Presenting Music Dump's A Very Special Video Dump: the greatest Christmas song written in my lifetime. Leave it to the Brits to make a Christmas song that's also a great drinking song.
FEEEEEEEEEEEED THE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLD!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
"Do They Know It's Christmas" Band Aid (1984) [YouTube]
Showing posts with label 80s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 80s. Show all posts
Sep 17, 2007
UNDERRATED: APB
I'm not sure how to describe the band APB. This tight rhythmic trio didn't really fit in with the punk or synth bands of the day, and weren't pop enough to get MTV airplay, so let's just call them "post-punk" with a little funky bass thrown in. Though they hailed from Scotland, they became almost exclusively a greater New York City area cult favorite in the mid 80s, due to heavy radio airplay of their singles in dance clubs and on Long Island's famous 92.7 WLIR. A compilation of their singles was released in 1985 entitled Something To Believe In, and after a good run their popularity probably peaked around 1986 with this show, one of several they headlined at the Ritz in Manhattan.
Ahh, 80s concerts. I couldn't help but watch the kid who dances on stage and yells into the mic near the end of the song, as I regularly rocked that same outfit (acid washed jeans/denim jacket/t-shirt). I actually never saw them play live, and they had called it quits by 1990 having made only 2 albums. I still have my vinyl copy of their singles collection, and recently began to wonder what had happened to them and why their CDs were out of print. As it turns out, not only was the album given a 20th anniversary re-release in 2006, but the band actually reunited after being broken up for 17 years to play a few area shows (and even recorded a third album).
You won't find them on any cheesy "80s new wave" compilation albums or cutesy retro movie soundtracks, and I kind of like that. They were a very underrated band of pecularly local interest (they probably don't have as many fans back in their native Scotland as they do here), so it's interesting to see them back playing again after all this time. I wonder if they can be hired to play at high school reunions . . .
APB - Official Site
APB "What Kind Of Girl?" - Live At The Ritz, NYC, 1986 [YouTube]
Aug 16, 2007
VIDEO DUMP: INXS "DON'T CHANGE" (1982)
This is one of INXS' breakthrough MTV videos, one of the first to make it to the States (after "The One Thing"). I remember the first time I heard of them, when it was announced that they just won a Best New Artist award in Australia. We were shocked because, before this, the only rock band we knew from Down Under was Men at Work. We still didn't know how to pronounce their name (inks?), but they quickly became a favorite with the release of Shabooh Shoobah from whence this song came, almost 25 years ago. This video features the band jumping off a pickup truck and running into our living rooms, literally. It's not much more than a low-budget performance video filmed at a warehouse, but it showed that Michael Hutchence could really move and--wait, why is the keyboard strung up on a rack? This is the 80s, it doesn't have to make sense.
(I just found out that the band formed on August 16, 1977, so this marks their 30th anniversary, of sorts. And while we're talking milestones, happy 50th birthday to guitarist Tim Farris. There, I think that's all I've got.)
I would later play their song "What You Need" on a radio show I guested on in 1985 (WVRM 89.3 FM in Hazlet), for what I believe was the first time ever in the US. That's right, bitches, I premiered it. See, I had just bought a cut-out promo copy of the album Listen Like Thieves, which hadn't even been released yet, at a record store on 8th street in NYC. By the time we went to air I hadn't even heard the whole album, but I knew the groove and the bassline of the leadoff track could not be ignored, and chose that song to play. Later in 1986, it would end up the band's first in a string of Top 10 hits (#5) in the US. I'd like to think that I was a part of that.
INXS was one of the classiest rock bands to come out of the 80s, and their sound still holds up for the most part. I regret that I never saw them play live when Michael Hutchence was still alive (I hear there were always a lot of hot chicks at their shows). I'm going to go watch this and try to forget that whole Rock Star: INXS thing ever happened. (Don't change, my ass.)
INXS "Don't Change" (1982) [YouTube]
(I just found out that the band formed on August 16, 1977, so this marks their 30th anniversary, of sorts. And while we're talking milestones, happy 50th birthday to guitarist Tim Farris. There, I think that's all I've got.)
I would later play their song "What You Need" on a radio show I guested on in 1985 (WVRM 89.3 FM in Hazlet), for what I believe was the first time ever in the US. That's right, bitches, I premiered it. See, I had just bought a cut-out promo copy of the album Listen Like Thieves, which hadn't even been released yet, at a record store on 8th street in NYC. By the time we went to air I hadn't even heard the whole album, but I knew the groove and the bassline of the leadoff track could not be ignored, and chose that song to play. Later in 1986, it would end up the band's first in a string of Top 10 hits (#5) in the US. I'd like to think that I was a part of that.
INXS was one of the classiest rock bands to come out of the 80s, and their sound still holds up for the most part. I regret that I never saw them play live when Michael Hutchence was still alive (I hear there were always a lot of hot chicks at their shows). I'm going to go watch this and try to forget that whole Rock Star: INXS thing ever happened. (Don't change, my ass.)
INXS "Don't Change" (1982) [YouTube]
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