Hardest Hits, Volume 1-5

OK, let me throw you a curveball worthy of Felix Hernandez (HELL YES it's finally baseball season! You don't like baseball? Well, sorry about your luck, because I LOVE it and plan to and likely will talk about it a couple of times a week during the season..... only thing better than baseball? Football, of course, and by that I mean FOOTBALL, not what you across the pond guys call "futbol" or whatever it is, and, by the way, how about the Wisconsin Badgers basketball team pulling off the amazing upset tonight and knocking off unbeaten Kentucky? Very exciting, and congrats Badgers....truly, I have no horse in this race, but gotta give props and best wishes to the Badgers for that stellar performance tonight!)

OK, anyway, a curveball .......normally I dislike this kind of music, but, hey, yo, I promote VARIETY (have I mentioned that?) on this site, and here are five actually pretty damn decent discs of early-mid 1980's new wave/new romantic/synth-pop/dance stuff, for an old punk/metal/grunge/stoner fan like myself, this is literally a lifetime supply of this stuff....... not EXACTLY my cup of java, but it does have its charms, a pure 1000% period piece and one that I might slip on every now and then (maybe when no one else is around?)

OK, so what's here? Well, I described it already, in an ironic way this might be similar to the death metal set of a few days ago, polarizing in a love-it-or-hate-it kind of way. What is interesting/cool about this set is that most of the tracks are extended/dance versions of the tracks which was a huge thing back in 1982 or whenever...... so, here they be, in all their New Romantic (ALWAYS hated that foolish term) glory......

Disc 1 opens and closes with different versions of The Puppets "The Way of Life" (The "dance version" and the " '91 Remix") ......in between there are forgotten legends of that era, B-Movie, Kirsty MacColl, Scary Thieves...... remember all that? I do, and I hated it all at the time, but like a lot of period pieces, once it settles into dust it becomes more relevant.

The second disc gives us Trio's notorious "Da Da Da", Pigbag's nearly-as-notorious "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag", as well as Johnny Warman's cool "Screaming Jets", a good one from Jona Lewie, The Normal's "Warm Leatherette"...... if you LOVE this stuff (I don't, but I do enjoy it in the proper frame of mind), this will be like Christmas in April for ya!

Probably the highlight of Disc 3 is Lords of the New Church's extended "Dance With Me", we also get some more pure period stuff such as Lotus Eaters, Nick Heyward, Vicious Pink, and Night Moves, there is lots more..... I was (high school) Class of 79, we used to beat up people that liked this stuff, and to the classes of, say 1980-83 or so, what can I say? My bad........

The fourth disc hits us with Flying Lizards' bizarre version of "Money", Duran Duran's FIRST hit "Planet Earth" (in an extended dance version, this was before "Rio"/"Hungry Like the Wolf"/"Girls on Film", etc, it's also NOT AS GOOD AS THOSE, but being less well-known it is welcomed here)..... Japan and Heaven 17   contribute as well to make this maybe the most accessible of the 5 discs.

And finally, we have the final disc, which wraps up with Elton Motello/s "club mix" of "Jet Boy/Jet Girl", also SSQ's "Jet Town", China Crisis, Cosmat Angels...... OK, you CERTAINLY get the idea.....if you ain't figured it out, I LOVE these period piece comps when they are true to their intention (see: "20 Years of Nuclear Blast" a couple days ago), and this one is quite well sculpted, crafted, and assembled, which, again, if you LOVE this stuff, you will damn near cry over this set, if you are indifferent (like myself) this set will serve as a PERFECT marker of that scene (as well as be 5x more of this stuff than you will EVER want).

Really, it's pretty good...... it's hypnotic nature (long tracks, repetitive grooves, etc) would make it difficult to listen to on a 4 hour car trip, but in smaller doses, it without question has its charms.... never thought I'd say that "back then", but as I said before, some times with music, and more often with "scene" music, you need to wait for the dust to settle. This is a decent comp, take my word for it.

DISC 1-THE PUPPETS-The Way of Life (Dance Mix)/02 SCARY THIEVES-The Waiting Game (Extended Version)/03 KIRSTY MACCOLL-A New England (Extended Version)/04 JON ST JAMES-The Girl Who Seduced the World/05 THE MOOD-I Don't Need Your Love Now (Remix)/06 PASSION PUPPETS-Like Dust (Extended Version)/07 UROPA LULA- Our Love Has Just Begun (Extended Remix)/08 B-MOVIE-Our Love has Just Begun (Extended Version)/09 THOMAS LEER-Heartbeat (Extended Mix)/10 THE PUPPETS-The Way of Life (91 Remix)

DISC 2-01 JOHNNY WARMAN-Screaming Jets/02 SCARY THIEVES-Tell Me Girl (remix)/03 BOYS BRIGADE-The Passion of Love/04 JONA LEWIE-You'll Always Find Me In the Kitchen at Parties/05 RE-FLEX-The Politics of Dancing (Extended Version)/06 TRIO-Da Da Da/07 CETU JAVA-Situations/08 NAKED EYES-Always Something There to Remind Me (Long Version)/09 PIGBAG-Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag/10 THE BIG SUPREME-Don't Walk (Extended Version)/11 WEST END DANCE PROJECT-92 In the Shade (remix)/12 ABECEDARIANS-Smiling Monarchs/13 THE NORMAL-Warm Leatherette/14 SHARPE & NEWMAN-Change Your Mind (Extended Version)

DISC 3-01 VOICE OF AMERICA-Story of Love (extended Version)/02 CHAMELEONS UK-Swamp
Thing/03 LOTUS EATERS-The First Picture of You/04 THE COMSAT ANGELS-You Move Me (One Good Reason)/05 JACKIE LEVEN-Love Is Shining Down On Me/06 FRICTION FACTORY-Feels Like Heaven/07 NICK HEYWARD-Goodbye Yesterday (Extended Version)/08 STEVE HARLEY-Heartbeat Like Thunder (Extended Version)/09 LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH-Dance With Me (Extended Version)/10 GLAMOROUS CULT-Tokyo Streets/11 THE HAWAIIAN PUPS-Baby Judy/12 VICIOUS PINK-Can't You See (Extended Version)/13 MICRO CHIP LEAGUE-New York (Dance Floor Cut)/14 NIGHT MOVES-Transdance

DISC 4-01 THE ASSEMBLY-Never Never/02 SAL SOLO-San Damiano (Heart and Soul)/03 FLYING LIZARDS-Money/04 VICIOUS PINK-Take Me Now/05 THE NAILS-88 Lines About 44 Women/06 ROBERT HAZARD-Escalator of Life/07 LOTUS EATERS-You Don't Need Someone New (Charleston Mix)/08 THE CALL-Everywhere I Go/09 FURNITURE-Brilliant Mind/10 JAPAN-Life In Tokyo (Disco Mix)/11 DURAN DURAN-Planet Earth (Night Version)/12 HITLIST-Into the Fire (Full Version)/13 HEAVEN 17-Let Me Go

DISC 5-01 ENDGAMES-First Last For Everything (Club Version)/02 NICK HEYWARD-Whistle Down the Wind/03 BOYS BRIGADE-Melody/04 CHINA CRISIS-Working With Fire and Steel (Mix)/05 PETER GODWIN-Baby's In the Mountains (New York Mix)/06 THE COMSAT ANGELS-Day One/07 VISAGE-Pleasure Boys (Dance Mix)/08 THE FLYING PICKETS-Only You/09 FREUR-Doot-Doot (Extended Mix)/10 SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK-Love Missle F-1-11 (Extended Version)/11 SECESSION-Simon Says/12 THOMAS LEER-International (Global Mix)/13 SSQ-Jet Town/14 ELTON MOTELLO-Jet Boy/Jet Girl (Club Mix)

100 Hits, Punk and New Wave

I'm so thrilled to give you guys an extra post tonight, (nothing on TV in this post Super Bowl/pre March Madness miserable time of year)...... I found this set on the Bay last night and while, yes, it does include 100 tracks, of which, by my guess, 50 are pretty much layups/slamdunks that I have posted a zillion times before and all "you young punks" have in 40 different versions, I am posting this set because there are some REALLY, TOTALLY BAD-ASS lesser known/rarities on this collection....  trust me, and once you see the set list you will know what I'm saying..... This is a five disc set, I suppose I COULD find out who put it out if I checked, but I don't really care all that much, it's another exhaustive collection of mid-late 1970's punk/new wave stuff, most of it pretty great..... If I were an ambitious man, perhaps I would reprogram it and get the obvious/layup material off of it, narrow it down to two discs or so, but hey, fuck it, this is someone else's creation, who the fuck am I to alter it? Not gonna do it, I'm gonna provide it just as it came to me, even with all the "obvious" material.... believe me there are PLENTY of sets of this type which are NOTHING BUT "obvious" "layup" material...... this is not one of them, there is enough rare/hard to find/rare;y comped stuff here.....besides, if you are a 1970's punk newbie, you will fall in love with all of the obvious material as well..... I'm serving MULTIPLE purposes here, bless my soul!

So, Disc 1..... as I've said, LOADS of layups that you likely have on  other comps...... really, Blondie's "Hanging on the Telephone"?... "Ever Fallen In Love?" from the Buzzcocks?.... geez, even "God Save the Queen" from the Pistols? Hey, if you DON'T already have them, why the fuck not, obviously they are significant/important stepping stones of the ear, BUT...... for those of us who have already heard them 4000 times, the minor gems here are what we are searching for......

All of these turn up on Disc 1, these are, while well known, not comped as often as the obvious material:    Lene Lovich's "Lucky Number", "Milk and Alcohol" from Dr Feelgood, even "Blazing Apostles" from Be Bop Deluxe, who don't exactly fit the mold here, but I DID always kind of like them..... we also get find tracks from the Ruts, the Skids, Department S, and  The Rich Kids, not exactly unknown, but stuff that, in general, does not make the usual comps of this type.


Disc 2 is a bit more eccentric.... the only "REAL" layups here are (the actually great) "Turning Japanese" from the Vapors, the (also great) "Ghost Rider" from Suicide, "Damaged Goods" from Gang of Four, and maybe "Offshore Banking Business" from the Members, which may not even belong in this category and which is a killer track regardless... but the disc ALSO contains relatively obscure numbers from Jona Lewie, Fad Gadget, Bill Nelson, Silicon Teens, DAF, New Model Army, and plenty more... MORE than worth your time, I promise!

Disc 3 gives us a lot more "obvious" material, frequently comped tunes from XTC, Martha & the Muffins, Stiff Little Fingers, The Saints, and the Buzzcocks (again, let me reiterate...  these are all WONDERFUL, GREAT tracks, it's just that they are comped OFTEN)......  but once we sift through those, we get gems from The Scars (recently featured in a Dave Sez post, they MUST BE great!),  Leyton Buzzards, Wreckless Eric, Chris Spedding, and more, This is in reality a fine set which plays like a 1970's punk-radio-weekend, some obvious stuff, but enough gems to make it worth our while for sure!

On to Disc 4, it leads off with "My Sharona", nuff said, and also features layups from Holly & the Italians, The Alarm (albeit the incredible "68 Guns"), and the Records, but this disc is LOADED with rarely comped stuff: The Flys, The Banned, Celia and the Mutations ("Mony Mony" no less!), The Bodysnatchers, and Fun Boy Three... .likely the best disc of the five for esoteric material, hope ya enjoy this, I HATE to be redundant, but I think there is enough rarely comped material here to render myself an TRUE ORIGINAL!

The final disc, does, also, have a good bit of obvious, frequently comped material, the Plasmatics, Devo, The Saints, X-Ray Spex, and more, again, I am not DISSING the obvious tracks on this comp, most of them are STELLAR, it's ONLY that they are comped often, nothing more..... this disc, when we search for the hidden gems, turns up Honey Bane, The Scars, Monochrome Set, and much more.

If it were myself, just discovering this set for the first time, I would maybe reprogram it and eliminate the material that is already on 100 comps.....if you are JUST NOW (!)  getting into 70's punk, this would be as good a starting point as I can imagine you could ever get........ it's a good set, a fine balance between obvious, common material, and a bit more esoteric, lesser known material....... I posted it for BOTH groups of people which is why I did not reprogram it myself...... a fine set, please enjoy it however YOU can enjoy it, nothing beats classic 70's punk rock!

DISC 1-BLONDIE-Hangin' On the Telephone/02 BUZZCOCKS-Ever Fallen In Love?/03 SEX PISTOLS-God Save The Queen/04 THE SKIDS-Into the Valley/05 MAGAZINE-Shot By Both Sides/06 THE MEMBERS-Sound of the Suburbs/07 THE RUTS-Babylon's Burning/08 DEPARTMENT S-Is Vic There?/09 PUBLIC IMAGE LTD-Public Image/10 THE STRANGLERS- (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)/11 DEVO-Whip It/12 LENE LOVICH-Lucky Number/13 VA-Airport/14 THE FLYING LIZARDS- Money/15 ADAM AND THE ANTS-Deutscher Girls/16 DR FEELGOOD-Milk and Alcohol/17 TENPOLE TUDOR-Swords of a Thousand Men/18 THE RICH KIDS-Rich Kids/19 IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS-Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll/20 BE BOP DELUXE-Blazing Apostles

DISC 2-01 JONA LEWIE-You'll Always Find Me at the Kitchen at Parties/02 ULTRAVOX-Sleepwalk/03 FAD GADGET-Collapsing New People/04 SIMPLE MINDS-Love Song/05 HUMAN LEAGUE-Being Boiled/06 BILL NELSON-Furniture Music/07 LENE LOVICH-Say When/08 SILICON TEENS-Let's Dance/09 THE VAPORS-Turning Japanese/10 DAF-Kebabtraume/11 SUICIDE-Ghost Rider/12 GANG OF FOUR-Damaged Goods/13 THE STRANGLERS-5 Minutes/14 MODERN EON-Euthenics/15 KILLING JOKE-Eighties/16 NEW MODEL ARMY-No Rest/17 PUBLIC IMAGE LTD-Death Disco/18 THE FLYING LIZARDS-Move On Up/19 THE SELECTER-Three Minute Hero/20 THE MEMBERS-Offshore Banking Business

DISC 03 01 XTC-Making Plans For Nigel/02  ULTRAVOX-Dancing With Tears In My Eyes/03 KILLING JOKE-Love Like Blood/04 SCARS-All About You/05 MARTHA AND THE MUFFINS-Echo Beach/06 BLONDIE (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear/07 THE MOTORS-Forget About You/08 BUZZCOCKS-Everybody's Happy Nowadays/09 WIRE-Outdoor Miner/10 999-Homicide/11 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS-Alternative Ulster/12 UK SUBS-She's Not There/13 ANGELIC UPSTARTS-I'm an Upstart (Live)/14 THE SAINTS (I'm) Stranded/15 LEYTON BUZZARDS-Through With You/16 TOM ROBINSON BAND-Up Against the Wall/17 CHRIS SPEDDING-Pogo Dancing/18 PENETRATION-Money Talks/19 COCKNEY REJECTS-On the Streets Again/20 WRECKLESS ERIC-Reconnez Cherie

DISC 4-THE KNACK-My Sharona/02 TOM ROBINSON BAND-2-4-6-8 Motorway/03 THE ALARM-Sixty Eight Guns/04 HOLLY & THE ITALIANS-Tell That Girl To Shut Up/05 THE VAPORS-News At Ten/06 THE RECORDS-Starry Eyes/07 THE SKIDS-Masquerade/08 999-Emergency/09 CHRIS SPEDDING-The Pose/10 THE FLYS-Love and a Molotov Cocktail/11 DOCTOR FEELGOOD-She Does It Right/12 THE BANNED-Little Girl/13 DEPARTMENT S-Solid Gold Easy Action/14 CELIA & THE MUTATIONS-Mony Mony/15 IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS-What a Waste/16 THE SPECIALS-Friday Night Saturday Morning/17 BODYSNATCHERS-Let's Do Rock Steady/18 THE BEAT-Tears of a Clown/19 FUN BOY THREE -The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)/20 UB40-My Way of Thinking

DISC 5-01 WRECKLESS ERIC-Whole Wide World/02 THE SAINTS-This Perfect Day/03 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS-Suspect Device/04 THE RUTS-Staring at the Rude Boys/05 X RAY SPEX-Oh Bondage Up Yours/06 PENETRATION-Don't Dictate/07 HONEY BANE-Turn Me On Turn Me Off/08 THE RICH KIDS-Ghosts of Princes In Towers/09 GANG OF FOUR-I Found That Essence Rare/10 WIRE-I Am the Fly-11 MAGAZINE-Touch and Go/12 DEVO-Jocko Homo/13 SCARS-They Came and Took Her/14 FAD GADGET-Back To Nature/15 MONOCHROME SET-Strange Boutique/16 ADAM & THE ANTS-Plastic Surgery/17 ANGELIC UPSTARTS-Kids on the Street/18 COCKNEY REJECTS-I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles/19 UK SUBS-Warhead/20 PLASMATICS-Butcher Baby


Hope you guys like these, kind of a strange set, mixing common and fairly obscure material.

Hope everyone can appreciate and enjoy my admittedly odd gear shifting from obscure 60's psych rock to late 70's punk.... schizophrenia is my thing I guess.... seriously, hope you like all the music here, if not, tell me what you'd RATHER see!

"Greatest Ever" Punk & New Wave (Their Words)

Well, this is a three disc set from 2013, I would hardly consider these tracks, many of which are on MOST comps to be the "greatest ever", and I wouldn't even mess with this, to be honest, if there weren't a handful of truly rare tunes here, as well as, among the more common ones there are some damn GOOD ones, I mean, I assume you all HAVE THEM ALL anyway, but maybe not, and if so, go ahead and fill in a gap. I must say right from the start that "Greatest Ever" is more than a good bit ambitious in titling.....

Disc One, features fairly white-bread selections that turn up ever time pretty much.....all good songs, but really... "Alternative Ulster" by Stiff Little Fingers? Is there a comp of this type WITHOUT that one? Great song, BUT..... The Buzzcocks "Ever Fallen In Love"? Eddie and the Hot Rods "Do Anything You Wanna Do"? These tracks, as great as they are, are practically generic, they appear on so many comps... if it were 1980, these might be wonderful finds but now? when each of us has 15 different comps with EACH of these tunes on it? Just seems redundant to me, to a degree.....

However, I do NOT wish to discredit the entire Disc #1.... some of this stuff turns up less often, and sometimes a comp can be "worth it" for even a single track (not saying this is the case here, BUT:)
The wonderful "Echo Beach" by Martha and the Muffins is a great one that doesn't turn up THAT much, The Skids "Into the Valley", The Ruts "Staring at the Rude boys, The Teardrop Explodes (now THERE's a band I need to profile!) "When I Dream" is a gem, "Is Vic There" by Department S is MUCH less well known, and tracks from Jona Lewie and the Fall save this disc from being a K-Tel "Amazing New Wave Hits".... cleverly program this and you may wind up with ONE good disc of material you did not have before.

Disc 2 is a tiny bit more esoteric, even though there are layups on this one as well, "One Step Beyond" by Madness, The Boomtown Rats stunning classic "I Don't Like Mondays", The Romantics "What I like about You".... easilly obtainable, punk/new wave fans likely already have these on 10 comps already.... .but of course the reason I am doing this is for the few tracks here which don't ALWAYS make the comps..... "Reward" from Teardrop Explodes, Bad Manners "Lip Up Fatty", The Slits great "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", and the stunning "Police and Thieves", NOT the Clash version, but the electrifying Junior Murvin version.... it would be worth purchasing this set for this track. Lene Lovich's "Lucky Number" is another track that misses the comps in general.......

So Disc 3...... again, PLENTY of softballs..... The Dead Kennedy's "Holiday In Cambodia", Penetration's overdone "Don't Dictate", After the Fire's "Der Komissar", other than that, for the most part, Disc 3 presents us with the most interesting tracks of the three, such as moderately unknown stuff from John Cooper Clarke, Anti-Nowhere League, the Slaughter & the Dogs take on "Hard Day's Night", "Butcher Baby" from the Plasmatics (miss you so much Wendy my Love), and Spizzenergi's fab "Where's Captain Kirk".........

There's enough stuff you might not have here to create a disc or a disc and a half, a lot of it is EASY to locate, and in better company...... this is not a "classic", "Must Have" comp, but for cherry pickers, there is a gem or three here waiting for you.

DISC 1-01 THE STRANGLERS-No More Heroes/02 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS-Alternative Ulster/03 THE SKIDS-Into the Valley/04 THE RUTS-Staring at the Rude Boys/ 05 THE BUZZCOCKS-Ever Fallen In Love?/06 THE UNDERTONES-Jimmy Jimmy/07 THE DAMNED-Neat Neat Neat /08 SHAM 69-Borstal Breakout/09 SPLIT ENZ-I Got You/10 EDDIE & THE HOT RODS-Do Anything You Wanna Do/11 THE TEARDROP EXPLODES-When I Dream/12 THE RUNAWAYS-Black Leather/13 MARTHA & THE MUFFINS-Echo Beach/14 DEPARTMENT S-Is Vic There?/15 TENPOLE TUDOR-Swords of a Thousand Men/16 WRECKLESS ERIC-Whole Wide World/17  JONA LEWIE-You'll Always Find Me In the Kitchen at Parties/18 THE FALL-Bingo/Master's Break/Out/19 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS-Johnny Was

DISC 2-01 MADNESS-One Step Beyond/02 THE SPECIALS-Ghost Town/03 THE BEAT-Mirror
In the Bathroom/04 IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS-Reason to Be Cheerful/05 THE BOOMTOWN RATS-I Don't Like Mondays/06 THE ROMANTICS-That's What I Like About You/07 THE VAPORS-Turning Japanese/08 SQUEEZE-Cool For Cats/09 ADAM & THE ANTS-Kings of the Wild Frontier/10 THE TEARDROP EXPLODES-Reward/11 THE SELECTER-On My Radio/12 THE BEAT-Tears of a Clown/13 BAD MANNERS-Lip Up Fatty/14 THE SLITS-I Heard It Through the Grapevine/15 JUNIOR MURVIN-Police and Thieve/16 MADNESS-Baggy Trousers/17 JOE JACKSON-Is She Really Going Out With Him/18 LENE LOVICH-Lucky Number/19 BAD MANNERS-Special Brew

DISC 3-01 PENETRATION-Don't Dictate/02 UK SUBS-Warhead/03 DEAD KENNEDYS-Holiday In Cambodia/04 ABGELIC UPSTARTS-Angels In Disguise/05 THE DEFECTS-Suspicious Minds/06 THE VIBRATORS-Automatic Lover/07 ALTERNATIVE TV-Action Time Vision/08 LENE LOVICH-Say When/09 SPIZZENERGI-Where's Captain Kirk/10 THE CRACK-All or Nothing/11 999-Obsessed/12 SECRET AFFAIR-Time For Action /13 AFTER THE FIRE-Der Komissar/14 THE MONOCHROME SET-Strange Boutique/15 THE PLASMATICS-Butcher Baby/16 ANTI-NOWHERE LEAGUE-I Hate People/17 SLAUGHTER & THE DOG'S-Hard Day's Night/18 UK SUBS-Drunken Sailor/19 JOHN COOPER CLARKE-Evidently Chicken Town

OK, make of it what you will....at least half of the material at least most of us have..... but there are a gem and a gem-ette sprinkled throughout...... this was ALL great music, so handle it however you feel...... it just reminds me so much of one of those ridiculous K-Tel comps that sold at Ronco for 1.99........ but there is GOOD/GREAT shit here........ yours is to seek it out, grasshopper.