Burl Veneer’s Music Blog

Ghostland Observatory: sometimes the hype is right

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sat, 03 May 2008 06:14:33 -0700

Ghostland Observatory seem poised to be this year's Big Thing, leading to overexposure and backlash, but a month after listening to their new album, Robotique Majestique, I still have several of the melodies and choruses running through my head. ...

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Pretty Poison: in the beginning

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:31:48 -0800

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

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:21:23 -0800

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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Not-so-lost 80s: Trees

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:48:17 -0800

I've had Trees' only album, Sleep Convention, tucked away in my collection awaiting the day that I would rip it to mp3 and spread its 1982 synthpop wonderfulness throughout the world. Somebody beat me to it, though (The Subersive Sounds, back in ...

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

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:16:24 -0800

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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Lost and found

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:26:24 -0800

It was a fantastic weekend for finding long-lost songs: I found two! The first is "The Child in Me" by Philadelphia band Stranger to Stranger (1983-1992). Released in 1985 as a 12-inch single, it became a staple on WHFS, even after its transform...

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Sheffield continued: The Human League

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 06:45:07 -0700

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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Survival Records Redux: Play

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 03:43:52 -0700

Update: Oops, I screwed up! The song I meant to post was "This Little Girl," but instead I posted "Chasing the Sun," which is the instrumental version of "This Little Girl." Both phrases are lyrics from the song, so I got confused. I've correct...

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Lost synthpop classic: Do It

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:17:38 -0700

Back in the 80s, the Survival Records label always seemed to do more with less. Their releases were mostly synthpop, a la Mute Records, but the instruments they used seemed even cheaper. They still got great beats, melodies, and arrangements ou...

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Joe Crow, and a brief hiatus

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 20:22:32 -0700

Is there anyone who bought the 1982 Cherry Red sampler LP Pillows & Prayers and didn't fall in love with Joe Crow's "Compulsion"? If you didn't, you must have been some kind of curmudgeon, but that's cool. Ridiculously simple (Joe uses the synth...

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