Burl Veneer’s Music Blog

Lost 80s: Way of the West

2008-04-27T14:29:24Z

I've been saving up my Way of the West singles for eventual ripping; they were another English band who were a minor staple on the WHFS of the original new wave era, usually represented by their song "Don't Say That's Just For White Boys." I alwa...

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Pretty Poison: in the beginning

2008-02-16T01:31:48Z

Staying with the 80s theme of the last post but traveling a couple hours up I-95 to Phildelphia, here's Pretty Poison from their 1983 4-song EP Laced: More electronic toms, yeah! In the fall of 1982 I was a freshman in college, and somehow I qu...

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Baltimore "new wave" -- Growing Up Different

2008-02-13T02:21:23Z

My old chum Platters That Matter Records just had a great batch of records on ebay; it was unsold stock from legendary Rockville record store Yesterday and Today, much of which was in turn unsold stock from Baltimore's legendary Music Machine (whi...

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Ghosts of high school: Japan

2008-02-07T02:06:16Z

I rarely remember to search for my old favorites on YouTube, so it often happens that I happen upon them while blog surfing. That's how I just turned up a couple lip-synching performances by Japan of the first song I ever heard by them, "Ghosts."...

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Pounding the floor with Radio 4

2008-02-05T04:35:12Z

The whole "new wave of new wave" fad has been fun, with bands emulating the sounds of the Clash, Gang of Four, The Cure, Duran Duran, Joy Division, etc. Brooklyn's Radio 4 is one of the best, putting forth a mix of the Clash and Gang of Four, spr...

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Standing Waves stir up memories

2008-01-11T23:25:22Z

I haven't thought of Standing Waves for 25 years, but they just turned up in a blog post on The Post Punk Progressive Party and took my mind back to 1982: I was a freshman at Johns Hopkins, and like many Hopkins males had started attending parties...

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Radiohead reminds me of Simple Minds

2008-01-04T12:15:20Z

Back in 2003, Radiohead fan Mrs. Veneer got me a little on board the Radiohead bandwagon by steering me toward a handful of songs that were near-perfect matches for my personal music receptors (Airbag, Electioneering, Idioteque). So I picked up H...

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Poor Foghat

2007-12-01T07:29:17Z

The 80s arrived and Foghat realized they were dinosaurs; at least Lonesome Dave Peverett, the brains of the operation, did. After 1980's forgettable Tight Shoes, featuring one of the worst album covers ever, they returned in 1981 with their stab ...

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Lost 80s: Kissing the Pink (ripping again!)

2007-11-07T04:16:24Z

Woo-hoo, I just got a new phono preamp, and a big old desk, so now I have my turntable hooked up to my PC and for the first time since 2002 I can rip tunes from vinyl again! It took a bit of doing; apparently the RCA audio input jacks on my Gatew...

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Sheffield continued: The Human League

2007-11-03T13:45:07Z

The Human League was the first Sheffield band I ever heard: switching radio stations to WHFS in 1982 to check out the "new wave," "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of" is one of the songs that made me a convert. That wacky synth playing under the ...

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