the old punks web zine

A member of the Post Punk Progressive Pop Party (P5) Network

1/97 - 4/02. Then 5/04 - 4/05. A blog 4/05 - 4/06. Now a MP3 thing

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The Analog CyberPunk page is here

Entry Seventy-Three: 07/04/2008: Analog CyberPunk: Transmission Twelve

07/04/2008: Begin Transmission Twelve: On this fourth of July weekend, after five months of sorting through well over 3,000 songs, I've decided to declare my independence from both seeking new material and having to pay too much for a new mattress. The next step is to listen to everything again to see if they're really where they should be, if at all, and then work on song ordering so it flows well. Then I figure out how to create a zip file so that it can be downloaded with ease as a package. After that I'll take a well-deserved break. Knowing me that'll include only more of as much of nothing as I can get away with. End Transmission Twelve.

1000 Ohm: "A.G.N.E.S." (Category Analog CyberPunk: New Wave Edition)

Another one from Belgium's 1000 Ohm. A stronger track, from 1982. I hope A.G.N.E.S. means something. Nobody names their daughter Agnes anymore. Maybe the name was retired in honor of the great Agnes Moorehead.

Class Action: "Blast Off" (Category: The Unheard Synth New Wave)

From a 1984 12" single from the US of Yea.

Len Liggins: "All The Dead Men" (Category: Analog CyberPunk)

This is from 1982 comp called No Platform For Heels. On a song like this people would stroll arm-in-arm around the dance floor having pleasant conversations. The Churchill quote is sweet, followed by a funny "how true".

Charles De Goal: "Exposition" (Category: Analog CyberPunk)

This led off their debut LP from 1980. From France. Charles has a MySpace page and has a long-running career.

Count Vertigo: "I'm A Mutant" (Category: Analog CyberPunk)

Something I Learned Today has some info on this Portland band, named after Count Chocula's dizzy cousin.

CKC: "20h25" (Category Analog CyberPunk: New Wave Edition)

French new wave from before you were born. Remember kids?

Dementia Precox: "Maladie D'esperit" (Category Analog CyberPunk: New Wave Edition)

I love noisy, cascading synth lines, and this one gives it away for free. Slut. From a 1982 US LP.

Exkurs: "Natur" (Category: Analog CyberPunk)

These Germans have a site right here. From 1981.

Grauzone: "Hinter Den Bergen" (Category Analog CyberPunk: New Wave Edition)

1981 + Germany. A second selection from Grauzone. Another track with a great synth line. Don't mind the freakout near the end.

Kevin Harrison & Steven Parker: "Cavalcade" (Category: Analog CyberPunk)

Kevin Harrison has a website filled with color and confusion. I want this dirge played at my funeral, bookended by my theme song, "Popcorn".

ZYX - "Get Away Wisdom" (Category: Rez Eyeballs Wink: Some Weird Ones)

More info and get the whole album here. I'm guessing you need to be flexible to dance to this one.

The Distributors: "TV Me" (Category: Analog CyberPunk)

Discogs links to this page for the band, but at first glance I couldn't find a reference to the band. From a UK 7" from 1979. Whatever it has going, it's going for sure.

Doxa Sinistra: "The Other Stranger" (Category: Analog CyberPunk)

I'd love to know what film these samples are from. I'd buy it in a second. From a 1985 cassette. From the samples you can almost figure out the story, and as a New Yorker I think the British accents are f--king classy.

Tone Set: "Living In Another Land" (Category Analog CyberPunk: New Wave Edition)

I don't care how much this sounds like "Slim", I'm adding it 'cause its devo-esque intensity kicks my ass so hard your ass hurts too!

Moderne: "Seduction" (Category Analog CyberPunk: New Wave Edition)

A second go for France's Moderne. This one from 1980. Their MySpace page indicates they have friends.

Plebs: "Change" (Category: Rez Eyeballs Wink: Some Weird Ones)

Plebs are the common people, derived from the Latin for common people. Sax and no violence. The yelling is like The Big Boys, so me likey.

Profil: "Beruhren" (Category: The Unheard Synth New Wave)

A 1981 track from Germany. Their run seems to have been from 1981 through 1983.

Polyphonic Size: "Winston & Julia" (Category Analog CyberPunk: New Wave Edition)

Belgium's Polyphonic Size sports a nice website. The singer reminds me of Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap, especially when he sings "No, No, No". I also love the crooning.

Deux: "Game And Performance" (Category Analog CyberPunk: New Wave Edition)

France birthed this keeper in 1983. There's another version with a male singer alone. Visit them now, won't you?

Polyphonic Size: "King Of Hong Kong" (Category: Rez Eyeballs Wink: Some Weird Ones)

A second track by Polyphonic Size, from 1982.

Metal Urbain: "Panik" (Category: Analog CyberPunk)

France's Metal Urbain are a first-wave punk band. I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that allmusic doesn't have Suicide listed as a direct influence. I would have had a seizure if they didn't list The Silver Apples as a direct influence on Suicide. "Panik" was their debut 7" from 1977, officially making it the oldest Analog CyberPunk track. And with that, I bid you a doo-doo.

Entry Seventy-Three: 06/28/2008: Bands Get Popular For No Apparent Reason

"Gloria"

"I Will Follow"

"1000 Hours"

"I Was There"

In my experience most bands go from good to bad as songwriting minds run dry and experiments in other sounds fail miserably. A few get better over time, Leatherface the prime example with 1993's Mush. I've seen firsthand two bands to go from obscurity to superstardom by staying the same if not getting a little worse. One was new wave and the other punk. Their names - U2 and Green Day. You might have heard of them.

When Boy came out in 1980, U2 was another great new wave band in an era filled with great new wave bands, their grand distinction The Edge's jagged and soaring guitar. I remember buying the record and reading the review in Rolling Stone on the ride home. Something about talented boys making music, which I dismissed at the time, but thematically the album is filled with boy to boy/man to boy/boy to man themes. It's creepy if not almost creepy. My memory is like a steel spaghetti strainer, so I forget if I saw them that year in Tampa or if they cancelled. Probably the latter because I remember thinking if they were booked in the mob-controlled Agora Ballroom they would have shown up. I worked security for a show of theirs in Maryland a few years later, and I told drummer Larry Mullen he looked a little like Lou Reed. He was nice enough to laugh. Boy was really good, 1981's October just as good because they stuck with a formula that worked, then came 1983's War, their best all-around record at that point. After this U2 exploded and the rest is history. Bono donned his Cyclops shades and resolved all the world's problems along with fellow do-gooder Bob Geldof. 1984's The Unforgettable Fire was no better if not worse than anything that came before it, and both the band and their fame never looked back. I wondered what that was all about, by then my head was so far up the ass of the punk rock beast I couldn't see anything even if I wanted to. That's how punk I was!

Green Day (the group, not the Japanese holiday), was just another great band on Lookout! Records, a great NoCal pop-punk label that could do no wrong with me for a while. 1989's 1000 Hours EP was Lookout! #17, while 1990's Slappy was #35. Their albums from 1991 and 1992 weren't as good as their singles, but they were fun. They even dabbled in country-flavored songs, an oddity shared with other Lookout! bands for reasons never made clear. Were they making fun of it or having fun doing it? I'll never know.... or care. Dookie came out in 1994 and I swear the collective maturity and intelligence of alternative culture took a nosedive into concrete. The album was a pale version of what came before it, and they even had the audacity of hope to re-record "Welcome To Paradise". On MTV the video for "Longview" was interrupted only for commercials and both the band and their fame never looked back. I wondered once again why history repeating a second time has to be farce, but by then my head was so far up the ass of Welsh clog dancing I really couldn't see anything. That's how Welsh cloggy I was!

Today I can listen to early U2 without guilt or shame, but I avoid Green Day for the same reasons I do the swarms of teenage assholes that infest malls.

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