Weird and Sinister Bands of the 1980s

[Sam]

More and more good things appear this thread, I heartily approve.

Another favorite weird and sinister band from back then is The Flesh Eaters.



"A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die" is wonderfully atmospheric and creepy. The sax and marimbas really make the sound... River of Fever can still raise the hairs on my arms, so good. The line-up on this release is amazing, but as I found out, very changeable. I bought a later release with the dubious title "Sex Diary of Mr. Vampire" based purely on how much I liked the older record, and was seriously disappointed. Except for main man Chris D., everyone else was different, and it sounded nothing at all like the creep-fest I was expecting.

This is a snippet of River of Fever live in 1981.

YouTube - FLESHEATERS LIVE 1981 Hollywood

You can also stream the entire "A Minute To Pray..." album free on (sorry) MySpace. Very much worth your attention, I think.

[paeng]

Exploited

YouTube - Exploited - Sex And Violence

[The Silent One]

Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Coleman

I just recently started listening to Skullflower's music. Great band. I love the music of some of the contemporary bands Matthew Bower collaborates with, such as Vibracathedral Orchestra and Double Leopards. I've been meaning to mention the band Dome here. Dome was a project of Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis from the band Wire. (Dome 3 cover) 'VDOANDSOUND' from the Mutant Sounds blog wrote the following about Dome: "this post-Wire crew hold a very specific and special place in the pantheon of the greats for me, having for some three plus hours soundtracked perhaps the strangest acid trip of my life, an event that left both my bandmate in VDO and myself permanently shattered and in thrall to their higher key sonic hallucinations for life. That the work of Dome to this day remains in the shadow of their far less significant and radical work in Wire speaks for the truly occult nature of the mode of operation Dome manifested, something I'd rate on par with the likes of This Heat for life-altering significance, but it's also music that doesn't immediately reveal it's truly sick psychotropic heart of darkness under the cold rational light of day or the casual perusal." the rest is here: http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/20...ecific-in.html The Trouser Press guide on Dome: "During Wire's lengthy hiatus (1980 to 1986), bassist Graham Lewis and guitarist B.C. (Bruce) Gilbert continued their partnership — often under the name Dome — to explore the outer reaches of studio technique and synthetic sound, sidestepping Wire's arcane hitmaking tendencies and Colin Newman's more classical aspirations." http://trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=dome I looked for a myspace page or youtube video for Dome, but I couldn't find anything (maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, though). If you look around on google, you can probably find downloads of some of their music.

Dome are fantastic. While I am somewhat more infatuated with Wire themselves, nearly any Gilbert/Lewis collaboration tends to inspire my respect on first listen.

Speaking of which: No Wire thread?!

[shivering]

Add (pre-Microphonies) Cabaret Voltaire, Chrome, Coil, Der Plan, HNAS, Nash the Slash, SPK (Leichenschrei) and Suicide to the growing Seventies/ Eighties list.

I agree with recommending Skullflower and would like to further suggest, by way of the Nineties, Scorn, God, Lull, Keiji Haino/Fu####susha, Lycia/ Bleak and Vermonster (their Spirit of Yma is a looser Skullflower, sort of).

And NOT to forget Diamanda Galas, Lustmord and Steven Stapleton/Nurse With Wound....who are truly essential and amazing.

Apologies for the list-y intrusion.

[The Silent One]

Quote Originally Posted by shivering

Add (pre-Microphonies) Cabaret Voltaire, Chrome, Coil, Der Plan, HNAS, Nash the Slash, SPK (Leichenschrei) and Suicide to the growing Seventies/ Eighties list. I agree with recommending Skullflower and would like to further suggest, by way of the Nineties, Scorn, God, Lull, Keiji Haino/Fu####susha, Lycia/ Bleak and Vermonster (their Spirit of Yma is a looser Skullflower, sort of). And NOT to forget Diamanda Galas, Lustmord and Steven Stapleton/Nurse With Wound....who are truly essential and amazing. Apologies for the list-y intrusion.

Good, interesting choices. H.N.A.S., in particular, are too often ignored by just about everyone. Admittedly not too familiar with Lycia or Vermonster, though.

Lilliput... I've been meaning to check them out. The little I have heard is definitely to the "weird" end of things. In the same vein, may I suggest Androids Of Mu? Their LP Blood Robots is utterly insane and enjoyable, with some truly outré moments thrown into a roiling stew of quirky, unstable pop-punk. Like This Heat, The Delta 5, and The Mekons in a musical car accident; ergo, excellent. To boot, you can find it sans hassle on the Web with a few keystrokes...