New podcast: 1987's one-hit wonders

After our earlier sneak peek at the show, we've finally unveiled the new podcast: the one-hit wonders of '87. It's 40 minutes of pure musical torture, if you ask me. Clearly, the 80s jumped the shark musically sometime during this particular year.

Times pop music critic Sean Daly thinks it's our "Mr. Holland's Opus." By that, I guess he means we'd lose out on any awards to Nicolas Cage. He's just very, very excited and he has no idea what he did or said in the actual show. In fact, I secretly saved our electronic conversation at the moment I uploaded the show. Here it is:

SD: Did you do it? Huh? Did you do it yet? Now? Now? .... Now?

SS: Hang on, my friend. Unless you want to learn to do this, stop massaging my thighs and let me finish.

SD: I thought those were pillows. Seriously, dude, you have smooth thighs.

SS: Isn't there a potential female co-host somewhere you can be drooling over.

SD: Um, yeah. And isn't there some e-mail from Marissa you could answering in the time it takes you to do a simple upload?

SS: Touche.

So there you have it. Click here to download the show or click here to download all our shows for free via iTunes. As always we appreciate your feedback in the form of comments, e-mails and cheese danish.

Comments

[Marissa]

Heyyyy...how'd I get mixed up in this? So, I send a couple emails here and there. You know you love it. I can tell by the way you never respond. ha!

This podcast proves the level of difficulty involved in bleeping Sean's use of expletives.

[Mike in Austin]

Pseudo Echo: One hit wonder! Don't think so. SD is right! Not a one hit wonder.

[Mike in Austin]

Pseudo Echo: One hit wonder! Don't think so. SD is right! Not a one hit wonder.

[Douglas Arthur]

I had something to add, but after some fact checking I discovered that the album in question was released in '85 and therefore wouldn't qualify for "87...but I still think it is damn worthy of inclusion somewhere...maybe the Shoulda been Contenders post....but I am too lazy to scroll back tonight. It is 7 degrees and I am snuggled up warm and cozy inside.
I don't think anyone has mentioned yet, Shreikback. They had a couple of minor "hits" with Everything that Rises Must Converge and Nemesis (which to my knowledge is the only song to ever feature the word 'parthenogenesis"..and do it in the chorus no less!) The band featured Barry Andrews who had played with XTC and also Robert Fripp's non-King Crimson band, The League Of Gentlemen.

Quite a crazy mix of sounds, all to a thumping dance beat!
Joe Bob says, check it out!

[Jeff in Cuba]

Doug,

It just so happens I played "Nemesis" on the radio today. Weird. Sean may be right; there may be some sort of psychic connection within the 80's nation.

Every now or then I'll also play "Malaria" or "Fish Below The Ice"

[Jeff in Cuba]

I'm not sure this is the best podcast in the bunch, but it is surely the most sausage-hanging, Spandau-bashing one ever!

And I'm man enough to embrace my inexplicable fondness of Swing Out Sister, even if it means enduring some slings and arrows. Believe me, Steve & Sean's jibes are nothing compared to the heat my wife has been giving me about this song for years!

[Marissa]

I agree with you, Jeff. This was very, uhm, full of kielbasa and smokey links.

From this point on, whenever I hear the word 'hover' I'll blank out and get an uncomfortable vision...followed by laughter.

Hearing Steve squeal in the background when the "Fascinated" clip is played is worth its weight in gold. "IT BURNS! IT BURNS!" Gotta love that

[Spears]

Trust me, we knew it was sausage-heavy when we recorded it. I wasn't sure how well all the squealing and such would come across. There's an extended scene where I keep going nuts about T'Pau and making more sound effects and stranger voices, but in the light of day, it didn't seem funny, so I trimmed it down to a few brief seconds.

I believe Sean went into a little more detail on the Dance of the Seven Buttons, but it found its way onto the cutting room floor as well. We'll save the complete story for a future show.

[Douglas Arthur]

I think I was confused about the year because 1987 was the year I first heard Nemesis. I had just moved off campus for the first time, and my roommate Brian introduced me to a lot of cool music. He also turned me on to the virtues of CFNY 102.1FM out of Toronto. To this day still my favorite radio station ever (though I haven't listened to it since I moved from Buffalo back in '99.) Shreikback was in pretty heavy rotation back then as I recall.

[Jeff in Cuba]

My brother turned me on to Shriekback in 1985 when they released "Oil & Gold". Their previous stuff was very brooding and "Bauhaus-y", which is what my brother was into at the time. When he relaized they had gone into a driving dancebeat direction, he passed the album to me.

As a side note, my brother has always been a good source of "new music" ideas. He's currently a concert promoter in Chad, and is now turning me on to Central African reggae.

[David P]

"He's currently a concert promoter in Chad."

Wow, *there's* a career my high school guidance counselor failed to tell me about!

Just kidding with you, J.I.C. And I'm with you on "Breakout." That is a really good tune, regardless of what Daly thinks.

Does anybody remember the band Curiosity Killed the Cat? They had a song called "Misfit" that (I think) sounded kind of like "The Honeythief" if I recall correctly...

[Bassnote]

I first heard 'Nemesis' at an under 21 dance club (anybody remember those) in the Chicago suburbs I used to go to with my friends. The song hooked my immediately, and I ran out and bought 'Oil & Gold'.

[Bassnote]

Mike, I'm with you on Pseudo Echo. I loved the album 'Love An Adventure'. 'Living In A Dream' was a much better single than 'Funky Town'.

[Marissa]

YIKES! I made a faux pas! It was "She's Like the Wind" where Steve goes berserk making crazy, sucking wind, painful, Carl the groundskeeper sounds. I slipped up, and I apologize to the 80s nation. My head hangs in shame. Forgive me.

[Jeff in Cuba]

Bassnote,

Colorado didn't change its drinking age to 21 until 1983. Before that, they allowed 18-year-olds to drink "three-two beer", or beer that was no more than 3.2% alcohol. A three-two was about halfway between an O'Doul's and a Coors Light.

There were some notorious "three-two clubs" where the 18-20 crowd would gather (under 18 couldn't get in, and over 20 wouldn't be caught dead there). "Thirsty's" in Denver had frequent "drown nights" where your cover charge bought you all the beer you could drink. You might think that would lead to some serious behaviour problems, but drinking enough three-two to get drunk would lead you to one plave and one place only: the men's room.

My lasting image of Thirsty's is their massive men's room, with guys packed shoulder to shoulder along 30-foot trough urinals, guzzling beer straight from the pitcher while they relieved themselves.

[Marissa]

I spent my 19th birthday in Boulder, CO. My friend Tommy and I were driving cross-country in his bright green Datsun B210. He was moving to Santa Barbara, CA to attend photography school.
My eldest brother lived in Boulder. We made a 5 day stop there so I could celebrate my birthday with a bang. I was so excited to legitimately go to a 'bar'; a 3.2 bar. My brother, who is 15 years older, made a huge sacrifice to take us there.
I'm not a beer drinker. So, needless to say the evening didn't turn out quite the way we'd intended ... but the roadtrip with a best friend was stupendously awesome!

[Jeff in Cuba]

3.2 bar in Boulder? Let me guess....

Was it "The Sink"?

[Marissa]

I can't remember the name of the place. I just know my brother and friend were miserable there, but smiled through it all for my benefit. I hoped to find a cute boy to dance with, but that never happened.

[Jeff in Cuba]

Believe me, all the cute boys were either in line to get beer or in line to take a leak. That was persistent rhythm of the 3.2 club and it left very little time for dancing.

[Bassnote]

Drinking age has always been 21 in Illinois. If we wanted to drink legally we went north to Wisconsin. The under 21 clubs were alcohol free (except what you could slam down in the parking lot). We actually did just go there to hang out and dance.

[Marissa]

I recall making a few trips to Lake Geneva, WI. I think the drinking age must have been 19 at the time because drinking was definitely part of the night IN the club. Our primary goal was to just dance until we were far too sweaty to be appealing to any man in the place. We'd bail before last call to save ourselves from that "lights on" shock.

[Jeff in Cuba]

The drinking age in Wyoming was only 19, and there was a drive-thru liquor store right at the border. It was next door to one of the nastiest bar/strip joints I've ever seen.

It was the kind of place where you'd slip the dancers a couple of bucks to put some clothes on so you could finish your drink without throwing up in your mouth.

[Marissa]

Ewww haha that's some funny stuff, Jeff.

[Christine]

Good news (or not), T'Pau is touring... Regardless, an interesting article on nostalgia tours from the Guardian:

http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2234035,00.html