New Wave / Punk forebears...

[Tooned]

It's interesting how many modern bands are in this thread... Not exactly a "new" wave anymore...
Anyway, a bunch of oldies on the wavey side of things:
The Fixx-Are we ourselves? (nice bass line in the chorus)

Madness - Our House (no horns in music these days... too bad)

INXS (back when mullets were new and cool)


When in Rome - The Promise

Blue Nile - tinseltown in the rain

Could post way more as I'm only listening to 80s New Wave these days..

 

[SteveCS]

This...

 

[blindrabbit]

It's interesting how many modern bands are in this thread... Not exactly a "new" wave anymore...
Anyway, a bunch of oldies on the wavey side of things:
The Fixx-Are we ourselves? (nice bass line in the chorus)

Madness - Our House (no horns in music these days... too bad)

INXS (back when mullets were new and cool)


When in Rome - The Promise

Blue Nile - tinseltown in the rain

Could post way more as I'm only listening to 80s New Wave these days..

Whoa, some incredible selections there! Talk about great but simple basslines - the one on Secret Separation (Fixx) is one I've always loved.

 

[Spectrum]

I saw the Fixx a few years ago and they are as good as ever. Same lineup since the early 80s, too.

 

[billgoodwin]

Jennifer "Fur" Dixon - the Cramps 1986.

 

[blindrabbit]

Jennifer "Fur" Dixon - the Cramps 1986.

That's all kinds of awesome.

 

[Tooned]

 

[Spectrum]

Funny thing you posting that; my band covers that tune. In fact, it's the only cover we managed to successfully nail out of all the ones we chose to do, despite being kind of challenging to play. Basically we spend too much of our time practicing our originals, which, chance would have it, have been compared to early Cure sometimes.

 

[Tooned]

Funny thing you posting that; my band covers that tune. In fact, it's the only cover we managed to successfully nail out of all the ones we chose to do, despite being kind of challenging to play. Basically we spend too much of our time practicing our originals, which, chance would have it, have been compared to early Cure sometimes.

Cool man. A good choice for a band to emulate.

 

[Spectrum]

Cool man. A good choice for a band to emulate.

It just kind of worked out that way. The singer has a high voice and writes good tunes, and our drummer is a big Cure fan, which kind of drives our rhythms into that 8th note punkish region. With two guitars, my clanky Ric, and lots of major key tunes with sad, sci-fi driven lyrics, well, there you go. We're not a post punk band, I don't think anyone knows exactly what to call us, but you can hear bits and pieces of it in our sound, mixed in with some 80s college rock, a la REM or Smithereens. I kind of like being hard to label. Leaves us free to do whatever we feel like.

 

[Mr_Martin]

First Bassline i've learned:

 

[billgoodwin]

That's all kinds of awesome.

yes indeed she was. fabulous shot. you can keep your Tal - Fur would have rocked my world anyday of the week in every sense.

 

[bassbully]

First Bassline i've learned:

Just spoke to Jerry a couple of weeks ago when he was here in town to unveil Devo's pic taken in 78'. He is doing well making wine and wished Mark would play live again.

 

[blindrabbit]

It just kind of worked out that way. The singer has a high voice and writes good tunes, and our drummer is a big Cure fan, which kind of drives our rhythms into that 8th note punkish region. With two guitars, my clanky Ric, and lots of major key tunes with sad, sci-fi driven lyrics, well, there you go. We're not a post punk band, I don't think anyone knows exactly what to call us, but you can hear bits and pieces of it in our sound, mixed in with some 80s college rock, a la REM or Smithereens. I kind of like being hard to label. Leaves us free to do whatever we feel like.

Links to your band's bandcamp/youtube channel/webpage/etc? By the sounds of it, I'd love to hear you guys!!!

 

[Spectrum]

Links to your band's bandcamp/youtube channel/webpage/etc? By the sounds of it, I'd love to hear you guys!!!

Right now, this is all we got. I recorded these live during a basement practice session about two months ago using my handheld Korg Sound-on-Sound recorder. I just set it up on an end table in the middle of the room and recorded everything, then later split the better takes up into songs. The singer is playing the first guitar, the bright-sounding one. It's hard to hear my bass on some of them and the second guitarist, the one with all the gain, gets drowned a bit, too, and then there's the loss during upload, etc. Enough excuses. I love our drummer. He did this using a 3-peice kit, kick, snare, hi hat only, and he is bang on tight, I love playing bass with him. Bora is my favorite song to play bass on.

KROBOPL | Free Listening on SoundCloud

One of these days we'll get a proper recording without so much mud.

 

[Muddslide]

First Bassline i've learned:

That's cool. In my estimation DEVO are one of the most important bands of the 70s and 80s. If you listen to their Hardcore DEVO volumes, some of the stuff they were doing as early as 1974 would still sound fresh if it dropped today.

Their first 4--and especially first 2--albums are mainly where it's at for me, but those guys really mean a lot to me.

I don't start many threads here, but I'm glad I started this one.

Nice mention of The Fixx too. My fave track of theirs is the title cut from the Reach The Beach album.

Was also listening to some old Boomtown Rats recently and the bass on some of their songs is great. Can't post vid links from my phone, but check out "Up All Night" and "Banana Republic."

Lots of great bass-driven stuff from the two-tone / rude boy UK ska bands from the era too...Specials, Selecter, the aforementioned Madness, early UB40.

 

[Muddslide]

Right now, this is all we got...One of these days we'll get a proper recording without so much mud.

Look forward to checking this out! Have to do it from work tomorrow though. Thanks for posting it...I am sincerely eager to hear it.

I dream of someday having a new wave cover band. Probably do some original solo new wavey recordings at some point.

And hell, don't worry about the sound quality--my current project is long distance recording with a buddy all to tape, recorded on ancient cassette 4 track machines, just like what we actually used in the actual 80s!

It's snotty 60s garage fuzz we are doing, so it fits well. We're releasing some vinyl mastered straight from tape--no digital anything, though I'm not 100% opposed to that--in time for Halloween hopefully.

 

[Spectrum]

And hell, don't worry about the sound quality--my current project is long distance recording with a buddy all to tape, recorded on ancient cassette 4 track machines, just like what we actually used in the actual 80s!

It's snotty 60s garage fuzz we are doing, so it fits well. We're releasing some vinyl mastered straight from tape--no digital anything, though I'm not 100% opposed to that--in time for Halloween hopefully.

Nice. I like old school gear and sounds.

 

[Black Bart]

I don't think these two were mentioned yet, Stuart Morrow and later Moose Harris from New Model Army.

I still have one of the first pressings of Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! that I received as a b-day present as a wee lad I think Mongoloid was one of the first songs that made me really "notice" the bass.

 

[Muddslide]

I still have one of the first pressings of Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! that I received as a b-day present as a wee lad I think Mongoloid was one of the first songs that made me really "notice" the bass.

According to a DEVO bio I read a few years back, there was a feeding frenzy over what label would release this killer album and who would produce.(Warner Bros got the label deal and (the brilliant, IMO) Brian Eno got the producer's chair--Bowie wanted it very badly as well.)

Interestingly (and funnily) in one passage, Richard Branson, multi-billionaire force behind Virgin, wanted the band so bad he flew them to a private island he owned, got them high on the most powerful stuff they ever smoked and had a plan in which John Lydon (Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) would become DEVO's lead singer. He was telling the band "John's waiting in that room over there, behind the closed door. He would be an excellent vocalist for DEVO and you'd have the added push of the Sex Pistols behind your brand. It's a match made in Heaven!" (I'm paraphrasing a bit.)

All the band could do was roll around and laugh hysterically because they were so stoned. Obviously, that deal didn't go through. A good thing, IMO, although I do like the Pistols.