Philadelphia Punk Rock Lives/The Bunnydrums
Yes, I call myself the The New Wave Diva. But believe it or not, I actually like a lot of punk rock. Perhaps a topic I’ll explore in depth in a future post.
Jokingly, not long after I started spinning at Sex Dwarf in 2003, I appointed the moniker to myself. It wasn’t just about marketing as it was simply affirming my love and authority of knowledge of the genre. Of course I remember New Wave when it was ‘new’. I was a wee lass, but it was hard to escape it on the radio and MTV in the early ’80s. Both of which I was never too far from. I must have terrorized my parents; I always wanted to have music on.
As I’ve gotten older, I have grown to have a greater respect and passion for the music. There’s just nothing quite like it.
Top 50 New Wave Songs Of All Time
So, I was doing some web surfing and stumbled upon this article that was posted in 2009 on NPR. The Top 50 New Wave songs were compiled by New York’s WFDU (Fairleigh Dickinson University’s radio station).
1. Joy Division – Love Will tear Us Apart
2. Siouxsie & The Banshees – Christine
3. The Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
4. Ultravox – Vienna
5. Romeo Void – Never Say Never
6. The Smiths – Bigmouth Strikes Again
7. Echo And The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
8. Gary Numan – Cars
9. New Order – Blue Monday
10. The B-52’s – Rock Lobster
11. Talking Heads – Psycho Killer
12. Peter Godwin – Images Of Heaven
13. New Order – Temptation
14. Icicle Works – Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)
15. Gang Of Four – To Hell With Poverty
16. The Stranglers – Skin Deep
17. John Foxx – Underpass
18. Martha And The Muffins – Echo Beach
19. The Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet
20. Yaz – Don’t Go
21. The Specials – Ghost Town
22. The Psychedelic Furs – Heaven
23. Split Enz – I Got You
24. The Chameleons U.K. – Swamp Thing
25. Tom Tom Club – Wordy Rappinghood
26. Depeche Mode – Shake The Disease
27. Visage – Fade To Grey
28. Berlin – The Metro
29. Alphaville – Forever Young
30. Blondie – Heart Of Glass
31. The English Beat – Mirror In The Bathroom
32. Duran Duran – Rio
33. The Flying Lizards – Money
34. XTC – Dear God
35. ABC – The Look Of Love (Part 1)
36. Q Feel – Dancing In Heaven (Orbital Bebop)
37. Altered Images – I Could Be Happy
38. The Boomtown Rats – Rat Trap
39. B-Movie – Nowhere Girl
40. Squeeze – Cool For Cats
41. The Cure – In Between Days
42. Depeche Mode – Just Can’t Get Enough
43. Devo – Whip It
44. Public Image Ltd. – Public Image
45. Erasure – Oh Lamour
46. Fruer – Doot Doot
47. Lene Lovich – Lucky Number
48. Bow Wow Wow – Do You Wanna Hold Me?
49. Heaven 17 – Let Me Go
50. China Crisis – Working With Fire And Steel
I have to say, I’m rather impressed with some of the selections on the list. Ultravox so high? Peter Godwin? Icicle Works? Q-Feel? Altered Images? B-Movie? China Crisis?! Awesome!
While I like every song on this list, I do have a few replacements:
Siouxsie – Spellbound
B-52’s – 52 Girls
Blondie – Hanging on the Telephone
Duran Duran – Planet Earth
XTC – Life Begins at the Hop
Erasure – Blue Savannah
Heaven 17 – Penthouse & Pavement
Where is The Human League? Adam Ant? Soft Cell? OMD? Thompson Twins? The Jam?
Anyways, what are your thoughts about this list? Would you add, replace, or remove any?
Happy 54th Birthday Peter Murphy!
I still get goosebumps when I think about seeing you in concert in 1998.
New Thomas Dolby album
Thomas Dolby is getting back into the electronic music making business. Thank the heavens! The man who basically created ‘steampunk’, has made his first album in 20 years!
A Map of the Floating City is based on a fictional world with a decidedly ‘dieselpunk’ aesthetic. The first two EPs, Amerikana and Oceanea, are available now. I haven’t checked them out yet. If you have, what did you think? Share with us!
There’s also an online trading game revolving around this fictional world, too. Could this guy get any cooler?
Anyways, read more about it on the sci-fi blog i09.
Experimental Products
I’ve been listening to SomaFM’s Underground 80s a lot lately. Absolutely brilliant! Except for playing Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes (WTF?!) on occasion, it is hands-down the best 80s new wave radio station on the Internet today.
The fact that they are Experimental Products fans and feature a few EP songs in the rotation is big ups in my book.
Several years ago, while spinning at Sex Dwarf, a guy comes up to the booth and hands me a 12″ record. Before I had a chance to properly thank him, he walked away. When I looked at it, I was floored.
A signed copy of Glowing in the Dark!!!
FYI: Pussy Galore was my old DJ name.
If you know anything about Experimental Products, you’ll know how rare this is. Having a signed copy?! Trust me, it’s one of my most treasured possessions!
If you don’t know who they are, listen to these tracks RIGHT NOW!
“Glowing in the Dark”
“RAM (Work The Beat)”
“Sweet Rejection”
My favorite song is “Modern Living”, but it’s not on YouTube. *sad face*
I hope you’re well wherever you are Michael Gross! I cannot thank you enough for what you’ve given me.
New Wave Blog Log
So in the process of blowing off the dust on this blog, I checked out the blog stats. To be expected, I wasn’t getting a whole lot of traffic because of lack of new content. But I noticed a new referring site and decided to check it out. I’m glad I did!
The New Wave Blog Log is just what it says it is: a chronological log of new posts from new wave blogs. I’m so happy someone took the time to do this! Now when I want to see the latest blog posts all in one place, I’ll just hit them up. I rarely use my Google Reader anymore. I’ve started using Twitter and Facebook for following my favorite blogs. The good ones have Twitter accounts and fan pages.
More than that, though, I’ve discovered some great new blogs! Thanks New Wave Blog Log!
Howard Jones
Howard Jones
It’s easy to overlook Howard Jones when you’re talking new wave music because he came to define the popular synthpop sound of the early and mid-80s. His first two albums, Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action, were chart-toppers and produced many radio and MTV hits. I’ve always enjoyed his music so I’m excited he’s coming to The Keswick Theatre in October playing those two albums in their entirety. Now if only he’d tour playing songs from his 2005 all-electronic album Revolution of the Heart! I adored that album.
Here are some of my favorite HoJo tracks…
“Natural”
“What Is Love?”
“Things Can Only Get Better”
“Look Mama”
80s Concerts in Philadelphia 2011
Holy crap! It’s a New Wave Diva blog post! I haven’t touched this blog in ages. I decided to “revive” it today to post about all the awesome concerts coming up over the next few months. 2011 has been and continues to be an incredible year for live shows by some of my favorite 80s bands. I’ve already seen Gang of Four and Echo & The Bunnymen this year. Coming soon is…
Sunday, August 7th – Berlin with Terri Nunn at World Cafe Live.
Thursday, September 8th – Erasure at the TLA
Wednesday, September 21st – The Human League w/ Men Without Hats at The Keswick Theatre
Thursday, September 22nd – OMD at the TLA
Thursday, October 20th – Howard Jones at The Keswick Theatre
I hate to say it, but I *might* have to miss The Human League/Men Without Hats show. It’s on a work night in the ‘burbs and the night before OMD. Not sure if I can survive back to back shows on work nights. I must be getting old! 😉
Model Worker
Occasionally, bands email me to introduce themselves and their music. Ingo from Model Worker emailed me using the subject line “New Wave is not dead” which is, of course, the tagline of this here (sadly neglected) little blog. It piqued my interest enough that I was sure to read the “pitch”. Which essentially was: “Check us out, we think you’ll like us.”
Their bio reads: “Model Worker are a four piece synth group from Chicago, formed in 2009. Created with an array of analog synthesizers, drum machines, and guitars, the sounds fall into the the New Wave / Synth Pop genre. The band has just released a new EP Squares & Triangles in late 2010. Check out model-worker.com for more information and some free downloads.”
I just listened to the 4 tracks and I gotta say they are rather catchy. It should appeal to any new wave, synthpop lovers out there. While the songs are bouncy enough, I think they beg to be remixed so to translate better for dance floors.
In any case, check out this group from Chicago. They’ll put a smile on your face by reminding you of a simpler time.
The New Wave Diva © 