Scarlett O'Hara

This is a fantastic read Screen13! You are a great creative writer and I enjoyed reading it through. I am embarrassed about how little I knew of the artists you mentioned, I am going to check out some of them and see whether I like them. I definitely enjoy some pop. I just recently went through a dream pop phase!

Keep up the good work.

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Gavin B.

Great journal theme. I live less than a mile from Northwest Plaza, a suburban St. Louis mall that finally sputtered out of existence in 2006. When Northwest Plaza opened in 1963, it was the largest mall in the state of Missouri and 27th largest mall in the United States with 210 stores. It was a real showcase for commerce. Back in the those days, people would bring their families to the mall and spend the entire day shopping.

I think online commerce killed a lot of the monster malls, here in the Midwest. Most people have less disposable income and we never fully recovered from the Bush recessions of the early 2000s. Kids stopped hanging out at malls and stayed home, played computer games and began building their network of friends on social websites, instead of going to the mall to meet members of their peer group.

I stopped going to malls because mall shopping became an expensive and time consuming way to purchase things. I purchase nearly everything (except for groceries) on the internet because prices are cheaper, even with the added shipping charges.

With internet commerce, I can sit at home in my pajamas and purchase an item in a matter of 3 minutes, instead of getting dressed, driving in my car to a mall, finding a parking place, trekking to the right mall store, making the purchase, trekking back out to the car, and driving back home... spending 1-2 hours of my time to purchase the same item that I can purchase on an online website in 3 minutes, at a price that's 30% cheaper than the retail price at the mall.

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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

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Thanks to all.

What this is possibly getting at, after a start with focusing on Cut Out albums, are the under-performing albums of a decade swamped with a lot of attempts to introduce New Music and many of them under preforming in The US for many reasons may it be Public Apathy (especially in the Midwest where I grew up in), recent events, a music scene dying with some quality musicians still carrying it on, a lack of promotion by a label not caring (either through getting new management which is more than half the time or ticking off the current staff who forced more than their share of compromises), and even a fan base that decided to call "Sell Out" on a band who decided to take a chance on moving up in the music world (Or as Pink Floyd would say "Welcome to the Machine" - I think the Promotional Fail category should read "Rejected by The Machine" in tribute, more changes soon!)

The best part of going to record stores, even that in Malls when the New Pop thing was happening, was to have the potential to meet fellow travelers even if it was just for a few minutes of your time. Plus, the music was out there in the public despite sometimes having to face a store or a chain that rejected a lot of what was happening.

I think that serious music listeners understandably going to the Internet is a part of the end of an era...but I also say that the industry not listening to the listeners was a major start of the problem back in The 80's as well. If it would have learned the lessons of the early Music Industry and not decide to just turn things into a bunch of Idols and Voices or just go for the low IQ quick $$$, then things would have had a potential to survive, but then considering those who run it I can see where it had to end for the most part.

The 80's, and even the Britpop 90's, was a time when there were some chances made in an era of increasing commerce with some tasty music and places to go to. I'm think that the more I write, this is going to be more in tribute to those who fell by the wayside who at least some good shots at the gold or even some interesting contract obligations.

There's a lot of good music to be heard. I'll try my best here.

Thanks!

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As usual, in the start of every business, there's a lot of changes and tightening up. After thinking things over with a little inspiration from Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" I introduce a new "Genre" or category - Rejected by the Machine.

Through The 80's and Early 90's, The major record companies tried to make the shoe fit by any means possible, but some bands were too unique to fit in with their plans for World Domination that they were rejected after some attempts. "Reject By the Machine" is the story.

...but then again there were some real fails of The 80's!

There were some who outright failed. Right now, I'm looking at my copy of Modern English's first post-4AD album and only Sire (US)/Beggars Banquet (UK) non-compilation release Stop/Start which should have stopped before it hit the pressing plants...I'm dreading the day I revisit this album, but I'm doing it for the readers. These were the bands who went for it by ditching most of their sound, no matter how Pop or Post-Punk it was and just creating a Commercial album for the sake of being Commercial, which usually wind up being the album that hardly gets a mention or gets slammed by the band themselves. Maybe fate had it that the only seriously harshly criticized album by the Comsat Angels by both listeners and band that hardly had any of their unique sound would be instead (by force) by "Dream Command" (I have been hearing it on You Tube...the only thing I can think why it even escaped was "It's either that or face the consequences of breaking the contract") - at least the CS Angels album had some of their great sound in overproduced Jive Records form, Dream Command was so anonymous until you heard the vocals. I wonder who actually bought Dream command's album on release, as I feel that the only copies around are the Promos sent to the stores and College Rock stations.

For the many who were not a right fit for "The Machine", they soldiered on in an attempt to get their music heard with the usual compromise but with their sound intact although with many jeers from the fans who were there at the start. Sometimes you will read the musicians slam these attempts, and understandably so, but in time the good in those recordings occasionally stand out that serious listeners defend them with honest opinions that are sometimes blunt but out of love and the knowledge of how the industry was at the time and the fact that some were too special or unique for the growing Machine of The 80's.

Aaaah, Ch-ch-ch-CHANGES!

Still in development, but already with a good ground floor in progress. The Ghost Mall Music Building's progress is doing fine!

Zer0

Great journal so far. I find ghost malls/dead malls (or shopping centres as we call them on this side of the pond) curiously fascinating myself as there's one near where I live. It was the original shopping centre in my town, built in the mid-70's, and was the place to do your weekly groceries, buy clothes and CDs etc. I have the memory of buying my first few albums there as well as helping my mum do the weekly groceries as a kid. In the past fifteen years two bigger and better shopping centres opened in my town and resulted in it's slow decline well into the 00's. At the moment it only has one tenant; a small Polish supermarket at the very front of the building. The actual mall itself has been closed off to the public for about two years now and the shutters are showing no sign of re-opening any time soon.

Regarding The Comsat Angels I downloaded their first album Waiting For a Miracle lately as part of my current post-punk kick. A very enjoyable album with a nice downbeat mood to it. I'll definitely check out their second and third albums.

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Gavin B.

During the Eighties when I was a student in Cambridge Massachusetts, I'd spend hours browsing the cut-out and used records bins of Cambridge and Boston's many second hand record shops. Harvard Square had 3 or 4 second hand record stores and Kenmore Square in Boston had 5 different second hand music stores at it's peak. None of those second hand stores are still around because the internet pretty much killed the business of music resellers.

I miss the second shops. I discovered the music exotic music of bands like Stereolab, the Cocteau Twins, and Pere Ubu in the $2.99 used and cut-out bins during my shopping expeditions to second hand stores in the late Eighties and early Nineties.

There's still a single surviving second hand shop left in the St. Louis metropolitan area called Vintage Vinyl, which has been around since the Seventies. The owner tells me business is good and it's probably because Vintage Vinyl is the last surviving retailer of new, used and cut-out records and cds in the St. Louis area. With the exception of Vintage Vinyl, there's no such thing as a retail record store in St. Louis anymore.

All of national and local chain retailers went out business in St. Louis by the mid 2000s because of lost sales to internet retailers and the permanent economic recession that has haunted the Midwestern states since the Bush administration. I always thought the rise of Napster and digital music would result in the downfall of the monster record companies, but as it turns out, the digital revolution resulted in the economic downfall of the humble music store retailer who sat at the bottom rung of the music industry food chain.

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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt

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Yes!

Sleep No More was the album that really generated a lot of interest, but it was reported that Polydor slacked in getting more copies into the stores (Hummm...just thinking, but you know how things were with labels and anything that was not part of the established music). Maybe if Polydor would not have dropped the ball with that album, maybe they would have had more momentum enough not to have tried to find a way to go with a more commercial sound. As the liners of 7 Day Weekend also stated..."We had a stretch of good luck, which rapidly turned to bad (and a whole cataloge of woe)", making me wonder how their relationship with Polydor actually was through the early years and if the A&R man who signed them to that 3 album deal was still with the company by 1982 (Things usually run that way for a lot of bands).

More on that change of labels is in this linked interview (and also elsewhere on this great fan site...I just wanted to go to the time and place just to keep the memories going.

The Comsat Angels

An entry on Sleep No More is here mentioning the Distribution problem (from the re-issue liner notes)

Sleep No More (The Comsat Angels album) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

To be fair to their move to Jive, along with my like of several of their songs from that era posted here, it actually introduced some in The States that did not have a short drive to a well stocked and hip record store and relying on the malls who were interested as the first three had to be found in the Import bins Stateside.

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GHOST MALL MUSIC SPECIAL OVERVIEW - NOTABLE ALBUMS IN THE BUBBLING UNDER CHART, 1982

First the Dark Side to this tale...

Being a kid into the New Pop was going to be a tough ride in the Midwest before MTV actually made it across the US, and by then it was really all over with. You heard the girls laugh out loud over the looks of Adam Ant in his Prince Charming stage before he went into his more marketable Friend Or Foe "Goody Two Shoes" era; You rave about the Jam, but you always get those "Never heard of them" or "We already have The Who" remarks from others; You don't even try to convince that early OMD and Gary Numan are worthy to your friends - of course, you will always get those who will say "Well, I kind of like it now. I just did not get it then" remarks a couple of decades down the line.

As for those Hardcore records you had to sneak through the house door and hide from your parents...don't mention them or they will think you were like one of those characters on that CHiPs episode they saw or that Quincy show with the legendary song "Choke". You knew that Eric Estrada singing "Celebration" was your idea of something you would rather kill yourself before hearing. Yes, there were a few mall stores that had Dead Kennedys albums - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables was actually connected to IRS Records and even went into that Bubbling Under chart! FACT!

You knew you were not alone, but in a way that next person was possibly some miles away from you.

As Creem Magazine said as early as 1970, The New Waves don't hit the Midwest, and that was another era and another music!


Now for the good side to the story...

If you lived in an era where you had a good library to go to (I actually did. Joy Division's Closer and Simple Minds' New Gold Dream were waiting for me to check out!) or a good music store in a mall that had at least someone getting those hip new albums of the day, it was possible to shut yourself away from the rest of them. Hell, if you knew of that great Sunday Night Alternative Show, it was possible to get a taste of what was going on, tape it, then hear it over and over again until the next show or until the next shopping trip.

For some reason, even in an era where it seemed that there was a lot of New Music going on, there was a lot that got swept under the rug. For some reason, may it be part of that New Romantic scene that never caught on in The US or that great American Punk scene that was too real for the Mainstream for two examples, there would be those albums that never got noticed. Still, music geeks of the day were reading the Billboard at their local Library and checking out that hidden part of the chart called the Bubbling Under section - #101-110 for the singles, #201-210 for the Albums. All serious music fans checked them out or at least told about them to the few who would listen.

1982 had quite a few of these examples! Never mind that in the UK, they would usually just be part of it's Pop Scene, but you know what I mean here.

JAPAN (Collection) - US Peak #204
Those in The UK and Europe already knew that Japan were never going to be big in the US. Top 40 avoided them and the Alternative Rock shows also shoved them off unless it was one that took a few chances. This compilation of songs from the two great later period albums, Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum, was a mix of their great and very subtle sounds that gained them worldwide acclaim...except from The US. Nothing to dance or Rock out to, no videos that featured them bopping around or on yachts or surrounded by neon colors, this was some serious stuff which has had it's share of critics worldwide ("Pretentious" was a word used a lot I think) but was not even interesting to most of the American audience it seemed, although after the fact and with David Sylvian and Mick Karn going into respected solo careers several people got into their music to establish a small cult.

Still, I give Epic some points for trying to get the music out to a very quiet audience.

"Gentlemen..." lasts about 7 Minutes on The LP, I just wanted to post the promo video.



...PS, I remember "Taking Islands in Africa" being used in an Alternative Clothing Store Radio Ad in Detroit! I'm trying to remember which one, though...


VISAGE - The Anvil - US Peak #204
Club Kids and serious Synth fans were all into Visage thanks to the classic "Fade to Grey", but when it came to the rest of The US...you knew what happened. At least "The Damned Don't Cry" was a small Club hit. Somehow, you can see where they did not connect to a US audience...but there were those who said yes to this. Sadly, this was the last of the classic Visage lineup featuring Steve Strange plus other great names of the New Pop like Midge Ure of Ultravox, but it was one hell of a way to wrap up the best era.





DAVID BOWIE - Baal - US Peak #204 (yet again!)
Not being a full album, and one that was more Dramatic in nature, this was going to be looked over by his Pop fans. Actually an interesting diversion, and seriously more listenable than Let's Dance. Also in '82, the soundtrack to Christine F went to #135 on the strength of his better known songs, and there was also the Cat People soundtrack with the small hit title song single. The serious US Bowie fans, however, also went for this, his final RCA recording.

#29 on the UK Single chart, though!




ROBERT GORDON - Too Fast to Live - US Peak #208
Moving away from the New Romantics, here's something that connected with the growing interest in Rockabilly and 50's style American music by one of the best, who recorded with 50's legend Link Wray on occasion! A great compilation, but sadly his style was a little too real for those who wanted the MTV ready style of Stray Cats. Not to dis the Cats, but you know where I'm going with this. He's best known for covering Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" and Marshall Crenshaw's "Someday Someway", but there's a lot more to his music.

C/O bin watchers will remember a lot of his albums in those bins, especially the ones released through Private Stock in the 70's.






BOOMTOWN RATS - V Deep - US Peak #202
The ill fated album that seriously marked the downward slide for the once strong band who only two years before had a massive hit with "I Don't Like Mondays". Still they promoted it pretty good with an appearance on SCTV, the cult show of the time, although the video here is featuring a song from their previous album Mondo Bongo although it remains one of the highlights of both the show and the band. Featuring the dramatic "Never in a Million Years", which I tried to get an SCTV clip of, this just fell by the wayside, although you could say that the single's video was not that great - you know what the video age could do to someone with that kind of fate especially in a time when MTV was picking up steam.





Damn, the Mall is closing right now, and you only have a couple of seconds to make that choice! Between these albums, you knew that you had something pretty damn cool. More later!

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BUBBLING UNDER IN '81 - QUICK LOOKS AT SOME ALBUMS, THE IRS RECORDS CHAPTER

Back again for another round of albums that ALMOST made the Top 200, but sadly never found the break they deserved.

DEAD KENNEDYS - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - US Peak #208
"Wait! Did I read this right, or is last night's refreshment creeping up on me?" You actually read it right, this actually was mentioned in Billboard's Bubbling Under section! Two weeks, yes, but still showing that somebody somewhere actually bought this Hardcore classic at stores that sent sales details to the mighty BB, and I don't think they were faked either, but I'm sure most of those reports were from California, where I'm sure their home state fans bought this like crazy when it was released.

Here's the Biz for you...

Interestingly, the band got linked up with IRS Records and had some help with their debut album, but it was not as simple as that. Originally, it was released as SP 70014 on the US Division of the Faulty Products imprint, a division of the legendary label formed after IRS' main Distributor A&M stated out loud that they were not going to have another Punk controversy in their history, this time generating from home ground...although the label did state A&Ms address. After Faulty went out of business, REM's album Murmur took up that number. The sub-label was help to some of the Kennedys' recordings released through Alternative Tentacles, but also had a very small roster that included Circle Jerks (Wild In the Streets), Steve Diggle (Ex-Buzzcocks), The Fall, The Anti-Nowhere League and even The Bangles' first EP.

With performances like this, you could see the wild reaction that they inspired in their fans when it came to collecting their recordings. From the legendary Public Access show New Wave Theater, including performances that were collected by the early days of Rhino Home Video...



You may be familiar with this, but maybe not where it came from. Possibly still the #1 in Bat Country!



For more on Faulty...
Mr Bill's I.R.S. Corner: Faulty Products Discography


TOM ROBINSON - Sector 27 - US Peak #209
Another IRS album, this time on the main label in it's Pre-Go Gos era, here's the Punk Era legend in another band, entering The 80's. With Robinson are Jo Burt (B/V), Stevie B. (G/V), and Derek Quinton (D). Actually charted the same week as The Kennedys!




IRS' GREATEST HITS PARTS 2 and 3 - US Peak #201
URGH!!! Screamed IRS Records as it clawed it's way up the US charts, slowly but sure! Before The Go Gos showed the label to Pop, there was a lot of interesting activity going on including a show that was going to be on MTV later that year called The Cutting Edge. This was a preview of things to come!

Say hello to The Fleshtones! Hear The Damned, who's Black Album was already making some waves. Check out Brian James, Alternative TV, The Cramps, The Stranglers, John Cale, Jools Holland, The Fall, and many more. In this set there's also some band called The Police with the a side to their first record, maybe you heard of them too, possibly... (ha ha).

Aah, the early days of IRS. Once they crossed over, it was never to be the same again. True they still had some great music, but you know what I mean.

Here's The Police's track on that double vinyl compilation which should be of interest to some....more is to come very shortly, with a couple of more selections from that album.

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MORE MORE MORE From the IRS Greatest Hits Part 2 and 3 plus some Two Tone Bubbles and Motorhead

First, here's more selections from that famed compilation, more to my taste!







Now to continue on with the action that many people missed out
on, but those in the hip (or wanting to be hip) were digging into during '81.

In The US, there was a very small but devoted following for things Two Tone Records and related, and believe it or not, two albums charted in the Bubbling Under section on the same week! I'm sure that after the appearance of The Specials on the 4'th season of Saturday Night Live, a lot of Alternative Music fans in The US were seriously interested in finding out about the scene. Although many possibly did not know what was happening on the home turf with the manic following and the problems that led to it's quick downfall, the US fans knew that 2 Tone meant quality even things got experimental (More Specials) or Moody (some of the 1981 music) by the end of it's glory days.

DANCE CRAZE Soundtrack - US Peak #202
THE SELECTER - Celebrate the Bullet - US Peak #201

Around the time The UK was seriously all into The Specials' classic "Ghost Town", the Two Tone scene was starting to fade into Pop History. Still, it had one great film that captured the peak of the moment in Dance Craze, Directed by Joe Massot who also Directed Wonderwall and parts of The Led Zep flick The Song Remains the Same before being removed from the production and featuring a serious amount of great bands.

The album would be a prime place to check out The Specials, The Beat (aka the English Beat in the US), Bad Manners, Madness, The Selecter, and The Bodysnatchers. It was almost like a serious Best Of until X-Mas 1983 brought us the classic This Are Two Tone collection.



The Selecter's second album, released on Chrysalis instead of 2 Tone (who they left in 1980) may not have been something for the party as their debut, Too Much Pressure, but it showcased their talents very well. Pauline Black's vocals are still class, although she will leave the band soon after this album's release with their last (pre-reunion, of course) show being at Bonds in New York, the famed place where The Clash would play on 28 May-5 June before The Selecter would take the stage on 17 June - and around that time The Special's "Ghost Town" will take it's place in The UK Top 10.






As for the Selecter, many listeners would be underwhelmed by the lack of something of 2 Tone Ska classics like "Three Minute Hero", as it would also under perform in The UK to #41, but it has a following today. Actually, the title track and "Cool Blue Lady" sound alright to my ears.


MOTORHEAD - No Sleep Till Hammersmith - US Peak #204

You read right...US #204. Earlier in '81, Ace of Spades, one of the ultimate Motorhead studio albums would make #201 in The US.

Many Americans sick of the Commercial Album Rock had to find out for themselves what the rest of the world was raving about, and Ace of Spades and No Sleep... already had a fanatical cult from the first time anyone would hear them. This was a hard hitting classic of pure Motorhead recorded in their element, LIVE. Recorded March 28-30, 1981, this set would be among the albums that would help spark the beginnings of a harder Metal in the US later in the decade. I think that their first US appearances (as support for Ozzy Osbourne/Blizzard of Ozz?) would be soon after the recording of these legendary shows, and the word spread like wildfire. I'm sure a lot of clerks at mainstream US records stores were wondering what was this band about in a way that Video Stores had those wondering why people were renting titles like Satan's Sadists, Nightmare, Psychomania, and Phantasm.

#1 in The UK...#204 in The US, but the influence would be far greater than any number on a chart.





Store's closing for the night, make your selection! I would suggest Motorhead, but those wanting the Alternative might like the IRS collection or even Dance Craze.