Suburbs (the) - Love is the Law

Name: The Suburbs 
Album: Love is the Law
Year: 1983
Style: New Wave, College Radio, Art Rock
Similar Bands: Wolfgang Press, Alarm, Bram Tchiakovski, Fad Gadget, Roxy Music
"One-Word" Review: Dark Cowwave
Based Out Of: Minneapolis, MN
Label: PolyGram, Mercury

Cover, Sleeve, Record

Back, Lyrics, Record

Love is the Law (1983)

1. Love is the Law 4:41 (single)
2. Monster Man 3:15
3. Rattle My Bones 3:25
4. Skin 4:22
5. Accept Me Baby 3:46 /
6. Hell A 4:30
7. Perfect Communist 5:05
8. Rainy Day 5:00
9. Crazy Job 5:04

Album Rating (1-10): 8.5

Members & Other Bands:

• Steven Greenberg - Producer, Engineer (Lipps Inc)
• Paul Stark - Producer, Engineer, Recording, Mixing
• Edouard Manet - Cover Painting
• Bruce C Allen - Guitar, Art Direction (Buzzwel) 
• Blaine John Chaney - Beejtar, Vox
• Michael Halliday - Bass 
• Hugo Klaers - Drums (Buzzwell, Creatures of Habit, 
• Chan Poling - Keys Vox (The New Standards, Buzzwell, Lucy Michelle, Replacements, A Few, Bobby Z, Slim Dunlap)
• Scott Snyder - Trumpet (Willie Murphy, Bonnie Raitt, Dr. John, Bettye LaVette, Temptations, Four Tops. CC Septet, Century College Jazz Ensemble, St. Croix Jazz Orch, Emperors of Jazz Dixieland Band, Explodo Boys, Raggs)
• Tom Burnevik - Sax (Lamont Cranston Band, Curtiss A, Soul Asylum)
• Terri Paul - Backing Vox (Fine Art)
• Howie Weinberg - Mastering
• Laurie S Allen - Photos
• Lonni Ranallo - Photos
• Haga Photography - Photos

Unknown-ness: Never heard of this band, but the cover art of choice makes for a bleak dreary musical guess. Counterbalancing that, though is the collage of photos, patches, cards, and art on the back. I'm gonna guess this will be something like brainy college rock, jangley and meandering just for the sake of sounding complex 

Album Review: So the album itself is not that great. Solid music, but lots of talking, dialogue-like vocals. The appeal is the couple of stand out tracks like the single & title track (with great sax hook), "Rattle My Bones" (which is a little embarrassing with its "knee bone connected to the thigh bone" lyrics) and the driving synthy, video-game like "Skin" with multiple hooks. The rest of the album is cold & dark, like an underground beatnik coffee bar. There is weariness and knowledge in the singers voice. But it is a record that could only be produced in the 80's.
They quickly became a fixture on the Minneapolis music scene in the late 70's, gaining fans like Bruce Springsteen, and opening for B-52's and Iggy Pop brought them across the country. They flipped between a bunch of labels and broke up 10 years after their start in 1987. But like most bands of that era, one-off reunions could not be denied and they even put out new crowd funded records in 2013 and 2017. They even received a star outside of Minneapolis nightclub First Ave for contributing a major affect to Minne's music scene and selling out shows at the venue. Their single Love is the Law was approved for use as the theme song for the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage. 

Stand Out Track: Love is the Law, Skin, Rattle My Bones

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Mike Batt - Zero Zero

Name: Mike Batt
Album: Zero Zero
Year: 1982
Style: Soundtrack, New Wave, Avant-Garde, Art Rock
Similar Bands: Styx, Cirque Du Soleil, John Williams, Split Enz
"One-Word" Review: Bonkers Futuristic Absurdist Live-Action Cartoon Rock Opera
Based Out Of: Southhampton, England
Label: CBS, Epic

 Cover, Record

Record, Back

Zero Zero (1982)

1. Introduction (The Birth of Number 17) 5:22
2. System 605 2:15
3. Love Makes You Crazy 3:36
4. Delirium 8:45/
5. Whispering Fool 4:28
6. Zero Zero 7:17
7. The Dance of the Neurosurgeons 3:50
8. No Lights in My Eyes 3:10
9. Love Makes You Cry (instrumental reprise) 3:00

Album Rating (1-10): 7.0

Members & Other Bands:

• Mike Batt - Producer, Arrangement, Conductor, Vox, Percussion, Synth (Hapshash & the Coloured Coat, Wombles, Phase 4, Synthesonic Sounds, so much more)
• Tommy Emmanuel - Guitars, Bass (Australian Country Music Unites, Aus Olympians, Dragon, Hunter, Julian Lee Orch, Southern Star Band, Trailblazers, Love Junkie, Bushwackers, Jimmy Barnes, Maureen Elkner, Air Supply, Kevfin Somerville, Swanee, John Williamson, Goldrush, Doug Parkinson, Valentine)
• Rex Goh - Guitars (Air Supply, QED, Leon Berger, Simon Gallaher, DD Smash, Flaming Hands, Renee Geyer, Byrt Mallanyk, Dangerzone, Play School, Tony Williams, Armando Hurley, Robyne Dunn, Grace Knight, Marc Almond, Savage Garden, Wiggles, Eurogliders, Amy Pearson)
• Ian Bloxham - Timpani & Congas (Crossfire, Judy Bailey Orch, Julian Lee Orch, Kirk L Orange Orch., Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly, Kenny Powell Orch, Mell-O-Tones, Digby Richards, Patch, Digby Richards, John Sangster, Air Supply, Robyn Archer)
• Steve Hopes - Snare Drum (Crossfire, Julian Lee Orch, Renee Geyer, Expression, Delaney/Venn, Marcia Hines, Nev Nicholls, Jeff St. John, Edith Bliss, Philippe Gabbay, Reg Lindsay, Doug Parkinson, Sue Halford, Doug Mulray)
• Myra de Groot - Spoken Word
• Ron Ratcliff - Spoken Word
• Russ Lupalle - Medial Officer
• Wendy Batt - #36 Spoken Word
• John Bee - Principle Sound Engineer
• Glen Phinister - Sound Engineer
• Alan McClean - Sound Engineer
• Brendan Frost - Sound Engineer
• Richard Lush - Sound Engineer
• David Harvey - Sound Coordinator

Unknown-ness: Never heard of this, but it looks like something quite arty out of a New Order video or Klaus Nomi's head. Or just Split Enz. I'm guessing it is a future-fantasy inspired concept album,

Album Review: Zero Zero is a soundtrack to an "audio-video" piece set in an odd, checkerboard, antiseptic world that is trying to phase out love, however the protagonist (#17) finds that he can't help loving another (#36) and is sentenced to Zero Zero facility for his cleansing. It is bleak, and cold synth new wave, as the world he's created would suggest. The vocal songs are punctuated with a scoring of the follies and fumbles that the cast experiences could be described as bumbling cartoon synths. And at times, it sounds like bottom shelf Star Wars tribute.

 At a young age, Batt began recording & producing other acts , and scored countless soundtracks and tv themes (including the Animated Watership Down, and co-writing the title song to Phantom of the Opera). In 1980, he went on a boat ride with his family heading west from France around South America up to LA, then past Hawaii to Australia. On the final lag of the journey was when he was commissioned by Australia to write a piece for the Australian Broadcasting Corp's 50th anniversary, which aired on the UK in '82. His work includes working with many famous people, including Roger Daltrey, Art Garfunkle, Bonnie Tyler, Huey Lewis, and so many more. Of personal interest, he wrote the Orchestral sections for XTC songs "Green Man" and "I Can't Own Her."

Stand Out Track: Love Makes You Crazy

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Spizzles (the) - Spikey Dream Flowers

Name: The Spizzles
Album: Spikey Dream Flowers
Year: 1981
Style: New Wave, Post Punk
Similar Bands: XTC, Gang Of Four, Dead Milkmen, Martha & the Muffins, Futureheads
"One-Word" Review: Angular Jaunty Transitional Punk
Based Out Of: London UK
Label: A&M

 Cover, Record

Back, Record

Spikey Dream Flowers (1981)

1. Brainwashing Time 4:37
2. Five Year Mission (featuring 'The Return of Spock') 2:17
3. Dangers of Living 3:32
4. Robot Holiday 2:27
5. Soldier, Soldier (featuring theme from 'Spikey Dream Flowers') 3:47 /
6. Downtown 3:00
7. Risk 3:34
8. Central Park 4:22
9. Melancholy 2:40
10. Scared 4:00

Album Rating (1-10): 9.0

Members & Other Bands:

• Dave Woods - Producer
• Spizz (Kenneth Spiers) - Vox (Spizz 77, Spizzoil, Spizzenergi, Athletico Spizz 80, Spizzenergi 2, SpizzOrwell, Spizzsexual, Spizzvision, Spizzmas, Spizz and the Astronauties, Heaven 17, Wild Mutation)
• Jim Solar (James Little) - Bass, Synth (Athletico Spizz 80, Spizzenergi, Panorama, London Cowboys, Pink Industry, Repetition, 
• C.P. Snare (Clive Parker) - Drums (Big Country, Members, Athletico Spizz 80, Marshall Star, Scary Thieves, John Moore & the Expressway)
• Lu (Robert David Edmons)- Guitar, Piano (Damned, Edge/Belvederes, Shriekback, 3 Mustaphas 3, Kirsty MacColl, Mekons, Public Image, billy Bragg, Tuvan throat singers Yat-Kha, Laurie Anderson, Waterboys, Athletico Spizz 80, Jane Aire, Les Triaboliques, Paz3, Crash Baptists, Unlaunched Orch. Jon Langford, Blabbermouth, Carl Marsh, Howard Werth)
• Wally Brill - Engineer
• Ken - Asst Engineer
• Tim - Asst Engineer
• Corinne - Asst Engineer
• Simon - Asst Engineer
• Frank De luna - Mastering
• Marv Bornstein - Mastering
• Jos - Driving & Equiptment
• Michael Ross - Art Direction
• Simon & Barbara - Design
• Paul Cox - Photography
• Ginge - Photography

Unknown-ness: Never heard of them. But the cover looks looming, dark, and artsy, so i'm guessing this is going to be some damaged art pop. Back photo looks like typical new wavers like Duran Duran or OMD

Album Review: The band used to have an itinerary where they'd change names every year, the Spizzles being their fourth incarnation out of five years. Their second name, Spizzenergi produced the most popular song of their existence, "Where's Captain Kirk" in 1979, which helped them become the first band to top the newly formed UK Indie chart in 1980. "Five Year Mission" on this album works as the third in a trilogy ("Spock's Missing" was in 1980). The song Soldier Soldier was rerecorded (and smoothed over) as it was initially released as a Spizzenergi track in '79. The songs are all really great examples of post-punk, with melodic vocals, bouncy bass with angular tempo changes and hooks.

Stand Out Track: Five Year Mission, Robot Holiday

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