I have a Statcounter on my site that only I can view – mostly because I don’t want anyone else to know how few visitors I have – and I’m constantly amazed at the variety of people I get here. While most of you are in the US, it seems that quite a few of you are in Canada (as far north as the Yukon!) Ireland, England, Norway, Lithuania, Croatia, Kuwait, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Brazil and Australia. Its nice to see my unique message of obscure 80s music and random hate-filled ranting is making its way around the world.

Echo & The Bunnymen – Rollercoaster
Echo & The Bunnymen are the patron saints of The Lost Turntable. I’ve featured them three (or four) times already, and have repeatedly declared them to have ‘The Best Band Name Of All Time” (the worst, in case you are curious is a tie between Hoobastank and Hot Tuna). I recently picked up an awesome limited edition version of the single to ‘Lips Like Sugar’ that came in an oversized box and was packaged with awesome postcards! ‘Rollercoaster‘ was the B-side, and since the only version I had of that previously was off of a shitty floppy record, I re-recorded it and am offering it again for you hardcore Bunnymen out there.

Yaz
Situation (The Agressive Attitude Remix)
Situation (Deadline Mix)
Although I had heard ‘Situation’ and ‘Only You’ before, my first real recognition of Yaz was on LCD Soundsystem’s hipster-reference-laden single ‘Losing My Edge” in which James Murphy yells, “I hear you’re buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.“

For some reason I had Yaz mixed up with Yello – and the reference made little sense to me. When I picked up Future Retro, a remix album of 80s tunes, I heard ‘Situation’ again and suddenly it all came together. I didn’t know until today, however, that it was primarily the work of Vince Clarke of Erasure and early Depeche Mode fame. Between all three of these acts I think it can safely be said that synth-pop probably wouldn’t exist without him.

These remixes of ‘Situation’ come off the three-track EP of the same name.

Toyah
IEYA
The Helium Song
Toyah was an post-punk/new-wave band of the early-80s that had some success in the UK, mostly due to the unique look and voice of lead singer Toyah Wilcox. Toyah broke up in the mid-80s and Toyah tried to go solo as Toyah Wilcox, releasing a mediocre pop album that was widely ignored by everyone. Ever since then she’s toured under the name Toyah. So, that’s a little confusing and a lesson to everyone not to name a band after your lead singer, because unless you are the lead singer it’ll probably end up screwing you over later.

Toyah’s known for readers of this blog because of her involvement in Urgh! To people who aren’t unhealthily obsessed with 80s new-wave, Toyah Wilcox is a b-level celebrity who has recently sunk to the level of reality star ‘celebrity’ in the UK – appearing on shows like “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” and “I’m Famous And Frightened!” Considering her penchant for reality TV and her amazingly history of tragically awesome hair and makeup choices, she should seriously consider doing a team-up with Flava Flav.

These two songs were taken of of the IEYA single. IEYA is available on quite a few Toyah greatest hits packages, but ‘The Helium Song’ is a bit harder to find. And after you listen to it you will hear why…it’s an ear-full.

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