MKE 80: Milwaukee Singles from 1980

Ama-Dots (Bill Moco photo)

A new documentary about Milwaukee's music scene called Taking The City By Storm (named after the Haskels' song) is currently screening in film festivals. Feral House just released a new book about women in punk called Hit Girls; its title is a reference to the Ama-Dots' song. Brick Through The Window (named for an Oil Tasters' song) is an excellent recent book which documents Milwaukee's music history from 1964 to 1984.

1980 was the annus mirabilis of the Milwaukee scene.  Several holy grails of punk rock record collectors came from the Cream City: 7 inchers by The Haskels, The Shivvers, The Lubricants, and Muscle Beach can fetch 3 figures apiece. MKE bands are comped on Killed By Death, Hyped To Death, and Bloodstains.  

Bruce Pavitt featured the Ama-Dots and Oil Tasters on his Sub Pop tapes.  Chuck Warner championed Milwaukee power pop with releases by The Shivvers, The Sidewalks, and The Orbits on his Teenline series (named for a Shivvers' song).

The Shivvers' unreleased album has been reissued by Bachelor Records and Rerun Records.  The Ama-Dots' unreleased recordings and a compilation of The Ones were also issued by Rerun (as well as new pressings of the singles by The Lubricants and The Ones).  Scavenger of Death repressed The Prosecutors' single.

Two outstanding albums of unreleased Haskels tunes and one from The Prosecutors have been issued by Milwaukee's own Splunge Communications. And the fine folks at Splunge are sharing the OOP two disc anthology History In Three Chords for free at mkepunk.com. 

MKE 80 (today's share) includes all the Milwaukee singles and EP's released in 1980, plus The Appliances (a band from Madison that regularly played MKE clubs). The Appliances' later records can be found here.

It took a few more years for the world to recognize the Dairy State's talents. The Violent Femmes' LP came out in 83, as did Die Kreuzen, followed by Plasticland, Timbuk 3, The R&B Cadets, and the heartland rock of The BoDeans, Fire Town, and E-I-E-I-O. 

The Starship (Ron Faiola photo)

More on Bandcamp: Boy Dirt Car, Couch Flambeau, Die Kreuzen, E-I-E-I-O, F/i, Frogs, Haskels, Laytons, Prosecutors, RPM's, Sidewalks, Spooner (old garbage from Madison), Surfin Fuhrers, Violent Femmes, Vocokesh, and Radio Ready: Wisconsin (Lost Power Pop Hits from 1979-82).  Radio Ready includes songs by The Baxters, The Dominoes, The Tyrants, The Valiants, The Wigs and some of the bands mentioned above.

MKE-TV 77-83: Those X-Cleavers, Tense Experts, Shivvers, Ozone (aka The Ones), Oil Tasters, more Oil Tasters, Haskels, more Haskels, even more Haskels, Die Kreuzen, Couch Flambeau, Arousing Polaris (pre-Plasticland), and Ama-Dots captured live. Many of these videos were preserved and posted by Ron Faiola.

Check out the trailer for Taking The City By Storm!

Comeback Special: Nineties Edition

Starting a new series to feature bands that got back together (in whole or in part) and made new music. It happens all the time these days. In the first three months of this year, new releases were announced by Hoodoo Gurus, The Boo Radleys, Urge Overkill, The Rave-Ups, and Tears For Fears. 

But let's go back to the 1990's, when reunions were less frequent and perhaps more remarkable. The self-titled album that Television made in 1992 and Buzzcocks' Trade Test Transmissions (1993) still hold up well. The reunions of The Raincoats, Bush Tetras, and The Clean also produced some great music. Blondie, Madness, Theatre of Hate, and The Knack got in on the comeback act, as did several artists whose heyday was in the 1960's.

The Band made a respectable return, and proved they could write without Robbie. The Creation's Power Surge showed them in fine form (especially guitarist Eddie Phillips), and both Phil May and Dick Taylor sounded as vital as ever on the Pretty Things' Rage Before Beauty. Slapp Happy made a charming new album, and Simeon from Silver Apples recorded with Steve Albini.

There's a lot of power pop here: 20/20, The Plimsouls, The Records (John Wicks without Will Burch), and The Rubinoos (who reunited again in 2019, as featured elsewhere in this blog). Scritti Politti (Green and David Gamson) made a new album that ranged from power pop to hip hop. 

To paraphrase Monsieur Gartside, it's très jolie to see bonhomie replace animosité among formerly estranged band members, and to hear them collaborate on new music.  Not featured in this compilation (but also noteworthy) were the return in the 1990's of Scott Walker, Terry Callier, John Foxx, Faust, The Deviants, and hip hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash and The Treacherous Three. 

The original lineup of Kiss and a couple members of Eddie & The Hot Rods also made new records in the 90's. I don't know how Kiss fans feel about Psycho Circus, but the Hot Rods' album Gasoline Days was savaged by AllMusic.  The Specials and The Box Tops got back together in the 90's, but the albums they made were all cover songs. [Edit: just remembered the Velvet Underground reunion in MCMXCIII.]

The reunion album closest to my heart from this decade is God Help Us by The Embarrassment, so I was excited to see the recent announcement that an Embos documentary called We Were Famous, You Don't Remember will be released this year.  Dan Fetherston of The Oxford Collapse started filming it during The Embarrassment's second reunion in 2006, but it took another 15 years to bring the project to completion (with co-director Danny Szlauderbach). Last year, Last Laugh Records reissued The Embarrassment EP and Death Travels West on vinyl, cassette and digital formats.

Good Clean Holiday Fun with Pearl Harbour and Bonnie Hayes (Plus PUSHUPS and PUNTS)!

 

Exciting news for Pearl Harbour fans: her debut solo album (Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost Too) will soon be released on CD for the first time by Blixa Sounds. The remastered LP is already on streaming services, with bonus tracks including Pearl's Voodoo Voodoo single and the non-LP b-sides of her singles Fujiyama Mama and Cowboys & Indians.  

Blixa is the same label that put out Pearl Harbor And The Explosions on CD. Last week, Blixa gave Gun Club fans a long-overdue "sonic cleansing" of Miami with a bonus disc of 18 demos. 

Blixa has also reissued Good Clean Fun by Bonnie Hayes With The Wild Combo, coupled with their Brave New Girl EP and The Punts' 1981 single. You may remember Bonnie's 1982 LP on Slash Records, or her songs "Girls Like Me" and "Shelly's Boyfriend" from the movie Valley Girl. 

Bonnie Hayes wrote two of the biggest hits on Bonnie Raitt's smash Nick Of Time album, and the title track of Adam Ant's Wonderful. Bonnie's first band, The Punts,  played some of the same SF clubs as Pearl Harbor And The Explosions.

Last but not least, Pushups Is Pop will be released on vinyl by Hozac Records later this month -- yet another San Francisco treat to ask Santa to bring ya. On Dasher, on Dancer, on Hozac and Blixa!

SAN FRANCISCO PUNK/POP: The (Aurora) Pushups

In 2011, Larry Livermore (founder of Lookout! Records) wrote a lengthy blog entry about the Pushups, a San Francisco band from the late 70's.  The group (originally called the Aurora Pushups) released two singles, and their song "Play On" was on the Rising Stars Of San Francisco compilation LP.  

More recently, the Pushups' song "Victims Of Terrorism" appeared on Black Hole, Jon Savage's compilation of California punk bands, and "Global Corporation" was included on a Bloodstains comp of rare punk tracks.

Friends, fans, family and band members of the band reconnected through comments posted on Livermore's blog. SF musician Rick Maymi (whose uncle is Pushups singer/songwriter Ed Dorn) announced this month that the Pushups tapes have been baked, and he's looking for a label to release a 2LP anthology. There's a Facebook page now for the Pushups.

Explosive News from Pearl E. Gates!

The debut album by Pearl Harbor & The Explosions will be released TOMORROW (April 12) for the first time on CD!

In addition to remastered tracks of the band’s first and only album, the CD will include rare bonus material from the original "Drivin" single on 415 Records, as well as a non-LP B-Side, live material, a 1979 radio spot, and a 16 page booklet.

The CD will be released by Blixa Sounds, the label that put out a three disc set by Robin Lane & The Chartbusters last month.

A listening party will be held at the Phone Booth Bar in San Francisco this Sunday, April 14th at 6pm (no cover charge).  Peter Bilt, Hilary Stench and Pearl herself promise to be there!

I will get back to sharing music soon.  I've been working on several ideas for new posts, but I haven't actually finished any of them yet.