Post-Punk / New Wave

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Spectre_Is_Haunting_Europe wrote:A Spectre Is Haunting Europe formed in 2002, during the height of Vancouver's post-punk revival, and were initially billed as Decora. The band's activity was intermittent for the first two years, due mainly to lineup changes and the band's cross-membership with electropunk outfit Alunared (usually spelled aLUnARED). The name refers to the first sentence of The Communist Manifesto.

It was not until 2004 that the band found a niche with its brand of politicized post-punk and subsequently changed its name to A Spectre Is Haunting Europe. Their first album, Astonishing Tales of the Sea, was released that year. Through a succession of different drummers, the band stretched this material in a few different directions at once, culminating in a caustic 2004 appearance at the Drop Dead Festival in New York City. In early 2006, former Skinny Puppy member Phil Western joined the group as drummer.

With their 2006 album, Flames, the band broadened their audience to include a more general indie rock audience. Their recordings have been reviewed extensively in music media.

In 2008 the band released its third album (Embers) as a creative commons free digital release.

http://www.last.fm/music/Plain+Characters wrote:
Plain Characters was a post punk/new wave band from the UK active during the late 70s through the early 80s. The group was comprised of Colin Lloyd-Tucker (vocals), Paul Hohnstone (guitar), John Hyde (bass, keyboards) and Tim Broughton (Percussion). They released 3 singles and an LP between the years of 1977-1981

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIIV wrote:DIIV is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York City. Formed in 2011, DIIV started as Zachary Cole Smith's solo recording project. After releasing three singles - "Sometime", "Human", and "Geist" - on the Captured Tracks label, DIIV released its debut full-length album, Oshin, on June 26, 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_More_%28band%29 wrote:No More were founded by Andy A. Schwarz (vocals, guitar, bass), Tina Sanudakura (synthesizers), Christian Darc (drums, vocals) and Thomas Welz (bass, vocals) in Kiel, a seaside town in the northern part of Germany. The 7" EP "Too Late" was the first release in 1980 and was recorded in a small laundry-room with a 4-track TEAC (the EP was reviewed in the German SOUNDS-magazine as "strangely, archaic music, brute sound that seems to be recorded with a purposely damaged 4-track"). After the departure of Thomas Welz at the end of 1980, No More worked as a trio until the end of 1983.

The song "Suicide Commando" (released in 1981 and not to be confused with the Belgian band Suicide Commando, who named themselves after that song) is the band's biggest success. The New Musical Express described "Suicide Commando" as "suitable German electro fashion" but the song spread in the following years internationally regardless of genre and scene. In the 1990s the song entered the Techno- and Electroscene, when it was remixed by DJ Hell and Echopark (Moguai & Torsten Stenzel).

In 1982 No More released the mini-LP "A Rose Is A Rose" this time reviewed by the NME as "made by a trio of young Germans who appear to have fallen out of Lou Reed´s 'Berlin' album". After the release of "A Rose Is A Rose" No More decided to change direction. The new style was a mixture of darkwave and oriental elements.

In 1984 Thorsten Hartung (bass) joined the band. In the slipstream of the "Suicide Commando" success No More started to tour Germany and the Netherlands but soon refuse to play the song. No More decided to go separate ways at the end of 1986, shortly after finishing their album "Hysteria". Tina Sanudakura und Andy A. Schwarz form the band Nijinsky Style.

In 2006 No More (condensed in the duo Tina Sanudakura and Andy A. Schwarz) release a new album called "Remake/Remodel". At the end of 2008 they start touring again and in January 2010 the single "Sunday Mitternacht / A Rose Is A Rose" is released. The album "Midnight People & Lo-Life Stars" was released in March 2010, followed by the 2012 album "Sisyphus".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lorry_Yellow_Lorry wrote:The band was formed by guitarist/songwriter Chris Reed and vocalist Mark Sweeney, along with bassist Steve Smith and drummer Mick Brown (who would later join The Mission). Sweeney left the band in late 1981 and Reed permanently took over as vocalist, with Martin Fagan joining as a second guitarist. The group's sound, featuring a numbing guitar drone, powerfully throbbing bass, pounding drum machine, and Reed's cavernous vocal tones, caused the Lorries (as their fans came to call them) to be quickly lumped into the then-developing gothic rock scene by pop journalists, although the band themselves denied they were ever associated with goth and preferred to cite Wire as an influence, and said they "were primarily inspired by MC5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria! wrote:Malaria! was an experimental electronic band from Berlin formed in 1981 by Gudrun Gut[1] and Bettina Köster following the dissolution of Mania D with Karin Luner, Eva Gossling later Die Krupps and Beate Bartel (of Liaisons Dangereuses). Other members included Manon P. Duursma, Christine Hahn, and Susanne Kuhnke (also a member of Die Haut).[2] They are most often associated with Neue Deutsche Welle and post-punk.

Malaria!'s most popular record was New York Passage, which was top 10 in both U.S. and European independent charts and led to a tour with The Birthday Party, John Cale, and Nina Hagen.

There are videos for the songs "Geld/Money," "Your Turn To Run," and "You, You" (directed by Anne Carlisle) along with a live video for "Thrash Me" featured in a German documentary called Super 80.

In 2001 an EP of Malaria! covers entitled Versus was released and included a popular cover of "Kaltes Klares Wasser" by Chicks on Speed.[3

http://www.last.fm/music/Shark+Taboo wrote:Shark Taboo are from London UK. Guitar Rock with Goth and Indie influences-
Gill vocals, Tony Keyboards ,John Guitar were the three permenant members,
Neil,Steve,Susie,Pat,Tricia covered various Bass and Drum duties across the Sharks four Albums.

In 1989 the music magazine Melody Maker famously said- “Shark Taboo have beats in places U2 never quite manage”
In the same magazine the bands debut single was in the year end Top 10 and was played first on national radio by the late John Peel.

Shark Taboo were the first UK band to visit Iceland in 1987 and again in 1988, playing several critically acclaimed shows and making many friends.
In later years the band played across Europe and also visited the USA including an appearance at the South by South West Festival in Austin Texas.
The bands last recording was the 1993 CD Rock Sex God released on a German label,shortly after the release of the CD, Guitarist John was taken seriousaly ill and died tragically in 1994,the band have not toured since.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/passion-fodder-mn0000130588/biography wrote:Theo Hakola's name probably won't be included in any historical account of musicians from the Pacific Northwest, but the former vocalist for the French band Passion Fodder is actually from Spokane, WA. Hakola formed Passion Fodder in 1984 in Paris, France, with Lionel Dollet (guitar), Pascal Humbert (drums), Benedicte Villain (violin), and later Jean-Yves Tola (drums). The group was signed to Beggars Banquet in the U.K., and their debut LP, Fat Tuesday, was distributed in the U.S. by Island Records in 1988. Combining the Velvet Underground's droning guitars and screeching violins with the raw energy of punk rock and the alcohol-fueled melancholia of early country records, Passion Fodder's music defied categorization. Adventurous college radio stations in the U.S. provided the band with a little exposure, but Hakola's unusual voice, especially when spitting out words like an angry preacher, limited the band's appeal to a small, devoted cult; the video for the Nick Cave-ish "Heart Hunters" was played on MTV's 120 Minutes. In 1987, the New Musical Express in England described Hakola as "Baudelaire with an electric guitar." In 1989, the track "I'd Sell My Soul to God" from the Woke Up This Morning... LP was a minor hit on college radio. During that year, Hakola moved to Los Angeles, CA, and Passion Fodder called it quits. Hakola embarked on a solo career.

http://www.last.fm/music/Slaughter+Joe wrote:Along with school friends Edward Ball, Dan Treacy, and John and Gerard Bennett, Joe Foster was a founding member of the Television Personalities. He went on to play in Biff Bang Pow!, and in numerous other bands. Besides using the moniker of “Slaughter Joe”, he has recorded under Slaughter Joe and the Modern Folk Quintet. Foster went on to become one of the co-founders of Creation Records, producing most of the label’s early repertoire including the Jesus and Mary Chain’s debut single “Upside Down”, Primal Scream’s debut single “All Fall Down”, three LPs by Felt, and many others. Joe Foster went on to form Rev-Ola Records, the European reissue label, as well as PoppyDisc. Foster resides in Glasgow with his wife, and in addition to heading Poppydisc, continues to produce records and make music.

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Bomb+Party wrote:Leicestershire, United Kingdom (1984 – 1990)


The band formed in the early 1980s, initially as Farmlife by Andy Mosquera (guitar), Peter Swaine (vocals), Steve Gerrard (guitar), Laurence Wood (sax), James Hunt (bass), and Mark Thompson (drums), who met on a fine art course at Leicester Polytechnic, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. They had changes to the lineup and released one single under this name in 1982, Susie’s Party (later covered by Yeah Yeah Noh); A second single on Dan Treacy’s Whaam! label was withdrawn. In 1984 Farmlife split up, and Andy “Jesus” Mosquera (vocals), Steve Gerrard (guitar), Mark Thompson (drums) formed the The Bomb Party, with Sarah Corina (bass). They took their name from a Graham Green novel, debuting in 1985 with the Ray Gun EP on the Abstract label. The new sound was described as “a Molotov cocktail of hardcore grebo gothability, lying somewhere between The Cramps and Bauhaus”. The debut album Drugs appeared in 1986. On the Signing to the Workers Playtime label, they released a second album, Liberace Rising, now featuring Leszek Rataj on guitar, preceded by a compilation of their early abstract singles, The Last Supper in 1987. A year later they signed to Normal records, releasing their most commercial record, a cover of The Archies’ Sugar Sugar (featuring Voice of the Beehive on backing vocals); followed in 1989 by the album, Fish. Their final album, Nativity #3 appeared on Artlos in 1990, and the band split up immediately after it was recorded. The band played their final gig at The Powerhaus in London on December 17, 1989.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/817158-Pale-TV wrote:
Italian new wave band from Parma formed in 1980.
Alex - vocals
Blue Niagara - keyboards
Whip - bass
Lady Adrenalina - drums

http://www.allmusic.com/album/nah--poo-the-art-of-bluff-mw0000029068 wrote:Pete Wylie's first album as/with Wah! is his finest work, filled to the brim with passionate post-punk and blitzkrieg funk that holds an impressive level of focused intensity from front to back -- no doubt the result of having listened to Clash records over and over and over and over again. There's little of the Clash's melodic sensibility to be found, memorable guitar riffs might not be evident ever, but there's an infectiously blistered pace to the proceedings, if a bit overbearingly shouty and mushy mixing-wise. Wylie sing-shouts everything with ferocious vigor, giving the record a rare sense of immediacy. Wah! literally sounds like they're playing with the knowledge that there will be no tomorrow. Off to an iffy start, tribal drums and from the depths vocals on "The Wind Up" do exactly that. One gets wound up because they want the record to actually start. Maybe that was the point. After that, it refuses to let up, kicked off by the "Do It Clean"-meets-"Break on Through" of "Other Boys." An album sequenced for maximum impact, instrumental "The Seven Thousand Names of Wah!" (no kidding) sets the table for "Seven Minutes to Midnight," Wah!'s signature song. The instrumental serves the same purpose as Mission of Burma barnburners like "Secrets" and "All World Cowboy Romance," holding together the rest of the album's songs while upping the intensity (as if it needed upping). [Castle's attractive 2001 reissue adds eight tracks, mostly alternate versions of Nah songs, including Ian Broudie's mix jobs on "Forget the Down" and "Somesay." The liner notes are littered with photos, as well as Wylie's thoughts on each song.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monochrome_Set wrote:The Monochrome Set are an English new wave band, originally formed in Hornsey, London in 1978. The most recent lineup consists of Bid, Lester Square and Andy Warren and Steve Brummell.

http://www.last.fm/music/LowCityRain wrote:LowCityRain is the side project of Markus Siegenhort (Lantlôs, Herbst, Líam, Impavida, Epitaph) that plays a style of music reminiscent of ’80s French new wave, coldwave and post punk.
LowCityRain’s first, self-titled album was released on September 27th 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urinals_%28band%29 wrote:The Urinals are a punk rock band from Southern California. Known for their minimalist approach to songwriting and recording — their lyrics have been called "punk haiku" — the band influenced other punk rockers of the 1970s and 1980s including the Minutemen. They have also been known as 100 Flowers and Chairs of Perception.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/zerra-i-mn0000694874/biography wrote:The Irish quartet Zerra 1 had enough soaring harmonies and ringing guitars to follow in the footsteps of compatriots U2. And while commercial success never happened, Zerra 1 possessed too much talent to be written off as failed U2 impersonators. Formed in the early '80s by Paul Bell (vocals, keyboards), Andreas Grimminger (guitar), Adrian Wyatt (bass), and Korda Marshall (drums), Zerra 1 had the spiky haircuts and dour vocals common to British new wave artists from that period; their cool looks and stylish sound should've gotten them played on MTV, but America remained indifferent. Zerra 1 didn't catch on in the U.K. either, although the band's 1983 single "The Banner of Love" hit number 33 on the English indie charts. Drummer Mike Mesbur replaced Marshall in 1984. Their self-titled debut LP was released on Mercury Records that year. Owing much to U2 and Simple Minds, Zerra 1 featured dark, epic rock that may have been too moody or weird for commercial radio. However, Zerra 1's second album, 1986's Domino Effect, had the pop hooks needed to catapult the group into stardom. The band opened for acts such as U2 (of course) and the Cure, but zero sales meant extinction for Zerra 1. Marshall later became the head of Infectious Records.