The History of Rock Music: 1976-1989
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The History of Rock Music: 1976-1989 New Wave, Punk-rock, Hardcore History of Rock Music | 1955-66 | 1967-69 | 1970-75 | 1976-89 | The early 1990s | The late 1990s | The 2000s | Alpha index Musicians of 1955-66 | 1967-69 | 1970-76 | 1977-89 | 1990s in the US | 1990s outside the US | 2000s Back to the main Music page (Copyright © 2009 Piero Scaruffi) Psychedelic Underground and Dream-pop (These are excerpts from my book "A History of Rock and Dance Music") Paisley Underground 1982-87 The "American Graffiti" phenomenon of the early Seventies, and the subsequent appropriation of the Sixties by the new wave, caused a revival of many of the styles of that happy decade. By far the most pervasive and long-lived was the revival of psychedelia, that kept recurring throughout the Eighties and the Nineties. Los Angeles had its own movement, the "Paisley Underground". Psychedelia became merely a pretext to concoct baroque, oneiric and hypnotic sounds, often with the help of keyboards and strings. Byrds-ian jangling guitars and naive melodies a` la Hollies dominate Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (feb/mar - oct 1983) by Rain Parade (1), with Matt Piucci on vocals and Dave Roback on guitar, as well as the EP Baroque Hoedown (fall 1982 - dec 1982) and the album Sixteen Tambourines (? 1983 - oct 1983) by Mike Quercio's Three O'Clock (1). Needless to say, the Paisley Underground was only the tip of the iceberg. The Dream Syndicate (12), formed by guitarists Steve Wynn and Karl Precoda and bassist Kendra Smith, acted as the natural liaison between Television (and the new wave in general) and the new generation of psychedelic rockers. Their first album, The Days Of Wine And Roses (sep 1982 - oct 1982), conveyed, more than anything else, the synthesis of Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground that had been the hidden theme of the new wave. Echoes of the Rolling Stones, the Stooges and the Doors increased the hellish atmospheres of Wynn's confessional trips. While Wynn was lost in his existential panic, Precoda and Smith lifted the music to a majestic level. When Smith left, the "acid" quotient dropped, and the band opted for the quieter jamming of Medicine Show (? 1983/? 1984 - may 1984), a presage of the new sound of Out Of The Grey (? 1986 - jun 1986), reminiscent of Neil Young's neurotic country-rock; but Wynn was still the only songwriter capable of making his lyrics bleed. Ghost Stories (? 1988 - sep 1988) closed the semicircle by almost embracing R.E.M.'s folk-rock. The combination of abrasive guitars, dramatic tension and crude realism coined a language that would inspire countless bands of the 1980s. Edited and updated in 2010 by Rocco Stilo One of the most original bands to come out of Los Angeles during those fervent years was Savage Republic (13), led by guitarist Bruce Licher. Tragic Figures (mar 1982 - jun 1982) introduced a psychedelic and industrial music that was mostly instrumental and percussive, inducing trance and fear. The EP Trudge (dec 1984/aug 1985 - jan 1986) incorporated more explicitly elements of world-music. The atmospheric Ceremonial (dec 1985 - jan 1986) and Jamahiriya Democratique Et Populaire De Sauvage (? ? - feb 1988), featuring new member Brad Laner, perfected their synthesis of psychedelic drones, middle-eastern cantillation and tribal rhythms. By the time of Customs (nov 1988 - dec 1989), their last album and their masterpiece, they had coined a musical language of extreme tension, instrumental subtlety and exotic appeal. They also spawned the equally bizarre 17 Pygmies (folk-pop ballads and exotic instrumentals). After the split, members of Savage Republic would form other creative and influential bands such as Scenic (Licher) and Medicine (Laner). The Paisley Underground fostered a generation of psych-poppers that emerged around 1984-85: the Droogs, already veterans of the scene but revealed only by Stone Cold World (? 1984 - ? 1984), Russ Tolman's True West, with the EP Hollywood Holiday (jan/aug 1983 - ? 1983) and the album Drifters (jun 1984 - ? 1984), Arizona-based Yard Trauma, with Must've Been Something (? 1985 - ? 1985), the Steppes, with Stewdio (? 1987 - early 1988), etc. Rain Parade's guitarist David Roback and Dream Syndicate's bassist Kendra Smith formed Opal to paint the ethereal watercolors of the EP Northern Line (feb/oct 1985 - dec 1985), an idea that Kendra Smith (1) would pursue again with the lyrical post-Nico odes of Guild Of Temporal Adventurers (dec 1991 - ? 1992). The recordings by Drowning Pool, such as the double album Satori (? 1987 - ? 1987), straddled the line between new wave, psychedelia, ambient, industrial and world-music. A more melodramatic style was experimented by Shiva Burlesque, featuring Grant Lee Phillips on guitar, on Shiva Burlesque (spr/sum 1987 - ? 1987). Revival, 1983-88 On the East Coast, the psychedelic revival began with new wave bands such as Jeff Conolly's Lyres, out of Boston, and albums such as their On Fyre (summer 1983 - jul 1984), manically intent on reproducing the sounds of the Sixties. Only a few years later, for example on Lyres Lyres (feb/jun 1986 - oct 1986), did these bands develop an original style that went beyond mere revival. Ditto for New York's neo-psychedelic bands, which gave their best albums well into the 1980s, when the fad was beginning to die out: Plan 9, with Dealing With The Dead (? 1983 - 1983), Certain General, with November's Heat (nov 1983 - ? 1984), the Fuzztones, with Lysergic Emanation (? 1984 - ? 1985), the Chesterfield Kings, with Stop! (? 1985 - ? 1985), the Vipers, with Outta The Nest (? 1984 - ? 1984), the Cheepskates, etc. These bands, and their audience, were mainly interested in a fetishist recreation of retro` cliches. Their greatest merit is that they helped rediscover great lost bands of the Sixties such as Standells, Chocolate Watchband, Music Machine, Count Five, Sonics and so forth. Their favorite psychedelic sound was the wild and raw sound of the garages, not the trippy sound of Grateful Dead concerts or the intellectual sound of the Doors. One of the most creative (not just derivative) neo-psych band of the time was Das Damen (2). They reworked the grammar of the genre on Jupiter Eye (nov 1986 - ? 1987) by Edited and updated in 2010 by Rocco Stilo matching acid-rock distortions, heavy-metal riffs, hardcore frenzy and gloomy atmospheres, while Triskaidekaphobe (? ? - apr 1988) was a calmer effort that employed the lighter calligraphy of early Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett. Wisconsin's Plasticland (1) proved their mastery of Swinging London's idioms on Color Appreciation, later reissued as self-titled (? 1982/? ? - jun 1984) and its replicas, Wonder Wonderful Wonderland (? 1985 - dec 1985) and Salon (? 1987 - ? 1987). Chicago's Eleventh Dream Day (3), led by Rick Rizzo and Janet Bean (also in Freakwater), were unique in the way they fused baroque psychedelia and roots-rock. The savage garage-rock of Prairie School Freakout (jul 1987 - oct 1988), still influenced by the new wave (for example, the Television-like guitar interplay), was soon abandoned for the warm, "rootsy", domestic simplicity of Beet (jun 1989 - nov 1989). The poppy, albeit bleak, Lived To Tell (summer 1990 - jan 1991) and its mediocre successors, El Moodio (oct 1992 - apr 1993) and Ursa Major (? 1994 - ? 1994), perfected Rizzo's formula, up to the manneristic zenith of Eighth (? 1996 - feb 1997). 27 Various, featuring guitarist Ed Ackerson, progressed from a raw psychedelic sound to the sprightly power-pop of Yes Indeed (? ? - spring 1989). Sacrilege, 1984-88 The counterbalance to the psychedelic necrophilia that swept the States in the early 1980s was a similar revival, but one focused on the wild, raw and amateurish sound of Sixties' garage-rock. Jerry Teel's Honeymoon Killers (11) were the greatest disciples of the Cramps in New York. They debuted with From Mars (? ? - ? 1984), which exhibited an even more grotesque and amateurish version of Cramps-ian voodoobilly, but progressed to the orgiastic pow-wows of Love American Style (? 1985 - ? 1985), which was even beyond the Cramps: rockabilly, blues, garage-rock, punk-rock, gothic hard-rock and acid-rock were packed into explosive units that created a visceral crescendo of suspense. Let It Breed (? 1986 - ? 1986) was a more respectful tribute to their musical roots, but the addition of Cristina Martinez turned Turn Me On (? 1987 - jan 1988) into an even bigger paradox of vitriolic guitars and epileptic rhythms. Finally, a new line-up helped Teel mold his masterpiece, Hung Far Low (? 1991 - ? 1991), on which his adrenaline-drenched hyper-kinetic imagination is matched by a thick, dense, black wall of sound. Sprinkled with radical moves that evoke Pop Group's primordial rituals as well as Chrome's post- apocalyptic ravages, these demonic bacchanals found, nonetheless, order in chaos and linearity in cacophony. Rather than the Cramps, the reference model was the Stooges via Pussy Galore (a group that was always close to Teel). Also in New York, the Workdogs used "voodoobilly" to express teen angst on Roberta (? ? - ? 1988); and in Michigan Elvis Hitler let their Cramps-ian instincts loose on Hellbilly (? 1989 - nov 1989); while in North Carolina the Flat Duo Jets resurrected rockabilly, Boston's Men & Volts (1) were among the most original garage-groups. Their acid/surreal Hootersville (? ? - ? 1983) fell halfway between Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart. Oregon's Miracle Workers, with Inside Out (? 1985 - ? 1985), and Dead Moon, Pennsylvania's Cynics, with Blue Train Station (jun/jul 1986 - ? 1986), Boston's Dogmatics, with Thayer St. (? 1984 - ? 1984) and Ohio's Wolverton Brothers were among the most evil of the new garage-rockers. Edited and updated in 2010 by Rocco Stilo A few of them could outdo the masters of the 1960s. The Gibson Bros (1) in Ohio, led by guitarist Don Howland and vocalist Jeff Evans, were natural heirs of the Cramps and Pussy Galore on the blues and rockabilly bacchanals of Big Pine Boogie (? 1987 - ? 1987), which is mainly covers, and especially on Dedicated Fool (? 1989 - ? 1989).