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10 Great ’80s Bands You Didn’t Know Still Existed

By Tom Hawking on

Amongst the various entries on this week’s new release schedule, we were rather chuffed to see a new album by Washington, DC, hardcore progenitors Bad Brains. We’ll be honest and admit we’d rather spaced on the fact that the band’s classic lineup were playing together again — the last piece of Bad Brains-related material we got our hands on was frontman HR’s solo record a few years back — and the news got us thinking about other great ’80s bands whose continued existence is a cause for celebration. Sure, there’ve been a whole heap of lucrative high-profile ’80s reunions over the last decade or so — everyone from The Police to New Kids on the Block — but there are also some great ’80s bands whose renaissance has slipped under the radar, or who just never broke up in the first place. Here are our picks. What are yours? … Read More

Music

A Selection of Bands Who Should Never, Ever Have Reunited

By Tom Hawking on

Rumors of a Smiths reunion ruled the Internet for the past week — apparently someone at Coachella has had the genius idea of luring Morrissey with the offer to make the festival 100% vegetarian if the Smiths played. But, of course, it’s not going to happen, which is probably for the best. While the idea of being able to finally see one of the best bands of the ’80s playing live is definitely an appealing one, we’re still not entirely sure how we’d feel if the impossible did come to pass. Honestly, we can’t see it lasting long — it wasn’t so long ago that The Smiths were slugging it out in court, after all, with the presiding judge memorably describing Morrissey as “truculent, devious and unreliable.” There are some bands whose interpersonal relationships, or lack thereof, seem to preclude successful reunions. Like this lot, for instance — it’s not that the performances were necessarily bad, but they were simply doomed from the start… … Read More

Music

Watch Jessica Paré from ‘Mad Men’ Sing with The Jesus and Mary Chain

By Judy Berman on

We love nothing better than when two entirely separate pop-culture worlds collide, but we never could have anticipated this match: Last week, at a performance in Buffalo (of all places, right?), venerable Scottish noise-pop shoegazers The Jesus and Mary Chain brought Jessica Paré onstage as a guest vocalist for their hit “Just Like Honey.” Yes, that’s Megan Draper of Mad Men fame, whose “Zou Bisou Bisou” routine last season gave us more than an inkling that she could sing. The band must have been satisfied with Paré’s vocals, because she turned up at The Jesus and Mary Chain’s next gig, in Toronto, to take the mic for both “Just Like Honey” and “Sometimes Always.” Watch that evening’s rendition of “Honey” after the jump, and visit Stereogum to see all three clips. … Read More

Music

Unpopular Opinions: The Top 8 Records That Weren’t From 2008

By The Beard on

It might make me unpopular but… containing year-end lists to 2008 is idiotic.

By their very nature, year-end lists can only encompass a small pocket of what’s actually on your iPod. Sure, 2008 was a great year (for indie rock especially), but at the end of the day there’s more to audio exploration than breaking new bands. Any crate-digger worth his whiskers will tell you that there’s just as much to be discovered from the past as the present. As such, many of the best records I found in the last 12 months were old, lesser-known works, long ignored, or only recently unearthed.

Thus, in a bid to push the year-end list to its absolute limit, Flavorwire presents The Beard’s Top Eight Records That Weren’t From 2008.

Whisker-twisting reviews and essential MP3s after the jump. … Read More