Lost in the '80s Blog - Bands on tour
Bloggers! Get our widget and automatically tell readers about these shows.-
Lost In The '80s Lives On Both Here & At Popdose.com!
Artists mentioned:After three years and hundreds of posts, Lost In The '80s as a site goes into "syndication," as it will now re-present every original post, in order, complete with reposted files, once a week. That's all well and good, but what about the new/old stuff? I'm proud to announce that...(read full post)
-
"life was so simple then/a kind of playtime/you made it easy then/we had a great time"
Artists mentioned:Like many a budding homo, I was quite the little fashion plate in high school. Yes, that's me with the grey pleather pants, white nylon vest, white leather skinny tie and man perm.I won the Senior Class Superlative for "Biggest Individualist", which we all know was code for "Biggest Punk...(read full post)
-
"down in alabama they like home-cooked fare, yeah! / so we're gonna strap you to the frying chair"
Artists mentioned:Joe Strummer was not a very popular guy when 1986 rolled around. The year previous, he, alongside a new crew of imposters, had taken a nice healthy dump all over the Clash name by releasing the “final” Clash album, “Cut the Crap”, picking a name that filled critics with glee,...(read full post)
-
"it's raining / my sisters why can't we realize / that it won't be long?"
Artists mentioned:“Contentious” is probably the word I’m looking for to describe the recording of the third (and at the time – har har – final) album from The Time. While “Ice Cream Castle” (the album is strangely singular while the single, “Ice Cream Castles” is plural – hey, it’s Prince, let...(read full post)
-
"And I've just about had enough of the sunshine, hey!"
Artists mentioned:In a nice bit of blog synergy, it seems everyone is talking about blue-eyed soul…which leads me to one of the sadder stories of the also-rans (at least in the States) in this genre – Dr. Robert and the Blow Monkeys.First off, that name. Is it a coke reference? A...(read full post)
-
"Curling smoke climbs upward slowly past my troubling face..."
Artists mentioned:Talk about DIY – when club promoter and all-around Paris-Hilton-famous-for-merely-being-famous trailblazer Steven Strange didn’t like that there weren’t enough good songs to play on his club night, he grabbed some friends, some synths and made his own.Under the name Visage, Strange, alongside a few former Magazine members and a couple...(read full post)
-
"Superman had come to town to see who he could rock /He blew away every crew he faced until he reached the block"
Artists mentioned:Newcleus had been bouncing around the early hip-hop/breakdancing scene since 1977 when they were part of a DJ crew calling itself Jam On Productions, but it wasn’t until 1983 and a chance encounter with a sped-up tape machine that they stumbled upon a hit.While many members came and went, the,...(read full post)
-
"there's a future here, there's a future there / just pick it up right out of the air"
Artists mentioned:1986...small town Ohio Elyria West High School's Senior Prom! A date with my "best girlfriend" (uh huh)! And the song that reminds me most of this occassion?"Say you, Say Me?""I Miss You" by Klymaxx?"Broken Wings?""Greatest Love of All?"Nope. Try the Woodentops' "Give It Time."Huh?Let me explain...our senior prom was awful...(read full post)
-
"keep up the good love for Chaka..."
Artists mentioned:You got your Chaka Khan in my Scritti Politti! Well, you got your Scritti Politti in my Chaka Khan!Mmmm…hey! This is pretty good!Chaka Khan was cooling off in 1986 after a major hot streak. Coming off a huge smash cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You”, she was back in...(read full post)
-
"Girl Fight Tonight! / blood and mascara will run / we’ll see how long your tan lines last / when you’re in a body cast!"
Artists mentioned:While MTV has launched many a career, it could be argued that Julie Brown (the white one, as she called herself) was the network’s first home-grown superstar. By the time MTV was thru with her (or she was thru with MTV), Brown was a triple threat – a recording artist,...(read full post)
-
"my eyes look so heavy / i'm feeling in the past tense, i'm hardly aware"
Artists mentioned:Cut from the Loverboy mold of rocking gently and non-offensively (which sounds like an insult, I realize, but isn’t really), Niagra Falls, Canada’s Honeymoon Suite (get it? GET IT?!?) got their big break when their self-produced single “New Girl Now” won a radio contest, attracting the attention of Warner Brothers...(read full post)
-
“and if I can’t get an angel / I can still get a boy / and a boy would be the next best thing to an angel…”
Artists mentioned:Goofy lyrics? Overwrought production? Histrionic vocals? Undeniable hooks?Yes, we’re talkin’ Jim Steinman today, kids.Would you really be surprised if I told you the writer/producer of such irresistibly schlocky classics like Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” album and Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” started out writing musical theater?...(read full post)
-
"pilot of the airwaves / here is my request..."
Artists mentioned:Ah, Charlie Dore’s ode to calling the DJ request line. Every ‘80s child has been there, hanging on the phone, waiting for that busy signal to stop, finally getting it to ring, then sitting there waiting for the DJ to answer so you can make that request. Sigh. Well, Charlie...(read full post)
-
"always someone left out in the rain / it's always the same..."
Artists mentioned:Turn on any local “Hits of the ‘80s, ‘90s and Today!” radio station, and within an hour, I guarantee you will hear either of Naked Eyes’ big hits, “Promises, Promises” or “Always Something There to Remind Me”. While “Always…” was a cover, there are two entire generations who are completely...(read full post)
-
"distant lands I love so far away / I don't know why we don't go"
Artists mentioned:Another Lost in the ‘80s oddity…there’s not much biographical info or background floating around about The Other Ones, a Scandinavian-ish group who put out a single, self-titled album in 1987, and had a good-sized hit with “Holiday,” most definitely not the Madonna song.I came across “Holiday” and the actual first...(read full post)
-
"Boys Do Fall in Love"
Artists mentioned:Mirage Records, a tiny little label with major distribution, was on fire in 1984. The label scored a few high-profile dance chart hits, but ended up getting their most notable hit of the year from an unlikely source…a solo Bee Gee.And not even the hot one.Robin Gibb had a previous...(read full post)
-
"...you don't know, you better hang with me!"
Artists mentioned:I love remembering songs that are perfect for "Lost in the '80s", and Nolan Thomas' "Yo Little Brother" is so lost and forgotten, it's nearly sublime.This is another of those tunes that everyone seems to remember, but wasn't much of a chart hit. "Yo Little Brother" was one of the...(read full post)
