Archive for the ‘Endgames’ Category

I’m Koo Koo for Drum Solos

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

Still no reply from anyone on my plea for a German speaker to help me out. Look people, I have this really cool thing I want to write about, but it’s in German. So the sooner I get in contact with someone who can sprechen sie deutsch, the sooner I can make that happen.

Third World
Now That We’ve Found Love (Paul Hardcastle Mix)
Sometimes the artist is the thing I care the least about when buying a strange-looking 12″ single. Take this one for example. The thing about this single that caught my eye more than the song or the artist was the fact that it was remixed by Paul Hardcastle of “19” fame. I’ve always been a big fan of his remix work. Then the second thing that caught my eye was the song. “Now That We’ve Found Love” was originally an O’Jays number, but if you’re like me, you know it as a Heavy D tune. Always liked his version, so seeing that made me curious. Between that and the Hardcastle connection, I grabbed the single right away. Only when I started listening to it did I begin to wonder who the hell Third World are. They’re apparently a reggae band, making them the fourth reggae act (after Bob Marley/Wailers, Jimmy Cliff and Inner Circle) who I can name off hand, so for me to talk anything about them or reggae as a whole would be pretty disingenuous on my part. I like this song though.

The English Beat
Can’t Get Used To Losing You (1983 Remix)
How is this 1983 remix different than the original? Excellent question. I don’t have that one. So if anyone wants to fill me in that would be stellar.

Shelia E
Koo Koo (Remix)
Can we talk for a second about how fucking awesome Shelia E is? She can sing, dance, produce and write music, and of course, drum like a goddamn beast from hell. She’s like Neil Peart, if Neil Peart made good music (oooooooh!).

This is what the world needs; more pop singers who can actually play a damn instrument. I mean, let’s be honest; Beyonce totally has the singing market cornered now. I don’t think there will be a mainstream pop star who will be able to come close to her in terms of pure vocal talent for at least another decade or two. So why not mix it up? I want to see a pop diva who can sing like Madonna and shred like Slash. A star who can wail like Christina and tickle the keys like Rick Wakeman. A vocalist who can break glass with her voice and her crazy bass skills. This needs to happen. Someone get on it already.

Oh yeah, “Koo Koo.” This is a good song. Did I mention I think Shelia E is dope?  Drum solo with glow in the dark drum sticks people!

Endgames
Waiting For Another Chance
Universe
I gaurantee you that The Lost Turntable is the only MP3 blog in history to have written about Endgames three times. The first was when I did a write-up of the obscure   1981 live compilation Live At The ‘101.’ Discovering them on that record led me to purchase the single for their tune “Love Cares,” and now two more tunes, which are from a single I scored at Jerry’s last week.

These tunes are even poppier than “Love Cares,” which was a slight bummer because I was hoping for something more dissonant and dark like the stuff they had on 101. But as upbeat second-tier 80s synthpop goes, you could do a lot worse than this. I’m going to have to cave and actually buy one of their albums someday.

Good Songs By Bands You’ve Never Heard Of (and a cover by Zwan)

Monday, February 13th, 2012

I was in Youngstown, Toledo and Detroit over the weekend and now I am sick. I do not believe this is a coincidence.

Endgames
Love Cares (Extended Version)
Love Cares (Single Edit)
Ready Or Not 
Endgames is on the Live Letters LP I featured a couple weeks back. On that 1981 release, they area  dissonant post-punk act with a decided Joy Division influence. In this single from 1983, they are a mainstream pop act with a decided dance bent. The Endgames of 1981 could have performed on a double-bill with Echo & The Bunnymen. The Endgames of “Love Cares” could have opened for A-Ha. Nice to see that major labels’ dulling of edgy and interesting acts isn’t a new development in any way at all. I still “Love Games” and its b-side, but damn, I would have loved to have heard an album from the Endgames that recorded “Works” and “Visions Of.”

The Hardsonic Bottoms 3
Do It Anyway You Wanna (Extended Version)
Do It Anyway You Wanna (Dub Version)
Do It Anyway You Wanna (Donald Duck Version)
Do It Anyway You Wanna (Night Dub Version) 
I have a lot of questions about this release. First of all, someone has to explain this to me:

The image on the left is the cover to the “Do It Anyway You Wanna” single, originally released in 1988. The image on the right is the cover to Franz Ferdinand’s 2005 album, You Could Have It So Much Better.  I assume they were both inspired by the same source image, but what image is that?

Now that I got that out of the way, I can talk about the song itself. What the hell is this thing? Like I said before, it was released in 1988, but it sounds like some bizarre combination of 90s big beat dance; mid-80s industrial; and late 70s disco. What the hell is it? It is a remix of another song? Who the hell are The Hardsonic Bottoms 3? What the hell do they want you to do (anyway you wanna)? Why is one version called the Donald Duck Version?

What the hell is going on here? I’m so confused! At least the song is fun, even if it can kind of drive you slowly mad with is repetitiveness.

Jigsaw
Sky High
Brand New Love Affair
I have a passion for collecting vinyl soundtracks, and for me, the soundtrack to the 1975 Ozploitation masterpiece The Man From Hong Kong is kind of a holy grail. One day I will find it, and everyone on this blog will know when that happens, because I will post the hell out of it.

So it was a nice surprise to find a 1989 12″ single to “Sky High” by Jigsaw, the theme song to the film. This dance remix of the song isn’t as good as the original version, but it’s still worth a listen. “Brand New Love Affair” is…less worth listening to.

Zwan
Number Of The Beast
Lost Turntable, your only source for Zwan B-sides in 2012. Because…someone has to? Shit I don’t know.

I actually have a lot to say about Zwan, but like Zwan itself, it doesn’t really matter. Enjoy the weird cover. I’m going to go pass out into a pile of blankets.

A 101 on 101 Club

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

I first posted this album eons ago, and it sounded like complete dogshit. In my ongoing effort to redeem myself for my ceramic needle USB-turntable early days, here it is again, re-recorded with decent equipment.

Live Letters – Bands Featured Live at the 101 Club


This is a very interesting record, and I wish I knew more about the people who made it. Apparently the 101 Club was a venue in  South London in the early 80s, but I don’t know for how long, who owned it, or if it was important to any scene or style of music. It’s long gone, and since the Sex Pistols probably never played there, no one seems to care about it today. In addition to being a club, 101 was also a label, putting out recordings of shows performed at the venue.

Of the 101 records I have, Live Letters is the best. It has the perfect combination of bands you probably know with bands you probably don’t, and it also does a great job of showcasing the crossroads of new wave music at the time. In one corner, you have bands like Endgames, who were sticking firmly to the Kraftwerk/David Bowie/Gary Numan ideal of the late 70s. And then in the other you have acts like Wang Chung and The Fixx, who were actively embracing pop music and the conventions of mainstream rock. Then there are bands like Fay Ray, who seem to be trying to do both.

It also has a hysterical back cover full of bizarre little news articles. Click on the pics to read them, and enjoy the tunes.

Wang Chung
You’ve Taken Everything
I Don’t Believe A Word
Journey Without Maps
By far the biggest band in Live Letters is Wang Chung, which were still going by Huang Chung here. In a humorous bit before the first song, one of the members actually tells the audience how to pronounce the band’s name. Here’ s a protip for all you kids out there in bands with wacky names: if you need to tell your fans how to pronounce it, then you should change the name.

None of these songs were ever released on any studio albums by the group, which is a real shame. “You’ve Taken Everything” has a great hook and bridge and “I Don’t Believe A Word’ is late-70s new wave at its best, high intensity and just about two steps away from punk when it gets to the fast-paced chorus (maybe five steps away when you consider the saxaphone). Speaking of the sax, “Journey Without Maps” might have one of the best opening sax melodies of the 80s outside of “Careless Whisper.”

As much as I love me some “Everybody Wang Chung Tonight,” it would have been interesting to have seen more music like this from the group.

Intermission – 101 Records Commercial
A silly faux-commerical for 101 Records

Endgames
Works
Visions Of
Stare 
Endgames never made it. They were an also-ran band in the over-crowded new wave scene of the greater UK/Scotland/Ireland/Wales areas, released two albums, and quickly vanished. However, if their Wikipedia page is accurate (and we all know Wikipedia is always right), they were sampled by Heavy D. Which means they win at life, at least a little bit.

Of all the bands on Live Letters, Endgames is the most stereotypically synthpop. No saxaphones to be found here, just cold, cold keyboards and dark, brooding vocals. These dudes liked David Bowie a lot.

The Fixx
Acrobat
Soho Alley
Eye For Design
Credited as “The Fix” here, this live recording shows a band in transition. “Acrobat” is a semi-experimental tune with some obvious Joy Division influence, while “Eye For Design” is a poppy, fun, upbeat pop tune that could have easily been the B-side to The Fixx’s megahit “One Thing Leads To Another,” and “Soho Alley” is a little bit of both. All are good tunes, but none are “Red Skies” quality.

Intermission – 101 Records Commercial No. 2
Another goofy promo extolling the awesomeness of 101.

Fay Ray
Do What You Want To Do
Dreams of Heart
Modern Lovers
No, not the actress who was in King Kong (that’s Fay Wray). And no, not the Japanese singer Fayray. This is Fay Ray, a new wave band that completely fell off the face of the Earth. I know next to nothing about them, but they did release one album, and if it’s anything like these tracks then I’m totally going to have to track down a copy.  Lead singer Sheila Macartney’s voice is very unique, with an odd wavering aspect that really gives her a feeling of vulnerability and emotion you rarely heard in new wave music at the time. Both “Do What You Want To Do” and “Modern Lovers” have an upbeat feeling that almost give them a 60s British Invasion vibe, while “Dreams of Heat” is a haunting ballad that best shows off Macartney’s stunning vocals. A great way to close the album.