Once again borrowing a page from the NCAA College Basketball 'March Madness' tournament, I have created an Ultimate Battle of Bands (classic rock, punk/new wave, soul, funk/R&B, metal, reggae, synth, grunge, rap etc.) ranked bracket of 64 artists/bands grouped into four 'Decades' categories.
Simply send a Comment (enter Name only in Name/URL 'Select profile' drop-down option) to this post with your selections, ie A) 1, 8, 5, 4, 6, 3, 7, 2 B) etc...
Note: Artist/Band has been placed in Decade of most significant musical impact (for those straddling more than one decade).
The winners for each round will be announced after each DEADLINE and Winners posted the following day. Then the voting continues..... until ONE Champion Artist/Band is Selected by Popular Vote.
After a tight even split of votes in the early going, clear favorites emerged in the end. Below are the winners (and margin of victory) of the four brackets, and the Final Four match-ups:
A) The Cure (64%) vs. D) Talking Heads (73%)
B) The Smiths (55%) vs. C) The Clash (64%)
The Final Four are all giants that left an indelible imprint during their heyday:
A) The Cure debuted in 1976 and Robert Smith created a series of dark, brooding records that planted the seed for goth rock. Top LP's included Three Imaginary Boys (1979), Head on the Door (1985) and Disintegration (1989). Controversial song 'Killing an Arab' was based on Camus classic novel 'The Stranger'.
B) The Smiths were another brooding, melancholy UK band that featured Morrissey, a celibate ironic crooner and Johnny Marr, guitarist extraordinaire. Formed in 1982 the band released five albums before disbanding in 1987, with high-points being 'Queen is Dead' LP and the haunting 'How Soon is Now' single.
C) The Clash were formed ironically after Joe Strummer saw the Sex Pistols in concert during 1976, but quickly became the definitive UK punk band. Hard rocking, passionate with a leftist political ideology, their motto was 'the only band that matters'. Musically the Clash evolved to explore dub reggae, rockabilly and soul/blues in their pinnacle 'London Calling' 2-LP record. 'Clampdown' and 'Guns of Brixton' still resonate.
D) Talking Heads got it's start early opening for the Ramones in the seminal CBGB punk club. David Byrne came from the art school New York scene, and brought theatrical intellectual edge to the band. And music that morphed from punk pop to a funk/R&B unique rhythmic hybrid. Ten LPs were released over a 12 year career, with the first four essential listening. 'Pyscho Killer' and 'Life During Wartime' are personal favorites.
Simply send a Comment (enter Name only in Name/URL drop-down option) to this post with your selections.
We are now down to the remaining Elite 8 bands, all influential in their own right. Several were near-unanimous selections, namely the Cure, Police, Clash and New Order. Depeche Mode came soooo close to upending the Ramones, but the last vote cast decided the winner!
Now for Round 3, the selections become that much more difficult but the actual voting process is simple: select one winner for each of the four brackets, ie
A) Cure vs Police
B) Ramones vs. Smiths
C) Clash vs. New Order
D) Sex Pistols vs. Talking Heads
Simply send a Comment (enter Name only in Name/URL drop-down option) to this post with your selections. As a reminder, when voting take into account the Band's legacy to the New Wave genre and their entire body of work.
The winners for Round 3 will be announced in this coming weekend, so DEADLINE is Friday April 11th, 10 pm EST.
The results for Battle New Wave Bands (Round 1) have been tallied and 32 core acts have been reduced to 16 worthy of consideration for little of Most Popular New Wave Band as selected by your Votes.
Simply send a Comment (enter Name only in Name/URL drop-down option) to this post with your selections, ie A) 1, 3 B) 1, 2 etc......
As a reminder, when voting take into account the Artist/Band's legacy to the New Wave genre and their entire body of work.
The winners for Round 2 will be announced in one weeks time, so DEADLINE is Sunday April 6th, 6 pm EST. Good Luck and make your VOTES Count!
The Votes are cast, and the winners of Battle of New Wave Bands Round 1 are tabulated below.
In the end, a baker's dozen UK bands advanced as well as three seminal New York acts that received their first breaks at CBGBs.
With early returns it appeared that Devo, Gary Numan, Billy Idol and Talk Talk were poised to upset their much higher seeded opponents. However the heavy final Sunday selections pushed them all out of contention.
Nonetheless, #6 Undertones advanced and #5 seeds Pretenders and Duran Duran won handily. The only unanimous choice was the Sex Pistols (perhaps due to relatively unknown Toronto punk opponent, the Diodes) with Police and Clash nearly perfect. However the match-ups in the 'Sweet Sixteen' Round 2 will been increasingly more difficult. Good Luck to all remaining New Wave Bands!!!
Borrowing a page from the NCAA College Basketball 'March Madness' tournament, I have created a Battle of New Wave bands (punk, synth, power pop, ska) ranked bracket of 32 artists/bands grouped into four 'concert venue' categories.
Simply send a Comment (enter Name only in Name/URL drop-down option) to this post with your selections, ie A) 1, 4, 3, 2 B) etc...
When voting take into account the Artist/Band's impact to the New Wave genre and entire body of work.
The winners for each round will be announced in a few weeks after enough votes are collected. Then the voting continues..... until ONE Champion New Wave Artist/Band is Selected by Popular Vote.
What a fantastic experience it was attending an ALL New Wave Night Club, as featured every first Saturday of the month at Late Bar, in Chicago while on company business.I was there specifically to check out a work colleague, Tarsis Lopez, who was the opening DJ for this popular New Wave event.
The Late Bar is well situated in a central Chicago neighborhood, and a select group of Tarsis guests were escorted to a private table at the front of the dance floor and large video screen.The bar itself was oddly shaped; reasonable space at the entrance, then a rather narrow passagewaythrough the bar on one side and washrooms on the other, opening up to a spacious rectangular dance area.This point will make sense later.
We arrived at 10:20pm, just into Tarsis’ varied selection of lesser known New Wave songs, as featured on his regular podcasts on www.AlternativeClassix.blogs.com.His DJ gig this night ran from 10pm-12:30am, then handing it over to seasoned DJDave Robertswith his more recognizable hits during his Planet Earth set until 5am into the morning (not the reason for name ‘Late Bar’,but rather the B-side for Duran Duran debut single ‘Planet Earth’). The difference with the DJ Tarsis set are the original videos to accompany the eclectic range of alternative classix music. Almost feels like one is in the comfort of home watching early MTV videos. Tarsis not only selects captivating less known songs, but even recognizable ones are enhanced by long forgotten ground-breaking videos (for that time!). I don't recall any other night clubs that pack this potent 1-2 sight and sound punch!
Over the course of the night, the crowd began to swell and dance to the original videos accompanying Tarsis’ interesting song selections.Distinct personalities began to emerge as we approached midnight.Goth Androgyny meets Wall Street Boomer, Rockabilly boy serenading Mohawk Punker babe, with Fifties bobbysoxer dancing by her lonesome.
I felt like an interloper into a secret underground society.Who were these characters and where did they come from?Age was not an issue.Older and younger were both singing/bopping to the same tunes. For some (the several that had obviously been around for the original first punk / new wave explosion in late 70s) it was as though Punk/New Wave had never gone away, and they got their weekly nostalgic fix here.For others (born too late, but likely introduced by older siblings or hip parents!), it was imagining a thrilling, creative, chaotic and rebellious time past, in a safe and fun setting.
Highlights of the Tarsis set were Magazine’s ‘the Light Pours out of Me’ (Wall Street Boomer favorite and excited that I too loved his song), Blancmange’s ‘Living On the Ceiling’ (ATTACHED video of Middle East setting is stunning) and a personal request, the Undertones ‘True Confessions’, in which I ran in circles around Goth Andro (as good a song as anything by the Ramones, in my humble opinion). Vee-Jay Tarsis Lopez - Set Listing
The Cure - 10:15 Saturday Night Depeche Mode - Everything Counts Duran Duran - New Religion Electronic - Disappointed Human League - Night People Tracy Thorn - It's All True Soft Cell – Bedsitter
Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling Magazine - The Light Pours Out of Me X-Ray Spex - Identity
Undertones – True Confessions Icehouse – Icehouse
Bryan Ferry - Limbo Tones on Tail - Performance
New Order - Everything's Gone Green
Erasure - Chains of Love
Eurythmics - Love Is A Stranger
Adam Ant - Ant Rap
Stone Roses - Fools Gold
Charlatans UK - The Only One I Know
Blur - Boys and Girls
Enjoying the Eurythmics video (L-R) Trish Troumpoucis, Christy Nolan, Tarsis Lopez
(Laura Grossman in background)
The DJ Roberts set began after midnight, and I discovered a fresh, modern song ‘Photographic’ from Depeche Mode’s debut LP.I was on the dancefloor with Tarsis work colleagues, and Trish knew the all the lyrics by heart, punctuated by the catchy refrain:
I take pictures Photographic pictures
Bright light, dark room Bright light, dark room
We were just getting into a groove; shouting, jumping and fist pumping to Depeche Mode and New Order’s ‘Temptation’:
Oh, you've got green eyes Oh, you've got blue eyes Oh, you've got grey eyes And I've never seen anyone quite like you before
Up, down, turn around Please don't let me hit the ground Tonight I think I'll walk alone I'll find my soul as I go home
Then I was told by the Late Bar Manager that I needed to stop jumping around as I had received complaints from others on the dancefloor , and that I posed a threat.REALLY, a 53 year old Canadian out-of-shape guy was a threat to 20 and 30 something wannabes???I was insulted!!!I lived that exciting late 70s era before the majority of these poseurs were even born.I perfected pogo dancing in my day.LOL!!!
When I finally calmed down, I realized the layout of Late Bar, with its narrow access posed a huge fire security risk.This was on the heels of the devastating nightclub fire in Brazil.OK, I got it.This wasn’t personal after all.But my night was done at this point.I waited for Tarsis and followed him out of bar as Talking Heads ‘Life During Wartime’ was playing;
This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, This ain't no fooling around No time for dancing, or lovey dovey, I ain't got time for that now
An ironic but fitting end to a spectacular evening of fantastic New Wave music in Chicago!!!
Post – Script:A Late Bar waiter was inquiring from Tarsis about the guy who had been jumping around the dancefloor.His comment was that he had not seen such a high energy level at the bar in a long time!
