cheap Trick showed the band's darker, rawer side and In Color explored a lighter, more pop-oriented persona, Heaven Tonight combined both elements to produce a hook-filled pop-rock album with an attitude. Popular songs from this album include the anthemic "Surrender", "Auf Wiedersehen", the title track, and a cover of The Move's "California Man". 

Heaven Tonight is also known as the first album ever recorded with a 12-string electric bass.  

[Spotify] Heaven Tonight

[Spotify, album] Heaven Tonight, LP  

“Susquehanna Hat Company”, Too Much Joy

This way: Susquehanna Hat Company

Too Much Joy is an American alternative rock music group, that formed in the early 1980s in Scarsdale, New York. The original members were Tim Quirk (vocals), Jay Blumenfield (guitar, vocals), Sandy Smallens (bass, vocals) and Tommy Vinton (drums). During 1982-1983 Tommy LaRussa temporarily replaced Vinton as drummer. Smallens departed on amicable terms in 1994; producer William Wittman joined on bass guitar and vocals after Smallens's departure. Blumenfield was also in Fields Laughing (which released an EP in 1985 on Stonegarden Records) and Smallens was also in Beauty Constant (whose Like the Enemy LP was issued in 1987). Wittman continues to play with Cyndi Lauper. 

The band, originally called the Rave, took the name Too Much Joy after a phrase that Quirk had seen after his first mushroom trip.

After the success of their third album Cereal Killers, TMJ released several other studio albums, but none achieved the same popular success. In 1997, TMJ announced a hiatus, saying that the commercialism of the music business had taken the "joy" out of performing. Too Much Joy emptied its vaults in 1999 and 2001 to produce the album Gods and Sods, composed of studio outtakes and demos from the period between Mutiny and ...Finally and the live album Live at Least. The later incarnation of the band briefly reunited in the early 2000s to record the one-off holiday single "Ruby Left a Present Underneath the Christmas Tree." Its members have also formed the sometimes-overlapping subprojects the ITS, Surface Wound and Wonderlick. In 2021, the band self-released the album, "Mistakes Were Made."

[Spotify] Susquehanna Hat Company

Title comes from this sketch, Abbot and Costello

[Sketch} Susquehanna Hat Company

“All We Ever Wanted Was Everything”, Bauhaus

This way: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

Mates of State are an American indie pop duo, active since 1997. The group is the husband-and-wife team of Kori Gardner (born June 16, 1974) (vocals, organ, synthesizer, piano, electric piano, and occasional guitar and drums) and Jason Hammel (born February 1, 1976) (vocals, drums, percussion, and occasional synthesizer). 

As of 2015, the duo has released four EPs and seven full-length, studio albums. Their most recent album, Mountaintops, was released on September 13, 2011.  

[Spotify] All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

“Hollow Eyes”, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

This way: Hollow Eyes

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, also known very briefly as the Lorries, are an English rock band formed in Leeds in early 1981 by guitarist and songwriter Chris Reed, vocalist Mark Sweeney, bassist Steve Smith and drummer Mick Brown. After breaking up in 1991, the band reformed in 2003 and have released 5 studio albums over the course of their career.   

[Spotify] Hollow Eyes

“Heaven and Hell”, Cabaret Voltaire

This way: Heaven and Hell

Cabaret Voltaire were an English music group formed in Sheffield in 1973 and initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk, and Chris Watson.The group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, the Zürich nightclub that served as a centre for the early Dada movement.

The early work of Cabaret Voltaire consisted primarily of experimentation with DIY electronics and tape machines, as well as Dada-influenced performance art, helping to pioneer industrial music in the mid-1970s. Finding an audience during the post-punk era, they integrated their experimental sensibilities with dance and pop styles. They are often characterized as among the most innovative and influential electronic groups of their era. 

[Spotify] Heaven and Hell

“Crying Shame”, Clifford Hicks

This way: Crying Shame

Archaeologist

Banjoist

Veteran 

From Tennessee, this song from 2021.  

[Spotify] Crying Shame

“See No Evil”, Television-Marquee Moon—NPA

This way: See No Evil

Near Perfect Album

Marquee Moon is the debut album by American rock band Television. It was released on February 8, 1977, by Elektra Records. In the years leading up to the album, Television had become a prominent act on the New York music scene and generated interest from a number of record labels, eventually signing a record deal with Elektra. The group rehearsed extensively in preparation for Marquee Moon before recording it at A & R Recording in September 1976. It was produced by the band's frontman Tom Verlaine and sound engineer Andy Johns.

For Marquee Moon, Verlaine and fellow guitarist Richard Lloyd abandoned contemporary punk rock's power chords in favor of rock and jazz-inspired interplay, melodic lines, and counter-melodies. The resulting music is largely hook-driven with complex instrumental parts (particularly on longer tracks such as "Marquee Moon"), while evoking themes of adolescence, discovery, and transcendence through imagery in urban, pastoral, and nocturnal modes, including references to the geography of Lower Manhattan. Influenced by Bohemian and French poetry, Verlaine's lyrics also feature puns and double entendres intended to give the songs an impressionistic quality in describing his perception of an experience.

Released to widespread acclaim, Marquee Moon was hailed by critics as an original musical development in rock music. The critical recognition helped the album achieve unexpected commercial success in the United Kingdom, despite poor sales in the United States. Among the most acclaimed music releases in history, it consistently features in professionally curated lists of top albums, including Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" (2003), on which it ranked 128th. Marquee Moon also proved to be a foundational record of alternative rock, as Television's innovative punk instrumentation for the album strongly influenced the new wave and indie rock movements of the 1980s and rock guitar playing in general.  

[Spotify] See No Evil 

[Spotify, album] Marquee Moon LP  

“Sister Havana”, Urge Overkill, RIP Blackie

This way: Sister Havana

Great song here, I recall seeing them in Chicago at the 950 club opening for Big Black. Urge Overkill is an American alternative rock band, formed in Chicago, Nash Kato (vocals/guitar), and Eddie "King" Roeser (vocals/guitar/bass guitar) Blackie Onassis (drums). They are widely known for their song "Sister Havana" and their cover of Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon", which was used in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Oui, their latest album, was released in 2022.1989, and & Love for All in 1990, the latter produced by Andy Partridge and John Leckie.  

After opening for Nirvana on the American Nevermind tour, Urge Overkill returned to the studio to record another EP Stull in 1992, which featured the tracks "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" (produced and mixed by Kramer) and "Goodbye to Guyville". Having a strong following by this time, they jumped from their indie label Touch & Go to Geffen Records. Despite some criticism for the label switch, Urge Overkill's major-label debut Saturation received strong reviews upon release in 1993, and to support the album, they opened for Pearl Jam on their Vs. tour. The single "Sister Havana" gave the band a hit record and broad recognition. 

[Spotify] Sister Havana

“Back from Somewhere”, Hüsker Dü

This way: Back from Somewhere

When the perfection of pure pop is this high the roof can not stay on the building. This is the band that pointed it out to me a thousand times. Top fave band of all time (as long as a person can have 12 fav top all time bands). We are talking 2 minutes and 18 seconds here. That is all that is necessary. This could be NPA. Also, yesterdays degenrate post reminded me of this LP cover. When it was first released it had no text on the cover . . .  

[Spotify] Back from Somewhere

“Girl Gun God”, Gen and the Degenerates

This way: Girl Gun God

English band of actual degenerates. 

[Spotify] Girl Gun God

“Baby”, Purling Hiss

This way: Baby

Purling Hiss is the rock music project of American multi-instrumentalist Mike Polizze. Based in Philadelphia, the project was named so because of its heavy use of distortion and white noise. Originally conceived for his own personal amusement and desire to experiment, Polizze eventually self-released Purling Hiss (2009) and began touring with a live band. 

Philadelphia-based guitarist and songwriter Mike Polizze founded Purling Hiss in 2009 as an outlet for his solo recordings. Polizze was already an established musical figure in the Philadelphia rock scene, having previously played guitar with Birds of Maya. In 2009, he released his debut album Purling Hiss, which comprised recordings made at his home studio. Purling Hiss' second album Hissteria was released in 2010.

The first show they ever played was opening for Kurt Vile and the Violators at the Tea Bazaar in Charlottesville on October 19, 2010. Pitchfork Media compared it favorably to the indie rock of the 80s, such as Dinosaur Jr. and fIREHOSE, and said "its upbeat, euphoric outpouring of guitar, bass, and drums, the album retains the solitary, cranky strangeness."

[Spotify] Baby

“After the Party”, The Menzingers

This way: After the Party

The Menzingers are an American punk rock band from Scranton, Pennsylvania, formed in 2006. The band consists of Greg Barnett (vocals, guitar), Tom May (vocals, guitar), Eric Keen (bass) and Joe Godino (drums). To date, the band has released seven studio albums, with their most recent, From Exile, released on September 25, 2020.  

[Spotify] After the Party

“The Once Over Twice”, X-Wild Gift—NPA

This way: The Once Over Twice

Near Perfect Album

It's a hard choice between the first and second LPs by X. Both are fantastic. This one is the one without Soul Kitchen so it edges out the other by a hair. Wild Gift is the second studio album by American rock band X, released on May 4, 1981 by Slash Records. It was very well received critically, and was voted the year's second best album in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll. Wild Gift was later ranked at number 334 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Wild Gift showcases the band's unique punk rock style, which infuses roots rock, country, blues, R&B, and rockabilly.  

[Spotify] The Once Over Twice

[Spotify, album] Wild Gift  

“Hollywood Ending”, Hayden

This way: Hollywood Ending

Hayden is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Thornhill, Ontario.

His early works are a largely eclectic mix of genres from grunge to alternative country, as demonstrated by his first full album, Everything I Long For, released in 1995. Since then his work has become progressively more refined.

Hayden entered his song "Take" in for CFNY-FM's annual New Music Search competition in 1993. Hayden played guitar on the track and enlisted two friends (Lorraine Ursomarzo and Noah Mintz of hHead) to sing vocals. Hayden continued to recruit vocalists until 1995 when he began to showcase his grainy baritone. "Take" has never been officially released on any of Hayden's albums. 

Hayden released an independent cassette, In September, in 1994, and followed with the album Everything I Long For in 1995. Released on his own Hardwood Records with distribution by Sonic Unyon, the album was a commercial success.[4] He subsequently found himself in a bidding war between record labels in the United States, with one early offer coming directly from Neil Young, whose manager Elliott Roberts had just launched Vapor Records.

He ultimately signed to Geffen Records' subsidiary imprint Outpost Records, which gave him a contract worth over $1 million, along with complete creative control of his music, in what was widely reported as one of the most lucrative contracts ever given to a new artist in the alternative rock era. Outpost rereleased the album in the US the following year. Also in 1996, Hayden performed both nights of Neil Young's annual Bridge School Concert, and contributed the title track to the soundtrack for Steve Buscemi's film Trees Lounge.

For his second album, 1998's The Closer I Get, Hayden worked with several big name record producers, including Steve Fisk, John Hanlon and Scott Litt. He toured North America with a full band, including Josh Malinsky and Mitch Roth of Poledo and Damon Richardson of Change of Heart, to support that album. However, Outpost was subsequently dissolved due to the commercial decline of alternative rock in the late 1990s, leaving Hayden without an international label.

[Spotify] Hollywood Ending

“My Cousin Has a Grey Cup Ring”, Donovan Woods

This way: My Cousin Has a Grey Cup Ring

Donovan Woods is a Canadian folk and country singer-songwriter. He has released several albums of folk and roots music, including the Juno Award-winning Both Ways.

Woods was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. He began playing guitar and writing songs as a teenager.

Woods' first album, The Hold Up, was released in 2007. His second album, The Widowmaker, was released in 2010, and his third album, Don't Get Too Grand, was released in 2013vand garnered Woods' first Juno Award nomination for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo.

His fourth album, Hard Settle, Ain't Troubled, was released February 26, 2016, and was a longlisted nominee for the 2016 Polaris Music Prize. At the 12th Canadian Folk Music Awards, Woods won the award for English Songwriter of the Year, and the album was nominated for Contemporary Album of the Year.

[Spotify] My Cousin Has a Grey Cup Ring

“Sad, Sad Song”, M. Ward

This way: Sad, Sad Song

M. Ward (born October 4, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Portland, Oregon. Ward's solo work is a mixture of folk and blues-inspired Americana analog recordings. He has released 10 studio albums since 1999, primarily through the independent label Merge Records. In addition to his solo work, he is a member of indie pop duo She & Him and folk-rock supergroup Monsters of Folk, and also participates in recording, producing, and playing with multiple other artists. 

M. Ward was raised in Glendale, California, and moved to Portland, Oregon, after college. Growing up, Ward taught himself songs by the Beatles on his brother's guitar, and began recording demos on a four-track analog tape recorder when he was about fifteen. Ward continues to only record analog, and starts all of his songs as demos on the same recorder he has had since his teens.

[Spotify] Sad, Sad Song

“King's Lead Hat”, Brian Eno

This way: King's Lead Hat

This album was a huge influence on me and my friends when it first came out. 1977 and punk rock was just starting to make an impact. And the title is apparently an anagram of Talking Heads. Brian Eno is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop and electronica. A self-described "non-musician", Eno has helped introduce unconventional concepts and approaches to contemporary music. He has been described as one of popular music's most influential and innovative figures. In 2019, Eno was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music. 

Born in Suffolk, Eno studied painting and experimental music at the art school of Ipswich Civic College in the mid 1960s, and then at Winchester School of Art. He joined glam rock group Roxy Music as its synthesiser player in 1971, recording two albums with the group before departing in 1973. Eno then released a number of solo pop albums beginning with Here Come the Warm Jets (1974) and began exploring a minimalist direction with the influential recordings Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978), coining the term "ambient music".

Alongside his solo work, Eno collaborated frequently with other musicians in the 1970s, including Robert Fripp, Harmonia, Cluster, Harold Budd, David Bowie, David Byrne and Judy Nylon. He also established himself as a sought-after producer, working on albums by John Cale, Jon Hassell, Laraaji, Talking Heads, Ultravox, and Devo, as well as the no wave compilation No New York (1978). In subsequent decades, Eno continued to record solo albums and produce for other artists, most prominently U2 and Coldplay, alongside work with artists such as Daniel Lanois, Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, Slowdive, Karl Hyde, James, Kevin Shields, and Damon Albarn.

[Spotify] King's Lead Hat

“The Punisher”, Stuck

This way: The Punisher

New punk from Chicago. Greg, Tim, David, Ezra.b

[Spotify] The Punisher

“Too Much Paranoias”, Devo-Are We Not Men?—NPA

This way: Too Much Paranoias

Near Perfect Album

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! is the debut studio album by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in August 1978 on the Warner Bros. label (Virgin Records in Europe). Produced by Brian Eno, the album was recorded between October 1977 and February 1978, primarily in Cologne, West Germany. 

The album received somewhat mixed reviews from critics and peaked at No. 78 on the U.S. Billboard chart and No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart. Recent reviews of the album have been more uniformly positive and the album has been included on several retrospective "best of" lists from publications including Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and Spin. 

[Spotify] Too Much Paranoias

[Spotify, album] Are We Not Men?  

“Return to Yesterday”, The Lilac Time

This way: Return to Yesterday

The Lilac Time is a British alternative folk-rock band, originally formed in Herefordshire, England by Stephen Duffy, his brother Nick Duffy and their friend Michael Weston in 1986. The band's name was taken from a line in the Nick Drake song "River Man".

The Lilac Time has gone through various line-up changes, with the Duffy brothers as mainstays. The band's activity has intertwined with Stephen Duffy's solo and songwriting career.

The Duffy brothers and Michael Weston recorded music that was first released on Swordfish Records in 1987 and later became the band's self-titled debut. Michael Giri and Fraser Kent joined when the band went on tour. The group signed to Fontana, which reissued the band's first album in remixed form in 1988. The group went on to release the albums Paradise Circus in 1989, and & Love for All in 1990, the latter produced by Andy Partridge and John Leckie.  

[Spotify] Return to Yesterday

“Blood Rushes”, CIVIC

This way: Blood Rushes

Civic are a five-piece Australian rock band, formed in 2017 in Melbourne. The band consists of Jim McCullough, Lewis Hodgson, Roland Hvlaka, Jackson Harry and Matt Blach.

They released their debut studio album Future Forecast in March 2021. The idea for the band formed after Jim McCullough and Darcy Grigg were in a bowling alley in Japan in 2016. In 2017, McCullough and Grigg got together with Roland Hvlaka and Louis Hodgson. Shortly after, David Forcier joined and the band was formed. The bands concept was to "do good rock and roll and not to stuff about with it". 

Late in 2017 the band gathered into a small radio studio to perform a hustling live set on my radio program Teenage Hate. 

[Spotify] Blood Rushes

“Mad Eyed Screamer”, The Creatures

This way: Mad Eyed Screamer

Great Siouxsie side project, no guitars, no pianos, all percussion and vocals. The Creatures were an English band formed in 1981 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and drummer Budgie of the group Siouxsie and the Banshees. The Creatures released their first EP Wild Things in 1981. They recorded four studio albums: Feast in 1983, Boomerang in 1989, Anima Animus in 1999 and Hái! in 2003.

 

With Feast, the band dabbled in exotica. On Boomerang, they added a Spanish-tinged vibe to their music, with elements of flamenco, blues and jazz.[2] In the late 1990s, they developed a more urban sound; The Times then described their music as "adventurous art rock built around Siouxsie's extraordinary voice and drummer Budgie's battery of percussion". In their last work, they returned to their roots while heading east, with an ode to Japanese minimalism. They disbanded in 2005.

[Spotify] Mad Eyed Screamer