80S GLASGOW
Glasgow, Scotland had a rad music scene. The British Isles were post-punk rich by the early 1980's and the birth of New Wave made way musical progression as glam rock influenced on goth rock and "newer" guitar styles were used with a ton of synthesizer. It was a breeding ground for experimentation and the media was paying attention. Pop music was also well loved by a lot of these musicians, and mixing post-punk with pop hooks created quite the sub-sub-genre chaos. (Photo above from Harry Papadopoulos's photography show of the Scottish post-punk scene.)
1. ORANGE JUICE
The charming darlings of Postcard Records was Orange Juice. Outside of their amazingly catchy shit, singer/guitarist Edwyn Collins had producer aspirations which kept his project (and name) tight with the musical community. Orange Juice's compilation Glasgow School is a great mix of their rowdy early recordings, clearing a view of where they came from and the transition between Buzzcocks-influenced post-punk to the ever popular (and poppy) jam "Rip It Up".
2. STRAWBERRY SWITCHBLADE
Strawberry Switchblade was a synthpop project with ties to Orange Juice. Fronted by two goth girls with saccharine-sweet voices and diary tales of love lost, their fantastical playfulness and tragic romance matched their frills and polka dotted attire (it's safe to safe that psychedelic artist Yayoi Kusama was an influence). The Cure for wayward school girls, SS has recently made a reoccurring appearance on many Tumblr sites. Regardless of their fashionable appeal, this group is a true New Wave gem. Their full length is fun but their BBC cuts and demos are the real diamond in the rough.
Also receiving a recent rediscovery is the amazing indie pop band The Wake. Similar to New Order (who they also toured with) but less club derivative, they thankfully recorded many albums and singles for the world to enjoy and their emotive chord progressions helped fuel "dreampop" to come. Wild Nothing was obviously influenced by them and even covered one of their songs.
4. POSITIVE NOISE
Positive Noise were of the traditional post-punk variety and only around for a minute in the early '80s. I can find little about them but The Same Mistakes blog has a good post about their record, worth checking out if you're into tribal drums, atmospheric keys, disco beats, Gothy choruses (albeit the record is semi-goofy at times). They are a cross between moody and dark Joy Division, glammy Bauhaus and sassy Magazine (not Sassy magazine though!), a school of sounds already established and not particularly within the developing Glasgow vibe from that time period. However "Ghosts" and "And Yet Again" has elements of the dancy but dreamy indie pop sound that can be seen with other Glasgow bands of that time frame.
Altered Images were mostly known for their song "Happy Birthday" (which was featured on John Hughes' Sixteen Candles soundtrack). It's funny though... of all the songs they have, their most popular is probably their most boring. Altered Images catalog is full of a wide array of sometimes perky, sometimes forlorn, sometimes post-punk discordant and sometimes sweet pop songs. Kewpie doll cute vocals provided by Clare Grogan mix well with the simplicity of Altered Image's quirky minimalist guitar and bass. Even when they swing between the sweet to fierce, dreamy to dancy - they were a truly versatile band yet always sounded like themselves. Happy Birthday is a great record as well as their second release, Pinky Blue.
6. SIMPLE MINDS
Simple Minds are a huge New Wave band, period. They started in Glasgow but became so huge with their synth-ed out dance jams that they ended up playing stadiums and shit. Definitely in no way an indie pop band, they are still worth noting due to the time frame, location and how much their bass player took cues from the post punk sound. Simple Minds incorporated many elements used around them into a more glittery and glammy package, well aimed for commercial success. John Hughes used their song, "Don't You Forget About Me", for the soundtrack of The Breakfast Club, stapling a huge hit for Simple Minds around the world. If you play them in a gay bar really late at night when everyone is optimally wasted, I have no doubts that the dance floor would get pretty saucy. A much better alternative to U2 or Duran Duran for sure.
Another indie poppish band from Glasgow worth mentioning is preppy poppettes Aztec Camera. Not my favorite despite singer Roddy Frame's beautiful voice but as conjurers of very bright tunes, they were very well loved and shared much of the Glasgow scene's limelight.
8. JESUS & MARY CHAIN
Jesus and Mary Chain are one of the more well known Glasgow bands from the mid-'80s. A whole different beast from others on this list, tons and tons has been written about this legendary group and they are probably best kept for an individual post all together. So in short... their career spanned almost 20 years and Psychocandy (1985) is one of the most highly revered records from the '80s, adored by many fans of the indie rock persuasion and music critics alike. They flawlessly fused different styles of music (surf, industrial, folk, Goth, pop) to make their own sounds and the list of bands influenced by them in the '90s and onward is huge. (And back on that film tip, Sofia Coppola created a quite sentimental cinematic moment to "Just Like Honey" for the ending of 'Lost in Translation', the soundtrack re-amping the group's popularity for a much larger audience.)
9. THE PASTELS
Like Jesus and Mary Chain, The Pastels also remained quite active in the '90s but started in the early/mid-'80s, another huge indie rock influence but with less commercial success. With male and female members (as many '80s indie bands had during that time frame), their dual vocals became a popular element of prettier underground pop music, perhaps helping to create the "twee pop" sound to come. The Pastels seem to have had quite an effect on indie rock (despite their dislike of the term), were big Velvet Underground fans and very supportive of their scene. There's a great interview on Twee.net discussing their musical journey and relations with other beloved bands.
Also perfecting the male-female vocal balance, The Vaselines highly influenced future indie pop and indie rock, too. This original twee-pop outfit didn't have a ton of material, but what material they do have is much loved. Nirvana re-popularized them for kids everywhere in the '90s with their awesome Vaselines' covers ("Molly's Lips", "Son of a Gun" and "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For a Sunbeam" - a total of 3 covers of one band, practically against the rules). Eugene Kelly and James Seenan were in a synth pop band called Secession before they went on to form Vaselines (check out "Touch" is a greatttt song). Glad they moved on from synth pop and started their own thing.
11. PRIMAL SCREAM
Another band who started in early/mid '80s but went on to a more '90s career is Primal Scream. They ended up more a club music sort of band, but their early recordings are very twee, very similar to many Glasgow bands around the same time. Considering the sound they are known for the '90s, it's sort of weird to think they used to be dreamy and cute indie pop once before.
A bit later on during the late-'90s birth of indie rock, Glasgow's Belle and Sebastian were bringing back the Scottish indie pop sound and now there's a whole slew of new indie pop bands we just thought had an original sound for a while because we didn't know better in 2002. (;
LINKS:
- Sound of Young Scotland blog
- 1980's Scottish Pop music
- Article about Postcard Records
- The Sound of Young Scotland: A Bluffer's Guide
- Scot-Rock primer
Share story
0 comments:
Post a Comment