10 Songs From Bands I Couldn't Otherwise Care Less About

[Zzzptm]

KDC is right, that is a catchy tune. And I, too, know nothing else about The Gin Blossoms.

The Crabby Appleton tune sounds like Mountain meets The Doors kinda sorta. Fun fact is that both of their albums were critically acclaimed and went nowhere.

Here's my first entry into the field:

The year is 1966 and there's LOTS of acid everywhere, including Austin, Texas. That's where Roky Erickson and The 13th Floor Elevators were doing their thing:

I got the album this came from and its follow up and while there are many OK songs on them, none of them hit me the way this tune did. This tune in particular got bands like R.E.M. and other indies a huge musical inspiration. I love playing it and don't need the rest of their work. Roky Erickson kept turning up here and there, Syd Barrett style, due to his in-and-out relationship with mental hospitals and law enforcement. Quite a character, he passed away in 2019.

[Vyn]

A long time ago, first pressings of their first two albums fetched a tidy sum. Someone decided that making fake copies of all International Artists records was a good thing to do, and they flooded the collector's market, driving the price of the originals up even more.

The prices have gone down a lot judging from what I just looked up.

And just like Zz, I only care about that one song lol.

[Charger]

My first pick goes to the 80s!

Sandra - (I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena

I'm not sure when I first heard this one...probably in the 90s...but I am fairly certain it was before my introduction to Heavy Metal. Must have been on the radio.
The vocal melody on this one is gold and the song is quite catchy as well.
I don't think I've ever even really heard anything else from this german singer. I know she released few more albums in the 80s and actually has been somewhat active since releasing albums every now and then...
But I think you can officially call her a one hit wonder!

Fun fact this made it to #1 on Finland's official single's chart back in 1985!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I rather liked all three of those. Very much of their time... that Sandra song could only have been from the mid-80s. I half expected Morten Harket to start singing!

[Zzzptm]

^^ THAT IS SO 80s!!! OMG!!! The polo shirts! The jackets with pushed-up sleeves! The pony tail off to one side! The big earrings! The one gloved hand! The synths! The lighting! The drum sounds! The echo effects!

Put me right back in my junior-senior years in high school, nice nostalgia.

For my second entry, I give you "Complex World" by The Young Adults:

Yes, it was used as the intro credits music for the film Complex World, all about an iconic Providence, Rhode Island rock and roll club and the nefarious forces trying to blast it to kingdom come. The song comes up later in the film, right when everything gets blown up. The film itself is not ruined by my giving away the ending. It's pretty clear everyone's doomed from the get-go. What's wild is how raw the film is, like it's almost... not even got a budget...

For me, the film is much better when I don't watch it and The Young Adults are a fine party band, but it's only that one song of theirs that really stood out to me and was playable over and over.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Choice number 2

Adam & The Ants - Dog Eat Dog

(While this video says it's "Live in Manchester" it looks like a mimed performance in a TV studio... like Top of the Pops)

1980, and The New Romantics first emerged in the UK. Adam and the Ants were the first to make it really big... but after their first few singles they turned to garbage with poncy pop songs. Anyway this was the best of their early songs, and I still rather like it.

I'm familiar with a lot of their output and apart from the early stuff I wouldn't give it another listen.

[Charger]

Okay my second pick is going to be bit more recent and bit more to our genre of music.

IN THIS MOMENT - The In-Between

I first heard this song on Radio Rock during the late night jukebox and was instantly like "What is this!??! Sounds awesome!" That singer has some serious presense. So it took me a while to find out the band...I had heard about them but never checked them out. So now I was like wow! This is pretty great I need to check them out! And I did...and I was horribly dissapointed! Didn't really find another song I truly liked.
But Maria Brink does have a hell of a voice and she uses it quite differently from most singers in metal.

I still really really really like this song and it pains me that I couldn't find more stuff from In This Moment that touched me like this one did...

[Charger]

I smell a little bit of Jefferson Airplane in that 13th Floor Elevators song...something about that guitar sound...
That's also a good canditate for that screaming or yelling thing that we talked about at one point for the intro bit...Kind of a cool song though.

And Crabby Appleton! Oh man I swear I read it Crappy at first and was like huh!?

Adam & The Ants had their stage get-up going for sure!

[Vyn]

No. 2:

Monkey On Your Back - Aldo Nova

Always liked this tune's melody. Rest of his stuff is pretty blase.

[Zzzptm]

^ lol, I didn't include Aldo Nova because I like two of his songs!

[Vyn]

Oddly, I never got into his other hit.

I have never heard of the Young Adults or the In-Betweens...I HAVE heard that Sandra song before though. Yeah, 1987 is stamped all over that thing lol

Adam & The Ants. There was a time when I liked Mr. Ant. When he first hit the scene, and then he went one direction and I did not follow.

No 3:

Only song of his I enjoy, everything else he is popular for is pap. Admittedly I have never heard any of his entire albums except this one, because I bought it due to this song being awesome.

[Charger]

Gotta say Bryan Adams is a major yuck to me...and that song was no exception.


For my 3rd one I'm going back to the 80s again.

THE BANGLES - Walk Like An Egyptian

I can fully understand why this song was such a huuuuuge hit. Cause it really is an ear worm. But in a good way. The melody is nice, the vocals are great and the girls were pretty.
This is absolutely quintessentially 80s again. And lot of the stuff back then was either great or horrible. This falls in to the great department for sure.
But I tried and I tried but couldn't really get into any of their other stuff...there are few songs that I found okay but nothing even came close to this one.

[Zzzptm]

Regarding Mr. Adams, I don't even like that one. But at least he's tolerable when he shows up in the mix. The Bangles, though, I like a number of their tracks. Walk Like an Egyptian is 100% fun times, rock and roll for partying and not thinking too hard.

Now for my number three entrant...

I was teaching and one day the kids are all crazy about "the video with all the treadmills" and so I had to watch it...

And I thought, "Wow! I need more of these OK GO cats!"

Turns out, no, I just needed that one song with the treadmills. Best Do-It-Yourself video, hands down. The tune itself is catchy enough to be fun through the years.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Bryan Adams I'm no fan of, I quite like Summer of 69 and bought the album Reckless as a result ... turns out Summer of 69 was the only good song on the album... ho hum!

I loved the Bangles, I have their Different Light album... hot and talented, too many good songs to appear on my list.


Choice number 3 for me is

Elvis Presley - Always on my Mind

As a friend of mine once said "if you throw enough mud some of it will stick", basically if you record enough songs some of them will be quite good. And that is the case with Elvis Presley... I'm really not a fan but I've always like 2 or 3 songs of his and this one in particular.

I'm very familiar with his catalogue and just don't care for it.

[Zzzptm]

 

Man, I'm a nut for Elvis! OK, so most of his movie soundtracks in the 60s were trash, but oh man wow to only get into just one of Elvis' songs is like blowing my mind, duuuuuuuuuude! 

If you haven't heard his rendition of Bob Dylan's "Tomorrow Is a Long Time", you owe it to yourself to try this hidden gem from Elvis' catalog. It was tucked away in a flop movie soundtrack album, wasn't in any film, and even some of his biggest fans had no idea that this exists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_HzZrOGlRk

It's a beautiful, amazing song that is unique in his repertoire. But, hey, even if you don't like it or don't try it, I will still consider you a friend, KDC.