Act & Vox Dei

A couple selections from "BIPPP: French Synth Wave 1979-85."

I'm a huge sucker for these types of compilations, from Australian to Belgian to Brazilian.

Act "Ping Pong"
Vox Dei "Terroriste"

Toumast

One of the newest pieces of music I've posted on this blog is also one of the least Western European.

Toumast "Ikalene Walegh"

Roky Erickson and Lou Ann Barton

The union of these two is as satisfying as like, dreaming for two weeks about eating an ice cream sandwich, then finding out an ice cream sandwich factory is opening up right next to your house or some shit. I love these two together.

Roky Erickson and Lou Ann Barton "Starry Eyes"

Wide Boy Awake

There was more to Wide Boy Awake than that painfully 80's single "Chicken Outlaw." "Come Back Friday" is brooding and hypnotic, and its lyrical theme is one I don't understand, but I think it's about crime. Of some kind.

The prolific Bumrocks blogger/dj turned me on to this one.

Wide Boy Awake "Come Back Friday"

Farmer's Boys

The Farmers Boys were a bunch of average-looking Englishmen who wrote some fun, catchy pop songs in the style of the Smiths, minus all the melodrama and misery.

They made a few cute, funny music videos and charted in the Top 100 a few times in the early 80s, but they mostly went away without making a big splash.

The Farmer's Boys "In the Country" (and music video here)
The Farmer's Boys "Probably One of the Best Investments I Ever Made"

Pearls Before Swine

Just a quickie before I go to bed...

Pearls Before Swine "Uncle John"

Tronics

The Wrench records website says the first Tronics cassette, "What's the Hubbub Bub," was "concieved [sic], recorded and produced live in singer/guitarist Ziro Baby's basement kitchen in Earls Court during 1980, surrounded by drugs, prostitutes and assorted human oddities."

Well, if it's a dangerous and strange environment that produces a great DIY pop record, then for God's sake, why aren't all these miserable gentrifiers in DC producing anything worth half a fucking turd?

Download these ones then enjoy the few Tronics songs illegitimately posted on Myspace.

Tronics "T.V. On In Bed"