Low Numbers

Low Numbers - Keep In Touch 7", 1979

You know, I've disparaged pop music on this blog before, and melodies. But this one is a real gem in both departments. When I was investigating a lot of UK post-punk music in 2004, this one was especially memorable for me, and I bought the real article recently just so I could post it here. In the book by Vernon Joynson entitled Up Yours! A Guide to UK Punk, New Wave, and early Post Punk, he calls this single part of the mod revival. Okay, well...yeah I guess you could say that. Sure.

It was produced by Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 but honestly I couldn't give a flying crap about Sham 69. I would love to know if Low Numbers ever released anything else. I tried to find this out a few times but came up with nothing. I think there was another (American) band called that from the same time period, though.

Naughtiest Girl Was A Monitor

Naughtiest Girl Was A Monitor - "All I Need" 7" on Dining Out, 1982

Continuing the theme on this blog of posting records on the Dining Out label, here's one from Naughtiest Girl Was A Monitor. Apparently they were from Sheffield if System of Romance's blog is to be believed. They never had an LP issued while they were around, but last year Vinyl On Demand released an LP that contained their their three singles and more. Only problem is if you don't have a turntable you're fucked. :) Anyway, I believe this was the only one of their singles on Dining Out, the other ones were on different labels.

So what is it like? Mellow and synthesizery with vocals. I guess it's fair to say a lot of bands starting using synthesizers in 1980. These folks weren't afraid to pick up the ball and run with it. It's not really synth-pop though, it's too...melancholy for that I think. See what you think. Also...those two red dots on the sleeve - I'm convinced they were put there on purpose because I don't believe they are a stain.

Half Church (again!)

Some of you may recall a record I posted some months back by Half Church. Recently one of the band members left a comment on that post with a corresponding myspace page. Check it out.

Passionate Friends

I have recently discovered this Scottish band and I love them. I'm probably going to post a single of them pretty soon. Shame they never got to release an album. This is a clip from 1983.

Gods Gift (again!)

Gods Gift - 12" EP, 1981

Readers of this blog may remember me mentioning the Manchester post-punk band Gods Gift before, who were on the Buzzcocks' label New Hormones. Well, I have been trading emails with the guitarist, Stephen Murphy, who is a very nice man, and he has graciously given me permission to post this 12" EP. He tells me he is talking with several labels about releasing some Gods Gift material in the future that has remained unreleased all these years. He recently did a fairly lengthy and illuminating interview for a New Hormones website that you can read here. He also tells me that once when they were the support band for Joy Division he thought JD were so amazing he wanted to stop playing altogether!

So how to describe this EP? Well, it's dark and sinister, but in an in-your-face punk kind of way. It's comparable to early stuff by The Fall, real lo-fi like the "Dragnet" album but meaner and darker than that. This is just the kind of stretching-the-envelope post-punk I like. Doing something DIFFERENT and just not giving a fuck. Makes pop music look like nothing. Makes melodies seem unimportant.

I deeply regret that I was not able to successfully scan this record sleeve, either front or back. I tried several times, but alas I just don't think my computer has enough memory to make it work. I am going to get more memory put in my computer soon. The logo you see above is only a small portion of the front sleeve.

Here is a link to my original post about this band.

Native Tongue

Native Tongue - Yowl LP, 1983


This was a band from Boston, Massachusetts called Native Tongue that I think were really cool. It's not hard to see that Gang of Four were their main influence, but they were better than the herky-jerky types you hear nowadays (Franz Ferdinand ugh) and sometimes they even sound like the Fall, as on the infectious track "Ali". I found this record by accident in about 1995 while at the local college radio station. I taped it and had a great time listening to it on the way to class. They had an earlier self-titled EP from 1981 that I will probably post later. They also did the Christmas song "Do You Hear What I Hear" for a compilation of Boston bands entitled "Boston Rock Christmas".

This is their myspace page but as with all myspace pages, the sound is so awfully compressed. Yuck! Myspace is like the plastic of the internet, imho.

New Model Army "The Price" 7", 1984

New Model Army - The Price/1984 7", 1984

I have just ripped a bunch of 7"es for my blog today and this one was quite the treat. I first heard this when I was about 14 years old. Miraculously, someone had played the A-side on the local college radio station, and I was hooked. I tried to get the DJ's there to play it again so I could tape the whole song, but the one I called didn't know who the fuck this band was so he played me something by the New Models instead which I couldn't care less about. Hahah.

Actually, though I did go on to buy some New Model Army LP's, I don't think I actually found my own copy of this single until many years later, probably in 1990 or something.

I see from their discography they had a single out in 1983, too. Sigh...I'd like to hear that.